Stormcrow 85's WIP: Boba Fett - ESB

The neck seal finally got changed. It did NOT go well. There are so many lessons I wish I would have learned BEFORE I did this project.I did not do all the steps below and I am having regrets. Here is what I would suggest.

1. Measure your neck
2. Add at least 4" for me I wish I would have added 6" or 7" and shortened as appropriate I just don't know the best way to measure this
3. Fold over the neck piece in half
4. I made the neck piece about 5" tall (10" total material)
5. Add the stitch the sides (the 5" sides)
6. Add the velcro to the INSIDE of the collar close to the sides
7. Turn it inside out (Now it is right side out)
8. Stuff it with some batting
9. Add the stitching (I went about 0.75" between the stitches)
10. Attach to flight suit that is one of the areas I didn't do well.

Enjoy the video. Sorry I was so frustrated with this project I didn't take any pictures.


- - - Updated - - -

I also did some gauntlet work today. I am still working on the videos but here are some pictures of the most current state of the right gauntlet. The kids even enjoy it.

Well the video is up of the joining of the two halves of the gauntlet. Now that that is complete. I need to put on the whipcord piece and the rear hose piece and paint the gauntlet. I really am liking the way this turned out it might not look quite as nice as some of the other gauntlets, but considering the most expensive piece I have purchased for this gauntlet was the 7 dollars for the hinge I think it is going well. The most expensive part is going to be the painting.

Any comments are appreciated. You might say I am desperate for approval .

Once I paint I will be making the "Leather" ammo belt.

The gauntlet is on hold for a few weeks. I ended up picking up a nice used airbrush, but am waiting on some needles to come in. I bought the hoses, regulator, and filter today to hook up to my air compressor I already had (Thank you car hobby)

The stitching was a nightmare, but my first attempt at a ammo belt is at least now in a belt shape... I also made one pouch as a proof of concept there is minimal, but actual storage in the pouch itself. I could probably build it out of something thinner and be fine, but I had this stuff on hand. Enjoy the pictures. I took a time lapse as always, but those take a while to process.

No real pictures I made the rest of the boxes tonight. Then I will cut out the rest of the vinyl coverings, Then I will do all of the wrap around straps. Only two had buttons in the movie if I remember correctly, but I will have magnet closures on each of these. I am pretty sure this is where I will keep things like extra batteries, sewing kits, glue, etc. I think this will turn out quite well. Thank you all for coming back.

On another note I did receive my air brush needle. So I will be practicing with that. The first task will be just some practice, then the gauntlet. Then probably my motorcycle helmet (For practice I will be adding a Boba Fett Theme to my helmet.

I also ordered all the paint for the helmet and gauntlets from Humbrol Sunday, I am worried I did not get enough. Only time will tell. I try and post pictures each time I post since that is what I figure most people come to see. This time I have failed you.

Thanks man, so much good info in this thread. I'm off to get the fett box of bits out right now - must build!

CJFett said:

Thanks man, so much good info in this thread. I'm off to get the fett box of bits out right now - must build!

Click to expand...

Would love to see pictures as you build. Please don't follow my build as a how to unless you also look at it as a how not to in some areas too

Alright the ammo belt. This could have gone much worse, but I am actually pleasantly surprised with how it turned out. Here is the pertinent information.


1. 1/2 yard of vinyl from Joanns Fabric (I had a good coupon so it cost less than 10 dollar)
2. Spray Adhesive (Mine was from an old car project)
3. Materials to make the inside of the pouches
4. Liberal amounts of hot glue
5. An understanding wife
6. Ribbon Tape Measure (To measure your fat gut)
7. Time and Patience

This has been a nice distraction from the gauntlet work that I need to finish, but am waiting on paint I ordered. I also don't have a garage heater and it hasn't gotten above 30 degrees in a couple weeks here so no painting in the garage (and yes I have seen the great threads about making a winter paint booth). Below is the how to portion of the belt. Be aware I have not fully finished this belt upon writing I still have to add velcro, grommets, snaps, and finish the final 6 pouches (though a large portion of the pouches is done)

Belt:
1. Gather Materials Above
2. I think most normal size people will be able to do the entire belt with plenty left over for some mistakes with a 1/2 yard. That material is expensive save yourself some money. After I am completely done I will try and take a picture of the remainder of the material I have
3. Measure your waist
4. Cut out adequate length and width to make belt (The templates will give you the width requirements, double it up if you want to have that leather look on both sides)
5. Mark the center line
6. Spray adhesive on backside, multiple coats are suggested, let it get tacky between coats, do it again
7. Fold the sides to the middle
8. Find some way to let it sit folded while the adhesive cures (I found a large board with clamps holding it to the table works
9. Add the stitching (After testing on a scrap piece)
10. Add Velcro for closure
11. Add Grommets

Pouches:
1. Gather Materials
2. Make decision on functioning vs non functioning (non functioning is easier)
3. Make inside pouch area. This could be a block of wood, foam, or in my case plyboard material I had in the garage
4. Cut out the outer covering I didn't mind the excess on the back as it will be covered by a strap and that is a place you could conserve a little bit of material
-- Please make a template out of a card stock or thicker paper it will make your life easier
5. Glue the outer coverings on
6. Make outer straps
-- Ensure they are wide enough, but not too wide for the pouch
-- Understand how you want them to close before you get to crazy
-- I decided to go with velcro, if non functioning, just a dab of hot glue could keep them shut
7. Sew the outer straps to match the stitching on exterior of pouches
8. Add any necessary snap button things
9. I will be adding velcro in the future to the back side of the straps to attach the side pouches to in the ESB style
10 Attach to belt I did this by NOT gluing the strap along the back of the pouch.

I hope this can help someone thank you for stopping by.


Some things to note, practice sewing in a scrap piece, so you can adjust the sewing width and other settings to your liking. The video is pretty self explanatory from here on.

I love time lapses, and I am trying to catalogue this entire process, but man are my hard drives getting a work out with all the video creation and deletion. The new Go Pro has been nice but some of the issues are hard drive space. Here is some quick math in case anyone out there is interested in how this gets done.

- 1 picture per second, I could probably change that a bit, but I am not going to. So the other time lapse is being created it takes a while to stitch something like 15k pictures together everytime I upload a video.
- 60 Pictures minute
- 3600 pictures per hour
- ~3.5 MBytes per picture
- 12.6-12.9 GBytes per hour!

I currently have about 100-150 GBs set aside for this editing, and if I don't edit that day it can clog up my hard drives very quickly.

I am going to look at bringing down the resolution as I am making all of my videos at 1080P the clarity that I am taking the pictures is a bit ridiculous. That should save me some time in the conversion and help me be able to store more photos

I also finished all the pouches on the belt today, just have to add the Velcro and grommets to the belt, I haven't decided whether I am going to add the screen accurate button clips on the pouches as necessary. As you can see from the photos below I went back and tried to get the ends of the stitching better and they are better, but they still aren't perfect. I am calling that part of them done though. Again I am pretty impressed with how this is working out.











On the belt!!

I got the ammo belt finished. Which prompted me to take some photos. I like the way it looks, but after seeing some of the killer work on this site it is hard to be satisfied with anything I do (Like crooked sewing, and plastic clips vs metal on the girth belt). For my very first home made costume I think it is turning out well enough, I think the belt looks great on.










Then I was just too excited so I put on all the costume I have thus far and took some more pictures!!

Great job on the belt so far. Don't forget the required buttons for some of the pouches. Also the pouch flaps should be even and come almost down to the bottom. This is just if you want to be more accurate.



The girth belt you have could be made slightly more accurate at little to no cost to you. Take 4 old belt buckles and use those for the ends. The girth belt actually is a horse girth belt and has 4 belt buckles. Use a solid nylon strap to connect the two ends together.

Here's an example of a completed girth belt.


Lastly start looking at how your backplate connects to your neck armor piece. Typically the back armor plate slides under the neck piece and is attached together via the 4 studs that appear at the top of the armor. Additonally not shown are the two slits that hold the harness straps that hold the jet pack onto your back. Consideration on how your jet pack will attach to your body is pretty important as it will cause back/neck issues if not handled correctly.

Great job so far...the above are just suggestions to look at to improve the quality of your build and wearability of your suit for an extended period.

crumdum . Thank you for the tips. It is overwhelming all of the little nuances that can easily be missed such as the strap being a little bit lower on the pouch that I don't catch. I could remove the vinyl straps and move them down just a hair. I will look into that in the future. I still plan on adding the snap buttons, but I really think I can do that at almost anytime and I haven't seen ones that I like when I am out scavenging, so I am waiting a bit longer. The girth belt is also one of those things where I am waiting until I stumble across some good buckles to make those changes in the future. The back piece is another story I have been thinking about how best to attach the pieces together (Back and collar) I am leaning towards 4 small bolts along the top through the collar and screwing into some keyboard screws. I haven't decided whether I will make the jet pack, so I haven't added the slits for the straps. I will before I paint it in case I decide to go that route. I really do appreciate the comments and the clean pictures those are great visuals that I can use. I am not going to be up to 501st standards when I get done, but I am still proud of what I have built so far. This is all practice for the helmet scratch build that i will be doing last. The goal is to have it ready for the Denver Comic Con in June of 2016.

I finished the video for the belt this morning. Enjoy.

Since you are planning on taking a while see if you can't snatch up a target Boba Fett helmet either in target or online. The instore price was 30$ which is way less than the price you would need to pay to build the helmet. The helmet would need a new visor and range stalk to be more accurate...but you can build those yourself for a few bucks. Painting the helmet is the hardest part of the build if you don't make the helmet yourself (which you would still want to do on this helmet). That's a future thing you can spend time trying to acquire. If you want to build it yourself that's great, I am just trying to save yourself a few bucks and many many many hours of work.

Your work is great so far and quite impressive, I linked only the 501st images so you could see more easily what the items are supposed to look like in theory.

Ohh I have been looking for that stinking Target helmet since I started this project in October. I am kicking myself, right before I decided to make this costume I walked by one in Target and pointed it out to my wife and said that is pretty cool, then walked on by. I decided a few weeks later to make the costume and it was LONG gone, as well as the 10+ other targets I checked while on a 400 mile road trip that following week in October. I have checked every Target I have been in since that day.

I am attempting this costume on a shoestring budget, and the idea of paying ebay prices on a helmet that originally cost 30 bucks is frustrating. I check Craigslist daily, as well as the Cargo Hold. I am not opposed to buying my helmet, but if I could build one for quite a bit cheaper (assuming my time is worth nothing) I will do it that way.

To put it in perspective the most expensive purchase for this project has been the Humbrol enamel paint I just ordered last week @ $65.

$229.28 is the total without inclusion of tools (Heat gun, scissors, airbrush). I considered it not a tool if it was consumable such as sand paper, bondo, etc.
$320.18 is the total all together with tools that includes things like the air brush, a regulator and needle for the air brush, heat gun, sharpies, tape.

To be fair I did have some of the parts on hand like the 9v battery adapter and wiring for the mini toggle switches. I also already owned a sewing machine, my mother bought it for my wife a while back (I now have used it WAY more than she has). I think I have created something that looks really nice especially considering how much it could have cost.

Plus this is all one giant learning experience.

I really do appreciate the comments and tips. This is a great community that is always very helpful.

I had one other thought about the belt buttons on the ammo pouches. Since your pouches close via velcro you could easily repurpose a few old shirt buttons...fill in the stiching holes with bondo...sand it, paint it then glue it onto the required pouches.

I know the one guy on fleybay is doing the target helmet purchase at 75$...really how much you want to put into it is up to you. I think animefan helmets complete run around 160$ plus shipping....and they are VERY VERY accurate. It's all in what you can afford and what you want. One thing to consider is the helmet is one of the easiest and most iconic parts of the suit that you can display very easily without the rest of the costume. If you ever wanted to improve on your costume and go for 501st credentialing you would already have the hardest part done...the helmet. Obviously the decision is yours to make and I wish you the best.

I have been kicking around the idea of animefan those helmets are awesome. I have time to make a decision so I am just staying as vigilant as possible.

I put a coat of primer on the right gauntlet today after putting on the rest of the pieces, and cleaning up some of the edges. I will still need to do a light sanding once dry, and clean up some of the edges then maybe one more primer and shoot a base coat of green down.

Before Cleaning up the Bondo and one about half way through. I also straightened out some edges with the exacto knife. I didn't take video for that part.




I like the rust colored primer to me it works that way if it scratches through to the primer it just looks older.

Two things on your gauntlet hinge. It's better to dreamed out the hinge are on the forearm so the hinge doesn’t extend outside of the guantlet. Not only is does this look better but is MUCH safer for when you are walking around. I already stab so many people with the guantlet darts it's crazy, but that hinge could extremely easily snag on someone else's clothing hurting you, them, or both of you. There are lots of tutorials posted here on hinging Guantlets. When you finally put on the suit in full you will realize how very little situational awareness you have walking around in the suit...every little bit you can do to prevent someone from possibly getting hurt should be taken.

Sent from my SM-G900V

crumdum said:

Two things on your gauntlet hinge. It's better to dreamed out the hinge are on the forearm so the hinge doesn’t extend outside of the guantlet. Not only is does this look better but is MUCH safer for when you are walking around. I already stab so many people with the guantlet darts it's crazy, but that hinge could extremely easily snag on someone else's clothing hurting you, them, or both of you. There are lots of tutorials posted here on hinging Guantlets. When you finally put on the suit in full you will realize how very little situational awareness you have walking around in the suit...every little bit you can do to prevent someone from possibly getting hurt should be taken.

Sent from my SM-G900V

Click to expand...

Dreamed out? I am assuming an auto correct issue there.

I think I know what you were saying. I moved the hinge a few minutes ago. I think it will look much better the new way. Thank you for the tip. I wasn't in love with the way the hinge was sitting I feel much better about it now. I did it very quickly too. Still have to let the primer fully dry, then I will bondo, sand, and smoothe one more time.

Yea that is cell phone fail...Dremmel = dreamed. Another thing to consider is to build bondo over the edge of the hing on the inside to insure a flat surface. it helps build strength into the hinge, but more importantly wont snag your flight suit arm and accidently tear it while wearing it. The other side (aka open close) can be secured via velcro, magnets (use STRONG magnets) or a removable hinge pin. On my gauntlets I use magnets which keep the gauntlet close together and have a small piano hinge near the far back to "lock" my gauntlet on. The hinge only about 1.5 inches long...and the magnets basically keep my gauntlet closed. The advantage of this setup is you will have some wrist flexibility (the gauntlet can pop slightly) but never fully open at the wrist...something awesome when wearing the costume in locked wrists for a few hours (while holding a heavy blaster).

Well last week was crazy
1. work last week was possibly the hardest week I have ever had.
2. I also interviewed for a different job (Which included: two 20 minute briefings and an interview).
3. Turned in my final paper for one of my Master's classes (2 more classes left, hopefully before the end of this year)
4. Son's first Basketball game!

I got some cheaper enamil to practice air brush. It has been so cold here and I don't have a garage heater that it is still going to be a few weeks before I practice with it.
So today I finally did a little work on the costume:
1. Removed excess hot glue
2. Added bondo (Thank you beetle for mentioning mixing bondo on glass and keeping the two parts apart, and only mixing about 5 minutes worth at a time. Clean up was a breeze)
3. Sanded the right gauntlet, the kids wanted to help today so there was some negative work, but worth it if they are interested.

I am going to wait on the painting until I get practice with the air brush and enamil paint. I think I am going to attempt the knee pads next.

The goal is to build everything before I scratch build the helmet. I want all the current experiences to finalize before I take on the more important part of the build and that is the Helmet. Below is the current what I can think of list in somewhat the order I plan do get it done.

1. Knee Pads (Make/Paint)
2. Shin Tools(Make/Paint)
3. Find boots (these will not be the $100 dollar boots)
4. Make Boot Spikes
5. Wookie Braids
6. Paint and attach Back Armor
7. Left Gauntlet (Make/Paint)
8. Make External Belt Pouches
9. Make Helmet
10. Make Guns
11. Distant Future make Jet Pack

Here are some sanded pictures.

Latest video is up. I know you all have been dying to see the next one. It is work on the right gauntlet, just smoothing out the gauntlet. Almost ready for first coat of paint.