WIP - ESB Fett a rapidly expanding project

Thank a lot for those images, BUT... that helmet is not the ESB! It is the Pre- Pro #3 helmet:

PP3 & ESB EMP Exhibit.jpg
 
Thank a lot for those images, BUT... that helmet is not the ESB! It is the Pre- Pro #3 helmet:

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Agreed. Good eye RafalFett. I remember looking at damage/weathering on the back panels and thinking it didn't match up with my recollections, but I didn't put 2+2 together and soon got sidetracked with some other part of the costume. I assume that was intentional and they didn't just grab the Pre-Pro #3 by mistake?
 
So, I had the chance to test drive my Boba around the house and did a couple fittings.
Here is the first, from about a week ago.
The light was pretty darn ideal in my place that day.

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I wasn't totally happy with the colour of the flight suit. Rather than blue/gray it appeared just blue and bright blue in some light. So, I re-dyed the flight suit to make it more grey, but I think I found a good balance. I also got my new vest from Arkady, so I had to try try it out with the jetpack. I also weathered the flight suit and pouches more.

Here are the results from this weekend. The lighting wasn't as good, but you get the idea.

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My ESB EE-3 is in the mail from MLS, so I'm just using a repainted Hasbro ROTJ for now. I haven't figured out what I'm going to do about a sidearm yet, but ll get one when it's in the budget.

So, I'm at that point. What do you think? What do I need to improve or tweak? It's been a long road to get to this point, but I know I'm not done yet. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
 
I'm back from Celebration and had a total blast. It was great to meet so many TDHers in person.

One of the highlights for me was being in the room for the panel with Kathleen Kennedy and JJ Abrams where they showed the trailer. I'll never forget the reaction when Chewie and Han made their appearance at the end of the trailer. The room went insane.

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Thanks to Fett Seven's general awesomeness, he hooked up with a ESB sidearm that I picked up at Celebration. It was nice to walk around with the correct sidearm (even if I never drew it, except for weapons check :)
Here it is.

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He also let me borrow his ESB EE-3 for the show, which was great, so I didn't have to face the shame of toting a repainted Hasbro RoTJ EE-3 around the convention floor.
Here are a couple of pics of my Fett at Celebration. I'm almost two years in and I'm slowly getting there. I had some green screen issues in the last pic. You can see the background through my cod piece (no cod piece that small has a cloaking device) :lol:

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I meet a number of other Fetts at show and here are a few pics.

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I also got to meet some of talented makers from these boards.

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So, after a pretty big break from my Boba after Celebration, I've ordered some parts and resumed work with the goal of having it complete (or at least this version complete) as well as 501st approved by the time TFA is in theatres. I finally got to work on RKDs awesome flamethrower.

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I went with a darker red and I like how it looked. I removed some of the paint since this first photo was taken.

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I actually assembled the flamethrower.

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And, I attached it to the gauntlet with E-6000, which is new my new favourite adhesive. It's super strong, but has some give. It's perfect for my ABS gaunts, as I've had some issue with Krazy Glue being brittle and my whipcord housing popping off when there is a bit of torque on my gauntlet. My rocket needs some TLC and, in the above pic, I hadn't yet added the white "piano keys" to the black plastic. I still need to add the cables (cords?) to the back of the flamethrower. I'm going to have to get a little creative with my budget gauntlets to get the wires (cables?) to attach properly. I have some ideas and I'll post my progress.

I also made some other purchases.

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I got a cold cast stalk and RF topper from Anime Fan, I got a cast MQ-1 Circuitboard for my helmet from Darth Vorhees and I also picked up a self-contained light kit from Jc27. I can't wait to try it out and do the upgrades on my DP 95 helmet. I'm still slowly saving towards a FPH2 painted by SuperJedi, but that won't happen super soon.

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I also picked these up.

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My latest purchase is an an aluminum jetpack beacon from Machinecraft Replicas (JodoKast89) and the premium light kit. I have my resin beacon beside it for comparison. I'm looking forward to adding the extra electronics and lights to my build. It takes it up another notch.

I've also been working on my MLS EE-3 and am just waiting for a replacement part so I can finish it off. I'll post pics soon.
 
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Oh no! Thanks jbdubz. Good eye. You're totally right. I just took another look at the reference pics :facepalm

Of course I glued it in place with Krazy Glue. I assume I should be able to get that loose with some acetone?
 
Oh no! Thanks jbdubz. Good eye. You're totally right. I just took another look at the reference pics :facepalm

Of course I glued it in place with Krazy Glue. I assume I should be able to get that loose with some acetone?

acetone may damage the nozzle depending on what it is made of. i would just, ever so delicately twist it off until it releases from the aluminum rod. it should give with a little bit of work. i replaced the nozzle on my FP gauntlet that was originally glued with some pretty heavy duty CA, just took a bit of patience to get it off.


Sent from my R2 unit
 
Thanks to jbdubz, I got the nozzle off my flamethrower and put it on the right way. I think i'll move it a bit closer to the end before glueing it in place. It came off with only a bit of effort.
I still need to attach the cables/cords at the back of the flamethrower and repaint the copper on the rocket.

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I also installed my aluminum beacon and light kit from JodoKast89. It's a great upgrade, but looks a bit too nice and shiny. The light is pretty darn cool and was super easy to hook up.

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I also installed the switches on my right gauntlet. I'm waiting for the little oval piece to arrive from RKD so I can add that as well. I'm going to delay adding my 3D printed dental files as I'm fairly sure they're going to get knocked off fairly early into my next troop. I'm trying to get real metal dental files, but haven't had much luck tracking them down yet.

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That's it for upgrades so far this week. I'm pretty happy with the progress. I'm still on pace to submit my pics for 501st approval sometime over the next few weeks. More to come...
 
I've got a question. Should the brass cap of the jetpack beacon be painted totally black? Should there be any weathering or brass showing through? All the pics I've seen of the ESB jetpack show it with beacon light shining and I can tell very little about the color or weathering of the cap. Most people seem to paint it black.
I found this old thread, but the question wasn't totally answered. Art posted pics of beacon tops, but they seem to be from a fair bit after ESB so I'm not sure what they were originally.
http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f20/beacon-color-27560/?highlight=esb+beacon+brass
Any help on this detail would be appreciated.
 
I've got a question. Should the brass cap of the jetpack beacon be painted totally black? Should there be any weathering or brass showing through? All the pics I've seen of the ESB jetpack show it with beacon light shining and I can tell very little about the color or weathering of the cap. Most people seem to paint it black.
I found this old thread, but the question wasn't totally answered. Art posted pics of beacon tops, but they seem to be from a fair bit after ESB so I'm not sure what they were originally.
http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f20/beacon-color-27560/?highlight=esb+beacon+brass
Any help on this detail would be appreciated.

i have Dakota's beacon kit with the brass top and have let it untouched. a lot of the reference pictures, you can see the top and the bottom of the beacon light top and i can see yellow brass. both of these shots show pretty clearly a brass colored top to the beacon...
http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/gallery/showfull.php?photo=10963
http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/gallery/showfull.php?photo=10963
 
Interesting. Thanks again.
Taking another look at those higher res images, I think I'll leave the brass alone too. The bottom definitely looks like plain brass in the pic and the top does as well (although less obviously with the light shining).
I wonder why so many people paint it black?
 
I've seen a lot of random ESB packs with the black paint. That's what made me first think i needed it and I was missing something.
It's also black in the pics on the 501st CRL for ESB, which is where I'm guessing people are getting the idea rather than the reference pics.
 
So, been busy again trucking away on my Fett.
I was trying to figure out how i was going to attach the cables/cords to the back on the flamethrower and my left gaunt, since my "budget" gaunts velcro together and there isn't much a flat place on the top part to glue them into place.

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So, I decided to cut out a piece of plastic and will glue it the gauntlet after I paint it up. Here it is just resting there for a test fitting. It should work and won't stand out so much when it's painted green and weathered.

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Here's another pic from a different angle. It still needs to smoothed out a bit before being painted.

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I also worked on the rangefinder and rangefinder topper. I add the red LED lights.

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I also glued the perplex together and now it's ready for installation. I glued a magnet to the other side and also weathered the topper. Once the glue is dry, I just need to attach the completed RF to the helmet and remove the repainted Don Post RF and topper I've been using

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I also painted my 3D printed dental files for my right gauntlet and will attach them when they're dry. My plan is to take my photos and submit my pics for 501st approval in 2 weeks. I'll post some completed Boba pics here for feedback before I fill out the application and get my pics taken.
 
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So, the final push continues. Here is the mostly weathered rangefinder and topper.

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It's next to my repainted 95 DP rangefinder for comparison.

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It's obviously a lot better and it's a also a bit taller. The red LED lights are non-functioning right now, but I'll be swapping them out for Jc27's self contained light kit soon. Even non-functioning, they take the helmet up a notch.

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Please note these pics were taken with a camera phone that seem to oversaturate the red of the mandibles below.

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I also painted and attached the dental files to the right gauntlet. You can also see the hole that I started to create for the oval piece that arrived in the mail today from RKD. I painted it black tonight, so i'll wait for it to dry and will attach it tomorrow.

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So, I got some more done this weekend. I used bondo glazing putty to fill a seam in the rocket to get it ready for painting. I also painted the right gauntlet oval piece black and made a hole large enough to install it.

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I had a hell of a time with the testors gold spray paint. It came out all gloppy and made a huge mess, but I somehow managed to get an even coat on the end of the rocket. I also painted and attached the green piece of plastic (you can see it behind the flamethrower). This is so I can attach the three cables/cords from the flamethrower to the gaunt. I haven't figured out how to do that yet, but that's what TDH for. I need to look it up.

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I also darkened my MoW ammo belt using Deathproof's idea to use a leather and vinyl spray. I started by taping off the threads with the thinnest tape I could find. This was a touch tedious, but need to be done to keep the threads white. The pic below is part way through the process.

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Here's a pic while i was spraying and it shows the can of what i used. The brand is Meltonian and it's called Nu-Life Color Spray. The color is 644 Russet.

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The tape protected the white threads, but it was also too wide, so after removing the tape, I had to go back and use a brush to get the stain closer to the thread. The pocket on the left is after I applied the brush work to the front and the one on the right is after I pulled the tape off, but before I used the brush. It really shows the difference in color.

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Here is the final result. I'm still undecided on how much weathering to apply (done by sanding), but I like the new color a lot better. The MoW belt is just too light. I'll take another look at the reference pics and figure it out.
I just realized that I put the pockets on in the wrong order. I got the sides mixed up. Doh. Easy enough to fix.

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So, once I attach the cables/cord to the back of flamethrower this week, I'm going to to do a test fitting and take some pics, so I can get some feedback from you guys before I take my 501st submission pics on the weekend. I'm still hoping the part for my EE-3 arrives so I can put that together in time for the shoot as well, but we'll see.
 
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