thorssoli
Active Hunter
I've got a couple of costume parties coming up in the next couple of weeks. With most of my family and friends coming. My sister will be bringing her kids to the second one. Since she has two kids (and a husband) she will get to make four separate costumes. I don't know what she or her husband or her daughter will be dressed as, but a few weeks ago I found out about her son Trey.
Apparently she picked him up from school a while back and asked him how his day went. He replied, in the most serious tone an elementary-schooler could muster, "Mom," says he, "I've decided what I want to be for the party."
"Oh?" she asks, "What's that?"
"Boba Fett"
I'll admit that when she told me the story it made me a bit misty until my sister asks if I have any of the parts for the Boba Fett costume. I told her that while she was right to guess that I have the costume, she was wrong to guess that I'd have it in midget sizes.
At the time I was still camped out in a Washington, DC hotel room. I needed a small project and decided there was nothing I'd like more than to manufacture a miniature Fett helmet or two. I told my sister the rest of the costume would be up to her, but I'd be able to at least take care of that part. And so I began with...
THE PROTOTYPE:
My original plan was to fabricate the entire helmet using the Pepakura program and any of a number of readily-available 3D models of the character. Once the dome was built, I decided that I didn't like the way the rest of the model was coming together and ditched it in favor of a scratch-built version using the Wizardofflight templates as guides to cut out various thicknesses of sheet styrene. Once it was all cobbled together, it looked like so:
Then it got a healthy dose of primer:
Then a bit of Bondo and a lot of sanding to perfect the rounded dome:
At this point the wyf and I had left Washington DC and driven to New Orleans, so there were a few days' delay before the prototype got it's final coat of primer:
Then it sat in the back of the car for a few more days before I got around to adding those annoying little keyhole notches and other details on the backside:
I'd fiberglassed the inside of the helmet so that it would be strong enough to hold up to sanding and grinding, but with all the Bondo and such it was starting to get pretty heavy. So I painted it lightish red like I tend to do with my prototypes, before moving on to...
THE MOLD:
The mold was fairly straightforward. I started with a jacket of brushable silicone covered with a few layers of pourable silicone:
Before anyone asks, my favorite source for molding and casting materials is www.jgreer.com. Their prices are great, but tell them Shawn Thorsson sent you, I'm hoping to get a discount sooner or later.
Once I'd finished the jacket mold I built a mothermold using jgreer's mothermold product. It's good stuff and it was easy to work with, building a strong, lightweight shell in just a couple of hours (one for each half)
Once I had the mold, I wasted no time before making my first casting:
Then I took the first casting (on the left in the above picture, the lightish red helmet on the right is the prototype) and added the dent and the wart to make the Jango helmet work as a Boba helmet. Then I made a mold of the Boba helmet and cranked out a few more copies:
Stay tuned and I'll explain the paintjob as I get that knocked out. I've also been thinking about taking on the construction of a kid-sized jetpack, but that may take a while.
Apparently she picked him up from school a while back and asked him how his day went. He replied, in the most serious tone an elementary-schooler could muster, "Mom," says he, "I've decided what I want to be for the party."
"Oh?" she asks, "What's that?"
"Boba Fett"
I'll admit that when she told me the story it made me a bit misty until my sister asks if I have any of the parts for the Boba Fett costume. I told her that while she was right to guess that I have the costume, she was wrong to guess that I'd have it in midget sizes.
At the time I was still camped out in a Washington, DC hotel room. I needed a small project and decided there was nothing I'd like more than to manufacture a miniature Fett helmet or two. I told my sister the rest of the costume would be up to her, but I'd be able to at least take care of that part. And so I began with...
THE PROTOTYPE:
My original plan was to fabricate the entire helmet using the Pepakura program and any of a number of readily-available 3D models of the character. Once the dome was built, I decided that I didn't like the way the rest of the model was coming together and ditched it in favor of a scratch-built version using the Wizardofflight templates as guides to cut out various thicknesses of sheet styrene. Once it was all cobbled together, it looked like so:
Then it got a healthy dose of primer:
Then a bit of Bondo and a lot of sanding to perfect the rounded dome:
At this point the wyf and I had left Washington DC and driven to New Orleans, so there were a few days' delay before the prototype got it's final coat of primer:
Then it sat in the back of the car for a few more days before I got around to adding those annoying little keyhole notches and other details on the backside:
I'd fiberglassed the inside of the helmet so that it would be strong enough to hold up to sanding and grinding, but with all the Bondo and such it was starting to get pretty heavy. So I painted it lightish red like I tend to do with my prototypes, before moving on to...
THE MOLD:
The mold was fairly straightforward. I started with a jacket of brushable silicone covered with a few layers of pourable silicone:
Before anyone asks, my favorite source for molding and casting materials is www.jgreer.com. Their prices are great, but tell them Shawn Thorsson sent you, I'm hoping to get a discount sooner or later.
Once I'd finished the jacket mold I built a mothermold using jgreer's mothermold product. It's good stuff and it was easy to work with, building a strong, lightweight shell in just a couple of hours (one for each half)
Once I had the mold, I wasted no time before making my first casting:
Then I took the first casting (on the left in the above picture, the lightish red helmet on the right is the prototype) and added the dent and the wart to make the Jango helmet work as a Boba helmet. Then I made a mold of the Boba helmet and cranked out a few more copies:
Stay tuned and I'll explain the paintjob as I get that knocked out. I've also been thinking about taking on the construction of a kid-sized jetpack, but that may take a while.
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