my secret project (tons 'o pics)

Mike M.

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Community Staff
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not so secret now that i'm posting it here, but in a way it still is. i've taken on the task of making a friend of mine into vaders secret apprentice. myself, along with several of my talented friends, have spent hours now looking at pics found online, as well as staring at the tv trying to get the camera angle just right to tell the details on the xbox demo. the armor itself has fallen to me to make (mostly because i'm that masochistic), and today i made some progress. enough talk, time to get to the pictures.

this is rob, my soon to be secret apprentice, also please note that he is wrapped in duct tape because we are making a duct tape mold of him.

robtaped1.jpg


robtaped2.jpg


next up, the mold of rob without him in it. this makes it handy for me to work with since i don't have to feed the manniquin and i'm pretty sure i'd have to feed rob if i kept him around to build the armor onto. i've started scribbling in where the armor will have to go.

bodycastfront.jpg


bodycastback.jpg


after looking carefully at plenty of pics, these armor plates are not very big at all and shouldn't weigh too much even if i made them out of solid resin (though i'm not planning on doing that, the idea of working with resin frightens me like a thunderstorm).

the next step had me making a removable template from what i drew onto the manniquin. so i made the right armor plate out of plain old masking tape, then i peeled it off and put it on a piece of 12x18 sketch paper and traced it out.

removabletemplatefront.jpg


removabletemplateback.jpg


papertemplate1.jpg


after trying to fit the paper template back on i realized that i needed to cut the collar piece seperately.

papertemplate2.jpg


i then transferred the paper templates onto a heavier poster/cardstock paper, got it to drape nicely with a little bit of mist from a spray bottle, taped everything into place, and this is where i'm at with the project right now because i'm too tired to keep working on it, but still awake enough to be able to post about it.

cardboardmockfront.jpg


cardboardmockback.jpg


once everything is dried i'm going to carefully re-tape the two pieces together then coat it as light as possible with fiberglass resin, fill the low even it all out with bondo, then 'glass over it all agian with fg cloth instead of mat. i've never tried the cloth before, but it looks like it will give me a much better finish than using mat.

eventually i hope to figure out how to vac-form the piece, but i'll deal with that when i come to it.
 
Yes, this is most helpfull:) Thanks brother.

How many layers of duct tape did you use? Or did you just stop when the blood stopped reaching his brain.
 
i'm going to try to chart the entire process as well as i can, and i hope my experience will help others.

i don't really know how many layers of tape there are, i'll just say that rob is a pretty skinney guy and i went through a full roll and just under a half of tape on him. but i'd say i have a pretty sturdy torso to work with.
 
AWESOME! I was waiting for somebody to make a thread like this.
I'm following this closely!
What are you going to use for the restraining bolt on the left collar piece? (Doubt that's what it really is, but it looks like the one C-3PO had. If you've played the demo and seen the character model, you know what i'm talking about.)

Are you even going to try to make an accurate lightsaber? Correct me if I'm wrong (I'm admittedly NOT following details of the game closely, trying not to so everything is new and fresh when I finally play it.) but won't the SA take and keep the hilts of all the Jedi he kills? So he could have many? So what's that put your selection at?


Go ahead and post a screen cap of what the character model will look like, so we all know what the finished product will look like, for those that may not know.
 
after close examination of pics and the demo i'm pretty sure (90% or better) it's a restraining bolt. there's a guy that makes resin parts for the r2builders club that i'm going to get a bolt from.

as far as the lightsaber goes, for initial release of the costume we're going to use a MR force fx vader. it'll get the message across. but i would like to spend some more time with the game demo and try to make up a more accurate saber for that costume. the SA goes through at least four outfits changes just in the pics i have.

this is the particular SA costume that is being made:

SecretApprentice_tfu.jpg
 
after close examination of pics and the demo i'm pretty sure (90% or better) it's a restraining bolt.


See that's what I thought, it looks like one. But really, why would a human, (or really ANY sentient thats not a droid) need one? Looks cool anyway.

Also, what are you going to do about the right gauntlet? I've noticed that on the costume he wears in the demo, and from other videos the one on Raxus Prime, he has a gauntlet with some kind of device with red blinking lights. I examined it and couldn't tell if there was any sequence other than on and off blinking, but it has some sort of design or symbol I think.
 
in the costume we're going with the gauntlet is on the right arm and it appears to be a modified boba right upper gauntlet shell. the pattern seems pretty much on/off.

the plan is to get a vacced upper, open it up slip the guts of a blinky bicycle taillight in there.
 
I could see Vader wanting a leash...

that's what I was thinking. If the SA is as powerful as what the game makes him out to be compared to the Force Powers we've seen in the movies/cartoons/games so far, Vader would definately need some sort of way to control him. Plus the action figure of Vader all mangled implies that (at least to me) that the SA at some point turns on Vader, so there's another implication that he would need to be controlled.
 
reading the book starkiller starts off with all stock factory parts. no aftermarket cybernetics. we're thinking that the armor plates were pulled off a droid (don't have ay idea what type though), and it already had the restraining bolt attached. check the scoring pattern under it, very similar to what r2 had after the jawas put the bolt on him.

as far as controlling starkiller, vader taught him to be a force wrecking ball. there is no subtlty to his control. philosophical thinking would put most of yoda's younglings more adept in the ways of the force. vader could manipulate him very easily through the force if he couldn't control him psychologically the way palpatine controlled anakin.
 
update! 9/2/08

havn't gotten too far, but here's what i got. the right shoulder is coming along pretty nicely, and i've started on the left. i tried simply mirroring the templates, but that didn't work out too well, so i went with the star wars tradition and made a seperate template to keep things nice and asymmetrical.

anyway, pictures:

i took the paper-form pauldron and fiberglassed it. two layers, the first one was done with 'glass mat strips for strength, and the second was done with 'glass cloth cut to the templates because i really like the finish that gives. i took a little time with the mouse sander and some 220 grit between the layers making sure things weren't so bumpy and pointy.

glassedfront.jpg


glassedback.jpg


after that it was bondo body filler time. i love how bondo is so much like toxic cake frosting; mmmm.... frosting.....

mmmfrosting.jpg


then that got all sanded down to a pretty good finish with the mouse. but there were a few spots that still needed some love, so i got out the red spot putty and filled in a little more and sanded it all down with the 220. but i did leave some nicks, bumps, and scratches in the finish; looking at the apprentice, it would be hard to believe that his pauldrons would be pristine when the rest of him looks like a hobo.

bondosandedfront.jpg


bondosandedback.jpg


after that it was time for some hand sanding with the 320 (cuz i don't have the velcro paper for the mouse in 320), and primer time. i personally like the finish 320 gives for priming onto. but my primer kinda sucks and is awesome at the same time. i was using kilz spray primer from walmart, and it takes like 5 passes to get decent coverage (that's the suck part), but it doesn't run (the awesome part). and then i gave it another quick go with 800 grit.

primerfront.jpg


primerback.jpg


through the process you can see the left side getting built up a bit. the paper form, then i gave it a coat of resin, added the collar piece a little later. i just need to make the time for it and it'll be done and ready for the restraining bolt by saturday.
 
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my deadline is just over a week away, force unleashed midnight release.

and here's another costume discovery, if it helps anyone. the apprentices' armor is based off the ubese shoulder armor that leia wore in rotj. other than the color the only difference i can tell is the split up the back.

Boushh.jpg


BoushhBountyHunter.jpg


Demon.jpg


these next couple pics are from tk-4136's boushh build

y1psBZY5LvgAAkcUpdlHC_LRTtR9F2DZtGG8DEUXAFgEt4-G7M34TOI4Q.jpg


y1pEdMldCarQYc6LwntIr8V2J9DFpBtpLgjnbPTYByT7PmQ2POxTLMiIw.jpg
 
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