Alternative to Han In Carbonite

We've started calling her Hanna Solo... sort of a slutty sorority girl Han Solo costume, frozen in carbonite.







Backstory... I'm planning a party for Star Wars Day, May 4th, and an artist friend of mine (who I now believe was drunker than he let on) said to me "I'll build a Han in carbonite, it's easy, just plaster..." and I replied "if you know how to do that, you are more than welcome to use my garage and I'll chip in on some of the supplies." A conversation a week later revealed that maybe he doesn't know how to go about this, but I'd already told a lot of people about it so I had to at least try. My biggest project to date has been my fett gauntlets (cardboard and bondo) and really simple Vader-ish chest armor for a girl out of sintra, so I was not expecting this to go well.

I started thinking about shortcuts... As you all know, when you make a female version of a male costume, you don't have to be screen accurate as long as it's sexy. My friend may not have known exactly how to make the form, but he did have powertools and some free time to help me make the box out of cull lumber from Home Depot (I think it was like $5). Luckily, he also has a bunch of display busts (shoulders and neck to just above navel) from a dept store that he's been decorating and showing at various art shows, so there's like 30% of the form done! I got a styrofoam head from a costume shop, covered it in bondo and sanded smooth. I had another friend make hands out of clay (had to bondo over to keep from cracking). She also let us form the upper thighs on her with plaster cast material because she's close to the size of the torso. Put a shirt on the torso and my girlfriend made the skirt from the unused back of the shirt.

Been covering it with bondo, lacquer and plaster (the stuff for patching sheetrock) followed by lots of sanding for the last week or so. Today we poured a layer of clear resin (envirotex, I think) over it. That's gotta dry for 48 hours, then we're gonna pour another layer, hopefully enough to make the face level with the frame. Then I'll probably use the leftover plaster to make the surface uneven and rough before painting it.

On the sides, I got really creative with **** I had around the house. I cut out one hole on each side (I know Han has four panels on each side, but I'm lazy and wanted to keep the price down) and made some cool looking control panels out of Home Depot Fire Extinguisher signs. They're the perfect size and heavier than "for sale" or "beware of dog." I've got some of the little trays that lighters are sold on in convenience stores that look like buttons, painted chrome and cut holes for lights. I made the screens from clear plastic cut from some packaging and green pencil case bags that I took out of binders when the zippers broke. Made boxes from scrap lumber and mounted lightbulb sockets from a broken lamp.

So far, I've only spent $100 for this, and a lot of that was wasted on trial and error as I have no idea what I'm doing here. I was planning to try and sell it at the party, but it's turning out much better than I expected and I kinda wanna keep it.

Side panels...

this is great, now, when's this party?

May the 4th be with you! Less than 3 weeks to go. If you're anywhere near Charleston, SC and wanna suit up on a Wednesday, you're invited! Directions and other info here: Star Wars Day at Jimbo's

that's a pretty cool idea, and the execution looks good so far. but those are some pretty meaty hands for a girl!

Is the bear in your avatar gonna be there? if so, I will not be showing up... jk... I dont live anywhere near there but good luck with the project!

EDIT me and saint_nasty are both lurkers of the night, who post at the same time

The hands are actually perfectly sized. It's the head and chest that are a little bit smaller than a real person. My friend made the hands to match her own, seperately from the rest of the body that was being worked on in my garage, then we put em together the best we could. The whole box is only six foot tall, so the body is maybe 5'1" but if it's raised off the ground, tilted back a little, I don't think anyone will notice these little differences.

There's a lot I would do differently/more efficiently if I were to start over. I really should have made the neck before stiffening the shirt on the torso - really hard to get sandpaper and Dremel in there. I probably could have just plastered a whole body on my friend instead of just the legs, we ended up have to reshape a lot to match the chest. Also, I wasted a lot of time sanding and cleaning up the sides of the box before working on the face, and now I'm gonna have to do most of that again since the materials on the face made a mess.

We're gonna do some more work tomorrow afternoon, I'll be sure to update you all with pics afterwards. If anyone has ideas on how to display it, I'd love to hear em. I am trying to think of a way to prop it up on an old speaker stand that I'm sure can handle the weight, but I don't know about balance. Temporarily, I might hang it from a truss between two lighting stands, but I think my band is gonna want those back eventually.

earlier in-progress pics that I forgot I had on my phone











I'm really excited because it's now covered in Envirotex resin, which is really hard and smooth. I can see the end of this project... hopefully in less than 2 weeks! I just gotta fill in the empty space to get rid of the border and make it look layered like the original. Then it's just painting the whole thing (black sides and gunmetal on the face?), putting the panels on the sides (the boxes with bulbs and electrical cords are already in there), finishing the back, and figuring out how to make it stand up securely.

Painted the sides and face today. I'm gonna throw on matte clear coat before I got to work tonight, and tomorrow I can start running the wires in the back.

For displaying it, I got a T-joint from my stage lights in the back so I can prop it on top of a speaker stand. As long as the screws hold the T and the wood it's attached to, I'm sure the stand can hold the weight.





Note that we intentionally raised the skirt enough, so that while it's on display at the party, we can call people perverts for trying to look under it! Hilarious!

This is cool , and a bit creepy

It's in my bedroom now! I'll be sure and share photos of the back and all my wiring tomorrow, but I'm just so excited I have to show this off now. Left the door and my fett armor in the pic so you can get a sense of scale.



Seeing it standing up, I agree the hands do look kinda awkward. I keep telling myself that's gonna be overlooked by 90% of the people who see this thing, so I shouldn't worry about it, though. I had to put it face down across 3 barstools to connect all the wires in the back and cover all the bulbs so there wouldn't be light coming out the back. That led to a couple of scratches in the paint that I'll fix tomorrow. I also gotta play with the control panels because they're not sitting flush against the sides, and light is pouring out around them. I shoulda put them behind the side wall, but I knew that with the tools I had I wouldn't be able to smoothly cut those openings in the plywood, so I just decided early on to put the panel on the outside. I'm thinking I'll correct that with a little raised frame around em made of sintra that I can just glue down to the panel and the side wall. The lights on the bottom are great (seven red circles shine on the floor under it), gotta get a nighttime picture of that.

Oops, got kinda busy yesterday, but here's pics of the backside as promised. First up, this is the whole piece in my living room. Added wood frame behind the control panels to block some light leaks, then caulked around em (still gotta touch-up and blend paint on the caulk before it's done). You can see on the floor, the foot switch (little black circle, bottom right) to turn on the lights inside. I had a broken floor lamp that stripped parts from to wire all the lights. The handles on the sides sort of protect the panels from being crushed if it is accidentally set on its side.



Here's the back. It's sitting on top of a speaker stand with a t-joint at the top. You can also see the backs of the control panels. That's a BEWARE OF DOG sign painted black and wrapped around the bulb. The shiny side makes the bulb spread light more evenly.




And here's the bottom. I made that curtain out of some scrap fabric left over from Fett costume. It's stapled at the top, but those are snaps on the bottom, so I've got a place to tuck the cord when I move it, and I can get to the bulb if I ever need to change it. There's seven 3/4" holes on the bottom with red film over them, that makes a neat effect on the ground below the box.

Here it is with the lights on. Sorry my camera was having trouble focusing.



And one of the back so you can see how the light leaks are managed... might be some room for improvement here.

This looks really great!
I will need to show these pics to my wife sometime.

I've been trying to convince her to let me make a life cast mold of her face to create a "Wife in Carbonite" since we got married . . .

Final on display at my "May The 4th Be With You" party last night. This is me with my band.



I spent so long on the carbonite and think it turned out great, but I'm also very proud of what we were able to accomplish with minimal budget and time on those costumes. Singer and drummer worked on theirs at my house over the last week and a half (Jawa and Clone Wars Kenobi), but my guitarist insisted that it'd be funny to just put on a plaid shirt and say he's George Lucas. Obi-wan's armor is all "for sale" signs and Wendy's cups, with 2 pair of soccer shin guards on the legs, and the last of my sintra is the two raised stripes on the chest-shoulders. We spent a whole day applying bondo and sanding those things. The shoulder bells were left over from another project.

On the Jawa, I wired up 2 AA batteries and two flashlight bulbs for the eyes. She took em home and added the yellow film from our stage lights and made the cones around em. I built the pistol from scraps left over in my garage 2 hours before the party. My girlfriend did all the sewing on both of em, and I'm definately impressed with how she's learned to use that machine in the last 6 months.

More photos from my party... there's a couple of me trying to play bass in my fett suit (took off the helmet, collar, backplate, and gauntlets).
May the 4th be with you! Jimbo's Rock Lounge - StJane's Photos

Nice job dude, it looks great! I hope you had fun at your party!

I've left this thing set up in the bar for a month now. I was kinda hoping someone would offer to buy it, but that hasn't happened. I'm kinda under-employed right now and could use the cash... to fund some upgrades to my Fett of course! The owner of the bar says people have commented on it, but didn't know I wanted to sell it. He thinks I should put a price on it (90% of the art on the walls has a price and contact info), so I'm gonna do that. He seemed upset when I said I might move it to one of the local comic book shops. I think he likes having it right next to the door of his office!

In a couple of weeks I might move this thread over to the Cargo Hold. I don't believe there's too many posters on here from my area (coastal South Carolina), and there's no way I'm shipping this thing, but it can't hurt to try. Any thoughts? I know an accurate HIC goes for $1500-$2000... or at least lists for that amount. What's a custom oddity like this worth?

Nice work and ingienuity. I imagine entering a bar and seeing that wow

Nice work. It reminds of a High school project i did. I made a box for my self. Got a few class mates to help me with the project. By pouring sand all in between my arms and around my head. This made what i didn't want seen in the mold. Then we laid a garbage bag over my chest to give it that wet t-shirt look. Then proceeded to pour pasture Paris over me (not on my face). After it was hardened we broke the box lifted the mold off. which gave me the start to waste up statue of a carbonite Han solo. The finished product was clay that we pressed into the mold then peeled out and fired in the kiln. I wouldn't say that's the best way, as there were some air pockets that cause one of the cast hands to explode. But that's the only medium i hand at the time.