My Lifesize Luke X-Wing Pilot - 1st Attempt

azheat01

Active Hunter
Started work on my next project, a Luke X-Wing Pilot. I am actually doing two; one as a static display and one for me to wear for Halloween.

So far I have received the mannequin, flightsuit, comm pad, and boots. I have a helmet and chest box coming from Richie's Armor. The mannequin is an egg head I got from eBay. Started by taking off the head to mount the cast of Luke that I have.

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This is just a test fit of the head; still needs some tweaking, then paint. I drilled a hole through the boots so the rod slides right into the bottom of the foot. These are cheap costume boots from Amazon. They look good enough in my low lit room, but I won't be wearing these for Halloween.

Going to attempt to make the vest, harness, flare holder, etc, etc. Not going for screen accuracy, I will be slightly changing a few things and we'll see how it goes.
 
I clicked on this hoping for a lifesize replica of luke's X-wing lol. Still super cool though!

If only I had the time, strength, and money!

Been a very busy and hectic last week or two. I found some time to work on this and wanted to share a little progress. I also want to note that even though I have dabbled a bit in airbrushing, this is the first time I have ever worked on the likeness of a person. Much respect to those of you that have mastered this.

Here's the cast after some cleaning:

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Mixed up a base coat of flesh color:

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Some minor highlights and then the hair:

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Then placed the eyes:

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One more final test fit before I permanently mount the head:

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I could have spent more time trying to hone the coloring on this and adding a few more details, but I like how it turned out for a first attempt and think I'll let it be for now.

I also picked up some cheap Rubies Vader gloves, they'll do for now. Since I am not making this screen accurate I figure I can cut a few corners so I can save a little money.
 
Slow progress on this, still waiting for the helmet and chest box to come in so I thought I would take a crack at the flak vest. I was originally going to buy one, but just didn't want to spend that much. It's a bit bigger than I wanted, but I can live with it. As you can see, not worrying about screen accuracy. It's almost done, just did a quick test fit with some painters tape. I spent about $6.00 on the fabric and $5.00 on some vinyl tubing. For $11.00 or so I can't complain.

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Thought I would work on this a bit more and try my hand at sewing the harness. I bought a bunch of different colors / sizes of webbing from Strap Works.

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I also finished the vest. I bought some cheap buckles for the belt from Strap Works as well, maybe I'll upgrade down the road. I paid about a dollar for the two buckles I used.

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It's getting there.
 
Thanks!

Today I worked on the belt cylinders. I found these clear tubes of mints for a $1.00 and thought they would work out great if I cut and painted them.

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I removed the outer film wrapper and cut about 2.5" off the tube. I cut a small piece of wood dowel to act as a stabilizer for the two halves. The dowel fit nice and snug with a little glue.

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Primed and painted metallic silver.

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I sewed the 1" strip of nylon strap onto the belt.

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Here's a picture without the flash to give you a better idea of how they look.

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I screwed up a little on the spacing, but all together I probably have less than $15.00 total in the belt and cylinders. Not screen accurate, but I am pleased with how it turned out.
 
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Started work on the leg flares and code cylinders. For the leg flares, I was walking around Wal-Mart looking for ideas. I saw these little body sprays for $0.97 each. They are only a couple of inches in length, they were the travel size so I thought they might work.

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I emptied the cans by spraying the contents into a bag using an old shirt as a filter. I then glued the caps on, primed, and painted. You really won't see the seam between the cap and body when these are placed in the leg holder. Not bad for less than $7.00.

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For the code cylinders, I wanted to make them from scratch. There's someone on eBay selling a set of resin ones I think for about $10.00. They didn't look bad, but I wanted to try and make my own.

I started with some misc parts: 3/8" aluminum round bar, 3/8" axle push nuts, and various different sizes of nylon and metal washers.

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I hammered the axle cap to the top and alternated the metal and nylon washers.

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I used several nylon washers towards the bottom and then alternated with another size of metal washers.

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I used a nail head for the top.

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Primed and painted metallic.

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Not screen accurate, but I liked the challenge of building them from scratch. All said and done I spent about $17.00.

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Finished the leg flare holder today. I took 2 pieces of 1.5" OD green webbing and sewed them together.

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Then sewed on the strap for the flares, using another length of the 1.5" webbing.

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I used a little Velcro to close it.

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There you have it, less than $10.00 for all the flares and the holder. Real pleased with how this turned out.

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I'm considering adding a holster rig like Luke's from ESB, just need to find one since I won't be attempting to build one on my own. In the meantime I got one of these lightsaber LED flashlights from Amazon. I got this one for $16.00 and change plus a few dollars for shipping. I have to say, I really like it! It's just cheap plastic, but I think it will look fine in this display. It's almost 11" long and has some bright LEDs.

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I had to do a very simple modification to the base. I sanded off all the manufacturing text from the bottom. I primed and painted it a brushed satin nickel color so it would match the rest of the base. I then bought a "D" ring from Lowe's and a 3/16" midget cable strap. I drilled a hole into the base and riveted on the strap. The batteries are actually in the top portion of the saber, the handle was hollow.

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If anyone had a good source for an ESB belt and holster rig, please post or shoot me an email.

Thanks!
 
Thanks!

Today I was messing around with the com pad. I wanted to add some LEDs to give the illusion of functionality, this wasn't originally what I had in mind, but it will have to do for now.

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It's not an accurate paint scheme, but I can live with that.

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I am going to add a few lights to the chest box when it shows up and tie these in together so they work off one switch. I know it's not accurate, but I like the idea of a few lights.
 
While waiting for my chest box and helmet kit from Richie's Armor, a member contacted me about selling an EFX helmet that he no longer needed. It was missing the ear pads, but for $215 (and that includes shipping, thanks Nathan!), I couldn't pass it up for this project.

It came this week and besides some minor flaws, it looks great.

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I wanted to add some ear pads so I picked these ear protectors up from Harbor Freight for $2.99.

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I disassembled the pads and bought some faux leather material to recover them, I didn't want them black.

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I cut a piece of styrene and inserted it on the back, then used hot glue to put the new material on.

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I cut the existing inner pad material and glued them into the center. Not perfect, but you'll hardly even see these.

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As I mentioned before, I also wanted to add a holster rig. There's a really nice all leather one on eBay made by a member here, but I can't afford to drop another $150 - $200 (maybe down the road). So I decided to try and build one from scratch.

I bought some heavy weight material from Jo-Anns for about $10.00. It's some sort of vinyl hybrid, but I think it will look decent once weathered a bit.

Also bought this cheap blaster, which wasn't the one pictured and not the one I wanted, but it will have to do. It just needs to be painted black. Never attempted anything like this before, but this is what I came up with.

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I also took an old belt, cut off the buckle, and wrapped it in the same material.

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Then added some snaps.

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Looking forward to receiving the chest box.
 
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