General Saturniid's SE Boba Fett progress: 501st approved BH-43119

Saturniid

Active Hunter
Hi folks,

I don't post often but I have been a member here for over 10 years and have finally achieved a wearable costume! This thread is several things:

It will help me keep track of the progress I've made and the improvements still to come.
It will let me show off to the people who will really appreciate what I'm doing.
It will allow me to publicly thank the people who have helped me in this project.

I've tried to place the moment when I decided this would be a good use of my time, but I can't pinpoint it. During the summer of 2005 I was on my own doing a biological survey. Episode III had just come out, reinvigorating my love of Star Wars. I had lots of free time, and spent most of it on the internet. At some point I discovered the 501st and realized that the guys I had seen in costume at the Magic of Myth exhibit in Toledo were not Lucasfilm employees, but fans who had actually made their own costumes. I could do that too, right? There was only one choice for me: build the most complicated costume with my zero painting, sewing, or sculpting skills!

I looked into the old Don Post and Rubies helmets and attempted scratchbuilding one:
http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f23/starter-helmet-9150/

I bought a US Army half-shelter from a local surplus store and made a cape:
http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f20/cape-grommet-9424/
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In 2006 I finally spent some real money and bought a Sgt Fang mystery helmet. I started painting it by hand.
http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f23/saturniid19s-helmet-progress-15875/
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I also found some leather boots that seemed close enough for my purposes, though I wasn't sure how I would modify them yet.
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At this point I slowly started buying up cheap pieces. I built my ammo belt using 99centtaco's functional wooden boxes and painted some chest/ab armor. I made little progress, but I always had that nice helmet reminding me to finish what I started.

Boba came to a halt in 2010. I got engaged, had a kid, and set the project aside. I focused on my work and taking care of my family. I intended to come back someday, but had no idea when I would be able.

At the end of 2014 I got a full-time job, and a nice raise to go with it. I now had the money and a self-imposed deadline: Star Wars: Episode VII. All I needed was approval from my family, and my wonderful fiancee and kids encouraged me to sink some time and money into the costume.

So I bought a jetpack.
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And some armor from RedKraytDragon to go with a nice vest and jumpsuit from Arkady.
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I worked on this thing nearly every day for the whole summer, using stormtrooperguy's paint list, and finally tried it on after 10 years of false starts, repaints, blood, burns, and paint fumes.
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I got the gauntlets and boots in good enough shape to dress up for our Boo at the Zoo last weekend, so I laid it out on the bed.
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And suited up!
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The girls and I are doing a theme this Halloween. Can you guess what it is?
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I can hear the screams of "too clean!" already, so soft parts weathering is something I have yet to tackle. Also on the list are: paint gauntlet rocket, install visor securely (still just taped), adjust helmet padding so it stops tilting due to the heavy rangefinder, get a balaclava and chin cover, finish piping and spikes on boots, adjust the knees, secure gauntlet hose inside sleeve, get the shoulder braids, paint shin tools, paint blaster rifle, install calc board into helmet, and re-glue gauntlet dart that snapped off during the zoo trip. I have a girth belt that still needs dyed, and the jetpack is not even close to being done. I would also like to have a full electronics set someday; servo, rangefinder lights, voice amp, chest display, gauntlet lights, jetpack beacon, and "radar sound."

Unfortunately, I will not be wearing the costume to The Force Awakens due to AMC theaters' costume policy. So my new goal is to eventually join the 501st. No idea when that will be, but I'm on my way.

Thanks to TK409, Sgt Fang, Rogue Studios, Arkady, redkraytdragon, stormtrooperguy and so many others who provided inspiration, encouragement, supplies, and tutorials. Finally, thanks to my loving family who supported me during this process. I don't think any of us understood how intense it would be. I'll keep you posted as I make progress.
 
Some belated Trick-or-Treat photos. Captain Phasma and the jawa are my girls, Phasma is store-bought but we made the jawa ourselves. We ran into some other characters as well.
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Unfortunately, I will not be wearing the costume to The Force Awakens due to AMC theaters' costume policy. So my new goal is to eventually join the 501st. No idea when that will be, but I'm on my way.

Don't get me started. They've instituted that nonsense north of the border too. My goal was to have my Boba done for TFA but I wont' be wearing it to the show (most likely).

Good job. It's always nice when you have something you can wear. 10 years? I thought I was kinda slow at more than 2.5 :lol:
You also took the words out of my mouth. Dirty that thing up. That will be the biggest improvement. Clean Boba just doesnt' look righ..

Keep it up and post lots of pics.
 
It's been a crazy year, so Boba has taken a back seat, but I have done some work on it: painted the gauntlet rocket and added some snaps for more permanent armor attachment. I'm hoping to get the jet pack, braids, blaster, and chest display done for Halloween.

However, I had the opportunity to wear the suit at my workplace last weekend when we showed The Force Awakens outdoors for free! We had 1167 happy moviegoers watching Star Wars under the stars! Three members of the local 501st and Rebel legions stopped by and posed for lots of pictures. My kids reprised their costumes from last Halloween and we all had a great time.
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Main colors are on the jet pack. Lots still to do!
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I also got my horsehair braids from woodman today. It was a big missing piece, although both of my kids were skeptical that it was actually part of the costume. Thanks woody!
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Trooped with the jet pack on for the first time! I'm surprised how comfortable it is to wear with the harness. Still need to install the thrusters and do some more paint work on the pack. Also added the girth belt. I need to remember to make the ammo belt really tight; you can see it's slipping in this shot. Overall it went pretty well. Some grabby kid almost walked off with a shin tool though!
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If we're looking to split hairs, the spacing on the armor could be tightened up a bit. Flight suit pockets could be moved up a maybe one inch or a couple inches...looks great, that's about all I could see.
 
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Splitting hairs is fine. That's kind of what we do around here!

I agree about the pockets: they're too low and make my legs seem short. I'll have to see if Arkady can move them up for me.

I'm using DarthOrsan's method of armor attachment using sew-on snaps. It takes a while, so I'm not totally done. Nothing is permanently affixed to the vest, though, so as I progress, I'll try to tighten the armor spacing. Part of the problem is that my chest armor is not very precisely made, so the pieces don't fit together very well. I don't know who made it but I got the set for $50, so it was a pretty good deal. I'll probably need to upgrade through RKD to match my other pieces at some point.

Halloween! Got to hand out candy tonight; I'm not good for much else in the dark with the helmet on. As always, suggestions are appreciated.

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Jet pack is done! Never thought I'd see the day. Also...

Can't wait to meet everyone at C8!
 
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Got some new boot spikes and came up with a new way to close the gauntlets. Went to my local Free Comic Book Day with the family today.
 
Well, it's about that time. I went through the checklist and made sure I had all the requirements, then suited up for some 501st submission photos. Of course, after reviewing the photos, I realized that I had forgotten to add on the right gauntlet hose! I'll probably try again tomorrow, but for now, here is my first attempt at submission.

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I contacted my GMLs to see if there was anything else I should do before suiting up again for more photos. Please let me know what you think!
 
I heard back from the GML and he had some suggestions, mostly just more weathering. Making this costume look crappy seems to be a never-ending struggle :lol:

I also saw that the 501st finally posted a CRL for the SE Fett on their website, so I had to make sure I had all the details. I was only missing a few things, including the two additional hoses on the right gauntlet, so I rigged those up. Thanks to Arkady for adding the buckles under the short sleeves of the jumpsuit; I was able to get all three hoses connected to one buckle using key rings. I also finally painted the orange gradient on the kill stripes. They had just been yellow before.

Here are some of my most recent shots:
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There was a final total of 31 shots that I sent in this time. Thanks to my fiancee for being a patient helper and photographer!
 
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