My ROTJ journal

Mugatu said:

I love how your gauntlets have turned out. I have considered building my own and your work is very inspiring.

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Go for it..take your time with it and study every picture from every angle you can find is all I can say...


So guys this jetpack....wow it is a tricky bit of kit to get right and what I mean by that is the scale...I have WOF templates and been building off that but just cannot shake the feeling the whole rocket assembly is to small..... I have made a mock up of it but just looks tiny.....

Maybe it's me I don't know and we it all comes together it will look great... If anyone has sizes of their rocket (that sounds so wrong) that they want to share and also the templates they used/ reference pics etc that would be great to have a pull of recourses...

I will post pics up as soon as I can..I been working away lately and gotta take care of the home life first

Small update as work has been crazy so time is very finite, but I have a set of knee pads now from Ronin677 (thank you very much Sir) they are made by Fett Pride out of rubber, they are in very good condition indeed and some paint will bring them to life.. a couple of questions if anyone could answer 1 what is the Humbrol paint codes for them 2 what color straps would be most accurate for them? if anyone can answer them questions that would be great



Now as for the jet pack I have packed out the upper section of the middle cylinder as the original tube came in at 90MM and was a tad to small


I also fanned out the lower section of it a bit as from all the pictures I can find of the ROTJ pack it seems to splay out a little bit? or is that just me?

Just touching back on my gauntlets.. I had them in coffee for over a week as suggested to get the right stain, but it didn't do nothing, not a blemish....thinking maybe I should make a stronger brew ha!.

I did however get hold of some better couplers from a shower hose and make the fit to the hose in such a way that I can unscrew them from the gauntlet for storage, I also added the inner cable using sky TV shotgun cable works a treat

Here is the inner part with the cable attached to the coupler retaining plate


This is the coupler I am using, need to paint that chrome out but should look better than the original part I was going to use

And finaly a shot of the hose with inner cable


Once painted I will do a side by shot of my first idea then this one next to the screen used couplings.

There is not a massive amount of flesh in these, I think when trooping and when it's on display the arm will be at 90° all the time owch..

Btw sorry for the update being split into two separate posts but like I said before I do 90% of my updates with my phone and the photobucket app is awfully crap and crashes...

Back onto the Jet pack now and the rocket section is almost done, I have made it so the rocket assembly can be removed (unscrewed) obvious reasons, transport, maintenance and so on.









The bottom plate will be built up with the fins that go round the circumference of the middle.......tube? bit...:confused

I just need to finish the filling, make a tip and then add the grapple hook blades



The body of the jet pack has a in fill coat of filler on it just to close any gaps and its all been coated in PVA to lock it down





The body will get the fuel tanks added soon and then onto the nozzles, I am not looking forward to finding the correct size spheres that's for sure.

Other things to add will be the light that will work off a small hidden switch I did toy with the idea of having it run off one of the gauntlet switches but it will make for a lot of wires that may end up getting in a twist, I will also need to make the back plate thicker as per the plans, the card I am using is only about 2mm thick.

Man Of War Studios ROTJ boots came yesterday, truly blown away by these I wont be making the soft parts so things like this is on order.

The boots them self are very high quality, light weight and soft padded on the feet. Christian (MOW) has stated its best to go a half size up from your actual shoe size, at first I thought they would flap around on my feet and look to big but point in fact he is 100% correct. I am UK size 9 and these are US size 10, that makes them a UK size 9 and a half and they fit perfectly and this would be due to the lets face it 'odd' shape on the toe.



I almost feel sad I have to piant them but needles to say I am wearing them in as we speak and oh man are they awsome (I may get a second pair for personal use ha)

I still have a long way to go with this but things are moving along, I have the flight suit, flak jacket, spats, gloves, cod, shoulder and back plate coming from Boba Maker in December so that will really bump up my little pile of parts



I forfgot to put the carbine in the photo :behave

I hope to get the jetpack finished soon, if I am lucky I may get an hour a day to work on on this project at the moment as work and home life will always come first.

BTW anyone have the Humbrol paint codes for the ROTJ pack??

Jetpack looking good!!!

Thank you Demmoc

Slow going still, work life is really taking it out of me at the moment, am also renovating the house at the same time but am getting this thing done slowly

I managed to get a head liner in my helmet finally, I had an old bike helmet; one with an adjustable screw at the back so the whole thing sit nicely now.



I also have a dozen of these fans, I got them from a boot sale at 20p each! I will point on to take heat and air out on one side and point the other to push air in? no idea if thats the best way to go about it but the idea sounds good to me





The jet pack its self is almost ready for a miss coat of paint, I ordered some wooden spheres from E-bay so I could get on with it and get it done, but its been a week and what arrived was a small pack of pipe cleaners??? :confused that is of no use to me for this project that's for sure :rolleyes

I am having trouble finishing the rocket tip, I have made great effort with the cardboard build to have no raised edges, bumps, glue marks etc and I am just not happy with my attempts at the rocket tip, I feel that such a part on the outfit stands out so much it will become a focus when in the public eye and would hate to be let down by such an eye sore.... I will just wait until the right part finds me I think, I am in no rush I have until March to showcase it at a local Con




there is a few parts that are not 100% correct but I hope to have that fixed soon...

I have been busy with this over the week, the spheres arrived at last so here goes.

I want to make it so they can be removed for transport and also the thruster housing housing will move if knocked rather than snap off...

this is the bottom of the (correct me if I am wrong) fuel cell with M8 bar at 100mm



I have pressed a couple of nuts in each side to screw onto the thread, I will use a nut on the out side as a locking nut and put a cosmetic cap over it..



next is an M3 bolt hot glued in place



I cut a disc to fit inside to clamp it onto the sphere, this way if it gets knocked it will slide to the side and not brake.....I hope





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I have the top and bottom caps cut up and ready to go, once the electrics inside are all in I will fix the outrigger cells in place and seal it all up....a bit of filler here and there and its ready for paint, I am shooting for the weekend for that.


I have also looked at Batninja's tutorial on the leather belt so I got the material needed and got cracking.

I used cardboard to keep with this theme and also I can add details inside the pockets, its anyone guess what Mr Fett actually kept in there but it most likely would kill ya.






What I have ended up with is a sort of kit that I am going to hand over to an in law who is far better at the sewing machine than me, I seem to be way out of touch to do the stitching so its out of my hands, I have given plenty of spares juuuuuuust in case........I am not worried :behave



I have also got the knee pads ready for paint, I had my own ideas about how to keep them on and this is what I come up with.

First I counter sunk some grooves to take the width of the elastic



cut the end off this strap



I then used an resin to hold the elastic on one end and the strap tie on the other, this way as the elastic stretches over time I can pull it tighter. I will also be using poppers to hold it in place and stop it rotating round my leg, sagging etc



and they stay up nicely I kept them on for about 45 mins and they didn't move, I ever wore them round work and no one even noticed just looked like I was on a job (am a maintenance manager)




yes the shoes....I wore them to :rolleyes but got called out on them ha

The belt is all done, I used BatNinjas tutorial and it came out great, on the left is a reference picture from that tutorial.



Fits really well and of good quality, feels like it will take trooping no problem at all....go me

Looking good!

Few more updates, the whole build is going in different directions as in I start one item move to another, I spend so much time sourcing the right part or waiting for parts to arrive in the mail that I start something else... hopefully it will all come together at once.

The jetpack is almost done, I have gone for the screen used method to fit the harness so that means I will need to make the jet pack rig



The knee pads are almost done to bar apart from the knee darts them self I have the paint on, it obviously needs weathering but the base is on and not looking to bad, the rubber seems to take the Humbrol quite well





I have also started the girth belt and this is very very intricate work, I got some cord that seems to match in color, broke it down into 14 strands





I have wound each end by hand to get the correct look and function that meant I had to strip some off cuts of its thread and then brake them down into individual strands.... I never want to do that again!


this thing will take ages but time is what I have so that's fine :wacko

And my gauntlet rocket arrived, its just a cast only £15 and its not all that bad, the tip was quite hard to make so I caved and bought one, it has since been smoothed and filled...shall paint soon



that's all for now

Small update again I have the rocket done as best I could get it, so now the left gauntlet is finished. All I need now are the darts for the right one and thats all done to


The jet pack has been slow going my airbrush gave out halfway through at the weekend and had air leeks all over the place, I will get a new set up through the week and continue next weekend if I can, time is just not on my side lately but hey that's life..... I will get this thing done before March!!! determined now

A little yellow



And a little blue.....maybe a bit to blue but will see how it all turns out after its been weathered down etc.



thinking I should get the knee darts done well I am waiting for the weekend to roll round? or finish the girth belt, or finish the boots.....:wacko

Looking good Silver. Where did you get your gauntlet rocket from? £15 seems a bargain.

runFettBoyRun said:

Looking good Silver. Where did you get your gauntlet rocket from? £15 seems a bargain.

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Off the old ebay, a guy is clearly making casts from something, they are not 100% and need a little tlc but yeah £15 is a fair one for such a funny shaped item to try and make...

Certainly is. I've tried 3D printing it at work at the model doesn't want to know. Won't be ready for Sunday Still maybe arrive ready for Halloween. Thanks for the info I'll have a search.

I've tried looking and can't find anything. Do you have a link?

I can PM you a link I think there is policy about e-bay links on here? I will have a look for you both

Looking good!

Coming along!! All looks good!