Death Watch Building Armor for Star Wars Celebration 2015 - Now with Night Owl

Bogleo · Jan 31, 2015

Awesome! I like that heavily battle damaged helmet. What does the text on the jetpack say?

Also, here is my death watch helmet build: http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f62/my-death-watch-helmet-build-51667/

RalfSkunk · Feb 1, 2015

The jetpack says Merr-Sonn Munitions JT-12. Good luck with your build, don't forget to post pictures so we can follow.

thorssoli · Feb 2, 2015

I guess we're overdue for a real update. Let's see...

Matt got started on the codpiece prototype:

Here I am trying it on:

Here it is in primer:

We also got the leg pieces set up for molding:

Then I gelcoated them:

Shiny:

Once the gelcoat was set up, I laid up the fiberglass molds:

Which came out pretty good:

Removing the solid wood blocks that make up the holster area of the prototype proved to be a bit tricky:

But after drilling a hole to let air in, they popped right out. Then it was just a matter of polishing up the molds and applying mold release. Here they are sitting on the corner of the bench, ready for layup:

Matt also made a bit of progress on the kneepad prototypes:

Here he is trying them on:

We also made a mold box for the blaster pistol:

Here's the beginning of the mold on the gauntlet prototypes:

Finally, we managed to get the print coat poured on the jetpack body:

Today I'll be thickening it:

So things are moving right along. We still need to make forming bucks for the boot armor bits and possibly the handplates. Otherwise, we're very near to the end of the prototyping phase.

Stay tuned...

eqdizzle · Feb 3, 2015

looks fun!

thorssoli · Feb 5, 2015

So we've started adding thickness to the jetpack mold:

The gauntlets too:

I managed to get the first copy of the shin out of the mold:

Then a full set of leg parts:

What's much more interesting, though, is the pistol progress. Last time I posted anything about it, it looked like this:

Once I'd built up a clay bed and sculpted in all of the registration keys, it looked like this:

Then I poured in enough silicone to fill the mold box:

The next morning, I flipped the whole thing over, removed the bottom of the box, and here's what I found:

After removing the clay, I sprayed the exposed silicone with a copious amount of mold release:

Then I filled the box with silicone again:

The next morning, I pulled the mold apart, removed the prototype, put the mold back together, and poured the first casting. Here it is when I was pulling it out:

[

And the second one:

They're a perfect fit for the holster:

Which is a perfect fit for me:

Now we just need to finish up the last few prototypes (knees, foot bits, hand plates, and codpiece) and all that'll be left is a bit of molding, a lot of casting, and a lot more painting:

Stay tuned...

Rogue · Feb 6, 2015

Can I please ask what you are using for black visor on DW helemt ?

thorssoli · Feb 6, 2015

Rogue said:
Can I please ask what you are using for black visor on DW helemt ?

1/8" tinted acrylic. I cut it to shape and then heat it up to bend the curve into it.

Yesterday was a slow day, but Matt made some progress on the knees:

RalfSkunk · Feb 7, 2015

Goofed off in the shop a bit today...

thorssoli · Feb 8, 2015

All day and only one pic?

Lame.

RalfSkunk · Feb 8, 2015

And testing paint on the guns... Looks pretty good, but still needs a blackwash.

thorssoli · Feb 12, 2015

Finished thickening the silicone jacket for the jetpack the other day:

Today I'm making the mothermold:

The end result will be a four-part mothermold (top, bottom, left, and right) so I've started with the top and bottom:

Once I've laid up the left and right sides, I'll be flipping the whole thing over to make the last piece of the mold. That'll be the part that mounts to the backplate.

Stay tuned...

bojaGun · Feb 13, 2015

very nice works!

tterrell · Feb 15, 2015

So, I have been following this for awhile and seeing 4+ people working in this ILM-worthy-workshop, what the tally for Celebration thus far?

10 Death Watch (4 nightowls) ?
1 Twi'lek?

thorssoli · Feb 16, 2015

I've got a list written down in the workshop so I don't have to remember the details, but between the Death Watch and Night Owls, we're putting together 17 Mandalorians. Then on another day we're doing half a dozen Sith Acolytes (pictures of that project can be seen here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/8050182@N06/sets/72157647826110658/), as well as Shae Vizla (build thread here: http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=218562), and at least one Twi'lek. Somewhere along the way, I'm hoping to get my Sith Stalker (http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=200642) off of the back burner. I'm also putting together a Darth Talon costume for the girlfriend (https://www.flickr.com/photos/8050182@N06/sets/72157645252095449/) so there's a lot going on. I'm trying not to count.

In any case, I've finished the mothermold for the outside of the jetpack:

Then I flipped the whole thing over and started a rubber jacket mold for the inside:

I wasn't able to be in the shop yesterday, so Matt finished the inner rubber portion while I was out:

He also finalized the female version of the codpiece:

Yes, I know the female version isn't supposed to have a codpiece, but after looking at all of the references with the three plates glued onto the undersuit, we decided that they looked silly and impractical. So we're keeping the visual elements of the three plates, but transferring them to an actual armored plate for the sake of making them blend with the male versions better.

In another departure from the animated style, we decided that the gauntlets were a little too cartoony. So we ended up hacking apart the 3D printed pair from April Storm's files and reshaping them a bit:

Yesterday Matt got them all smoothed out and primed:

Now they just need a coat of glossy paint and they'll be ready to mold.

Other than that, we've just been casting a whole mess of pistols:

If everything goes according to plan, we'll need at least 34 of them.

EDIT: I just checked and there are 58 days left until the convention begins. Subtract a couple of days for travel and so on and it's starting to be a tiny bit stressful. I blame Matt.

Mandalorian2112 · Feb 16, 2015

Keep up the good work! I know how you feel with deadlines, I have 32 days to complete 4 Phase 2 Clone Troopers complete with DC-15As. :wacko

RalfSkunk · Feb 16, 2015

I blame me as well... But you talked me into it, so it's gotta be your fault too.

thorssoli · Feb 16, 2015

Stop surfing the Internet. You should be sewing something.

thorssoli · Feb 18, 2015

Okay, so last night Matt and I sat down and got started on some of the soft parts. First, he cut out some pleather and cotton fabric and made a few sets of pieces like these:

Then I stitched them into a handful of these:

I also added the long inner sleeves to my coveralls and stitched the hip pockets closed:

These started out as a pair of these: LINK I picked them out because they're the right color, lightweight, and they've got very unobtrusive hip pocket slits, so they're easy to modify for our purposes. I've been compiling a shopping list for soft parts HERE.

My favorite part is that we've made the first round of soft parts for our army of Mandalorian Bad*sses on this intimidating machine:

Awesome, huh?

Oh, and I also finished the mothermold for the jetpack body:

So I should have the first one of those cast today sometime while Matt gets the nosecones printed out. With any luck, we'll actually have the first complete set of costume parts sometime this weekend.

mclawswill · Feb 18, 2015

i am addicted to watching this thread, i feel withdrawals when i don't see any new content. thanks for the posts.

the guns look great, i tried pep'ing a couple times but it was too complex (for me) to make a usable model.

the various helmet designs are also amazing. so much talent!!

tterrell · Feb 19, 2015

The Janome machine is .... the best 70's scooby-doo colors I've seen in a long time.
Thanks for sharing.

Death Watch Building Armor for Star Wars Celebration 2015 - Now with Night Owl

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