Boba Fett RotJ WIP

[Irongladiator]

Boochman - I also was mystified by the paint job on it! (Again, looks freaking awesome Strider ) But yeah the barrel does indeed look shorter now that I look at it closer.

 

[Strider]

Strider - Just echoing Boochman, but yeah that blaster looks pretty awesome! Great job! I recently painted my own blaster but went overboard on the rust effects. I wasn't happy with it so I recently started over, gonna go lightly this time around. What colors were you using for the Blaster and Gauntlets?
Thanks,
-Iron

Many thanks! If you went overboard with the colors simply use some tissue soaked with alcohol (eg, hand sanitzer) and dab it off to the desired intensity. I used RAL colors which is our color system here in Europe, eg. RAL 3003 for the gauntlets - but like I said it's not the best color (too bright) as I had to do a lot of finetuning later. For the blaster I started with a grey-blue color which came out too bright. After that I misted it black again and then used some burned umber colors, silver rub'n'buff and this blueish color (I used Vallejo 70.906).

Barrel might be a bit short but it looks nice

Thanks, bro. I got this as a kit. Haven't noticed it before but I believe you're right - the barrel seems indeed a bit short.

 

[Strider]

Some new stuff in the mail today!

The boots, ammo belt and gloves are from IB. Quick feedback: Overall a really great deal price wise and super quick shipment from China (just about a week).
While the boots are great, they are about 1-2 sizes too small and shipping them back for an exchange doesn't make sense economically. Since I'm not really planning on trooping with it but keeping it just for display it's okay though (still would have liked the option to troop in them).
The belt is made of leather and overall good quality however I will sell it and make my own later. The reason is I'd rather have a vinyl one (as the original) and the length of the flaps is uniform (the length of the originals differed from flap to flap). Last but not least, they chose wood to fill the ammo pockets which makes this thing quite heavy.
The gloves are allright from an OCD point of view and for that price an absolute no-brainer. If I coud change anything I would not use foam for the white inlets (which is a bit too stiff) and the material for the sleeves is different from the material on the gloves. It's also a bit too shiny and a tad bit transparent. But overall once they're weathered I'm sure they'll look great.

Also I got the diving buckle replica for the Harness from Bigdane - it looks absolutely fantastic and it's also really affordable. If you want to check it out, here's a link to his sales thread:

For Sale - Bigdane diving buckle replica

I have made a replica buckle, for my own Bigdane jetpack harness. for it to look closer to the sceen used. Im finaly happy whit the quality, and is now offering it to you awsome People. Thise pictures are just teasers for the moment. Buckle info: Its made of good quality stainles steel. Its...

www.thedentedhelmet.com

Next step for me is sewing the pouches and the spats. I've already dyed the white cloth with black tea:

 

[Irongladiator]

Strider - Good stuff! I had also read that about Imperial Boots (That they're sizes ran small) I'm just shy of 12.5 in shoe size but since I really can't find 12.5 in most retail shoes I usually end up getting a Size 13 (e.g. Nike Adidas, etc.). When in the US Army I was always issued Size 12.5 Boots which fit great. I was nervous about ordering a size 13 from Imperial Boots as most say they run small. I ordered anyway and when they came I was pleased with how well they fit. (Maybe I got lucky) Still though, suck that you now have to order another pair. Still gonna go with Imperial Boots? or the other popular one......"CA Boots" I think they're called.

-Iron

 

[AlphaCloneFett]

Strider, what size boots did you get? What size are you? I think I will order a pair from IP.

 

[Strider]

Strider - Good stuff! I had also read that about Imperial Boots (That they're sizes ran small) I'm just shy of 12.5 in shoe size but since I really can't find 12.5 in most retail shoes I usually end up getting a Size 13 (e.g. Nike Adidas, etc.). When in the US Army I was always issued Size 12.5 Boots which fit great. I was nervous about ordering a size 13 from Imperial Boots as most say they run small. I ordered anyway and when they came I was pleased with how well they fit. (Maybe I got lucky) Still though, suck that you now have to order another pair. Still gonna go with Imperial Boots? or the other popular one......"CA Boots" I think they're called.

-Iron

Yeah, so annoying that sizes differ so dramatically between brands. I had to order my last running shoes two sizes larger, lol. Anyway, I'll just keep them for the time being. If I change my mind and do want to troop with it sometime I can always order another pair (probably IB as well).

 

[Strider]

Strider, what size boots did you get? What size are you? I think I will order a pair from IP.

I normally wear a size 43 (EUR) but if I'd ordered again with IB I would at least go to 44 or rather 45 to be on the safe side (you can always wear thicker socks).

 

[Strider]

Finished the pouches and spats Also I've made a little tutorial and drew up a template if anybody wants to build their own:

Boba Fett RotJ pouches template and tutorial

Pouch template --> https://bit.ly/2yGWnKq As I'm just in the process of building my RotJ Boba Fett I notices there's a lack of templates and tutorials on how to do the pouches yourself. I only found an older one by WOF which is a great template but didn't satisfy my OCD :D So reference wise...

www.thedentedhelmet.com

What's left to do is to make the right pouch a bit darker (I'll probably airbrush it with some umber color) and weather them.

 

[Boochman]

I soaked mine in black tea, and that did the trick in making that pouch a different shade as a base, then weather from there!

Pretty cool that you sewed your own tho! They look great!

 

[Strider]

I soaked mine in black tea, and that did the trick in making that pouch a different shade as a base, then weather from there!

Pretty cool that you sewed your own tho! They look great!

Thanks, bro! Yes, the fabric has already enjoyed an hourly bath in hot black tea but it doesn't really get much darker than that at this point. Let's see how airbrush works - haven't used it on fabric yet, lol.

 

[Irongladiator]

Hi Strider - Awesome job sewing them pouches. I'll be getting mine in the next month or two from Arkady. Below is a pic Arkady sent me on the ROTJ Pouches she offers.

....And below is the 501st Reference Pic on the pouches.

Concerning the pic on the left side (The brown pouch) is that how folks are getting that color, using tea as a type of stain? And then I'm guessing using black in the airbrush for the soot/weathering effects?

Thanks,
-Iron

 

[Strider]

Hey Irongladiator, your question came just in time - I've just finished weathering the stuff I have:

Pouches from Arkady look great. I think the 501st crl pouches are a bit too heavily weathered but to each their own. Dyeing the pouches with tea will only give them a slight beige/off-white color. The RotJ pouches were a bit darker so I airbrushed the right pouch with an leather brown wash (Vallejo 70.871) and after that I misted them both with black and added some "burned" spots. For the gloves and the spats I just used the "black misting" technique. For the middle stripe of the boots I mixed a dark grey and a black color 50%/50%.

Cheers

 

[Irongladiator]

Strider - Well done sir! To weather them I've always had the idea to simply put on my flight suit and gloves and going to help my buddy restore and rebuild his '67 GT500 Shelby Mustang - Hahaha! But I think that would only ruin the pieces.


But hats off to ya - again looks great! Concerning the "Burned" parts on the soft pieces of the costume - has anyone tried using an actual flame (Lighter or small butane torch) to achieve those effects? I thought about trying that with my cape.

Thanks,
-Iron

 

[Strider]

Strider - Well done sir! To weather them I've always had the idea to simply put on my flight suit and gloves and going to help my buddy restore and rebuild his '67 GT500 Shelby Mustang - Hahaha! But I think that would only ruin the pieces.

Funny, I was actually thinking the weathering has quite some resamblance to what a mechanic after a long day would look like so maybe you should give it a try

But hats off to ya - again looks great! Concerning the "Burned" parts on the soft pieces of the costume - has anyone tried using an actual flame (Lighter or small butane torch) to achieve those effects? I thought about trying that with my cape.

Thanks,
-Iron

Oh, not sure if actually burning it is such a great idea. This would surely impair the fabric and tear it open sooner or later.

 

[Strider]

Okay, small progress on the cape:

I thought it was a nice touch to add the small green plate and the screws and bolts as well:

Original reference:

Parts of my BM armor should arrive next week, so hopefully some more updates will follow soon!

 

[Boochman]

Cape looks great - not overdone at all!

I wanted to do the plate too, and was all ready to do it this week, but couldn’t find the small flathead bolts at Home Depot! Where did you end up grabbing yours from!?!

 

[Strider]

Cape looks great - not overdone at all!

I wanted to do the plate too, and was all ready to do it this week, but couldn’t find the small flathead bolts at Home Depot! Where did you end up grabbing yours from!?!

Thank you! Yeah, those are vintage screws, I couldn't find them at my local hardware store as well. I found them on ebay a couple of years ago (originally I wanted to use them for a blaster project). For reference mine have a diameter of 8mm.

 

[Boochman]

Only building a Boba Fett would have me buying vintage screws on EBay...

 

[Strider]

Only building a Boba Fett would have me buying vintage screws on EBay...

Consider yourself lucky you're not building a sandtrooper otherwise you'd be searching for vintage toilet parts on ebay...;-)

 

[Irongladiator]

Strider - Nice job on the cape! Only things I procured thus far from eBay is the Wookie Braids (which I still need to work on) and a US Army Half Shelter for the Cape! For the cape, the material didn't have the correct stitching so I took it to an alterations place with the 501st CRL Pic. The alterations lady laughed at me when she saw what I was looking to do, but said that the stitching could easily be done. I told her that I'd handle the putting on the grommets and ripping and weathering of the cape and that all that was needed from her was exact stitching. My dimensions of the cape (Since I'll be a 6' 2" ROTJ Boba Fett) will be 48in Long & 29.5in Wide. For that plastic piece, if you don't mind my asking, what did you end up using?

Thanks,
-Iron