Mockingbird
New Hunter
Finally, a build thread! Now that DragonCon is over I've finally got the chance to sit down and actually post all the progress I'd recorded of my work over the last couple of months. I've always wanted to do a Star Wars costume but there were no canon female characters I wanted to do, as I wanted armour. So, already being a huge Clone Wars fan, when Bo-Katan came along I was sold, but it took a while to pluck up the courage and determination to do it. Having now worn it around at DC I'm excited to continue working on this build and upgrading it for next time. I went to the Costuming Insights panel on the Saturday and was pleasantly surprised to hear the panel discussing the new thermoplastic Worbla... as I'd actually used it to make several of my armour pieces and plan to remake the rest of them out of it too. Since there was interest in the material it gave me more of an incentive to post. 
I got my helmet from Skirata Arms and my original armour kit from The Mandalorian Arsenal, but most of the kit did not fit my body properly (I'm a towering 5'4), hence my replacing pieces using Worbla. It did however make a great starting point for me and helped me learn a lot.
Here's everything post-sanding and priming, and with a stainless steel coat of paint applied. This was before I chose not to use several of the pieces seen in the photo.
For weathering, I used rubber cement to seal off the areas I wanted to appear particularly worn, and then used different consistencies of acrylic paint to add a dirtier look to replicate the animated style a bit more. In what other little free time I have I'm a fine artist who works with acrylics, so I had a bit of fun with that. Last picture shows some weathered, some not.
Onto the holsters! The second image shows the original TMA piece, the shape of which didn't fit well on my thigh and couldn't be trimmed to size, and it also didn't fit the blasters I was working on. Next to it is the first one I made from Worbla. In the first picture I'd already made a craft foam base and used a heat gun to get the Worbla to its activation temperature, shaping it around the foam and then placing it on my actual thigh to get a closer, more accurate fit. I then made a holster out of comic book backing board and shaped more Worbla around it before placing it on the thigh plate (Worbla will adhere to itself when heated). Once both holsters were made I used spackling to fill in the edges where they connect to the plate, but forgot to take a photo. The third picture shows post-spackling, and with the first couple of coats of gesso applied. Worbla has a slightly rough texture to it, so applying a few layers of gesso and then sanding it down gives it a much smoother surface. Fourth picture is after priming, and last picture is complete (minus the belts)! I really enjoyed working on these. Also, we were working on my husband's Captain America at the time...
I made the boot armour from Worbla too, using a two-layer craft foam base to shape it onto. First image shows the first layer of gesso on the left, second images is primed, third shows heels finished and the other two parts with a stainless steel layer on top.
Blasters! I found those dreadful Rubies Pre Vizsla blasters and used them as a base. The first picture shows that horrible gluey mess they were originally. What I did was create Worbla templates to cover those rough parts and use spackling to fill in the gaps in the plastic (like the little speakers). The last picture shows them primed and before adding the two little notches on the base, and apparently I forgot to take a picture after finishing them. Still a bit rough, but certainly an improvement.
Part 2 incoming...
I got my helmet from Skirata Arms and my original armour kit from The Mandalorian Arsenal, but most of the kit did not fit my body properly (I'm a towering 5'4), hence my replacing pieces using Worbla. It did however make a great starting point for me and helped me learn a lot.
Here's everything post-sanding and priming, and with a stainless steel coat of paint applied. This was before I chose not to use several of the pieces seen in the photo.
For weathering, I used rubber cement to seal off the areas I wanted to appear particularly worn, and then used different consistencies of acrylic paint to add a dirtier look to replicate the animated style a bit more. In what other little free time I have I'm a fine artist who works with acrylics, so I had a bit of fun with that. Last picture shows some weathered, some not.
Onto the holsters! The second image shows the original TMA piece, the shape of which didn't fit well on my thigh and couldn't be trimmed to size, and it also didn't fit the blasters I was working on. Next to it is the first one I made from Worbla. In the first picture I'd already made a craft foam base and used a heat gun to get the Worbla to its activation temperature, shaping it around the foam and then placing it on my actual thigh to get a closer, more accurate fit. I then made a holster out of comic book backing board and shaped more Worbla around it before placing it on the thigh plate (Worbla will adhere to itself when heated). Once both holsters were made I used spackling to fill in the edges where they connect to the plate, but forgot to take a photo. The third picture shows post-spackling, and with the first couple of coats of gesso applied. Worbla has a slightly rough texture to it, so applying a few layers of gesso and then sanding it down gives it a much smoother surface. Fourth picture is after priming, and last picture is complete (minus the belts)! I really enjoyed working on these. Also, we were working on my husband's Captain America at the time...
I made the boot armour from Worbla too, using a two-layer craft foam base to shape it onto. First image shows the first layer of gesso on the left, second images is primed, third shows heels finished and the other two parts with a stainless steel layer on top.
Blasters! I found those dreadful Rubies Pre Vizsla blasters and used them as a base. The first picture shows that horrible gluey mess they were originally. What I did was create Worbla templates to cover those rough parts and use spackling to fill in the gaps in the plastic (like the little speakers). The last picture shows them primed and before adding the two little notches on the base, and apparently I forgot to take a picture after finishing them. Still a bit rough, but certainly an improvement.
Part 2 incoming...
