Ord Mantell's ESB build

So got a little distracted lately. My 70 lbs golden retriever puppy managed to somehow wedge himself behind my existing ROTJ costume display and knocked it over. Several things on it broke, so after my initial shock was over, I took it as an opportunity to fix a bunch of stuff I've been wanting to fix on it anyway. Of course, the list of things to do kept getting longer and it became a major project in it's own right.

Here's a pic of the pre-accident display. It's okay. Not bad.

View attachment 191776
Fettpride v3 armor. MoW gauntlets. Chris Bartlett's (aka TK-409) homemade flightsuit he used for trooping until he upgraded to a suit by Daz (aka Bobamaker). The flak vest is by Daz and the neckseal is by Mrs. TK-409. Woodman leather ammo belt. Jango Wes boots, etc.

So I wanted to change out the flightsuit, the flak vest, the neck seal to other versions I already had in storage, repaint the gauntlets because the original paintjob was too dark and purplish and always looked almost black in photos. The girth belt needed a re-dye to be more saturated. The gloves had faded so much over time they now looked all white, so they needed a re-color. The number of wookie braids is a little overboard. I had based those on the exhibits rather than the film, so I'm now more interested in matching the on-screen look, so take out anything not on screen. I also wanted to replace the fettpride shoulders with MinuteFett's new lineage shoulders, but the biggest thing was to change out the 6'1" mannequin with a shorter, proper height manny. Seemed like a manageable list. At first. But, boy, did it end up taking a lot of time.

The helmet is the one painted by Fettpride back in 2004 and was probably the first hyper-detailed ROTJ paintup ever done, and I can't imagine it's not one of the best ROTJ replicas in existence. The detail is just amazing. It must be seen in person to really appreciate it.

View attachment 191777View attachment 191778

I have no idea what type of helmet it is. Fettpride remained coy about that. He never told me. I'm sure someone here knows. But it's big. Thankfully the helmet was not damaged in the puppy disaster....

so I did a quick test-fit of on the new 5'10" manny to see if I could get a decent pose. I used a mannequin that had several busted joints that I ended up having to repair, so it gave me some issues getting the exact pose I wanted. At some point I will probably replace it, but for now it works.
View attachment 191780View attachment 191781

I like the shorter stature. The proportions just feel better. Nothing else new yet except the tk-409 flak vest.

So now all the work. I had to add 're-color the flak vest and neck seal' to the list. I didn't really take any photos of the process, but the end results are a much better representation of the character than what it was before I think. I have to say I really like the lineage shoulders from MinuteFett. They are way better than the fan sculpts I've seen. Except there is a problem in the left shoulder, where on the middle corner on the front side is very soft and curled in. That's not exactly accurate. You have to heat gun it back into shape if you want it to look correct. I did an okay job. Probably could be better.

So DONE! Until the next disaster....

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Now I can get back to the ESB display...
Just only now reading this thread and I just wanted to stop by and tell you what you probably already know.

YOU HAVE AN AMAZING LIVING ROOM DISPLAY!

Ok that needed to get out. Thank you ;)
 
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In case you were looking for another borden connector. Just need to cut the back off to have the back in the front so the big hole is in the right spot
 

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The $6.93 borden came today from Amazon.

IMG_7811.JPG


turned into a useful experiment. I learned that cutting with a dremel was no problem.

IMG_7812.JPG


The metal took on a brassy hue in the interior, though. However... putting it next to the borden on the MF hero-sized raw helmet...

IMG_7822.JPG


it's not a bad match. will need a new dremel tip to get a little simulated chamfering on the holes. Interesting. Not a bad 'economy' option.

Looks like this was already done a couple years ago by Fettastic in his thread here: Borden Connector Found Part Orientation . Gino even chimes in to the thread to say he thinks they used custom machined replicas made of aluminum. I'll probably go the route of a machined one, myself, so I can get the proper finish.
 
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The $6.92 borden came today from Amazon.

View attachment 193339

turned into a useful experiment. I learned that cutting with a dremel was no problem.

View attachment 193340

The metal took on a brassy hue in the interior, though. However... putting it next to the borden on the MF hero-sized raw helmet...

View attachment 193341

it's not a bad match. will need a new dremel tip to get a little simulated chamfering on the holes. Interesting. Not a bad 'economy' option.

Looks like this was already done a couple years ago by Fettastic in his thread here: Borden Connector Found Part Orientation . Gino even chimes in to the thread to say he thinks they used custom machined replicas made of aluminum. I'll probably go the route of a machined one, myself, so I can get the proper finish.
Hi :)
I would try to get the chamfering done without a dremel first. Being a power tool, making a mistake that causes you to throw away the borden only is all too easy. Just get a drill thats the correct sitze (slightly larger then the holes) and turn it by hand. As if to de-burr a drilled hole. See how far that will get you. It being aluminum?, it shouldnt be too much trouble.
 
I would try to get the chamfering done without a dremel first.

Sounds like prudent advice. Not sure I'm going to go further with this piece in particular because the finish is wrong as far as I can tell. However, I think if one wants to have a correct-looking borden and not pay the higher price for a specially machined one, a better approach is to buy this two hole borden:
31EU%2BkopwsL._AC_.jpg

two hole borden on amazon

and just drill the third hole yourself, as suggested in this thread from 2014: Three Hole Borden Connector, Myth, Mystery or Made?
 
what the??? it would've been great to know about this when I painted my pulce 40 a few months ago...

EX-051_Zinc_Chromate.jpg


I had no idea about this line. I'm still catching up on the last 6 years of what I've missed being away. Just read up on all the ArchiveX paint stuff from last year. It's time to buy a bunch of expensive paint.
 
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Time to work on the boots. I'm doing two pair since I'm giving a fresh set to my ROTJ as well. I have a pair from MOW's 2nd run way back when, maybe a decade ago. This was the first run to have the correct squared toe and is pretty much the same thing as what Imperial Boots sells currently. The second pair is a recently purchased set from, well, Imperial Boots.

IMG_7853.JPG


Before proceeding I looked at every photo of the boots I could find, and I noticed something I hadn't seen before. I'm sure it's been brought up here many times by others, but it was new to me, since I never focused hard on the boots before. I noticed there was a spot on the upper right ESB boot that looks like it completely missed the weathering process, like it was covered up when they gunked it up. However it happened, the spot shows up pretty clearly.

esbBootUnweatheredspot2.jpg


This is cool for two reasons.
1) it shows the base color of the boot is the same as the flightsuit.
2) it allows us to match this exact boot to the AOSW display below:

AoSW_ROTJ samebootsas ESB2.jpg


So we know the AOSW boots were the ESB pair.

I used the flightsuit color to get my base colors and plan to leave that top inside area on the right boot fairly clean as I weather both sets.

base colors after dye bath and base colorant:
IMG_7877.JPG


Looks pretty garish. Part of that is lighting. Blue scattered daylight makes blues look bluer. Weathering will mute all of this.

The MOW's below will be the ROTJ pair. Weathering mostly done on the right boot. Still playing around getting all the complex tones correct. Will do the rest tomorrrow.
IMG_7888.JPG

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Me being new here, I dont know whether anyone actually observed that before, but with the level of detail-mindedness present here, I guess so.
Nonetheless: Good catch!! I think you work looks really good!
 
ROTJ boots complete, sans toe spikes

IMG_7904.JPG


For the ESB I had a bit of a decision to make... how much weathering should there be. If you examine the producion photos in shooting order, you begin to notice the initial weathering wears off quite a bit from the beginning of the shoot to the end.

The start of shooting Fett's scenes began in early April 1979, starting with the Bespin corridor with Fett escorting the HIC and confronting Luke. The weathering was fresh and thick and the boots looked mostly like this:

EarlyAPR79-BespinCorr.jpg


Later near the end of April, in the Executor scene, they looked like this:

lateAPR79-executor.jpg


Already a lot of gunk has worn off and the overall colors are starting to even out, as well as the black strip down the middle losing some of its contrast. Also the sides of the soles have lightened up considerably. Maybe lighting is playing some tricks to add to the differences. Really hard to know. I'm pretty sure these are still the same boots because a tiny bit of the unweathered spot is peaking through on the right boot.

Then by the time they shoot the carbon-freezing chamber scene in late June 1979, a lot more has worn off. The soles almost look white again. In fact they look so clean, I'm not even sure these boots are the same as the other scenes. But certainly someone on here probably knows and said so before (Rafalfett? :cry:):

LateJUN79-carbonite.jpg


So I want to make my build to approximate scene 371, outside the torture chamber when Fett confronts Vader ("He's no good to me dead") which was shot in mid May '79. I don't have any shots of the boots from that scene, but they are close in time to the executor scene so that served as my main reference. The trouble is, those pics aren't great and still leave a lot to the imagination.

IMG_7903.JPG


I'll definitely refine both pairs more as I put the rest of the ensembles together, but this will do for now. I seem to be missing the screws for the toe spikes so I'll have to do those later. I have about a billion screws laying around and none of them are the right size. bother.
 
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ROTJ boots complete, sans toe spikes

View attachment 194954

For the ESB I had a bit of a decision to make... how much weathering should there be. If you examine the producion photos in shooting order, you begin to notice the initial weathering wears off quite a bit from the beginning of the shoot to the end.

The start of shooting Fett's scenes began in early April 1979, starting with the Bespin corridor with Fett escorting the HIC and confronting Luke. The weathering was fresh and thick and the boots looked mostly like this:

View attachment 194956

Later near the end of April, in the Executor scene, they looked like this:

View attachment 194957

Already a lot of gunk has worn off and the overall colors are starting to even out, as well as the black strip down the middle losing some of its contrast. Also the sides of the soles have lightened up considerably. Maybe lighting is playing some tricks to add to the differences. Really hard to know. I'm pretty sure these are still the same boots because a tiny bit of the unweathered spot is peaking through on the right boot.

Then by the time they shoot the carbon-freezing chamber scene in late June 1979, a lot more has worn off. The soles almost look white again. In fact they look so clean, I'm not even sure these boots are the same as the other scenes. But certainly someone on here probably knows and said so before (Rafalfett? :cry:):

View attachment 194958

So I want to make my build to approximate scene 371, outside the torture chamber when Fett confronts Vader ("He's no good to me dead") which was shot in mid May '79. I don't have any shots of the boots from that scene, but they are close in time to the executor scene so that served as my main reference. The trouble is, those pics aren't great and still leave a lot to the imagination.

View attachment 194959

I'll definitely refine both pair more as I put the rest of the ensembles together, but this will do for now. I seem to be missing the screws for the toe spikes so I'll have to do those later. I have about a billion screws laying around and none of them are the right size. bother.
If we could just step back for a second and appretiate the out-of-hand detail-mindedness of choosing a specific scene to represent. I love it :D

That said, what made you go for that very scene? Why this exact version? Pragmatism? You just like the scene? (and if so... why?) A nod to John Morton?
Just curious :D

Regards,
Ram
 
That said, what made you go for that very scene? Why this exact version? Pragmatism? You just like the scene? (and if so... why?) A nod to John Morton?

That's actually a really good question. First, I should say, I'm not going to be trooping in this costume. It's strictly meant for display. So I can dig into details and not worry if this or that will fall off or get weathered with use. From there, it's basically a philosophical choice about how best to represent the character. Since this costume morphs through the production and details are different from scene to scene, you can choose one of two options to recreate the character:
1) an amalgam, where you take the details you like from the various incarnations in the whole film and put them together in a unique or generic way, or
2) choose a specific scene or shot and replicate that as faithfully as you can as the character exists for that particular moment of the film

One advantage of #2 is that it keeps you focused on a certain combination of details and reduces the amount of decisions you have to make. Another plus to #2 is that you are recreating the character as he actually appears in the film (to the best of your abilities). #1 can only ever be an approximation at best. Why I chose scene 371 in particular is more of a gut feeling than anything. I love the close up on Fett in that scene. He's in his best lighting there. The whole scene palette seems designed around him. The burgundy walls really brings out his armor. Plus, the character is particularly present in this scene in a way he isn't in any other star wars scene: first staring down Lando and then standing up to Vader. All that said, I never made a rational decision about it. Just thought, 'I want Fett to look like that in my office.' Not a nod to Morton, although it is kind of cool to think about Dak being behind the mask.
 
That's actually a really good question. First, I should say, I'm not going to be trooping in this costume. It's strictly meant for display. So I can dig into details and not worry if this or that will fall off or get weathered with use. From there, it's basically a philosophical choice about how best to represent the character. Since this costume morphs through the production and details are different from scene to scene, you can choose one of two options to recreate the character:
1) an amalgam, where you take the details you like from the various incarnations in the whole film and put them together in a unique or generic way, or
2) choose a specific scene or shot and replicate that as faithfully as you can as the character exists for that particular moment of the film

One advantage of #2 is that it keeps you focused on a certain combination of details and reduces the amount of decisions you have to make. Another plus to #2 is that you are recreating the character as he actually appears in the film (to the best of your abilities). #1 can only ever be an approximation at best. Why I chose scene 371 in particular is more of a gut feeling than anything. I love the close up on Fett in that scene. He's in his best lighting there. The whole scene palette seems designed around him. The burgundy walls really brings out his armor. Plus, the character is particularly present in this scene in a way he isn't in any other star wars scene: first staring down Lando and then standing up to Vader. All that said, I never made a rational decision about it. Just thought, 'I want Fett to look like that in my office.' Not a nod to Morton, although it is kind of cool to think about Dak being behind the mask.

Wow! That was a philosophical and deep answer to what on the surface seems like an easy question. Thanks for putting in the effort!
Now regarding your thoughts you layed down, its a good analysis of the options you have. And with that thought process behind it, I would have gone for the scene-specific variant as well. Mainly also because a big part about what I like in this hobby is that it is incredibly close to archeology.
My wallet can be glad, that I am not attempting a build at the moment. I already felt it sinking deeper into my pocket to hide from my spendy thoughs and wishes :D

The reasoning for choosing Bespin Boba is very thorough, too, even if it was unconcious at first. And you are right... I do like the way he looks in that scene, too! Pretty much the only thing I dont like is that it is not actually Jeremy Bulloch playing him. Thats nothing against Morton. Its only that I had the priviledge of meeting Jeremy Bulloch and having a chat with him.
And honestly.... I cannot think of a way that he could have been more friendly. Truly one of the nicest and kindest gentlemen that you are ever going to meet.

Aaaaand... I sure would like to see that office!
Do you have colleagues or even client meetings in there?
 

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