ESB Fett by Dark Mavis
- Thread starter DarkMavis
- Start date
DarkMavis
New Hunter
This thread is to document my project (one of too many) to make a screen accurate ESB Fett. This has been on my bucket list for a while as I'm sure it is for everyone else reading this post. I don't have a timeframe for completion, but I don't have any misconceptions of how long this project will take (This isn't my first rodeo). My goal is just to slowly chip away at it and when life inevitably gets in the way, I'll pick it back up when I can. Hopefully this thread won't be dead with no end in sight in 5 years (knock on wood). My current parts list is as follows (None of which have arrived at the time of this initial post):
I'll try and keep this list updated as I go along.
This is obviously a short and incomplete parts list. There are still many part choices to make. All items above were items I was 100% sure I wanted to go with for price/accuracy. There are many parts that are more uncertain when it comes to sourcing them. The remaining parts I plan to aquire slowly and methodically. I want to minimize the amount of re-purchases I need to make. I'd love to hear y'all's reccomendations for parts you don't see on the list.
The Build Philosphy:
For starters; I've done a lot of painting of props and guitars (Basement Luthier) at this point (By no means an expert) so I wanted to paint the armor, but since Fett's bucket is the crowning jewel of the costume I wanted one of the more experienced painters in the community to do it right for me the first time. I also just didn't want to brave the storm that is the ESB Bucket paintjob. I already have a problem with doing way too many projects at once, so I want to limit the amounts of the really tedious sections of the Fett build I have to do by instead supporting other members in the Fett community who do great work. Originally with the EE3 I planned to just do a kit build, but Field Marshal was heavily discounting their full metal completed build (To the point where buying their unfinished metal kit would've been more expensive). I'm somewhat of a firearms enjoyer (Especially when it comes to WW2 era) so I felt that the full metal rifle would be such an amazing collector/display piece in addition to its role in the costume.
Here's my ESB hot take. I really don't care that much for the ESB sidearm. That's one of the other many pros to the ROTJ build IMO; Not having to deal with the sidearm/holster. To me it's just another part of the build I have to worry about, even though it just sits mostly unseen in the holster. Obviously I can appreciate the neat prop making practices that went into making it, but when Fett already takes so long to build it just feels like another bump in the road.
Now in order to justify the price of the Metal EE3 there were a few areas of the build I figured I could put in a little extra work to save some costs.
For starters, I'm going to resin print the sidearm with a mix of ABS-like and tenacious resin (Tenacious should hopefully reduce the brittleness of the prints). This will accurately capture the texture of the grip and all the metal details of the barrel. I might FDM print some of the longer sections. We'll see. The jetpack was the other part I opted to print. The main body will printed out of ABS and some of the detail pieces/thrusters/rocket will be resin printed with the same mixture I'm using for the sidearm. The Bambu has already produced some great pieces for the jetpack, so I might change my mind with how much of the jetpack is FDM as opposed to resin. The keys will definitely be resin. All the "metal" parts will be substituted for the real metal parts I purchased from QuestDesignCanada
Now regarding the decision on buying most of the ABS plastic armor as opposed to printing it. Given the accuracy of minutefett's armor and how reasonably priced it is; I would find it hard to justify filament costs, finishing product costs, and the copious amounts of sanding required to achieve a similar result. Also given the thickness of the armor plates, I think it'd be hard to achieve a robust printed part since you're already having to remove a fair amount of material to remove the layer lines. I will say it again, this build is already a huge endevour; I don't want to be spending countless hours sanding and filling an entire armor set (I did that for my first mandalorian build. It was rough) That being said, The jetpack was one part that I believe makes sense to 3D print since you are less constricted by the wall thickness as opposed to armor which. MOW, at the time of writing this post, is selling a fully painted jetpack. It was certainly tempting, but again due to me purchasing the Metal EE3 I couldn't justify buying the completed jetpack. Also I recently got a Bambu P1S, which gave me the confidence that I would be able to make an accurate jetpack with less headaches when it comes to printing ABS/ Sanding it. I've been printing for many years and I just can't believe how nice/efficient the bambu printers are. My other printers really feel like a honda civic after using the ferrari that is a bambu labs printer (And this is me using one of their more entry level printers!). I'm printing the main jetpack body with 4 walls and 25% gyroid infill. The additonal walls account for the material I'll be sanding away to get a better surface finish before filling. Gyroid is simply a good choice for strength. After 25% infill density I think your strength gains are minimal for more print time. I want the jetpack to be strong, but at the end of the day if some kid is going to come up and wack the jetpack there's only so much my engineering degree can do... I know you guys have had that one person who comes up and wacks your armor hard actually thinking you made the armor out of beskar and not plastic...ugh
That's my introductional thoughts when it comes to this build. Thanks for reading this far. Looking forward to interacting with you all in this thread
- Helmet - Minute Fett painted by NixFXProps
- Armor/ Vinyl Stencils - Minute Fett
- Gauntlets - Minute Fett
- Gauntlet Darts, Toe Spikes, Knee Darts - MachineCraftReplicas
- Gauntlet Switches - Neo Fett
- Cape - MOW
- Ammo Belt - HandmadeHorrorShop
- Chest Display - WestabyElectronics
- Jetpack Harness - DrPropShop (DrToothache)
- Boots - Hopefully MOW (Waiting on a run)
- Jetpack - Minutefett 3D files
- Jetpack Metal Parts - QuestDesignCanada
- EE3 Webley Completed Build - Field Marshal
- ESB Sidearm - Rafalfett's files remixed by stryker181
- Shin Tools - MOW / The mystery piece Neo Fett
- Wookie Braids - TunaFett57
- Shoulder/Jetpack Decal Stencils - Short Fuse
I'll try and keep this list updated as I go along.
This is obviously a short and incomplete parts list. There are still many part choices to make. All items above were items I was 100% sure I wanted to go with for price/accuracy. There are many parts that are more uncertain when it comes to sourcing them. The remaining parts I plan to aquire slowly and methodically. I want to minimize the amount of re-purchases I need to make. I'd love to hear y'all's reccomendations for parts you don't see on the list.
The Build Philosphy:
For starters; I've done a lot of painting of props and guitars (Basement Luthier) at this point (By no means an expert) so I wanted to paint the armor, but since Fett's bucket is the crowning jewel of the costume I wanted one of the more experienced painters in the community to do it right for me the first time. I also just didn't want to brave the storm that is the ESB Bucket paintjob. I already have a problem with doing way too many projects at once, so I want to limit the amounts of the really tedious sections of the Fett build I have to do by instead supporting other members in the Fett community who do great work. Originally with the EE3 I planned to just do a kit build, but Field Marshal was heavily discounting their full metal completed build (To the point where buying their unfinished metal kit would've been more expensive). I'm somewhat of a firearms enjoyer (Especially when it comes to WW2 era) so I felt that the full metal rifle would be such an amazing collector/display piece in addition to its role in the costume.
Here's my ESB hot take. I really don't care that much for the ESB sidearm. That's one of the other many pros to the ROTJ build IMO; Not having to deal with the sidearm/holster. To me it's just another part of the build I have to worry about, even though it just sits mostly unseen in the holster. Obviously I can appreciate the neat prop making practices that went into making it, but when Fett already takes so long to build it just feels like another bump in the road.
Now in order to justify the price of the Metal EE3 there were a few areas of the build I figured I could put in a little extra work to save some costs.
For starters, I'm going to resin print the sidearm with a mix of ABS-like and tenacious resin (Tenacious should hopefully reduce the brittleness of the prints). This will accurately capture the texture of the grip and all the metal details of the barrel. I might FDM print some of the longer sections. We'll see. The jetpack was the other part I opted to print. The main body will printed out of ABS and some of the detail pieces/thrusters/rocket will be resin printed with the same mixture I'm using for the sidearm. The Bambu has already produced some great pieces for the jetpack, so I might change my mind with how much of the jetpack is FDM as opposed to resin. The keys will definitely be resin. All the "metal" parts will be substituted for the real metal parts I purchased from QuestDesignCanada
Now regarding the decision on buying most of the ABS plastic armor as opposed to printing it. Given the accuracy of minutefett's armor and how reasonably priced it is; I would find it hard to justify filament costs, finishing product costs, and the copious amounts of sanding required to achieve a similar result. Also given the thickness of the armor plates, I think it'd be hard to achieve a robust printed part since you're already having to remove a fair amount of material to remove the layer lines. I will say it again, this build is already a huge endevour; I don't want to be spending countless hours sanding and filling an entire armor set (I did that for my first mandalorian build. It was rough) That being said, The jetpack was one part that I believe makes sense to 3D print since you are less constricted by the wall thickness as opposed to armor which. MOW, at the time of writing this post, is selling a fully painted jetpack. It was certainly tempting, but again due to me purchasing the Metal EE3 I couldn't justify buying the completed jetpack. Also I recently got a Bambu P1S, which gave me the confidence that I would be able to make an accurate jetpack with less headaches when it comes to printing ABS/ Sanding it. I've been printing for many years and I just can't believe how nice/efficient the bambu printers are. My other printers really feel like a honda civic after using the ferrari that is a bambu labs printer (And this is me using one of their more entry level printers!). I'm printing the main jetpack body with 4 walls and 25% gyroid infill. The additonal walls account for the material I'll be sanding away to get a better surface finish before filling. Gyroid is simply a good choice for strength. After 25% infill density I think your strength gains are minimal for more print time. I want the jetpack to be strong, but at the end of the day if some kid is going to come up and wack the jetpack there's only so much my engineering degree can do... I know you guys have had that one person who comes up and wacks your armor hard actually thinking you made the armor out of beskar and not plastic...ugh
That's my introductional thoughts when it comes to this build. Thanks for reading this far. Looking forward to interacting with you all in this thread
DarkMavis
New Hunter
Here is a cool time lapse of 1 of the 4 main jetpack sections. They are on average 18 hour prints using about half a roll of ABS:
Currently I've printed 2/4 of the sections. Unfortunately the minute jetpack files have some bugs, but nothing too major. Just some small areas that will require some fillling. Here is one section with a rough pass of sanding:
Here are the two top sections glued together with ABS glue and the seams filled with an ABS slurry mixture. Areas with heavy layer lines are also coated to aide in future sanding flush:
And finally the interior coated with Z-poxy finishing resin. I use this stuff to pore fill guitar bodies, but I figured it'd work well to add some strength to the interior of the jetpack. I'm planning to repeat all the above steps of the bottom half of the jetpack then join both assemblies together:
It's magical watching the seams start to dissapear when they're sanded back.
Currently I've printed 2/4 of the sections. Unfortunately the minute jetpack files have some bugs, but nothing too major. Just some small areas that will require some fillling. Here is one section with a rough pass of sanding:
Here are the two top sections glued together with ABS glue and the seams filled with an ABS slurry mixture. Areas with heavy layer lines are also coated to aide in future sanding flush:
And finally the interior coated with Z-poxy finishing resin. I use this stuff to pore fill guitar bodies, but I figured it'd work well to add some strength to the interior of the jetpack. I'm planning to repeat all the above steps of the bottom half of the jetpack then join both assemblies together:
It's magical watching the seams start to dissapear when they're sanded back.
DarkMavis
New Hunter
Apologies for the initial flood of updates. DH was not cooperating when I tried to initially start my thread, so I have a weeks worth of updates...
The field marshal EE3 came today. I had to leave work early today as it required a signature when it was delivered. I was 1 minute too late for the delivery as I didn't expect UPS to actually be on time with their estimated window. However, when I pulled into my driveway I saw the delivery truck at my next store neighbors. I bolted out of my car and was able to explain the situation to the driver. Phew!
It's a beautiful piece. Very happy with it and excited to start weathering it. It's going to feel weird putting the chip in the stock on a prop this expensive. I do have one complaint with this piece. All the greeblies on the stock are 3D printed, which is fine, but they have very obvious visible layer lines (See below). I've gone ahead and ordered replacements for the greeblies from Neo fett. Oh well I still love the rest of the rifle.
The field marshal EE3 came today. I had to leave work early today as it required a signature when it was delivered. I was 1 minute too late for the delivery as I didn't expect UPS to actually be on time with their estimated window. However, when I pulled into my driveway I saw the delivery truck at my next store neighbors. I bolted out of my car and was able to explain the situation to the driver. Phew!
It's a beautiful piece. Very happy with it and excited to start weathering it. It's going to feel weird putting the chip in the stock on a prop this expensive. I do have one complaint with this piece. All the greeblies on the stock are 3D printed, which is fine, but they have very obvious visible layer lines (See below). I've gone ahead and ordered replacements for the greeblies from Neo fett. Oh well I still love the rest of the rifle.
lowberg
Active Hunter
Excited to follow your build. Very pretty blaster, probably has some serious weight yea?
Good call on going ABS for armor. Like you said it just doesn't make sense to do 3D printed armor unless you absolutely have to for sizing or budget reasons. Its so easy to trim the ABS and get right to painting. Your back will be happy with the 3D print jetpack, I'd imagine it will be close to half the weight of a fiberglass one and look just as nice. Keep it up!
Good call on going ABS for armor. Like you said it just doesn't make sense to do 3D printed armor unless you absolutely have to for sizing or budget reasons. Its so easy to trim the ABS and get right to painting. Your back will be happy with the 3D print jetpack, I'd imagine it will be close to half the weight of a fiberglass one and look just as nice. Keep it up!
DarkMavis
New Hunter
Thanks! It's actually surprisingly light since it's machined out of aluminum. It only weighs 5LBs.
And yes, I'll be interested to see what the final weight of my jetpack is compared to a casted one.
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