Iron's ROTJ WIP

The helmet is super nice- now I wonder after looking at my 2015 FPH2 how does the damage change over the last 5 years? Not dramatically but there are differences that I see.
603Fett
It is a great bucket indeed! I hope I can do it justice in painting it up. Daz is a great guy to do business with, for those that haven't had the pleasure. Quick to answer questions and his customer service is top-notch. From the moment when I started on my ROTJ journey, in doing research it always seemed to me that the FPH2 was the "Crème De La Crème" bucket to get! Have we now approached the era where it is going to be surpassed? :unsure:

I love how Daz puts on this particular product (Squared out in RED)......
BM Helmet VX.jpg


One wonders where he got his info from, regarding his new changes. Was it painstaking examination close up shots of the movie? Does he have an inside source at Disney or LucasFilm Ltd. or ILM who has given him direct intelligence? In any case. An OUTSTANDING job on his newest iteration of the ROTJ Bucket! What an honor to have such a great piece!
:cool:

-Iron
 
He had a great base, lots of reference pictures of the original helmets, and some of the best sculpting hands. No need to study shota of the movie when you have tons of images from MoM, Exhibition, etc.

Also, the FPH2 was never a good RotJ base, I would have used a MR cast better.
 
**Jetpack Update - Picture Heavy**

Here it is....My Jetpack build. I just want to re-iterate that I'm not looking for 501st approval and I'm sure that in many eye's probably not 100% accurate. But after a month of assembling, accidentally breaking - repairing and all the taping, bagging and painting, here is what I came up with.... (Be easy on me.....I know its amateur hour. :lol:)

So, I ended up getting Coz3D's Jetpack which can be found on Etsy. I was wanting a cheap Jetpack that looked the part and something I could hopefully take to the next level. In the interest in taking it to that next level, I've otp'd to upgraded several parts on this kit. And those parts are:
VendorPart
QuestDesignCanadaMetal Beacon with LED (with Steady LED and Pulse LED Options)
QuestDesignCanadaMetal Stabilizer
QuestDesignCanadaMetal Thruster Greeblies
Full Metal FettMetal Hooks and Rings
Obtained from a friendMetal Rivets
DeLucks DesignsROTJ Jetpack Decals

Here was the kit as I got it...
Coz3D Jetpack Kit.jpg


After some light sanding to get some components to fit correctly I used Gorilla Glue Gel and was able to get it all assembled...
Coz3d Jetpack Assembled.jpg


Knowing that this 3D print was done up in PLA (as most kits are) I opt'd to go with a product by Smooth-On called "XTC-3D" to assist in the smoothing out of those pesky "print lines".
XTC 3D.jpg

I gotta tell you this stuff does an amazing job with very little effort. And can attest that it does indeed hide the print lines quite well as you've probably seen on my EE-3. (y)

You can see the posts above of the XTC-3D /Primer work (As well as that repair I had to do - Post #186). And here is the paints I decided on.
ManufacturerColor
HumbrolMatt 104 - Oxford Blue
HumbrolMatt 73 - Wine
Vallejo (Game Air Series)72.707 Gold Yellow
TamiyaX-11 - Silver/Chrome
TamiyaX-2 - White

Jet Pack Paints.jpg


Here it is all Silver/Chome'd up...
Jet Pack Stand 2.jpg


.....I've been used to Tamiya X-11 and other paints, and they all sprays great with a little Airbrush Flow Improver. But the Blue from Humbrol? My lord was this stuff really thick. Had to use 3 to 4 times as much Airbrush Flow Improver to get it to shoot. But here is the layer of Blue.
Blue Pic 1.jpg


I won't go through every Color, but I can tell you that a lot of time was spent taping and bagging the JP to get it prepped to paint on the next color.

I did want to go over my review of DeLucks Decals I got them back in spring of this year and they looked great! However, I did notice that the main tank decals (The symbols that sit in-between the black stripes on the tanks) didn't look correct. Sadly, I set them aside and decided to hand draw my own. Now go ahead and laugh at this next part because what I did here was rather silly, but in my eyes worked great. Using a piece of hobby tape I darkened my room and resized the 501st CRL photo to be about the correct size for my JP and stuck it to my monitor.
Copy from 501st CRL.jpg


Using a pencil I traced the symbol. I then removed the tape and stuck it to a piece of Plexiglass and cut it out.
Taped to Plexiglass and Cutting.jpg


I looked at it and compared it to DeLucks Decal....
DeLucks vs Handmade.jpg


I like my iteration of it and decided to use it. I got it applied and painted on.
Paint Applied.jpg


The end result?
End Result.jpg


The other decals I ended up using and it may have just been that I've had the decals for an extended period, but they were quite difficult to get off the backing and onto the transfer tape. I had to start peeling the transfer tape and then lay it flat on the table and then sharply turning the backing and onto the transfer tape. This process worked and was quite pleased with how they looked!
Decal Peeling.jpg


I really liked those rivets on the 501st's CRL photo, something that the Coz3D JP didn't come with. These rivets are installed on the right hand side of the JP on the white section. A buddy of mine had a few rivets lying around and graciously made a contribution. ;) Here are those rivets....
The Rivets.jpg


Using a vice, I gently knocked the pins out and tossed them.
Knocking Out Pins.jpg


I drilled out two holes (The drill bits I used were 9/64 and 13/64)
Drill in Holes.jpg


The simply dropped right in for a perfect fit! (y)
Preset Rivets.jpg


I then drilled out two shallow holes in a scrap piece of 2X4 for painting...
Paint Rivets.jpg


Once dried I got em set in place using the Gorilla Super Glue Gel.
Glued.jpg


After the painting was completed I installed the Magnets (For the back cover) which are super strong magnets by the way, and the Full Metal Fett - Hooks.
Magnets and Hooks Installed.jpg


And after about a months worth of work, the final reveal.....
JP - Front.jpg

JP - Left Side.jpg
JP- Right Side.jpg


And again, I'm not going after a 501st certification here, but to me.....I'm very pleased with how this JP turned out. I'm sure there are more than a few discrepancies with this pack. But not too bad for a first-timer, eh?

Oh! I also wanted to share with you the two lighting options I got from QuestDesignCanada.

First the Steady Light:

And Second the Pulsing Light:

I know the Pulsing Light is something that didn't occur in either the ESB or ROTJ (unless I"m mistaken) but it was an option that QDC was offering and for just a few bucks more....I thought, why not?

With only a couple weeks left till Halloween, I'll be on Helmet paint-up duty!

Thanks,
-Iron

P.S. I'll more than likely be getting a Boba Maker Pack in 2021. So......you may see this pack listed in the Cargo Hold during Q4 of 2021.
 
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Amazing work!!! I love it.
Can't wait to see what you do with the helmet.

I have a vinyl cutter. Small cuts are tricky to get to stay on the transfer paper. When they get old they get even more difficult to work with.
 
Thanks for the generous word fellas! :)

...and quick update on my Helmet. I got around to boring out the hole for the QuestDesignCanada Borden Connector. I used a drill bit and then finished it off with the Dremel tool. I do NOT wanna run the risk of cracking this fiber glass. Looks like it'll do nicely too.

Bored Hole for QDC Borden.jpg

Fit's good.jpg


I then proceeded to get the Silver/Chrome applied...
Silver Chrome Applied.jpg


Using a set of RafalFett 's stencils I got the base layer of Silver damage transferred and the Humbrol Maskol applied. And ultimately the Dark Grey (I used Tamiya XF-77 - IJN Grey).
Back Panels - Dark Grey.jpg


I picked up a XL PASGT Helmet Suspension System and Sweatband. But found it was a bit too big. I re-ordered a size Large. I couldn't remember from my US Army days what size Kevlar I had. o_O I bought an XL Rucksack & Frame (and still have it!) The issued Large Rucksack wasn't big enough to hold all my stuff. It should be here on the 27th, which I hope to have my Helmet completed by then. Gotta keep up the pace. I took PTO from work this week (Back to work on Thursday though) to get a kickstart on it all. (y)

-Iron
 
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....Also received my soft parts back from my Alterations Girl. Once again she did an awesome job. Here's a rundown of what she did.

1) Attached the Full Metal Fett Hooks to the White Straps for my MoW Studios Jetpack Harness.
Full Metal Fett Hook Added to MoW Vest.jpg


2) Also got Holes cut into my Arkady Vest to run the White Jetpack Straps through.
Holes Cut on Arkady Vest for Jetpack Straps.jpg


3) Flight Suit - Attached Velcro for Knee and Cod Armor. Also Sew'd in a Hole to route my Headset wire through (Aker Voice Box).
Velcro and Hole Added to Flight Suit.jpg

Armor Attached - Headset Wire Routed.jpg


4) Sew'd in a mesh pocket for an Aker Speaker on my Arkady Vest - with hole to run speaker wire through it. (Hidden under Gut Armor)
Pocket Added for Speaker.jpg


Heres the Speaker....
Speaker.jpg


...and here's what it looks like with the Gut Armor attached. See? Nothing shows! (y)
Armor Attached - Not showing Speaker or Pocket.jpg


And here's a side view. Shouldn't interfere with Armor too much. ;)
Curved Armor.jpg


How does it sound? Not sure, but a preliminary test yielded that it doesn't have that reverberation feed back nonsense. (y) But I'll let ya guys know what I think of it, once fully suited up and can run a valid test. But hopes and confidence are high!

More to follow...

-Iron
 
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**UPDATE**

While I sit here and wait for my helmet to dry. I decided to do a pumpkin drawing. I know, I know, it's not a chalk drawing but nonetheless was fun to draw and paint up on a pumpkin.
The Mandalorian - The Child.jpg


Who here is stoked for this upcoming Friday, the start of the 2nd season of The Mandalorian?

As for my Boba build, I've installed my Borden Connector and did an overall paint of Silver Chrome and completed the back panels, and applied paint to my upper cheeks and am waiting for it to dry. Once dried I'll apply paint to the Lower Cheeks, and once that's dry I'll begin to remove the Humbrol Maskol. I should have the Mandibles completed tomorrow, leaving the Dome and Kill stripes this week.

More to come!

-Iron
 
**UPDATE**

I know I haven't been posting this week on my build at all and that because just no time to do so. As you know I'm taking part in a community Halloween Event from 6:00pm to 8:00pm tomorrow night. Everything I've done during this WIP build has been in service to that agenda. I want to thank everyone that's given me advice or small bits here and there along my journey. And as you may know I'm one of the ones who will NOT be going for 501st approval (atleast right now - perhaps in the future) but was wanting something that was screen accurate and even though the tough challenges of COVID hit us all hard this year, I was fortunate enough to not only have kept my job - but also managed to get a sizable pay increase as well. (I feel blessed that my company values me) It was only through that, that I was able to increase my ROTJ Boba Fett build budget from $1500 to just a touch over $4000! And I STILL wanna keep upgrading. But anyway's onto with what I've been up to this week.

Monday
Woke up and started the day out headstrong with a hearty bowl of Mandalorian Cereal (Breakfast of Champions) and a decent little read to get my mindset straight!
Reading at Breakfast.jpg


The objective to complete this week were:
1) Finish my Helmet.
2) Weather my Flight Suit.
3) Weather my Knee and Cod/Kidney Straps.
4) Apply rust to my EE-3 Blaster.
5) Attempt to get my Aker voicebox integrated into my vest.

Over the weekend I was able to get my Back Plates, Upper and Lower Cheeks painted on....
Iron's Bucket - Partial Finish - Back.jpg


And Monday night I was able to complete my Mandibles....
Iron's Bucket - Partial Finish - Front.jpg


I felt like I had a strong start. Clearly I still needed to apply additional details to get it looking right. having felt good about where I ended up I decided to seal my work with a Rustoleum Matte Clear Sealer. A big mistake to do when tired at the end of the day. As this was the result of that....
Helmet 1.jpg

Helmet 2.jpg


Kicked myself for not following manufacturers directions of spraying it 10-12 inches away. I was half that distance and just wanted to get good coverage on it. The reason for sealing it is to assisting with not damaging my paint job when I have to tape off those sections. I knew I didn't have enough time to re-do that work. It is what it is, and I've decided that after Halloween that this $400.00 Helmet deserves a good paint job. And with that I've made the decision to strip it all off and redo the entire thing.

Tuesday
Feeling bummed and somewhat defeated, I pressed on with the Helmet and got my Dome completed. Only now I feel that putting in hard work would be wasted knowing that I'll just be stripping it all off. In addition, to my Dome I was able to get my PASGT Headstrap and sweatband installed.
PASGT System - Installed.jpg


Wednesday
Got my Boots completed with Spikes and weathering. Also completed my the weathering of my Gloves and Cod/Kidney Straps.
Boots with Spikes and Weathered.jpg

Gloves and Straps - Weathered.jpg


Thursday
I finished the weathering of my Flight Suit and completed my Helmet with Killstripes with overall weathering.
Flight Suit - Weathered.jpg

Finished Helmet - 1.jpg
Finished Helmet - 2.jpg
Finished Helmet - 3.jpg
Finished Helmet - 4.jpg

Finished Helmet - 5.jpg

Finished Helmet - 6.jpg


Friday
I tried it all on and while the wife wasn't home to take any pics of me, You can bet I'll have some for you a bit later. Also got the EE-3 completed today but have yet to take any pics of it. More to follow though!

-Iron
 
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**UPDATE**

I know I haven't been posting this week on my build at all and that because just no time to do so. As you know I'm taking part in a community Halloween Event from 6:00pm to 8:00pm tomorrow night. Everything I've done during this WIP build has been in service to that agenda. I want to thank everyone that's given me advice or small bits here and there along my journey. And as you may know I'm one of the ones who will NOT be going for 501st approval (atleast right now - perhaps in the future) but was wanting something that was screen accurate and even though the tough challenges of COVID hit us all hard this year, I was fortunate enough to not only have kept my job - but also managed to get a sizable pay increase as well. (I feel blessed that my company values me) It was only through that, that I was able to increase my ROTJ Boba Fett build budget from $1500 to just a touch over $4000! And I STILL wanna keep upgrading. But anyway's onto with what I've been up to this week.

Monday
Woke up and started the day out headstrong with a hearty bowl of Mandalorian Cereal (Breakfast of Champions) and a decent little read to get my mindset straight!
View attachment 200438

The objective to complete this week were:
1) Finish my Helmet.
2) Weather my Flight Suit.
3) Weather my Knee and Cod/Kidney Straps.
4) Apply rust to my EE-3 Blaster.
5) Attempt to get my Aker voicebox integrated into my vest.

Over the weekend I was able to get my Back Plates, Upper and Lower Cheeks painted on....
View attachment 200439

And Monday night I was able to complete my Mandibles....
View attachment 200440

I felt like I had a strong start. Clearly I still needed to apply additional details to get it looking right. having felt good about where I ended up I decided to seal my work with a Rustoleum Matte Clear Sealer. A big mistake to do when tired at the end of the day. As this was the result of that....
View attachment 200441
View attachment 200442

Kicked myself for not following manufacturers directions of spraying it 10-12 inches away. I was half that distance and just wanted to get good coverage on it. The reason for sealing it is to assisting with not damaging my paint job when I have to tape off those sections. I knew I didn't have enough time to re-do that work. It is what it is, and I've decided that after Halloween that this $400.00 Helmet deserves a good paint job. And with that I've made the decision to strip it all off and redo the entire thing.

Tuesday
Feeling bummed and somewhat defeated, I pressed on with the Helmet and got my Done completed. Only now I feel that putting in hard work would be wasted knowing that I'll just be stripping it all off. In addition, to my Dome I was able to get my PASGT Headstrap and sweatband installed.
View attachment 200445

Wednesday
Got my Boots completed with Spikes and weathering. Also completed my the weathering of my Gloves and Cod/Kidney Straps.
View attachment 200446
View attachment 200447

Thursday
I finished the weathering of my Flight Suit and completed my Helmet with Killstripes with overall weathering.
View attachment 200448
View attachment 200449View attachment 200450View attachment 200451View attachment 200452
View attachment 200453
View attachment 200454

Friday
I tried it all on and while the wife wasn't home to take any pics of me, You can bet I'll have some for you a bit later. Also got the EE-3 completed today but have yet to take any pics of it. More to follow though!

-Iron
The same happened to me the first time sealing paint with Rustoleum Matte Clear.

Even if the paint under it has completely gassed off and cured this can still happen if the clear is laid on heavy.

When spraying the clear I’ve had much better results lightly dusting it on in layers. After a few light dusts with around 15-30 minutes in between I found the crackling texture did not occur.
 
The same happened to me the first time sealing paint with Rustoleum Matte Clear.

Even if the paint under it has completely gassed off and cured this can still happen if the clear is laid on heavy.

When spraying the clear I’ve had much better results lightly dusting it on in layers. After a few light dusts with around 15-30 minutes in between I found the crackling texture did not occur.

for the dome.....that is precisely what I did. Two layers lightly misted on. Honestly I don’t know what I was thinking when I spray so much of it on. But a learning thing. Just take it with a grain of salt and move on. Besides I still think I’ll be a hit with the kiddos and Star Wars Fans tomorrow night!
 
Got a pic of me suited up last night and have been told it looks amazing!
B8C7D078-DB69-40D2-A9B9-466D3B7FC636.jpeg


After walking around with it on I have a couple issues with it. The Kidney Armor sags pretty far down with the assistance of the Girth Belt and Ammo Belt. And the Jetpack sits too Low.

This morning I’m going to see if my Alterations Gal can assist with some last minute changes. I hoping I can pay some expedite fees to have it in a couple hours. More to follow.

I’ll have some additional pictures from today’s events. Stay tuned.

Happy Halloween!
-Iron
 
I hope everyone had a great Halloween!

I was lucky that my Alterations gal was willing to do those last minute changes. Having the Kidney Armor Velcro'd to the Flight suit was great and didn't move on me at all during my event! In addition, shortening up those white Jetpack straps was also a good move too. I shortened it by 3 inches which was enough to have it sit higher on my back and looked way better!

Here are the few shots we got from my community's Halloween event, which was called.....
Happiest Halloween.jpg


My wife took this shot of me and my daughter who went as Marvel's "Spider-Gwen" this year.
Boba Fett and Spider-Gwen.jpg


And here is a pic that one of the Community members took of me...
Fett Profile.jpg


The experience was two hours and I was pretty exhausted after. The Fett Costumes takes a toll. Thankfully the weather held out as 48 hours earlier it was just down pouring. But we had a cold and clear night for the event! (y) I can only imagine that the 501st boys who troop 8 or more hours in their gear.......sheesh. But I will say I got a ton a gawking and jaw dropping looks from my costume. I kinda felt like a Disneyland character with all the looks I got.

Too bad my right shoulder armor was missing, but that's ok.....next year! As far as I know it is still on it's way back to me from Portugal. I shipped it back to Daz (Boba Maker) on July 7th (To have the Decal fixed) and paid expedited shipping it was with Portugal Customs on July 14th........stayed in customs as me and Daz worked to get it released to him. Ultimately we decided to have it Returned to Sender late September. Over a month later......still don't have it. (Did I say I hate the shipping on this planet?) Not much anyone can do though and certainly NOT Daz's fault. It is what it is.

So now with the critique, here's what I see, when I look at myself....
1) First and foremost.....need my Right Shoulder Armor.
2) Weather the back side of the cape - you can see that no black soot markings show.
3) The bottom of the vest when compared to the gut armor......needs to have THAT no more than 1/2 an inch fabric showing.
4) Gloves need to be darker - I'll be looking for suggestions on this - But Mike M. seems to be setting the standard.
5) Wookie Braids - need me that Woodman set!
6) My EE-3....while OK.....still want to get it upgraded to Sidewinder's EFX variant.
7) Knee Straps could be a bit tighter, which will pull the Knee armor closer together.

Of the other things I'm looking at upgrading are an actual Patterson Squeege for Shin Tools with MCR Shin Tool Rods instead of my cast MoW ones. And maybe a MCR Copper Gauntlet Rocket. What do you guys think I could change up to be that better Fett?

And lastly wanted to give a huge shout out to all the members on TDH that helped me along my Fett-Quest. Couldn't have done it without you guys!

Thanks,
-Iron
 
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That's cool man, especially love the shot with Spidey. Looks like great fun was had.
Doesn't seem like 5 minutes ago you were putting those first paint sprays on the armour. Now look at you. Well done for all the hard work.

I've not ventured out as we are in lockdown (again) here, so nothing much happening. But I'm still tweaking things anyway. My mother mentioned my cape, she said "shouldn't it be dirty there?". I too had left the underside brand new :|

As as UK resident we do feel your pain here in Europe as we get that all the time, as most things are shipped with a hefty cost. QuestDesignCanada don't even ship here, so I had to buy eBay to spikes that don't even fit. Gutted.

How did you pad out your gauntlets in the end? Any pics of them internally and was the left one ok for balance? Mine digs in my hand, so i maybe have to bring it back more.
 
Looks GREAT Irongladiator - how does it feel to have it all behind you!?!

quite honestly, my only comments are on the weathering. The flight suit is weathered from your previous pics, but the ones you just posted make it look “clean”. That, the vest and the boots could use a good washin’...

While your at it, the gloves could be dirtied up some too. Besides that and the stuff you mentioned - you’re good to go!

I agree with the upgrades you mentioned and have planned those into my build from the start - I just have to finish. I have the EFX from sidewinder too - great stuff!
 
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