JSmails semi-accurate ROTJ Boba WIP

I bought my first airbrush for my first Boba Fett Helmet that I'm working on. It is a work in progress but man I will say, that after you figure out how to use one, the results are just phenomenal! It was very trial and error though and learned the hard way that if you buy a cheap airbrush, hours of frustration are soon to follow. I manned up and bought a decent one a couple days later. I am going to do a WIP post soon but want to have a little bit more done. Here is a link to my tumblr thread so far!

Boba Fett




Thanks very much!

It's taking a LONG time because I'm also making that Sabine season 2 you see on the table also. That paint job of the maroon was a 3-hour mask.

I need to learn how to airbrush.
 
Hats off to you! I don't know that I'd have the guts to jump into this and start one from scratch.

Thanks. It's for my son. If it were for me, I'd likely be buying everything because I know I'm just too lazy to keep sanding and make it perfect.

But when it's for my kids, I get to a point of "good enough for them" and move on. That, and I'm trying to keep the costs down to as low as possible. That necessitates DIY. :)

I am surprised the helmets take this long though. Mistakes made early make recovery later quite a chore.
 
Looking good! That helmet came out really cool it always amazes me what people can do with card board. I do not have the patience to do a cardboard or foam! I just cant visualize it I do envy those who can.
 
Does anyone know what spray color for the kill stripes?

I finally got the decals in and was a bit disappointed. They are less accurate than spray paint and toothpaste will be, so I'll go that route. Also, even after weathering it'd look like a Fett helmet with stickers on the dome. It'd look way less integrated, so paint it myself I guess.

STG's paint thread says he just painted on the stripes. That's not for me either. Again, it'd look like painted on stripes. So I'm on the lookout for the correct spray can color.

Anyone have a link?

Thanks!
 
Thanks so much for that!

I figured more people glance at the helmet forum than dig down to the bottom of every WIP.

I'm giving the paprika a try tomorrow.
 
So I made it to Home Depot by my house today. No paprika. It's the only Home Depot in the entire metro that didn't carry it. I checked my phone and they had it at the next Home Depot over, so I got it there. Then I sprayed.

Here it is masked and first coat on the stripes.

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And here I've pulled the masking and started taking off the toothpaste "damage" on the first two.

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I probably should have waited a day for everything to dry, but I had some time so I figured why not. Here it is with all toothpaste "damage" taken off. I don't think it's that close, damage-wise, to the screen, but it rarely is when dealing with toothpaste. I like how it looks.

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And here it is with me wearing it. Just need to black wash the stripes then dull coat and I think I'm done with the helmet finally. Uff da.

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I finished my daughter's Sabine season 2 helmet today. Looks like a Mandalorian Christmas.

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I also got some coveralls from Amazon for the jump suit. Red Kap 100% cotton.

Anyone know what color I should dye it? Also, where would I get that? I've never dyed anything in my life. The jumpsuit is a little darker grey than it looked online.

Let me know, or point me to, a dyeing thread or two.

Thanks!

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You can use RIT dye, I would bleach it first. Be really careful and follow the directions to the letter. That stuff is kindof a nightmare. I'm sure someone else will chime in with the color/colors you need, it can usally be found online, fabric stores, and I believe Walmart sells it as well.
 
Thanks!

The dyeing part will be on hold for a while. I suppose I'll rip off the back pockets, but some matching-ish material, and sew on the front leg pockets, and double sleeve, before I get around to dying it.

With that said, the girth belt arrived today. Any suggestions for the leather for the straps I'll need? Also, what is the suggested dying method at this point? I read there was a lot of different steps, then others said just spray paint it, and others say to dye it with minwax stain or something. What's the fastest, cheapest, method?

Lastly, with the helmet(s) done, it's time to move on to the EE3. My FIL hasn't even started on the stock, so it looks like I'll end up doing that eventually.

Originally I had bought the Hasbro Boba Fett EE3. Being that my son is already bigger than Bullock was the tiny EE3 looked even worse when he held it. I figured I'd salvage the blaster light and sound for a scratch build. That is much easier to say than to do. :)

Like an idiot, I decided to start the frame of the gun with MDF. I have no idea why I ever try to build a prop out of MDF. I'm sure I'll have to junk the frame eventually and start that part over, but I'm going with it for now.

Here is the frame and the grip. I have since put in a weak crosshatch on the grip.

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Somehow I messed up the electronics I was putting into the EE3. No idea how. I messed with it for a few hours and finally declared it deceased and had to move on. I'm putting the EE3 on hold until I can figure out whether the electronics I took from the Hasbro will still work, or whether I need to come up with another solution. Putting an Arduino blaster core into it would cost about the same as buying another Hasbro and taking the electronics out of that. Tougher, as I really don't know what I'm doing, but it's always nice to have projects.

Moving along, I got the girth belt last week and it needed to be dyed. After reading a lot of stuff, I decided on Behr Barn Red stain to do the trick.

Here is my painter's pan, the belt and the can of stain. You actually need 2 cans. The other can isn't pictured.

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At Home Depot you need to ask the paint person to mix it up. I used barn red as per other tutorials. Don't spend 15 minutes looking for it before asking, just ask. I thought it was something you could buy off the shelf. Nope. The sampler stain costs less than $4 and you need two cans. So about $8. Make sure you wear disposable gloves. Just pour the stain into the pan, soak the belt with the stain, and squeeze it out. Soak and squeeze, soak and squeeze, until the entire belt doesn't have any white in it. Hang it up to dry and take paper towels and dab the stain out of it. Keep going until, at the very least, there isn't any stain on surface showing.

Don't worry about getting stain on the buckles, it'll just scrape off. Set the belt to hang for a few days (I am guessing from what I read).

Here it is hanging in my garage. The color in the pic is not right as the lights are showing directly on the belt. It is much darker in person.

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Lastly for the girth belt, what is accurate? To keep it closed, are the straps a black nylon or were they black leather? Or something else? I imagine I'll end up going with whatever I have on hand, as this is a "semi-accurate" build, but I have a lot of material on hand, so using accurate material will likely not cost me anything. Might as well be accurate when it is free to do so. :)

As always, thanks for the help.
 
Finally have an update. Holidays have gotten in the west, but I've started the ammo boxes.

I'm using BatNinja's excellent tutorial. A couple of things missing from the first post of that tutorial, though, is the front is 1.5" and the magic angle to cut the wood blocks at is 40*. Everything else is excellent.

Main done with the main pouch part. It's on to the flaps.

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All I've proven with this is that I can't sew at all. I'm kind of rushing through it, and honestly, from 10 feet it won't look so bad. A couple of things though...

For the flaps, BatNinja has corner cutaways of 1/2"X1/2". Those are completely wrong for ROTJ. Maybe they are right for ESB, or maybe I'm reading the tutorial wrong, but I didn't look at reference pics until I'd already cut the tabs and sewed two of them. With the others, I just cut closer looking tabs on the other end and went from there.

Always, always, always, before you do anything irreversible, always look at reference pics of the actual costume.

From reading the tutorial, there is a way to adjust the stitch length. I probably should have looked into that more. My stitches are too tight together and I can't make a straight line. Sadly, my limited skills are going to make this project fall under "close enough" and I'll move on after I make the belt. I'm going to try to adjust the stitch length on the belt as all of that is almost completely hidden.

I'll get pics up tomorrow after I finish gluing the tabs to the boxes and hopefully make the belt.
 
Making the belt and sewing didn't go so well. Sewing on the loop side went great.

Then I started sewing the hook side. Yikes. I bent 3 needles and may have totally hosed my
machine. I don't know. I have to sew his vest next, but I'll have to buy more needles first.

Because my machine wouldn't work, I didn't get all the stitching through the velcro and it's horrible. I also didn't get the stitching on top. I'll put in the eyelets soon enough, or I won't. :)

Here he is wearing the helmet, the ammo belt, and the girth belt. No weathering at all yet on the ammo and girth belts. What is appropriate for weathering that? The vinyl I used is quite shiny still, so I imagine hitting it with some light sanding would be first to get rid of the sheen.

Any help is appreciated.

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Kids are back in school so I had a few hours to try the flak vest.

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This is made from muslin, not tackle twill, and was mostly a proof of concept. It's from Darth Mule's great tutorial. When my son gets home, I'll see if it fits him. It took so long to make though, I'm not really looking forward to doing it again. If I can find tackle twill, and if this fits, I may just sew a piece on the front and call it good.

I got some parade gloves for him from Amazon. Does anyone know how to sew the tackle twill onto the top of the glove and fingers with a machine? I can't seem to get my head around it and really don't want to hand stitch. Thanks.
 
Looks great, following your work. I would try some flat or satin clear spray paint as well as your idea of sanding. I found a light misting of gray primer also helps dull the finish and color intensity of costume pieces. For this kind of sanding, a very fine 3M sanding sponge is a great tool.

My flack vest will also be made of a similar material, as it's what I have left after the flight suit I made. My plan is to remove the neck from my flight suit, relocate the zipper further down (for bathroom visits) and also replace my zipper with a double ended zipper. Then I'll attach the padded neck seal to my flack vest. Since my suit-up is a one-man operation, I'll make my flack vest open at the side with a fine zipper at the side and shoulder/neck, with velco closure flaps.

The only way I can see sewing the pads on with a machine is by deconstructing the gloves, which would likely end up being more work than hand stitching the patches on.
 
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