Mattman1138's ESB WIP Thread

[mattman1138]

Hey everyone,

I've always wanted to start one of these and am finally doing so. To make a long story as short as possible, I started this journey about 5 years ago when Celebration came to Anaheim, CA. I'd always wanted a screen accurate Fett Costume but could never justify the cost...that is until I talked to the 501st at Celebration. I had no idea the 501st did charity events. That sealed the deal. I bought the bucket a few weeks later and got to work. Luckily for me I had an old don post helmet that I used as a test helmet for visor installation. I was able to do all of that myself by using extensive warhammer and modeling knowhow. Here's a current pic of the helmet.

After I got this far life got away with me for the next 5 or so years and I finally came back to this goal last October. I've since bought pretty much all the costume parts I need. Once lockdown hit I started in on the easiest thing for me, being away from this type of hobby for so long, the pulce. I figured since it was optional anyway I might as well start there. More room to mess up, you know? So I bought literally the cheapest one I could find (see pics below) and got to work. The rest of this thread will be my progress. Hope you enjoy! Oh and please feel free to give me tips and let me know where I'm going wrong.

 

[mattman1138]

So I just finished the pulce a few days ago. Here are the progress pics and explanations. Below is how I bought the pistol. In pieces.

I knew what I was in for but I wanted to test and build up my modeling skills again. As you can see, the there is no knurled texture on the first section past the end of the main barrel. Also, the knurled nut at the end isn't quite right. I knew I was in for some work but happily bought this anyway. It was PLA so the lines were almost unbearable. After copious sanding, I glued it together.

I also kind of broke off the trigger during sanding so I had to glue that back on. This gives a better idea of the work I was in for. No grip texture, no knurled texture, gaps galore, PLA lines etc. Fun for me! I decided to start by filling in the gaps with wood filler and working on the grip texture. For the grip I bought some krylon stone texture spray paint. Then I decided to work on the knurled nut texture as well. This was the hardest thing for me to figure out. I had to find the right modeling putty, milliput, a knurled guitar knob, and get to texturing and rolling the knob while the putty was still malleable. I think all of these things worked out pretty well. I also tapped the holes in the sides that are in the reference pics. I made ended up making them larger than in the pic below.

The next thing I needed to do was get the knurled texture on the end of the barrel match the reference pic as much as I could. Here's a pic of how it started and how it should be. Sandwiched in between is a pic of what I was able to do with a dremel and a sanding bit.

Next I had to prime the gun. Here you'll notice the wider tapped holes.

After this I started painting.

Then I started on the weathering. I started by taking sandpaper to the metal parts to scratch it up.

Finally I had to use all my warhammer painting knowledge and finish the weathering with a brush. All in all I think it came out pretty good considering what I started from. Please let me know what you think!

 

[ShortFuse]

Looks good. Nice job.

 

[Irongladiator]

Outstanding job sir! Well done!

Looking forward to seeing the rest of yer progress.

-Iron

 

[mattman1138]

So after a busy few weekends, and a long 3 day weekend, I was finally able to finish working on my girth belt. I started out with this guy:

And after extensive research on stains and colors, extensive taping, some messy staining, and silly mistakes, I ended up with guy:

The white balance is a bit off due to the iphone, mixed light, and more light coming from the right, but I think I got the color as close as I could find. Please let me know what you all think! On to the next piece for me!

 

[mattman1138]

Finally had a bit of time this weekend to take the dremel to the armor and start trimming. Quickly realized I was not going to be able to blow through them so decided to take my time. I finished trimming the knee armor sans drilling out the dart holes, going to work on them first. And did a rough job on the back armor. Going to finish the back armor coming up this weekend. Drying to get straight lines on the plastic with a dremel was difficult so I ended up doing some final straightening and polishing with some sandpaper. Seems to have worked nicely. More to come this weekend.

 

[Historian Fett]

Coming along nicely!

 

[mattman1138]

Coming along nicely!

Thanks! It's very slow going but I'm starting to sort of get moving