My first scratch build: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

[LeClubFett]

I have been lurking this site/forum on and off for years.
Firstly, i'd like to thank all the wonderful contributors of templates and guides, and all those great tutorial threads without which i'd bet alot of people wouldn't ever be able to get a start on a scratch build without doing a hell of a lot of research first. So thanks.
This is my first scratch build and i'm building 2 sets, one for me and one for my son. This has advantages in that i get to practice things and hopefully get at least one right and in other ways if i
make one of something i can then cast a second, although he's twelve so that will only work on some parts.
As much as I can I am going to build everything, there's a few things that may be beyond me but as noted with all the epic tutorials on this site and others i'm hoping to build most of it. I may also be trying a few things ..just to see, hence the title of this thread. It may not all work, but, if it doesn't then the failure may help someone else or give someone else an idea and lead to further refinement.
So, to the builds, the adult build will be a ROTJ and the boy build will be a SW:Battlefront build.
Like most people i started with the helmet. This was a challenge right off the mark, i couldn't find any local 2mm cardboard... so I used 3mm and this was tough. The 3mm is incredibly hard to manage, but, I got there. As we've all seen builds like these before i'll just throw a few photos in rather than step by step....(edit, i cleaned up alot of the photos out, they needed resizing..and the below is my new start point)

and this one was done in 2mm...wow, so much easier...anyway, this one will be better and i plan on
casting it and making 2 resin ones.
Thanks for your time, to be continued

 

[fomare]

awesome!!!!! ^^ good luck mate!

 

[LeClubFett]

awesome!!!!! ^^ good luck mate!

Thanks looks like I needed a bit of luck. :/
My latest dome, which is supposed to be the one I make well enough to get a cast off went a bit sketchy during the dome section. On pre-fit, before hot glue, it was looking great, but maybe it was the width of the glue itself because even though I took my time it slowly went off and became a screaming mess... I was a bit gutted, it's my fourth attempt and I thought when i'd done the 3rd one so well, even though it was 3mm card that the fourth would be easy, and it was ..until the dome.
So, i kept on going and finished it up consoling myself to a metric ton of sanding to try and get it back inline. I sealed it with PVA, swished in a light coat of resin on the inside and then through on a loose coat of fill and let it dry...

As you can see some of the triangle edges are very deep, it will require a lot of work to bring it back...so much work I had to call on the "Bad Dome Recovery Unit"

After some time alone with the Bad Dome Recovery Unit it was looking a fair bit better, not great but better. I then put on another thick coat of filler and smoothed it with some water.

It's starting to get back on track.

In the meantime my keyhole arrived. There are many things that are just too fiddly to do precisely well and if this helmet was going to stay as a cardboard dome then i'd just do the keyhole by hand like my previous, but, this one is being made for the cast so i'd like more precision. I got my wrist rocket 3D printed a few weeks before and even at 100 microns i was happy with the results. For those of you who don't have a 3D printer of your own but want 3D printed parts AND have the Oz Curse (the Oz Curse is where you order something online and are very happy with your purchase for $11.35 then hit checkout and the postage then makes that same item $37.00 and that's before we even go into exchange rates) then there are still some great options as long as the part you want has been open sourced. Lucky for me the rocket, keyhole and a few other parts i'm after are. There are some parts that I want that aren't but for these i've decied to teach myself how to design a 3D model and use my own designs.

Obviously if your in America any of the wonderful 3D Printer people here are your best choice and are of supreme quality ie.rafalworks on Shapeways, but, for those without this wonderful option of an American letterbox then this is not a bad way to go.

Anyway, what I do is find the .stl file from Thingiverse and then hit up 3Dhubs. You can sort out your printers by locally or quality and even in Oz we have plenty of people doing the print thing and so if you find someone close can order it then pick the item up... I was so excited the first time I ordered something. Heh.
So, I cast the keyhole and MQ-1 in Pinkysil.

It came out fine, a little clean up and sand of the resin and she'll be sweet.

This is the rockets...

For the rest of the day I may work on the chest pieces or finish off the knees... i'm doing these is eva foam, I think, i'll see how they pan out and how they look.
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read.

 

[Slash]

I admire the effort and abilities that go into a scratch build!! Nice to see you do one for your son too, my son started on me about building him a Jango costume as soon as I told him I was putting together a Boba one for myself.

I know all about that "Oz Curse", it seems the cost of international postage has gone thru the roof over the last couple of years. Throw in a weaker Aussie dollar and and suddenly relatively inexpensive items become major purchase decisions.

 

[LeClubFett]

I admire the effort and abilities that go into a scratch build!! Nice to see you do one for your son too, my son started on me about building him a Jango costume as soon as I told him I was putting together a Boba one for myself.

I know all about that "Oz Curse", it seems the cost of international postage has gone thru the roof over the last couple of years. Throw in a weaker Aussie dollar and and suddenly relatively inexpensive items become major purchase decisions.

Nice, when i started this i thought... i could be Jango and he could be Boba... but damnit i just didn't wanna be Jango .
The Oz curse, man I hate it... go on ebay buy something from China or Korea etc, free postage ...sure you'll wait awhile but you just bought it cheap anyway,in fact sometimes i'm buying things for a dollar or two juts to experiment. On the hand buy it from the the States at the moment and it bites.
Case in point, I love the Fettronics chest lights they're $60 US, throw in the postage and convert to AUD it makes it $117, now this is not the sellers fault it's just the way it is... what it means though is that when building 2 Fett's at once some things will be better on one suit than the other... so my suit = Fettronics.. but for his suit, that's where experimentation started... so i bought 2 x light up dog collars from China

They have 3 flash settings so i figure I can rig something up where i can fold it across the chest strips where required and it will light up something there... i hadn't figured what yet. Anyway, i won't use them as i found a better solution which i'll come to in a moment, but the good thing is, i could experiment for only a dollar or 2 plus the strapping and buckles i'll end up using for the armour somewhere.
So, the solution for cheap chest lights I found on another Fett site, i'm not sure if it's been covered here before... but it's a video on an old iPhone... here it is

Not as good as the real thing but good enough for a 12 year old
Another thing i found quite hard to find was a decent pistol, all the kids cowboy revolvers I could find were tiny, i searched everywhere and eventually bought 2 great adult sized pistols for cheap, but they weren't revolvers so a lot of work was gonna have to be done... then 2 days ago I finally found one...the plastic is so cheap i'm definately gonna have to make the barrel and parts put them on the gun and then cast them...

Black gun is the old one orange one is new, the black gun just feels good and weighty in your hand, it also fires nerf and/or water balls.. so it won't be going to waste

i'm not sure about the stock, probably carve 2 x wooden ones and make the metal bracket that connects the pistol to the stock out of something... something i haven't seen or found yet, probably sheet aluminium.
Any suggestions for where I could find a decent piece of metal i can convert with normal tools ie. vice/dremel/drill/hacksaw etc would be great.

I found a rifle sight from the same family as used in the film so i'll cast that as well, got that for $7.50 i think. In fact i'm surprised i haven't had a knock at the door from the feds yet with the weird stuff arriving at my door. Neodynium magnets, glass reed switches, lasers...i'm definately building something not safe

 

[Slash]

Some really good ingenuity there with some of those parts, particularly the old iPhone.

The cost of postage from the US or UK is crazy. Im trying to buy some stuff online in the US and it comes to about $20 (it weighs next to nothing too) and the cheapest shipping option is $48. It's robbery. Im sure I could get it shipped locally and then forwarded to me for less than half that cost.

On the flip side I don't know how they can ship stuff from China for free. I bought something yesterday for $1.52 and it came with free shipping. lol Sure it's a 6 week wait but I'm cool with that.

Re this comment "when i started this i thought... i could be Jango and he could be Boba... but damnit i just didn't wanna be Jango .". That was exactly the thinking I had too. It seemed logical for me to be Jango and my son Boba but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

 

[Silverstalker]

A lot of hard work gone into that well done, your boy will be blown away I am sure. I also used a plastic gun for the base on my blaster it worked out great.

 

[LeClubFett]

A lot of hard work gone into that well done, your boy will be blown away I am sure. I also used a plastic gun for the base on my blaster it worked out great.

Thanks .. It was your ROTJ Journal thread more than any other that convinced me I could do it. If my Fett's turn out half as fine yours then I'll be happy.

It seemed logical for me to be Jango and my son Boba but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

Like most people I rewatched the originals before Ep VII... and I hadn't seen 4-6 since the 90s... i did not know they revoiced Boba with Jake the Muss... i was gutted at least I still have the originals so i can dodge the Blueray forever.

Does anyone know the precise diameter of the borden?

I got these and they are 1cm in diameter..maybe it's my eyes but they seem small

 

[Silverstalker]

Thanks .. It was your ROTJ Journal thread more than any other that convinced me I could do it. If my Fett's turn out half as fine yours then I'll be happy.

i can dodge the Blueray forever.

thanks man the way you are going with them so far you will have no trouble.

And as for the blue ray versions etc, that ''battle front'' Fett you are making is the ROTJ SE (special addition) version and features in the oreiginal movies (well now it does) it is basically the ESB helmet with the ROTJ suit....

 

[Gregory]

Does anyone know the precise diameter of the borden?

I got these and they are 1cm in diameter..maybe it's my eyes but they seem small

9.5mm according to RafelFett's templates:

 

[LeClubFett]

9.5mm according to RafelFett's templates:
View attachment 98318

Heh, just my eyes then. Looks like these little fellas will do the trick. Also, thank you for that template, can't believe i missed that one. Cheers

 

[LeClubFett]

thanks man the way you are going with them so far you will have no trouble.

And as for the blue ray versions etc, that ''battle front'' Fett you are making is the ROTJ SE (special addition) version and features in the oreiginal movies (well now it does) it is basically the ESB helmet with the ROTJ suit....

Heya, quick question about your carbine build.
On the stock the rounded parts on the greeblies I can see are off the bottom half of a screw cover but what did you make the shaped ridges with? by which i mean the face looking thing and the circle part http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f20/my-rotj-journal-52933/?highlight=rotj+journal

Anyway, the dome recovery turned out fine ... a little more sanding, cut the holes and were good to go to prepare it for casting.

So I decided to move onto the carbine...
Handle off ...

Cut off the site and part of the barrel as well as cutting slots just below the barrel and near the rear of the barrel to slide on the cardboard and the metal tube

This mop handle was the perfect diameter according to the wizardoflight templates..what are the odds

Slid the mop handle over the barrel, now you can see where i sliced underneath

Some cardboard tubes test fitted before cutting to size

I got the circumference of the tube with a piece of tape then size up for 12 segments ... you can also see i've put some EVA foam into the tube to snuggle up to the mop handle

Temporarily banded into place whilst wet to get in shape

I wet down the muzzle nozzle and started to shape it... but the shape is awkard so i looked around for somethign to band it too...saw the glue, and perfect shape..then thought what am I doing... i'll just use that perfect shape..the glue is almost empty so i'll be usaing that for the nozzle

and finally for today, I picked up my son from school and he was proud as punch with his new cutting board he'd made for his mum for mothers day and he had 2 other cut off bits spare, he said they looked like they could be turned into the milleneum falcon...but all i saw was a pair of wooden carbine stocks ready to be cut to shape... so I acquisitioned them .

More soon ty for your time.

 

[Silverstalker]

Heya, quick question about your carbine build.
On the stock the rounded parts on the greeblies I can see are off the bottom half of a screw cover but what did you make the shaped ridges with? by which i mean the face looking thing and the circle part http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f20/my-rotj-journal-52933/?highlight=rotj+journal
.

I cut strips off some plastic sheets I had (like styrene) I think its was 1.5mm thick so I cut strips about 2mm wide, turned it on its side (so it would flex better) and bent it to a rough shape I wanted.

Then drew the shape on the stock, tack the strip with glue, bend it round the template I drew and tacked it some more and slowly worked my way round the template tacking it every 3 0r 4 mm.... don't try to bend it to shape then glue it all at once or it may spring off... think of it like spot welding something in place...

 

[LeClubFett]

I cut strips off some plastic sheets I had (like styrene) I think its was 1.5mm thick so I cut strips about 2mm wide, turned it on its side (so it would flex better) and bent it to a rough shape I wanted.

Then drew the shape on the stock, tack the strip with glue, bend it round the template I drew and tacked it some more and slowly worked my way round the template tacking it every 3 0r 4 mm.... don't try to bend it to shape then glue it all at once or it may spring off... think of it like spot welding something in place...

Thanks mate, i'll give that a whirl

 

[LeClubFett]

Heya all, been awhile since I updated this thread .. still been working on it just less posting. Also, where is the option to change the thread title? ..seems the good the bad and the ugly also brings up memories of a much older thread with bad connetations :/


Anyway, onto the progress. A con was around the corner and i figured I could rush my sons set while still working on mine in the background.


The Carbine -
Added some cardboard to the body and some filler on the barrel

Shaped the stocks

More filler

Heat sinks added

Still needs more smoothing ..but getting their

Sizing up the site

I ordered a sheet of 2mm aluminium for the handles and I had almost ordered the 3mm... so glad i stuck with 2mm, even this was a pain to work with.. mad props to all those who do dull aluminium gear, even these little pieces caused me masses of frustration and many broken dremel parts and grinding wheels.. i got 1 of them done, the other needs some cleaning up still and i'm not looking forward to it

Attached the stock and first coat of primer ... i'm missing the greeblies but as noted this was to rush a gun for my son for a fast approaching con... so corner were cut.

I gave it a full coat of primer, then a full coat of metallic silver, then brushed on some boot polish

At this point I roughed it up with some sandpaper, this stripped away the bootpolish and showed the silver underneath for the weathering, it was way to glossy though so after this I hit it with a coat of black matt and weathered again. The silver still came through nicely. (more pics of the semi-final are lower down)

So we made it to the con in the nic of time and the first thing we run into was a stormtrooper...awesome, my daughter is Vader and my son Boba ... we were running late, i'd spent all night finishing his gear up, my airbrush packed it in so I had to use spray cans so the green on his armour is all wrong, I was literally velcroing parts on him as we walked up the road, the iphone chest lights were too heavy and his chest was sagging, one kneepad fell off, his beltpouches were coming unglued, the elastic that connect the cod pulled his pants up waaaaaaaaaaay too high and his socks were on display ...but, he was absolutely stoked and all these things can be repaired for the main con coming up later this year.

Trooper is not me ..i'm holding the camera

So, the rushed parts were out of the way... time to get back to that helmet. There will be fails.

Sooo, that helmet above turned into this

Before I painted his gauntlets i cleaned them all up and made some molds and primed the helmet as well.

Here you can see the one pull I got from the gauntlet molds just to the right of the grinder ... the silicon stuck and the mold was destroyed, I was gutted. I didn't even think the one pull I got was useable... but I had the helmet left to cast.

So, the helmet stuck too and this time the cast was warped and unusable... so i quickly whipped up another cardboard helmet fibreglassed it and started the bondo. I also cleaned up the resin gauntlet and started the task of bondoing them up, they were a mess but they were all I had left.

I took less photos during this phase as i was frustrated and just wanted to crack on with the job. During the drying phases or when it was cold i was also working on the electronics, which i'll come to in a bit.
Anyway, here we have the tree of fail.

Top left is the white resin cast warped helmet, bottom right the fibreglass one waiting for the dent and triangles, the grey one with the visor not cut out is my casting helmet, the carbine is in the background, resin gauntlets looking better down the front, cardboard gauntlets up the back and my sons helmet is top right with some wear and tear touch ups is awaiting re-painting.

Now some other bits and pieces...got a little casting and soldering done as well as a little sanding and marking the helmet for final clean up.
Here is a few of my parts... alot of them still need cleaned up, some need recasting and the grey gauntlets need some smoothing and a final sanding.

This is my range finder circuit. The Glass Reed Switch is what is used in some burglar alarms... it is not activated till brought cloaser or taken away from a magnet. In this case when it is brought closer ...so when the range finder comes into the down postition it comes close to a small neodynium magnet which completes the circuit. (See below) and the magnet will be on the inside of the helmet.

A metal rod added to the wires for strength and the circuit tested with a random magnet before casting

Embedded in the resin

Ear caps, range finder, wrist rocket and nozzles

Rocket and nozzles after casting

Close up of my sons rushed paint job and too much glue.. the grey cast needs much more sanding and smoothing but the inside, not shown, have hinges and neodynium magnet clasps to close them.

Flamethrower nozzles, gas pipes, ear caps, Mq-1 keyboard and circuit board, keyhole, rocket, toppers, greeblies, range finder, dental files and range finder stem with embedded wires. Naturally most of these need cleaned up.

Range finder servo and controller... the controller feeds down the top gas hose and into the right wrist where one of the toggle switches power it on and where the old flashlight switch would be instead the RF controller is inserted.

and that's where i'm up to..so many backward steps..but slowly creeping forward.

 

[LeClubFett]

Also been working on the soft parts .. no photos of them yet but i've taken to the sewing machine, there were fails.

In the meantime I picked these up for AUS$20 (thats about $15US) and am working on the conversion

Started to grind the tread off on the sides and square the toes off.

Any tips or criticism will be very warmly received on any parts of my build. Cheers

 

[Altair]

Love watching scratch builds, keep up the cool work mate!

 

[LeClubFett]

Love watching scratch builds, keep up the cool work mate!

Thanks

Well... when time is running short and the convention is coming up at some point you have to put down the camera stop taking pics and get some hard graft in. So I only have a handful of build pics taken and they're not very exciting.
I was up till 2am the night before the con, had the drill, grinder, airbrush, dremel, glue gun, soldering iron and hot glue gun all plugged in and going mad. Even with all that I still ran out of time and didn't finish the jetpack.

I cut a few corners on final detail and laid the blue down but at 2am sleep was better than finishing it. In the end I was glad not to have it on as the con was mental crowded.
A shot of my boy... yes, i know shoes, but he's such a worm right now I buy him shoes and he's grown out of them 6 weeks later, he is close to my size in shoes now so he can wear my old Fett shoes when i upgrade.

Look out Rebels! .. and 5 mins into the convention, my braids slipped off their magnet over the shoulder pad and gone ... also, i hadn't tried the whole kit on till getting dressed in the carpark and my spats were tight enough to keep the folds into my boot but an easy fix for next time.

My peoples...

Strike a funny pose my said.. so i did *sigh*

Anyway, now that the pressure is off i can slowly upgrade things overtime and get the jetpack done. Overall, i cut some corners near the end but i think the result turned out ok.
Thanks for coming along on my journey, sorry there are not more build photos towards the end but if you have any specific questions on how I got things looking like they did or closer detail shots of any particular piece just ask.

Thanks again............ exchausted but happy

 

[mainst69]

Turned out great. I'm terrfied of that first suit up and seeing what goes wrong! Lol sorry about losing your braids.

 

[LeClubFett]

Turned out great. I'm terrfied of that first suit up and seeing what goes wrong! Lol sorry about losing your braids.

Thanks man. Yeah, I figured I'd have so much time left but it creeps up on ya. Anyway, the deadline is past now so I can update thins in my own time. The braids are a loss but not irreplaceable .
I did some things at the weekend like install the dental files into the back of the helmet, cast the dental expander for the left gauntlet, make mold and cast the clear part of the stalk... Just little things I missed in the final flurry although I did have a plastic block in my stalk it wasn't right.
ill also probably go back and repaint the helmet more accurately.
Thank you for your comments.