Gregory
Active Hunter
When I was 12 I made a Boba Fett costume using paper maché and illustration board. I decided some months ago to do it again as an adult but this year I cheated and downloaded the excellent paper patterns for the armor and helmet from this site. Even with these shortcuts available to me, I had not quite enough time to do everything I wanted. But the parts I made did workout.
The helmet was of course the key; here it is in initial paper mockup with a styrofoam dome from a craft store, modified by removing 1" from the center. My first dome attempt was paper maché like I did when I was younger but it came out really bumpy so I switched to the 10" foam hemisphere.
After transferring the paper patterns to illustration board and assembling, took 2 tries to get it right. Ears are a combination of foamcore, illustration board and paper.
Paper and illustration board gauntlets before painting and detailing. Excellent but complex patterns available here made this possible.
Flightsuit of cotton twill made by altering a one-piece pajama pattern. I freehanded additional pouches and pockets, and added spats and other details to try and make the suit one-piece. Then I had to dye it and wash it, then mount the armor and other accessories, all done rather last minute the morning of Halloween. I hadn't sewn from a pattern in a long while, I think the last time was making a costume for my teen when she was younger.
I used an old leather tool belt for my ammo belt, not finished but good enough for last night. I made a rifle from a plastic gun and cardboard tube, and foamcore stock. My cape I fashioned from a section of canvas painter's tarp. Gloves are hardware store find, not accurate but I was under a time crunch! I used sheet styrene and window film for the visor, I couldn't get a tinted motorcycle visor like last time locally.
The illustration board armor worked well but is a little flat. I used a blinking bike light for my chestplate display, again just "good enough" for a costume but obviously not as nice as some of the builds by others here. I attached the armor directly to the suit with velcro. Mostly successful, except for the cape and my codpiece/kidney sections which wanted to fall off. I eventually figured out to simply tuck the codpiece parts under the belt to hold it together. I know that sewing the cloth-side of the velcro to the suit/cape parts will fix most of those problems. Another issue I experienced was my gauntlets sliding off my forearms. Still need to solve that.
The finished results for now (last night). Future details will include the jetpack of course, some costume details and various weathering and battle damage details I didn't have time for.
Here I am with Captain Solo in carbonite:
The helmet was of course the key; here it is in initial paper mockup with a styrofoam dome from a craft store, modified by removing 1" from the center. My first dome attempt was paper maché like I did when I was younger but it came out really bumpy so I switched to the 10" foam hemisphere.
After transferring the paper patterns to illustration board and assembling, took 2 tries to get it right. Ears are a combination of foamcore, illustration board and paper.
Paper and illustration board gauntlets before painting and detailing. Excellent but complex patterns available here made this possible.
Flightsuit of cotton twill made by altering a one-piece pajama pattern. I freehanded additional pouches and pockets, and added spats and other details to try and make the suit one-piece. Then I had to dye it and wash it, then mount the armor and other accessories, all done rather last minute the morning of Halloween. I hadn't sewn from a pattern in a long while, I think the last time was making a costume for my teen when she was younger.
I used an old leather tool belt for my ammo belt, not finished but good enough for last night. I made a rifle from a plastic gun and cardboard tube, and foamcore stock. My cape I fashioned from a section of canvas painter's tarp. Gloves are hardware store find, not accurate but I was under a time crunch! I used sheet styrene and window film for the visor, I couldn't get a tinted motorcycle visor like last time locally.
The illustration board armor worked well but is a little flat. I used a blinking bike light for my chestplate display, again just "good enough" for a costume but obviously not as nice as some of the builds by others here. I attached the armor directly to the suit with velcro. Mostly successful, except for the cape and my codpiece/kidney sections which wanted to fall off. I eventually figured out to simply tuck the codpiece parts under the belt to hold it together. I know that sewing the cloth-side of the velcro to the suit/cape parts will fix most of those problems. Another issue I experienced was my gauntlets sliding off my forearms. Still need to solve that.
The finished results for now (last night). Future details will include the jetpack of course, some costume details and various weathering and battle damage details I didn't have time for.
Here I am with Captain Solo in carbonite:
