My first prop build: My son want to be Luke

I haven't really done any proper prop-building, I'm more of the "where have I seen that thingy before?" kind of guy. There's so many amazing builds here though, so I was tempted to have a go when my 2nd grader announced he want to go to the school carnival as Luke.

So, Luke for a 2nd grader. That should be easy. Doesn't have to be that precise, this should be a good way to get some training. I'll go for the classic ANH farm-boy look.



So, he has to be Luke in two weeks, what to do:

- Karate jacket (bought used online), ordered.
- A pair of khaki trousers, done (found them in a drawer).
- Shoes. I have no idea what to do about those

Which leave me with:

- Brown leather belt
- Some leather pouches.
- A droid caller
- A lightsabre (he very much insisted)

More to follow.

Droid caller, would it be possible to get something out of this?


The top of the actual caller is aluminium. Using paint won't do for 2nd graders running about, so perhaps super glue and aluminium foil? Let's try:


Ugh. This looks a bit cheap. OK, it's an experiment my lad will have to live with. Next metal bit will be from some more substantial stuff:


Yupp, that's more like it.The crinkle paint is a bit much for a carnival prop, but structure wallpaper might do the trick:


Some loose bits and bobs from the drawer added. Not exact, but not too bad:


And a bit of acrylics:


That's how far I got in one evening, more to follow.

You Sir, are an AWESOME DAD!

SofaKing01 said:

You Sir, are an AWESOME DAD!

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Thanks! I'm not quite up to the standard of Holy Wookiee and the other parents I've seen here, but his and yours build threads is what inspired me to give this a go.

Only a single image from today: The belt.

I originally bought both leather and buckle to use myself, but finding the buckle was too small (and not quite the right shape) I decided it would do for my aspiring Luke. It was really shiny (like chrome shiny), so I banged it up by throwing it at the ground a few times. Then I used a permanent marker to colour it black, and removed most of it again with a wire brush and some steel wool. It's not quite screen accurate, but I think it turned out reasonably well for a quick-fix (it took all of 5 minutes).

Since the belt is proper and quite good leather, I did not want to rivet hooks to it. Small lads grow, and the hooks might end up in the wrong places and render a perfectly usably boy size belt unusable for anything but cosplaying. Rather I made belt loops and put in a few rivets in them to give a visually similar appearance to Luke's belt.I also dug up a small leather pouch which might work. The boy isn't very big, so anything resembling actual screen size pouches would completely fill the belt and then some. Here's the result:



So, belt done, droid caller halfway.

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Great thread and project!

The boots are basically a pair of ankle high boots with puttees wrapped over top. You could probably get away with using some Ace bandages. If they still make those in cloth. That's how my dad did it for me when I was a wee lad.

Collektor said:

The boots are basically a pair of ankle high boots with puttees wrapped over top. You could probably get away with using some Ace bandages. If they still make those in cloth. That's how my dad did it for me when I was a wee lad.

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I was planning to hit the local sewing store and look for khaki cotton flannel (the flannel will stick to itself and not slide down), but the ace bandages is probably an easier choice, thanks for the tip!

Back in the old days, boys always used Vans slip on shoes to make Luke boots. You could also try Ugg boots. I've seen some Luke costumes with them, and it works pretty well. Slippers are another possiblity. There are some that have the thick flat sole and slip on style that would also work.

While rummaging for suitable bits for the droid caller, I decided to do the "triangular pouch".

On Luke's right side, right next to the buckle is an old Dutch ammo pouch. It's rather a defining part of the belt's look, so I decided to have a go.

The original pouch (presumably) held two clips of five 6-and-a-half mm rimmed cartridges. I wanted to make it leather, but I have no real need for an ammo pouch that size. My Old Man once gave me his Gerber multi-tool. It's a bit too heavy for carrying in my pocket, so I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and make a belt pouch for it.


First, a good pattern. Cardboard with the same thickness as some rather stiff leather I have laying around for making knife scabbards:
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Replicate the pattern in leather:
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I put in a shanked button at this point. Since this would be a pouch for everyday wear, I used a proper one in brass:
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The leather is of the kind with a raw (un-tanned) middle layer, so I had to make it wet to make any marks in it. A big part of the mass produced look of military leather-wares is even stitching, so out came my trusty marking wheel:
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Test fitting over the Gerber. Hah, this looks like it could work:
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Before sewing, I needed to put on the belt loop. I believe the original was sewn on, but I went for efficiency (and the leather is bloody stiff!):
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Then on to sewing. Waxed linen thread should do the trick:
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The lid is held together with two rivets. I didn't have any copper ones around, but I had some ion brass. It'll have to do:
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And finally, on the belt!
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Now I just have to wait and see how it looks tomorrow when it has dried out.

This was day three of my build, a week to go to the school carnival!

Nice going dad! Cheap up the great work!


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Great work, FF! That belt is looking spectacular! Good ideas with the boots too. I used cheap rain boots (slip on) for my kids costumes. The wrapping wouldn't be as tight but you could glue the material right to the boots and they'd be easy to get on and off.

One week left? You got this!!! :thumbsup

You are an awesome dad!
I know it's not screen accurate, but an idea for the lightsaber hook, that I use, is a belt key-hook clip. If you're looking for ideas.
You can transfer it from belt to belt, while it still holds tightly to the belts it's on. But what I like the most is that it's not just a hook, it's got a safety lever that closes the hook to keep holding what's hooked into it. I've had everything from MR lightsabers to Romans ANH Obi-Wan weathered & his GRAFLEX turned into Luke's ANH lightsabers hooked into it. & it holds without worry, through all kinds of walking (both vigorous & light.... I have not tried running though :lol), no problem. Yet, you can still, very easily, remove said lightsaber from it - even one handed.


I know when I was in the 2nd grade, between running, jumping, climbing trees, & just getting into God knows what, I rarely ever was still. & if I had a lightsaber in a simple hook on my belt... it would be falling off & getting lost constantly.
I got this at LOWES, but I'm sure it can be found at hardware stores too.
I LOVE your Droid Caller!! & that belt looks killer too!! :thumbsup

russellsch said:

You are an awesome dad!
I know it's not screen accurate, but an idea for the lightsaber hook, that I use, is a belt key-hook clip. If you're looking for ideas

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Great idea! I know a store where they might have these kinds of hooks. Thy'll look suitably "in verse" with a bit of permanent marker and wire brushing!

Friendly flyer said:

Great idea! I know a store where they might have these kinds of hooks. Thy'll look suitably "in verse" with a bit of permanent marker and wire brushing!

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Now why haven't I thought of that? :thumbsup

Today's progress:

When the belt pouch dried out, it looked a bit too new and shiny, so I put the Gerber in and just kicked it in front of me for about a hundred yards on the way to work. Here's the result:


I was thinking about using proper spirit based leather stain, but decided against it. Real vegetable tanned leather will darken beautifully with age, so I settled for this (which eventually will wear off):


I'm quite happy with the result. Best thing, it will come off with a bit of spirits:


Back to the droid caller. The D-ring holder is a bit of a curtain rail, the Klisje-system which is fairly widespread here in Scandinavia thanks to Ikea. The ring itself is a bent piece of wire hanger. The brass "button" is a bit of brass I had in my knicknacks-drawer.

The domed top bit is either shiny metal or translucent glass in the film. To me it has always looked translucent, so that what I'll go with (besides, the Wife refused to let me butcher her spice measuring spoons). I found this thingy that some swimming fish toys had come in, will it work?


Some sawing and a bit more aluminium foil later, it looked like this:


It could have been better, but for basically no expense, I don't think I can complain.

At this point I decided the lower body was a bit too long, so I shortened it by half a cm or so. This also allowed me to put in some weight to make it hang better at the belt (the wooden dowel is mostly in the upper part. The real caller has an aluminium base with a narrow serrated aluminium rim. I didn't fin anything serrated, but what about this part of an old toilet seat arrangement I put away when I changed to a new lid and ring a couple of years ago? With an inlay of cardboard it fit perfectly!


The top rim should have a small aluminium tube sticking out, but I couldn't find anything of suitable size in my drawer. I used a red screw in stead. The red gives a bit of colour to an otherwise very black and white outfit.I also swapped out the black plastic wheel for a knurled metal screw from an old propane gas system, here's the finished result:


The karate jacked came in the mail yesterday. The belt and jacked looks surprisingly good together!

My only concern is the jacket colour. While it is a well used jacket, it's very white. to me Luke's seems a tad off-white. Anyone having any feeling in that regard? I'm considering brewing a bucket of tea and let it soak.

Next up, the lighsabre!

The lightsabre is "the Big One" of this costume (according to my son anyway). I got a head start this morning:

I found this bit of PVC tubing in a trash bin near my work yesterday, looks promising. Perhaps paired with these bits and bobs, I might turn this into a lightsabre:


A through cleaning and a bit of sanding later, and it's time to see what I'm up against. It's only 32 mm in diameter, about 84% of a Graflex. Since my son is smaller than Mark Hamill anyway, scaling down a bit isn't a bad idea at all:


If I had been a tad smarter, I'd done this at work where I have access to a printer, but scaling down Darth Lars excellent blueprints wasn't that difficult:


This kind of looks familiar. Tonight will be dremmel-time!


Half a week to go!

Lore525 said:

Back in the old days, boys always used Vans slip on shoes to make Luke boots. You could also try Ugg boots.

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Hm, his twin sister has a pair of brown Uggs. I'll see if she feels charitable. Thanks for the suggestion!

Friendly flyer said:

Hm, his twin sister has a pair of brown Uggs.

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Here's my Luke costume for my son last year:
http://www.therpf.com/album.php?albumid=6004

I used Magnum desert combat boots and sewed beige elastic over the lower eyelets.

I used boxer's hand wraps, stained with teabags for the leg wrappings - excellent in my opinion. I sewed Velcro tabs on to keep the in place (incidentally - masking tape is exactly the same colour and can be used to secure them in an emergency).

The poncho was a beige fleece blanket which I hand-stitched edging onto.

The lightsabre was bought off Ebay. It's a bit small - but good for a kid and lights up with sound effects.

The belt pouches were dead cheap Ebay buys from a massive stock of Yugoslavian army surplus. I made the belt clips myself.

Holy Wookiee said:

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Just guess what she just found out she want to go as....