Showoff thread: My Obi-Wan costumes: Episode II, Clone Wars, Episode III

I've never done a show-off thread of my costumes because I never felt like I had much to show. I finally got good photos of all my Obi-Wan costumes done and I figured I'd show it them all off.

This has been a a constant work in progress since the Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit at the California Science Center in April of 2007. I guess I actually did get 3 costumes done in a really short amount of time. But Celebration IV allowed me to kind of do more than I normally would with a hard due date.

Let's start it off:


The Suck

I had a really crappy and generic Obi-Wan-ish costume that was sort of based off the Episode III look. That's always been my favorite. I always dug on the longer skirt and the brown undertunic more than the mullet and the off-****e pants. Luckily there's only a couple pictures existing of that craptacular costume:




The tunic was a single layer of Osnaburg cotton with a chocolate brown cotton twill dickie underneath. The belt was an early version from the-rebel-agent with Jedi Agent's silver OWK buckle. The pouches are all from costume base on eBay, his early foam ones, that I repainted and dry brushed. I found some extremely fragile and antique red-brown riding boots to finish the ensemble. The only thing from this costume that still exists today in my ROTS is the pants. Those were a find. A pair of expensive wool dress pants in a darker khaki that has a slight color change from different angles and lighting like the screen used pants.

Episode II: Attack of the Clones

After I brought out this costume as WSMI, my friend Bryan started pushing me to do an AOTC costume and be his Obi-Wan. I resisted since I didn't really like the AOTC look. eventually I gave in under the condition that I would do both Ep. II and III at the same time and eventually he might do ROTS as well.

The hardest things for Obi-Wan prequel costuming is finding the boots, the buckle, the pouches, and the lightsaber. So I started looking and weighing my options.

Boots:

I have always been underwhelmed with the Motorcowboy boots; especially when the high price tag is taken into consideration. With no other options, I started scouring eBay for vintage riding boots in reddish brown. I can't say anything else but I got really lucky and found some in my size. They hade some damage I needed to repair and they sucked up a whole mess of leather conditioner inside and out before I dared to even look at them much less wear them.

I did a bunch of dye tests mixing British Tan with some red dyes until i got something kinda close. With the finish it's actually a little too red but it was good enough for what i was trying to accomplish. I cut out the spat portion of the boots from a thinner hide I had and then wet molded them onto the boots:



I cut straps and glued the keeper loops while that dried. Everything was dyed to a reddish brown color. I glued the spats directly to the boots. I know that the movie version had spats that were removable on one side. But my boots don't have laces or zippers so I didn't anything less than permanent. The straps are held on by velcro. The keeper loops actually float. I didn't want to permanently attach anything relating to the straps since I wanted to be able to switch the placement around to use the boots for both Ep II and III. The final result actually surprised me since I am always thinking I am screwing up:




They have a weathered and travelled look that i really enjoy. The top straps can be removed so I can use the boots for both costumes:



Belt:

Like I said earlier, I was able to get one of the-rebel-agent's first Obi-Wan belts and get in on Jedi Agent's silver buckle run. Two things I couldn't be happier about:




I was also able to get in on the-rebel-agent's first resin pouch run. Since accurate movie pouches are hard to come by these days, it was so amazing to not only get pouches but ones of this quality.




The fact that the grapple pouch from ROTS is functional kinda blows my mind.

Tunics:

I was able to get some cotton/rayon blend crinkle fabric second hand and sent it off to Eva Vanecek in San Fran to get a set of tunics made. Eva's stuff is always high quality and she was able to get me a combo Ep II/III tunic set plus a white crinkle cotton undertunic for Ep II and a Ep III undertunic in a matter of weeks. I debut the AOTC costume at WSMI a few weeks later:






Like most things, I wasn't happy right away. The tunics looked sloppy; partly due to not enough time in costume to work out the kinks. But there were other issues like my hideous wig and the tunic sleeves had no hidden stitches so the sleeves would get longer and longer as the day would wear on. Other projects would push this to the back so I wouldn't get much done on it before Celebration IV; except some ill fated wig styling that didn't help:





Eventually, my "padawan" Bryan wanted to do a professional photo shoot in the fall of 2007 so I was pushed to upgrade the tunics and get the wig in good order. I tried the "dunking" method and it worked pretty well on my cheap $30 wig. I was able to do some blind stitching on the sleeves to keep them in place and some work on the tabbards as well. The results turned out pretty well:









I'm always searching for a new wig. I have some new prospects. But this costume is in a good place for me. I have a pack of fabric to upgrade the tunics some day. Make an accurate set of Ep II specific tunics. But that's a long way off. The only thing left was the lightsaber:

Lightsaber:

I was lucky enough to meet a guy named Mike. he goes by xwingband and has a lightsaber building and conversion business he calls Incom Sabers. He had taken a Parks EL Obi-Wan TPM hilt and gutted the EL and converted it to LED with a Plecter Labs dimmer. I freaked out when i saw it. I was able to get a Parks with a little luck and sent it to Mike for conversion. He gutted the EL and change the electronics out to one of Plecterlabs' LED driver/dimmer which features flicker and an aux clash flash feature. He set it all up in a polyc tube:



That was all squeezed into the Parks with a NiMh battery pack housed in the bottom compartment just above the pommel. The emitter houses a tiny Luxeon Rebel in blue driven by the dimmer. The red button activates the saber. There's a small momentary auxiliary button hidden in the black grip section that initiates the clash flash. It's placed really well. You can barely see it and I can hit it with my ring finger when gripping the saber:



There's no sound but Mike hooked up a vibrating motor to the dimmer. So it vibrates when activated. A really nice feature. I really enjoy this saber. The Rebel is ridisulously bright and the saber is light and well balanced. Here's a video on YouTube that Mike made of my saber:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7He1mkMrqY

It is my precious...

The Clone Wars

Whenever you have a Star Wars specific convention like Celebration you think about bringing out odd or less well-known costumes you know the fans will dig. For me and my "padawan" that was The Clone Wars animated series from 2005. I work in animation and Gendy Tartakovsky is one of my idols. I loved the series and I loved Paul Ruddish's character and costume designs:




So when Bryan said he was doing Clone Wars Anakin for CIV I jumped at the chance to do Clone Wars Obi-Wan. Of course I had to build seamless Clone armor and he only had shoulder bells but whatever.

Armor:

Luckily, Obi-Wan only wears a little Clone armor. So I was able to get a partial set of Glover armor about 4 months before CIV. I spent pretty much every night working on it (much to my girlfriend's chagrin) since it was my first time doing anything like this. I turned my dining room into a work area (much to my roomate's chagrin) sealed off in plastic and banged away. I got a lot of help from my friend Donny which was invaluable. I got it done eventually. I leanred a lot and would do a lot differently if I ever did it again. But it does the job. No weathering to do which saved time. But it could have hidden some problems areas.

Soft Parts:

For the tunic, I actually just removed the sleeves of my old crap Osnaburg cotton tunic. It could be longer but it saved me money and time to reuse something. The body suit is a Cleveland Browns Under Armour suit made for cold weather. So I sweated my ass off in it. Luckily, it wicks the moisture away! The gloves are dyed parade gloves and the boots are factory second Caboots. The cape was made by Eva Vanecek in SF out of a polyester. It's a full half circle cape with a full Jedi hood and weighs a ton and chokes me when I wear it. If I did it again I'd use a lighter linen and do it a quarter cape that only comes to my shoulders in front. Since I never, ever pulled it closed.

I debuted the costume at CIV and it looked good but was the most uncomfortable thing I ever wore. The rigging for the chest plate pulled it up into my throat, the cape choked me, the forearms dug into my wrists, and the shins banged up my ankles. But I am glad I did it and did it pretty well. Most people that do Clone Wars Kenobi do the full Clone suit version from Volume 1. I wanted to take the slightly less tread path:






Eventually I got some good pictures taken to finally submit it to the Rebel Legion last month:





Obviously, I am now working on the new look from the 3D show premiering in August. Target date is San Diego Comicon 2008.

Nice stuff Chris! I never knew that you made your own boots. That's pretty cool!

Oh and you're welcome for the help with the armor btw

Great job on the costumes Chris! I'll bet that lightsaber set you back a few Republic Credits; I wish I could afford one.

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

At the same time I was working on the AOTC costume I started the ROTS costume. I've talked about most of the parts already: the tunic, the boots, the belt. When I got the-rebel-agent's functional grapple pouch I found that the lid would open and bang closed as I walked. So I got some tiny rare earth magnets and installed them in the corner to keep it closed:



Th cool thing is that Diego saw my tutorial and is now doing this to all his new pouches.

I debuted the costume at a Sake and Star Wars dinner during WSMI:





The tunics have the same fitment issues I talked about in the AOTC section and the inner tunic, made of the double jersey I think was used in the movies, was too thick and hot. But it looked good.

Before CIV I had the opportunity to purchase a prototype Obi-Wan tunic set made by Azuma. Luckily, the guy he made it for had almost the same measurements as me. This tunic set is amazing. It came with all the right snaps and velcro in all the right places. It fit like a glove right out of the box. It has all the features and is one of the the most accurate tunic sets I have ever seen. Other than the inner tunic being made in a thin stretch twill, it is as perfect as I could ever ask for:




My "apprentice" finally made a ROTS set so I started growing out my beard to get the right look for ROTS. I got a new and upgraded belt from the-rebel-agent. He has upgraded his leather, fitment, and dye color. I borrowed a robe from the illustrious Obi-Dan and took some new pictures to submit my costume to the Rebel Legion:






I have a new robe coming in a really accurate wool twill that was found in Argentina. I have a MR FX being converted to run a Crystal Focus v3 sound board and Lux V. But other than that (and maybe a new inner tunic someday) this costume is as good as I think I will ever be able to get it. Short of cosmetic surgery to look like Ewan MacGregor I suppose. Eventually I hope a good boot solution is found outside of the MC boots. My riding boots will someday explode with age. But until then I am happy.

foxbatkllr said:

Nice stuff Chris! I never knew that you made your own boots. That's pretty cool!

Oh and you're welcome for the help with the armor btw

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Yeah, well, more "put together" than anything. I really couldn't have got that armor done without bugging you daily. Thanks dude.

Zombie_61 said:

Great job on the costumes Chris! I'll bet that lightsaber set you back a few Republic Credits; I wish I could afford one.

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Thanks, dude! That Parks was worth it. It's like one of maybe a dozen TPM OWK sabers with LED. Maybe more now with acerocket's run. But to have the nice Plecterlabs dimmer in it is really awesome. The flicker and ramp up are really sweet.

Awesome costumes!!

Fantastic!!!!

Dave

Great job! The fabric really looks like the actual stuff. It's cool that you made so many versions of the same character! Very fun.

Guri said:

Great job! The fabric really looks like the actual stuff. It's cool that you made so many versions of the same character! Very fun.

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Thanks. I think I'm too old to do Episode I and I have maybe 20 years before I could pull off Old Ben. So I'm good for now.:lol

Excellent work!
I LOVE the clone armor Obi; I've always been fascinated by this approach. It is very evocative of the fact that he was a GENERAL in the Clone Wars ... always felt like a genuine link to the OT.

Great work - thanks for the pics and detail! Very well done!

Awww, the poor mullet wig. :lol


Great job, per usual.

I got a new one coming. Hopefully, it will be be more mulletastic and less craptastic.

defyitall said:

I got a new one coming. Hopefully, it will be be more mulletastic and less craptastic.

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The wig kind of makes it look like you have inserted your face into the official promo pics. :lol
.. But, to us to know that it really is you in those pics, it shows how good the costumes are! :thumbsup

Wow! Thanks. That wig is pretty crappy so that's a huge compliment. It only looks good from certain angles and took like a couple weeks of trial and error to get where it is now. I would dunk it in water, put it on my head, style as best I could with the bad synthetic fibers, and then let it dry on my head. The next day I would put it on again and check it out. Repeated that a few times until it got to where I could stand it. But I've never been that happy with it. Hopefully this new one I have coming will be way better.

Nice stuff Chris! I've always gone to your's and KK's stuff when I need Obi-Wan info. The costume(s) look great.

Although I was all set to rib on the wig when I opened this thread. Looks like I was beat to it. My only wig advice is this... Half of the wig is how you wear it. i.e. using a wig cap, barretes and bobby pins. I have a friend who is Broadway hair designer, and she taught me how to put one on proper. Sadly, the ability to cut, style, and choose wigs seems to allude me. I can put one one like a master though. :lol

Thanks for the advice. I definitely need to get more "pro" when it comes to wearing the wig. Biggest problem right now is that I use a cheap $30 costume wig that won't style. The one I just bought is better quality but has a "fuzzy" top to keep the volume. Makes my head look huge. So, $40 wasted there. Maybe I can find someone on eBay for it.

The wig hunt continues...

Might be faster to let your hair grow out. :lol

Wigs are a pain... sometimes going without one looks better than wearing a bad one. It's all personal choice though.

My husband grew his out long for a series of costumes (Obi-wan ep 2 , Boromir, Celeborn) until it was well below his shoulders for Eomer. He was glad when we retired the costumes and is now a Episode 3 Obi-wan. *L* It took me 4-6 years to grow my hair long enough to be an authentic Eowyn and Galadriel - and then I cut it all off... was fun while it lasted though.