Blue Leader's B-wing Pilot Costume (Finished!)

[Blue Leader]

I've finally started working on my B-wing pilot costume (as seen in Return of the Jedi) and I thought that I might document my progress here. I've actually done a couple other B-wing pilot costumes over the years, but this one will be my most accurate (in part thanks to the Star Wars Costumes book) and will be my final version. The B-wing pilot has been my baby for a while now and I've really enjoyed working on it, and now that I'm working on it again I'm having fun all over again.

For now I just have a small start, but things have to begin somewhere, right?

I've just started shaping the chestbox and, obviously, I have a ways to go still, but the basic shape is there. Next I'll be doing more of the fine detailing, most of which will be in clay.

I also have the material for my flak vest. It has a few more colors fibers than it should have but it's probably as close as I'll be able to get to the accurate material. With some strategic cutting I think that I can avoid some of the clusters of neon green and such...

And here a picture of two of the flak vest greeblies. These are modeled after the greeblies on the flak vest of Ten Numb, Nien Nunb and Keyan Farlander, not the greeblies seen in Star Wars Costumes. I do plan to make the Costumes greeblies as well but these ones are finished, though I might repaint them. I have these cast in resin so I can make as many I want to.

I also have a set of helmets which are cast from the molds used to make the B-wing pilot helmets for the movie, but I'm still getting a couple things fixed on them so I'll post pictures of those later. Unfortunately, I don't have the chestbox from the movie mold, hence why I'm making my own, but I do have the accurate dimensions for it.

I have an accurate AN-H-15 flight cap but the helmet does not fit over the rubber ear discs, which I suspect is why we never see a B-wing pilot in the movie actually wearing the cap and helmet together-- 'cause the helmet just wont fit over it, the helmet is too small-- so I'll be making a replica AN-H-15 with the black discs made of foam so they will be able to squish in when I put the helmet on.

My checklist for what I need to complete...
-Coveralls (found, not finished)
-Chestbox
-Helmet
-Helmet greeblies
-AN-H-15 replica
-Gaiters (finished)
-Flak vest
-Flak vest greeblies (partially finished)
-Boots
-Cloth hose (finished)
-Belt box
-Belt
-Gloves
-"For fun" blaster (finished)

If anyone is curious, here are a couple pictures of my previous chestboxes...
-Chestbox version 1 (2010)
-Chestbox version 2 (2012)

(...Yeah, I have a fascination with adding lights to costumes...)

 

[Blue Leader]

Re: Blue Leader's B-wing Pilot Costume

Time for another update. Heh heh.

I've made quite a bit of progress on the chestbox. It's not done yet and I still need to do some shaping and a lot more sanding but it's getting there. My goal is to have it finished by Christmas and try to make a rubber mothermold of it in January and then make a few casts so I can have the three different chestbox styles... 'Cause I'm a B-wing geek like that. The chestbox has details from the different chestbox styles-- the circular cut, the large rectangular indentation and two smaller indentations for the blue buttons, and the socket for the big rectangular computer connector from the chestbox worn by Nien Nunb, Ten Numb and Keyan Farlander, and the two rectangular indentations for the orange and red buttons that various pilots wear in RotJ (with two black box greeblies) and the third style seen in the Star Wars Costumes book and also worn by Palso Thern-- and I did this because I thought that it would easier to make the the various chestbox styles... I'd just need to fill in one set of details or the other for whatever style was being put together... Easy! Hopefully.

I also wanted the chestbox to look like it was a "real" working piece of equipment, like it actually might do something, which is also why I intended the places for the orange and red buttons and added some details into the circular cut so it looked like a circuit board or air filter or something. (Though I will mention that in the Costumes book the red and orange buttons are clearly painted on, but the chestbox seen in Star Wars: Rebel Assault II has buttons that appear to be slightly intended as they have a shine on the top edge and a shadow along the inner edge).

Anyway, here's the chestbox so far...

I've already made the chestbox greeblies for the Ten/Nien/Keyan chestbox. I'm starting working on the greeblies for the other style.

I've also been working on the helmet. I have one of the helmets from the Return of the Jedi mold but the helmets in the movie are a little bit different... The top rear edge on the movie helmets is wider so I've been adding the wider edge. I've also made a couple fixes to the front of the helmet where it looks like it might have cracked or something while being cast. Once finished I plan to try to make some casts of it to make a few different styles of helmets.

I already have a couple style sets of helmet greeblies done. I'm working on another set or two and improving a couple existing greeblies.

I've also been making some models for 3D printing. Once I get them printed I'll have to sand them down by hand because it's too hard to make rounded edges in the modeling program I'm using. But that's okay, it's easier to do it by hand, anyway, and I can get the edges perfect.

Firstly, I've made the belt box. Again, I wanted to make it look like a working piece of equipment so I added a couple sockets that look like something might plug into them and there's a recharge port on the bottom. The connector greeblie on top of the smaller box I tried to make resemble a computer connector of some sort and it has teeth inside and a piece that slides down that kind of looks like a circuit board. I'm looking into options on how to get this thing printed... It's too expensive to use an online printing service-- it's coming up as $95 to print though it looks like the materials only cost around $30 so I'm not sure why they're adding another $65 just to print it-- and I'm looking into having it printed locally or possibly printing it myself at a FedEx store not too far away that has a 3D print. I'm also mulling over the idea of splitting the sides of the box into various pieces which would be glued together after being printed... Which might end up being cheaper.

I've also whipped up a model for the greeblie seen on the flak vest of the Star Wars Costumes vest. It appears on the B-wing pilot vest and on the Y-wing pilot vest next to the BENDIX bulkhead connector (which I have an accurate BENDIX connector for the Ten/Nien/Keyan flak vest).

And the other B-wing pilot flak vest greeblie in the Costumes book...

Plus the version for Y-wing pilots...

I've made both versions of the circular greeblie that goes on the side of the B-wing pilot helmet, and one of the versions (the one below with the blue stripes) also goes onto the A-wing pilot flak vest.

And the button that goes into the center of those greeblies (for B-wing pilot helmets)... I wasn't entirely sure what the buttons look like other than that they're a circle and I'm pretty sure they're not the Yamaha greeblie from the Y-wing pilot helmet because they don't have the triangular protrusion, so I decided to have some fun with them. I made one that says "SONY" on it, kind of a play on the Yamaha greeblie, one that reads "ILM", or Industrial Light and Magic, one that has a plus sign on it (or an X, depending on how you look at it) and one that looks more like a techy greeblie with a vent on it. I may make a few more for fun.

And that's my progress so far...!

 

[DaddyfromNaboo]

Re: Blue Leader's B-wing Pilot Costume

You may want to increase the detail level on the round greeblie.

 

[ywingfighter]

Re: Blue Leader's B-wing Pilot Costume

Great work Alex! The greeblies are very interessting.The visors for your helmet are in the woks and I think they are ready after christmas(I hope)!

 

[Blue Leader]

Re: Blue Leader's B-wing Pilot Costume

You may want to increase the detail level on the round greeblie.

Are you referring to the sharp edges? I'm using Tinkercad to make them so that's about as detailed is it'll let me go. But that's alright, I'm mostly just using it to create the basic designs... Like I mentioned in my post, I can print them off and finish them by hand, which would be much easier, and then cast them. It would be pretty easy for me to sand down the sharp edges by hand and make it nicely smooth and round. I don't have the skill to use any complicated 3D modeling programs... Tinkercad is about the only one I can wrap my head around.

Great work Alex! The greeblies are very interessting.The visors for your helmet are in the woks and I think they are ready after christmas(I hope)!

Awesome. From what I've seen the visor is looking good.

 

[Blue Leader]

Re: Blue Leader's B-wing Pilot Costume

I fell a little behind on my chestbox, which is partly because I'm such a dang perfectionist that I keep changing every little detail I see until I drive myself crazy, but I'm not too badly off schedule. It's finally almost ready to make a mold of. I've been having a really hard time getting the big circle in the top center to be a perfect circle, but I think that I've finally got it with my last little bit of clay that I added to it. So now I just have to wait for it to dry, then I can sand it and then it'll be ready for sealing (which will fill in and smooth out the pores in the foam). I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out so far.

I got the helmet fixed up as well. I also found a place to print off my 3D models much cheaper, including the belt box which can be printed off for much less than $95 (I've also improved the model of it a bit, though I don't have any pictures of it yet). And I've made a bunch of other greeblie models.

I got my new coveralls in the mail a couple days ago but I can't decide if I'm completely taken with the color or not. I wish it was a bit more of a true red, but it's closer than my old Dickies coveralls. It's extremely hard to find coveralls that are a true red in the US... There's a place in the UK that sells coveralls that are a more true red color (I have a material color swatch from them) but one pair of coveralls from them costs as much as two coveralls from the place where I bought my new ones, not including shipping. Not to mention that if I sent these back it would take at least a week to get my money back, and if I order the coveralls from the place in the UK, they would take at least a month to get here... So I've been trying to decide whether or not I want to bother going through all of that or if the new coveralls are close enough in color. Admittedly, it's hard to say what the true shade of red is supposed to be for B-wing pilots as every reference picture has the coveralls in a different shade of red...

For the heck of it, here's a couple pictures of the new coveralls (from Berne Apparel) and my old Dickies. The picture isn't all that great and doesn't show the colors exactly, but...

A couple weekends ago I went out and picked up a U-haul moving blanket after I had heard that they look pretty good for a B-wing pilot flak vest. I brought it home and compared it to my disaster relief blankets and, well, I think that disaster relief blankets look much more accurate...

I also went out and picked up material for my new AN-H-15 replica. I matched the material as closely as I could to the authentic AN-H-15 cap I have and the material is pretty darn close.

 

[Blue Leader]

Re: Blue Leader's B-wing Pilot Costume

Well, I've made the first casts of my chestbox. There were a couple hiccups as I figured out the ins and outs of the mold but I think that they came out fairly well. Just need a little sanding and they're good to go.

I've also got all of the greeblies printed out and the belt box, though I haven't cleaned them up yet or rounded the edges on the belt box.

Chestbox...

Chestbox with greeblies (optional chestbox details not filled in)...

Chestbox greeblies...

Helmet greeblies (and one flak vest greeblie)...

Belt box...

Regarding the chestbox greeblies, there are a few that I don't have pictures of. These are the ones I've made previously for my last scratch-built chestbox. The molds are already made but I haven't made any resin casts of them lately so I don't have any recent pictures of them yet.

 

[ywingfighter]

Re: Blue Leader's B-wing Pilot Costume

Great work ! Looking forward to your project.

 

[Howlrunner]

Re: Blue Leader's B-wing Pilot Costume

Looks great. Looking forward to seeing some helmet casts....

 

[Blue Leader]

Re: Blue Leader's B-wing Pilot Costume

Thanks.

 

[Blue Leader]

Re: Blue Leader's B-wing Pilot Costume

So I finally have some costume pictures to post. On Sunday I finished my AN-H-15 replica cap which took way too long to complete, heh. I may still play around with the black ear doughnut things so that they sit straighter but either way it's done. Finally.

I have a real AN-H-15 as well (which is what's inside the box) and that came in real handy to compare to.

 

[Howlrunner]

Re: Blue Leader's B-wing Pilot Costume

Your flight cap looks fantastic! If it weren't for the black ear caps I would have thought it was an original AN-H-15!

 

[division 6]

Re: Blue Leader's B-wing Pilot Costume

Much better than the one I did for my Commando.

 

[Blue Leader]

Re: Blue Leader's B-wing Pilot Costume

Thanks guys.

The cap was definitely a challenging project. It looks simple but there's so much to do on it... And I had the bad habit of using using the wrong snap ends on the wrong parts, or bending the snaps because I had the hammer rod piece just a little sideways. Not to mention that I'm not very good at working with leather, and this was my first time setting snaps the way I did-- I used to use a snap punch clamp thing, but it was really hard to use, so I got a sent at Tandy that comes with a hammer rod thingy and a little anvil and you use a mallet to whack 'em in. The snap tools are much easier to use but still... It made me really nervous when I was putting the snaps on the cap. The leather pieces I could always make more of, but the cap... If I screwed up a snap there would be no replacing the cap... I held my breath each time I punched a hole... XD

The ear doughnut things are kind of wonky because I made them a little too big for the holes in the cap. I made them to the size of the black parts on the AN-H-15 I have instead of making them to the size of the side holes on my cap (which the holes are a little bit smaller)... I didn't even think about it at the time. I may go back and make them smaller, or I might add a piece of thin plastic to the inside to keep them from wrinkling in. Or I might just leave them as they are because you wont see them under the helmet, anyway. I guess I'll decide later. Heh.

(...But I'll probably end up making them smaller and resewing them. Because I drive myself crazy like that.)

 

[division 6]

Re: Blue Leader's B-wing Pilot Costume

Snaps can be a bit of a pain at times.

When I made mine I had thought of making the ear pieces out of cast latex or even vac formed plastic.
I think I used a rubberized nylon left over from the desert trooper paulderon I made.

 

[Blue Leader]

Re: Blue Leader's B-wing Pilot Costume

Snaps can be a bit of a pain at times.

When I made mine I had thought of making the ear pieces out of cast latex or even vac formed plastic.
I think I used a rubberized nylon left over from the desert trooper paulderon I made.

I had thought of using something hard but the problem is that the B-wing pilot helmet wont fit over it. I tried it with my real AN-H-15 and the B-wing pilot helmet is just too small to fit over the cap. I'm assuming that's why we never actually see any B-wing pilot wearing the cap and the helmet together in any reference pictures (besides Nein Nunb/Ten Numb, but they had a custom cap and helmet)... All of the references and in the movie always show the pilot wearing the cap with no helmet, wearing the cap and holding the helmet, or wearing the helmet with no cap, or they don't have either. I have to assume they did that because they just couldn't get the helmet over the cap.

So for the helmet to fit over the cap I had to use something that would squish down to allow the helmet on and off. So the ear pieces are made of foam and covered in material.

 

[ywingfighter]

Re: Blue Leader's B-wing Pilot Costume

I think that teh earcups removed from the original helmets and trade for softer ones.
Look at this picture for Leias Donut helmet.

The Earcup looks not original to me and the original helmet with original earcups will not worked with B and A-Wing helmets.

 

[division 6]

Re: Blue Leader's B-wing Pilot Costume

For the commandos the where left original they just filled in the opening with foam.

 

[Blue Leader]

Re: Blue Leader's B-wing Pilot Costume

Interesting. I have to admit that I never noticed that those were filled in or were changed in any way.

 

[Blue Leader]

Re: Blue Leader's B-wing Pilot Costume

Just a small update now. I got the base coat of paint on one of my chextboxes (the other one I'm working on I have to wait to paint because it needs to have a greeblie glued on first, and I don't have that greeblie quite finished yet). It took some searching but I found the perfect paint for the base color. I'm pleased with how it's turning out so far, it's definitely looking to be the most accurate chestbox yet.

This is also the one that got damaged when I was casting it. I filled it all in and cleaned it up.