Gonk Droid Costume: My First Big Build!

[Pifman]

Hi, everyone. My first RPF thread for my first major build, and what better costume to start with than the Gonk droid?! Here's some insight on where I'm at so far...

My first obstacle was finding the right storage bins. After tons of measurements of my son (and thank God I did, I almost bought bins way too small) I set out to find them. I must have looked at six different places and wow what a difficult task. Too big, too small, too thin, too tall and too many smooth curved feature lines! I landed on some fairly boxy, industrial-looking ones (27 gallon). Next I was super excited to find some greeblies! Thankfully, I work at a company that builds large, industrial laster systems and they were throwing out a bunch of old equipment. I grabbed anything that looked cool and clunky:



I spent a bunch of time tearing buttons and knobs and lights off. There's more not pictured, but you get the idea. Well, fast forward to a couple weeks later - after sifting through many RPF threads and watching various YouTube videos - I start to realize that duh, my 6yo kid has to carry all of this around! I need to focus on lighter greeblies, and ones that are bigger with more character from a distance. So here's some of the more recent stuff I have to work with:



Basically plastic and a little foam. I've also got some great, light ribbed metal hoses to run down to the feet. Next was preparing the bins for not only cutting holes and attaching doo-dads, but priming and painting. I made the decision to sand every surface with 80 grit sandpaper. I really think (?!) this is gonna help it hold the primer/paint AND make it look rough and dusty. I also made the decision to cut off as many modern-looking features as possible. This included all handles and stupid little fins behind the rim! I'm not entirely done cutting them all off, but my new Dremel is getting a workout. Here's a before and after example:



As for any for Star-Wars-esque flat panel shapes, I figured I'd use some standard EVA foam (maybe 5-9mm thick), but hey guess what?! There's not a single piece on Amazon that ships before October 31st! WHAT?! I blame the RPF for buying it all up around Halloween season lol! In a panic, I did a ton of driving around and found out that both Michaels and Jo-Ann Fabrics carry ONE single sheet of 6mm foam (tons of thin, 2mm). I had to drive to 3 different places in order to scrape 7 small pieces together:



And I know that floor mats can be used for all things cosplay, but unfortunately, not only are they probably a little too thick for this project - but the only ones I've seen are textured on the one side (diamond-plate, etc.) and I really need these to lay flat against the sides of the bin. I'm not even sure these sheets I've got are proper EVA, but whatever - work with what you've got! And if anyone knows where I could find some proper rolls of EVA foam (online or offline in the US), please let me know, thanks!

Last, but not least, here's the top bin with the face hole cut out with my 8" square cooking pan in there. Of course, after I bought this (and cut the hole for it) I watch a YouTube video that said they tried the same thing - and cutting through the thick, heat-resistant metal with a Dremel was almost impossible. Whoops! I'll figure something out. Possibly drill holes in the corners and then cut the rest out with a jig saw?!



I'll do my best to update this thread as I continue to build this. The clock is ticking!

 

[division 6]

You could probably cut the metal with the ceramic (?) cutting wheels for Dremels but be careful, they shatter easily and you don't want to be hit by the pieces.
They also wear down fast.

 

[Redwillow]

This looks awesome!
Holes and jigsaw with metal cutting blade would be my thought as well.

 

[Pifman]

Thankfully, I work at a company that builds large, industrial laster systems

I'll figure something out.

Thankfully, I work at a company that builds large, industrial laster systems

I'll figure something out.

Dental plan

Lisa needs braces

Haha! Hopefully some people here get that joke. So I talked to one of the guys in our shop and he said he could probably cut a hole through the pan using one of our lasers, no problem. I'll find out tomorrow!

 

[Pifman]

Progress shots!



The big ass laser cutter did the trick! Then it was time to do a ton of sanding (as I didn't have any confidence in the primer sticking to coating on the pan, nothing else wanted to). Then it was time to layout my greeblies and line the peephole with foam to make it fit in a little more naturally. I purposefully made it very un-sexy to keep with the clunky, boxy vibe:




After sealing the foam with some homemade Mod Podge (Elmers & water) and sanding every little piece, I'm calling it complete. You can sort of tell in the pic above, I decided to make fake lights (the bulb shell glued to a fibre washer) because I didn't want to drill holes and also didn't want metal objects impaling my son's face if he falls.

 

[Pifman]

Made a lot more progress on the back too. Getting SO close to being able to hit this entire thing with some primer. First I had to do some Plasti Dip tests on some of the smaller parts. Since I've never used Plasti Dip in my life, I watched a ton of YouTube videos and tried my hand on these parts that would be easier to remake if I screwed them up:



I've got these switches I wanted to put on the back, and for anything sharp or pokey on the inside, I either shaved it off or hit it with a bunch of hot glue to avoid injuries:



Then I laid out a quick little button panel which I think turned out nice and will hopefully look good after I weather the hell out of this whole thing:




A few more strips of foam and I think I'll call the back-top done.

 

[NeoRutty]

Love me a GONK.

That I never finished one before I lost my garage will always bum me out!

 

[Popeguy]

Wait.. did you just say... COSTUME? Keep gonking, I can't wait to see more.

 

[Pifman]

Haha well it’s literally for my son for this Halloween, so I figured “costume” would be more fitting than the term “cosplay” in this situation.

Honestly though I have no idea, I’m a noob with all this stuff.

 

[Seth Skywalker]

Way cool that your making this a costume instead of only a prop!

 

[Pifman]

I knew that the storage bins that I picked would pretty much define how much of a pain in the ass this project would be, and every one I looked at had pros and cons.

While I wish that my bins had the single deep groove down the middle, they instead have three subtle grooves that make everything just ever so harder to work with lol. One challenge I faced was how to put my EVA foam panel features without there being awkward gaps behind them. This is the solution that I came up with:

After defining my shape, I then backed it (temporarily with tape) with two layers of thinner, 2mm foam (the grooves are about 4mm deep, but I didn't have 4mm foam)...



Then after some very careful measuring and marking, I cut off the unnecessary parts and glued it back on the shape (making sure to cut at an extreme 45º angle, to match the edges of the grooves)...



Then I did the same thing to the foam feature more towards the back of the droid...



All in all, I'm just surprised at how many steps it takes to make something that looks like a simple shape stuck on the side of the bin - but in reality it's measuring, cutting, heat sealing, backing, cutting more, glueing, plasti-dipping several layers on everything, then finally glueing to the side of the bin. Yikes!

 

[Pifman]

My biggest concern during this entire build has been - how is he going to wear this thing?! How is he going to carry it, presumably on his shoulders?

Mark 1


I figured, suspenders to the front and back. Easy peasy. Then while he was trying it on, the whole thing slipped backwards and nailed him in the face. Injury #1, in the books! Yeah, to say that I've been struggling to find the center of gravity and a way to keep it from wobbling in any of the 4 directions - is an understatement.

Mark 2


So then I realized that it would have much less of a chance of sliding backwards if I kept the suspenders close to him. Which technically worked, sort of. It still had a pretty unstable wobbling effect, sort of like a boxy hula hoop. I figured I'd need to put a chest strap on him that connected to all four sides?!?! Nothing seemed like a winning idea. Until...

Mark 3


NOTE: Most of this setup (tape, etc.) is just a temporary proof of concept. When I dial in the balance of everything, I'll do it better. So the idea is to simply put a bar, somewhat low, that goes through the backpack straps. That way, by just wearing the backpack, it will lift the entire costume. But, because it's towards the back, the front falls down, thus the ropes connected to the top of the straps holding the front up.

I then put a couple very lightweight handles on the inside-bottom for him to hold while walking. He seems to really like this and it seems to really help him keep it stable and I'm guessing maybe take a little bit of weight off his shoulders? I'm fairly confident that this method will work.

 

[azheat]

Looking great, I did a quick and dirty Gonk project a while back, except mine wasn't wearable. Fun build!

 

[Pifman]

Question!

Sorry to jump ahead here, but I've primed and spray-painted the entire thing, and even though the originally roughed-up (with 80-grit sandpaper) plastic bin had a sort of "soft" feel to it, after several layers of paint it has a real rough, abrasive texture to it.

Am I going to have a hard time weathering this thing tonight with watered-down acrylics? Or is it possible all those rough scratches will help?

Here are some pics that hopefully show the roughness:

 

[Pifman]

Even though this build is DONE I'm gonna post more steps along the way to show my work. I'll post more after his big day out trick-or-treating tonight!

Here are the feet. Started with some 3/4" pink insulation foam (6 layers, glued together with some 3M Foam Fast 74 Spray Adhesive)



Starting to take shape...



Then it was a matter of carving out a space for his foot/shoe and then sanding off all the hard edges. And if you look closely at his shoes, you'll notice I put a single strip of outward-facing Velcro to the top and the other side to the interior of the hole...




And then I made a little hole for the foot cables, with a sort of... how do I say this, recess on the inside for the end to catch. I also sloped the front lip of the hole as it was hitting his shin a bit when walking. And then it was just a matter of a few coats of Plasti-Dip and then silver acrylics...



I actually had some weird issues with how the Plasti-Dip effected the very edges of the foam layers. It's weird, it caused some straight vertical cut lines that you can see on the slopes. Oh, well. I would have fixed that if I had more time. And I would've LOVED to add more features (and less generic looking) because there are some really nice designs floating around on the interwebs. Again, time was my enemy.

They turned out pretty cool though and they seem to stay on his feet when he has his dryer vent legs on!

 

[modelcitizen]

show us the end result in action!

 

[Pifman]

I’ll upload more pics and hopefully a video soon!

 

[Pifman]

Some more progress shots before the big reveal! Here are all the foam features that needed to get heat-sealed and Plasti-Dipped and also the side can... things... Which I really like how they turned out.



And now the fitting of the "belt" using cardstock. Then building the real-deal with plastic styrene strips cut to size and the corner pieces heated and shaped to fit. I really wanted to add this, for a couple reasons. One, to hide the "lip" of the storage bins - anything to make them look less like storage bins the better. Two, as you can see in the 3rd pic below, it creates a sort of rigid "skirt" (that is the top bin, upside-down) that fits over the bottom bin, and holds everything together without needing any sort of small parts to keep it in place. And since it was a bit of a pressure fit, you just set it and forget it!



Then, more tricks to hide the plastic "fins" between the body and the lip. First, the big hose down one side - which I was able to put strategically-placed slits in to fit over the fins and use them to my advantage (and save me lots of time from trying to cut them out). Then a few zip ties which disappeared when painted.



Then on the other side, I used a trick that I came up with for small portions on the front side - I just cut some strips of EVA foam and finished them to fit over the top of them and voila! Below is an example of a strip, the before and the after.

 

[SofaKing01]

Fantastic! Keep going. The Gonk droids are a wonderful prop because you can really let your imagination fly and have fun with all the different greeblies!

 

[Pifman]

And here's everything with a couple coats of primer. It looked so cool I sort of wanted to just weather it like this...



And then the legs were pretty simple, I guess. Just some painted dryer vents and then I reinforced the top edge with some hockey tap to prevent them from tearing. I ended up splitting the top so that they could pull up his thigh a bit higher, then I just pinned those two corner wings to his sweatpants underneath.



Then I spray painted everything with a Rust-Oleum Camouflage color which I really really liked. Sort of a gray-ish dull brown. Getting closer...