GONK Droid & Jawa... Magnoli's Budget Build!

[Indy Magnoli]

For a few years, we've been cosplaying SW characters at a local school gala:

...and my kids have been wanting to join in the fun, so after making a few suggestions, my boys decided to do a GONK and Jawa outfit for this years gala.

Obviously, we're going to start with some plastic storage bins... bought two of these:

...and buckles full of greeblies! (Special thanks to @Blaxmyth):

The first step was building a harness... using straps cut off from an old school bag (recently thrown in the trash):

Also in the above photo you can see some irrigation piping we scored for free from a local plumbing shop... just told them I was building a robot costume for my kid and the guy pulled this big piece from his off-cut box. We'll be using this for the legs.

For the Jawa, we started with the bandolier... drew out some patterns on paper, traced onto some leather we had in the garage and started cutting...

Plenty more to come...

Kind regards,
Magnoli

 

[TIGCreations]

Re: GONK Droid & Jawa... for the kids.

For a few years, we've been cosplaying SW characters at a local school gala:

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg291/indy_magnoli/RPF/sw-set-fin2_zps9e75d27e.jpg

...and my kids have been wanting to join in the fun, so after making a few suggestions, my boys decided to do a GONK and Jawa outfit for this years gala.

Obviously, we're going to start with some plastic storage bins... bought two of these:

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg291/indy_magnoli/gonkbuild1_zpsbfkrpbzi.jpg

...and buckles full of greeblies! (Special thanks to @Blaxmyth):

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg291/indy_magnoli/gonkbuild2_zpst2orrdqg.jpg

The first step was building a harness... using straps cut off from an old school bag (recently thrown in the trash):

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg291/indy_magnoli/gonkbuild3_zpswwdm9eqq.jpg

Also in the above photo you can see some irrigation piping we scored for free from a local plumbing shop... just told them I was building a robot costume for my kid and the guy pulled this big piece from his off-cut box. We'll be using this for the legs.

For the Jawa, we started with the bandolier... drew out some patterns on paper, traced onto some leather we had in the garage and started cutting...

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg291/indy_magnoli/jawabuild1_zpsmzil8wcu.jpg
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg291/indy_magnoli/jawabuild2_zpsxtc8var1.jpg

Plenty more to come...

Kind regards,
Magnoli

I suggest you get a martini henry bandolier for the Jawa. I have a vintage on mine but you can buy an all leather replica on Amazon for about 50 bucks. I see you are building an Enfield 5 pouch bandolier but afaik those were only used in promo pics for ROTJ.

 

[cckaiser2]

Re: GONK Droid & Jawa... for the kids.

For a few years, we've been cosplaying SW characters at a local school gala:

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg291/indy_magnoli/RPF/sw-set-fin2_zps9e75d27e.jpg

...and my kids have been wanting to join in the fun, so after making a few suggestions, my boys decided to do a GONK and Jawa outfit for this years gala.

Obviously, we're going to start with some plastic storage bins... bought two of these:

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg291/indy_magnoli/gonkbuild1_zpsbfkrpbzi.jpg

...and buckles full of greeblies! (Special thanks to @Blaxmyth):

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg291/indy_magnoli/gonkbuild2_zpst2orrdqg.jpg

The first step was building a harness... using straps cut off from an old school bag (recently thrown in the trash):

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg291/indy_magnoli/gonkbuild3_zpswwdm9eqq.jpg

Also in the above photo you can see some irrigation piping we scored for free from a local plumbing shop... just told them I was building a robot costume for my kid and the guy pulled this big piece from his off-cut box. We'll be using this for the legs.

For the Jawa, we started with the bandolier... drew out some patterns on paper, traced onto some leather we had in the garage and started cutting...

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg291/indy_magnoli/jawabuild1_zpsmzil8wcu.jpg
http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg291/indy_magnoli/jawabuild2_zpsxtc8var1.jpg

Plenty more to come...

Kind regards,
Magnoli

Fantastic!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Indy Magnoli]

Re: GONK Droid & Jawa... for the kids.

I suggest you get a martini henry bandolier for the Jawa. I have a vintage on mine but you can buy an all leather replica on Amazon for about 50 bucks. I see you are building an Enfield 5 pouch bandolier but afaik those were only used in promo pics for ROTJ.

Thanks for the suggestion. The Martini looks a bit more complicated to build, plus we're trying to do this on a low budget, so knocking out a few pouches will be no trouble.

 

[TIGCreations]

Re: GONK Droid & Jawa... for the kids.

Thanks for the suggestion. The Martini looks a bit more complicated to build, plus we're trying to do this on a low budget, so knocking out a few pouches will be no trouble.

Yeah I get where you're coming from.

 

[Indy Magnoli]

Re: GONK Droid & Jawa... for the kids.

Starting the greeblie process:

The boxes I got weren't quite deep enough to fit my son's height, so I'm expanding the middle with two sheets of plastic, heat gunned into shape to wrap around the bins:

Jawa bandolier pouches coming along nicely:

Instead of sewing and glue... I cheated and used pop-rivets to quickly assemble the pouches. I used brass collar pins to hold the flaps down.

 

[Indy Magnoli]

Re: GONK Droid & Jawa... for the kids.

More greeblies (and some paint) for the Gonk:

One Jawa bandolier done:

 

[Indy Magnoli]

Before I got too far on the Gonk... I knew I had to do some electronic work. I figured an internal fan would be helpful in case it gets too hot in there AND, sound effects were a MUST. The rear grill I installed would function as the air intake. I wired up a 12v fan I had from my greeblie box to a rechargeable camera battery and a simply red on-off button:

For the sounds, I tore apart a Music Angel sound box (cheap, but works quite wel):

I put the guts inside a small steel box for kids stationery (paper clips and such):

On the outside, I designed a SW-style label:

Now our Gonk droid gonks all sorts of things (grabbed some sound files from various websites, youtube, etc).

For the Jawa bandoliers, after making two matching bandoliers, it looked to uniform... so I spray painted one set black, then used some sandpaper to distress both sets:

For the eyes, I started with two of these cheap stick-on lamps:

Tearing them apart:

Removed the switch, extended the wires and connected both sets of lights to a single battery pack.

Using ping-pong halves for the eyes, and sewing everything down to a mask cannibalized from a cheap Batman costume... added some straps to hold it in place and some black mesh behind the real eye holes:

 

[TIGCreations]

Before I got too far on the Gonk... I knew I had to do some electronic work. I figured an internal fan would be helpful in case it gets too hot in there AND, sound effects were a MUST. The rear grill I installed would function as the air intake. I wired up a 12v fan I had from my greeblie box to a rechargeable camera battery and a simply red on-off button:

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg291/indy_magnoli/gonkbuild10_zpscqklfrtd.jpg

For the sounds, I tore apart a Music Angel sound box (cheap, but works quite wel):

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg291/indy_magnoli/4194zwhtAzL._SX300__zpso8malmk3.jpg

I put the guts inside a small steel box for kids stationery (paper clips and such):

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg291/indy_magnoli/gonkbuild9_zpsnu0mpeby.jpg

On the outside, I designed a SW-style label:

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg291/indy_magnoli/gonkbuild8_zpsz6vvc0ck.jpg

Now our Gonk droid gonks all sorts of things (grabbed some sound files from various websites, youtube, etc).

For the Jawa bandoliers, after making two matching bandoliers, it looked to uniform... so I spray painted one set black, then used some sandpaper to distress both sets:

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg291/indy_magnoli/jawabuild5_zpshf7agphr.jpg

For the eyes, I started with two of these cheap stick-on lamps:

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/...8-be90-11e3-853c-3ecb4908a8c2_zps3nacwejl.jpg

Tearing them apart:

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg291/indy_magnoli/Saber Build/mag-saber-build4.jpg

Removed the switch, extended the wires and connected both sets of lights to a single battery pack.

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg291/indy_magnoli/Saber Build/mag-saber-build5.jpg

Using ping-pong halves for the eyes, and sewing everything down to a mask cannibalized from a cheap Batman costume... added some straps to hold it in place and some black mesh behind the real eye holes:

http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg291/indy_magnoli/jawabuild6_zpsy1jhpvj4.jpg

If you ever redo it, use speaker cover fabric for the face and use orange LEDs with gumball containers. The gumball containers look perfect in size, and the speaker cover is incredibly easy to see through.

 

[Indy Magnoli]

If you ever redo it, use speaker cover fabric for the face and use orange LEDs with gumball containers. The gumball containers look perfect in size, and the speaker cover is incredibly easy to see through.

Thanks for the pointers. Part of the challenge of my builds is seeing how accurate I can get something using what I've got already on hand... that lighted Jawa mask above cost me exactly $0.

 

[Indy Magnoli]

For the Gonk feet, Blaxmyth whipped up some 3D renderings and printed out some pepakura sheets for me:

After assembly, I realized I gave him too short a length for the foot:

So, I simply cut each foot in half and extended it with another piece of card. I returned these to Blaxmyth for resin/fibreglass strengthening:

After cutting holes in the tops for the rubber boots my son will be wearing and padding the extra space in the foot with foam, I spray painted the foot black for an undercoat. Then added silver spray for the metallic effect and a yellow stripe (for fun). The rust was all done with sponge-applied acrylics. The legs were aged by spraying a clear coat, dusting bentonite all over it, then adding another clear coat to seal:

 

[Indy Magnoli]

Finish Jawa hood and robe, based on a tutorial here on the RPF:

Final Jawa:

Very happy, considering the above outfit only cost me around $20.

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

That came out great for that price! I wouldn't have guessed it. I've also been saving a bunch of stuff that look like Gonk parts to eventually build one.

 

[Indy Magnoli]

For the face of the Gonk droid, I found this cake tin for under $2 at a second-hand store:

Fitting it to the front of the box with some greeblies added:

I gave him a big "eye" so the wearer would have a little visibility, plus I wanted to give the Gonk's "face" some character.

Adding the central "walls" (lots of pop rivets):

Painting and distressing:

I love bentonite:

Rust (aka brown and orange acrylic sponged on):

 

[cckaiser2]

2 questions:
What material is the middle wall made of?
Where do you get bentonite?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Panaflex]

Great build! Can't wait to see more!

 

[Indy Magnoli]

What material is the middle wall made of?
Where do you get bentonite?

Blaxmyth can answer these questions more accurately, but I believe the middle walls are just PVC. Fullers earth is a more commonly used distressing powder... I just used bentonite as it's what I had on hand.

 

[Blaxmyth]

@Blaxmyth can answer these questions more accurately, but I believe the middle walls are just PVC. Fullers earth is a more commonly used distressing powder... I just used bentonite as it's what I had on hand.

I think it was from a sheet of ABS plastic that I had for vacforming. Probably.

Bentonite is just powdered clay. Ground up kitty litter makes a reasonable substitute. Best results are before the cat gets at it...

 

[Indy Magnoli]

Another contribution from @Blaxmyth: his scratch-built Jawa ion blaster which I just painted up (hope he doesn't mind the modification):

 

[Blaxmyth]

Hey, that's superb! I love it! :thumbsup