Kid sized Jango Fett Costume completed

[mmhnc]

To start, I'm posting this here and not The Dented Helmet becuse I can't seem to post pictures there, not sure if it's becuse I'm considered new there or what but makes updates difficult.

On to the project.
At the end of Last Halloween my kids started to put in their requests for the following year, my 3 year old requested a Captian Phasma, check that build out here http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=257408
But to my excitement my 6 year old requested a Jango Fett, now I am a big fan of the Fett family just like most Star Wars fans but I have always liked the style of Jango. Now this year is going to be a little special, we plan on spending Holloween in Disney World this year, so if we are doing Star Wars costumes at Disney World they need to be right, time to step up my game.

So the punch list for the Jango costume looks something like this
1. Helmet
2. Armor
3. Westar 34 Blasters
4. Gauntlets
5. Jumpsuit
6. Holsters
7. Gloves
8. Jetpack

Now I have been working since the beginning of the year so I will have to catch you up on my progress so far!
Lets start with the Helmet;
I started with a a basic templet from Wizord of Flight, Then after printing full size I made copies at 85% size, typically others use cardboard when building from these templets but O knew I was going to do some things a little diffrent than instructed so I just started with a light weight card stock.

Also someone is already working on his pose!
In the templet the cheek is shown as 1 piece and in reality it needs to be 2 pieces. So I corrected that and then built out the raised areas with chip board. Also since I already had everything at 100% why not put it together.

Then it was on to resin and fiberglass, once that was finished I cut out the visor.

After that comes the time consuming part, lots of priming and bondo and sanding, then lather rinse repeat.


This is where the helmet was as of last night, in the next post we will cover some of the other parts!

 

[mmhnc]

Re: Kid sized Jango Fett Costume WIP

Alright let's get caught up on the other parts I have so far!

1. Ammo Pouches

I sewed the first pouch but then realized in the movie they weren't sewn. So I guess I will be glueing the rest.
2. Armor
I got a big 4 foot by 8 foot of HIPS plastic, my plan is to thermo form these and then back them with fiberglass to make them stronger. Once again I used Wizard Of Flight's templets, he has them pre scaled to different heights.


3. Gauntlets
I was able to find a pep file by Skips Pepakura Costumes, again I resized these to 85%, they assembled quickly. Next step is to fiberglass and resin.

I think that's it for now, the progress on the Jetpack and the blasters are going to require there own thread!

 

[mmhnc]

Re: Kid sized Jango Fett Costume WIP

Ok let's talk blasters for a minute, I was able to find a PDF blueprint that was pretty nicely done, these where done by Sinclair Engineering. They are full sized so again I had to reduce everything to 85%, this was easy since the thickness of the grip was 1".
So in order to achieve a 0.85 thickness grip I took some 0.75" pine and laminated it with 0.085" polycarbonate and some 0.03 styrene. Now you may ask why pine instead of MDF, well I had pine left over from another project.

I then glued the templet down and drilled all the holes to make the radiused sections

And then went to my trusty scroll saw to cut everything out

Then I used the belt sander, Dremel and handfuls to fine tune everything, and roll all the edges over

 

[mmhnc]

Re: Kid sized Jango Fett Costume WIP

Woops double post!

 

[mmhnc]

Re: Kid sized Jango Fett Costume WIP

Time for some jetpack talk! We decided to go with the stubby arena jetpack becuse it seemed more manageable to have on for extended periods. So I started with another file from Skip's and then reduced it to 80%, I went a little smaller than everything else just to make it more comfortable. Assembly was actually really fast.

Now I chose to do two things diffrent from normal;
1. I chose not to completely assemble all the parts so I could get the internals fully fiberglassed from the inside.
2. I didn't resin the whole outside, only select areas. I wanted to cut down on the amount of bodywork required.
Before I started the fiberglassing I cut out some internal areas, namely the rocket tubes for better access and also reinforced the sides to prevent collapse.

Normally I use fiberglass cloth but I have had issues with it pulling away on tight curves. So I decided to try some chop strand fiberglass mat, now I know that I am not a fan, it soaked up resin like a sponge and stuck to the brush like crazy, at the end I realized that I completely forgot about the roller tool you are supposed to use to press the mat into the resin and force it back down to the surface. Oh well it worked but it it ugly. Oh well it is the inside and no one will ever see it.

Next steps are to add the back panel and assemble all the external parts.

 

[mmhnc]

Re: Kid sized Jango Fett Costume WIP

Update time!
Bodywork on the helmet is almost done, just a bit more then I need to start adding the accessories (vent and ear pieces).

Last night I started to forming the armor, this was interesting and involved some creativity. Anywhere I needed a crease I used an impromptu break, this involved anything I could find with a straight edge clamped together then heated with the heat gun and bent to the proper angel.

For things that needed curved I just found a bunch of round cylinders of diffrent sized and just heated and bent to the form.

Here is the end result.

Also I scored some boots on eBay for a steal,

no really, these look like they where maybe tried on once and I payed a whooping $0.99. Yep can't get much better than that.

 

[mmhnc]

Re: Kid sized Jango Fett Costume WIP

It's been a while since my last update, I'm almost done with the helmet, armor, Jetpack and gauntlets, I will update those as I get closer to wrapping them up.

So tonight I have been making progress on the blasters, first I cut the slot in the bottom for the counter weight, these will also be where I hold them on my little fixture for painting.

Then after some primer, spot filler, and sanding they looked like this.

Netx I wanted to make the barrel and barrel holder, for the barrel I got some 3/4 OD aluminum tube I may polish this but not sure how much it will stand out compared to the silver paint. For the holder I used 3/4 ID PVC, now it's strange but the barrel is lose in the holder even though they should be a tight fit. Oh well I will have to figure something out.

Thats about it for tonight, not sure how to make the end and the knob, I may turn these out of foam and cast them but not 100% yet.

 

[mmhnc]

Re: Kid sized Jango Fett Costume WIP

Update time! I have been able to get most of the armor painted, first in a nice glossy black (to do chrome right you should base in gloss black).

Then got it painted in Ace hardware chrome, I tested a bunch of chrome paints and this is the one I like the best.


Now I am going to wait a few days to make sure it's good and dry before hand along since chrome paint is really fragile and will smudge and rub off, after a few days I am going to try clearing, first with some far away most coats, so it's almost dry by the time it hits the surface, I will still lose some shine but in my testing it seams like the best way to clear this stuff. In the meantime I am also working on the blasters, I have glued up the grip to the barrel holder.

Also started the triggers.

Next im going to start turning the knobs and ends from foam, stay tuned!

 

[mmhnc]

Re: Kid sized Jango Fett Costume WIP

Got the triggers in last night

Also started trying to turn the round parts out of foam and was really unsuccessful, a power drill is not a lathe.

 

[Stinkape]

Re: Kid sized Jango Fett Costume WIP

Great work .. !!

 

[Redwillow]

Re: Kid sized Jango Fett Costume WIP

Very nice work and effort going into this.

 

[mmhnc]

Re: Kid sized Jango Fett Costume WIP

Stinkape Redwillow Thanks for the comments it's good to know people are watching!

 

[mattycsi]

Re: Kid sized Jango Fett Costume WIP

You've done some really good work on this and the Phasma suit,can't wait to see them finished.

What are you going to do with them when their finished and after Halloween. Will they become a display and reminder of the event?

 

[mmhnc]

Re: Kid sized Jango Fett Costume WIP

You've done some really good work on this and the Phasma suit,can't wait to see them finished.

What are you going to do with them when their finished and after Halloween. Will they become a display and reminder of the event?

Normaly bits and pieces stay around for display or for the kids to play with, but I have hopes of using these for some local cons or something.

 

[mmhnc]

Re: Kid sized Jango Fett Costume WIP

Finally the "simple" helmet is done, still need to add the ears and range finder but the base is complete and in final primer!
he other day I added the rear vent;

Then did some more body work and last night did my final layers of primer!

Also I assent happy with the chrome on the armor after clearing, even with my gradual almost dry spray technique it ended up very dull and metallic silver looking. Then I had the idea to just highlight some areas with the chrome and bingo, it looks like beat up metal now, so it's mostly clear coated so it won't rub off but still has some really shinny areas just like real worn metal. I do plan to buff the chrome with a cloth and try to get off anything that may easily rub off so we will see how that works. I think after weathering it's going to really look good!

 

[StevenBills]

Re: Kid sized Jango Fett Costume WIP

Jeez, you're making all us other dads look bad!

Very good progress so far!

SB

 

[mmhnc]

Re: Kid sized Jango Fett Costume WIP

Last night I finished the vest! Glad to have that bit crossed off my list.
first I patterned the vest using a Tshirt then adjusted everything to center the neck hole and make sure it's big enough.

As you can see I left extra to make seams and to trim the shoulders. My intention was to use seam tape and iron all the seams but apparently vinyl melts before the seam tape so that didn't work. I ended up just using glue so let's hope it holds up ok, when I get out the sewing machine to do the gloves I may go back over and sew all the seams as well.

So I started all the straight seams by clamping over at my fold line.

After gluing all the straigth edges and the head hole I put the shoulder armor on and trimmed the sleeve area, then finished gluing everything up.

Thats it for today, but at least we now have something to mount all that armor to.

the flight suit is being outsourced (my mother is way faster at that stuff than I am) so a big focus now needs to be the stuff that is farther away from being finished like the blasters and holsters and helmet ears.

 

[mmhnc]

Re: Kid sized Jango Fett Costume WIP

Lots of progress, the knees are done except for a little body work and of course paint.

Then I started to get color on the helmet!

 

[mmhnc]

Re: Kid sized Jango Fett Costume WIP

Making lots of progress! The end is in sight! I have been painting the helmet and the Jetpack, I love this part, all the layering and masking is very satisfying.
only the silver left to do on the helmet.

Also only the silver is left on the Jetpack, as a note for the next time I try to use this chrome paint before you go over top of it with another color make sure you clear! I had based the Jetpack in the chrome then light blue and the light blue had a lot of trouble with not sticking properly.

Also finishing up the "ears" the last layer of bondo is drying right now and will get primed and painted tonight. Here is the in process to show how they were constructed.

The other part that has been giving me fits was all the turned parts for the blaster, I tried making them out of ridged foam but that didn't work so I went and bought one of the Rubies Jango blasters and cut off the parts I needed, I am then going to make some molds and cast a set of copies. Here is the mock up minus the counterweight that want done yet.

Still have to start the belt and holsters but the flight suit, knees and gauntlets are done and just because I couldn't resist here is the armor sitting on the vest!

 

[ThreshKeller]

Re: Kid sized Jango Fett Costume WIP

Are you doing two costumes simultaneously? OMG! This is crazy. I just posted in your Phasma/Battlebuddy build saying that I had done something similar. Coincidentally I am in the middle of scratch building my daughter custom mandalorian armor. I literally started last year on the helmet, but took the majority (all) of the summer off. I printed out WoF's templates at 90% and transferred them onto wood laminate sheets with carbon paper rather than used card stock. I thought it would be easier to work with & yield more a "helmet-like" end result in terms of feel. I fiber-glassed the inside & bondoed the outside. I purchased 3D print ears & range finder from from Rafal's shapeways store to save time. Also, picked up a metal stalk on ebay. I just cut & installed the t-visor out of a shade 5 welding shield this weekend & lined the inside last night. All that's left is to paint it...