My home-made Bossk.

[StewYZF750]

This might be a long post, lots of pics. It is essentially all taken from my WIP threads on other forums and compiled here. It is not a "professional" build as I have pretty much built it all in my Kitchen/garage with help from my wife for some of the sewing (!).

I realise that the mask is not screen accurate but as I do not have the funds to one of the amazing kits that artists create I had to make the kit myself, this was my first time sculpting with clay. I have made a couple of latex mask before, but just built up on a head form, never from making a plaster mould .... I had made a latex mould for resin masks though, so I had an idea on how things would work out.

Well, after a couple of outings as Dark Sided Aliens (A Nautolan and a Kel Dor) I decided that I wanted to make a start on another alien.

And just to avoid the "Who are you supposed to be?" type questions, I decided to build a Canon character, Bossk.
(I realise that this will not stop the same question, but at least I'll now have a definitive answer!)

As always, I start at the top - because if I can't make the head then I'll give up at the first hurdle.....

Step 1. Start with my head cast. This time it's wrapped in cling film...

Step 2. Add foam pieces to create the most obvious shapes:

Continue until the structure is done.

Step 3. Cover the whole lot in paper mache, to 'skin' it.

Step 4. Cover with around 10 layers of paper mache. Let it dry then you can split the paper mache and remove it from the solid head. Glue the two halves back together. You now have a hollow, yet sturdy enough, lizardy shaped shell. (no picture, but pretty much as above)

Step5. Start covering the shell in plasticine. (Kids colours all mixed together to make this streaky grey, lol)

Step 6. Keep playing with the plasticine until you get a shape you're happy with. Then add details.

Step 7. At some point you need to stop playing with plasticine - depends on how bored you get I suppose. When you decide you've had enough of plasticine the next step is to prepare for moulding the model. Basically you know that you're about to destroy what you have just spent ages creating, so I got a bit scared. lol. So you cover the whole thing in plaster of paris (well, crystacal R to be precise). I did the back half first, then smeared vaseline all over the new face of the plaster wall, then covered the front half. This is why it was important that I made a hollow shell of the head - I could remove the paper mache and plasticine by allowing the head to collapse on itself.
I ended up with this rough mould:

Step8. These two halves were put back together. I then started painting the inside of the mould with liquid latex. Layer by Layer. A couple of layers every night for 10 days. Once the latex inside had dried I dusted with talc (to prevent the latex sticking to itself) and took the two mould halves apart.
I now had a latex copy of my original scuplt. Albeit very rough and with a nasty seam down one side where the two mould halves do not fit together aswell as I'd hoped.

Step9. Trimming, fixing and painting. Basically spending a lot of time trying to fix some of the seam line issues. I think I've got rid of most of the problem but it's still there (especially on the neck). I may make another go at making the mask after I've bought more latex for the hands and feet and depending on how much is left.

I bought some white overalls which will need a lot of adapting before dying.
Then there was the hands, feet, flight vest and lots of other stuff to be working on.

Okay, don't laugh... I had started collecting lots of other pieces for the costume.

All of this may appear 'hopeful' to start with:

Overalls - which will eventually become a yellow flightsuit.
"Wellies".
100 A4 sheets of A4 foam. (combined with the wellies and latex will eventually become bossks feet).
Black Pleather (will be used to create the black vest)
8inch flexible ducting seal. (for the shoulder seals of the black vest)
X-wing style vest. (bought a cheap one from ebay, modified the size and straps, added clear tubing inside the ribs - there is still buckles and straps to sort).
Some grey webbing to become the leg harness (similar to x-wing pilots)

Boiler Suit Bossk!

I've did a couple of dye tests and started testing scale ideas for the feet.

Work done on the blaster over two days, use of the jigsaw, handheld sander and various hand tools has worked pretty well.
Aiming for this:

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Ideally I'll change the circled part for a suitable metal piece when I find something that works but for the meantime I'll leave the wooden part there.

Step by step of putting it on:

Along with a few other improvements (neck was re-worked, along with a new cable clip system and hose magnets for connecting)) see images below.

This is how the costume currently looks:

back:

back
front1:

front1
front2:

front2
left:

left
right:

right

 

[JaxAndTheMoon]

Wow... that is an incredible build. I love that sculpt of the head, I definitely didn't expect that quality from a base layer of foam and paper, but you nailed it!

 

[SethS]

Is it 100% screen accurate? No.

Is unquestionably Bossk at first glance-- absolutely.

Plus you have the satisfaction of knowing you did it all by hand-- that is really really freaking cool!

 

[zv288bot]

Man... so cool! Great job!!

Sent from my LGLS740 using Tapatalk

 

[rebelyell]

Absolutely amazing!

 

[tomm1999]

I think it came out great! I couldn't make ash trays in arts and crafts let alone sculpt something like this!

 

[StarHelix]

Impressive work.

 

[Gonkdroid]

Great job, i myself just finished a bossk costume from scratch and the relby v10 too aswell.

 

[SofaKing01]

Amazing job! Thanks for posting all the great images!

 

[StewYZF750]

Thanks everyone, this was quite a fun build and it is great fun to wear. Generally it's the older fans that appreciate the character but every now and then a young fan will appear.

It was also great to meet Alan Harris while wearing the costume, and he had some nice words to say about it too which made me happy!

bossk_alan_harris

 

[StewYZF750]

I wasn't really happy with the mask so I re-made it. Here are some photos taken recently:

 

[Doh2]

Thumbs up! You really did a terrific job.

 

[SethS]

If I was in the woods and saw that coming for me I'd run!

 

[Tumbler]

Dude! That is freaking awesome! I love the action shot running through the water. Brilliant.

 

[Stormy320]

That is really cool. Just continued validation how cool ESB is.

 

[jediscout72]

So epic!

 

[Peacefrog35]

Blown away!!

 

[obiwan kowalski]

FAN-FREEKIN-TASTIC!

 

[DaddyfromNaboo]

Oldie but goldie!

 

[Bossk]

Great job on your Bossk and I KNOW how much work it is to build a 501st approved one basically from scratch from my own experience. The only part I didn't make on my first version was the mask, though I am now making a "moving mouth" mask so my Bossk will be able to more realistically talk and growl. Alan Harris was a great guy, and he really loved my Bossk costume. When he first saw it while he was signing autographs at Celebration nine years ago now, he stopped everything and had to talk to me about it, and I was fortunate to be able to see him at several more conventions since then, where we were able to "talk Bossk". A friend took this photo of him with me, on the first day of Celebration, and I was able to get a nearby drugstore to make an 8x10 print for him to sign before the show was over! This month actually marks the 10th anniversary of my Bossk costume's completion, and it is still as popular as ever. I am sure you get the same 'love" from the fans with yours!