spidermanna
New Member
This is the next tutorial on how I built my RotJ Boba Fett costume out of mainly sewer pipes and for sale signs (and Polyurethane). This was one of the first items I started on in March 2020 after C2E2 and about the time COVID kicked off. I worked on the gauntlets (I’m not calling them vembraces), helmet, and jetpack all at the same time using fiberglass as my building material. As mentioned in the jetpack tutorial, fiberglass sucks so I switched to PVC. However, before getting to that point, I used cardboard and foam to make the initial prototypes. The templates are available at DentedHelmet.com.
I wish I had kept the link to the templates but I didn’t.
From these, I made silicone and cornstarch molds and cast the tops and bottoms individually. After that came the fiberglass and for a while I thought I was onto something. So I kept working…
I made the flamethrower and “rocket” (I think it’s a rocket that’s on his left gauntlet—maybe it just holds lots of little rockets like in Madalorian (so it’s a big rocket that holds a bunch of little rockets, like little MIRVs??)) Anyway, it was a pain in the @$$ to make and unfortunately I didn’t take any pics but I can promise you that it isn’t 3D printed but I wouldn’t hold it against anyone if they did just 3D print one for their costume cuz it would save you a LOT of headaches…(the eagle-eyed viewers of you will notice that I am teleworking and that is a NIPRNet laptop behind the PVC pipe rocket thing)…
And then came this thing, which goes on the right gauntlet. The brass parts came from Menards or Ace or both—they were a b!t@h to find the right ones! Notice how the frame is a For Sale sign—you will be seeing a lot more of that. In full discloser, I used PEX tube to make these. Word of advice—NEVER use PEX tube for ANYTHING but plumbing applications. It doesn’t like glue and it hates paint so its super easy to scrape it off! These would both be screwed in from the inside of the gauntlet. What are these supposed to be anyway? I thought maybe they are the ropes that he used to lasso Luke in RotJ right before he takes that 39-year hiatus in the belly of the Sarlac.. (Don’t get me started on Book of Boba Fett…). Anyway,
All that effort and I got these monstrosities…they hurt my eyes just looking at them, not to mention my wrist wearing them—they were excruciatingly painful, and tight! And I didn’t even have those goofy gloves yet—that would make them even tighter. With the fitbit on they were unbearable and even with all the fires of Mt. Doom I could muster with my overly-priced Wagner heatgun from Home Depot could not soften the fiberglass enough to make them even remotely less painful than a medieval torture device. There had to be something better than this, and there was…
Polyvinyl Chloride (aka PVC) is a readily-available and abundant thermoplastic that can be easily molded using a heat gun or oven and while it probably off-gasses and cause brain damage or death after long periods of exposure, it makes a pretty damn good suit of armor! Its also easier to get than warbla and way cheaper.
You can never have enough clamps! I made the hinges by folding a piece of plastic that I heated up and placed a steel rod to act as the hinge. I made one side big and one side small and thin using one of those thin wire marker flags as the hinge. If you decide to do this, don’t! over time, the thin plastic gives way and the hinge breaks and you have to dig inside the thin slit you saturated with Gorilla Super Glue to dig out the remnants of the broken hinge. Use a METAL for sale sign and you won’t have that problem. However, the thick plastic hinge on the other side works well as the part that opens up. I used a thin metal clothes hanger as the hinge and sharpened one side to get it in and bent the other side along the curve of the gauntlet to get it back out again. I will say I wish I’d come up with a better way to do that as sometimes the gloves get trapped in the closing hinge—I used to tape them down but the last couple shows they’ve been behaving. FYI, the fiberglass gauntlets used magnets and they weren’t good…
To make the form for the cylindrical shape replicating my wrists, I used a pine 4x4 and lathed a cylinder. From that, I made a cylinder shape out of cardstock that I could lay flat and use to shape the PVC. I then heated a 4” PVC tube up in the oven at like 350-degrees until it was soft, cut it so it was flat, heated it up again, and wrapped it around the cylinder. I then cut a line on the opposite side and now I had 2 sides (top and bottom). From their, cut out those squares and all the notchy bits that serve no purpose and put a very thin No Hunting sign inside to cover the inside. You will have to repeat this process again for the internal bit since the gauntlet is roughly ¼” thick and PVC is only 1/8”. That fiberglass one is awful—that thing was in the trash like 30 seconds after I took the pic on the right…however, since I NEVER throw my molds away I was able to reuse the SiliStarch mold to make the top bit—this time out of 2 part polyurethane (Poly). Here is a little trick: when using poly, you can wait for several hours for it to be complete hard before taking it out of the mold OR you can wait 10 minutes and pull it out while its still soft. If you pull it out while its still soft, you can get it to conform perfectly to the shape of the upper gauntlet, which I did on the right side…
The left gauntlet has a light bulb on it that lights up when I flip a switch. Not sure what that is supposed to do to a Jedi or Stormtrooper exactly but it’s there and always forgotten about when I go to shows. The left gauntlet has a bit trickier and I had to cut out the top to get the electronics in and make a thing to smooth out the wrist. This gauntlet had a LOT of touchups on the top and back (outside) that I didn’t take any pictures of. I will say it was a lot of bondo used to get it to look right…
Fortunately, I was smart enough to keep the flamethrower. I made it clear so I could see what I was doing when I was shoving electronical stuff in it. It has TWO red bulbs that light up when you push either of the 2 buttons on the top. Ok, it might supposed to be a laser blaster, but I think it’s a flamethrower—or better be with all the black paint I weathered it with! I used thin upholstery foam and (ironically) old pillowcases to make little mini-pillows which I never actually used or needed. NOTE to SELF: When using Velcro, always make sure the soft side is the side that faces the skin…note the thickness of the closing hinges. The inner hinge later broke and was replaced by a metal one…
I had to rebuild the thing on the left which went into the right gauntlet back. I guess in a past life it was a plug in for a 220-VAC British vacuum cleaner or something mundane like that—I didn’t know that at the time or I would have tried to copy that closer. I was worried that with the tubes it would get ripped or broken off so I made it so it screwed in—that’s kind of a theme of mine in the hierarchy of fastening—screws are always the preferred method. On the right is proof I just that rocket thingy (see, not 3D printed)…
Almost ready for painting… (Forgot to take a pic of the right one)…
Metallic silver basecoat. All the parts that aren’t supposed to be silver are covered in Humbrol masking solution—that stuff is awesome!
Left gauntlet shown after painting and the masking solution peeled off. I forgot to take one of the right gauntlet (again!) I think these only use one color which is both crazy for anything on the Boba Fett costume and some kind of Humbrol burgundy (like Ron)…
Following an acrylic overspray, I weathered it with black acrylic paint (cheap Walmart stuff) mixed with lots of water and airbrushed on.
I probably could have done better on these...the gloves turned out nicely though at least...
Yep, totally made the keypad from poly (and patience). The 3D printed version was impossible to sand…
You guessed it—the rockets are just nails I shaped using a drill press and files from Harbor Freight and hot-glued to keep them in place (unfortunately no pics of that process either--oops). I think they are supposed to be painted but I never bothered. I made the little condom sleeves to keep them from getting bent or broken in transport.
So, let’s talk about the tubes. Other than the inevitable wrist pains that you WILL suffer, the original tubes used for this costume were the worst thing ever. They are rigid, like really rigid—like they may as well be pipes. So after 2 shows, I made a constructive change to the Boba Fett Contract and replaced them with much, much more flexible plastic NOT Reinforced tubing (left side) which does NOT suck (right side). I painted the crap out of them in the inside and out to make them look crappy. To keep them from popping out from under the little half sleeve, I made a little ammo belt out of nylon which has Velcro on the inside which fastens to a strip of Velcro on the flight suit under the right sleeve. And yes, I made the clasp out of weldable steel and welded it with my oxyacetylene welder (everyone everywhere should have one of those, or a MIG welder which I sadly don’t have). The caps you see there held on with masking tape are about to be drilled through and wrapped with several weaves of thread so they don’t come out again like they did in Chicago (if you can’t trust masking tape…. The black shoelace keeps it from coming out of the ammo belt…I’ve seen other people do this other ways but this setup works for me. Not sure what these tubes are supposed to do, but whatever, if you have to have them, make them not suck!
And back to where we started. There is only one 3D printed part on here which is that little dental thing on the left gauntlet which was just too damned much of a pain in the @$$ to make so I gave up. Hope you liked this and don’t criticize it too much for not being exactly to spec. I know the rocket is supposed to be more brassy looking but I couldn’t get the effect right to I went with what’s there. Maybe I will change it later…but probably not—I need to make another costume! I’m going through withdrawal…
More to come. Probably do his hand cannon next...
