spidermanna
New Member
Welcome to the 4th installment of my RotJ Boba Fett build (hoping this one gets some comments!) This was a fun build but had a lot of repetition.
Unlike my other tutorials, this one starts with the actual template I pulled from DentedHelmet.com (TK-409). I made a variation on this which I traced onto the back of the pleather with a slightly smaller version used for the plastic for sale signs I used as frames. I believe this is nearly identical to how it was done on the site.
The trick is to barely score along the outer lines and gently snap to from squares. Recommend taping over the score lines to prevent them from snapping, which they will..
Pictures of the finished frame. The faux leather (pleather) is glued to the outer edges…
Glue the front edge on pretty well. You won’t see it but the flap is glued to the front and you don’t want it tearing off.
Seen from the back, the flap is just the pleather folded over itself to the width of the ammo container with the top and bottom edges folded over and then hot-glued to the wrapped container…however, before doing that, I thought “Wouldn’t it be awesome if instead of using the way more practical method of gluing Velcro to the flaps to keep them from opening, I used magnets…” so that is what I did—and it was a bit of a mistake… The pic on the right shows where the magnets are and the magnet itself (orangish circles). They glued inside of the pleather straps. The magnets are small (about the size of a dime (see tiny silver circle)), rare earth, and extremely powerful, but unfortunately not powerful enough to keep the flaps closed during walking or rubbing, so I had to put another magnet inside of the container to keep the flap closed. As such, it takes three magnets for each one. The magnets are available on Amazone (like everything else in the world) and pretty cheap, but the main reason to use Velcro is in the next photo…
You can see the roundishness of the magnets through the pleather. I hate that. Weathering them makes it worse. Use Velcro!
Although the straps were hot-glued on, I stitched around the edges, mainly for affect (plus I think maybe it might be fairly screen accurate? Probably not). Anyway, the takeaway here is “use Velcro”…
Notice the large belt intermingled in the mess. The ammo containers will slide freely over this belt. Unlike the container flaps, this one is folded over a 2” nylon belt and glued down and then stitched around the edges for effect.
After gluing the flaps on, mark the holes and poke holes with a soldering iron—its very fast but smells…
I used brown nylon webbing to hold the ammo container to the belt, poked holes with the soldering iron and riveted on. I made sure to make them oversized so I could fold them over the belt but still have enough slack to slide around a bit. These flaps were also hot-glued to each other to make the loop.
Shown completed, but lot ‘looped’ to the belt yet…
Almost done. Notice the Velcro stitched in the back. I didn’t use the original loop/rope configuration that was used in the movie cuz I knew this would work better (as stated, not a purist). Somethings is missing though…
These…Unfortunately these are the only pics I have of this process, so I can’t share the patterns. They are pretty simple to make and just reverses of each other. I did go overboard on the Velcro. Should have used a smaller piece that would look less noticeable when weathered. Also, reinforce the sleeve part that goes over the belt with some batting or nylon webbing to keep it from tearing later. I should have done that (and taken more pics!)…
The pockets are different colors. The one on the right is not dyed but weathered with black and brown acrylic paint sprayed through the airbrush. The flap was overgrimed as that is what flaps look like when dirty hands use them. Rub the paints in with a wet washcloth to make sure they are completely saturated. The one on the left used the same weathering technique and was also died brown.
Pics with the flaps open and after weathering with burnt umber and some gray around the edges to show excessive wear.
Close up of the pockets complete with weathering…
This is before weathering but illustrates the Velcro fastening system. My sewing sucks…really sucks…wow, it really sucks…
And the final product. Was really easy to make, and would have been even easier had I used Velcro for the ammo container flaps. Unfortunately, about all you can hold in these things are maybe nail clippers to clip off the annoying plastic film/zip ties they make everyone put on at prop checks. Those people have no idea how much they can ruin a prop blaster or sword with 3 feet of red plastic tape…I digress. Anyway, thanks for sharing and if you have any questions, be happy to answer—or ask someone on Dentedhelmet.com—they are way smarter than me…
