Alright, it's been too long without an update again.
I have to apologize in advance, but with the mad rush that went into getting the finishing touches on the whole project in time for Star Wars Celebration Anaheim, I didn't do a great job of taking pictures of everything. That my be because I was getting overwhelmed with this other project I was working on:
The avalanche of fiberglass parts there is the stack of pieces for the Death Watch Mandalorian squad I had trooping around on Saturday. You can read all about that build here: http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f62/building-armor-star-wars-celebration-2015-now-night-owl-50371/
While I was wrapping up all 19 of those suits, I managed to put the finishing touches on my Shae Vizla. This included making molds for a handful of small parts:
And trimming off the unwanted portions of the motorcycle helmet faceshield I was using for the visor:
Somewhere in there I also did some quick paint tests to find the right combination for the base metallic grey color and the red markings:
Although they're nearly indistinguishable, I decided to go with the color combination on the right hand side, so I used Duplicolor "Dark Shadow Gray" for the base metallic color and the red "Metalcast" faux anodizing spray for the red parts. Since the helmet was primed in black primer, the base metallic color ended up being significantly darker:
At some point, while I was mired in everything else, my friend Sarah stopped by and spent some quality time masking off the helmet so I could spray the red parts:
Here's the end result:
The jetpack was a bit more complicated, but here's the clean version before the weathering was done:
Weathering started with a heavy blackwash:
But it really came to life after I drybrushed the parts with Rustoleum Aluminum colored paint:
The other armor parts got the same treatment:
With the hard parts nearly done, I realized that I hadn't done anything with the undersuit yet. With very little time remaining, I took a silver bodystocking and masked off the parts that needed to be silver on the finished suit:
Then I sprayed it down with black fabric paint:
At about this time, I suddenly realized that I didn't have any kind of weapon for her to carry around. With no real time to get anything substantial done, I decided to do a quick and dirty build of this blaster:
I started with a scrap of 3/4" MDF and cut out the basic shape of the main body:
With that done, I notched out a length of 1-1/4" PVC pipe to fit over the top edge:
Then I slid another length of pipe over the outside of the whole thing with some recessed cut out of it. I also made the muzzle out of increasing diameters of PVC pipe, ending with a couple of 2" couplers for the largest diameter. I also added some panels of 1/8" Sintra along the main body as well:
I cobbled together a scope out of a piece of 1/2" galvanized electrical conduit and a few more scraps of MDF:
The eye cup for the scope was made out of a couple more scraps of PVC pipe and the trigger was made out of 1/4" Sintra:
At this point I was worried that the whole thing would end up being too plain, so I decided to add a few LED indicator lights. I started by pulling out the breadboard and throwing together a simple circuit:
While I was working that out, I'd painted a few of the PVC pipe panels black so I'd have something to attach the LEDs to. That way, as soon as I'd finished soldering the components together, I could just glue them right in place:
At this point I was about two or three hours into the build, but it was late and I was pretty strung out. One of my friends snapped this winning portait:
After masking off the LEDs, the whole thing got a coat of flat black:
The final step was drybrushing some silver onto the edges in order to bring out all of the details:
Not bad for four hours worth of work.
Once we'd gotten situated down in Anaheim, I decided I didn't like the undersuit I'd painted for the build and opted instead for a plain black bodysuit. Here's my girlfriend all suited up and ready to head out for the first time:
Waiting in the hallway:
Once we got down to the lobby, we caught up with one of my Sith Acolytes:
I made four of those guys, but the guy who was supposed to wear the fourth one wimped out at the last minute because he was worried about the restricted visibility in the helmet. Still, here's three of us with Shae:
Shae turned out to be a big hit:
We got some great photos:
And all in all it was a fun weekend. I got to catch up with Darren and he showed me a couple of cellphone pics of his copy of the suit at the event. Sadly, I didn't get to see it in person. Hopefully he'll post a few pics of the finished result before too long.
I have to apologize in advance, but with the mad rush that went into getting the finishing touches on the whole project in time for Star Wars Celebration Anaheim, I didn't do a great job of taking pictures of everything. That my be because I was getting overwhelmed with this other project I was working on:
The avalanche of fiberglass parts there is the stack of pieces for the Death Watch Mandalorian squad I had trooping around on Saturday. You can read all about that build here: http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f62/building-armor-star-wars-celebration-2015-now-night-owl-50371/
While I was wrapping up all 19 of those suits, I managed to put the finishing touches on my Shae Vizla. This included making molds for a handful of small parts:
And trimming off the unwanted portions of the motorcycle helmet faceshield I was using for the visor:
Somewhere in there I also did some quick paint tests to find the right combination for the base metallic grey color and the red markings:
Although they're nearly indistinguishable, I decided to go with the color combination on the right hand side, so I used Duplicolor "Dark Shadow Gray" for the base metallic color and the red "Metalcast" faux anodizing spray for the red parts. Since the helmet was primed in black primer, the base metallic color ended up being significantly darker:
At some point, while I was mired in everything else, my friend Sarah stopped by and spent some quality time masking off the helmet so I could spray the red parts:
Here's the end result:
The jetpack was a bit more complicated, but here's the clean version before the weathering was done:
Weathering started with a heavy blackwash:
But it really came to life after I drybrushed the parts with Rustoleum Aluminum colored paint:
The other armor parts got the same treatment:
With the hard parts nearly done, I realized that I hadn't done anything with the undersuit yet. With very little time remaining, I took a silver bodystocking and masked off the parts that needed to be silver on the finished suit:
Then I sprayed it down with black fabric paint:
At about this time, I suddenly realized that I didn't have any kind of weapon for her to carry around. With no real time to get anything substantial done, I decided to do a quick and dirty build of this blaster:
I started with a scrap of 3/4" MDF and cut out the basic shape of the main body:
With that done, I notched out a length of 1-1/4" PVC pipe to fit over the top edge:
Then I slid another length of pipe over the outside of the whole thing with some recessed cut out of it. I also made the muzzle out of increasing diameters of PVC pipe, ending with a couple of 2" couplers for the largest diameter. I also added some panels of 1/8" Sintra along the main body as well:
I cobbled together a scope out of a piece of 1/2" galvanized electrical conduit and a few more scraps of MDF:
The eye cup for the scope was made out of a couple more scraps of PVC pipe and the trigger was made out of 1/4" Sintra:
At this point I was worried that the whole thing would end up being too plain, so I decided to add a few LED indicator lights. I started by pulling out the breadboard and throwing together a simple circuit:
While I was working that out, I'd painted a few of the PVC pipe panels black so I'd have something to attach the LEDs to. That way, as soon as I'd finished soldering the components together, I could just glue them right in place:
At this point I was about two or three hours into the build, but it was late and I was pretty strung out. One of my friends snapped this winning portait:
After masking off the LEDs, the whole thing got a coat of flat black:
The final step was drybrushing some silver onto the edges in order to bring out all of the details:
Not bad for four hours worth of work.
Once we'd gotten situated down in Anaheim, I decided I didn't like the undersuit I'd painted for the build and opted instead for a plain black bodysuit. Here's my girlfriend all suited up and ready to head out for the first time:
Waiting in the hallway:
Once we got down to the lobby, we caught up with one of my Sith Acolytes:
I made four of those guys, but the guy who was supposed to wear the fourth one wimped out at the last minute because he was worried about the restricted visibility in the helmet. Still, here's three of us with Shae:
Shae turned out to be a big hit:
We got some great photos:
And all in all it was a fun weekend. I got to catch up with Darren and he showed me a couple of cellphone pics of his copy of the suit at the event. Sadly, I didn't get to see it in person. Hopefully he'll post a few pics of the finished result before too long.
