Star Wars Rebels Agent Kallus 501st Approved!- New helmet Finished 21OCT16

tubachris85x

Master Member
I do not know why or how I came into agreement with this, but that's besides the point. A local member somehow manages to look like Kallus long before Star Wars Rebels came out, growing out the mutton chops then Rebels premiered. Strange, but fitting.

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Anyways, this is essentially a speed build for him. We've got what, 13 days before we leave? No pressure. I don't intend to half-ass it though, as I am very critical about making it as accurate as possible but yes..this won't be a fun process. I had exactly 2 weeks away from home on military duty to think this through, but I am still not entirely 100% sure about it.

first and most important piece right now is the chest/back armor. That's really the meat and potatoes of this build. What I am using for this is Sintra. Yesterday, I spent a few hours scaling it out and getting some pattern going to start. He's got the main suit already which helps. Note that the paper template was drawn from a front-view, so it doesn't account for the curves.

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First thing you may notice is that the helmet is freaking huge on him. I'm 6'7" and it's big on me. He's about 6'1"-ish but clearly very skinny. No time now to put together or get another one out there...so the plan is that I will modify this one slightly.

The issue with this helmet is that the "visor" area is way too open, more than it should be. What I intend to do is take scrap sintra, heat and form it to match the curve the cheeks, then cut out what would look like an upside-down "L" and attach them to the inner rim of the cheek/visor. This would close the gaps more and increase it's accuracy a fair bit. We'd also cut a bit of material off the bottom. It'll still look huge on him, but it'll certainly look "tighter"

Ref pic:

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My craptacular 5 minute samsung galaxy note, sitting in a car impatiently waiting for the girlfriend to arrive mock up

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So the original idea was to actually cut or cover the entire cheeks so that's why it's all red, but everything below the red would be removed.

But the helmet is the least of my worries right now.

So in my mind, the best and quickest way (not the ideal way) is to use heated and formed Sintra. I did this for making armor plates for my mandolorian build, and works well enough for me to try it for this.

If you followed Kevin Weir's construction of the OSCS Clone armor quite awhile ago, you'll see he sculpted the parts using floral foam. Unfortunately, this stuff is expensive. What you'll see here is just $50 worth. I am not necessarily getting paid for this, so I am using mostly what I have at my disposal, which unfortunately is not a whole lot.

Today, I hobbled together a few large chunks of this foam and marked out some rough dimensions based on the paper template we made yesterday. Almost 2 hours later, after cutting, sanding and shaping this large block in an almost-convection oven of a work shed, it finally looks like something useful. Unfortunately I didn't get a pic of it before...wish I did now...

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Ignore the pectoral drawings I put on there. That was merely for me to get an idea of how it'll look. The overall size is a bit larger but this was intentional. The idea is for me to form a base plate in the general shape and then cut it down to fit him better.

The one thing that is throwing me off is how to go about making the raised pectoral details. One simple Idea was to really build up that area with a few layers of styrene (offset so it looks like stair-steps) and then fill/smooth to make the downward-angled detail. However, the issue with this, is now the upper area is much thicker than the rest of the armor. I guess I could simply sand it all down to make it all look consistent...though the 2nd idea was literally to make 2 separate pieces where I'd have the lower part of the plate formed with a triangular extension up the middle and then form the upper part (the pectoral and shoulder straps). What I'd do would build the lower-wall of the pectoral details so it's raised, then attach the upper and lower plates, making the upper rest on top of the raised wall, angling it....

I'm ranting.

Depending on how this turns out in the end, I may consider making molds of it, assuming it survives dragon con..

Tomorrow is an early day. I have to produce the front and back plate bases tomorrow.

-TC
 
Re: Agent Kallus *SPEED BUILD* For Dragon Con

good work so far .. your guy needs to look more pissed though .. like all the time hahaha
 
Re: Agent Kallus *SPEED BUILD* For Dragon Con

good work so far .. your guy needs to look more pissed though .. like all the time hahaha

lol I told him we hadn't gotten to that phase of the project, but yea, he's gonna have to look that way at some point
 
Re: Agent Kallus *SPEED BUILD* For Dragon Con

Alright. Started really early today. This is where we're at as of 2 pm my time today. Might continue working on it today, but feeling kinda bleh

The goal was to make the chest and back plates. One thing to keep in mind, is that these are ROUGH cut, and by no means how it's going to look in the end, so it's not exactly pretty right now. I found a decent ref pic which shows the backplate, and how it's pretty much overall the same shape as the chest, but with some slight differences, so we made an almost identical piece, shaped it slightly different and you'll notice the collar sits higher up, as it should be.

What I really needed out of all this was to shape it and make it all fit him. I can now go and clean up the edges, even things out and make it look pretty before adding the pectoral details. The backplate will still need some more trimming, mainly where the arms are as I need to curve the sides inward a bit more than they are.

I also added the bends into the front of the chest. The backplate has them too, so I need to get those added..

Overall, more productive day. The form helped out for the most part but towards the finishing aspects, I was shaping things by hand. I think the form would be better suited if I continue working on it later on and make it into a vacuformable buck though

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Goofing off

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Re: Star Wars Rebels Agent Kallus *SPEED BUILD* For Dragon Con

Girlfriend threw an armor party today, turned out to be a really large one so it was a good time. I didn't work on the chest/back today, but focused on the helmet and Bo rifle. Both require clean up, the helmet moreso

What we did today was pretty much cover the entire helmet in spot putty, sanded it down. Still plenty more to be had. However, as I mentioned previously, I made the extensions around the visor area. Using the ref pic above of the character wearing the helmet, I adjusted the measurements with him wearing it. While this is a mock up, I feel it looks better. I will be removing material off the bottom as it's not suppose to go more than say a 1/4" below his chin.

He could have looked a bit more enthusiastic in this pic though

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Rest assured, he's quite happy about this build...

One piece I haven't posted much about, the Bo rifle. Made by Diamond props. It appears that they scratch-build their props individually, using PVC and ABS sheets. It's not bad at all though and it's very lightweight. I will say that they may have overdone the primer though, as the surface is rather rough and I had begun smoothing it out. While there's a lot of imperfections, I don't have the time to try and get everything, so I hit key trouble spots with the spot putty. It'll be a quick paintjob, nothing terribly complicated though..

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More to come...I need to have the chest/back assembled and ready for paint by wednesday. We've scheduled a test fit with everything for next sunday...yay.
 
Re: Star Wars Rebels Agent Kallus *SPEED BUILD* For Dragon Con

Got a late start today due to other circumstances.....


But needless to say, I got a lot done. I focused just on the chest piece today.

First thing was clean up and refine the base plate. It was nasty, uneven and overall ugly. I matched the sides of where the piece ends and smoothed it all out

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Next I started the pectoral pieces. I decided to essentially build it like a "box" using walls. I cut out 2 of these, one for each side, then heated and shaped them to mirror each other

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Then I did this. I chopped the top off the base plate we had made. I did this because for the pectoral pieces to sit properly, without relying on filler either, they needed to make up the upper half. As you can see, I heated and shaped the walls.

I feel the right pec is perfect, but the left one, the curved outer piece needs to be redone...Was a hell of a time trying to match those, and as a result, I ended up taking too much off of that one...

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And here's a mock up. Blue tape didn't want to do much work though....

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Overall I'm happy with how it's coming along. My biggest concern really is durability. I need this to hold up beyond dragon con preferably. Holding down those pectoral pieces are essential. What I may do is take rectangular tabs, like 3 or 4, cut a few matching slits on the remaining areas of the base plate, and slip them through to glue to the inside of the pectoral, with enough space of the tabs sticking out to allow me to apply more adhesive to basically create an anchor point. I am planning on using Devcon epoxy to hold it down as it has a high heat tolerance and he plans to wear this for the dragon con parade...

More to come

-TC
 
Re: Star Wars Rebels Agent Kallus *SPEED BUILD* For Dragon Con

Chest assembled and holding together with copious amounts of hot glue, CA glue, Devcon and hopes/prayers.

Needs a good amount of filler work but the hardest part of this build is completed IMO

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I'll start the back tomorrow. Hopefully will not take nearly as long as this did..

-TC
 
Re: Star Wars Rebels Agent Kallus *SPEED BUILD* For Dragon Con

So I didn't start nearly as early as I should have which resulted in less than productive goals, so I was only able to get a few hours in on the back plate. I did some touch up work on the chest, by re-shaping the curves along the lower portions to get them to appear more symmetrical.

The back plate, if you look at older pics, appeared rather "rough" in a nice way. I formed it off the same form as I did for the chest. I spent today refining, cutting and re-shaping it to better match the in-show appearance. Overall I'm actually quite amazed at how well it's turned out. I had to leave off right when I was starting to scale out the boxes.

You can see that I trimmed a good chunk off the bottom to get that matching curve. I do think I may want to re-shape the upper curves near the shoulder straps to make it more accurate. The straps on both the chest and backplate are WAY longer than they'll be after I'm done, so I have alot of extra material to work with (intentionally). I'll be doing another test fitting this weekend before I start painting it all.

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I'll rise and shine early tomorrow. I'd like to have the boxes built and attached hopefully before/by noon...then I can start prepping the surface and adding the spot-putty to clean it all up..


-TC
 
Re: Star Wars Rebels Agent Kallus *SPEED BUILD* For Dragon Con

Took awhile, but got the boxes for the backplate assembled and attached. These were actually kinda difficult to scale out. My initial scale made them look too narrow while others were too wide. I had to balance all of these with proper spacing/distance between each other. It's not bad, but I can't help but feel that they could look a bit more narrow...

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Anyways, the hardest part of this project is done at least. Tomorrow I can finally focus on filling and smoothing out the many seam lines, then get a coat of primer on there to see anymore issues. I'll also get to work on the helmet attaching and merging the sintra extensions into it...

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I see this as the home stretch now...

-TC
 
Re: Star Wars Rebels Agent Kallus *SPEED BUILD* For Dragon Con

This was a very long day and I've gotta be up in less than 5 hours to start up again.

I had to get to a certain point before I could stop, which was to complete as much of the filler work as possible. Unfortunately, I didn't get all of it done. The issue I ran into was that I was relying on the glazing putty to be able to hold the gaps. Wait, some of the sintra still flexes....and splits the gaps, thus defeating the purpose of even using it. Fortunately, there's a solution which works well enough, using this 2 part epoxy "JB QuickWeld." I've been using this stuff for years, and works great. So far no issues..I apply that then go over it with the glazing putty as I need it. You'll see it in some spots in the pics, where I needed to essentially re-enforce corners.

This was the first time working on all 4 components at once, basically cycling them around.

Chest and back.

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Chest is just about done. I filled the gaps between the pectoral plates and the main-body bottom plate overlap. This is where I had the lifting occur..

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Back plate is the last one I got to get at with the quickweld putty. I just ran out so I need to get some more in the AM so I can finish applying it and get it cleaned up

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The helmet I put A LOT of time into today. I permanently attached the visor extensions using devcon and the quickweld putty as re-enforcement. It's not going anywhere. After, I began Just filling, sanding, repeat over and over. I applied filler to other parts but getting this visor portion done is the most vital. I still need to go over one side after I get some primer on here to see how the seams look..

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Finally, the blaster. It's the only piece I can say is ready to be painted. There wasn't much left to do, which was clean up some air-holes on the barrel portion, and then it was just permanently attaching the forward handle. The send it with a long wood screw w/ a pre-drilled hole through the handle and into the blaster itself. the inside part of the hand slides into the main gun body like a puzzle piece. I applied some devcon onto that part of the handle, put it in it's place, screwed it in and covered the hole with some of the quickweld putty. Sanded and smoothed it out. Like it was never there

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Yep. I am going to get some primer down on these parts and hopefully be able to start painting tomorrow. My buddy is coming over for a test fit so I can make the final shoulder bridges and get final placement adjustments....

I've got about 5 days left.

Yarg

-TC
 
Re: Star Wars Rebels Agent Kallus *SPEED BUILD* For Dragon Con

I had hoped to get much more accomplished today, but didn't. Despite getting up early, we had to make a few trips to get various supplies...

We did a test fit today, and I had to measure out the lengths needed for the shoulder bridges. We got it down, but he had to leave soon after. I went ahead and assembled them based on everything but for some reason, the sides of the chest and back aren't lining up where they should, which not only affects the look, but the side-straps that I need to put on won't look right. I do think however, that this is really a matter of re-shaping the curves of the shoulder bridges, so we'll be doing another fitting in person, one last time, to get this issue resolved.

As you can see, we found some bolts that closely resemble the ones needed. Not a perfect match but certainly better than what I could find. The bridges on the chest are permanently attached while the rear is removable...

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Got a lot more to do otherwise. I plan to paint the blaster tomorrow on top up finishing up the clean up of the seams. This also goes for the helmet, which after applying some primer, it's showing it's surface resembles more of the moon.....

4 days. I have to devote at least an entire day to finishing one piece of the build...

-TC
 
Re: Star Wars Rebels Agent Kallus 4 DAYS TILL DRAGON CON! Kill me now!

Bigger update....

He came by today and got to fix the issue mentioned in the previous post about the chest fitting. Adjusted and good to go.

He came straight from the barbershop, so it was fitting to take a pic

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I focused on finishing up the chest today, going as far as painting it. Needs touch up with some dry brushing and some clear coat, but all that's left to add is the rank buttons which I'll probably take care of tomorrow

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The blaster was a bit of a pain to take care of but it's virtually done. Got a few things to do and then some additional weathering. A few issues but gotta push through and correct them

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Tomorrow I will have to focus on the backplate. I sanded some more today so about half-way through that. I'd like to be able to paint it tomorrow as well. The helmet is another monster right now, but I'm hoping that I can get the main stuff done by tuesday so I can do the tweaking on wednesday, while I pack to leave...


Oy

-TC
 
Re: Star Wars Rebels Agent Kallus 4 DAYS TILL DRAGON CON! Kill me now!

This is where I'm at. Spent all day sanding and finishing the backplate. Made the rank tiles and the details on the backplate boxes. I just gotta do some dry brush silver for some weathering and some grime and then it'll be officially done


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I spent time working on the helmet today as well. I cut some of the bottom off, so now it has a squattier look to it. Tomorrow I am going to try and paint the helmet and get it finished....but we'll see.

-TC
 
Re: Star Wars Rebels Agent Kallus 4 DAYS TILL DRAGON CON! Kill me now!

Today kinda sucked. It's 3am here and wondering how I'm gonna re-do this helmet

I completely finished the torso armor, weathering and all, so it's 100% done. I am NEVER using rustolium brand again. I went out to specifically get rustolium clear coat to used on the rank bar, which is all rustolium paint that has been dry for over 24 hours and the clear coat botched up the surface. I had to do some damage control but damn I am pissed

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The helmet. I don't have pics yet because it's not done. It's been one thing after another. I think the universe is working against me. I should have spent at least 3-4 days instead of 1 to paint it, but didn't have that liberty. It's by far my "less than stellar" paint job ever. I...can't let this live past DC.. :(
 
Re: Star Wars Rebels Agent Kallus *SPEED BUILD FOR DRAGON CON* **DONE!!!**

I am done! Good god I am done with this. Never want to repeat this ever please :'(

The helmet was a pain in the ass beyond comprehension, so I may just repaint the whole thing after the event is over, but it's SERVICEABLE for now

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I weathered the blaster and finished that today as well.

Overall, I'm happy with it considering the time frame, but again, speed builds don't allow me to spend the proper amount of time and care as I'd like..

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See ya'll at Dragon con..look out for my buddy, he might be in the parade in it

-TC
 
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