manooga
Well-Known Member
Update on 04-11-13
Well, it looks like I've made it
All I needed was a clearer mind, one more visit to the electronics shop, and a few hours of work, inspiration and patience.
Just a single brighter LED, a battery pack and a switch button...
...inside the saber hilt...
...in the hand of Yoda.
I'm happy again
======================
Update on 04-10-13
I did want the lightsaber to light up, so I made some modifications to it. I bought a Luke Skywalker Uncle Milton lightsaber room light. I wanted to use its electronics, which would had been great, but I broke the card board while trying to cut it to fit my saber hilt those electronics were too big anyway, and the LED didn't have enough power. However, the blade was indeed useful.
So I went to the electronics shop and had three LEDs connected together to a 9V battery, and a switch button. Quite simple. I put the LEDs inside the blade, and this is what I got. Still I'm not 100% happy with the result; I want this saber to light up as an FX saber, but I'm not into electronics at all, so I'm not sure if that will be ever possible with simple stuff. So any help will be welcome
With the lights off it does look good... in the camera. In person it's not as bright as this.
This is closer to reality. See how the LEDs light up only the bottom (besides you can easily see where the LEDs are), and the top barely gets some light.
So any help here will be appreciated. Thanks.
==========
ORIGINAL POST:
Hello guys,
I've been quite busy last days working on a project I had in mind since a few weeks ago; now I've finally finished after many, many hours of work (I even asked for vacations from work in order to have enough time for doing this, haha) and I wanna share it with you, as I believe this can inspire someone. Honestly I didn't think it would come out this good, so I'm really proud of it by now.
So this is the story. I always wanted to have a life-sized Yoda in my collection, but it seemed kinda impossible to get one, as shipping to Mexico was complicated, and sometimes even impossible due to the size of the box. There are a few listed for sale in Mexico, but they ask for like 1,300 usd for a Rubies, which is ridiculous. So I kept looking regularly on eBay, until I found one listed in an auction, located in CA (which made shipping to MX easier). The auction started in 100 usd since it was in bad condition. His left hand together with the lightsaber was missing, and the figure was taken apart from the black base it came with (I didn't care about this, as I don't really like that base at all). But the hand issue was a big issue. So I had to really think about it. I contacted the seller and he was very helpful and willing to send it to me if I won it, so I decided to go high on my bids, as this seemed to be a one-time chance. In the end I won it for $255 usd + 118 usd shipping, so not that bad for a life-size Yoda! This is what I got after one week of winning the auction (it made it through customs really fast, he should have used the Force):
But, here's the big issue:
Poor Yoda. Besides, I discovered that not having the black base was another issue, as it was pretty unstable when standing (it fell forward very easily), so that was probably what caused his missing hand. But that was quickly solved by just gluing some foam cubes to his feet to balance it.
So, for the hand thing, I already had a plan to rebuild it, without knowing if I would be able to make it. Still, I went to my junk and got all the stuff my plan required (some wire, metal parts, epoxy dough, foam, tape and magnets, which were not useful in the end):
In the meantime, it would also need a lightsaber, so I got a flash from a member here for a very affordable price, but it still needed some work on it:
As the hand would need really much work, I decided to go with the lightsaber first. The first thing it needed were grips, so I bought a plastic table mat for getting the grips cut to size and painted:
The guy who sold this to me also included accurate Lambo rims, which I used of course. Then I got a nice and light prop that could be easily held by my planned hand.
As for the blade, I went to the paper store and bought these, which I'm not sure what are they called, but the white paper has a clear adhesive side which can be separated from the white carton. So I folded backwards a sheet of that adhesive clear plastic, sticked the green paper to it, covered it again with a sheet of clear plastic, and I had a really lightweight blade that my hand could resist.
But if I wanted my lightsaber prop to hold the blade, I'd have to replace the emitter, so I went to my junk again and found some broken binoculars, which had the same diameter as the emitter should have. I made a hole through one of the spare Lambo rims that came with the saber, sticked all together, and had a functional emitter that could hold my blade.
Not bad when put all together!
So now I could use the saber in three different modes: a) Using the original emitter to have an almost accurate prop, b) Using the modified emitter with the blade, or c) Removing the blade and putting a lamp inside the hilt to make it ignite (I did try to ignite the blade I made, but light won't just pass through all of it, so I'm still thinking about how to do it).
So I had the saber now, but the hand was still missing. First I made some patterns with a foam sheet in order to have a cone for the arm.
After folding it and gluing it, I had an arm for Yoda:
There was a big question at this point. How was I going to attach the arm to the body, in a way that it could be taken apart easily, since the robe could not be taken off with the arm attached? My first idea was to use some magnets; attach some metal to the body, having a metallic base for the arm, and with magnets it would be attached and easily taken apart. That didn't work in the end as the magnets could not support the weight of the hand. But it was a plan.
At this point the magnets did work, so it was getting in shape of something good.
The next step was to use the wire to build a skeleton of the hand.
I went to basic anatomy, so I needed bones, flesh and skin. First the bones:
As soon as I had the metallic hand I found out that the magnets wouldn't work, so I had to go back to my junk drawer and got some plastic parts that could help. I attached a coupled of screws to the body, and cut a hard plastic cube in order to get a base for hanging the hand from the screws:
That plastic base was sticked to the metallic base of the arm using more epoxy, and now the arm could be hanged from the screws and easily taken apart.
The hardest part was done. Now I needed flesh. I would have originally used the tape for adding volume to the hand skeleton, but then I remembered a very easy recipe for mache paper, using only white glue, water and newspaper.
I just mixed all that and got a sticky solid mass. Now, just add the flesh to the bones until a hand is obtained.
Little Yoda was getting happy. It took a whole day to get dry though.
When the hand was dry, the most exciting part was yet to come. Adding the skin using the epoxy dough. At this point I was worried that I could not give the hand a real look, but still I took the challenge. Same technique as before, but now for adding the skin.
I had to use latex gloves in order to avoid leaving fingerprints in the epoxy, so I got a raw hand that still needed some details.
Using a wooden stick, I started adding details. First the nails:
And then the skin lines (I had to move fast here as the epoxy dries like in 45 minutes).
All the time the other good hand was my reference. Special attention had to be paid to figers length, palm width, etc.
Now Yoda had a good prosthesis
That was made last night like at 3 am. I did paint the hand, but when I woke up today I found that colors were not even close to the rest of Yoda, so I started mixing colors in order to get an accurate couple of greens (there is a dark green in the base, and then there is a lighter green layer covering most of Yoda's skin).
Base colors achieved.
And after a couple more hours of painting detail, I finally got the hand finished, solidly holding the lightsaber.
So now Yoda is complete. I'm really happy with the end result, and overall costs of everything.
I hope some of you find this info useful for building something you have in mind, and if you have any questions on further details about any technique used, I'd be happy to help.
Well, it looks like I've made it
All I needed was a clearer mind, one more visit to the electronics shop, and a few hours of work, inspiration and patience.Just a single brighter LED, a battery pack and a switch button...
...inside the saber hilt...
...in the hand of Yoda.
I'm happy again
======================
Update on 04-10-13
I did want the lightsaber to light up, so I made some modifications to it. I bought a Luke Skywalker Uncle Milton lightsaber room light. I wanted to use its electronics, which would had been great, but I broke the card board while trying to cut it to fit my saber hilt
those electronics were too big anyway, and the LED didn't have enough power. However, the blade was indeed useful.So I went to the electronics shop and had three LEDs connected together to a 9V battery, and a switch button. Quite simple. I put the LEDs inside the blade, and this is what I got. Still I'm not 100% happy with the result; I want this saber to light up as an FX saber, but I'm not into electronics at all, so I'm not sure if that will be ever possible with simple stuff. So any help will be welcome
With the lights off it does look good... in the camera. In person it's not as bright as this.
This is closer to reality. See how the LEDs light up only the bottom (besides you can easily see where the LEDs are), and the top barely gets some light.
So any help here will be appreciated. Thanks.
==========
ORIGINAL POST:
Hello guys,
I've been quite busy last days working on a project I had in mind since a few weeks ago; now I've finally finished after many, many hours of work (I even asked for vacations from work in order to have enough time for doing this, haha) and I wanna share it with you, as I believe this can inspire someone. Honestly I didn't think it would come out this good, so I'm really proud of it by now.
So this is the story. I always wanted to have a life-sized Yoda in my collection, but it seemed kinda impossible to get one, as shipping to Mexico was complicated, and sometimes even impossible due to the size of the box. There are a few listed for sale in Mexico, but they ask for like 1,300 usd for a Rubies, which is ridiculous. So I kept looking regularly on eBay, until I found one listed in an auction, located in CA (which made shipping to MX easier). The auction started in 100 usd since it was in bad condition. His left hand together with the lightsaber was missing, and the figure was taken apart from the black base it came with (I didn't care about this, as I don't really like that base at all). But the hand issue was a big issue. So I had to really think about it. I contacted the seller and he was very helpful and willing to send it to me if I won it, so I decided to go high on my bids, as this seemed to be a one-time chance. In the end I won it for $255 usd + 118 usd shipping, so not that bad for a life-size Yoda! This is what I got after one week of winning the auction (it made it through customs really fast, he should have used the Force):
But, here's the big issue:
Poor Yoda. Besides, I discovered that not having the black base was another issue, as it was pretty unstable when standing (it fell forward very easily), so that was probably what caused his missing hand. But that was quickly solved by just gluing some foam cubes to his feet to balance it.
So, for the hand thing, I already had a plan to rebuild it, without knowing if I would be able to make it. Still, I went to my junk and got all the stuff my plan required (some wire, metal parts, epoxy dough, foam, tape and magnets, which were not useful in the end):
In the meantime, it would also need a lightsaber, so I got a flash from a member here for a very affordable price, but it still needed some work on it:
As the hand would need really much work, I decided to go with the lightsaber first. The first thing it needed were grips, so I bought a plastic table mat for getting the grips cut to size and painted:
The guy who sold this to me also included accurate Lambo rims, which I used of course. Then I got a nice and light prop that could be easily held by my planned hand.
As for the blade, I went to the paper store and bought these, which I'm not sure what are they called, but the white paper has a clear adhesive side which can be separated from the white carton. So I folded backwards a sheet of that adhesive clear plastic, sticked the green paper to it, covered it again with a sheet of clear plastic, and I had a really lightweight blade that my hand could resist.
But if I wanted my lightsaber prop to hold the blade, I'd have to replace the emitter, so I went to my junk again and found some broken binoculars, which had the same diameter as the emitter should have. I made a hole through one of the spare Lambo rims that came with the saber, sticked all together, and had a functional emitter that could hold my blade.
Not bad when put all together!
So now I could use the saber in three different modes: a) Using the original emitter to have an almost accurate prop, b) Using the modified emitter with the blade, or c) Removing the blade and putting a lamp inside the hilt to make it ignite (I did try to ignite the blade I made, but light won't just pass through all of it, so I'm still thinking about how to do it).
So I had the saber now, but the hand was still missing. First I made some patterns with a foam sheet in order to have a cone for the arm.
After folding it and gluing it, I had an arm for Yoda:
There was a big question at this point. How was I going to attach the arm to the body, in a way that it could be taken apart easily, since the robe could not be taken off with the arm attached? My first idea was to use some magnets; attach some metal to the body, having a metallic base for the arm, and with magnets it would be attached and easily taken apart. That didn't work in the end as the magnets could not support the weight of the hand. But it was a plan.
At this point the magnets did work, so it was getting in shape of something good.
The next step was to use the wire to build a skeleton of the hand.
I went to basic anatomy, so I needed bones, flesh and skin. First the bones:
As soon as I had the metallic hand I found out that the magnets wouldn't work, so I had to go back to my junk drawer and got some plastic parts that could help. I attached a coupled of screws to the body, and cut a hard plastic cube in order to get a base for hanging the hand from the screws:
That plastic base was sticked to the metallic base of the arm using more epoxy, and now the arm could be hanged from the screws and easily taken apart.
The hardest part was done. Now I needed flesh. I would have originally used the tape for adding volume to the hand skeleton, but then I remembered a very easy recipe for mache paper, using only white glue, water and newspaper.
I just mixed all that and got a sticky solid mass. Now, just add the flesh to the bones until a hand is obtained.
Little Yoda was getting happy. It took a whole day to get dry though.
When the hand was dry, the most exciting part was yet to come. Adding the skin using the epoxy dough. At this point I was worried that I could not give the hand a real look, but still I took the challenge. Same technique as before, but now for adding the skin.
I had to use latex gloves in order to avoid leaving fingerprints in the epoxy, so I got a raw hand that still needed some details.
Using a wooden stick, I started adding details. First the nails:
And then the skin lines (I had to move fast here as the epoxy dries like in 45 minutes).
All the time the other good hand was my reference. Special attention had to be paid to figers length, palm width, etc.
Now Yoda had a good prosthesis
That was made last night like at 3 am. I did paint the hand, but when I woke up today I found that colors were not even close to the rest of Yoda, so I started mixing colors in order to get an accurate couple of greens (there is a dark green in the base, and then there is a lighter green layer covering most of Yoda's skin).
Base colors achieved.
And after a couple more hours of painting detail, I finally got the hand finished, solidly holding the lightsaber.
So now Yoda is complete. I'm really happy with the end result, and overall costs of everything.
I hope some of you find this info useful for building something you have in mind, and if you have any questions on further details about any technique used, I'd be happy to help.
Last edited:
