Thorssoli's Sith Stalker Project

[thorssoli]

A while back my girlfriend bough us a pair of four-day passes to Star Wars Celebration: Anaheim. She sent me the confirmation code along with a note telling me that I've got a little over a year to make costumes for us to wear. My math makes that eight costumes (no sense wearing the same thing more than one day while we're there), so it's time to get cracking.

More recently, I decided to buy a copy of Star Wars: the Force Unleashed (I'm always behind the curve when it comes to gaming) and found my first outfit:


After a bit of poking around here on the forum, I found a decent pep model and got to work. Here's the helmet after a long night's work:


And with the chin installed:


Since the whole thing is such a tight fit, I'm making the helmet in three separate pieces so I can assemble it around my head (it'll never fit my head through the neck hole.

Here's the pep model coated with fiberglass resin:


And the neck guard:


So by the end of the first week I'd gotten about this far:


In order to smooth out the pieces, I built up a few layers of casting resin inside to keep everything straight:


Then started the bondo work:








After several rounds of fill, sand, and repeat, it was time for the first coat of primer:


And more filling, sanding, and repeat before I decided to cut it apart and make it wearable again:


It's still going to be a very tight fit:


But the pieces fit together and stay in place without any magnets or velcro or the like:


Here's a few more of the parts after loads of smoothing:


Somewhere along the way I'd gotten started on the ribcage armor:
Left Torso Armor in Primer by thorssoli, on Flickr



About that same time, I had the first two pieces of the helmet ready for a light red gloss coat (standard for all of my prototypes):


The rest of the helmet was taking a bit longer:


I went ahead and started the mold for the outer piece anyway:


Here it is with the silicone rubber print coat:


After building up additional layers of silicone, I built a fiberglass mothermold over it:


Then flipped it over, removed the clay, and built up the other half of the mold. Here it is before I started laying up the mothermold:


Meanwhile, I started the mold for the back/sides of the helmet:


And smoothed out the rib armor:




There's still a bunch more moldmaking to do, but now that my latest shipment of silicone has arrived, this should come together pretty quickly.

Stay tuned...

 

[Streetrocks]

Always like seeing your stuff Shawn! I'm excited to see this through to completion and see what you come up with for your other 7 costumes.

 

[thorssoli]

She's been sending me a to-do list that should be pretty fun. There will be lifecasting involved.

 

[Streetrocks]

Gotta love that kind of honey-do list

 

[JETMECH]

This looks awesome, looking forward to it complete Starkiller is one of my favorite SW charecters. Definitely subscribing to your thread.

 

[thorssoli]

I've already posted pics of the molds for the upper/outer portion of the helmet, so here's some shots of the sides/inner molds coming together. Here's the beginning of laying up the rubber jacket:


Here's the jacket mold laid up on the right and the first half of the chin mold on the left:


I've really been dropping the ball on taking progress pictures of this project, so I've got this one shot of the building of the mothermold:


I'll get back into the picture-taking groove soon. Unfortunately, the next pics I have are snapshots of the first castings out of these two molds:








As long as I was test fitting the helmet, I figured I'd go ahead and try on all of the rest of the prototypes as well:



I figure everything will look pretty good once I'm not wearing baggy coveralls under it.





My friend Trevor was taking pics for me, so I went ahead and had him try it on as well:


I need to cast as stronger/cleaner version of the helmet, but I'll have plenty of time in the midst of molding the chest and shoulder pieces.

Stay tuned...

 

[Mizuno]

Nice one. Looking forward to see this finished

 

[The Schlitzie]

That's turning out great. It already looks a lot cleaner than my Sith Stalker helmet.

 

[wolters]

Looks great already !

 

[rosh]

Panning on doing a run of those helmets? Me likely.

 

[jim fred]

Great work as always !

 

[RCMUSTANG]

Nice. I'd love one of those Space Marine helmets you've got hanging up there.

 

[thorssoli]

Nice. I'd love one of those Space Marine helmets you've got hanging up there.

Shoot me a PM. I'm sure we can work something out.

I made the first casting of the chin yesterday. First, let's look at the mold...

Here's the prototype with the print coat laid over it:


I did the silicone rubber jacket mold in two pieces. Here's the outer piece all laid up:


Here's the first half after laying up the fiberglass mothermold and removing the clay wall:


Here's a shot of the whole mold laid open after I'd laid up the two-piece fiberglass mothermold, trimmed the edges, and removed the prototype:


Here's the whole mold bolted back together:


And a closer shot of the pouring sprues and air vents at the top of the mold (which will be the back end of the chin piece, by the neck):


I used a syringe to inject black-tinted resin into the middle hole until it came out of the air vents on either side:


Once it was cured, I did a tiny bit of work to remove the mold flashing and sprues. Then it was time to fit it into place:

You can see the prototype on the bench next to the helmet.

Here I am trying it on again:


I'm still working on the ideal red Sith eye effect:


In any case, I'm pretty happy with the helmet so far. I'll probably go ahead and pull another copy and cast it with a different blend of filler for a bit more strength, but for now this one's not so bad.

Now I just need to start molding the other armor parts, start buying up some strap leather, sculpt out a prosthetic right hand, and make a sweet-looking skirt.

Stay tuned...

 

[Nairod]

Awesome work and nice helmet sculpt on the background.

I can see a TIE pilot helmet which looks pretty good too!!

 

[thorssoli]

It started as a TIE pilot helmet, but I've been making modifications...


Today I had a friend cut these guys out for me:


So that's coming along.

The helmet sculpt in the background you noticed is probably the original for my "Godkiller" Ironman helmet. I've been painting up the first copy. You can see it here on the right:


I've been stalled on the Sith Stalker for a few days. I should be back to work on it come Monday.

Stay tuned...

 

[Mizuno]

Great work you got there. Keep them pics comming

 

[thorssoli]

Sorry about the lack of updates. I've got a lot of other projects in progress right now and haven't had a chance to make much time for this guy lately.

Since my last post, I've tuned up one of the castings a bit more and installed magnets to hold it together:


Now I no longer need tape to hold the chin on:


Here's the whole thing after a coat of primer:


Today I sprayed on the base color:


I'm happy with it:


I also went ahead and ordered a pair of these boots:


They can be had HERE. I'm calling them "close enough." I'll have more to say about them after they've arrived.

Stay tuned.

 

[Drac]

This is excellent work, always wanted myself one of these outfits but my skills arnt there yet maybe someday lol

 

[thorssoli]

Progress...


Baby steps.

 

[mattrendar]

Looks awesome ! Great work . Can't wait to see the finished kit!