Tusken Raider & Gaffi Stick: Scratch build...

Indy Magnoli

Master Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
My boys and I are building a couple of Sand People outfits. I wasn't planning on doing a thread, so I didn't take many photos at the start, but we love how it's turning out, so I thought... better late than never.

Firstly, we 3d printed up a set of mask hardware (found these from Thingiverse, I think):

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Our good friend Blaxmyth provided us a couple of pepakura and fiberglassed Tusken shells to work from. We then added our printed parts (mostly with screws) and leather:

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The only thick leather we had for the snout wraps were off cuts from our Red Book of Westmarch (Red Book by Magnoli Props) which is a deep burgundy color. We wanted it more brown, so after a good sanding of the surface, we applied a coat of yellow ocre acrylic wash which turned the burgundy to a nice warm brown tone.

To give the hardware a more metallic look, we sprayed the pieces with some clear gloss than coated it in graphite powder. An old flannel bed sheet, ripped into strips was used with hot glue for the wraps. Lastly, I airbrushed some potassium permanganate onto the fabric to darken all the seams and edges:

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We added some black mesh on the eye holes so you can see out but can't see in... and some foam padding inside to hold the helmet secure on the wearer's head.
 
While starting the second mask, we also started on the gaffi stick. The "pineapple" was 3d printed in two halves using a wood/PLA filament:

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After a good sanding, I glued the two parts together with a 1" dowel as a support spine:

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This is the first time we've printed with this wood filament and it really is amazing how much it comes out (and feels like) wood. I used a few layers of different shades of brown acrylic to build up the coloring we wanted:

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I can't get over how much this looks and feels like real wood. Cool stuff!
 
I just wanted to point out an observation. One thing I noticed when I was building my stick using an imported Fijian warclub, the head and bend area are extremely dark. It seems to more of a paint than it is a stain. I had to reshape my point to match the A New Hope version and realized no wood stain was going to match look and consistency of the original finish. I had to hand to mix paint colors to get a match.

If you go back to A New Hope scene, you will see that the head portion of the club is very dark when compared to the grip area.
 
Using a jigsaw on a piece of cheap pine, I cut a rough shape of the totokia elbow and smoothed it out with a belt sander:

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I grabbed a piece of dowelling I had on hand, clamped it in the vice and took a file to it to give it some basic carving patterns:

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Drilled a couple of holes and added a threaded rod with a bunch of glue to connect the two pieces:

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Once they were joined, I continued sanding until I got a more fluid transition between the two pieces:

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Drilled a big hole to match the dowel peg on my pineapple head:

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Painted everything in matching acrylics and glued it all together:

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The finished totokia is a great piece just on its own... but now to convert it into a gaffi stick. Stay tuned.
 
So awesome!! Makes me want to make one. I made one years ago, but I didn't have the skills, tools or knowledge I do now. Seeing this makes me want to try again!!! Lovely work!!!
 
Looking good! Bring the boys round next week and they can have a go at forging a couple of tapered spikes. I turned up some steel to fit snugly into the end of that pipe I gave you. Plus I found two other pieces. We could even look at cutting and welding some fins onto the side. In any event, it should be lethal enough.
 
Looking good! Bring the boys round next week and they can have a go at forging a couple of tapered spikes. I turned up some steel to fit snugly into the end of that pipe I gave you. Plus I found two other pieces. We could even look at cutting and welding some fins onto the side. In any event, it should be lethal enough.
The way this is looking, I think we'll have to make a second gaffi stick! :lol: (Which is perfect, since we've made two Tusken masks!)
 
Ok, I'm going to print up a second head, changing the shape slightly for a more streamlined look. I'll probably use this new head for the above totokia. And we can put the current, beefier head on the heavy-duty Blaxmyth-assisted gaffi stick.
 
For the spike end of the gaffi stick, I'm using three different pipes:

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The aluminum rod will be the spine of the piece which will connect into the drilled hole in the totokia. The square steel rod (something that fell off our ping-pong table, I think) will be shaped into the spike itself. And the large steel pipe will be the main outer shaft.

To make the spike, I masked off the shape I wanted:

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Cut the four sides into points using my trusty dremel and more disks than I care to admit:

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Once the points were cut, it was just a matter of bending them into a spike:

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I then drew out a template for the four vanes and traced them onto some aluminum sheet I had left over from my proton pack project:

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Cut with a jigsaw and sanded:

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Next I carved four slots into the steel pipe using what incorrect tools I had on hand (such as a drill, dremel and jigsaw; but got there in the end):

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This fit wasn't perfect, but with some hammering, I managed to get all the vanes to squeeze into the slots:

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I used JBweld on the vanes as well as to fill in the gaps in the spike. One thing I did at the last minute was while the JBweld was curing, I sprinkled some graphite powder onto it. Once it was dry, I buffed off the excess powder and the finish was a much nicer metallic look than the usual matte-grey of JBweld.

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Soon to paint the spike end and final assembly!
 
To get uniformity in the spike part I spray painted the entire piece silver then, while still wet, sprinkled a bunch of graphite powder on it:

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I misted it with a little black and dark brown spray paint, then rubbed it all over with steel wool to reveal the real metal underneath the paint. I then finished it off with some red oxide acrylic applied in spots with a brush and then overall with a rough cloth for texture:

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As I mentioned above, I decided to print a smaller pineapple head (reduced the Z-axis by 75%):

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Here's a comparison of the first and second pieces after painting:

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The last little piece was this spare cabinet knob I had, which I used as the transition piece between the totokia butt and the metal shaft. I just drilled a 1" hole to match the pipe diameter and painted it to match the staff.

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Glued everything together (added a little bondo to the joint between the totokia head and neck, sanded and painted to match). I'm very happy wtih the final results... here is our FIRST Gaffi Stick:

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Stay tuned for v2 with more help from Blaxmyth!
 

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