Boba Fett jetpack

Next in line was a jetpack for my costume, I used a tutorial by Honus on Instructables.com for a start, doing some things a little different. I used a pattern made by a member of TheDentedHelmet and cut everything out of cardboard and started gluing.

I also used the same method for weathering by using s silver coat first, then masking off damge with car wax. I then painted it in layers of yellow, blue, white, and red

The rocket was made from cardstock, and sintra and is attached to the main body using the top of a "Simply Orange" juice bottle so I can easily remove the rocket for transportation and storage.

 The thrusters are made from the tops of renuizit air fresheners attached to wooden craft balls from Michael's. I made a temporary cape from an old pair of greenish workpants by cutting off the leg and taking out the seam.

Boba Fett Gauntlets

After my helmet build, I decided to go ahead with the rest of the costume, at this point I was really researching TheDentedHelmet.com for reference pictures and info. I started a set of gauntlets using a combination of sintra and pepakura , I lost most of my pics of the build with a crashed hard drive so sorry for the lack of pics.  I started off by making a base for the gauntlet , first using cardboard to make a pattern, then using the sintra which was heated in very hot water and formed around my forearm. After that was done, I used the pepakura model to make the bulk of the gauntlets from card stock.

I then coated the entire thing in resin and sanded it smooth, using a little spot putty wherever needed. I cut the gauntlets in half lengthwise and used small hinges on one side, and velcro on the other to make it much easier to get on and off.

Once all of the shaping was done, I primered them with automotive primer, finish sanded, and put on a coat of chrome paint for the "metal" basecoat. I masked off the battle damage, scrapes, and gouges using the same carwax method as the helmet. I then gave it a coat of red paint, and used some black "overspray" for scorching and dirtying. After everything is dry, I took a plastic scraper and a rag and scraped off the dry car wax, leaving the bare metal look in the damaged areas.

I used a rubber calculator pad for the control pad, which is not screen accurate but I liked it. I also used some nice metal coaxial plugs from Lowe's for the flamethrower nozzles and I used a 4pack of disposable meat thermometers for the darts also.

I'll take more pics of the finished gauntlets and add them later !

Boba Fett Mandalorian helmet build !

I started out building replica lightsabers from tutorials on Thebigyellowbox.com , but My Boba Fett helmet build is what I consider my real start into replicas. Here is a write up of that project, or at least what I can remember of it ! I wish I had more pictures, but the external hard drive that had most of my pics died
I found a cool tutorial over at Intructables for a Boba Fett costume and started of course with the helmet, I downloaded printable patterns and traced them onto cardboard (NOT corrugated), then I cut them out and glued them together to form the basic helmet shape I needed.

I then used fiberglass resin to coat it inside and out, which you can buy at Walmart, Lowe’s, or an auto parts store. Once that cured I first tried a drywall filler that wasn’t that great to smooth out the dome, from that point on I stuck to using good old Bondo ! I cut out the front visor section and tried it on.

It fit !   after much toil sanding and smoothing, I finall got it primered and started painting it. I used lots of reference photos and did my best guessing standing in the spraypaint section at wallyworld with the pictures on my cellphone! The very first coat of paint was a chrome-like silver.

Then I used a small paintbrush and liquid car wax, along with alot of references, some from the folks over at Thedentedhelmet.com to mask off the battle damage.  I did this throughout all coats of paint, Chrome, blue, yellowm and the final green. I really was pleased with is my first real attempt at battle damage/weathering.

I made the “ears" out of wood, shaped with a dremel tool and sealed them with resin, I also cut the rangefinder shaft out of wood and used the chrome paint, then gave it a quick spritz of black and rubbed it in real quick for a dirty metal look. I cut out a piece of clear plastic from a poster cover for the visor and tinted it with the darkest auto window tint I could buy. The rangefinder itself was a pepakura file I found on TheDentedHelmet.