I have a few friends that are members of "The 501st," a Star Wars costuming club that specializes in the "bad guy" costumes of the Star Wars Universe. So I decided to enlist with my very own set of scratch built armor! But which one to make? I settled on the Scout Trooper, or Biker Scout, from the Return of the Jedi. It seemed to be a fairly simple design with only a small number of armor parts. Besides I liked the benefits of the costume, which has two huge pouches to put stuff in, and the helmet has a hinged faceplate so you can get a drink of water without taking your helmet off, and you can sit down comfortably while wearing the armor. That last one is something stormtroopers can't do very easily... so my decision was made!
The goal is to make a screen accurate set of biker scout armor, with a little help from my friends on Bikerscout.net.
This is my first forray into vacuforming. It's quite an adventure!
Read all about the ups and downs, and avoiding trees, in my BLOG!
My Scout Armor Project was on a budget, and I wanted to get the costume together quickly. I'd upgrade it later when I had time. I managed to find a Rubies Scout Trooper Helmet on eBay for $20. The Rubies helmet is riddled with problems. The biggest, it's made from hard vinyl, which does not hold it's shape very well. Because it's a cheap mass produced helmet, its not very screen accurate. Straight out of the box, it would not fit with the armor I'm producing.
Break out the chain saw, its time for HEAVY MODIFICATION!
The forums were I do my research did have instuctions to modify the helmet to make it look better. The resounding advice I was hearing was "don't to even bother." This is a quest to turn garbage into glory.
Did I succeed, or fail?
Read all about it in the BLOG!
Eventually, I am planning to have a set of Clone Trooper Armor. Eventually. But there so many little things I can build before then. Like weapons! This is a scratch build project working from screen capture images, information gleened from forums, and my buddies.
PVC, acrylic, and styrene! Oh, My!
From start to finish, its all here in the BLOG!!!
I gotta tell ya, once you construct one... you have to do another. I'm an addict for PVC cement!
I built the Carbine blaster. So naturally, I figure the Grand Army of the Republic would require me to have a suitable long range weapon. It will go very well with the Clone Scout Armor as seen in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. It would look really cool troopin' around and takin' pictures with the fans, too.
More plastic fun, and a whole heck of a lot more cyphering the details. More bondo, too. It's a toughie, but it's almost complete.
The full story is just a click away on the BLOG!
This is the BIG one! And probably will be one of my longest running projects to date!
It all started with a request from my wife. And the rest is history.
There's a ton of information avaiable on the web dealing with every aspect of the R2 Astromech model. Everything from building one with either an aluminum or a wood frame, to what airplane parts were used for holoprojectors. Getting the time to get everything together and then scheduling how to produce it all, and figuring what features we want, will be the greatest challenge. It's all about the excellence of execution!
I've started the CAD work, and already, a few pieces are ready to be built.
The struggles and trials are fully documented in the BLOG! Get Inspired!
Tracking down a Heiland Flash Gun is no easy task, and quite expensive one to get.
A licensed replica is mighty nice too, but they can burn a hole in your wallet.
What is a Sith Lord to do?
You construct your own.
My training is complete. I am as powerful as the Emperor has foreseen!
Start your own training on the BLOG!
A quick project to fill a slow week at work. And a nice compliment to display with Darth Vader's lightsaber.
Turned aluminum, and some minor pieces to build, and cast. A little weathering too.
Just a special lathe tool to purchase, and a display box too.
It's a short story, for our little green friend.
It's just a few parsecs passed Dagobah, on BLOG!
Yet another helmet project! The salet inspired helmet is a favorite amount fans, even though it is next to impossible to see out of. My project begins with finding a World War II Navy Talker helmet, and a lot of patience getting it modified to fit my melon of a head.
This will be my test subject for my self-built vacuforming table, and an experiment on different urethane foams to base vacuforming bucks from.
Stay Tuned!
What the...?? A Painting project!! How rare!
Back in 2007, The Field Museum in Chicago had an exhibition of artifacts from the Tomb of King Tutankhamun. I was participating in an "artist day" at the museum, where local artists draw, paint, and even sculpt, in the galleries. I decided to paint a full color portrait of the Burial Mask to show off while I drew something else. Things did not go as well as planned, as work at the shop became very intense. The project fell by the way side, and I was never able to complete it before the exhibit left Chicago.
This painting will be in acrylic paints, and executed in a photo realistic style. This is more of a skill building excercise than a real project. But I'm enjoying it just the same.
On stand by, but I will post pictures very soon.
I remember for Halloween one year, I was Darth Vader. A flashlight modified with three foot long plastic tube and a red filter, a thin plastic mask with an elastic string to fasten it to my head, black jeans, a black turtle neck, a cool black cape, a blaster (it was a McQuarrie concept angle we were going for), and a plastic jack-o-lantern for all the candy I would collect that night, was my costume. I don't think I was more than 5 or 6 years old. That was the coolest costume I ever had.
This project is a trip down memory lane. Except, this time, it's on steroids.
With the heart of a studio special effects house, the skills of a insane model maker, and a love for the Empire Strikes Back, I am attempting to build a screen accurate Empire Strikes Back version of the Darth Vader Costume.
A long long time ago, on a BLOG not so far away...
The shroud that hid Anakin Skywalker from the universe and kept him alive.
This will be an intense project for me. There are a lot of new aspects of sculpting and molding that I will be treading into for the first time.
All will be revealed to you, very soon! Stay Tuned!
Another prop from the Star Wars Universe. The Holocron was a device with which a Jedi or a Sith could store all of their knowledge. Many different types were made to be used in the movies, but none of them got screen time. The comic books and the Visual Dictionaries from DK Publishing are the only record of these interesting paperweights.
This will be a small scale model. A five inch tetrahedron that pulses an ominious red glow from within a dark black crystal.
Surely, any Sith Lord should have one. I know I need one!
Follow my progress on the BLOG!
Deep in the Central American jungle, a hunter is waiting for game. Human game.
And now it's come to the midwest to hunt...
Stay tuned!
It's been a long while since I did a smaller scale model. What better subject than making a fully poseable BattleMech?
But which one to build?
A new project coming soon in 2010!
