Thursday, October 21, 2021

Halloween Costume Time!!!! Part 4 - The finishing touches

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND WE MADE IT!!!!

This was a really long process of research on all sorts of cool Cosplay sites and 3D printing sites, but we are finished and all is AWESOME!


The (almost) finished helmets.  I still have to add the face shield and "skuff up" Boba Fett's helmet.
I used some clear face shields we had on hand, may go get some window tint for Halloween, but it will be dark, so I think the clear works for 10 yr old boys!

 
Jet pack and both helmets done!!!!

 
And, the Big show, at the 2021 Texas Renaissance Festival - 1001 Dreams Weekend

 
And, Jake and Liam meeting a fellow Mandalorian! 
When we took this picture we said "say this is the way" instead of "cheese" and he said it back and it sounded just like Mando!!!  Was so cool!!!  

So, that is IT!  I hope you enjoyed this journey just as much as I did!  I will now resume normal life and crafting and scrapbooking.  OH WAIT!  I have one more costume to make (Fennec) and I'll post when that's done too!















Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Halloween Costume Time!!!! Part 3 - 3D Printing

Last year, 2020, we purchased a 3D printer, with the initial use would be to print masks and face shield parts to donate for the medical community.  We had always wanted one, but never really knew much about them.  But, lots of people who had one were also printing stuff to help out, so we went ahead and got one.  We printed out masks and face shield parts for a few weeks, and were glad we could help out in some small way.

We then played around with our printer, enjoying the fun stuff we could do, printing things to help Dean, things to play with, and all that.  Then, after about 8 months, it clogged.  The feeder tube stopped feeding the filament, and it no longer worked.  We knew we needed to take apart the thing to see if we could fix it, but we "never got around to it".  Fast-forward to September 2021, we asked a friend who we know has a printer to print some Mando weapons for us since ours was broken.  He is a nice guy and of course offered to do that, and offered some suggestions to fix the old printer we have.  Well, we decided to give up on that and bought a NEW PRUSA 3D printer, and the quality of this thing is awesome!  We told our friend we got a new one and could print the guns, so we were off! 

  
This is Mando's "Amban phase-pulse blaster" (I had to look that up).  Dean found the pattern online for free so we went to town!


 
Here are the mando guns in progress!

Funny story. Liam (Jake's friend) asked if he was going to have "the back pack" for Boba Fett, and I said yes, if I have time, and had fully planned on making the thing out of cardboard and pipes.  HOWEVER, Dean found that pattern too!!!

 


This thing is huge, and really really cool!!!!


This is us priming the 3D prints after gluing them together.  Let me tell you, i'm not sure how people keep their 3D prints together, but we had the hardest time!  Superglue works, but one tap and it breaks, especially the blaster!  We will need to work on a solution for that in the future.

AND, after experimenting with paints, air brushing (I'll go into that once I get to the helmets again) and acrylic paint, here is the finished blaster!


Will post jet pack picture once I show you the helmet process first!







 

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Halloween Costume Time!!!! Part 2 - Beskar Armor

To continue the EPIC costumes that are the Maldalorian...

Here we have the Armor for Mando primed and painted.  I used Plaid FX Flexible Acrylic Paint on this one.  It really turned out awesome!

Armor Pattern - this pattern is for Boba Fett, but I managed to change it up to look something like Mando's armor.  I used the pattern called "Complete Boba Fett Templates (WizardOfFlight Boba style Mandalorian plates – Downloadable)", should be the first one.




Here is Boba Fett's and Mando's "shirts".  I bought t-shirts from Hobby Lobby (since they are like under $3) and cut them to make something that a 10yr old boy would easily put on or take off!


 
This shoulder armor are my favorite pieces!  The Mandalorian logo is cut from vinyl on my cricut, the Mudhorn is from our new Prusa 3D printer.

All of the armor is attached using E6000 glue.  It does seep thru so be sure to glue it on paper or another surface you don't mind getting sticky.  Also once it's cured (48hrs) it's near impossible to remove!

In the Garage waiting for the glue to dry and cure.

All armor is cut from Black Foam Roll, primed and painted with Acrylic paints.  Fett's logos are all vinyl cut from my cricut.

Be back soon with the helmets and the weapons!


Monday, October 18, 2021

Halloween Costume Time!!!! Part 1 - Helmets

So, I pretend I'm a great customer maker. Like a cosplay level costume maker. I know I'm not.  HOWEVER I feel I'm close and getting better every year!

This year I talked my guys (my son Jake and his friend Liam) into being The Mandalorian (Din Djarin) and Boba Fett. I of course will be Cara Dune. And Liam's sister Missy into being Fennec Shand! It works because Missy's dad loves that character. Long story short, I told them I would make the costumes. This is a HUGE effort, but completely Awesome!

We started off by researching helmet patterns and how to do this thing. We found some excellent resources and got started!

This is Boba Fetts helmet in pieces. 
This is EVA 10mm compact craft foam. 
EVA foam Cutting tutorial - this lady is soooooo funny and super talented, so is her husband!  Enjoy!

This took a lot of work to cut! Follow that tutorial if you don't have a bandsaw, and you can do it.  Be patient, have fun!

So, after going to the hardware store for supplies, and lots of dremmel to smooth the edges, I put the helmet together

half way there

Right side done!

ALL together now!!

The best part of this is I get to do it all over again with Mando's helmet!!

So after sanding with a Dremel and adding the extra parts and stuff, we have this

AND after sealing and priming...
And repeating the whole thing, we get Mandos helmet
I actually totally forgot to seal this before priming and you can see the caulk filler difference. So I sealed it it as is and primed it again. MUCH BETTER.

So, next step is painting. We just bought an air brush. Let's hope I can figure that out!!