WIP re-post

[Peregrinus]

It's taken me a while since the new board got up and running for me to find the heart to re-create my progress thread. Backstory, for those who are new or just don't remember:

I've loved these guys since the promo materials for ROTJ before the movie came out. I still have the Star Wars Fan Club application sheets that had them, as well as the bookmark I got at Waldenbooks and a tote bag of uncertain origins. I'd still have the one Burger King ROTJ glass I got if it hadn't been cheap and shattered when I rinsed it one day.

I found out about the 501st sometime in 2001, I think from an article in the Star Wars Insider. I knew immediately what I'd have to do. I started on the R&D, and my subsequent progress was slow and much-thwarted by life issues (evicted -- yay roommates, moving four times in as many years), health issues (nearly dying in late '05 from spending the better part of a decade managing my Crohn's Disease with the "if I ignore it, it'll go away method), and money issues (perpetual and profound broketitude).

Once I got out of the hospital and on the road to recovery -- finally -- I was able to start properly working on this. I'm now about halfway along. I have a modded Don Post (thank you again, Kevin LaNeave), a first-pass cape that is almost perfect (need to redo the right edge of the opening), a temporary inner tunic (the pattern for which is being modded extensively to get it right, but this will depend on armour to fit it over), a scratchbuilt force pike that I am quite pleased with, shoulder-length suede gloves that have been excruciating to construct, and a lot of raw materials for the rest of the work I will be doing down the road.

Now, to bring us up to speed with pictures...

[Peregrinus]

The very beginning of my helmet mods, taken by Jen (TB-9219) when she was here for Spring Break in '07. I had just removed the acetate and opened up the eyeslit:



From here it gets ugly.

I had noticed the corners of the eyeslit curved out into the raised banding that frames the face. That had to go. So I carved out the entire area and started reshaping the area with plumbing epoxy putty.

The other thing I noticed was that the curve of the brow and the curve of the veil weren't complementary. The brow looked distinctly "smushed" in comparison. If I wanted the brow undercut to work, the entire brow needed to be reshaped. Here, I'm starting to build up the brow with more putty. I didn't think to take a "before" shot, but here it is as close to straight up as I could at the time. You can see here the curves are a lot more complementary. Here, I've gotten the helmet primed and shot black over the active-working areas to help show up the high and low spots better as I sand down.

The follow-up round shows after I've gotten everyting at least roughed in. I've re-primed and done more clean-up work at the three main areas of work: brow and eyeslit corners, the dent on the top where it was sitting in the box to be moved up here (my mom went down and packed up my apartment while I was getting ready to leave the hospital, and didn't realize the helmet wasn't made from a hard material), and the copyright info.

That catches us up on the photo record of my helmet. I have more, but they're not scanned, uploaded, rotated, cropped, or whatever they need to be in each case. Now, on to the soft parts...

[Peregrinus]

The halfway test-fitting of the inner tunic, and the lining and shell of the outer cape.

Then, the late-stage test-fitting of the inner tunic, sash, and rope belt; and the outer cape (and again, from the side).

I have pictures of the process of making my gloves, but they need to be sorted through and uploaded, as with the helmet pics...

[Peregrinus]

I'll round things out with some pics from the 501st Mixer at Dragon*Con. The helmet and gloves were borrowed (I was having issues with my gloves, and there was no way I was trusting my bucket to airline baggage handlers). I'm not too happy with how wiped-out and disheveled I look after a day in costume, and the nighttime lighting isn't helping the velvet any. In person, the helmet and cape were the same colour. The camera flash changes things, and makes the velvet look shinier.





For those who worried about such things, the lens on this is simple dark red theatrical lighting gel with nothing backing it up.

I'll try to get more posted before I go out of town Saturday morning...

--Jonah

[Ang]

Looks good dude! Just get the good pics when you can and get your ass submitted already!

[Peregrinus]

An interlude to give an honest appraisal of where I am with this, what I have sitting here waiting to be finished, and what is yet to come...

My cape is good, and will be perfect once I have redone the right edge of the slit and reinforced the shoulder seams (velvet is heavy). I plan to do two more capes, one Crimson Empire-style, and one ROTJ action figure-style -- that second being two slits, with the second one mirroring the first. That last will probably be the most-worn one in my wardrobe, deferring to my first only when canonicity is absolutely required. I need to get the velvet for that, and am still working on patterns.

My inner tunic is very much a placeholder. I know where I need to adjust the size in various places to get the fit better for the next one. I need to lengthen the front and back panels. Mainly I need to have armour to wear when taking measurements so the final tunic will fit over it. I'm also not going to use velvet for all the facings in the final one. As with the capes, I need to get the fabric. I'm going to recycle the snaps from my temp one, and add a few more. I have a list of what needs to be done to adjust the pattern, but I can't do much until I have armour.

My sash is good, but I want to redo it with a different stiffener in it. The current one is too papery and crinkly.

The rope belt is just fine.

I'm being slow and methodical with my suede shoulder gloves, as I don't want to have to buy more hides and start again.

I have the chap-weight cowhide suede for my thigh boots, and am still vetting bootmakers. Grar.

I like my pike as-is. I may replace it at some point if a more screen-accurate one becomes available. And if I ever get access to the Archives, I may tackle that myself. Or push whoever took over from Master Replicas to do one. I dunno...

I have sourced Under Armour and a bodysuit, but not purchased yet. I have the red stretch vinyl to do the arm and side stripes, a la Crimson Empire. I need to find out if the maker of the bodysuit can "hide" the crotch zipper, as the CE armour doesn't have any handy concealing plates there.

I have a nice multiuse TK neckseal and a balaclava. I also want an Under Armour skullcap to go under the 'clava.

My helmet is wearable, but I'm still tweaking the interior. It's an extensively-modded Don Post, as I said above. I have plans to create my own from scratch, upsized to match the original prop, and with a hardshell bucket with flexible avontail and banding. Be nice to be able to move my head. *heh*

Armour... *phooooo...* Man. I've been doing drawings for Crimson Empire armour based on my measurements. The ab plates are coming along okay, but those pectoral plates are awful to work with. Now we have the Force Unleashed armour. I like the use of the standard Imperial belt better than the CE belt. The TK-based breastplate is easier to work with than the CE breastplate. But that ab armour is hideous. Just not sure yet what I want to do here...

I have a Hasbro DH-17 that's in the middle of being modded. I need a D-ring and its mounting bracket from a Sterling to mount on the sawn-off cocking handle. I'm debating the other kibble for the rear gun body...

I want a couple different Scout blasters -- hyperfirm rubber and hollowcast functional. Those are down the road.

And I want to do a glaive at some point.

That's about it for this one. I will also have the red Stormtrooper armour and my custom Royal Guard flight suit, and I'm tempted to do the Jedi Temple Guardian from TFU. But those don't belong here...

--Jonah

[RedGuard]

I'll round things out with some pics from the 501st Mixer at Dragon*Con. The helmet and gloves were borrowed (I was having issues with my gloves, and there was no way I was trusting my bucket to airline baggage handlers). I'm not too happy with how wiped-out and disheveled I look after a day in costume, and the nighttime lighting isn't helping the velvet any. In person, the helmet and cape were the same colour. The camera flash changes things, and makes the velvet look shinier.





For those who worried about such things, the lens on this is simple dark red theatrical lighting gel with nothing backing it up.

I'll try to get more posted before I go out of town Saturday morning...

--Jonah

Peregrinus, Man that looks great. What type of pattern did you use for the inner and outer robes? I really like how the whole thing turned out.

[Peregrinus]

The inner robe is a Vietnamese ao dai -- stock for the temporary one, and lengthened for the final. This is the pattern I used, and besides this there are tons of neat patterns from Patterns of Time.

The outer cape is made using a pattern a friend made from visually deconstructing an original in the Lucasfilm Archives, but it was sized for her significantly taller and broader (through the shoulders) husband, and I needed to resize it down a lot to get it to fit me right. That's what I'm working on turning into an easy-to-follow multi-sized pattern for all interested parties -- with her blessing, I will add.

--Jonah

[RedGuard]

Man, Keep me in mind when you get the patterns done. I'm sitting on a combined total of 16 yards of velvet just waiting to get cutting and sewing. Getting excited now....

[Peregrinus]

I'm gonna be away for three weeks -- which is why I said "by Christmas". *heh* I'll be cramming to finish up the tricky spots when I get home. I will, however, take the instructions-in-progress to work on when I have time.

I just wish I could offer up a decent tutorial for the pike. But the most crucial parts aren't available any more. Target discontinued that floor lamp back in '03, and I haven't found anyone who makes one similar. Still looking. And Fluidmaster no longer makes that sink knob. I can always cast that or something, though... I'm looking into nearby manufacturing facilities.

--Jonah