ESB Boba Build (WIP)

[Jesuit24]

I've finished the knees and the right shoulder! I've just got to seal it and I'm calling them done. I found that I was getting a lot of droplets when going to grey, so I went back over the edges with the orange behind it. I found this really blended the edges and gave me another degree of controlling the blend. Since the knees are done, I thought I'd have a look and see how the knee darts look in place. They'll need glued in and I'll hit the resin block with a heat gun to straighten out the darts, but very pleased with how this is looking.

This being the first time I've used the layering technique, I'm finding it deeply satisfying peeling off the masking fluid

 

[droidbait]

Awesome!

 

[Jesuit24]

I got my flight suit, vest and neckseal from Arkady. I'm really happy with the flight suit and neck seal but a little worried about the size of the vest. How does my armour look on me?


I know that I've still got the gauntlets and pouches to go which will change the silhouette but I think the vest might be too wide on my chest in comparison to the armour. The collar armour looks about right so I don't think the issue lies in the shoulders being too wide, just the chest which puckers a lot at the sides when worn.

You can see in the second and third picture that I lined up the chest light holes with the bottom of the shoulder sleeve as I've seen in screenshots but in the first picture, the chest armour seems considerably higher in comparison to the 'arms'.

In that screenshot the gap looks to be 1 1/2" to 2". The gap on mine is nearly three inches which seems to make all the difference. BUT it's difficult to tell when there are folds under the arms in the fabric on the screenshot.

Is there anything I can do to tailor the chest slimmer or is it a write off?

 

[Funkyred]

First call would be contact Arkady and see whether there has been an error or if she can help. Tbh the way a vest is made they are very hard to alter once sewn together.

 

[Ghost_Fett]

In this pic you can’t even see the vest maybe check out some other pics and get 5-6 reference photos. It seems like his costume is slightly different in every scene one way or another. So the ESB torture room hallway might not be the only way.

For me I just pay attention to the the gap between the top of the shoulder armor and the crest of the shoulder seam. I try to have a nice little gap there so it visually sits flush on the side of my shoulder.

Oh also mine is an arkady. It could just be her style of sleeve is a little bigger?

 

[deathxcircle]

The problem is that we still don't know what the original material was. Different screenshots that I've seen have the armor plates in different positions due to what I believe is the material shifting around because it's loose and not tight like modern vests seem to be.

I think some looseness is ok. Some things to note as well while on the subject of armor spacing is that you can see from this shot that the bottom line of the abdominal plate seems to be just above the bottom edge of the vest, compared to the huge gap on your vest setup now. Unless it's just longer and covered by the belts that is. I am unsure. As well, the left plate looks to be pushing to the left. It almost looks like there is no vest under the middle point.

 

[Jesuit24]

I think some looseness is ok. Some things to note as well while on the subject of armor spacing is that you can see from this shot that the bottom line of the abdominal plate seems to be just above the bottom edge of the vest, compared to the huge gap on your vest setup now.

Yeah, once I've got the armour spacing down, I'll hem the vest up. That will be the easy part of altering it, it's the chest reduction that would be the difficult bit since that's dealing with the armhole and the sleeves which most tailors refuse to take on.

 

[Ghost_Fett]

The problem is that we still don't know what the original material was. Different screenshots that I've seen have the armor plates in different positions due to what I believe is the material shifting around because it's loose and not tight like modern vests seem to be.

I think some looseness is ok. Some things to note as well while on the subject of armor spacing is that you can see from this shot that the bottom line of the abdominal plate seems to be just above the bottom edge of the vest, compared to the huge gap on your vest setup now. Unless it's just longer and covered by the belts that is. I am unsure. As well, the left plate looks to be pushing to the left. It almost looks like there is no vest under the middle point.

I love that photo

 

[deathxcircle]

It seems as well with the original armor that the left, right, and abdominal plates should touch when lined up together. Do yours or any replicas fit together that way when detached?

 

[Funkyred]

different sized actors wearing the same costume gives us 2 sepetate reference points . John Morton (torture room cloud city scene BF) is slightly smaller in height than Jeremy Bulloch .

 

[Jesuit24]

Interesting, I've always looked at the torture hallway scene as being a direct height comparison between Boba and Vader. Do we know how tall John Morton is?

I've started making some alterations to the vest and while it's definitely difficult work, I think I'm making some progress on thinning the chest down. Once it's sorted, I'll put the armour on and see if I've made a complete arse of it. Carole's been nothing but helpful about the situation, so I'm going to see if it's possible to fix it before bothering to get a replacement.

In the mean time, I've gotten all the silver masked on the armour.


I've been poring over previous builds and reference images and getting very frustrated trying to nail the colours. I'm limited to Humbrol paints and I've settled on a 1:1 mix of 78 and 76 for the main green, but I'm struggling to find a Humbrol colour for the centre diamond. I'm thinking maybe 117, which is the main colour of a ROTJ set of armour. I've read the paint by numbers guide but I'm confident the diamond is not 78 which is far too light. Also, the guide lists 78 as the colour for the 'grey' bits around the silver on the collar/back plate, but again, it's too pale and too green which means it will blend in with the main green. I'm thinking 79 for those greys.

 

[Fettology]

Looks great!!! Can't wait to see the finished product!!!

 

[Jesuit24]

Thanks, me too!

 

[Jesuit24]

I never showed off the finished shoulder bell. Here it is with my completed knees (elastic just needs dirtying in the weathering stage). The decal was the weathered option from Bobamaker. I'm just using velcro for the knee elastic; it seemed to be sufficient for my v1 SE.

I made the collar studs from keyboard keys, same process as my v1 SE build (dremelled out the insides, filled with bondo and a nut and sanded down). Given how easy they were to make and how good they look, I couldn't justify spending money on proper ones, at least not yet. Since some of them are different coloured, I've marked them with a number on the bottom and also an arrow pointing forward to make suiting up easier on me and my helpers.

I've almost finished the first pass of paint on the armour too. Just need 117 for the centre diamond and I'll post pics.

For padding the pockets to get that square shape, what do people use? Foam sheets? I'd like something that squares out the pockets but still allows me to store things in them.

 

[Chris4321]

upholstery foam works well and you can keep the hard edges but take the middle out to put stuff in (at least thats what I did) or you can stick things in the middle of it vice versa.

 

[deathxcircle]

I got some used Pelican case pick n pluck foam from work to stuff into the pockets.

 

[bobawomble]

looking over many of esb flim shots and there is a shot that shows the chest plates to be all one piece ! has anybody ever noticed it ?

 

[Artakha]

looking over many of esb flim shots and there is a shot that shows the chest plates to be all one piece ! has anybody ever noticed it ?

Do you mind posting a photo of what you're referring to? Also it may be worth starting your own thread with that observation rather than hijacking Jesuit24 's build here.

 

[bobawomble]

Sorry and I think the term hijacking is a little bit harsh, as I was referring to spacing of chest armour and did not intend to be rude !

 

[Artakha]

Sorry and I think the term hijacking is a little bit harsh, as I was referring to spacing of chest armour and did not intend to be rude !
View attachment 163348

Sorry. Interesting observation--I think that they appear connected due to the angle of the shot and the fact that they are indeed close together.