APPROVED! Evan1701's ESB Boba Fett WIP (BH-81989)

[Evan1701]

Greetings all, Evan1701 here from gorgeous Southwest Virginia: TR/TA/SL-81989 from Serenno Squad, Garrison Tyranus. Honestly, I don't have a ton to report yet as this will be a project that spans well into next year and potentially beyond, but here we go. I also have a WIP thread going on over at the Garrison Tyranus forums.

Honestly, my biggest worry at this point is painting. I have almost no experience with painting, and most of that experience is sub-par paint jobs on my wife's Bo Katan kit. At this point I plan on doing it myself to save on cash, so we'll see how that turns out. Stay tuned for the Spring 2018 updates where Evan has to sand his helmet down 3 times because he screwed up!

HARD PARTS:

Helmet: DVH
Armor: RKD
Jetpack: DVH (ordered, awaiting delivery)
Jetpack harness: Bigdane/HHprops
Shin tools: Will (RKD)'s shin tools
Gauntlets: MoW

SOFT PARTS:

Gloves: MoW
Shoes: MoW (ordered, awaiting delivery)
Flight suit: Arkady
Flak vest: Arkady
Neck seal: Arkady
Ammo belt: delta13mike
Girth belt: Not sure (secondhand)
Hip pouches: Arkady
Sidearm holster: Stormrider
Cape: MoW
Braids: Woodman

MISC:

Chest lights: Hotpockets
Pulce 40 Sidearm: Stormrider
EE-3: Hyperfirm
EE-3 sling: Mainst69
Shoe spikes: Machine craft replicas (Dakota) (ordered, awaiting delivery)
Knee darts: Metal (Darkside)
Cod/collar studs: Metal (Darkside)
Gauntlet darts: Metal (Darkside)

Since you guys are the absolute expert, and I've only put about 40 hours into my research so far (been pretty bored at work), I'll take absolutely every bit of advice y'all can give me.

As for the soft parts, someone in my Garrison got a bunch of soft parts for an ESB Boba he never finished, so he's willing to sell off the stuff he's had sitting for several years. That will be a good cost savings. I'm trying to stay "relatively" budget. I know with Boba it's extremely difficult, but I'm motivated to do as much as possible myself to accomplish that!

 

[Ghost_Fett]

Hey man welcome to the forums glad to have you here! I'm no expert but I've been hanging out here for a minute. Nearing the finish line myself.

Couple things I can speak to with experience, the vendors you are eyeing are all good they have their individual differences. Really depends on you in size and preference will be the biggest thing coming from the armor decisions if you go with any of those vendors.

From personal experience here are my other notes:

JBDubz and Mainst69 do some great slings for the ee3

Arkady is the absolute 100 percent go to on every soft part you need. She does vests, flight suits, bags.

Hotpockets is who you want to talk to about chest lights but you will want to know what type of fett you are.

I personally have an MOW JP and I really like it.

I would recommend MOW for boots as Caboots have some inaccuracies. MOW boots are really hard to come by right now but I think there is another wave coming this fall.

I went with sidewinder for my EE3 and have a friend who owns one and it's beautiful.

You mentioned woodman for a couple things but woodman does girth belts, capes, ammo and braids! All my stuff is woodman and I like what I have a ton.

It's great to meet you and hope I helped some. Welcome!

 

[Evan1701]

Awesome stuff man, thank you! I've been following your WIP as well. Even though I've put dozens of hours of research in already, I still feel extremely overwhelmed. I imagine it will get better once I actually start ordering stuff.

I'm certainly in no hurry for getting this done, so I can definitely wait till fall for the MoW boots. Maybe a stretch goal of Episode IX, but that's probably 2 years away which is plenty reasonable even for an extreme amateur like myself!

 

[Covafett]

Hello and welcome! I would just Echo everything that Gablesz told you. You'll be happy with any of the vendors that you have listed. I'll add that waiting for MOW boots are well worth the wait! Mainst69's sling is awesome. I have Fett Tronics chest lights and they're awesome. I highly recommend BigDanes jetpack harness. MOW has Shin tools as well. If I had it to do over again though, I probably make my shin tools from the found Parts. There's plenty of threads on here and how to do that. Major does runs of gloves. I have a pair and they're top-notch! I would also recommend machine craft replicas (Dakota) for the toe spikes. If you have any questions, feel free to p.m. me. I'd be happy to help out.

Good luck!

 

[Artakha]

If you're interested in getting someone to do the painting, I both make and paint helmets and gauntlets (that's it right now) but I can also do other paint work. All those vendors are great too so you can't go wrong.

 

[Ghost_Fett]

Just keep hanging out here with these cool dudes and you will end up solid.

 

[Evan1701]

So question for y'all, is MoW the only one doing gauntlet kits with the flamethrower and rocket? I have yet to see any info to the contrary, but I'm hoping there are some alternate options so I can price stuff out.

Also, does AnimeFan do full painted commissions or just the raw cast of helmet and armor? I want to get some idea of how much painting might cost, but getting the helmet/jetpack/armor/gaunts and then immediately shipping it out to someone else seems prohibitively expensive just based on how much it would cost to ship back and forth.

 

[Drax]

For the gauntlets it's going to depend on if you want metal parts or not. You can get a machined rocket from Machine Craft Replicas which is very nice but is heavy as well. Combat baby makes a metal flamethrower kit for an ESB build which is very nice to. Keep in mind that metal parts are heavy and will be more expensive but will be less prone to breaking.

I don't believe AnimeFan does paint commissions but he may have someone that he prefers to send helmets to for paint. That would be a question that was best asked to him even though I know his communication is a bit sparse right now. Very few people offer fully painted versions of their own casts with Boba Maker being one of them. The down side to that is he has a very long wait time currently. If you are really concerned about the shipping cost for paint commissions you could probably look into having the parts shipped directly to the painters to save one shipping trip.

 

[Evan1701]

For the gauntlets it's going to depend on if you want metal parts or not. You can get a machined rocket from Machine Craft Replicas which is very nice but is heavy as well. Combat baby makes a metal flamethrower kit for an ESB build which is very nice to. Keep in mind that metal parts are heavy and will be more expensive but will be less prone to breaking.

I don't believe AnimeFan does paint commissions but he may have someone that he prefers to send helmets to for paint. That would be a question that was best asked to him even though I know his communication is a bit sparse right now. Very few people offer fully painted versions of their own casts with Boba Maker being one of them. The down side to that is he has a very long wait time currently. If you are really concerned about the shipping cost for paint commissions you could probably look into having the parts shipped directly to the painters to save one shipping trip.

Is there a good list of folks who do painting commissions? I've seen a lot of names dropped but I'm not sure who to ask at this point. I'm still leaning towards doing it myself, but I want to check out every avenue.

That's interesting about Boba Maker, I've heard people in our Garrison refer to him but I haven't seen his name on here so I assumed he was one of the long list of makers who have dropped out of the game. How would I go about contacting him?

 

[bcurtis]

Welcome to the forums. I'm a member of Old Line Garrison, right next door to Tyranus. In regards to gauntlets, Wasted Fett makes them as well. Hit me up anytime to chat about your ESB project.

 

[Evan1701]

Welcome to the forums. I'm a member of Old Line Garrison, right next door to Tyranus. In regards to gauntlets, Wasted Fett makes them as well. Hit me up anytime to chat about your ESB project.

Thanks!! I knew he made the armor and bucket, didn't know he did the gaunts as well. I like the one stop shop idea of sellers to save on shipping, although I know Wasted Fett's helmets are one of the pricier versions (for good reason from what I can tell).

 

[Drax]

I'll name off a few painters off the top of my head but doing a search on the forum and in the cargo hold is going to get you much better results. Also as a disclaimer I'm going to miss some and others may not offer paint ups anymore so if anyone wants to add more please do.

AFettFullofDollars
SuperJedi
Fett 4 Real
Rubio
Dented Gent
Boba Maker
PredatorMV
Fettastic
ToEleven
RS propmasters (I'm not sure if they offer paint services on helmets other than their own)

Those are the ones that just come to mind but there are so many more that offer paint on the products that they sell like just blasters or helmets etc. Do some searching for paint up threads and find someone's work that you like and begin asking for prices if you want to go that route. I will say though that a good paint job on parts is not cheap if you have someone do it. The reason for that is most of the parts have a lot of small detail and take a lot of skill to do well. Also on top of that quality paint that is the right colors isn't cheap either.

 

[Evan1701]

I'll name off a few painters off the top of my head but doing a search on the forum and in the cargo hold is going to get you much better results. Also as a disclaimer I'm going to miss some and others may not offer paint ups anymore so if anyone wants to add more please do.

AFettFullofDollars
SuperJedi
Fett 4 Real
Rubio
Dented Gent
Boba Maker
PredatorMV
Fettastic
ToEleven
RS propmasters (I'm not sure if they offer paint services on helmets other than their own)

Those are the ones that just come to mind but there are so many more that offer paint on the products that they sell like just blasters or helmets etc. Do some searching for paint up threads and find someone's work that you like and begin asking for prices if you want to go that route. I will say though that a good paint job on parts is not cheap if you have someone do it. The reason for that is most of the parts have a lot of small detail and take a lot of skill to do well. Also on top of that quality paint that is the right colors isn't cheap either.

Thanks Drax, this is great. I've watched a good chunk of YouTube videos on the helmet painting tutorial, I've seen the playlist linked here before. There are 25 or 26 total videos I think. It's great so far. A bit terrifying. I've never done anything like this, I can barely draw a straight line, but depending on how much money I can save doing it myself I'll do it. Even if it means sanding it down and starting again. One of my good friends in Garrison Tyranus that has a ROTJ Boba said he sanded his down 3 times before he finally got it right.

 

[Drax]

If you follow the tutorials and ask questions on here when you have problems you should be able to do a good job. The templates on here are invaluable when painting so you should check those out to. Also ROTJ is a very detailed and difficult paint job for the helmet so it's no surprise he had trouble with it. Just take your time and make sure you do plenty of reading/research and double check what you're doing before you lay some paint.

 

[Evan1701]

I've spent most of the day (don't tell my boss) doing research and I've solidified getting the bucket and jetpack from DVH. Still have yet to get the OK from the wife, hoping that will come within the week She has a Bo Katan so she is very excited I'm doing a Boba, just not so much on the money side of things. Understandable. I've been selling stuff off at home to make up for it, so far $150 for my old Magic cards. Trying to find other stuff to sell off as well, considering liquidating my approved AT AT Driver costume since I'm worried I wouldn't wear it after building Fett. This is probably pretty unlikely at this point, but if I do find myself not wearing it any more after-the-fact I may sell it to recoup the funds.

I've also confirmed that Wasted Fett is doing gauntlets as well as armor, so I'm considering him for now. Have yet to see any pictures of the gauntlets, so I'm curious as to what all comes in the kit and what the gauntlets are made of.

I also think I'm gonna sack up and do the paint job. I'm an engineer so I have no excuse not to do a project like this, since I do something I never thought I would be able to every single day at my job for years.

Stay tuned folks!

 

[Ghost_Fett]

I'll throw Raizos name here. Raizo did my whole paint job from neck down for a crazy good price and I'm having Toeleven currently painting my helmet. I'll also say as mentioned above to save money on shipping I sent my stuff directly to painters instead of to me and back again.

 

[Artakha]

Raizo does great stuff, I'll add too.

 

[Drax]

I can't believe I forgot Raizo!

Also Evan1701 good to see someone else that plays MTG. How old was the stuff you let go?

 

[Evan1701]

I can't believe I forgot Raizo!

Also Evan1701 good to see someone else that plays MTG. How old was the stuff you let go?

I had some old reprints from 4th edition and Battle Royale. About 3/4 of my cards there, mostly a loss. The rest were more recent, about 3 or 4 years old. I could've made more selling the cards individually but I couldn't deal with the hassle. I catalogued them all and sold them to trollandtoad and coolstuffinc via their buy lists. It'll get me about... Half a helmet

 

[Evan1701]

Just ordered my helmet and jetpack kits from DVH! Ordering my EE-3 from HFX was sort of an excited drunken decision, I count this one as my first REAL step into finally getting that helmet my parents couldn't afford 20 years ago... plus the whole rest of the costume of course!!!

I get pretty good reactions out of my costumes that I have (Royal Guard, AT AT Driver, Darth Nihilus), but I've really wanted to do one of the "Big 3"- Vader, stormtrooper, Boba Fett. We've been doing a few troops this year for the Children's Hospital here in the area, and I really wanted to finally do a costume that the kids would instantly know and love. This one is going to be it and I'm beyond excited. It's one of the things keeping me motivated, beyond the Boba Fett minifigure on my desk at work...