Clone Wars Mandalorian Costumes Part 8: the Jetpack

This is the eighth article in the series detailing the building of a whole bunch of Death Watch and Night Owl Mandalorians from the Clone Wars animated series in preparation for Star Wars Celebration: Anaheim. If you're just now tuning in to this project, be sure to check out the previous parts:

Part1: the Death Watch Helmets

Part 2: the Night Owl Helmets

Part 3: the Armor

Part 4: the Soft Parts

Part 5: the Blaster Pistols

Part 6: the Nite Owl Armor

Part 7: the Gauntlets and Knees

Those parts were fun, but nothing compared to making the jetpack:

Not to mention making over a dozen of them:

If you want to know how they were made, read on...

Clone Wars Mandalorian Costumes Part 7: the Gauntlets and Knees

This is the seventh article in the series detailing the building of a whole bunch of Death Watch and Night Owl Mandalorians from the Clone Wars animated series in preparation for Star Wars Celebration: Anaheim a couple of years back.  I've been really slow to write these, and for that I am ashamed.

You can read the previous articles here:
Part1: the Death Watch Helmets
Part 2: the Night Owl Helmets
Part 3: the Armor
Part 4: the Soft Parts
Part 5: the Blaster Pistols
Part 6: the Nite Owl Armor 

So with all of those pieces put together, it was time to work out the making of the gauntlet and knee pieces.  Both came with their own unique challenges, but in the end we still made quite a lot of them:


For details and additional photos of how they were made, read on...

Clone Wars Mandalorian Costumes Part 5: the Blaster Pistols

This is the fifth article in the series detailing the building of a whole bunch of Death Watch and Night Owl Mandalorians from the Clone Wars animated series in preparation for Star Wars Celebration: Anaheim.  You can read the previous three articles here:
Part1: the Death Watch Helmets
Part 2: the Night Owl Helmets
Part 3: the Armor
Part 4: the Soft Parts

At this point in the build my friend Matt and I realized that we were going to need an awful lot of weapons to arm our growing group of Mandalorians.  Rewatching the episodes of the Clone Wars in which they appear, we found the primary weapon of the Death Watch:


That's it?  Really?  Surely they have to have something more interesting to carry around?  What's that?  Some of them carry a sort of carbine instead of a pistol?  Cool.  What's that look like?

Dammit.

Since we'd already come up with armor plates for the thighs with integrated holsters, we were stuck making pistols.  Since I couldn't quite stomach the notion of making them as plain and boring as they looked in the series, I ended up adding a couple of lines and recesses here and there.  Not enough to make them unrecognizable, but enough to keep them from being as plain and uninspired as they were supposed to be.

After a lot of repetitive casting and some very rushed, slapdash painting and weathering, the end result was a whole lot of these:


They're pretty unremarkable, but there were a lot of them.  If you'd like to see more about how they were made, read on...

Clone Wars Mandalorian Costumes Part 4: the Soft Parts

This is the fourth article in the series detailing the building of a whole bunch of Death Watch and Night Owl Mandalorians from the Clone Wars animated series in preparation for Star Wars Celebration: Anaheim.  You can read the previous three articles here:
Part1: the Death Watch Helmets
Part 2: the Night Owl Helmets
Part 3: the Armor

With all of the hard armor parts shaping up, it was time to put together something to hang them all on.  This collection of fabric and foam I'll collectively refer to as the "soft parts."  Since we were pretty short on seamstresses, the biggest consideration was to minimize the amount of sewing involved.

Here's a quick look at the first set of finished parts on a way too skinny mannequin:


For details and photos showing how they were made, read on...

Clone Wars Mandalorian Costumes Part 3: the Armor

A while back I wrote a post detailing the construction of a handful of Death Watch helmets from the Clone Wars animated series.  You can read it here:
Part1: the Death Watch Helmets
Part 2: the Night Owl Helmets

While the helmets might look kinda cool just sitting on a shelf somewhere, they're a far cry from being a complete costume.  So it was time to make some armor.

Here's a blurry pic of one of the finished suits:


For more photos and details about how the armor plates were made, read on...

Clone Wars Mandalorian Costumes Part 2: the Night Owl Helmets

A while back I mentioned that I'll be going to Star Wars Celebration: Anaheim with a group of friends and that my friend Matt talked me into making a bunch of costumes so we can go as Death Watch mercenaries from the Clone Wars animated series.  Since then, we've been on a roll with the Death Watch stuff.  If you didn't see the post about making the helmets, you can read it HERE.

Since our significant others will be going along (as well as a handful of other folks) we have a pressing need to dress the girls in appropriate outfits to fit in with the group.

Here's a finished helmet:


We've made a few more of them too:

For details about how they were made, read on...

Clone Wars Mandalorian Costumes Part 1: the Helmets

A while back my girlfriend Shawnon bought us a couple of tickets to Star Wars Celebration: Anaheim which will be taking place in April of next year.  I started talking it up with some of my friends and the next thing you know, we've got a bit of a group together to go to the convention.

We've sorted out travel and lodging plans easily enough.  The last thing to do is, of course, the most challenging: costumes.

My friend Matt and his wife will be coming along and Matt figured that the best way to dress a group of us would be to put together a unit of Death Watch mercenaries from the Clone Wars animated series.  The plan: start with the images from the show as if they were the concept art for a live-action film and go from there.

Using my tools, materials, and occasional oversight and hands-on assistance, Matt cranked out a quick prototype, we pulled a mold, and together we painted up these beauties:


For more details about their construction as well as additional photos of the finished pieces, read on...