Comm Pad 9.1

Did some playing about with idea's for the comm pad and here's what I came up with.

The electronics for this haven't been worked out yet but it should be fairly feasable, but I'm open to any help thats offered. The sounds would be something like the one's on these soundboards. Just imagine pressing a button and getting admiral Ackbar informing you "its a TRAP!" or Red Leader telling Wedge to "cut the Chatter Red 2" or even a scream from R2! The lights are there to indicate that the pad is on and seperate on and off switches to take up a few more buttons. Sure keeps it interesting. By the way thats not my actual comm pad above, just there as an example. I may have to slightly alter how my pad is made to accomodate the electrics. Maybe rubber buttons through a plastic frame or real push buttons with correct size plastic buttons on top of them. We'll see how it goes.

Comm Pad 9.0

"Accurate Comm Pad (size, details, 3-dimensional, coloration, etc.) visible in the comm pad pocket."






I bought my compad from Richie's Armour as it was only a couple o quid extra and I heard it was a difficult part to obtain. It cost me $5 (about £3.27) so not disasterous. Trouble was it isn't a great pull from the mould but like I say, it only cost £3 so I'm not gonna cry. I'll make my own from wood and clay and vaccum form it. I plan to modify the pad in the future and an idea of what I hope to do with it can be seen here. Love this idea!

X-Wing Helmet 10.0

"X-Wing Helmet with Star Wars-style decoration" - From the Rebel Legion costume standards

My lid will be the Wedge Antilles Rogue Leader design.
I've bought it from Richie's Armour in the US and it cost $150 plus $30 p&p (about £117.72). I've heard various reports about the quality of his equipment but found the gear sent to me was very good. I had asked for a kit but it came ready built and nicely put together. The visor is straight, the helmet fits snugly on my noggin and all the seams look neat and tidy, no glue seeping out anywhere. It came with the necessary decals for Wedge, just waiting for the time needed to paint this baby up and I will be taking my time! I don't want to rush it 'n' ruin it, especially when doing the weathering on it.

If you are building your helmet from a kit there's a full tutorial here. Even if you have bought a completed helmet, there are some usefull mods to be found within.

Here's my helmet before painting.

It will be a while before I paint this. New baby due to arrive and work comitments always slow things down.

More as it happens

Orange Flightsuit 1.0

"Orange flightsuit with mandarin-style collar and pointed tab, code cylinder pocket on upper-middle left arm, rectangular pocket with a flap closure on upper-middle right arm, comm pad pocket on outside of left forearm above wrist, and thigh pockets (upper set required, lower set optional). No visible zippers or snaps." - From the Rebel Legion costuming standards

- From the rebel legion tutorial

Please excuse the picture above. Its a still from the Holiday Special. So the first Item I bought was the flightsuit. These can be bought mostly complete from sellers on eBay, but to be screeen accurate need modification and finding material to match could take years. In my case I opted for two Orange overalls bought from Birmingham Market at £12 each. The first one makes the base of the suit and the second is for all the extra pockets, collars and cuffs. An alternate to this would have been to buy two white overalls and dye them both orange if an orange suit isn't readily available. Patterns for the mods are found here. Just scroll down the page and right click, save as.

The Overall:
Haven't started the mods yet but I'll post picts as and when.

Checklist

Right so I've set my mind on the Rebel Pilot costume to do first. Most of this I'll be making from scratch myself and detailing the process with photo's here. The list for a complete XWing Costume is as Follows:
1. Orange flightsuit
2. Mid-calf black boots
3. Leg flares in holder
4. Grey ejection harness and web belt
5. White flak vest
6. Grey chest box
7. Arm tools
8. Black gauntlet gloves
9 Comm pad
10. X-Wing helmet
11. Mini-flares on belt
12. Accurate belt buckle on web belt

All of these items will have reference photo's from the films to show what they should look like. I'll also state where I got the item from and how much it cost.

Its Away...

Hi there, my name is Chris and I Love Star Wars. There I've said it. Now thats out of the way here's a little more about me and the blog. I've loved Star Wars since I first saw it aged 4 years old. It was boxing day, so presents had all been opened and everyone had eaten far to much to play with a kid that was full of energy and generally getting underfoot! So my dad sat me in front of the telly to watch Star Wars. I was amazed, it blew me away and in hindsight he didn't do himself any favours because from that day on I'd drag him round car boots and collectors fairs looking for all the toys, diving under the tables and coming up holding some toy with a big grin and pleading eyes!

My love for Star Wars hasn't dwindled over the years. Its the reason I studied film at university and now work in the film industry. Which leads me on to the reason for this blog. I'm working on a Star Wars fan film. I'm still working on the script but I do have a rough idea of the storyline and it is set after Return of the Jedi. One of the costumes that features heavily is the rebel pilot. So while the film is still in its infancy this blog will focus on getting that costume together at a reasonable price and also detail how I made it.

It will also give updates on the films progress but will remain spoiler free. I'm currently living in Halesowen in the West Midlands, UK so anybody looking for a film project to jump on board please give me a shout.