Cad Bane - Star Wars' Bounty Hunter

My 12 year old son is wearing a Cad Bane costume.   He and I worked on it together.  To make the mask, we used the paper mache technique to cover a little over half a balloon.  After we put on a total of 5 layers (letting each layer dry before applying another), I removed the balloon and cut out the eyes and the cheeks from the mask.  My son then spray-painted it blue.  I cut two pieces of cardboard and made a hole in each one just large enough for cut pieces of accordion plumbing hose to fit in (I used a 6ft. universal connect dishwasher discharge hose).  I then temporarily taped the cardboard in the cheek areas and then put 3 layers of paper mache on the inside of the mask to permanently attach the cardboard to the mask.  Since the cardboard was flat and the outside of the mask was curved, I put hot glue between the gaps to reinforce the bond between the cardboard and the mask.  I blew a balloon up inside the mask to hold its shape while my son sculpted the face onto the mask using white Crayola Model Magic.  Before sculpting the cheeks, he let the Crayola Model Magic dry and then spray-painted it blue.  When this was dry, I inserted into each cheek hole an 18” piece of accordion plumbing hose (it had been previously spray-painted grey using paint made for plastic), hot glued it in place and then my son sculpted the cheek area with more Crayola Model Magic.  After it dried, I painted it with grey acrylic paint to match the hose. 

I glued 3 layers of red toile to the back side of each eye.  I attached black fabric to the paper part of the mask using hemming tape and a mini craft iron.  Ends of the accordion hoses were put into cut holes of a small cardboard box, one hole on each end of the box.  This is supposed to be Cad Bane’s breathing apparatus.  Prior to this, my son had put a layer of paper mache onto the box to make it smooth all over and then spray-painted it grey. 

For each of Cad Bane’s arm controls, we glued a smaller cardboard box onto a larger cardboard box and used a piece of cardboard to make the slant.  He then put paper mache over the attached boxes. There is a hole in the slanted cardboard where we hot glued the ends we had cut off from the plumbing hose.  On the top, we glued Lego pieces to simulate Cad Bane’s control buttons.  There are holes in each end of the larger box.  These allowed my son to slip his hands through the boxes to make it appear as if the arm controls were a part of his arms.

To simulate Cad Bane’s blue tipped hands, we bought black gloves made of thin cloth with rubber tips and palms.  To paint the tips of the fingers, my son wore the gloves while I used a piece of card stock to protect the rest of the gloves from the blue paint and to give a clean line to the tips of the fingers when I spray-painted them blue.  I then eased them off to dry.  We did this to both sides of the gloves.

My son made the leg jet packs by taking two small disposable plastic cups and hot gluing them to toilet paper tubes.  He then spray-painted them grey.  I glued red and orange tissue paper inside to simulate flames coming out.  I made slits in each cup and put elastic (previously dyed a light tan color) through the slits and then sewed the ends together to form a circle.  These were worn over my son’s pants around his calves.

I made the hat out of poster board.  I cut out 2 elliptical shapes for the brim (they are approximately 26”x 12”).  I measured the circumference of my son’s head with the mask on and cut out a circle in the center of the ellipse with the same circumference.  I cut a 4” rectangle 3” longer than the circumference of the circle.  I cut 1” slits ½” apart into one long side of the rectangle.  I folded these tabs back at 90-degree angles.  I glued the ends of the rectangle and let this dry.  Working on wax paper to protect my work surface, I placed a dot of white craft glue on each tab and then slipped the brim over the crown and on top of the tabs so they would be on the underside of the brim.  I used the center circle in the ellipse as a template for the top of the crown and added 1” all around.  I then cut 1” slits ½” apart and then folded these tabs back at 90-degree angles.  I glued the tabs to the inside of the crown to form the top.  I then took the second identical elliptical shape and glued it on the underside of the brim.  This helped give the brim more durability while covering the exposed tabs glued to the underside of the brim.  I spray-painted the outside and then later the inside with brown spray paint. 

I sewed the coat using a simple T-shaped design with an open front out of brown fabric. 

The guns were purchased.  They are The Clone Wars Cad Bane Guns and Holster.