How to Make Your Own Starwars Boba Fett Knee Armor

Intro: How to Make Your Own Starwars Boba Fett Knee Armor

This is how I made my Boba Fett knee armor for my Halloween costume. It cost me around $3 in material to build. I documented and uploaded the full 1:27 hour How-To video on youtube below into 9-10 minute videos. Below is video 1 of 9.

How To Make Your Own Boba Fett Knee Armor Pt. 2 of 9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le6HIQ1Rur4&feature=channel_page

How To Make Your Own Boba Fett Knee Armor Pt. 3 of 9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v55VyNrb8cw&feature=channel_page

How To Make Your Own Boba Fett Knee Armor Pt. 4 of 9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4prboM8qfQc&feature=channel_page

How To Make Your Own Boba Fett Knee Armor Pt. 5 of 9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQzGTYtKpMo&feature=channel_page

How To Make Your Own Boba Fett Knee Armor Pt. 6 of 9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh1aFIiDZPo&feature=channel_page

How To Make Your Own Boba Fett Knee Armor Pt. 7 of 9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQJXrqi4UTM&feature=channel_page

How To Make Your Own Boba Fett Knee Armor Pt. 8 of 9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_oSh3Eg87k&feature=channel_page

How To Make Your Own Boba Fett Knee Armor Pt. 9 of 9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYC5S7WtuOE&feature=channel_page

STEP 1: Moulding the 3 Inch PVC Pipe With a Heat Gun

First, you need to cut the PVC pipe to your desired length of your knee cap. Then, I used a Saw-all to cut a vertical line down the pipe. Next, heat the pipe evenly with the hot air heat gun to soften the plastic. Then, use a 3 inch putty knife to pry apart the pipe and mould the pipe into a U shape. Always wear thick leather gloves during the operation or you will burn your hands!!

STEP 2: Drawing the Template and Cutting It Out

Once the PVC has cooled, use templates drawings of the knee armor and a marker to draw out the general design of the knee armor to be cut. Use the template provided on a copy machine to enlarge to desired size.
Next, use a Dremel cutting tool to remove to large pieces and a router bit for fine detailed work.

STEP 3: Fine Tune the Shape of the Knee Armor

Use the Heat gun again to double check the shape of your knee armor.

STEP 4: Making the Side Gun Ports

I found a scrap piece of wood in the garage and used a saw to cut out the general shape of the side ports. Next, I used a disk grinder to shape it. Hand sanding will work also but the grinder was at hand so it saved time. After sizing the side ports, I pre-drilled holes to prevent splitting the wood and used 1 inch wood screws to ancor the blocks in place.

STEP 5: Making the Gun Barrels

Again, I found a scrap piece of PVC water piping small enough to use as barrels on the side ports. I cut them to desired length. Then, cut smaller pieces for the 3-D effect of the barrels. Using the heat gun and needle nose plairs to strech the small PVC pipes to slip over the barrels. Another way to do it is cut the smaller PVC pipe vertical, slip it on the barrel and heat it up with the heat gun. After it cools, use a drop of glue on the pipe ring so it won't fall off. Finally, I used large picture hanger from Ace Hardware on the inside of the knee armor to connect the strap that will go behind my knee to hold the armor in place.

STEP 6: Attaching the Gun Barrels

I used a hot glue craft gun to anchor the barrels to the side ports with the wood screws in the middle of the barrel.

STEP 7: Final Paint Job

Finally, apply a primer coat of paint to the knee armor, then a metallic silver coat. Next, apply a liquid latex coat to the areas you want to keep silver, allow to dry. Then, apply your final yellow coat of paint. Once this has completely dried. Use a eraser block to rub off the liquid latex and expose the silver below. This will give the armor the appearance of battle worn look. I added battery operated LED lights to my Boba Fett costume so it really stands out at nite!

STEP 8: Party Party Party!!!

Everyone loved the outfit! I ended up in Tampa Florida at the Guavaween Halloween 2007 festival. Boba Fett was alittle drunk....

I want to thank all those do-it-yourself Fett websites for helping me put mine together:

http://www.tk409.com/fett.html#

http://www.angelfire.com/scifi/cantinacostumes/BF_armor_inst_page.htm

http://www.darthblade.com/costumes/boba_fett/bobafett.htm

http://mercs.firespray.net/

http://www.bobamaker.co.uk/

http://www.stormtrooperguy.com/bobafett/

and user: Honus on instructables

Comments

[kylegilbert]

Your suggestions here were very helpful to me when building my suit a couple of years ago. Before watching this, I had no concept of using heat to shape pvc. That knowledge has been a game changer for me. Thanks!

[dermord]

wow...the dath vader suit that you friend has its really really coool

[Ammy]

Great post! My son is a great fan of Star Wars Costume and he had a huge collection of Costumes. Especially he likes Boba Fett Costume (http://mystarwarscostume.com/Kids-Star-Wars-Costumes/Boba-Fett-Child-Deluxe.php); I was surprised to see your hand made Boba Fett knee armor.

[Clayton H.]

I'd have to say that the funniest thing that I saw on halloween was Jesus and Hitler haveing a beer.

[logic bomb]

That would be funny!

[MoreNicole]

I need to make a r2d2. Can you tell me how?

[logic bomb]

Aaaaaaaaah......................No!

[bounty1012]

now we need the storm trooper costumes to reenact the clone wars.lol

[logic bomb]

we are old school from the first 3 movies

[bounty1012]

I meant from ep 2.

[ptg1997!]

where did you get the other costumes?

[logic bomb]

these guys always show up at Guavaween in tampa florida for halloween. its a 200,000 people party!

[Hold_out]

That video is awesome. Did you make it with all the lasers and explosions? If so how did you do the lasers? If you could replie that would be good

[logic bomb]

A independent group of Starwars fans put the video together hoping to make a complete movie or series out of it.... Its kick a$$!

[steven.exe]

How did you make the gauntlets? Are there tutorials somewhere for it, I have looked at TDH forums but couldn't find anything with this amount of detail (that I like). Is is possible that you might create an instructable for the gauntlets? thanks! awesome build, i plan to do (after the helmet and body armor!)

[logic bomb]

The gauntlets are handmade. I used flower vases that go on tombstones bought at walmart for $2.50 each because they had the cylinder shape for gauntlets. I then used foam board from the hobby shop and a hot glue gun to build a skeleton structure on top of the vase and bolted it down with 1 inch screws drilled from the inside out. Then covered the foam board with paper mache, and paint job. It took about 2 weeks to make then and I really dont want to do that again. They were a real pain, but I was happy with the results. The only tutorial video I have is of the knee armor on DVD. Its about 1 1/2 hours long. I captured images form it to create this instructables. I dont know of any tutorials out there on gauntlets.... I looked! The best I can do is take some close-up pics of the gauntlets and post them here. Let me know if this helps....

[Erik Lindemann]

This looks great. I gotta say, one of the better Boba Fett items out there.

[logic bomb]

Check out the finished product in step 8

[p3nnst8r]

YES!!! I've been waiting!!! Thanks a lot man for this, they look great as usual.

[logic bomb]

Glad I could help....