Our Halloween trio this year was Star Wars droids: C-3PO, R2-D2, and BB-8!

The R2-D2 costume base is paper mâché, with a resin coat and foam sheet topper and lots of recyclables used for details – I wanted to avoid buying unnecessary supplies for the costume, so tried to be really creative and thoroughly dug in our recycling bin and our toy bin to repurpose items.

I used lots of reference photos (Googling "R2D2 top view", "R2D2 side view", "R2D2 details") to try to get all the details correct!

The elements of our R2-D2 costume:

- head/hat

- body

- arm covers

Supplies

Trash can as a mold for paper mâché (Umbra Black 10 gal. Swing-Lid Grand Trash Can)

Saran Wrap

Newspaper

Elmer’s Glue

Wood Glue (TiteBond III)

Inexpensive Brushes and Plastic tubs to mix paper mâché (and fiberglass resin, if using)

Fiberglass Resin *optional

Sandpaper

2mm Foam Roll

Cardboard

Elastic

Bicycle helmet

Scissors

Box cutter/X-Acto knife

Hot glue gun/hot glue

Paint pen (black)

Acrylic Paint (blue, silver, black, brown)

Miscellaneous recyclables used for details:

Cardboard tube (arm detail)

Kebab Skewers (arm detail)

Plastic straw (arm detail)

Aluminum foil

Plastic spherical lid (ours came from some baked goods, but clear plastic ornaments could also be used)

Plastic lids/bottles

Bicycle lights/small battery-operated “rave” lights

Flat round circular battery

Step 1: Paper Mâché Body and Head

- Wrap plastic trash can base well in saran wrap (helps a LOT in easing off the paper mâché when dried) *if I were re-doing this, I also would have utilized foam or other paper to account for the slight tapering in the trash can before applying saran wrap/paper mâché

- Tear newspaper into 1-2 inch strips

- Mix paper mâché glue - I mostly used watered down Elmer's Glue, but also used watered down wood glue for my last three or so layers for added strength

- Lay newspaper strip on trash can and cover with paper mâché glue, continue until the entirety of the cylinder and half dome are covered, making sure paper strips overlap

- Let dry fully, then repeat until you have 4-7 layers of paper mâché -- I alternated horizontal and vertical strips with each layer

- *optional -- for added strength, coat with fiberglass resin (do this outside in a well ventilated area and mix a little bit of resin as you go, it starts to harden as soon as the solution is mixed; also note the working temperature, as fiberglass resin needs to set at specific temperatures); if utilizing resin, sand after resin is fully dry

- When fully dry, carefully remove from trash can base

- I had to trim around 2 inches from the paper mâché form to make the proportions more akin to R2-D2

Step 2: Body Cover and Details

I initially planned to paint details directly onto the R2-D2 body, but the paper mâché/resin did not dry as smoothly as I would have liked, so I ended up using a 2mm foam sheet -- this foam sheet was wrapped around the cylindrical paper mâché body and hot glued in place

Using reference photos and a ruler, I marked R2-D2's body details with pencil, then traced with Sharpie and paint pen

The "vent" details on the center front I initially crafted out of paper-backed aluminum foil, but that didn't last our test run so I re-made it with paper cups painted silver -- I used the top rim of the cup as the outside and silver painted foam sheet strips for the "vents"

The "fan" detail on the center bottom is made from: black/silver painted mini jelly jar lid; aluminum soda can tabs and a painted plastic button

The rectangular "plug" details along the center left were made with silver-painted usb caps and blue painted foam sheet cut to size

Other details crafted with aluminum foil and marker

Cut out arm pit holes in the cylinder body (we did some fit tests before cutting to ensure placement/size were correct)

Wrap paper mâché cylinder with detailed foam, hot glue in place

Create two shoulder straps with 2" 2mm white foam, hot glue in place (secured additionally with gaffers tape) in an "X" from front to back, like suspender straps

Step 3: Arm Covers

Using cardboard, trace R2-D2's arm shape -- you can see the various measurements I used to get the shape as close to the reference photos as possible

Cut 1.5" strips of cardboard and use it to outline the base shape - cut fold lines where needed and around the curves, score so the cardboard will bend to fit

Hot glue the strips of cardboard in place all around the perimeter of the arm shape

Cover the arms with white 2mm foam

Staple elastic to the "armpit" portion of the costume

Hot glue a cardboard or foam hand hold

The details on the arm were made with:

- cookie tube silver lid with a silver painted mini jelly jar lid hot glued in place

- blue painted cardboard tubes cut vertically in half

- silver painted plastic straws

- silver painted kebab sticks

- black bubble tea straw

- blue painted 2mm foam

Step 4: Head Details

Paint half dome paper mâché base with acrylic silver paint (we ended up applying wood putty to the surface to get a smoother base, but if your resin/paper mâché didn't get all lumped up as ours did, this may not be a necessary step -- it did add additional weight to the head)

Draw on top circle and details with pencil, then paint with blue acrylic paint

Other details:

- Camera "eye": plastic half cylinder with black paint on the inside (to retain the high-gloss shine of the plastic) housed inside a blue painted cardboard trapezoid with a circle cut out

- Smaller camera: plastic medicine bottle lid painted silver, with a black sauce lid hot glued to the top and the clear plastic top of a wiggle eye used to mimic a rounded camera eye

Step 5: Final Details: Helmet, Lights, "Rusty" Effect

To make the paper mâché head wearable, we hot glued a bicycle helmet to the inside *if I were making this again, I would first paint the inside of the head black so as to not have the newspaper still be visible

The light-up details were not necessary, but were very fun to add! We added a red light in the front of R2-D2's head and a green light in the back

- create light housing: we used plastic medicine cups, gaffers tape and a bicycle light

- cut out corresponding hole in helmet

- hot glue light in place

- I used brown/black acrylic paint to add a "rusty" effect to the finish of the costume -- I daubed on bits of paint with a sponge brush, then wiped it off with a wet paper towel