Halloween 2010

Built a lot of props for Halloween this year, including a Road Warrior costume.

I used a set of football pads off of Ebay, added some spikes from some Goth Halloween store accessories.  The crossbow is a cheap pistol version that I sawed off and mounted to a shin guard.  I also got a set of catcher shin guards, modified them, added mounts for crossbow bolts.  I made arm and elbow guards from shin guards.  I used a handful of leather belts got cheap from a second hand store for straps.  The torso armor is a rubber walkway carpet protector from Home Depot.  The rabbit skins came from the Internet.  I added some fake bones and teeth, painted to weather them, from the Halloween store.  Then there's the mohawk with some temporary red dye.  A black feather boa worked for the trim around the neck of the football pads. I painted everything flat black and weathered it with brown and grey acrylic paints, watered down heavily.   The boots are some SWAT boots I already had.  And I got a military issue gasmask at a Halloween store, painted the filter bright red.  I also modified some old filters on my paint and fume mask and wore that.  And I had a pair of industrial looking goggles that went over my glasses.  

I put together several other things for the Harrison's Halloween party and for our house.  Today I had a bit of time and I threw together a rough Gonk Droid from stuff I had in the garage.  Another day of work on it and some paint and I think it will look pretty good:

 There are two 18 gallon tubs, a 9" baking pan, several scrounged parts screwed into the pan, and some simple 2x4 legs and feet with dryer vent hose over the posts.  This needs a lot more work but it was a good quick start on the project.  

I should also mention that I recently did a little event at a local Gamestop when The Force Unleashed II came out.  

Update on Hammer and Obelisk

I managed to get these both painted and weathered.  Both are coming along nicely and will be ready for the Halloween party.  I'm pretty sure that I'll need to whomp some kids with the hammer before that.

I've put a piece of real oak laminate that I had in the shop around a piece of 2.5" pvc pipe. I tried a smaller pipe that gripped better but it was too out of scale with the hammer head.  I'll be putting some faux metal straps around the body of the head, and some metal caps and bands on teh handle.

I bought some leather straps and I was going to wrap the handle, but this wood grain looks so good on its own I might leave it.  Notice the little spikes on the top.  Maybe they need to be bigger, and I probably need a pair on the bottom too.

I got this all screwed together and I got the wonky top adjusted and attached.  Then I hit the whole thing briefly with the orbital sander to clean up the seams.  I put some filler into the screw holes and dings.  Then I primed it with some latex primer I had laying around.  Then a coat of gray, and two coats of weathering--watered down black acrylic and watered down burnt umber.  But I don't love the finished look.  It may need to be a different base color like a sandy desert tan, and then weathering over that.

I have been toying with the idea of etching some heiroglyphics on two sides in a column and then cutting them out.  Then I could put a light inside to illuminate them from inside out.  That would look cool, but I don't know if I"ll have time to do it.  Otherwise, I think Alex and Candace may just paint some glyphs onto it.

Sac Sci Fi Con 2010

Took R2D2 to the Sacramento Sci Fi/Horror Convention a couple of weekends ago.  Website here.  Made the rounds, saw a lot of 501st members, some Mandalorians, and others. Ed Wamser was there with his R2D2 too.

Sam's getting over his trepidations about The Empire.  Thanks to Myke Soler for being so friendly.