Hondo Ohnaka - Info and Resource Gathering

[Guest Anonymous]

Hello, Legion friends!

 

In the last couple of months I've had a little more free time open up and have been able to troop more frequently. Needless to say, it's been a blast and has rekindled my passion for this hobby.

 

Also, just this last week, we hired a new guy at work whose dad makes custom masks...

 

[Wheels start turning...]

 

So I started getting the itch to put together a new costume. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love being out in my TK, but I'd like to have an alternate for those troops where TKs are already well-represented. I'm a huge fan of "The Clone Wars," and last night while I was watching last week's episode, it hit me: the scourge of the space lanes, Hondo Ohnaka!

 

Here is my breakdown of what the costume will entail (I'm leaving out blasters and a monkey lizard - those are extras to be added later). What I'd like from everybody who cares to chime in are suggestions on what you think each piece is made of, how it might best be assembled, and if there's anyone in the Legion that you know of who makes those pieces.

 

 

1.) Helmet. Looks like a cross between a turtle shell and a bicycle helmet. From all of the reference imagery I've been collecting, there doesn't appear to be any visible strap holding the helmet on (CG magic!), so I have to assume there would be something internal attaching the helmet to the top of the mask.

 

2.) Goggles. Rectangular goggles with green lenses that wrap around the head, with the excess strap on the wearer's right side. Depending on the episode you get your reference from, the strap either sits above or below the ears. The goggles might be a heavy leather material.

 

3.) Mask. Custom latex (?) mask that includes the head, neck, and some of the chest area (would also need to include hands of a similar style). Depending on the episode, this also includes two sets of gold, hoop earrings (one large on the lobe and one smaller towards the top of the ear), and two simple necklaces that look like brown leather loops with square pendants on them. There are also two hair braids that would either need to be attached to the mask or under the bottom of the helmet.

 

4.) Armor. Besides the mask, this is one of the items I'm most interested in picking your brains about. The shoulder bells, chest, and even the overcoat front appear to have the same type of armor, but I don't think it's hard like trooper armor (I have another reference image where his monkey lizard is on his shoulder, and the grip from the lizard's talons is wrinkling the armor). Maybe it's a heavy leather?

 

5.) Undershirt. White, and cut down low on the chest with a small "v" at the center. I don't think the shirt is long-sleeved. In other reference images, the forearms appear more like mummy-wrap bandages than a shirt.

 

6.) Overcoat. Gold-trimmed, knee-length, red coat. Depending on the angle, this coat can almost look like velvet, and especially in the season 5 opener it's embellished with leaf-like symbols all over it (these symbols are not part of the coat in the recent Onderon episode). Also in the season opener, the sleeves are longer and folded back up toward the bicep with gold trim, but in all other episodes so far they end above the elbow with no trim.

 

7.) Pants. Dark tan, loose pants. The belt appears to be the same material as the pants and has two gold (or very light tan) snaps at the end.

 

8.) Boots. Charcoal colored, folded, knee high boots.

 

As I read through this post again, I realized that it almost sounds like I'm asking everyone else to do this while I sit back and watch, which isn't the case at all. I've already reached out to a guy whose dad makes custom latex masks, and I've started talking with the costuming group at our church (big church, big productions, really good seamstresses) to see what's possible from their angle. I just really want to get expert input so I don't head down the complete wrong rabbit trail, particularly when funds are tight. Thanks in advance for the input!

[Guest Aysel]

Hondo really came alive as a character in this season. This costume of his really reminded me of a British officer/pirate uniform. If I were you, I'd start looking at historical British uniforms to find the coat pattern. For the boots they look much like the stereotypical pirate boots. Good luck with this build, as you start the pieces please keep a detailed work in progress thread as we'll be able to help you avoid any problems that would lead to a delay in the approval process.

 

Katie

[Guest Anonymous]

Yeah, Hondo has been the star of this season for me. I mean...

 

"Insolence?! Hahaha!! We are pirates, we don't even know what that means!!"

 

"I'm semi-speechless."

 

Come on!!

 

Back to the costume - I did some research into pirate boots today and boiled many results down to two:

 

 

 

I like the color and wrinkled nature of the first boot, which I think match up with Hondo's boots better. However, those boots have laces in the back, whereas Hondo's are solid.

 

The second boots have a folded cuff that flares (as opposed to the first pair which are straight) more similarly to Hondo's.

 

In neither case (and I didn't find this feature on any boot I looked at today) is there an overlap of material where the leg and foot join, which you can see if you look closely at Hondo's picture.

 

Accuracy is my highest priority, and I'm not sure if either of these boots are up to snuff. Thoughts?

[Guest Aysel]

I like both these, but I see what your saying about the flappy thing at the ankle of Hondo's boots, what you might do is find a boot that has the right top flap then add a lower wrap to simulate the flappy thing, this could also help hide any laces.

 

My other thought is that you could make a boot topper that has your ankle flappy thing and the top flap. If you find a good base boot the make them out of similar leather you can paint/stain the leathers all the right colors.

[Koda Vonnor]

It may not be a belt, but just the waistband of the pants, like my example here:

 

 

I use velcro to close the tab but snaps could be used just as easily.

 

~ Vonnor

[Guest Anonymous]

Good point, thanks! Of course this last weekend he appears in a new episode with significant changes across most of his costume, including a new style of goggles, a gold belt buckle, jewelry, and more.

 

If I get the resources to move forward with this, I'm going to have to definitely just pick an episode and work to that standard, as I have a feeling the designs are going to be moving targets until the end of the series.