Koda Vonnor

I used fiberglass for the Rahm Kota shoulder bell model and breastplate. I went to Home Depot and bought some fiberglass cloth, polyester resin & hardener, and some Bondo auto-body filler & hardener. I'm guessing at his crafting steps, based on what I had to do with my armor. You mix up the hardener with the poly-resin and paint a layer on a section of the model frame (looks like styrene he used, not sure what the material is there) then lay on a strip of fiberglass cloth and another coating of resin. Repeat until the model frame is covered to the 3-4 layers of cloth thickness, then let it dry and spread some mixed up Bondo on the surface, Let that dry and sand it smooth and shape it. Repeat the Bondo if needed. Then paint it. Use disposable brushes for the resin, 'cause when the liquid plastic hardens on the brush, it's dead. It makes a very solid and lightweight structure when it's all finished. You HAVE TO wear a ventilator mask, one that is rated for organic vapors, when you work with polyester resin and Bondo, and you HAVE TO do it outdoors!! It is the most toxic and nasty crap I have ever worked with! ~ BC

What I'm planning is to first make a hard bust of my head and shoulders, then sculpt the collar and base jawguard on that. The base jawguard would be without most of the surface detail, and be in two sections. I would cast a fiberglass hard-model of the sections, and build those up with the detail. I would use sintra or styrene to build up the jaw prongs. and styrene to build up the ridge detail under the ears and around the back. The 3D model frame is seamed at three places around the ears. I'd split the hard model probably along seams 2 & 3 (see below) and have the rear piece be supported by the ears and cover them to past the front edge of lines 1 & 3. The jaw piece would clip over the rear piece at the ears (and over the ears too) and line up flush at seams 2&3. Once I have both front & back pieces built up and finish-detailed, I'll make the production molds. Still mostly speculation at this point. ~ BC

Oh god, I hope not! The plan is to "fabric"ate it from two thin layers. Black cotton rib-knit (t-shirt stuff) against the skin, and a thin orange-red stretch something-or-other loose-sewn in the crinkle pattern to the black with elastic thread. I'm sure the edges of the jawguard will leave their marks though. "General Kota, aren't those scars supposed to be up on your forehead?..." "Shut up."

WOW! Fantastic! I had not seen those. They will be a big help. ~ Vonnor

Work has begun on my next costume. First to gather an insane amount of reference pix, I got ahold of a KotOR mod that turns your character into Malak. Went out with Carth and found an open area in which to move the camera around. Here's what I came up with. Anyone else researching this costume, help yourself. There are already a great deal more angles and details then previously found from googling. There will be more. Here is a sampling: My first thoughts are these (in no particular order): - The horizontal rib-folds will have to be put in by layering the fabric, as the ribs are tighter in the torso and legs than in the sleeves. - The jaw-guard has to "float" and not rest on the hard collar, so it needs to be light enough to wear like sunglasses - clamped over the ears. - The breastplate is not right-left symmetrical, and will most likely be cast in some semi-rigid material from a hard master. - Would likely use the same material for the belt. - The costume lends itself nicely to a bald-cap (it will also cover the Rahm Kota goatee). All the gray head-stripes can be painted on the cap. Most of the cap edges will be hidden beneath the jaw-guard. It can be blended into the face-paint at the temples and across the forehead over the eyebrows. - The jaw-guard can be seamed at the sides and held with rare earth magnets or some slide-locking mechanism. I will be tracking this project here, as it fits this community. I will also post updates in the RPF. I plan to complete this for CV, and will keep the "elephant" parts as small as possible. Welcome to another cool ride. ~ Vonnor

This is one of two long-term projects I'm looking at as well (Desann being the other). I would definitely sculpt the collar and cast it in a semi-flexible material. Smooth-On has several resins that are flexible post-cure. I'd make the collar on the shirt/bodysuit so it velcro'd to the hard collar somehow. My own neck is quite long as it is, so I'd just scale it to fit and use a black TK-style neck liner. Will be a challenge matching the chest armor color to the fabric. This costume might cure me of my "head-tilting" habit. ~ Koda

Muchas gracias!

I present General Rahm Kota, Jedi Master. So the project thread ends the way it began, with the first reference picture. I owe a debt of gratitude to a great many people. To all the forum members of the Rebel Legion, The Jedi Assembly, Flagship Eclipse, and the Replica Props Forum (RPF) who gave advice, input, and opinion; to my sister and her family, who endured countless days of bugging to help me make plaster body casts; to my brother, who helped me brainstorm the armor mounting system; and especially to Thomas Spanos and Pam Simpson for their excellent crafting tutorials, without which this costume would not have been built. To my outsources, Mel Mattson, leathercrafter extraordinaire; to Carlos Diaz, who is still willing to build a pair of boots from a napkin sketch, and to Don Close of Do-Clo Custom Sabers, who gets up at 5AM every day 'cause it's "time to make the lightsabers." I am grateful to you all. ~ Koda "HairColorByAdobe" Vonnor

Uncanny resemblance. You will own this character. I hope for the opportunity to stand with you for photos. The costume in my avatar will be completed next week. ~ Bill C.

I have given blood to this project, but not by choice. The knife never seems to differentiate the model from the fingers. Your words mean a great deal to me, sir. I am honored. hmmmm...... I thought Vader was sending a 'boy.' ...and I thought it had to be an unbaptized male child...

I lined up all the hard parts and took a photo for posterity. After tweaking the shoulder bell anchor system and adding strategic Velcro to the BP, almost nine months to the day after I began this project, I am officially finished with the Rahm Kota armor version 1.0 Many thanks to Flagship Eclipse for being such a fantastic source of crafting info. Special thanks to Pam, for the excellent detailed visual tutorials on body casting, mold making, resin casting, and all that other stuff I read and already forgot. Thanks also to the Maestro, Thomas. For the most part I copied from his Ganner Krieg progress pix and process description for the fiberglass work (all but the blood sacrifice - I wimped out on that). I will post one last picture to this thread, one with the full costume. I hope that all this can be useful to others who want to create something cool. Thanks again! See y'all at DragonCon! ~ Vonnor

Thanks Pam. Compared to your work, it's actually very crude and sloppy. I just know how to pick the camera angles.

I got some good news and some bad news... The bad news is I had a major glitch in the shoulder bell anchor system. The way I had the top strap holding the weight made it impossible for the bell to sit straight on the shoulder. I'm going to have to redo the attachment system. The good news is I picked up my scraper this afternoon and just started scraping and scratching at the BP. Before I knew what was happening, I had finished the stupid thing. I can't do a full costume pic. I forgot the belt is still in Colorado with the bando (plus I got one bell all taken apart ). Here's a little teaser I threw together with what I have (sorry for the graininess, the setting and lighting weren't too good): Only things left are the boots, the bando, and the hair. ~ BC

Weekend Update part 2: So I'm out in my front yard this morning painting this mug, and my neighbor comes by walking his dog. He stops to watch me for a minute, then says, "Tony Stark?" I said, "close." I'm not really likin' the overall contours. I really borked it up doing the final shaping. I went by touch mostly and not enough by sight, and the symmetry is horrendous. It's really noticeable at about 3 metres or farther. I will matte it down as much as possible in the weathering so it doesn't show so bad. I also wanted to show the attachment system for the bells. I don't see too many crafters showing the mechanical guts of their stuff. Maybe it'll give someone else some ideas. There's a short (10cm) strap that attaches to the top velcro strip and to the reinforced yoke of the shirt. The bell hangs from that, and the non-stretch canvas yoke in the shirt keeps the bells from sagging. They sorta pull against each other's weight. The lower contraption has two raised plastic strips with slot openings in the sides, and soft neoprene padding. The padding cradles the upper arm and keeps the bell in position laterally. There's an elastic strap that runs around the underarm and threads through those slots to stick on that center velcro pad. The slots transfer the velcro's sticky force from tensile to shear and it holds much better. For now, I'll run the strap over the shirt, as it is almost an exact color match to the shirt. Eventually I will put big button-holes in the sleeves and run the anchor strap through the holes so it doesn't show and doesn't scrunch up the sleeve. Next week: full costume pix. ~ Vonnor

Here's the chest plate ready for painting (almost). I still have to do some final touch-ups with the emery boards. I wanted to show it 'cuz of those two images that somehow got in the casting when I sanded in the final contours. I'm calling them "Demon" the Hutt (on your left) and "LAUGH-LAC" the duck (on your right). I thought they were funny, and since I'll always know they're in there, now everybody else will too... hehehe I know it don't look like much, but check it out tomorrow. ~ Vonnor

To cure all the nasty surface waves, I added a bondo icing and a little epoxy patchwork. Almost looks good enough to eat. I'll sand all that down to shape. Also thanks to my brother for coming up with the killer solution to harnessing the shoulder bells. Worked like a charm. I'll explain how I did it later with the full costume pix. See ya's next week. ~ Vonnor

OK guys, that's it. I'm giving up on this costume. I've found a MUCH cooler character to portray! JEDI UMPIRE!!

This morning I laid up the fiberglass on the chest plate. I had some difficulty. I poured in a gray gel-coat first, keeping it as thin as possible, but because it was a very warm day, and I waited too long before starting the resin/fiberglass, the gel-coat hardened and shrunk away from the mold. I suspect there will be several ripples in the surface, some quite large. I also ran out of resin after only 3.5 layers of fiberglass or so. Due to the heat, the stuff I mixed up went solid WAY too fast and I ended up wasting half the resin. I also wasn't able to add fiberglass along the center ridge, so I put on a few heavy layers of resin and finished the whole thing with a bondo/gel-coat reinforcement along all the edges and the center ridge. No doubt I still have to fill in those wavy ripples mentioned earlier. When I discovered the ripples it was too late to do anything about them. It was either keep going or scrap the whole BP back to the body cast. I'll pop it out of the mold tonight and see how bad it is. If I can fill in the ripples with bondo and smooth it all out then I'll wear this one. If not, I may have to use it as a hard model and take another mold. I really wish the polyester resin wasn't such a pain in the a$$.

Thanks Havoc! Here is the rough saber holster made from heat-formed sintra 3mm. It will attach to the bandoleer with two Chicago screws and have a leather strap going 'round the middle. I had to make it this morning to send to my leather crafter tomorrow so she can make the bando. It's shown here laying on the bandoleer cut-out template. ~ Vonnor

Weekend Update: I took a plaster mold of the BP today. Had to layer on the plaster, and as such I got some striation lines in the mold. I don't think they will cause much trouble though, I can sand them smooth after the casting. The weather report looks good for laying the fiberglass next Saturday. I also made the template for the bandoleer today, and drew up a bunch of sketches and notes for Mel Mattson, and adjusted the saber hilt to better represent the CG images. Tomorrow I will heat-form the sintra saber holster and box everything up to send to Mel. See ya's next week. ~ Koda

That's the kinda thing I need, I think. Something I can spritz on damp hair as I smooth it down and have it STAY down. I tried pulling in the ponytail the other night with totally dry hair and only caught to within 3" of my hairline all around. I'll have to really gunk that part up and try to make it stick flat to the hair that's actually IN the ponytail. Then let all that dry stiff and finish the knot, then spray-color the whole ball-o-wax (pun intended ). For the bells, my plan is to reinforce the yoke area of the tunic (maybe even velcro it to the underarmor - seen above) and down the tops of the sleeves a couple inches, then velcro inside the top-middle of the bell and attach to the reinforced tunic yoke. That point would rely on gravity to hold flat to my shoulder. The other anchor point would be an elastic strap that runs from inside the bell near it's bottom, through buttonholes in the sleeve and around the upper arm under the armpit. Because of the curve of the bell at it's bottom, and the thinness of my arm, the velcro would be pulling almost perpendicular to the gripping surface. I found a cool way to transfer the pull direction from perpendicular to almost parallel to the velcro's grip. I'll post pix when I get to that. I fear that the bells may be too wobbly with this solution, but I can't think of another way. Except maybe velcroing the tunic to the underarmor, which is pretty stretchy-snug. ~ Koda

Thanks Pam. Comments like these definitely help keep the project going. I put together the tunic last night from just the perfect color dark-brown fabric. Unfortunately it turned out WAY too thin and flimsy. I reinforced the yoke with a thin, non-stretchy twill to help hold the shoulder bells, but just couldn't get the collar and front to lay right. I have some 65/35 calcutta in a close-but-not-exact brown that is much heavier and stronger. I will have to make the tunic out of that so it holds the bells. I have the face and hair make-up coming tomorrow. Got some rigid collodion to do the scars and some silver ben nye and spray-color for the hair. Only about 3/4 of my hair will reach the top-knot by D*Con, so I bought both petrolatum and non-petrolatum based pomade. Hopefully one of those two will glue the stray strands flat to my noggin. The top-knot itself will not be a canon form until mid next year in any case. I'm anxious to try out the scars and hairdo. ~ Vonnor

I laid on the left and right sides today. Rolled out little tiles of clay to 6mm thickness and cut them to shape, then sort of built a jigsaw puzzle and smoothed all the joints. The upper half was looking a bit bloated on the sides so I did some major reshaping. It's not perfect, but then my body ain't at all like that CG dude either. Almost ready to take a mold. Couple more rounds of smoothing and microscopic inspection and it'll be good to go. ~ Koda

Small update... Just have to tweak the edges a bit and smooth it all out, then lay on the left and right slabs. The belly box is just for reference, I'll take the mold without it and attach it after casting. ~ Vonnor

Here's a weekend update: I didn't do much 'cause I had family in from out of town, but here's all the stuff you won't see once the armor gets on there. One thing though, these pants are 37" waist and were very tight when I started this project (Nov). I have dropped a bit of weight and these are just too baggy around the middle. I will now have to buy another pair in a 36" or 35" and doctor them up (removing the back pockets was a bich - had to pick at each needle hole to blend it in). :-/ Also, these are not the Rahm Kota boots. I have yet to receive those. ~ Koda