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My Exar Kun WIP (VERY pic heavy)


bdh1138

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Hey everybody, this is my first post to these forums. I was originally going to wait a bit longer before posting this, but I was too excited to wait! :)I'm going to go through my design decisions first and this will be a lengthy post, so if you just want progress pics, you'll have to skip down a bit.

 

I took a bit of a different route on this than my typical costume work, particularly in that I planned every step of construction ahead of time. This has been on my future costume costume list for a long time, and my first step was deciding which references to base it on. As much as I love the Tales of the Jedi comics, the artwork can be a maddeningly inconsistent resource for a costume. Not only do the characters actually wear more than one outfit, the details of each costume change from issue to issue and even panel to panel. And when you add to that the number of later illustrations which share only the most basic details with his TOTJ appearance, you have a costume which could go in a lot of different directions.

 

The most “iconic” look for Exar Kun is probably the costume he has in the Duel in the Senate through the rest of the Sith War arc. This is the “hero shot” we get.

MandyTheExtremelyDomitableAndExarKun-TSW3.jpg

This look is the basis for the action figure hasbro made a couple years ago and the one that I wanted to replicate. However, I did combine details from a few different places and take artistic liberties in putting it all together. This is where we run into the costumes changing within the issue itself. First, there were the sleeves. As you clearly see in that shot, Kun is wearing a rather loose and puffy outer tunic (the kind of muddy tan shade) and a sleeveless cape. Later in the issue, this becomes a cloak with sleeves and his upper arm seems to be in some weird armored undersuit. Those shots remind me of the Yuuzhan Vong's organic armor or a David Lynch stillsuit.

SillyChancellor.jpg

Honestly, I'm not a fan of the strange organic look that permeates a lot of the TOTJ designs. As such, I decided that I will go with the puffy tunic, and other details later will probably reflect the more common and modern looking interpretations as well. The interpretations that best support the sleeves, besides the hero shot, were the Hasbro figure and this art ExarKunspirit_egtf.jpg

The art, as you can see features the cloak with sleeves, but still seems to have a long sleeved tunic underneath. Seeing as the robe with sleeves appears, throughout the rest of the Sith War, I kept that, but I still plan to have the puffy sleeved tunic  The collar, though it is not done yet, is another item where sources other than the comic won out. That same art and The Hasbro figure (as well as pretty much every other non-comic image) feature a collar made of metal strips.

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The comic, on the other hand, looks to me like chunks of stone and is one of the aesthetic choices that I think other artists have handled better.

 

One last thing I could mention is the Sith amulet. In the senate duel, Kun seems to have a large red gem on each hand. Both have cords directly attached to them which run between his fingers. This is vastly changed from the first time he retrieves the amulet. There is only one gem, on the left hand, set into a hand plate with chains running between the fingers.

Exar%27sAmulet.jpg

KunBHotS.JPG

So I took some artistic liberties and chose that design for the amulet with a plain hand plate on the right. I might pick up a couple more of the jewels later for a more comic faithful version. Now on to my current progress.

 

Over Thanksgiving break, I cut out and sanded about 120 pieces for the skirt. Then I waited numbness left in my fingers by the cold and the sander's vibration to go away. :PWhen it warmed up, I painted them Rustoleum dark steel and Clued them to a piece of cloth I had sewn to a webbing belt. I still need to make about 10 more.

 

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I don't have any WIP pictures of the ear ring or amulet, but the former was made of plasticard (styrene), jump rings, and a clip on ear ring. The latter is a PVC hand plate with wires for the lines on the surface.  The large jewel was something from Michael's craft store that I colored with sharpie and clear coated.

 

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For the leg wraps, I looked at Tusken Raider costumes. Eventually, I picked up some snow boot linings I saw at a thrift store. I then wrapped them in strips of cloth which I hot glued down. For the full look, I wrap my shin in a long strip, but on the “boot”, and wrap a final strip to cover the top of the boot and tuck it into the top of the first wrap. I'm looking at ways to weather these so that the edges of  the wrappings are more visibly distinct.

 

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And finally, a couple of shots of all of the pieces I have together. :)

 

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Thanks for bearing with me through such a long first post. I hope to keep this more regularly updated than my usual projects. Feedback is welcome! :)

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Well, I've got a bit more progress that I haven't shared here as I'm getting back to this project. First off, the shoulder and clasp. The final shoulder will be fiberglassed and coated in bondo.

 

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I also have the mostly finished foam collar, a very simple green under tunic, the beginning of the wide belt, and the beginning of my Sith Holocron.

 

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More to come in the next few days!

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And here's my latest partial test fit. At the moment, big picture at least, I'm mostly down to armor pieces. I still have to finish shoulders, gauntlets, knees, and ankles. I also need to finish some more belts and leather straps as well as a lightsaber hilt. Over all though, I feel like I've made good progress. And pay no attention to the Obi-Wan force FX. I just couldn't resist having some sort of saber for the pictures :P

 

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I've been thinking about replacing the lame foam collar and actually finishing this up sometime soon, but before I do so, I wanted to ask: Is my slight hybridization of sources a problem for a potential 501st application? I've realized my amulet idea was kind of silly and I can easily go with the comic style, but I'd still like to avoid the rougher collar and the armored arms if possible. I guess what I'm really going for is this look

 

Exar_Kun_2.jpg

 

but since his legs and back aren't visible, I'm filling in from other places, specifically the Sith War comics that this was based on. That said, I don't know how that notion would go over with you guys. Since there are so many differences in the majority of Kun artwork,  is it acceptable to fill in details like that from two reasonably similar versions, or would I have to pick one (mostly) consistent source (ie just use the comics as reference) that captures all the details? I'm sure I can deal with the rock collar and stillsuit arms if I need to, but I still thought I'd ask and find out.

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My only critiques are that you find some way to get the foam neck piece to sit more curved to your collar area as there are pieces angled every which way. you can make a simple thermoplastic form and attach the foam pieces to it so that they have a sturdier structure to sit on. Also, the references I see are showing a faded gold color to it vs the silver. Other than those, the WIP looks good so far!

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