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A Savage Opress Build


Techne

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I’ve made a Savage Opress costume.  I started more than a year ago, first researching it and taking a billion screen caps, and doing some sewing last fall. I expected to finish it that fall. But then, life happened, as it does, and….

 

I was able to get back to it and finish it this summer, just in time for the Toronto Fan Expo (as in, finishing it while we were packing the car to go). (I just wore this costume around the Con on my own, not as part of the 501st presence there.)  I got a lot of positive feedback from the other con-goers, so I was happy about that.  This was a pretty different costume build from my TK, my main previous Star Wars costume, and involved lots of materials and processes I had never done before, so I feel good about the experience of learning to make it.

 

But, having cut a few corners in order to finish on time for the Expo, and having had the experience of wearing it in public for several hours, I now have a number of issues, big and small, that I’m going to work on over the next couple months to really complete it.

 

First, a picture of me at the Con, and another I took later without the face, where I fixed some strapping.  (In the first picture my abdomen wrap slipped down so you can't see it, more on that later.)

 

As you can see, I don’t have a lightsaber yet.  I’ve got most of the parts I need from TCSS and am waiting on a few pieces that are out of stock.  Once I have those, putting together its electronics will be an all-new learning experience, which I’m looking forward to.

 

WHAT I’M DOING

I am basing the costume almost entirely on the Clone Wars TV show.  I’ve got what I believe are all the comics that Opress has been in, but their renditions of him are usually not that detailed or even well-drawn, to be honest.  I don’t consider them to be the most reliable resources, based on their inconsistency, and lack of detail. (I’ll show pictures so you can judge for yourself.)  And they’re all Legends now anyway.  Whereas the Clone Wars show is where he was introduced, is by far the set of the most comprehensive, consistent, and high-quality visual appearances he has, and is still Canon.  So, I’m using that as the definitive version of his look.

 

Below I’m going to describe what I’ve made so far, and then describe the changes that I’m going to make in the future.

 

I’m also going to talk a bit about the costume in relation to the CRL, which is currently online in an in-progress state.  It didn’t exist when I started (I actually did some drafting for a possible CRL when I first started the costume), and I didn’t notice it was up until I was almost done with my costume, but it was still helpful while I was arguing with myself about how to approach some last-minute details.  But there are some parts of the CRL that I think could be tweaked, based on my research. I’ll get into those details and offer my suggestions as I talk about the various parts of the costume below.

 

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COSTUME IN ITS CURRENT STATE

Horns and Face: I drew the horns first, working out their comparative size and shape based on the show, then used a pin to poke through the paper to make an outline on some double-layer insulation foam.  Then I sculpted them using a dremel, touched then up with a bit of spackle, and sanded them. I primed them with plasti-dip, and painted them with a mix of grey, ochre, and brown acrylics.  Images.

 

The horns have slightly different sizes and shapes.  (Screen caps of his horns from the front, side, back, and top. , and a shot that shows some of the variation in color.  Also, some comic representations of his horns.)  While perspective and foreshortening make it difficult to compare pictures of them with each other perfectly, I’d say the front corner horns are the longest and bent the most.  The front center horn is a bit shorter and not bent as much.  The three top back horns are more or less the same as each other and slightly shorter than the front corner horns.  The back bottom-center horn is slightly shorter than the one above it.  The horns by the ears are significantly shorter than the rest and very bent.

 

Kenobi and Anakin cut the tip off Opress’s front center horn, and cut his front left horn almost to the base, in Witches of the Mist, which is the version I’m using for my costume.  (Kenobi later cuts off Opress’s back left horn when he cuts off his left arm in Revival, so that would be another possibility.  Incidentally I am eventually planning to make a version with his robot arm, but that’s for another time.)

 

The horns were glued on to a bald cap with liquid latex.

 

The face paint was done with yellow and brown makeup from Wolfe Face Art & FX, which I was pretty happy with as a brand of face paint.  Link to Opress's face patterns on the show.

 

As you can see, Opress and Maul have slightly different colored eyes.  I used "Yellow Plague" contacts from Uniqso, which were the best match I could find to Opress’s particular pattern, which is mostly yellow with a slight red ring around the outside.  Whereas Maul’s have more red, which fades both into and out of the iris.

 

Jacket: The jacket is thickish grey vinyl, with a bit of a pattern that is close to the color/pattern/texture seen on his jacket in the show.  The chest is also weathered with some grey spray paint to help further mimic the original color/texture/pattern. There are three parallel lines on each pectoral.  It’s unclear what these lines are supposed to be in “reality”; I just scratched score-lines in the surface of the vinyl.

 

It is sewn together with matching grey polyester thread for extra strength.  I hand-sewed on the black piping, which I then hand- and spray-painted to be a bit lighter than the jacket.

 

Some screen caps showing details of the jacket.

 

Shoulder and Bicep Armor: The shoulder and bicep armor pieces are double-thick sheets of Worbla, which was then primed, spray painted, and hand-painted with a few colors of grey and aluminum for weathering.  They are attached to each other, and to the jacket, with rivets.

 

Screen caps of the bicep armor, and its attachment (actually, it just floats in mid-air around his arm in the show, although you can see the rivets).  Screen caps of the shoulder armor.    Comic examples of the armor.

 

It's arguable whether his armor pieces are supposed to be metal or hardened leather--indeed this is not only one of the main questions I've wrestled with, it's the main topic in every other thread on Opress in this forum.  It's worthwhile to note that in Monster he took a blaster bolt straight in the chest and his chest armor seemed to tank it, which would imply something stronger than just leather--but that's his chest, not his shoulders.  The scuff marks (see the last images of the screen caps of the shoulder armor) after a blaster battle in Witches of the Mist, where he was seemingly hit by numerous blaster bolts without major difficulty, seem to show the same kind of texture in both his chest and shoulder armor which would imply they're the same material--but overall at this point I lean toward metal (or duraplast or whatever) for the biceps and shoulder armor, and leather for the jacket.   I would be interested to hear other opinions on this.

 

Gauntlets: The gauntlets are foam, again spray painted and hand painted with a few colors of grey and aluminum for weathering.  The wrist straps are black.

 

Screen caps of the gauntletsComics examples of the gauntlets (note differences).

 

Claws: The claws are Wonderflex, slightly heat-shaped to fit the curve of my fingernails, painted medium grey with a bit of black.  They are squared off at the tips.  They were attached via hot glue.  (Yes, that’s actually what I did.  No, it was obviously not a great idea.  There was a Stan Lee panel that was about to start and I had to get there in a hurry!)  It worked for a while, but they fell off randomly throughout the day, so clearly that was not optimal.

 

Screen caps of the clawsComics examples of the claws.

 

Abdomen Wrap, Belts, and Loincloth: The abdomen wrap (which as noted had sagged down in the picture at the top so you totally can’t see it) is a thin stretchy black material, with sewn-in pleats.  It is sewn in a continuous circle and just slips on.

 

The wider belt is thicker dark grey fabric, and connects by hidden buckles.

 

The loincloth attaches to the wide belt by velcro, and is made of the same material as the wide belt.  I used a freezer-paper stencil to paint the sigil on both sides of the loincloth with acrylics.  Pics of my wider belt and loincloth.

 

The thinner belt is black leather, and connects via hidden buckles and some Velcro behind the fake buckle parts, which are silver-painted foam.

 

The lightsaber holder is made from aluminum, cut via dremel, polished, and attached with rivets and some washers.  (See above link for pics).

 

Photo of the abdomen wrap and belts in place on me.

 

Screen caps of the Abdomen wrap and both beltsScreen caps of the loin cloth--note length, and sigil on both sides.  Comics examples of all of the above

 

Pants and Skirt: The pants and skirt are made of the same thinner stretchy black fabric as the abdomen wrap.  The pants have a drawstring to keep them up, and both are intentionally a bit loose so as to allow movement.  (See above links for pics of skirt and pants in the show and comics.)

 

Boots: The boots are faux-leather captain’s boots that I purchased, with a zip up the sides.  I added the foam caps on the toes and the foam armor strips that run down the front.  The “actual” toe armor is shaped with two vertical slits on the front corners, just as if the metal was flat and then bent down to form the front and sides (see the screen caps below), which happily made it easy to make the foam armor the same way.  The shin strips have two lines scored in them vertically, which I did with a pen.  Both are spray painted and hand painted with various greys and aluminum for weathering as with the other armor pieces.  The boots both have three straps, made of black leather.  There are three buckles on both sides of both boots for a total of twelve.  These buckles are square pieces of foam, spray painted metallic, and glued on to the straps.

 

Screen caps of bootsComics examples of boots.

 

 

CHANGES I’M GOING TO MAKE

I’m happy with some of what I made, and some of it I’m going to change.  Here’s my current plans for making changes:

 

Facepaint: This isn’t really a change so much as a statement that in the future, the face paint will be brought to a slightly higher level of finish. I had to rush it in this instance because (as I noted about attaching the claws) I was late for a Stan Lee panel that I was dying to go to, which was my bad.  So I got it decent, but not to the last 10% of finish that I would have liked.  But hey, now I’ve seen Stan Lee!

 

Attaching the claws: I’m going to try spirit gum or liquid latex and see how that works.  Failing that, I may try making yellow cylinders that slip over the last section of my fingers, and permanently attach the claws to those.

 

Gauntlets: I’m going back and forth on the gauntlet material.  They were somewhat damaged after a day of wear.  They split open a bit at the wrists, and the end points of the bicep armor stuck into the gauntlet foam when I bent my elbow, making tons of little holes in the gauntlet foam.  So either I fix the current ones, or I remake them out of Worbla or Sintra, which would be more durable.  The argument in favor of foam is mostly related to the hand guards, which are supposed to be flexible in “reality”: Opress’s hand guards bend with his hands (see the last couple pics; the comics, while showing different kinds of hand guards, also seem to bend).  The foam also makes it possible to fit my hand through a slightly smaller hole, since it flexes with the shape of my hand. But overall I think I need to increase the durability.  It’s possible I could switch to a Worbla gauntlet with a foam hand guard.

 

Pants/Skirt/Belt/Wrap: I’m re-making the pants, skirt, and abdominal wrap out of new materials.  The original material is a little too shiny for my taste.  The new ones will be thicker and more matte, both qualities which I think are more accurate.  It will be less stretchy, but I think that’s a reasonable tradeoff.  The abdominal wrap in particular needs to be firmer so it doesn’t slip/bunch down, as it did in the main photo above, so I will put some kind of stiffener behind it.  The abdominal wrap will stay black, but the pants and skirt will be more of a dark grey.

 

I need to create a system that will keep the thin belt, wide belt and abdominal wrap all in place, both in relation to each other (thin belt centered on wide belt, both positioned at the bottom of the abdominal wrap) and in place on my body so they don’t slip up and down against the slippery vinyl of the jacket.  Keeping them in place will probably involve magnets and hooks, maybe some Velcro.

 

I also need a better attachment between the loincloth and the wide belt.  I had velcroed the loincloth to the top of the wide belt, which was dumb, since it just made the top of the wide belt sag down.  Better to attach it at the bottom.

 

I had been planning to keep the wide belt as fabric, to match the pants and skirt, but after looking at the newer pic I took of myself, I may make it out of the same vinyl as the jacket, to make it stiffer and less bunchy.  It’s probably a slightly better color match that way as well.

 

It’s possible I’ll remake the buckle out of Worbla, and make a real prong to stick through the thin belt’s leather behind it as a better way of connecting the ends.

 

Jacket: I’m going to hem up the wrists just a bit, they get a little scrunched at the bottom of the gauntlets.

 

The jacket construction is one of my biggest breaks with the CRL as it currently stands.  The CRL says he has a leather vest with a black shirt underneath.  I get where this is coming from; one of the promotional images of Opress makes it look like his arms are darker than his chest, and it’s possible to interpret a couple of the comics drawings this way (see link below)--although I believe most of them are still more easily interpreted the way I constructed it.  But the actual show’s imagery is pretty clear-cut: he’s wearing a long-sleeved jacket, not a vest and an undershirt.  There are a lot of shots where Opress has his arms raised, or we see him from the back or side, and it’s very clear that there is no break between the chest and the sleeves.  It’s all one continuous piece.  I believe that any times the arms look darker, it’s just shadow from the shoulder and bicep armor. 

 

Clone Wars images showing that the jacket is all one piece, and all one color.    Comics images that also show the jacket as one piece, with the last two images being the outliers that possibly show a vest.

 

This is also a good point to talk about the colors of his clothes in general.  It’s interesting because while it looks like he’s mostly wearing black on first glance, actually it’s almost all variations on grey.  The abdomen wrap, the straps holding on the shin armor, the straps around the wrists, and the thin belt are pretty close to black.  The pants, skirt, and jacket are medium-to-dark grey.  The boots, wide belt, and loincloth are a bit lighter.  (Arguably the wide belt is the same color as the jacket.) The shoulder and bicep armor and gauntlets are medium grey—perhaps the same grey as the boots and loincloth.  The toe armor, shin armor, and boot buckles are the lightest grey.  The claws are light grey.  The jacket has a subtle texture that looks weathered.  The piping on the jacket is slightly lighter than the jacket.  (I may lighten the color of my piping a bit.)  Images for color comparison in the show, and in the comics.

 

Right now the CRL describes the jacket, skirt, and pants as black (and I made my original pants and skirt black), but on a closer look they’re clearly lighter than the abdomen wrap and center belt.  It’s not just a matter of the show making a stylistic decision to avoid pure black and instead render it as grey: the center belt is pretty close to black, and it’s notably darker than the main clothes, so by comparison the main clothes are clearly a grey, not black.  Similarly, the claws are clearly light grey, not black as in the CRL.

 

I made the jacket as a pull-over, which seemed the most accurate to me.  The CRL states that the jacket opens in the front with a zipper, but Opress never opens his jacket like that, and there’s no visible zipper.  I prefer the pull-over which in my interpretation is more accurate, but it’s true that it would be easier to put on if it zipped.

 

I’ve gone back and forth on building fake muscles under the shirt.  I was originally going to, then decided not to.  Now I am thinking about doing it again.  If so, they’d probably be some sort of foam.

 

Shoulder armor: I need to build in some kind of locking mechanism so the shoulder pads stay on top of the shoulder and don’t just slump down over the arms. I’d still like them to be able to move interdependently and fold up when needed, however, and not be totally frozen in place.  So whatever I do has to let them stick in place most of the time, but also be able to fold up when necessary.  I’m still thinking about how to do this.

 

Screen caps of the shoulder armor as it sits on his shoulders. Examples of how it folds when his arms are bent and raisedPhotos of how it hangs now (incorrectly) and possible better positions.

 

Boots: I lost a few buckles, and a strap, during the con.  I knew I attached them crappily due to my time crunch in getting ready for the con, so that was no surprise.  Now I will make a more permanent job of it.  Also, I’m trying to decide what materials the buckles should be.  Right now they’re foam, which is fine, but I am thinking of what else I could use. The show shows them being totally stylized and non-utilitarian squares, with no prongs or belt ends sticking out: they’re just pure squares sitting on top of the belts.  This is obviously not the way they’d “really” work but it’s what I want to replicate; I like the stylization.  Real metal buckles don’t come like this, so I can’t just buy them.  I guess I could make a simple mold and use resin of some kind, or even 3D print them.  Or I could cut them out of aluminum, although that would be a ton of work.

 

I’m not sure how the 501st works on stuff like this—what is required to be the “real” material and what is fine as a faux material, and what faux materials are acceptable and what aren’t?  For instance, my TK armor is plastic, which is obviously not what real TK armor would be made of, and my blaster is resin. So faux would seem to be fine as long as it makes the illusion of reality.  But generally speaking there seems to be a preference for real materials when possible, so I’m trying to decide how to walk that line.  If it looks real, does it matter if it is real?  Any opinions on this?

 

Another example here would be the armor strips on the front of the boots.  They have to be flexible, in order to bend your feet to walk.  But obviously the real material would not flex (unless they’re actually leather and not metal, as I noted above).  Foam is an obvious choice for its flexibility, but is it ok?

 

SUMMING UP

I just spent a fair amount of time talking about stuff that I’m fixing/remaking, but I’m actually pretty happy with it in the abstract, and feel fairly close to where I want to be.  I will continue to fill you in on how the improvements come along, and am interested to hear what you think.  Thanks for reading!

Edited by Techne
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Great progress,  me and another guy in Idaho have been working on the CRL with ionicdesign that is posted now on the legion site. It may have few very minor things like the loin cloth length is not described correctly.  It has a preliminary blessing from Thomas but I don't think he's given his final blessing to it.  I've been waiting on the saber for a very long time and hope to hit this build hard after the new year.  I think you do need to upgrade some of your materials from foam and I'd focus on proportions but it's fantastic to see some Savage builds going.

Keep up the great work.

 

http://databank.501st.com/databank/Costuming:Savage_Opress

 

But this absolutely is the definitive reference pic you've been using.     https://imgur.com/a/8l71K

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Great progress,  me and another guy in Idaho have been working on the CRL with ionicdesign that is posted now on the legion site. It may have few very minor things like the loin cloth length is not described correctly.  It has a preliminary blessing from Thomas but I don't think he's given his final blessing to it.  I've been waiting on the saber for a very long time and hope to hit this build hard after the new year.  I think you do need to upgrade some of your materials from foam and I'd focus on proportions but it's fantastic to see some Savage builds going.

Keep up the great work.

 

http://databank.501st.com/databank/Costuming:Savage_Opress

 

But this absolutely is the definitive reference pic you've been using.     https://imgur.com/a/8l71K

Hi, thanks so much for the reply.

 

I'm glad to hear you're involved in the CRL, I've been curious about who's doing that.  I appreciate the work you've been doing on it.  There are some things that do need to be changed, like for instance the nails are described as black, but they're really light grey.  And I'm pretty convinced that the sleeves are part of the main chest jacket, and that it's not a vest, as seen in all those screen caps.  I'd like to actually be involved in finalizing the CRL if possible, whenever that happens.  I'm a pretty good editor and can help work on the language, in addition to the specifics of the costume details.

 

I did decide since the last post that the materials on the boot buckles and belt buckle especially should be upgraded, I am currently planning on doing them as a cast or by 3D printing.  I'd say I'm almost 100% going to re-do the gauntlets as well, and (sigh the list goes on and on).  But first the soft parts.  Hopefully I'll have made new pants by next week, that are a little closer to the original grey, instead of black.

 

I've got most of what I need for the bulk of the saber, now, but now I need to work on the electronics and the greeblies.  Looking forward to seeing yours!

 

What's your take on the shoulder armor--leather or something hard, like plasteel?  And the armor strip that runs along the front of the boot?  Those are my main real conceptual issues.

 

Again, thanks for your feedback!

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I do think the shoulders are hard armor, not leather same as the gaunts as you see rivets in it.  And I think the idea of is the black "undersuit for arms" a separate piecedoes not really matter as long as the look remains faithful to the source image.  If they're separate pieces I think it's more comfortable and manageable. I did see your comment about his armor taking the shot but as tight as the vest/armor/top is, I cannot see that hole top piece being hard armor like a TK.  It's just not manageable in the real world.

 

And the boot front armor does need to be able to bend so I think leather is really the only option, and if you look closely at the high res image of him stepping the details are actually grooves as shown by the lighting/shadowing and not raised "ridges".

 

If you want to pitch in with the CRL, I'd pm ionicdesign, he's one of the LMOs and the main gatekeeper of the process.

Edited by mikkonator
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