Crafting Child-Size Boba Fett Armor

It’s May the Fourth! To celebrate Star Wars and all its brilliance, I thought I’d post process photos of the Boba Fett armor I built for my little guy.

My son is a Star Wars fanatic and has been obsessed with Boba Fett for a while now. One day he realized that, with help from mom, HE could have a costume just like Boba Fett’s. So he asked me to make him the BF armor as a present. How could I say no?

The armor was created out of Worbla thermoplastic and fun foam (the structural interior). Here’s the foam inner layer:

The pieces of Worbla before they were heat-sculpted over the foam layer:

Shaping the armor to fit a five-year-old body was a bit tricky. I had to come up with a creative solution to get the proper curvature. My tailor’s ham was perfect for the job!

After the Worbla was heat-sculpted over the foam pieces and shaped to fit:

The process was repeated for Boba Fett’s gauntlets:

After the pieces were sculpted, they were sanded down and painted with a few layers of gesso:

Time to paint! Boba Fett’s base colors were applied first:

Then details painted onto Boba Fett’s shoulder armor:

Adding in the dings, dents, and blaster burns:

Painting complete!

Since the costume is for a five-year-old, I opted to use a prefab helmet. An existing Jango Fett costume helmet was purchased, and a custom Boba Fett paint job was applied:

The finished costume:

Worbla is one of my favorite thermoplastics to use for costume pieces and accessories. I will definitely be using it again on future projects!

For more info on Worbla and its many uses, visit http://www.worbla.com/