Star Killer Jedi Costume the Force Unleashed 2: Trailer Version

this fine Instructable i will be showing how to make Star Killer from The Force Unleashed 2: trailer version.

My build was fairly complicated. it had several layers of paint, weathering as well as forming, glueing, leather work, sewing and a large assortment of other materials.

I built this for fun, for the rebel legion and to test my costuming skills.
the total cost of this project was $800+ and was a labor of love for more then 11 months

the hard goods (Armor) were made from E.V.A Foam (a tutorial on that will be linked soon) the rest was made of either leather i order from online or like the soft goods such as the sweater, pants...etc can be modified from retail and joann fabrics.

what youll need:
Safety glasses
gloves
E.V.A foam
Athletic fit sweat pants. (american apparel)
V-neck Ribbed Sweater (calvin klein)
shoes (toms)
grey denim
black denim
hot glue gun (high temp)
spray paint (black, white primer, light blue, silver metallic)
black acrylic paint
Dremel
sand paper
sissors
xacto or heated knife
assorted buckles and clasps
vinyl tubing
brown vinyl
soldering iron
poster board


http://youtu.be/1o_ED1yKbx4

theres plenty of soft goods on this costume but not a lot of sewing is required, well start with the pants and shirt.

youll need a pair of fitted black athletic pants and a ribbed grey sweater (you can sew it into a V-Neck later)

i got my pants at American appeal. i made the pockets separate with a half yard of athletic fleece. the pockets are 5"x5" with a flap style top. you can sew the top shut but its nice to have pockets during conventions and the like. the loin cloth is denim due to it being a different texture in the reference picture. i measured this to fall right above the knee and wrap my entire waste. the front piece is slightly thinner then the rear piece measure it according to your body and waste, put it inside and sew it to the pants from the inside so give it a couple extra inches on the top. get a seam ripper or some scissors and hack at the pants and pockets a little bit then wash them and they will fray out to have the damaged look.
the loin cloth was weathered the same way.

i got the sweater at Calvin Klein during the fall months. this was a nightmare to find but i eventually found it at macy's. mine was a little big so i fitted it a little by sewing darts inside and fixing it to a vneck. poke some holes in it wash it then spray paint it here and there with some light blue and black paint. and wash it again. this will fade the paint and stress the tears.

the wraps, gloves and shoes are fairly simple as well.

the arm wraps are 2 yards and the shin wraps are 3 yards. its a grey denim fabric with the smooth side out. i had sewn the edges of mine so they didn't fray apart in the wash. they vary in size from 2 to 3 inches wide. i wrapped them around my arms and painted them up with black a blue spray paint (same as the shirt and pants) then i cut some random holes in it and put that in the wash for the weathering effect.

the gloves i got were from a marching band website, drum core gloves specifically. they need to have leather like fingers and suede like palm and thumb. the wraps can be attached very simply by hot gluing the wraps to the wrist part of the gloves. it also has a small piece of armor on it but well get to that later.

the shoes are grey canvas toms. they are supposedly brown leather but i couldn't find any pictures to represent that. do the same thing with painting and tearing holes for the weathering.

this was a task in it self because no templates or patterns were made at the time and i had to convert the sizes from a 6' character to my height of 5'9" so there are not perfect.

from left to right its the shoulder pauldron bicep piece, shoulder top piece, hand guards, belt buckle: together and apart, back chest plate, and belt pieces.

making the templates out of poster board is a great way to see how they fit on you and you can easily alter them to how you see fit. its also a good idea to make the marks as i did where the level would change and detailing are.

this is where a steady hand and glorious soldering knife comes in.

this process is exactly the same for all the pieces and is very straight forward:
-put your template on the eva foam and out line it.
-against a hard surface or another piece of foam using your xacto knife or hot knife cut the foam out in the out lined shape, remember to keep the blade straight or your edges will have a slant to them.
-once you cut them all out take your dremmel and grind the edges flat with the low grit sand paper bit as well as the larger detailing specifically the bicep piece and hand guards.
-hot glue the piece that need to be attached.
-use a normal soldering iron attachment to make the detailing in the armor bits. (PRACTICE THIS BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT!)
-once the edges are even and the detailing is done take your finest grit bit or polish bit and smooth the edges of the foam out, you can also do this by running the soldering iron over it lightly and quickly and hand sanding works too. this will seal the foam so it doesn't burr with the paint.
-after all that take your heat gun and slowly work what you need into shape, to make certain shapes such as rounding use the soldering iron to make lines into the foam with out going through then heat up the foam and repeat till its the desired shape.
-be sure you use the heat gun to treat the top side of the armor so it seals and smooths the foam for paint
-cut slots on the sides and top of the back plate so the harness can be fitted inside.

shaping takes many attempts so don't stress and take a couple days to get the perfect shape. once thats done use your dremmel and let is grind and skip around the armor so it looks scraped, dinged, and damaged.

annoyingly enough i forgot to take pictures of this but its simple enough.

once the pieces are shaped get your paint. i used a black primer and a matte silver (both krylon) be sure to stick to the same paint if you want best results. i put a couple coats of the primer on let it set for a day then did the silver with the same process. after it was set i took some black acrylic craft paint globed it on there and took some paper towel and rubbed it over it took it got the look shown if you let it set for about 10 seconds and then wipe it again itll trap in the holes and edges you made earlier but stay shinny on the un damages parts (as shown).

now this can be as difficult or easy as you make it im no leather worker that for sure.

i ordered a bunch of different size straps from a leather supply company in a chocolate brown. i went the easy way cause i dont have a sewing machine capable of sewing leather. start measuring your body: middle thigh, waist, chest shoulder to pectoral, and abdominal.

once you get the leather treat it with rubbing alcohol and lotion to cure it again. this will make it supple and easier to work with.

go to joanns or your craft store and get clasps, buckles and O rings depending on your size of the leather you got mine were mostly 2" and 2.5" label all your straps on the opposite side to keep track which is which. then based on the reference pictures start laying out what they look like its very straight forward and easy once you get into it. use duct tape to make a temp hold to make sure the harness fit right before glueing or sewing. i used E-6000 glue cause leather cement is rubbish, hot glue does work but doesn't hold the treated side very well. alternative to E-6 glue is show goo or a glue that is flexible in strength so stay away from super glue. hot glue worked great for attaching the buckles.

i used 2, 2" buckles for the leg rig and the center belt buckle hidden behind the eva foam buckle and the large pouch.

start putting all the pieces of the puzzle together

hot glue the back plate to the leather straps through the slots you made previously, then use elastic straps to attach the pauldrons to the leather harness with e-6 glue and attach all Velcro straps and foam pieces to the harness. pretty straight forward here just keep fitting it to your self and working it in a way that's easy for you to put on.

this is the finished product! still haven't had to get some decent pictures but here's a picture of me with sam (the model of the character and voice actor) as well as a picture of 2012 dragon con!

hope you enjoyed reading and hope you give your star killer armor a try!
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