Ewok sized scout build thread

[jennyruth]

When people ask me, "Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper," I tell them that I am stealth size. I mean, we are scouts, so being more stealthy is good  

Great progress on your build. I think you're going to love this costume!

[zediyeti]

On 4/11/2023 at 9:22 AM, jennyruth said:

When people ask me, "Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper," I tell them that I am stealth size. I mean, we are scouts, so being more stealthy is good  

Great progress on your build. I think you're going to love this costume!

Wouldn't smaller be better on a speeder anyway? Less weight, less surface space. Fast and aerodynamic!

 

Okay, I said I wasn't going to do the boots until I got the armor but I lied. I was too impatient and finished them up. I tested and it would be no problem to adjust the height lower if needed, but they should be fine, I hope.

This week I picked up everything for the boots, lexan scissors, rivets and washers, sateen cotton, and the armor itself from SC. It's all coming together!

I followed the pinned boot tutorial, so this is going to be mostly just pictures that follow that.

Most of the materials laid out before getting started. I used the white marine vinyl from Joann's, and only got 3/4 of a yard. It was plenty for me.

replaced the lower laces with elastic, it's just 1/4" threaded through and tied in place, nothing fancy. I used 30" black flat shoelaces to lace up and tie the remaining 3 holes and it was the perfect length. I could've done elastic all of the way up, but I need the ability to adjust how tight that part of the shoe is because I am particular about that.

Heated, wrapped, and pinned

Glued and trimmed

That 1/2" strip makes such a difference! I glued it down onto the sole a bit to hide that "stitching" as much as possible. It's just the rubber moulded to look like stitching and I could've cut it off, but this looks better to me.

Tubes cut out and marked to make sure I put the velcro on the right way. Also my notebook in which I planned out all the measurements beforehand. I was so nervous to do this wrong.

Test fit with velcro on! I did add a tab to the back of the boots, which I have found very helpful in taking them off

dogbones glued in place

and here's them on, with the pants!

 

[Aradun]

They really came out great! Nicely done!

[zediyeti]

Few things to update today.

First, I reworked my boots a bit. There were multiple things I was unhappy with and that I tried to make peace with for a few days, but I just could not. So I ripped everything off and started over. What I fixed is:

- Better positioning on the velcro closure in the back
- Neater glue work on the back/side of the tube
- Better alignment of the tube
- Moved the dog bone shape up to be above the 1/2" trim
- Loosened up the top of the boot where I had glued the vinyl on too tight. Much easier to put on now

I did most of this with the boots on my feet this time, because my initial method of stuffing the boots into shape was not working out for me.

Here's how they turned out, for round 2. I still need to do some fine tune glueing on the edges, but I hope they are looking better overall than my first go!

I got my Wampa Wear gloves in the mail, size Small. They fit perfect.

The cummerbund was my next task. I played around with a few layering options to determine what would best get me the look I wanted. I did not want to put interfacing on both sides because the stifness on the front would not give that plush quilted look, but I knew I wanted to add some interfacing for stability. My first full attempt was (back to front) sateen cotton > stiff interfacing > cotton batting > sateen cotton. I just used the heat n' bond craft extra firm interfacing, the purple packaging one.

Here's it all sewn up and inside out, also showing the elastic.

I was not a fan of this result, the fabric wrinkled weird and while it didn't necessarily bunch up, it just didn't look good. And I thought the quilting did not look nearly plush enough.

I also found it to be a touch too wide, so I trimmed it by about 1/2" on each side and added a second layer of batting. Here is the final result, it doesn't have that weird wrinkling anymore, and overall is much sturdier and smooth looking.

Finally, here's my pouches! They're made of white canvas, but I will probably do some tests with tea dyeing to make them more of an off-white, as I like that effect better. I'll wait until I've decided on what dropbox strapping to use before I dye them, and then match the color to those. These follow the 5x6x2 pattern and are closed with velcro.

Now it's just a waiting game for the armor and helmet to arrive or be avaliable for pickup. I'm hoping it will be any day now!

Questions:
- How is everything looking? Anything that jumps out as needing to be remade or adjusted at the moment?
- When making the cummerbund, how do you measure how tall? Top of the belt and 2" under the chest? Or is there overlap under the belt as well?
- How do you have the strap for the cod attached to the back? I left the elastic very long so I have many options, but what works well?

[Chopper]

10 hours ago, zediyeti said:

Questions:

- How is everything looking? Anything that jumps out as needing to be remade or adjusted at the moment?
- When making the cummerbund, how do you measure how tall? Top of the belt and 2" under the chest? Or is there overlap under the belt as well?
- How do you have the strap for the cod attached to the back? I left the elastic very long so I have many options, but what works well?

I don't see anything off hand that would appear to be an issue for basic clearance.

The bund should sit on top of your belt and extend to just underneath the side straps of your armor. For most scouts, the bund is about 8-9" high. 

My cod strap attaches to the back of my flak vest with velcro.

Hope that helps.

[Aradun]

Great work. For the bund, I also added a small Velcro tab to the bottom of my bund with hook on one side and loop on the other. That tab gets sandwiched between the Velcro of the belt strap. The end result is that it helps keep the belt from sliding down in the rear especially with the added weight of the TD. You can see the tab in the photo below.

[OnkelPaschulke]

This is a nice tweak. Guess I‘ll add this, too!

[zediyeti]

Wahoo! Big brown box from SC is here!

I will post a more detailed update soon, but for now wanted to ask about the fit of the forearm and bicep armor. I bent them to the shape of my arms, but wanted to check where I am able to trim these to fit better, if at all. I put them on wherever they would stay on their own just so you can see the proportions compared to me, not thinking about placement. The bicep one if it were to be bent into a circle would encircle the entirety of my bicep, so I feel like that one needs a trim on the sides. I've put a drawing below of roughly what I'm wondering if I could trim it down to? And is it allowed to take any off the top or does that ratio of space need to be maintained? Can anything be done to the forearm or is it just left to be what it is because of the specific shapes/return edges on it?

(rough estimate)

[Chopper]

Your marked trim lines look fine. You can a little bit off the top edge as well, if need be. I'd wait until you get your shoulder armor trimmed and fitted first though.

I do not advise trying to trim down the forearm armor, just due to the shape of it and the return edges.

[zediyeti]

Your marked trim lines look fine. You can a little bit off the top edge as well, if need be. I'd wait until you get your shoulder armor trimmed and fitted first though.
I do not advise trying to trim down the forearm armor, just due to the shape of it and the return edges.

Brilliant, thanks! I shaped the forearms in a bit more and with the elastics they’re feeling a lot better.

[zediyeti]

Lots of updates to give. I don't know if I will type it all out in one sitting so I'll type as much as I can and see if a second post is required later. My goal is to have this finished and submitted by may 17, as I'm having surgery and will have difficulty putting the costume on for a few weeks-months after. I've been focusing on making progress and conferring with my GML rather than updating here, but the time has come.

This is how big the parts were on me before heat shaping. Dang! I used the boiling water method because I've burned sintra too many times to trust myself to not screw these up. It worked a charm and I'm really pleased with how I got everything to fit.

After and before (I shaped them even smaller after this picture, too)

Much better, compared to before.

 

After the initial shaping, I got to work with the lexan scissors on the biceps and shoulders. I did end up taking some off the top of the biceps, just enough to still allow the 2" elastic.

Here's how big the shoulders were

2" line marked for dremelling. It was after I finished cutting all the slots that I went around the edges of everything with some sandpaper to really clean them up. The trim job by SC was great, though!

Test fits!

I got the belt mostly put together, though in this picture the dropboxes are not attached in the back yet.

Knees The adidas make me go fast

The chest is almost done. I only need to add the elastic to the shoulders, both on the bells and on the join of the chest and back.

The shoulders are attached with zip ties and mounts, and the sides are cotton webbing that pulls tight and velcros to the back. The sides end up getting pulled front edge to back edge and it still feels a little big, but there's not much I can do about that. It does mean that I cannot reach across my body to adjust anything on my arms, so I'm definitely going to be adding velcro to the flight suit to keep everything in place.

This is about how much space there is between the front and back when it's on

This was just a fit test, so kindly disregard how uneven everything is and the missing parts. I cannot decide what I think of the pouches. Should I keep them at the full 5x6 size or are they gonna be too big looking? They're just safety pinned on here.

And here's my checking of the back dropbox spacing.

At this point I finally stopped procrastinating and made the vest, so here's some soft part shots.

Still need to wash off the chalk line from the back

I ordered the clips for the TD and got everything assembled and installed. It slides onto the belt real easy

The last major things I have to do are:
- Finish helmet (this will be it's own post because there was a lot going on with that)
- Add shoulder elastics
- Attach holster to boot and add blouser
Aaanndd I believe that's it. Unless there is something I missed, so do let me know if there is anything.

Here's the boot and holster, just awaiting the assembly.

Finally, I'm sorry for the quality of these pictures but this is my latest try-on (pre sewing on pouches). They were taken with my front camera at night so the quality is eh but I'd just finished the vest and wanted to see how it was all looking. I also could not reach across to adjust the vest sleeve where it's hiking up so don't mind the unevenness. I'm very hopeful I can get this done within the next week!

[KOtrooper]

That stub on the tank top rivet shouldn't be there, fyi.

Sent from my Pixel 5a using Tapatalk

[zediyeti]

That stub on the tank top rivet shouldn't be there, fyi.

Sent from my Pixel 5a using Tapatalk

I did it backwards, following Mickey’s latest walkthrough vjdeo. Is there a way to rivet that doesn’t leave the post on the back?

[Chopper]

The stub on the track topper rivet is allowed, though I would have recommended a rivet with a smaller pull. 

The tank topper can be riveted either way, though the photos from the magic of the myth exhibit ndicate that it was done as you have. 

[zediyeti]

The stub on the track topper rivet is allowed, though I would have recommended a rivet with a smaller pull. 
The tank topper can be riveted either way, though the photos from the magic of the myth exhibit ndicate that it was done as you have. 

I did think about that, and worried about the size. But the next size down I had didn’t fit through the layers of everything and wouldn’t hold the washer

[KOtrooper]

The stub on the track topper rivet is allowed, though I would have recommended a rivet with a smaller pull. 
The tank topper can be riveted either way, though the photos from the magic of the myth exhibit ndicate that it was done as you have. 

Yeah, the pull part was what I was referencing.

Sent from my Pixel 5a using Tapatalk

[Chopper]

7 minutes ago, zediyeti said:

I did think about that, and worried about the size. But the next size down I had didn’t fit through the layers of everything and wouldn’t hold the washer

What if you use the same size and put an additional washer on the inside of the tank?

[zediyeti]

12 minutes ago, Chopper said:

What if you use the same size and put an additional washer on the inside of the tank?

I will try that if I have time. If not now, then later down the road. Is it possible to grind down the post, or is that something that would end up looking funky? I truly don’t know much about rivets or metal, I’ve just been hardcore wingin’ it

[Chopper]

I wouldn't try grinding down the post. I'd check with your GML to see if they're okay with it. If not, you can always use a cobalt tip drill bit to drill out the rivet and try the inner washer suggestion.

Regarding pouches, where is your belt sitting? I usually tell folks to find their navel, and then put the top edge of the belt just under the navel. Is that where yours is?

[zediyeti]

3 hours ago, Chopper said:

I wouldn't try grinding down the post. I'd check with your GML to see if they're okay with it. If not, you can always use a cobalt tip drill bit to drill out the rivet and try the inner washer suggestion.

Regarding pouches, where is your belt sitting? I usually tell folks to find their navel, and then put the top edge of the belt just under the navel. Is that where yours is?

That is indeed where it is. 

[DukeOfNachos]

5'10, standard pouch size, 9" Bund.. belt @ navel, pouches hang over. It happens  looks awesome, totally dig the two piece setup!

[zediyeti]

Pictures and app have been submitted, just in time for my self imposed deadline! I see some adjustments I could've made in the kit up, but hopefully it is forgiveable by my GMLs. 🙂

[Chopper]

Good luck

[Aradun]

Looking forward to hearing of your approval! Good luck!

[BikerScout007]

Looks great to me!  You should pass basic easily.