Boba Fett Jetpack - Quinary Phase

I apologise profusely for the lack of posting in recent weeks, the simple truth is there hasn't been anything to post about as I've been on a hiatus in that time, generally getting about and doing other stuff. However, the summer is near over and I'm back to old tricks and have a couple of projects on the horizon.

However, I feel that it is slightly more important to finish off the last one! I actually finished the jetpack a while back, a week or so after the previous post but never got a chance to get some pictures of the finished job. Leon has kindly sent two pictures my way from his show that I can share on here to give you a glimpse of what the 'pack looks like finished.

Now, those aren't all I'm going to leave you with. I'll be taking the jetpack in soon hopefully to get some repair work done on it (The strap system needs a bit of fiddling with) and general strengthening to cope with the heavy use on stage.

When it comes in I'll get some proper full shots of the jetpack and that should hopefully satisfy some of you who've been asking after some photos of the finished article. 

Until next time, when I'll probably be putting up my first post for a pair of 'Rita Mordio Goggles' followed by a full and final update of the jetpack in the near future, have a good one  and cheers for reading!

Boba Fett Jetpack - Quaternary Phase

Time for a good old massive update!

In the time since the last update I've got a fair bit done on the sanding (floor is covered in dust again) and final cutting for the jetpack; the shape of it is near enough defined now. All that's left is some small sanding jobs, some glueing and a couple of hours with wood filler smoothing everything over and then sealing with PVA and painting.

I'm hoping to get the jetpack done fairly soon, but here are some pictures to accompany my rambling.

Picture of the rocket in most basic form. The plan at this point was to cut as close to the shape as possible and then sand down to form the cones shapes that really define the rocket on Boba's jetpack.

Just holding this part in place, this will be half way up the centre thruster when it's glued on, holding it on for now to give an idea of where it'll be in the grand scheme of things.

A couple of shots showing the jetpack's shape before the sanding of the caps on the side thrusters, the main thruster and rocket. They are only very roughly cut out at this point and still required a fair bit of work. As you might notice also, I've added some wooden 'caps' to the top and bottom for some stability and to hide the centre cavity. There's a wooden plate on the back so I can use a strong spirit based solvent to glue the jetpack onto the back armour plate, rather than use a weak glue on the foam.

The sanding is near finished on the rocket and main body here, the parts are currently in the stages of being glued together for final sanding touches and filler work. The fractal pattern on the final 'slice' of the main thruster is to reduce the amount of filler needed to make the cone shape, it'll end up being smooth in the end, just like the real main thruster on the jetpack.

For tomorrow I'll probably be working on finishing the caps for the side thrusters and starting filler and gluing work. I should also have some pictures of the armour which I've been painting in the next update to match the jetpack.

Till next time, cheers for reading!

Boba Fett Jetpack - Tertiary Phase

Sorry for the wait on this update, I've been ridiculously busy trying to get this done along with sorting out my bike for bike polo, including some gaming related wheel covers which I might post up in the future (Wait for a rainy day).

Besides downgrading my bike, I hope the dust from this blue foam doesn't screw with your lungs, because I've been sanding it down like no tomorrow and it's everywhere, the floor, the roof, me! Literally, my jeans are more blue than black.

Anyway, the sanding does seem like a good alternative to using piping, but enough of my complaining, on with the progress.

The tubes for the side which were oblongs last week but I've sanded down so they fit flush and look like the thrusters. 

Here they are mounted on the sides, and I've cut the oblong shape of the main thruster and put it in the centre to give a sense of scale of the giant centre column,

Here it is sanded down after what seemed like an eternity sanding and staring at it wondering 'is it straight'? There's a tad of touchup work that needs to be done near the bottom with filler to make it a perfect curve, but other than that the sanding plan had gone pretty well so far!

All that's left to do now is add the complete cylinder on top of the centre column, add 'caps' to the side thrusters, make the rocket for the top and then touch-up and paint. Just hoping the snow has buggered by then so I can spray it outside! 

Till next time, cheers for reading!

Boba Fett Jetpack - Secondary Phase

Another update on this beast of a commission, this thing is really turning out to one big piece of kit, half considering fitting it out with real thrusters to see if it'll get off the ground!

Anyway, hit a slight 'bump' with the tubing and ended up figuring it'd be easier to carve the half cylinders out of foam, that way the whole jetpack should be a bit lighter and hold together a lot better.

Here we've got the side panels near the centre cylinder added, there are going to sit flush to the main cylinder which I'm going to sand out of a thick wedge of foam.

I've now added the two wedges to the edge of the main body which I'm going to sand down to make the side thrusters. I've also decided to cut down on the number of layers of foam on the main 'body' which the tubes rest on. This is just because the backplate is considerably thicker than my measurements and cutting one layer of foam should balance this out nicely. 

I'll be taking some parts back to mine to sand them down so I can work on it over the weekend and fit them back in the workshop on Monday. The measuring and cutting is taking a fair bit of time but all is going to schedule and getting those two side thrusters done over the weekend should really get some momentum to the build coming together and the final shape should start coming together real soon.

Till next time, cheers for reading!

Boba Fett Jetpack - Primary Phase

I've been waiting to start this for a while, it's a commission I've been very excited about but not been able to work on. This may be due to some fingers which may have got caught in a bike at work, but that's besides the point, they are now fixed!


I've begun work on a stage prop for Boba Fett's jetpack from Star Wars. For this prop, it wasn't necessary for complete accuracy or detail, all that was required was the correct basic shape; the iconic rocket, the block shape and the three tubes. Just a warning to any die hard Star Wars or Boba fans out there, this is most definitely not a 1:1 prop, but an approximation for a stage routine, but I hope you enjoy it all the same.


Anyway, enough backstory, on with the show!

This is the product of a first session measuring, marking out, cutting and finalising measurements for the backpack. I've drawn out most of the design onto the foam pieces and I've now just got to cut them out, taking my time with this because mucking up the measuring is really not an option!

This is the 'baseplate' of the jetpack as I've dubbed it. This is going to be backed in a thin layer of wood as the two porous surfaces will bond a lot better than foam to plastic. The wood is then going to be glued directly onto the back armour plate, making it a lot easier to take off and create a nice support for it.

This is my evil master plan as far as the jetpack goes. Plenty of pages before this, filled with unreadable scribbling and rough sketches but this is the master page I've been reading from. All my measurements and shapes are on this, so I've been keeping any coffee away from it, any spillages and I am in every sense of the word, screwed!

This is being made for a burlesque dancer's stage show, so the key idea was usability and lightness, so it can easily be taken on and off and not break, hence the simplified design and the main material being foam. The dancer in question is Manchester based called Leon Noir and an absolutely great guy, if you're ever in need of a burlesque dancer for an event or show, I can heartily recommend him, he's been fantastic to work on this project.


This is just the first update for the jetpack, I'll be updating the blog with it's progress as I make it and I'll hopefully be doing this for all future projects so you guys can get an idea of how the props go together and what goes into making them.


Cheers for reading, till next time.