THIS IS THE WIP FOR THE CLIFF ATTACK A’KOBA TUSKEN CRL

[Motogpnut]

APPROVED FOR ANH TUSKEN 10/4/2021 - DZ13829
APPROVED FOR CLIFF ATTACK ( A’KOBA) CRL 3/12/22

https://databank.501st.com/databank/Costuming:Cliff-attack-tusken

 

I can also be reached on Facebook for questions. My name is Jason Legion on there.
https://m.facebook.com/100059644004390/

 

So far I’ve been doing a ton of research on what makes ANH Tusken and it’s kinda amazing how many little nuances there are to this costume. 45° eye greeblies. Tapered bloodspitters with a little lip on the end. You name it. I’ve actually been working on this for a couple weeks already. Facebook has just been a great resource for info on the costume as well as where to source the parts. I’m part of the Tusken build group on there too. A really nice person on there just gave me a link for a set of goat leather bee keeping long gloves that can be used for the wraps to be attached to your forearms. I also ordered some bandoliers from a military site a couple weeks ago too. A British 1903 Enfield Ammunition Bandolier & Martini Henry Bandolier. I’m hoping those will be in soon. So I’m just researching and looking for everything and anything I need to make as close to screen accurate as possible. I have a lot of weathering to do but to me that’ll be another fun part. I also have a commission from RS props coming for the ‘Move along’ Sandtrooper. Kinda diving into the whole Star Wars costuming charity realm and loving every bit of it.

 
Edited on 7/17/21 removed A&J Projects as a reliable prop maker. Would not advise anyone use them for anything. Items arrived after months of waiting and lies, in a state of complete disarray. Bandoliers falling apart and helmet pieces falling off.

Edited April 20, 2022 by Motogpnut

[Motogpnut]

Removed A&J projects. Not a reliable source for any Star Wars items.

Edited January 17, 2021 by Motogpnut

[gSkruBg]

Welcome to to sandbox! I've never heard of some of these vendors, so I'm excited to see how your build turns out!

[thebrighton]

If I was to be brutally honest the lid looks ok and better than many but there is far too much leather on view around the face. See 3 of the 4 ANH Tusken lids below.

 

And a close up:

Both the eyestalks and the bloodspitters are positioned hard up against the leather mouth wraps but those on the FB link you supplied are spaced away from them which is resulting in too much viewable leather and giving the face an odd look but, hey, that's just my opinion and ultimately it will be down to your GML.

[Tusken1217]

Dawn’s robes are amazing, you will not be disappointed! 

[Motogpnut]

Removed bad builders, to make sure future people seeing posts don’t make the same mistake.

Edited January 17, 2021 by Motogpnut

[Motogpnut]

@thebrightonI’m not worried. The pic I provided is only a sample of what he does. I’ve already seen the masks he’s working on in his shop. And some with the changes I’ve asked for. I think it’s just a matter of where the wraps are laying around the mouth and blood spitters. I do see what you’re saying about the spacing, but he uses the book, Star Wars Costumes for the original trilogy as his “go to” Bible. The same that I’m copying from. Plus all the face greeblies are made from actual metal. Something I think gives it a really nice touch.  
I think the Peter Diamond Tusken also looks fantastic. So I’ve considered that one, as well. Still trying to decide which is better. I’ve actually asked my build group for their advice. I’ll probably ask my GML as well. He’s been really helpful with my Sandy. 
Here’s the two faces I’m trying to decide on.

 

 

 

Edited April 20, 2022 by Motogpnut

[Motogpnut]

@thebrighton It’s funny how much the book pic I have at the top of my last post matches your pic but with an extra wrap accross the face. I wonder if they just adjusted the wraps for the different photo shoots? Same Tusken just different. Lol 

[fleasome]

I do not trust book photos and even some trading card photos that were made after or between the movies.  I even saw a display at one of the Disney parks that was portraying a character and wasn't screen accurate.  When I first started doing research I thought all Tuskens were the same and was downloading every Tusken pic I could find which included the 2 above not from ANH.  After much more research I then sorted them into several folders; \cosplays\  \ANH\  \prequels\  \books&other\

At first I was trying to do my build on wrong sources not knowing the difference.  I was really worried about messing up my kit mask and so I just kept digging and digging and procrastinating.  Glad I did.  I ended up picking Diamond as my main source as I wanted ANH accurate costume as that is what I grew up with.

[thebrighton]

First time I've ever seen a photo with a wrap passing under the eyestalk and bloodspitter, it's certainly not one of the 4 ANH screen used lids. I guess the photo is from a later exhibition and I always take them with a pinch of salt as many a display has shown the dressers have no idea how the costume went together. 

Also be careful of the SW costumes books. For instance there is a photo of the Cantina Band which is actually the same costume used for each character and it is a costume made 25 years after the film and made differently. Don't believe everything you see in books or on the internet, screen grabs from the film are always the best resources.

[Motogpnut]

I agree with you guys. Screen grabs are the way to go. I feel that obviously sticks closest to screen accuracy, but it pays homage to the characters we all love and have grown up with. Star Wars A New Hope was my first movie in a theater, I was 4. It was the most incredible thing I’d ever seen and that feeling still sticks with me till this day. How can I not go for those specific characters?

[Motogpnut]

Bellow you will find my adventures (or misadventures) at trying my hand at dyeing with coffee.
I’m fortunate enough to have someone in my life who loves Star Wars as much as I do. So that’s why I’ll be saying we a lot.
We spent the day yesterday cutting and dyeing denim bull strips for the arms and boot wraps. After watching some of the YouTubes and googling ways to dye fabric we felt that the best way would be to try a coffee dye. So we set about our plan.
We picked up about 4 yards of bull denim from a cloth shop. They didn’t have any duck cloth but I feel the denim looks really good as well.






We laid the fabric out and cut 3-4 inch strips. The cloth was already 60 inches wide, but I later cut off the seam or selvage edge. I heard and saw some issues with cutting the strips too small and when they curled up it made it really difficult to work with. So I figured a little more is always better than not enough. By cutting it before the dyeing process I also wanted to make sure and get the fully frayed look.





We also wound up stealing some of my girlfriend’s cotton gauze fabric from her Rey Build so we could have soft fabric as a neck wrap and possibly for the waist sash. The way this fabric gathers just really looks amazing.



We also test wrapped the boots with the strips to make sure we had enough material to completely cover them. I’m using some of my old boots from the fire house that have been sitting around getting dirty. I can’t imagine wearing the rubber boots all day so I’m perfectly happy sacrificing these for the cause.



We then made three pots of coffee to pour into a bucket inside the tub. With the strips sitting in coffee as we made the pots I would occasionally churn the mix. I was hoping that if the coffee wasn’t completely covering every little section of the cloth as it dyed, it would make for some beautiful discolorations. As the process was going on I checked the color of the fabric and it was turning into some great looking wraps.





After I completely covered the wrap fabric strips in coffee, I then added the cotton gauze several hours into the process for fear of dying the soft fabric too dark.

After about five hours we were getting some really cool looking colors and patterns. I wish I could show you but someone “cough cough” sent the pics on snap and didn’t save them. Derp.

So at the end I decided I would copy what I’ve seen some people do on tutorials, you actually grind the coffee grounds into the fabric and you can get some really dark streaks.




Let me tell you, this made it look really cool but It was a complete mess to have to rinse every single strip individually to get off all the coffee grounds. But again... it looked so cool. I used extremely hot water to rinse as well. The different contrasts and colors, were literally a chef’s kiss.

Next was throwing everything in the washer. No detergent, on low in very hot water. Then the dryer on high. The resulting wad of thread and string was a complete and utter mess. It was a project to try and lay it out and cut off all the long strings and separate each strip but we just laid everything out on the left over fabric and took our time cleaning it while watching Star Wars. Yes, cliche but we had to. You know you would too.




So, after all the work and time spent trying the coffee dyeing method, rinsing the grounds, cutting the threads and separating out all the strips, this is what we were left with.




Yeah, you’re seeing right, it barely made a difference. All the dark rich colors and hues just washed away.
And below you’ll see that our cotton gauze barely held the color too. In all these pics I’m laying the dyed fabric on top of the non dyed fabric. The bull denim was already a natural color and the gauze was white.






So all that work and all that beautiful color gone.

Ok. Well, time to research what we could have done different and this is what we found...

First, we should have washed the fabric. All fabric has a protective coating or finish from the factory. This has to be washed off first or staining and dying may not work.

Next, we could have let it sit longer. Some people say 15-20 hours even. 5 hours wasn’t enough. Obviously.

Another thing we could have done was to add vinegar or salt to lock in the color. PH levels and all that fancy fabric science I know nothing about.

We were concerned about not washing or at least rinsing the fabric to keep the coffee smell from getting sour. I sweat a lot, like anyone would with three layers of robes but I can’t even imagine how coffee would smell in the heat and soaked in sweat.
Maybe if we were able to lay the fabric out in the hot sun for a few days it may have been locked in better. But it’s winter in this hemisphere and we’d just have a large coffee smelling ice sickle in the back yard for the dogs to chew on.
I’ve also read that someone even put the coffee dyed fabric right into the dryer but I was unwilling to buy a new dryer this weekend.

So... what have I learned?
To use dye on fabric. There. Done.

No seriously. I think all the concerns I had about using coffee, the smells, the germs, the coffee seeping out onto my skin, aren’t even an issue with dyes done right. I really thought it would turn out well. And while the process was going, it was really looking like it was going to. All the amazing colors were beautiful. I just really wanted to try my hand at the coffee dying process.

But alas, all I’m left with is my

BIG FABRIC BURRITO OF SHAME



So tomorrow during our snowstorm, I’ll probably give it another go with actual dyes. My lovely girlfriend went out today and picked up some beautiful hues and colors to try out. We also got the RIT color stay dye fixative to lock in all the work. So maybe this time we can get closer to changing the color rather than just making the fabric appear like nothing was done. OH THE SHAME.

I realize I didn’t have to write all this down. I could’ve made this with the results that actually worked.

But what I wanted to do was to make sure no one else made the same mistakes I made. If one person reads this and then can correctly dye fabric darker with coffee then my failure is ultimately a success.

Besides, you know this made you laugh at least once. So there’s the added bonus of spreading joy and happiness, and honestly, isn’t that what all of this is really about?

Thank you all. Thanks for reading. I’ll be here all week. Don’t forget to tip your waiter. Lol. Actually, more like a long time to get this right.

[gSkruBg]

Its amazing how coffee only likes to discolor things you accidentally apply it to. 

[Motogpnut]

If I had done this to my favorite shirt... it would be darker than a black hole, actually absorbing light. 

[Nezhdanov]

We used fabric dye on our material but were probably too cautious about making the outer robes too dark so ended up only an incremental colour change. So I just had to do more work with the weathering and it came out well in the end. You can alter things with weathering so don’t worry too much if the dye doesn’t quite go to plan.

The dye will give you the salt proportions which will help make things a bit easier. We used one of our costume trunks to do the hand dye in but if you use a bath wash it off quickly so it doesn’t stain. We had a new bathroom so didn’t want to risk the new bath!

We could have used a washing machine dye but one of our bull denim machine dye came out very dark so we decided we wanted to have hands on control with the outer robe as it was the hardest part of the costume to find where I am and expensive.

Good luck!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[thebrighton]

I have found that tea will stain a lot better than coffee and doesn't wash out in the same way but, ultimately, fabric dye is the best solution.

[Motogpnut]

We dyed the wraps today with Rit dye and I gotta tell you, it came out so well. I’m so pleased. It’s getting late we’ve been ironing for hours, so I’ll make a post probably tomorrow or Monday. The process was better that expected.

[Motogpnut]

Been super busy with work so it took a bit to get back here and show what we’ve done. We’ve made a bit of progress with the wraps and everything. We used Rit dye Camel for the wraps. We used the Rit fixative after each application and it helped the color stay. The fabric didn’t take much to dye. Just a quick dip in the bucket of dye and it got pretty dark, really quick.

We also let the white bee keeper gloves sit in the dye for about an hour. It took a while for the leather to soak up the color but it really came out well.

 

 

I used some Honey leather conditioner after the leather dried to make sure it stayed soft. The goats skin leather is so soft already so they didn’t dry at all.

 

 

It was so nice to finally see some color in everything. Rit dye really worked. I’ll pick up on the next post. It’ll make documenting our progress a little easier.

[Motogpnut]

We took all the wraps and spent about 5 hours of ironing to get all the strips to lay flat. Even then they wanted to roll up. So we laid them out, folded them then put them under the heavy front door mat. We actually left them there over night to make sure they stayed flat. It actually worked tho. Next is to get started on the boots.

 

[Motogpnut]

Next we started the boots. We used some contact cement to attach some fabric to the boots.







The large piece is to cover the laces. I was hoping that I could still use them to tighten the boots while wearing. Just for the comfort factor.
We found that the cement worked well but with the super cold temps it was a very long process. First we would apply the cement then we used a hair dryer to heat it, we would then add some glue to the fabric as well. With the heat applied to the laid on fabric, it would begin to hold really well. The glue sticks better to itself. So covering everything with enough of the contact cement was essential. But too much can make it more yellowed. So it’s a delicate balance it seems.

[Motogpnut]

This last weekend we were able to get back out there and finish up the boots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also used some cement my father in law suggested. This seems to work much better and without any staining of the material. It’s not cheap but if I had a choice, I would have used this the entire time.

[Motogpnut]

Now we are working on the gloves. Mostly my girlfriend is because she’s amazing at sewing. But I’m helping as much as she will allow. Lol


I think in a couple days we will have the gloves wrapped up too.
Obviously everything needs weathering but I want to work on that as an entire process.
We also finally received the inner and out robes from Dawn TK09. She did an outstanding job. The seams are very clean and definitely passed inspection from my girlfriend.
The robes are massively huge on me but they haven’t been washed or dried yet. So I’m sure it’ll shrink quite a bit.


Yes, that’s actually me under there. All 6’2” and 255 lbs of me. So I’m sure shrinkage will actually be really ok. Plus we can’t dye it without washing first.
My girlfriend wants to possibly run a thread along the bottom to make sure it doesn’t completely fray all the way up.
The fabric is all monks clothe as well. Very heavy. Just what we needed. I can’t imagine this would be a summer trooping costume without melting away.

[Motogpnut]

Dawn’s robes are amazing, you will not be disappointed! 

They really are incredible. I’m genuinely impressed.

[Motogpnut]

A&J props also contacted me today to show me what my helmet will look like.

 

 

Guy turned out to be a liar and a cheat. Would not recommend him to anyone. I was barely able to get my stuff and what I did receive was trash. Not at all what he shows in pictures. Took over 7 months to get to me and he lied about shipping and gave me a fake tracking number. Had to file PayPal claims to get the trash he sent

[fleasome]

You can manage in high heat and humidity with the right fan system.