Jessika 'Testor' Pava - Flight suit & Chest Box 1.2

Had two mins, in between kids TV programs, over the weekend, to get daughter to stand up and try on her flight suit. This was so I could measure & cut to length the belt and straps.

Thinking again tho that he buckles are a bit heavy, so may need to look at alternate ones, smaller, lighter or to make some myself.

~~~~~~

I have been looking at how to attach the hose to the chest control box, securely. Searching through my 'plastics' box, I found an end cap off a photo copier toner cartridge from work. The course thread it uses to fit into the machine, is just the right size to thread onto the hose. How lucky is that!!

pictures of toner cartridge cap

picture of toner cartridge cap fitted onto hose

~~~~~~

Here's the hole I made in the bottom of the box. This it to locate the cap.

Next I started to glue the flat pieces of cardboard that I had cut out to accept & hold the trimmed down cap. The cap & block are then glued into place, all with PVA glue.

Outside view, before last piece of cardboard was glued into place.

View, inside of box. To help stop possible twisting of the cap, I trimmed some of it off and glued some layered up cardboard across the half cut down cap.

Jess Testor Pava - helmet - 1.6

So last few days, I've mostly been applying fibre-glass to the inside and edges of the helmet & then body filler all over, sanding and smoothing it all out, and repeat the next day lol.

More filler, upper two pics

 More sanding & then more filler, bottom two pics.

Am still working on the cheek areas.

Next, as you may of noticed in the cheek pic above, was to trim down the edges.

I marked the edges that needed to be trimmed down. And then using my circular cutting blade on my dremel, trimmed off the excess.

I needed to open up the bottom so my daughter can get her head in.

Jessika 'Testor' Pava - Flight suit & Chest Box 1.1

The jump suit, now to be called 'flight suit' lol, arrived at the weekend and although it will require some shortening of the arms & legs, as can be seen in the picture, it fitted my daughter quite well. The extra material from the turn-up's I'll be able to re-use for pockets etc. The colour is also a little 'bright' lol, but again, working with what's available & cheap.

Jessika Pava - flight suit

I also had time to look at making the flight suit control, chest box. Forum's like the Rebel Forum have lots of info and very creative people! There are 3D printed designs available too. But as this outfit is a reduced size version, the only way forward was to make her own scaled version. So after roughly measuring the size, I got to work on cutting up and sticking cardboard to created the chest box.

I've made the box out of several built up layers to create the grooved detail. This also add's strength to the box. The cut out in the rear was done to be able to access the internal area, as I plan to include a green LED, as per available data known. I've also not fully sealed up the box as the hose needs to be able to be secured first.

x-wing flight-suit chest box

Still the upper & bottom sections to complete. Then the plan is to fill in areas with filler before painting.

The hose arrived and looks good. Also the webbing came to, so I'll be able to get measuring and cutting this to length this week sometime.

Jess Testor Pava - Flight suit 1.0

Ordered a jumpsuit/overall off eBay for about £12. As the flight suit is baggy, this comes in handy for choosing a suitable size for my daughter :)

I also found some roll pin belt buckles x3 off, and also some suitable webbing which I'll use to make ALL the belts. (Note: this is not 100% screen accurate, but suitable for mini pilot lol). I also bought some flexible pond pipe, also of eBay.

And finally, I ordered some hose. Again tho, this is NOT screen accurate, but close enough.

I have also started on making her the flight suit 'chest box'. This is being made, at the moment, out of cardboard.

More to follow.....

Jess Testor Pava - helmet - 1.5

Fibre-glass matt arrived at the weekend, so was able to carry on with the inside of the helmet this week.

I had been applying body filler to the area's that already had strength. A lot of sanding but thankfully, not to much shaping needed. It helps if you apply thinly and as smoothly as possible.

Next I marked and cut out the crest shape that's on the lower rear of the helmet. With all the other things during researching, the rear area was one part I missed. Mainly due to there not being very many rear shots. 

rear crest marked for cutting

I then used my cutting wheel on my dremel to slice open the area.

I slotted out and attached a piece of card to give the end shape.

I then started applying fibre-glass matt to strengthen it all.