The Mandalorian - Kids 3D Printed Halloween Costume

It’s Halloween time again! In our house we encourage our foundlings to make home-made costumes because… this is the way.

Our oldest son decided that he wanted to be The Mandalorian. Not the rusty, dirt covered one from the beginning of the series - he wanted to be the shiny one… This is a little different from what we are used to making. But not wanting to say no, we started to rack our brains on how to make this work. As we’re going cross-eyed trying to figure this out, his Uncle steps in and suggests that we try using his 3D printer - this might work!

“Great, kid, don’t get cocky.” - Han Solo

Tools:

• 3D Printer
• Computer
• Measuring Tape
• Jig Saw
• Pop Rivet Gun
• Hot Glue Gun
• Sewing Machine
• Hobby Knife
• Sandpaper
• Toaster Oven
• Drill
• Assorted Paint Brushes
• Masking Tape

Materials:

• 3D Printer Filament
• Tinted Acrylic Sheet (8”x12”)
• Black Fabric (1 yard)
• Foam Floor Mat
• Super Glue & Accelerator 
• Hot Glue Sticks
• Spot Putty
• Filler/Primer Paint
• Assorted Paints
• Fake Leather
• Velcro
• Elastic
• Athletic Zipper
• Nylon Belt Buckle
• Pop Rivets
• Dark Grey Sweats Pants & Shirt
• Black Sleeveless Turtleneck Shirt
• Thin White Gloves
• Black Fingerless Gloves
• Boots

“I’m just a simple man trying to make my way in the universe.” — Jango Fett

A quick search of the internet and we found more choices for 3D models than what we knew what to do with. Do3D.com appeared to be strong with the force and had the 3D models we were looking for - problem solved... Maybe... these files are sized for an adult. No problem, we can fix this - see Step 2:

“Never underestimate a droid.” —General Leia Organa

The great part about computers is they do the hard work... Our 3D printer's software allows us to scale the 3D models to whatever size we want. After a quick search of the internet, we discovered that an 11 year old boy should be sized at 76.375% of a full grown human being, or 52.7% of a Wookiee... Just kidding! We measured "the child" and compared him to the 3D model sizes, and settled on a generic scale of 75% for his body armor and 93% for his helmet...

After 16 hours of printing the helmet, we had to change it to 90% instead...

240 grams of plastic filament into the trash...Doh!

“Be careful not to choke on your aspirations, director.” —Darth Vader

We now had access to an Ender 3 Max 3D printer (Thanks Uncle!) and we chose to use PLA plastic because it was available on Amazon, on sale, and had good reviews. We ultimately tried two types of filament from the same manufacturer, 3D Solutech. Their premium PLA filament printed so much better than their standard that it was worth the extra two dollars per roll. Ultimately we used about four rolls of filament for the project, but the learning curve was steep and it probably could have been done with three.

Once the parts were printed, it was a simple project of super-gluing the parts together and making them all smooth. For those shiny beskar (chrome) armor parts, we needed to give them some extra attention by covering them entirely in spot putty and sanding them smooth. All the parts were painted with an automotive primer/filler that helped fill in any remaining seams or print lines. We sanded everything once more and gave it a final coat of primer/filler before calling these ready for paint.

For the helmet, we looked at different ideas to install the visor and came up with a relatively simple solution... tinted acrylic. After making a pattern out of paper card stock, we cut the visor from 1/8 inch tinted acrylic sheet using a jigsaw. A metal blade was used for this, as the teeth were finer and had less chance of breaking the acrylic sheet. Once the visor was cut out, we peeled off the protective paper from both sides and heated it in a toaster oven**. The now flexible plastic could be placed into the helmet to find it’s final shape. Once it cooled off we super glued it in place. 

**This may sound like a simple process, but please be safe if you try this as it presented many hazards:
-   Cooking acrylic releases poisonous gases - only do this in a well ventilated area.
-   Cooking acrylic in a toaster oven can cause a fire. We did it on a metal table in our back yard with a fire extinguisher on hand.
-   Cooked acrylic is really hot and will burn you. Use tools and heat resistant gloves when handling it.

We should also mention that if you heat acrylic too much the water molecules in it boil and cause bubbles to form in it, or something like this, and you will not be able to see through it.

"I can't see a thing in this helmet!" - Luke Skywalker

The paint work for this costume can be broken into two different steps; base colors and weathering.

Base Colors:

We separated all the parts by color and painted them with their respective base colors. The non-shiny parts were painted with Rust-oleum spray paint from our local hardware store. Gunmetal paint was used for the lower leg parts, left knee, right thigh plate, and hip armor. Satin Nickel paint was used for the hand armor and belt details. After allowing the paint to dry, we masked off the hand armor and painted the triangles Wildflower Blue. All other details were hand painted with assorted acrylic paints.

The chrome parts required a gloss black base color before applying the chrome paint. Once the black paint was fully dry we sprayed these parts with Spaz Stix Ultimate Mirror Chrome paint. This paint is the bomb! It looks like metal and is easy to work with. We almost finished our armor with a single 3.5 oz. spray can, but needed a second can to finish one last part.

Weathering:

Weathering can be one of those counter-intuitive steps and is super rewarding. To start, we paint our beautiful shiny armor with some thin black acrylic paint. Then we promptly wiped it off with a paper towel, leaving the corners and low spots “dirty”. We had to repeat these steps multiple times to achieve the desired look. 

The next step was dry-brushing all the non-shiny parts with a metallic silver paint. To do this, we put some (very little) paint on a 1-inch wide paint brush and wiped it nearly clean with a dry paper towel. Start brushing across the parts lightly so that the silver paint will find all the high spots and highlight these areas. This made the parts look worn and metallic.

Last but not least, we needed to add some rust to the lower leg parts, left knee, and right thigh. We started with some watered down brown acrylic paint in these areas with a paper towel to tint the color a bit where we wanted the rust to show. Once we were happy with these areas, we allowed that paint to dry before speckling on some black and orange paint. This was done by lightly dabbing a coarse bristle paint brush with the chosen color (black paint was done before the orange) on the “rusty” area. 

“Your focus determines your reality.” —Qui-Gon Jinn

The sewing machine is not our friend, so if we don't have to we try not to use it. 

Do. Or do not. There is no try... Off to all the thrift stores! 

After traveling twelve parsecs we finally found what we were looking for; a pair of dark grey sweats (pants and sweatshirt), a sleeveless black turtleneck for the "flak vest", a foam floor mat for his soft stomach armor, some cheap fake leather purse straps for the belts, a yard of black fabric for his cape, a pair of black boots and two pairs of costume gloves. Needing just a few modifications, this covered all of the basics for the soft parts.

Flak Vest:

We shortened the black turtleneck by 4 or 5 inches and sewed in a new seam with our sewing machine. After this we split open the back and sewed in an athletic zipper to allow easier donning and doffing of the armor (Armor will eventually be glued right onto this).

Stomach Armor: 

This was made out of black foam floor mat. Instead of guessing on a size, we first used a sheet of paper to make a pattern of this by taping it to our son and drawing on him... some tickling may have occurred. After moving the pattern to the foam, we cut out this part out with a hobby knife. Additional details were also added to this part by cutting shallow grooves into the foam. We then molded the stomach armor to our son's approximate shape using a heat gun.

Belt:

We made the Mandalorian's iconic belt and bandolier using two 1-inch wide, fake leather purse straps. After cutting off the attached clips, we sized the first strap to our son's waist and pop-riveted a 1-inch nylon belt buckle onto it. We then pop-riveted the bandolier strap into place as well. It should be mentioned that we had to slide the belt accessories onto the belt prior to attaching the second part of the belt buckle. 

Flight Suit:

The flight suit was made using the grey sweatshirt and pants we acquired. We sewed buttons onto each shoulder of the sweatshirt that will be later used to hold on the shoulder armor.

Cape:

The cape was an item of concern for us as it is set up very specifically with its folds. We found a nice video on YouTube to help guide us along. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmGxBTv-XGY

 But it mostly consisted of us turning our son into a human pincushion while trying to adjust everything to the right size. We sewed the right side of the cape to the flak vest and cut in a button hole on the left corner so it could get wrapped around his neck and secured in place.

Leather Leg Wrap:

This was the easiest of the soft parts to make. After folding and stitching the edges of a fake leather square sized to fit ours son's leg, we simply added velcro so it could be secured.

“I don’t want your armor. I want my armor.” —Boba Fett

For the final assembly, we took each part in turn and systematically installed elastic straps, Velcro strips, and loops of string as needed. Super glue was used to attach everything to everything. 

Shoulders:

Each got a loop of string at the top end to hang off the previously mentioned buttons we placed on the sweatshirt.

We then added an elastic strap around each to keep it on his arms.

Hand Armor:

The hand armor was hot-glued directly to the black fingerless gloves.

Left Knee:

An elastic strap was placed on the left knee to hold it in place.

Left Ankle:

The left ankle armor piece was set up with Velcro to hold it closed.

Right Leg:

Elastic straps were placed on one side of the lower right leg armor to allow it to be hinged open. Two leather straps, equipped with Velcro, were then attached so that they would hold this assembly closed.

Back Armor:

The back armor was set up with Velcro to allow easy installation after zipping up the flak vest.

But the most fun was actually hot-gluing the larger armor parts directly to our son so that they would be placed in the correct spots... Calm down everybody, nobody got burned here!

To do this safely, we placed sheets of corrugated cardboard under our son's sweatshirt and in his pants legs. This protected him from the heat of hot-glue. The thigh armor was glued to his sweatpants, the foam stomach armor to the inside of the flak vest, the ab-plate and chest armor to the front of the flak vest.

Foam spacers (made from the remaining floor mat pieces) were then placed in the gauntlets and in the helmet to help parts fit snugly.

To finish things off, we glued on all the bullets to his bandolier, belt, and lower leg armor straps. A strip of 5/8 inch brown ribbon was glued over these to simulate the straps that hold these in place.

At this point the project was done. Our son kept staring at himself in the mirror and repeating “This is the way”.

No animals, wookiees, ewoks, banthas or children were harmed in the making of this Instructable.

Warning! If you give one kid a set of armor, you have to give armor to the other two…

At which point refer to step one, but remember it CANNOT be the same one… ugh!

Our youngest son requested to be Boba Fett, specifically Boba’s new armor from the Mandalorian TV Series. This proved to be a much simpler task than Mando’s. Without shiny pieces to make, the prep work took much less time and there were less parts in general. 

After 3D printing all of the necessary pieces, we simply prepared and painted them as we previously described above. Trading out a few items, black instead of grey sweats, and a sweatshirt with a hood. We also ordered a pair of gators off of Amazon to go over his boots. The most difficult part of this build was hand painting all the details on the armor. 

Our daughter wanted to be a “Space Princess”, so we thought “Empress” was close enough. 

Bo Katan, the Empress of Mandalore it is! She was hoping that this would also allow her to boss her brothers around. Spoilers! It didn’t work…

Making her armor was done just as the other two were made, although we provided her more details on her belt and gave her a jetpack as the armor would look rather plain otherwise. 

Her belt was made of fake leather with a brown webbed belt sewn on top of it to provide the necessary layered look. A 2-inch nylon belt buckle was used on the back of this while a replica belt buckle was glued onto the front of the belt. Pouches were made of foam floor mat blocks that were then covered with fake leather that was hot glued into place. The gun holsters were also made of fake leather and sewn together before being attached to the belt. All of the leather parts looked too shiny and fake, so we weathered them using a dark brown acrylic paint in the same way that we black-washed the armor. 

Bo Katan’s jetpack was simply printed out on the 3D printer, assembled, painted, and bolted onto her back armor during final assembly. While it was not heavy, we thought some reinforcement would be best. We did this by gluing in an additional layer of ⅛-inch thick aerated PVC (Sintra) underneath the shoulder straps.

This whole process took about two months to complete. We had the 3D printer running nearly continuously for the whole time.Thankfully we started this project early enough because we did hit a few hiccups along the way. Broken thermistors, heating elements, clogged nozzles, failed prints, fingers glued together, and a bad motivator were just a few things we encountered. All said and done, we finished the final piece the night before Halloween! Phew! Just in time!