Savage Opress - The Clone Wars

   I was asked by a couple if I could rework a costume they had made. The character was Savage Opress from animated TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

We had a chat about the positive and negative elements of the existing costume.  One of the issues was that the armour was a little flat and the arms holes were too tight. Rendering a 2D image into real world 3D always presents issues. There is a pesky thing here on Earth called gravity. Gravity does not exist in comic books. So getting the full effect one the shoulder poudrons and arm blades were always going to be tricky. The suits had to wearable as the customer was going to use the costume for trooping. Prior to the order for the costume being placed I was at a trooping for the 99th Garrison at the Bluebell hospice I found a comic book of the Clone Wars. Perfect reading for the back story of Savage Opress.

The tunic was a good fit and just about fitted one of my manikins. It was not difficult to work out the size and relative positions of the pouldron lames [the individual leaves of the pouldron] from the screen shots. Card is a handy material to make up maquettes of the pieces. The key bit for me was to make the pouldrons appear to be floating. The obvious answer is spacers but they would effect the curve of the pouldron and how was I going to create a foundation to support the floating poudrons? 

   The answer was to create a yolk that fit under the tunic and rest of the costume build hinged on this decision. The yolk comes in two parts, one for each shoulder. The yolk sits on top of foam padding. The padding gives a comfort fit and at the same time holds the screws in place and shields the heads from the costumers skin. I used a 50mm webbing straps to act as a hinges to allow movement in the front chest area. The back strap holds the yolk in place without help from the tunic but also allows the tunic to be removed. After getting the yolk to work it was relatively straight forward to cut all the lames and blades from Aluminium. As with any cutting process the edges needed cleaning up and all the pairs of lames and arm blade needed regularising. Regularising ships planks just needs a plane, regularising lames needs a file and a lot of patience especially the blades. At this stage I was ready from a first fitting. 

 We arranged to meet on the motorway and booked a meeting room for our purposes. I had profiled the yolk in advance and prepped the webbing straps. I dropped the yolk on Mark [the customer]. It was a close fit from the off. It took about half an hour to custom fit the yolk. We then secured the yolk to the foam padding. Another tweak session with the padding locked in place. The tunic was then placed over the yolk for a trial fit. My concern was that the yolk would be to bulky under the tunic. The fit was good. It actually tightened up the tunic. The sleeves holes were always a bit tight. We decided that the sleeve holes would definitely need to be changed. The tunic had fleece sleeves and these would not support the arm blades and the arm aperture need re-profiling. With Mark in his suit we spent a good deal of time marking up the tunic with the position of the pouldron's fixing points and the arm blades. Julia made sure we had plenty of tea to lubricate my brain. We finalised the requirements and packed up and said our goodbyes.

   Back in the studio:  The detailing on the tunic was a little lacking on the pectoral area of the chest. I made a couple of large shaped patches to fit from the chest to the shoulder blades, one of reach side. The patches were sewn on with and pocket padded out with wadding to give the chest area a level of relief. The next job was to cut all the spacers to length for PVC rod. The rod had to drill for the special interscrews. The interscrews had to be cut to length for the position in which they to be installed allowing from the thickness of the Aluminium and the leather that was to cover the aluminium in the finishing. The spacers gave the floating effect. The interscrews gave the strength and articulation of the lames. One vital for the look the other vital for comfort and wearability. The arms were re-made in leather and a little larger than the originals to allow for the arm blades supporting plate and foam backing. More spacers and interscrews for the blades. Then all I had to do cut holes in the tunic and sleeves for the interscrews, drill holes in the Aluminium yolk, lames and blades and assemble the armour, spacers and interscrews. It took ages. This was a second fit. Having decided it all fitted together, I took all apart again.

   The next step was to cover the lames and blades with shiny leather. In this case special finished lamb.The lamb gave the Aluminium substrate more body. This job was a trial of epic proportions. The finish had to be just so as it is the final finish. The interscrew holes had to be re-drilled and cleaned up. Only then could I reassemble the pouldrons to ensure they still fitted the articulated. I should not that worried they fitted fine. The blades were covered and fitted to the sleeve via the supporting plate. I should say at this time that clock was ticking, not because Mark had created a deadline but because I was to debut Savage Opress at MCM Birmingham three weeks from the first fitting. 

   I had a little leather over from the pouldrons so I fugured to would be worthwhile recovering the siliver elements of the boots. Part way through the molding of the toe boxes I was thinking I had made a mistake however more tea and some perseverance and the job came together. We decided the kilt needed better support so I added eight heavy duty poppers which would secure the kilt to the tunic very securely. I got some rubber coloured paint [Tamika] the paint out the heads of the poppers. 

   The final job was the vambraces [forearm armour]. Card, pencil and scissors created maquettes of the vambraces. I wanted the floating effect but had to compromise the size of the pieces. It that gravity thing again as well as the ergonomics of the piece in the real world. I was able to used the original leather arm bracers as a base for the Aluminium, soon to be covered in leather vambraces. I created a vent in the cuffs of the original bracers to make access easier and to be able close the cuff tighter if needed. The maquette was made into a pattern; the Aluminium cut and cleaned, the flat Aluminium rolled to the desire circumference, covered with leather and fitted to the bracers with spacers for the flying effect. The final piece is going to be completed with latex gloves is Opress colours but with the addition of claws, in the meantime I made a couple of plates for the back of the hands, finished to complement the vambraces. That that was it finished. I made a display stand to use at MCM. All done with a couple of days to go. The tricky bit is to stop titivating the piece. I was lucky to have other pieces to distract me from Savage O.

   Mark lent me the Latex Savage Opress mask. The display stand was made to hold the bust on which the mask was fitted. Savage looked a bit round shouldered at MCM but it did not stop a constant stream of folks taking pictures and talking about it. The word is that there is a Savage Opress in Northern Ireland and one being made in Scotland. Mark's is the only one in England and Wales. 

          

 Mark took delivery of Savage Opress on 8th December. We made a tweak to one of the lames. I am sure he was pleased with it. I came away with a nice bottle of Sherry to boot.