Who’s afraid of the big, bad Shistavanen Wolfman?

[Volund Starfire]

With the extremely low numbers of non-human Jedi, and after helping my friend Luananeko to build her TCW Aayla Secura for the Rebel Legion, I have decided to attempt to do one of my own. Like Luananeko, I am doing a Jedi General from the Clone Wars, but this one is shown in the animated Clone Wars micro-series. I am talking about Jedi Master Voolvif Monn, the Shistavanen Wolfman Jedi Master.

Since formal characters for the Rebel Legion require three official sources, I submit these for approval. First, there is the Clone Wars micro-series, specifically episodes 20 and 22. Second, there is the Hasbro figurine from collection 30 (77-07) #58. Third, he is found listed in The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia Volume III (P-Z). Finally, he is a miniature produced by Wizards of the Coast in the Masters of the Force set, #12/40. I know that’s four, but I do not own the Encyclopedia so I do not know if there is a visual representation of him in it.

With that said, I am using the Hasbro figurine as a base for the character, but with the details shown in the low-detail Clone Wars cartoon, and using non-animated armor sources. I will explain in more detail below in my dissection.

Body

Head
The base for the head is a Werewolf Ani-Motion Mask so that it has a movable mouth when I speak, including the jowls baring the teeth. The upper and lower incisors (between the canines) will be blunted like a true canine’s and the gums painted black with dark gray detailing from the masks red. If necessary, the mask will include a helmet or other solid head form to keep its shape. It will be attached firmly to the face with no space between the eyes and the mask, similarly with the jaw to capture all of the movement. The back of the mouth area will include a fake uvula in front of a piece of black mesh or cloth to prevent the mouth from being seen.

The fur on the mask will be completely removed. The back of the ears and the jaw (beard) will be covered with a faux wolf fur and trimmed down to an appropriate length. The rest of the mask will be replaced with a hood and neck made of mesh fabric. Red-brown (or the closest color to the fur) kanekalon hair will be latch hooked into the hood and styled into the appropriate way to achieve the animated look. The hair will be trimmed in front of the ears and left long at the base to cover the neck. The length is going to be roughly half the length of Wookiee hair. Because it is simulating canine hair, it will be latch-hooked in smaller amounts, but in close proximity.

My eyes will be painted gray in a tone similar to the mask when I wear it.


Suit
The Suit will be made from faux wolf fur fabric in a back-zipping coverall. The arms will go down the arm to the backs of the hands with Velcro at the end to attach to the glove. The legs will extend down to the ankle of the stilt and will Velcro closed as naturally-looking as possible. The collar will be raised and Velcro shut in the back to hide the neck.


Hands
The hands will be made from a pair of gray latex werewolf hands and gray leather gloves. The palms and backs of the hands will be cut out of the werewolf gloves and they will be attached to the leather gloves. It will include the necessary Velcro to attach the sleeve to. The werewolf claws will be modified, reinforced, and blunted while still retaining their sharp look.


Feet
The feet will be based around a wooden digitigrade stilt with a moving toe. The majority of the stilt will be padded out with foam to give it shape and then covered with a modified gray latex werewolf foot. The toes will be modified in the same way as the hands. It will be covered with the faux fur up to the ankle of the stilt where it will have Velcro to connect the leg to.




Clothing

Tunic
The tunic is brown in color and made of a cotton twill or Osnaberg. It crosses closed in the front just over the belt, right over left and closes with velcro. It comes down to knee-length and flares out, suggesting a waist seam under the belt. It is sleeveless with the arm hole coming down to about an inch above the belt. It is safe to assume that the edges are sewn over for edging. This is a simple 6-piece pattern (left chest, right chest, upper back, left shirt, right skirt, skirt back).


Trousers
The trousers are closer to the fur in color and made of a denim material. They extend down to just before the second knee. The cuff is rough and unfinished. The side seam on the leg indicates a 2-part pajama pant pattern (front, back). Because of the make of the costume, an elastic waist/drawstring will be used to secure the trousers and the leg will Velcro closed on the inside of the leg seam from the knee down for ease of putting it on and taking it off.




Armor

Shoulder Armor
The shoulder armor is unmodified Anakin Skywalker chest/back armor. It includes a Boba Fett shoulder button (cut-down keyboard key) painted in metallic gunmetal. The top includes a detail piece similar to the shoulder straps of the Phase I Clone armor, but cut down evenly on both sides so it is only half the normal length. The shoulder armor is painted in metallic gunmetal and weathered slightly.


Belt
The main part of the belt is a Phase I Clone belt without any of the normal Clone pouches or boxes. There are five leather Jedi pouches around the belt. Two small pouches are located on both sides of the buckle and both sides of the rear pouch; these pouches have a small detail on the bottom, below the flap. Two large pouches are located on the far right and left sides of the belt; they have a dual-closure and some detailing. A medium pouch is located on the back of the belt; it is the same height as the small pouches and as wide as the large with a detail under the double flap. The belt and pouches are painted in metallic gunmetal and weathered slightly.


Forearm Armor
The gauntlets are Phase I Clone forearm armor and elbow armor. The gauntlet has a section cut out of the under side. The removed section is straight on one side and has a trapezoidal cut on the other side similar to the Death Watch gauntlets. This cut-out area is used to fit over the suit sleeve. The left gauntlet will include a compad/keypad. A piece of green or clear acrylic will replace the forward part of the buttons with a green LED under it to light it. The forearm armor is painted in metallic gunmetal and weathered. The forearm pad will have the details painted with gray buttons and light gray separators to stand out.


Knee Armor
The knees are a modification of the Phase I Clone knee armor. They have the outside faces removed and the exposed edges rounded. They have gray elastic attached to the sides to wrap around the leg, attached on the inside of the knee with Velcro. They will have foam backing to protect the costume and Velcro on the inside to attach to the trousers. The knees are painted in metallic gunmetal.




Lightsaber
The lightsaber is entirely silver with a green blade. It is custom, but will fit the details shown in both the Clone Wars cartoon and the figurine. It can be made using straight TCSS parts.

There's a flare in the blade at the base made up of a larger number of LEDs packed in closer together. One spike of the flare goes up the blade on one side about one-third of the way making it unique in its design, made up of another strand of LEDs up one side (the top side). This is from the Hasbro figurine that has a more unique lightsaber than any other character they make.




*Figurine pictures courtesy of JediTempleArchives.com, all others Wookieepedia.

[Jedimom/Cor-Al Gelkar]

AWESOME! Can't wait to see it!

My son has a partial fursuit and I know how hot and heavy they can be!

[Volund Starfire]

I know how to take the heat, I was in the Army for 9 years. Hyper-hydration, cooling vest, headband and wristbands soaked, etc.

I do have two questions related to this, though.

1) Will it still be good to go even though it does not have boots?

2) Can anyone point me toward a good place to purchase some Clone Wars Anakin armor?

[Nova Darklighter]

Like Yoda, it's the feet that count, if he is not shown wearing boots, then he doesn't need boots.

[Volund Starfire]

Oh, good. That is definitely a weight off. And don't worry, I have a few tricks that I am planning on pulling out for the feet so they will look good. These stilts are tough on the legs for the first few months, but I am a masochist for my art (I've been wearing a pair of biker boots that are a size too small for the past year with my RFT through multiple long parades).

As for my #2, any help with the Ani Armor?

[J'aii-Gun Jiinn]

You can probably go two ways with that 1-Bondo fiberglass It's time consuming,but you can get the fit and look you want.2-Wonderflex It's a thermal plastic and again you might have to reinforce it with fiberglass.There is the garbage can method involves a trash can and a heat gun and clamps.Research on your method is a good bet. RPF(Replica Prop Forums) as well as the RL(Rebel Legion)look under clone wars jedi If you know sombody in the 501st Vaccum-forming is their key,but it's basically a kit out of ABS plastic and vaccum formed into shape.That's all the advice I know.

[Nova Darklighter]

I do look forward to seeing this one!

[JediKai]

This looks promising. One comment, especially to clarify for any others who read this thread... you quote the RL's costume approval standards. Please be aware that we have our own, which are different: www.thejediassembly.com/jedicode.php?art=v

"This source MUST contain a full description of the costume, and it must indicate what each piece of the costume looks like in terms of color or style. If only one piece of the costume is described, then ONLY that piece will be acceptable. For example, if a description of an EU Jedi states that they wear blue tabbards, then the remainder of the costume must look like a "screen-accurate" Jedi costume in terms of style and color (browns and tans). Action figures are acceptable as a source for an EU costume; however, the figure must be produced by a Lucasfilm licensed source such as Hasbro. Custom actions figures are NOT acceptable as a costume source. Please note that costumes that specifically replicate an EU Jedi which have been accepted for membership may not be acceptable for certain events."

[Volund Starfire]

Okay. That just means that I will have to be careful in the way that I build the costume. I am going for the truest detail based on all of the sources, as it is. With this, I will just pay more attention that I normally would... and since I am rather OCD when it comes to my costumes, that is saying something.

I have been looking through the micro series episodes, the TCW armor pictures, live action armor pictures, and the figurine and have noticed certain correlations between them that I did not notice before.

First, the characters in the micro series are drawn with a similar detail level to the characters in TCW. Because Voolvif Monn's belt is identical to the clone belts, except for lacking the two tall ammo pouches and thermal detonator, it would mean that it would be identical to the TCW clone belts over the live action belt. The action figure's belt had a similar tab closure to that of the micro series character. However, the belt boxes on the action figure are identical to the live-action clone boxes.

Second, the armor in the micro series is flat with no visible lines on it, unlike the Anakin character's armor in Season 2 of the micro series which has detail lines that are fully animated in TCW. This means that the Voolvif Monn character has flat armor. I will use the detail lines on the action figure, to make the armor more three dimensional as both are official sources for the character. This includes the half of the keyboard key (similar to the Boba Fett shoulder buttons), the TCW clone shoulder straps, and the detail edging/ingraving.

Third, the action figure is shown to have a detail ridge on the elbow plate that is identical to the detail ridge on the knee. That, and the offset of the elbow, lead me to believe that the elbow armor is actually a knee plate attached to the gauntlet. The only clone knee plate with the detail ridge is the live action clone knee plate.

Fourth, the gauntlet of the action figure is nearly identical to the TCW Obi Wan/clone gauntlet in its shape. This tells me that the gauntlet is a TCW clone gauntlet with the elbow removed and replaced with the knee plate. Though, the compad appears to be a cross between the TCW and the live action compad.

Finally, the lightsaber has two pronounced features in both the micro series and action figure. The first is the Luke Skywalker ROTJ lightsaber pommel. The second is a 45 degree straight cut emitter nearly identical to the Darth Vader lightsaber. It has other nubs and buttons on its length, meaning some minor greeblies.

[J'aii-Gun Jiinn]

If you need a custom lightsaber,and if you're good with electronics I suggest the custom saber shop(TCSS) if not.There are excellent sabersmiths on FX-Sabers.

[Volund Starfire]

Well, the mask is in and it needs some major modifications. The first thing I am going to have to do is remove the “fur” from it. It is sewn to the foam of the face and ears, so I’ll be carefully removing it with a seam ripper without cutting the foam.

I’ll need to reinforce the face with a couple of layers of dragon skin that I’ll be brushing on to give it a little skin detail over the detail that is already present. The lips pull up on the gums when the mouth opens, so I will be careful not to lose this detail. (Eat your heart out Wookiees, now there will be another who can do that!)

I’ll be repainting the face before installing the mesh suit. It will still be gray and black, but not so much emphasis on the deeper gashes which I am hoping to smooth slightly with the dragon skin. The nose will be painted with a gloss and stippled on to give it more of the canine look (dog noses are supposed to be wet).

The teeth and gums will not be modified much beyond removing the mold lines and touching up the paint.

More updates to come.

[Jedimom/Cor-Al Gelkar]

Cool! Love the expression

[aysel]

sweety, you've been trooping your RFT for about 4 years now with those boots. As for RL standards for this, he's currently writing them which is why you'll be seeing the parts in the format that they are in. I'll be doing the sewing for this costume as I'm the seamstress in the house ^_^

[Volund Starfire]

Wow, twice in one night!



So the hair came off relatively easy. It was a pretty good sew job, too. The only problem is the ears. The fur fabric is glued onto the ears, so I am going to have to attack it with an exacto knife. I’ll be doing that tomorrow.

So, as you can see from the pictures, the mask looks relatively good on my skin. I need to do a little work with the eyes, but there is not much that I can do in that regard. Then again, in the micro series, his eyes looks a little further back than normal, anyway (the second set of lines beside his eyes).

The mouth works rather well, but I will need some stability straps to keep it against the jaw. I need to over-enunciate the words to get the jaw to move, so it sounds like I have a Romanian/something odd accent. I guess it is better for the whole alien thing. Especially, since it would be virtually impossible to say certain syllables without lips.

[Kryy Jacobi]

This is really cool.... keep the pics coming!