One of my favorite characters from the Star Wars EU is Piggy. Who doesn't love a genetically modified Gamorrean fighter pilot who can do hyperspace calculations in his head and is even credited with half a Super Star Destroyer kill.

The costume is basically a Rebel flight suit with a Gamorrean mask and custom helmet. I started with the latex mask that I found on Ebay. My buddy Eric from Underground FX Lab came over the help me get learn how to paint the latex mask. We started with a base coat of rubber cement paint. This is made by mixing rubber cement with Naphtha and adding oil based paints as a pigment. We used a grey for the base. Once the entire mask has been primed we started airbrushing alcohol based acrylic inks onto the mask to create layers. We started painting "Figure 8s" in blue and red. This adds life to the paint job and gives it depth. We finished the model with various greens and tans to create the look we wanted. In the end we had a great looking mask with a lot of depth and I was very happy with the results!

With the mask painted I moved onto building the helmet. We started by taking a rebel flight helmet pep file and converting it to be laser cut from 2mm foam. The helmet wasn't very structurally sound but the plan was to harden is anyway. I had some polyester fiberglass resin laying around that was ancient and needed to be used up. So I decided to try my hand at fiberglassing. Several days later I had a disaster on my hands and this stinking pile of shame was chucked out the shop door into the yard to finish curing before I disposed of it.

At this point most of the costume was done but I had a convention in two day and NO HELMET! So time to fire up the laser and bang out another one super fast. This time we used 3mm white foam and the end result was much better. However, I will be redoing the helmet as I'm not 100% happy with the design and its starting to fall apart. No hardening was done just some filling and PVA glue to seal with a top coat of white plastidip. Acrylic paint was used to paint the ridge and the decals were inkjet printable water transfers. They were attached and weathered at the convention because I needed to grab some sealant from a vendor buddy. I didn't realize that the sealant is needed to prevent the ink from running when you put it in water.

I also decided to build my own chest box using... you guessed it the laser! We made this from a mixture of MDF, Styrene, and acrylic. It was designed in sketchup and cut on the laser. We then painted the base and worked on attaching the 1" olive colored strapping. A friend was watching me build it and mentioned that I should have added clips inside so It would come off easier. As it is now its the only part I need help putting on. The strap in the back is very annoying and I wish he had said something a few hours earlier every time I put it on. Still it came out great!

I used 1.5" grey canvas webbing to create the various straps needed for the costume as well as cut and sewed my own custom flack vest... We don't talk about those dark times of much swearing and rage but after too many hours of suffering it was done. The flight suit was purchased online and isn't Rebel Legion approvable but it was $20... Piggy doesn't qualify for approval anyway so I wasn't worried about it. I also added a Wraith Squadron patch off amazon for cheap. All in all it was a fun project and my first ever costume build! I'll be upgrading the helmet soon and might try my hand at a new and improved chest box in the future.

Costume Build: Voort "Piggy" Sabinring