Friday, August 13, 2010

Chewie Feet


Chewbacca is a tall guy, and I'm a tall guy, so it only seemed natural that I could "jump into his shoes". But first I need a little lift.

According to the official Star Wars website, Chewie is 2.28 meters talls. I am 2 meters tall. I need .28 meters or 11 inches to reach that height. I know that the actor that played Chewie (Peter Mayhew) has been quoted saying he was 7'9" in his costume, but I am not trying to be as tall as him in costume, I want to be as tall as Chewie. So 7'4" to 7'5" will get me in the ballpark.

Seven inches through lifts, three or four inches with mask height (Chewie has a tall head) should get me to 7'4".

So how to I add 7" to my 6'6" frame?

Stilts were the first thing that popped into my head, and what better stilts to use than Skywalker Stilts!

These things are awesome, but with an equally awesome price tag. The have cool articulating feet and seem to be the premiere drywall stilts around. But...they're too tall for me. It would make me freakishly tall (8 feet) and when someone's legs get really long, thier arms start looking really short. It looks awful.
So these stilts are out. Bummer, it would have been fun though.

This pink insulation foam is real handy for random projects and it's not too expensive for a huge 8'x2" sheet.

What to do... what to do...

Walking with big feet stiff feet...unnatural. So what about a foot that bends? 
At first I was thinking about putting a hinge on the toe, but the more involved it became, the more it started being impractical. Then I found some stuff called FlexFoam-iT! and instead of a paint can or pink foam, I got these boots:

7" platform and they fit great. When I put them on I spontaneously danced the YMCA and sang KISS songs.

Time to make some toes:


You can see the pink foam in the background that I used as a support underneath the clay.


The toes were a little long, so I shortened them by 1.5" before getting ready to mold.

Once I had the shape to my satisfaction, I pulled it off the shoe and cast it in plaster:



Here is my first attempt, call it a 'test pull'.










Squishy!




I ran out of foam from my trial kit, so I need to wait on more before I finish the other foot. I hope to have them glued to the boot soon!




1 comment:

  1. We need to see a pic of you dancing in the boots before you add the toes!

    ReplyDelete