WCA Frequently asked questions

Where have you done presentations?

WCA has been doing costume and prop building panels at conventions for several years now. Please see our past panels page for a history!. Speaking of, the Arisia 2011 page has the presentations and videos from that event!

What is WCA?

Watch City Armory is the name of a costume/prop building project based out of Waltham MA, aka the Watch City.

Or said less fancily, it's a bunch of dorks in a garage making Star Wars costumes for themselves and their friends.

We love The Clone Wars, and are doing our best to bring it to life for Star Wars fans!

What are you working on?

We have made clone trooper armor for our garrisons/bases. Head to toe, based on the design from the Clone Wars series. The clone helmets page has the most content by far. A Clone Wars style clone pilot helmet has been completed now as well.

We also just wrapped up work on the Mandalorian Deathwatch armor. My Pre Vizsla costume is the first from the molds, but I'll be recruiting a squad soon enough!

Also on the completed list right now are custom Boba Fett gauntlets, to replace the ones that Stormtrooperguy damaged in a tragic bullwhip accident.

While you are here, take a look at the gallery of finished replicas. These are pieces that either one of us or one of our friends completed.

What else is here?

There are also pictures of various other costumes we've built. Not everything here is made by us! Unless otherwise noted, assume someone else made the kit!

Can I buy something from you?

I'm glad you asked! -- No, we do NOT sell anything through this site! We make kits for our friends to help them out, but we aren't looking to take your hard earned cash (or win a C&D from LFL. Yay acronyms!).

PS: This is not me being coy. This is not code for "send me an email for pricing". I really don't make things to order!

How do you make your costumes?

The armor is vacuum formed plastic, and the helmet is slush cast resin. Check out the links to the left for more information.

How much does it cost to make your own armor?

You'll be surprised. It's a lot. I spent close to $2000 on materials and tools for the sculptures, then more than twice that to build the vacuum forming machine to do the plastic work (including upgrading the electrical service in my house to support it!).

All totalled between sculpting, molding, casting, plastic, tools, etc... I wouldn't be surprised if Rex came in at around $7,500.

What about the helmets?

Similarly... the materials to make the original were around $200ish. The mold cost close to $300 to make, and each helmet I cast has about $40 worth or resin / pigmet / filler in it.

Is there a cheaper way?

Probably, but I don't know it. Trust me, if I could have had results I was happy with for less, I would have! But, I wanted certain things, and this was the only way to get them. I'm not a fan of the pepakura type stuff. I don't ever troop with an original scratch built anything, only resin casts. That way if the prop gets damaged I can make a new one.

Unfortunately that luxury costs $$.

I can't afford a kit, so I want to build it from scratch

I see people on forums say things like that all the time. That is about the least true thing I can think of!

As I mentioned above, I spent thousands of dollars to build Rex. Yeah, it's cool that I can now make as many clones as I want. I've got 6 suits currently. But really, do you plan to make yourself 6 clone suits? I hope not, because I'm nuts and wouldn't want to inflict that on others ;)

Seriously though, if you get a clone kit from one of the people that offers them from time to time, you'll probably spend about $1000 on the helmet, weapons and armor.

That's a LOT less than it cost me to scratch build my suit. And it won't take you a year of sculpting either!

To me, the only reasons to scratch build full body armor are:

• You just want the experience of doing it.
• The suit you want doesn't exist in kit form.

I started this because at the time no-one was making Clone Wars style armor. Had there been a kit out, I can guarantee you I would have gone that route.

Do you have any templates you can share?

Sorry, but no. It's not that I won't share, it's just that I don't work from or generate templates. I sculpt the "old fashioned way" -- a lump of material, tools, reference images and my hands & eyes. I rarely even use things like rulers or calipers. Trying to describe how to take a belt sander to 10 pounds of hardened Bondo to turn it into a chest plate doesn't work well!

How do you feel about recasting?

Another great questions! Please take a moment to look at our stance on recasting. In short: I'm all for it, feel free!

Where can I find good reference images?

Check out Dramatic Personae's Clone Wars Screen Capture gallery and my own Clone Wars references images.