Churza or Churzi? Churzee?
Okay, working name — It means roughly “She of the Magic Mountains” in a naming convention of Ewokese. Still not sure if I like it.
So, not really a new build because I bought this kit 7 years ago with intent to redo it. It has taken me this long (kids, job, life) to get to this point, so I decided to start cataloging the journey.
I’m from Mountain Base in Colorado — Kati, usually a Jedi. Husband is Chase, also a Jedi, now Han Solo.
I am adding to this build post under the headings of each part as I get them done, but I am not working on them all at once, since I can work on some things while other parts’ paint dries, or while I’m waiting for a part in the mail. My goal is that the build will be easy to read when it is all said and done. If you are trying to keep up with my progress, check each part heading to see the latest progress at the bottom of the section. There might be something new that isn’t all the way at the end of the post.
So here it goes!
Wish me “Thees Treekthin” or “Good Journey”
Here is the kit as I started with it. It is baggy on me, so I’m doing some things to puff it out. It also has velcro closures in the back, which I don’t love, and the head needed a complete redo.
The kit was originally supposed to be a WIP for Wicket, but I want to go in a different direction, so I will be replacing the hood entirely.
Consider this the “before” picture.
Head – Mask and Insides
I started with the head.
The bucket was all cardboard wrapped in a duct tape, and while it was light, it also didn’t breathe at all! I loved the structure of the face, so I peeled off the fur and ears, set them aside, and cut the face away from the rest of the head, leaving it on the cardboard.
I think constructing the face on a separate piece like this and then attaching it to the mask was a good method if I were to make one again. Just make sure it is a flexible material that will bend around the curve of the mask.
I chose an arborist mask as my new head base. (Thanks friends in the Chirpa’s Ewok Army FB Group!)
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B018UF9GB0?re … in_title_1
It is basically the inside of a hardhat, with an adjustable headband and piece across the top, and a wire mesh mask on a contraption that allows it it tilt up. I probably won’t use that feature once I have a hood on it, but it may come in handy someday.
I duct taped my face, ears, and fur to the mask to see if it would work before I set it permanently in place with hot glue.
The ears are glued to the yellow part of the mask that is the “forehead” and covers to about halfway over my head, so that would actually tilt up too if the mask was tilted. Nothing is glued to the adjustable parts inside the mask at all.
Teeth
For her teeth, I didn’t like the “chicklets” style teeth that some of the ewoks had in the movie, and I didn’t want to do Wicket’s hyper-realistic scary teeth from the Ewok movies, so I found an in between.
They are still big buck teeth, but the side teeth make it look a little more realistic without being over the top.
They were glued to the cardboard face piece before I attached it to the mask.
I quickly ran into a problem: The size adjustment knob on the back of the mask sticks out and the hood is not thick enough to cover it up well. I thought about adding a headdress, but ended up taking a different route.
I bought a plumbing foam insulation tube — it looks and feels like a Fun Noodle, but is half the size. I cut it to fit and cut it longways so it had a flat side to glue to the head piece. I attached it to the non-moving strip of plastic on either side of the knob, glued the other half close to the side adjustment knobs, then cut it so that the rear adjustment knob can still open and close. Now, when the hood is on, the knob is hardly noticeable.
I used another cut-in-half piece of the insulation foam tube to wrap around the piece of the mask that goes over the top of my head. It fits perfectly without needing glued. YAY! I had to adjust that piece of the mask a lot to make it fit right, but it is so much more comfortable with so much padding!
Added a sweatband to the front and this head is going to be much more pleasant to wear.
Hood
For her hood, I ordered ultra suede in “raisin.” I really like it! I thought I wanted pink, but this dusty deep purple looked really cool and a little more rustic.
I didn’t take a picture of it, but for the face hold, I cheated a little. I used the existing hood as a template and cut the face hole and ears out where they were on the previous hood.
Once it was on me, I pinned my desired shaping, then added a few internal seams to make it do what I wanted (crease near the ear, pinch at the back, etc.
I used fake flowers and braided suede lace to make this little tiara/crown/thing. It’s tied together in back with the extra suede lace braid and I will attach it to the ear holes of the hood with glued-on bobby pins.
I found this cool fake seed pod with a hole in it, so I threaded some feathers in there to hang over her left ear. Added a few more things too, like a braid up front and the suede lace “stitches” along where I sewed the hood.
I added a draw string under her chin, ideally to close the gap between the hood and the mask so that there is no risk of my neck showing through the hole. It’s not really doing the job, so I think a magnet may be in order under the drawstring to make it do what it is supposed to do and keep the hood directly under her chin.
It seems like a lot to do when I could just glue the hood in place to the mask, but I want to be able to change the hood and at least a few of the decorations for special occasions or when I get bored with them — which will happen at some point, I’m sure.
Feet
I needed to repaint to hand and feet because they were starting to chip and wear in places. I wanted to use a more latex-friendly painting method that wouldn’t chip as easily. I also wanted to find a way to get the latex feet off the ground so they had a little more traction and I don’t fall on my face on those slippery convention concrete floors.
I had to peel off the fur and then used q-tips and Isopropyl Alcohol to strip the existing paint. That’s when I got to look at how they were put together.
The feet are latex costume gorilla feet with the outside two toes cut off (standard Ewok practice, teehee!). The feet were built on slippers that were stuffed into the gorilla feet and then the fur was glued to the gorilla foot, not the bottom half of the slipper. The fur is attached firmly to the top half of the slipper. This made them great for making the sides high so there is plenty of extra fur not to show at the bottom of the legs when I sit down, BUT it also means there is no support in the shoes.
At 41 years old, I need good shoes on this build, so I’m going to revamp them entirely while keeping the ankles intact.
I used a pair of hand-me-down Crocs from my 15 year old son for the insides of the feet. I am lucky my feet are small, because I was able to just stuff the whole shoe into the latex foot rather than cut the latex. I stuffed the toes slightly first so they didn’t flop or fold. I did all of this after I painted them… Next time, I will put the shoes in first so I have the structure nailed down before I paint. Thankfully, the latex/acrylic method made for very flexible paint, and it didn’t end up being a problem.
Hands
The hands are simple latex costume “alien hands.” There were foam fingernails glued on top of each finger. I removed the fingernails and kept them to repaint, and stripped and repainted the hands.
They didn’t really need much other than repainted and the fur re-attached.
I did do something cool with the nailbed around the nails after I glued them back on, but that is in the painting section, next.
Feet/Hands – Part 2: Painting with Liquid Latex
I stripped all the paint off of my hands and feet and repainted them with a few layers of 50/50 Liquid Latex and acrylic paint. I’m really happy with how they turned out even though it was a bit of an adventure. (But it wouldn’t be a build without some struggles, right?)
Steps I took:
- Pulled off old fur and did my best to remove lumps of glue. I left many — I figured I’m gluing them back down, so those won’t show anyway. I also had to remove the foam fingernails from the hands.
- Cleaned and stripped off old paint. Washed with soap and water, vinegar on the inside (to get out the latex smell) and acetone on the outside to prep the surface for painting.
- Lesson learned: Prep is key! Wash pieces with soap and water and clean with acetone before painting! I tried to skip this step with the feet because I couldn’t get all the fur off easily, and the paint just didn’t stick, so I had to start over with them. Bummer. I went back and washed them well with soap and water, then again with acetone. The paint stuck really well after that.
- Mixed my paint to desired color then mixed it 50/50 with Liquid Latex. Liquid Latex is really thin, heads up! Applied paint with a sponge brush, using an up and down “sponging it on” motion.
- Lesson learned: Use the back of the hands (the part that will be covered with fur) to swatch your paint colors to hold next to the fur. I didn’t do this originally, and my hands were repainted because I didn’t like the first color attempt. Making swatches on one of the hands before I painted would have saved me time and paint.
- Second lesson learned: The paint will look a LOT lighter when you add the Liquid Latex, but it will dry much darker. Yet another reason for swatching first…
- Third lesson learned: Don’t use brush strokes! Dab with a sponge brush! Not only does brushing leave horrible obvious strokes on the latex, it also messes up the texture of the latex. Dabbing adds better texture and goes on better, especially in all those nooks and crannies.
- Did some “dry brushing” with a reddish brown that matches her facial fur to pull it all together.
- Repainted foam fingernails with 50/50 Liquid Latex/acrylic paint so they could still flex. (Painted “built in” feet toenails slightly lighter than feet.)
- Applied LiquiTex Matte Varnish with a sponge brush.
- Glued fingernails to hands.
- I didn’t like the look of the foam finger nails just glued onto the hands, so I used a technique I learned from this video on YouTube to build up texture to create nailbeds for the nails so they blend better with the hands. I used same liquid latex/paint mixture as skin + shredded/rolled paper towel to build up the nail beds in latex around the nails. I’m really chuffed with how they turned out, honestly.
- Applied Matte Varnish on hands again to cover the paint from the nail bed construction.
- Lesson Learned: Wait until you are totally done (including fingernails!) to put on Varnish. I had to re-varnish my fingers after I built up the nailbeds because I decided to do that after the fact.
Fur Suit Adjustments
I am incredibly lucky that the fur suit fits me as well as it does. My only real things I needed to change were adding padding underneath to fill out the “muscle under skin” that Ewoks should be, not just fur pajamas.
I thought about just padding the heck out of it with foam, but the thought of wearing that for a two hour shift at Fan Expo Denver sounded like hell, so I worked to find a better way.
I got an ice vest (recommended by my Chewbacca costumer friends), and I found a fanny pack-style Camelback so I can have water access while I’m in kit…I hope.
I bought a set of petticoat wires for side bustling huge skirts, and started adjusting it to become her new badonkadonk.