How to Make Luke Skywalker “Tauntaun” Costume

Incase you don’t have your movie memories down pat, Tauntaun is the animal Luke Skywalker rides in Star wars: Empire Strikes Back. Are you a big fan of Star Wars? Do you collect tees and promotional mugs? Take it to the next level. Now let’s build the Tauntaun costume and dumb-find your folks.

First, you’ll need to design the sketch of the costume. There are a number of 3D design programs to choose from in order to help you build the frame in scale

Once you have a sketch, its time now to get into actual construction. You will require wood and expanded metal for the frame, and plaster of Paris for filling the body. You can use clay as well to make the skull and horns.

Once you mold the head, you can apply silicone from a caulking tube and cover it with plastic. Then, build a shell of expanded foam just about the silicone.

Then make the body out of medium density fiberboard (MDF) and mold, and use the can-foam to hold the body mold in shape.

You can pour some two-part expanding foam into the mold to create a stronger replica cast, after applying a mold release. Use the same process to cast the horns and the head.

The next step is to create the stilts, and since they need to be very stable to support the weigh of the body, we’ll have to be very systematic here.

We’ll first draw a 3D sketch of the fixtures using a design program; like Solidworks or 3D Studio Max to create 2 identical stilts.

Once the stilts are ready, it’s time to fix them to the frame. To come up with the natural dog-like hops, we’ll have independent heels and toes with compression springs for smooth strides.

Snowboard bindings are used hold firm and quick-release strides. Fill the entire body with fur and fasten them to the body with zip-ties.
Finally, do some airbrush work to add color and shadows to the head, ears, legs and the body to bring the look of a real Tauntrun.

And for the end watch the video

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