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In the Rebel Briefing scene, Leia wears a rank badge on the right side of her vest. Many of the ranking officers, including Lando Calrissian, though theirs is on the left side and flipped 180 degrees. The details are very indistict so there's no telling if there's any differences between the officer's badges. Therefore, I have taken the general shape of everything on the badge, fudging details I couldn't see, and came up with this template. I made a printable PDF that will print to scale. >>Click Here for Printable Badge Template Materials Needed:
This is a collaboration of all the best shots I could find of the badges. As you can see, the details aren't all that clear. What is clear is there are two round, cobalt blue nickel-sized pieces, and a thick, black, rectangular bar... and a bunch of gray gibberish. To make this, start by gathering all of the materials. For the rectangle of the badge backing, I got a white plastic tray from Target in the section with the silverware drawer organizers. Be sure to get one where at least one surface is smooth. I cut out my rectangle with tin snips and sanded the edges smooth. Also, the edges of the badge are blunt, sand them until they are rounded. Set this aside.
Next, you will form your clay. You will need Wax/freezer paper, which is paper with a shiny coating on one side. Put the shiny side up. Print my Printable Badge Template and place it under the freezer paper. You can work on top of this for size reference. Now comes the part where you use your imagination when forming your clay. Use some round cylander or rolling pin to flatten out sections of clay. You will want to be aware of thickness, to which you will be able to see in my shots. I used an exacto knife to cut the clay and get smooth lines... SAW it, don't press down or you will distort the clay. I used various things from around my house to shape; I used the end of a chalk pencil to make the indented circle, a straight pin to press lines into the clay, the tip of a pen to press dots into the circles, and threw in some seed beads for texture. For the little spokes sticking out of one piece, I took some head pins (you can get them at a bead store or probably Michael's), slipped on two seed beads each, snipped the excess with wire clippers (leave enough pin to stick in the clay) and pressed them to the bottomside of the piece. For the circles, I made two circles the size and thickness of nickels. I notched the sides (8 places) because I think I see that texture in one of the pictures, as well as the dots I pressed inwith a pen tip. I made two small, thin circles (size of a straw) and added on top for texture. The black bar I made just a hair thinner than 1/4". Try and cut this piece as smooth as possible. For Fimo clay, you will bake it in the oven at 230 degrees for 30 minutes. If you use a different clay, get the kind the stays soft until you bake it to harden. Some clays are not to be baked in the oven. I recommend keeping a little water handy to put on the clay as it has a tendancy to stick to the roller you will use or other surfaces.
Once this has been baked and hardened, take the 'indistict' parts (leave off the bar and the circles) and superglue them to your flat plastic backing. Once this sets you can take it to a ventilated area and spray with light gray primer. I used Krylon Gray Indoor/Outdoor Primer, but the color "Gray" was too dark. I went back and got a different gray which is now too light, so technically the color needs to be a bit darker than what I have pictured here. Put down several light coats. The circles and bar will need to be painted Metallic Blue and Flat Black, respectively. You can prime the pieces if you want before hand, I don't think it's necessary. For this paint, it will have to be applied in several coats as it goes on very thin. I found out the hard way that you can't just rinse your brush out with this paint, you need to use turpentine. Once these have been painted, you can superglue them in place. You may want to put some kind of sealant top coat on it. Glue a metal pin to the back of the badge; you can find these at Michael's as well.
More Reference Shots
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These instructions are for beginners to intermediate skill.
