The following is Scott Holden's tale of building a "Luke Skywalker on a tauntaun" costume. For anyone who doesn't know, this is an animal Luke Skywalker rode in Empire Strikes Back. You can find more ready-made Luke skywalker costume here.

Three years ago I decided I wanted to make a Tauntaun costume for the Zone Ball in Sacramento.  My wife advised me that it would be best to start as soon as I had finished building the house.

After we passed our final inspection, I started designing the costume in Solidworks. I was thrilled to find that someone had created a 3dStudio max mesh model of the Tauntaun online and was able to download the file and import it directly into my Solidworks drawing!

I also imported the model for a human body into the drawing for scale. Once the frame and custom stilts were drawn I began construction.

I didn't like the way the head looked in the model. I found some guy online who had pics of his own Tauntaun sculpture and was determined to make mine look like his. 

Using wood, expanded metal and Plaster of paris I made a 'skull', then sculpted clay over the skull to add the detail. 

The beginnings of a foam horn.

Horn with plaster.

Next I applied silicone (from a caulking tube) to the clay to make the mold. 

Silicone on the clay.

Please continue reading page 2 of Scott's tauntaun costume.