Project: Thermos canister facelift

If it seems like a long time since we’ve had a standalone project to show off, you’re not wrong! We haven’t been idle lately, it’s just that everything we’ve been working on has been towards one specific, very detailed goal. Every now and then, however, something comes along and begs our attention for a week or two.

A funny observation I’ve made lately: whenever I go out shopping (ever on the lookout for gear or materials I can use for reenacting), every time I grumble to myself, “This place never has anything good!”, then something tends to comes up! Last November I popped into my local Goodwill having just complained that such a civilized thrift shop would be a terrible place to find pieces for my Middle-earth kits……only to score a gorgeous maroon 100% wool blanket for just $2 (!!!). Then a few months ago, while accompanying my wife on an outing to TJMaxx, I found myself was grumbling how the clothes there are all made of polyester and any ‘hard kit’ type items are always so ‘consumer-grade’ and never made for rigorous galactic use. Well, wouldn’t you know it, in among the reusable water bottles I found this double-thermos canister…thing:

This Hydraflow POD measures up at about 9.5 inches tall; the top section holds about a pint, and the lower section holds nearly a liter! There’s a spot under the lid for a folding spoon, which turned out to be pretty terrible. However, it’s triple insulated, is pretty much a blank canvas for retooling with in-universe style, and best of all, is made of steel (90% recycled!). Unlike the last Thermos I reworked, this one is watertight, tough, and ready for real use in the field!

In keeping with the authentic aesthetic seen on screen, I knew it wouldn’t take much to SWarz this up – a more neutral color and some weathering would be about it. The first step would be to tackle the screw-on lid.

While simply designed, the lid featured the brand name in big ½” letters. Rather than go through the headache of filling the letters with Bondo and sanding everything down smooth, I opted to just sand everything down to match the lowest point of the lettering – a difference of less than 1/32in. I could have just dremeled it, but power tools make it too easy to go overboard so I stuck it out with 60>80>150>220>320 sandpapers. Eventually the letters were gone without a trace, so I sanded the rest of the lid down with 220 and 320 just to give the plastic some more ‘grip’ for paint. I had considered making the lid a different color, but sanding it turned the contrasting black to more of a dark gray, which looked decent with the rust-red I was planning to use on the canister—a combination reminiscent of those pickle barrels often seen as set dressing on The Mandalorian. Light-colored paint chipping off to reveal black underneath usually isn’t a good look so I mostly left things alone. I couldn’t omit weathering altogether of course, so I gave the lid a dark brown acrylic wash and some light taupe drybrushing before clearcoating. Finally, a light dusting with some finely-ground river clay will help give a little variation in the weathering and makes everything pop.

I think the finishing touch will be to add a simple circular greeble to the lid, but all I had in my junk box was this hard drive hub, which I don’t have the capability to install at the moment. Hopefully I can find something soonish that will work without too much headache.

Next up was the canister itself, and by far the hardest part was deciding if I should sand off the powdercoating down to bare metal first, or just paint on some silver enamel spots to mask off. I figured that these days, so much of this hobby seems focused on making 3D printed plastic look like metal, that it’s not often we get gear made of actual METAL to work with, so I should show it off! The paint I had in mind was ‘anti-rust’ anyway, so I got down to business and started sanding away at the tough black coating. After maybe 90 minutes of applied elbow grease (no power tools) I had all but a few spots sanded away, so I taped off the threads and set to masking off some paint chipping with my favorite masking fluid: plain yellow mustard. Unlike when I painted my B1 battle droid arm, here I was masking onto steel (instead of light-colored, painted plastic) so I wasn’t worried about the mustard staining anything. If anything, the slight acidity might have etched a bit and make the masked areas shinier! As good weathering is intentional and not random, presumably the high spots get worn down and thus masked off. However, this shape raised a unique question: where are the high spots of a cylinder?? In the end, I figured my best bet was to focus on the base and the areas near the threads, with a few spots in between to keep it looking natural. I suppose I could have just skipped the mustard step and just painted the whole thing and let the paint chip off naturally, but that would probably take years of use and I want it to look SWarzy now!

With the mustard spots dried, it was time to paint; I made up some paper cones to keep the paint out of the food-safe interior. The paint I used was an ancient Valspar Anti-Rust red primer, which I had found a few cans of at my local secondhand craft shop. As the summer humidity hasn’t fully kicked in yet, I was able to do three light coats spread across two afternoons. Then it was time to remove the masking and I gotta say, this paint was some real tough stuff because I had the absolute hardest time getting the mustard to brush off!  Pre-scraping with fingernails, a stiff kitchen brush, using running water, it was a major challenge. Eventually I just kept working at it until the paint chips revealed themselves (always super satisfying!). With all the mustard cleaned off, I gave everything an acrylic brown wash and satin clearcoat once dried.
If I’m going to change anything, I’ll probably add a contrasting stripe along the lower edge, but that’s it!

Overall, I’m very excited and pleased with this project, not only because it was fairly straightforward, but because I think it will really allow for some more authentic, in-universe outings. While too heavy for long-distance hiking (see weights below), it’s perfect for dayhikes and shorter excursions; the modular nature is especially nice as the lid threads onto the top and bottom portions, so I can use it in three configurations (top only, bottom only, & fully assembled).

As we’ve pointed out many times before, making a piece of kit look passably in-universe isn’t hard to do, and typically the less involved the better. If your mental image of GFFA gear involves LED greeblies, bold colors, Aurebesh decals, or a fresh coat of paint, you may want to go back and rewatch one of the films or shows – pay attention to what you see, and note the things that make the setting feel so grounded and believable!

Thanks to my supporters P.D. and R.F.! Crafting, photographing, and writing this site takes a lot of time and energy. If you’ve learned something from this post or have been inspired for a project of your own, or would like to see more projects like this from me, please consider supporting my work via ko-fi, or with a small donation below! Thank you!