San Diego

I'm naively trying to piece a full suit here, and everyone I've spoken with has been super helpful. I'm just worried once I start ordering I may have difficulty assembling certain stuff, as I have no handyman skills. Any chance anyone is SD local that may offer any support if I get stuck?

I would love to paint and assemble my own Fett, but I know I don't have the time to put it together or learn how to. I've commissioned everything out, but if you don't want to pay for a commission, I'm sure you can find a go by for everything on this site. In addition, between the members here, everything has been done before, so there is a wealth of experience that you can pull from.

I feel ya man. I am the same way. After years of thought about making a suit I am finally going to go after it. Though, I don't have any experience in painting. This site does offer tons of resources though in that case!

@Chris4321 @Flamechicken @Wellroundedbill I was in the same boat a few months ago and had no idea where to begin. I have slowly started piecing my build together through buying used pieces in the cargo hold or commissioning items to get made. There are certain things that can be made easier and faster than others, while other things are done once in awhile and take longer to get made. From what I have seen here is list of things which take longer to commission and harder to come by: Helmet, jet pack, armor and gauntlets. With each of those items, they all come in different sizes from different makers as well, so depending on your size and build, it would be best to research which helmet or armor will fit you the best. The soft items are easier to come by and there are usually on going commissions to get these items made such as gloves, belt, vest, jumpsuit, neck seal, cape, braids. But keep in mind, everything you commission or hire someone to make will take time depending on how many orders are in front of you. That is just for beginners. It is tempting to buy something used in the cargo hold completed and ready to go, but take your time researching what will work for you and how much modification you might have to make, hopefully none. Here is my thread about buying used items and modifications I had to make:
http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f20/cargo-hold-finds-modifications-52521/?highlight=cargo

Painting does take practice and requires a ton of patience and learning. I attempted to paint a helmet with no previous painting experience and the recommended paints, stencils, steps etc from tutorials. It was a mess LOL. I think, I will leave the painting to the experts for now.

It can be daunting at first, but keep researching the threads, past and present and you will get the hang of it. Best of Luck

T

TA pretty much nailed it. If you can't find someone local from TDH, try asking someone from the 501st in your area. They are usually very crafty people and are very helpful. May even find a Fett in the Garrison that will help also. This was my first build also. I never air brushed anything in my life. I started with the back plate and kidney plate to try out because those are mostly covered up and I can really practice on it. http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f20/deriaks-build-50246/
Thats my build thread if you wanna look at it. You really gotta look through a lot of build threads to see how people assembled their stuff. When you find something that is really useful, just subscribe to that thread so you can come back to it later.

Hope this helps and good luck

I just purchased an airbrush and am in San Diego. I have no experience in building a suit before but have was formerly a machinist and am currently a working artist, hopefully that combo will help me. I'm about to try my hand at building a suit. I'm sure we could help each other out with whatever binds we may find ourselves in with our suit builds. Feel free to PM me and we can exchange numbers or something in case we ever need help from each other.

Check out the 501st Imperial Sands Garrison in San Diego. Alot of good ppl own there