Should I start?

Good evening.

I am called Dark Side Sith Lord in every forum I get to register at, and I have just registered at this forum too, wanting to know if I should start on a costume.

What I had in mind will be a custom red/black/silver Mandalorian that I want to make out of aluminum sheets and bondo, along with stuff I already have.

Why I want to make this - I had never thought about making a Mandalorian costume as I am a lot taller than Boba and Jango I believe, and I still didn't know about the custom Mandalorians that appears to be at plenty. Having a relaxing evening playing Jedi Academy multiplayer, I had become a member at a room where I was provided with a jet-pack, so I chose to use the Mandalorian skin to make it fit with the jet-pack.

When flying around as a red Mandalorian with a jet-pack strapped to my back, I thought it was really awesome, and I started wondering if making a costume like this would ever be possible for me, so I checked around what I had at hand.

I had tried to make myself a Darth Vader body-suit a long time ago out of greyish black faux leather which was quilted, but I never finished it due to a sewing accident, and I noticed that Jango's vest looks to be greyish black leather, so I thought that I could use this for the vest as it was bad that I never got to use all that nice faux leather.

I have a thich winter jacket that the zipper has screwed itself on, and I like the fabric a lot and thought that it would fit great as fabric for the flight-suit, and the jacket even has lots of pen-holders or what ever they are which looks like pockets for your average Mandalorians tools and equipment.

Boots aren't that bad in price, neck seal can probably be made out of something I already have, gloves aren't bad in price, and so on...

The helmet, jet-pack and the armor I had planned on making out of sheets of aluminum, using a riding helmet for the Mandalorian helmet (I have plenty of these in various sizes) But when I saw some closeups of Boba's armor, I noticed that it was very thick, so I suppose using regular aluminum sheets will be too thin, but then I could thicken the aluminum with layers of fiberglass and bondo?

Would this be a low cost, possible option for me? Or should I go hide in a cave and never return?

"I can build it, I have the technology.......But I want it to be cheap"

Thanks.

Dark Side Sith Lord.

Aluminium can be used to make the armour from but you need to ensure that your vest (and flightsuit if you have the full Jango style leg armour) can support the added weight of metal. If not you might want to look at Sintra or the Trash-can method. The jet pack out of metal too? You may find it a little too heavy, mines fibreglass and resin, foam filled and comes in at a nasty 13lbs. After a day of trooping it can be a real pleasure to take it off so I can't imagine how much heavier a metal pack would be. I'd suggest following some of the guides you can find here and making it out of something a little lighter.

HI Dark Side,
Sounds like you have a great idea and a good start! I would suggest that you look up NovallTalon as well. He would probably be able to help you out along your "Custom Mando" journey.

But you MUST know, and this is of course said completely in fun, this costume comes with a surgeon's general warning. This costume can and will gradually become addictive. This can lead to long hours of forum searching, endless research for each costume piece and you also may run the risk of catching the "Fett Disease", the endless pursuit of the perfect costume. This includes forever tweaking the costume you currently have and you also run the risk of the desire to reach out to try other versions of the Mando, which includes but is not limited to each screen version of the Mando, but also cartoon and comic book versions.

HA HA, *laughing at myself* This is so very true and a wonderful experience. I have caught a touch of the Fett disease myself and have not even started my own Mando costume. Welcome aboard and have fun!!
Debbi

I think at least the vest might be up for it, but one doesn't know yet. I'll look around the forum for other methods then such as the trash-can method you mentioned. Perhaps I shouldnt make the jet-pack out of metal then, perhaps some panels might be, but I havn't had much planning on this part yet.

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Thanks LadySewforus, I'll look this NovallTalon up then. I'm pretty much addicted at costume building already, and I'm sure I'll be addicted to this one, but I don't know if I'll ever move on to other Mandalorians, I need only this one. I'm trying to figure out "all" the costumes I will ever make you see, and this one might get to the list, but I guess I can't have too many of them.

And then came the questions -

How thick should the armor plates be? Any minimum or maximum thickness?
How does one attach the armor to the vest and flightsuit?
I want to have both a large cape and a jet-pack, but in fictional terms, will it catch on fire?
Do I need to know "that much" about the Mandalorians to make this costume?...
I wish to have all 3 versions of the E-11 blaster rifle, 1 for Stormtrooper, 1 for Snowtrooper, would it be possible to use the ROTJ E-11 variant for this costume?

Thanks.

Dark Side Sith Lord.

No you don't need to know much about Mando's to make a Mando costume. You simply need to know what goes where and how to make it. When I make armour I use 5mm sintra so I guess you'd want a similar thickness metal - although I don't know how much that'll weight. For attaching it to the vest, probably your best bet would be to use the bolt system, anything else probably won't hold. If you want a cape with your jet pack then go for a Boba style half cape. I wear the same and it works well. As to blasters and using the ROTJ E-11, it's your Mando so I don't see any reason why not.

Well thats good, because I don't know a thing...Though I did try reading about them once, but will do that again, doesn't hurt to know about them...Or maybe...
I know of a place where they use thick plastic sheets between flower pots and such, and will try asking them for some soon, so I think I will use that instead since thats thicker than the 2.5 mm thick aluminum sheets I have here. Good thing that I can use an E-11 for this costume then, the ROTJ E-11 looks really awesome and I really wanted one, but didn't know which costume to make it for - I just don't have the space for uncostumebelonged blasters, I don't even have the space for my one Stormtrooper blaster... Actually I think the ROTJ E-11 will look pretty cool for this costume.

Anyway, this is somewhat what I have in mind for the costume and helmet.

The helmet


The costume


What do you all think? Any colors I should change?

Thanks for any help.

Dark Side Sith Lord.