Armor Chest, back and cod armor

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How did you get the buttons on your vest? Did you cut a small slit and just pop them in or what?
 
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You could either punch a hole with a nail or something similar or drill the hole in. As long as you make the hole big enough for the snap part to go in. Dont buy the gun tool to do this - you wont have enough space to snap them together. Get the hammer tool option.
 
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What would you suggest????--(wanting to make my own armor)

First off, sorry if this has been posted somewhere else. I did a search and saw a few posts on board members speaking about the materials they use when making their own armor but never a compare and contrast in different materials.

I think I've about decided to try and make the majority of the armor myself and have been trying to figure out what I should use. I have the patterns and all bookmarked from sites that have templates for the pieces but materialwise I'm not sure which route to go.

I've seen a few posts on sintra and how that is easy to work with. I've also seen quite a few here say that's what they're using or did use. The Ultimate Boba Fett site also suggests sintra. I'm thinking that might be the route to go but what about sheet metal? I know I've seen a few mention using this as well. Just wondering what some of your thoughts were :)
 
I plan on making my own armor as well. First I made a set of patterns out of foam board and then I will trace them on some plastic sheets I got from my uncle and then cut it out with a jigsaw and then prim and paint them. I was gonna make the armor out of sheet metal but I want to see how this turns out. Later

Andy
 
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Sheet metal or metal armor in general is definitely the way to go if you can form it into the correct shape.

Sintra is just much easier to work with and I would imagine much more forgiving than metal. Sintra will bend and hold its shape easier and it probably won't cut you like metal will.

So if you have the time money and tools go for the metal if not sintra is soooooooo much easier and to be honest not too much of a sacrafice. Some good paint and a little weathering and most will believe it is metal.
 
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I've got a suit with alot of sintra pieces. I'm very pleased with it. It's much thicker and sturdier than I'd originally expected it to be. My only complaint is that there's a grain in it and it's pretty visible up close. Far away is ok and I'm sure that if I were a more patient man I could have painted and painted and painted until it was covered properly.

Phil
 
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Thanks for the comments! :)

I actually had a piece of sheet metal lying around so I took a jab at it a little while ago. All I did was one side of the chest. It looks really good but I'm a little worried on the finish. Obviously it's metal but my helmet is a modified DP. I'm afraid that the testors paint I used on it won't look right with the sheet metal. Any suggestions on that? As far as the curves, I don't exactly have a lot of equipment to use to do that with but I think I'll give it a shot and see what happens.
 
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Well, after reading more posts on sintra, looking more at the Ultimate Boba Fett website, and thinking about how I don't exactly have the equipment to create the metal armor, I think I'm going to opt for sintra instead. Maybe I can eventually upgrade to metal down the road

Thanks again for all the info though :)
 
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For my first Jango costume, I used the patterns from an old Classic Action Boba Fett costume to make the armor from sintra. It came out very well. Since it was to be painted, I used a DA Orbital air sander to get a smooth face to it. Primed it, painted it with silver metalic Krylon spray paint and sealed it with Krylon semi-gloss paint. I used industrial strength velcro to secure it to the vest.

My second version is aluminum armor that I got from a board member. The thighs, knees, shins and toe armor, I made my slef from aluminum sheet. I held the sheet in a vice and beat it into shape with a rubber deadblow hammer to keep from scaring and gouging the metal. It shaped out nicely :) the knees were the hardest to do...a lot of curves. I had cut a very thick piece of aluminum block to shape out the knee dart boxes. The upper knee darts were maded from 4 seperate pieces of aluminum tubing and rod. The lower knee darts were machined Boba Fett darts from a board member. The darts were secured with a cut down screw and epoxied int the aluminum box. The knee dart box was secured with epoxy and 2 screws form the back side. The armor is secured to the costume with snaps that were punched into a square of thin tin sheet metal and rubber cemented to the back side of all the armor plates to retain strength when the elastic straps are secured to hold the armor onto my body while wearing the armor. To keep the armor from sliding down or around my legs, I used industrial velcro glued to the back of the armor and sewn onto the jump suit.

I'll get some pics up, hopefully before Comic Con.

Neil
 
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I did all of these pieces with sintra. It is a very easy material to work with but I would suggest pre-cooking it in the oven before you cut it to finished size. I have had two different sheets & it tends to elongate one way & shrink the other way when heated. Once it has done this it retains the shape & can be cut to size without fear of it distorting further.
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bigkidbiggertoys, you made the knee pads out of sintra too?
How on earth did you get it to look so accurate?
Most of the sintra knee pads I've seen look flat.
How did you get them to look so dimensional?
I'm impressed!
Any pointers to get mine to look like yours?
 
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I agree.. VERY nice looking armor bigkidbiggertoys. And much props on the knee pads. I would have to also agree and say to go with the sintra. Sintra is VERY easy to work with and hold paint VERY well. I haven's started on my knee pads yet. I too would like some pointers. I was thinking of gluing 2 sheets of sintra on the "knee plate" to work on the dimentions with sand paper. Is that what you did? Any pointers would help.
 
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I cut the basic shape out of 1/8" sintra & added the curves with a heat gun until I was satisfied with the shape. The actual knee part was a piece of 1/4" sintra shaped to the same curve & glued on top. I then rough sanded with 60 grit sandpaper & filled in the gaps with bondo and sanded until I got the shape I desired. The knee darts are acrylic tubing. I used 1/2" OD & 1/2" ID for this. Very simple & it worked very well without adding weight. The attachment point is two pieces of 1/2" sinra again, cut, sanded & filled. The f shape is another 1/8" piece of sintra. There is enough flex in them to allow freedom of movement without fear of them cracking & the bondo popping off.
 
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bigkid, Could you post a few more pics of your knee pads?
I would really like to get a good look at them from all angles.

Plus, I'm a bit confused...
Where did you use 1/8" and where did you use 1/4"?
And you also used 1/2", right?

How much time did you have into creating one of these things?

Thanks, man!
 
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Bigkid-
WOW. Very nice stuff there. The knee armor is fantastic. Ive never used sintra, now I probbly will! I have to FIND some first...
 
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Dude! That knee armor makes mine look like absolute crap!
 
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Attaching and detaching the leg armor. How?

Ok, I know how there are slits in the legs for the elastic straps to pass through. I was just wondering how I could rig up my leg armor to do that, but still be detachable so I can clean my jumpsuit.

I was thinking of gluing the elastic on one side of the armor, feeding it through the slits, and then using velcro on the the other end of the elastic to attach it to the armor. But then I started wondering if that would be strong enough to stay attached for hours upon hours of wear. I'm especially concerned because after a while, velcro can wear out.

I was also thinking of using snaps like the ones that are one jeans, but then I figured that they might press into my legs and make them sore.

HELP!

Thanks

Later,
Tater
 
Use industrial velcro. If anything, it is too strong. That is the velcro I used on a lot of my Boba costume, and I have to be very careful when removing it b/c the bond is so strong it might come off the back of the armor. I was thinking for the elastic on my Jango to use the interlocking clips you find in some luggage to secure the elastic. But velcro/ elastic is probably the best way to go.
 
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If you rig your armor and flight suit like the real one, it should be no problem cleaning the flight suit. The elastic pieces that run through the slits are not connected to the fligh suit at all, there are snaps put into the back of the armor that the elastic attaches to. You just unhook one side of the elastic at the snap, slide it through the slit on one side, around you leg, through the slit on the other side, and snap it into the leg armor on the other side. Nothing permanently attached to the flight suit at all, so evertime you take your costume off, you can clean the flight suit without any extra work.

I'm not sure if that answers your question or not. But the snaps aren't big enough to really press into your legs, plus, you don't want the armor that tight on your legs anyway. The elastic should give enough to prevent any discomfort.
 
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