WIP: Aluminum Jango: NEW PICTURES FINALLY!!!

Hello All! Just a little new to the TDH forums, but ive been active on the fl501st forums for a few years now and recently on MMCC.

Here are some pics of my armor progress as of yet. The backplate needs major modification as far as the interior bends are concerned. Opinions are nice and I need constructive criticism from anyone who is willing to give it.

I have done some modification to some pieces as these pictures were taken almost a month ago. The armor itself was hammered out of sheet aluminum I wan to say 20guage.

Ab plate needs to be flattened in the middle I think but anything else? Shins also have been widened a little. and the chest/back slots have been cut
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Originally Posted by SuperTrooper

Hello All! Just a little new to the TDH forums, but ive been active on the fl501st forums for a few years now and recently on MMCC.

Here are some pics of my armor progress as of yet. The backplate needs major modification as far as the interior bends are concerned. Opinions are nice and I need constructive criticism from anyone who is willing to give it.

I have done some modification to some pieces as these pictures were taken almost a month ago. The armor itself was hammered out of sheet aluminum I wan to say 20guage.

Ab plate needs to be flattened in the middle I think but anything else? Shins also have been widened a little. and the chest/back slots have been cut

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Looks amazing! I especially like what you've done with the back plate.

Want to make me one? ;)

Great job!

Well the thing I messed up that Im going to have to rehammer is the center upside-down "U" detail. I wasn't paying close enough attention and I hammered the dent inwards from the outside instead of outwards from the inside, which caused the U shape to sort of rise away from the back instead of hugging close like its suposed to.

Ive painted everything since these pictures with a grey primer and sanded and repainted another coat of primer on top of that. Ive been trying to find a local retailer for Rub n Buff like Michaels but Ive only been able to find a Joanns Fabric and they werent much help.

The crotch plate is also almost done, just have to add the center raised up area. The top and bottom plate for the crotch piece have been attached and the gap has been filled with bondo. I think it looks nice, I just need to get ahold of a camera to take some pictures here soon.

Ive also got a helmet and gauntlets coming from a friend who I did some ODST sculpts for so with any luck I'll have all of the hardparts minus the jetpack (of which I hant decided which one I want) by the end of the year and have it all RnB and painted. The soft parts will come in time when my funds arn't being depleted by college lol

just applied silver RnB to m collar and shoulder pieces. turned out very noob looking, but it will suffice until I can afford better armor later on down the road. Remaining pieces need minor sanding on some spots and then I should be good to go with applying RnB to the rest of the suit. update pictures coming soon I hope!

since you are making this out of aluminum, you don't really need to RnB it. just sand the aluminum with finer and finer grit until you get to about 1000, (i'm going this route with some of my armor, and i used 320, 400, 800, then 1000 grits) then take some metal polish, i suggest Meguiar's® Motorcycle All Metal Polish. you can get an almost chrome finish out of your aluminum with that stuff.

Hello SUPERTROOPER and SAINT NASTY, I need a help because I going to make my armor with Iron plates
(back armor 1 millimetre and the rest of armor 2 millimetre)

, but I like to painted so:
I going to use spray but what do you reccomend me?
1) silver or aluminium spray ??
2) spray with bright or without bright??
3)what do you use to attach the armor back and front?
I going to use screw to the front but to the back hooks what do you reccomend me?
I hate the velcro!!!!

thanks..........

i'd suggest using the 2mm for your back, shin, and boot armor since those are probably going to take the most amount of abuse and then the rest you could get away with 1mm. and i still feel that if you're making jango armor out of metal you really don't have to paint it. just sand it to a really nice finish then polish it.

Thanks Saint.
I toll yours my interest in paint the armor, because my cod piece design is a structure of 2 pieces, and there are detalis that I nedd to hide with mastique (is a industrial cream uses to hide and finish metal works).....but now I going to think you advice to not paint the iron plates.
But if it necessary what type of spray do you reccomend me:
Silver
or Aluminiun??
with bright or dry (without bright)
Thanks..........

Well I have finished the following pieces and am awaiting a better time (not so cold outside) to do some minor bondo work on other pieces. Here are the ones I've finished rub-n-buffing:
right chest plate
ab plate
collar plate
shoulder bells
thigh plates
shin plates
boot covers

As of now I have to do minor bondo work on:
cod plate(attach the center raised plate to the underlaying main plate)
left chest plate(attach a small flat piece behind the two horizontal slits to make it Jango accurate)
center diamond(attach the outer and inner pieces to an underlying diamond shaped piece for an accurate center diamond)
back plate(small bondo work to add the raised sections around the strap holes for the jet packs)

the back plate also needs to have the inner most curved detail ridge corrected as it was dented inwards towards y back before and it now needs to be dented away from my back in order to create a convex bowl in the interior section of the back plate

is what im doing to the back plate inaccurate? or should I make the inner detail ridge go away and flatten the ridge?

Helmet and gauntlets are coming eventually from a friend

pictures coming asap, just don't have the camera with me at the moment

Backplates are EXTREMELY hard to do out of hammered metal, Jango even more that Boba because of the flat horseshoe in the middle. The only good way I know to make that shape is to use a technique called "Fluting" where you take a cold chisel and go around the inside of the backplate where the U is, raising the area. Once your done with that, you need a very thin chasing hammer that is almost mirror smooth to smooth out the top of the dent and impress the edges down to make that U look raised.

If it sounds complicated, that's because it is. I use this method on steel armor and it works great, but it's not so easy for aluminum because of it's tendency to crack instead of bend.

Well, as it turns out, the backplate is very hard to do and I ruined mine after trying to recorrect the U-shaped bend in the back, the collar plate no longer lines up with the back plates to short collar sections.

So as it turns out I need to get a backplate in order to finish up getting the armor together.

The only thing that still needs to be rubnbuffed is the cod plate (and back plate when ever I happen to get another one).

Of course I will also have to work on the gauntlets and helmet when ever I get those from my friend, but for the time being everything is basically done.

I did discover a new polishing method for rubnbuff:
rub the area to be rubnbuffed with an ice cube to make the metal supercold
dry with a microfiber cloth
apply rubnbuff just a little bit and work in circles like polishing a shoe
reapply an ice cube in circular motions over the newly applied rubnbuff
buff out the area with either my palm or wrist

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UPDATE: 1/9/10 7:50pm
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everything is done being rubnbuffed. time to order some knee plates and get a new backplate. at this stage I do not mind if the knees and back are metal or not, just so long as they are accurate!

time to get some materials for my jumpsuit i suppose

it turns it into a practical mirror!!!!

now its just a matter of getting the material to send to my grandmother to make my jumpsuit and vest while I concentrate on the leather parts. the holsters, boots, and knee plates will all need to be bought so if you guys see any great deals please forward them to me as I will be searching as much as I can with school starting back up as well as a new job.

Well it looks like I need a new backplate if I can't salvage my current one. I am willing to settle for fiberglass or vacformed, anything that works that is under say $80???

I also need knee plates, have been looking into SFP knees but the rest of their armor is so rediculously inaccurate that Im scared to buy a set.

Any known makers of affordable knees?? Around or under $50???

Got my jumpsuit ordered, just need to get my vest material ATM


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PICTURES UPDATED ON FIRST POST FINALLY!!!!!!!!!

For knees, you can contact Asok... he may still make them... his are vacformed but can be fiberglassed for added strength.

I need some general opinion on how my suit looks. What do you guys think of it so far?

The armor looks good... I think the shins are a little odd, but that may just be my opinion... maybe they are too wide on the strip at the top of them.

I think the armor looks great so far... when you get pics of it close to your body we can get a better idea of how it will appear once suited up.

I'm curious about the codpiece... do you have any WIP? Can you take a pic of the back? I'm in the process of redoing my scratchbuilt Boba cod and was going to use metal to get a good shape out of it.

The cod piece was actually made with WoF templates. I cut a top plate and a bottom plate, filled the gap with bondo, then stacked/glued some cut up plastic (for sale) signs to achieve the center raised section and bondoed the edges to give it a crisp squared off look. nothing but aluminum, little plastic, and some bondo. First post updated with back of my cod piece

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With some encouragement from Asok, I've printed out the knee templates so that I can utilize any of the leftover plastic I have on hand. We'll see how this goes :)

Hello supertrooper, tell me how you made the cod piece??? I am making my jango costume and the cod piece is killing me off!!!!!!!!!! I dont know how make the cod piece with my iron 2 mm plates and I talknig about the curve you know, tell me..............????????????????....thanks

Snowaure,

I hammered the bottom plate around the tip of the cod piece to start rounding it out, as well as a little bending by my hands for a subtle curve of sorts. I lined up the top edges for both plates, used Wizard of Flights templates to get the spacing right as he has a small cutout that show how much space you should have, then filled the gap with bondo and smoothed out the edges. The center raised section is just multiple cutouts from a big 'for sale' sign that were glued together then glued to the top plate, then sanded apprpriately, and finished off with a little bondo to make the edges squared off.

Unfortunately the closest you are going to come to seeing my work in progress pictures are the before and after rubnbuff pictures in the first post of this thread. Trial and error worked for me, being as aluminum is very forgiving when it comes to have to rebend minor curves. Hope this helps

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SuperTrooper

The cod piece was actually made with WoF templates. I cut a top plate and a bottom plate, filled the gap with bondo, then stacked/glued some cut up plastic (for sale) signs to achieve the center raised section and bondoed the edges to give it a crisp squared off look. nothing but aluminum, little plastic, and some bondo. First post updated with back of my cod piece

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With some encouragement from Asok, I've printed out the knee templates so that I can utilize any of the leftover plastic I have on hand. We'll see how this goes :)

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Thanks! This will help!

Does anybody know of a template for making Jango holsters? I plan on making my own and possibly even making a few extra sets if I think I can benefit from being in the wholesale club at my local Tandy Leather Factory store. They have great leather for great prices so if I get good enough experience with mine at first, I may do a small run of these. MAY being the key word. I need to make the molds of course to wet form them so it will be A WHILE. Just need some templates so I can get started.

Well, at the moment I have put my Jango on hold for a while until I can accumulate some more funding. Got school and rent to take care of for the time being so anyone that has heard from me about wanting parts, you will be getting a PM in cae you don't check back on this thread. This is just a temporary hold on buying stuff, not on making stuff, I have plenty of materials lying around to make some things in the meantime.

Hello supertrooper, can you tell me how do you make the cod piece? that piece is drive me crazy, in special the front curve.I making my armor in 2 mm steel . for any info thanks..........

refer to post #19. It's got a pretty good description of what I did. Let me know if that helps any