armor building ?'s

ok after reading alot of posts i have a few questions concerning armor building...
i found a place that sells 4x8 sheets of sintra http://www.tri-dee.com/sintra_plastic_pvc.htm
and from what i read its about what everyone else is paying maybe a bit more but what thickness do i need and how many sheets for mando armor?

also i saw some posts on how to shape sintra but im not sure how to tell what shape i need to make it? i assume it needs to conform a bit to the body but how much?

and lastly i have seen several adobe-acrobat files with templates and was wondering if i need to have them printed at a shop because i think they will be bigger than regular 8x10 sheets of paper

sorry folks i never tried to do this before and you kinda set the bar high

thanks in advance for all your help and i have to say im really impressed with all your work.

As for the PDF armor templates, from what I remember when I printed the boba chest armor, you didnt need to adjust anything, you just printed as is, and it comes out to scale. You would just need to put the sheets together where the lines are sopposed to meet. But thats when I printed them.

Sintra is a popular material to use for the armor. I would imagine, the ideal thickness for making it would be somewhere around 1/8th inch thick, but thats what Im thinking. I never used sintra before. I used a brute 32 gallon trash can, but the plastic on that is not easy at all to work with, will not retain any shape that you try to give it.

Amount, Im not sure, but its always good to have a little more material then you need because you never know, you can accidentally lose/mess up a piece and you can always replace it using the excess.

Good luck!

i think most people here get their sintra in 1/8" or 3mm for the best balance of ease of use vs strength of finished product. and if you're using WoF's templates you can print them out using regular 8 1/2 x 11 paper, you just need to cut them out and tape them together. it's pretty easy, just make sure you have everything lined up correctly before you start cutting into plastic.

btw, this is my post of the beast! post #666 lol. i'll have to do something about that pretty quick.

thanks for your help and come to think of it i remember you from a post i read you made the trashcan armor from walmart ones... for 20 bucks if i remember right and i thought it turned out great.... y'know the amount of material from those 2 cans is probably about 1 1/2 sheets so 2 might be perfect.
ooh and i would love to see your armor if or when its done being painted and all