Bren Sett (my custom)

Hello, everyone. I guess I'm still considered new here. I have read many threads, and am finally begining to work on my custom suit. I will also be building one for my wife. (She's not really into it, but is willing to endulge my insanity)

OK I have made a posterboard bucket to test for sizing. IT FITS!

Now, I have a few questions.

What does anyone recommend for a helmet that will survive rigorous usage that will not destroy my minimal budget?

How do I make Acrobat resize my templates to 98% so as to fit my wife?

I also have a flight suit and a pair of old motorcross boots that I am intending to modify. I am going for an armored scout look, slightly more armored than Boba.
Color Scheme: Olive, Black, and Grey.

I think the resizing happens in your printing options; at least that's how it is on my computer.

For helmets you can get a rubies Jango for about $60. They're not much on their own, but a lot of people have modified them the hold their shape well and it's basically a really good budget bucket. You can also get the 2-piece helmet which I think is cheaper, but it requires more work since you'd have to attach the two pieces together and fill in the seam

Thanx, Apollo. I will look into a rubies. My son has a two piece stormtrooper and those things are really cheaply made. Much too thin. I want something strong enough to film action. I would hate for my wife to dive into a roll and have her helmet split in half or spin around and do something equally disastrous Any suggestions on armor material for that kind of abuse?

Depending on the cost of a Rubies, if the 2 piece helmets are cheaper they could be made a lot stronger and better by fiberglassing the inside. After putting the two halves together, of course. You can also coat the poster board one you have with resin and fiberglass and use it. You will have to do a good bit of glass and bondo work though, but it should be fairly strong. I've been working on a Royal Guard helmet based on pepakura. Started with cardstock and then fiberglassed over it. It is very sturdy, but like everything else if dropped too hard it's gonna crack. There are some pepakura templates here for the helmet, gauntlets, and jet packs if you want to try that method. WOF has made PDF templates for most parts too. Since you are asking about Acrobat re-sizing, I assume you already have some of WOF's templates. Great stuff. I used them myself for a number of things. As Apollo said to resize them it should be on the print options.

Originally Posted by BrenSett

I want something strong enough to film action. I would hate for my wife to dive into a roll and have her helmet split in half or spin around and do something equally disastrous Any suggestions on armor material for that kind of abuse?

Only 2 mediums would be rubber and metal with rubber being what they used in AoTC for Jango during the fight sequences. You can only push armor so far, no matter how functional it is...stress is going to cause some problems.

Thanx for the help and input, guys; I really appreciate it. BTW, the fun (and insanity) has spread to my oldest daughter has decided to join in. Three mandos in the family, isn't it GREAT!!

Thats great man! We actually have a couple Mercs mandos down in MS that would love to have some trooping buddies for a chapter down there. =)

Great! I'm stuck in a little place named McComb. If they are anywhere near I'd love to hear from them. (sorry it's taking so long to reply, but my 56k is going slow, and I'm trying to pull up the Mercs sight right now.) What is it all about?

Now, back to business at hand.

Color Schemes:
My Wife: Black, Grey, and Burgundy
My Daughter: Black and Purple

The best way I can explain it is to tell you to read the site and browse the forums. We are like the 501st for custom mandos. LFL approved, 4th largest costume club in the world.

Colors sound good. If you haven't played with them on paper yet...allow me to introduce you to MandoMaker
.

Thank you for the link. I'm actually a struggling artist down here, and did some some drawings that I scanned into my pc to play with colors in paint prog. I'll still check the link in case it is easier to use. BTW, someone asked me for the .jpg's in ladyDoom build. They might be interested in MandoMaker, too.

ok, not much in the way of progress here. I have found some fiberglass at Lowe's that appears to be about 2mm thick. Does anyone know how flexible this would be? Would it be fairly strong, and how hard would it be to glue?

I will be posting design pics as soon as I get them done. I was digging through my archives, and found a concept pic of Boba in very different armor that was white with a little red and gray. I will be using some of the details in this for my costume. If anyone is interested in this concept pic, just let me know where to post it and I will.

Not finished on concept art, but thought I would go ahead and post. Comments welcome, critiques considered, tell me anything. I will listen to anything (even though I may or may not go with other ideas.)

I've thought about putting a black stripe about as wide as the "leg" of the T-visor down the middle of the armor, but haven't decided.

Great color combos, especially #2, but I'm a big fan of red!

Thanks! The red will be my wife, and I have decided that I am going to put the black stripe on my armor. My wife's will have grey accents. I will post better pics of the designs soon. Also, I would like some advice on the idea of using a sheet of fiberglass approx. 2mm thick to make the helms. If anyone can tell me if this would or would not work, I would greatly appreciate it.

hey bren..looking good..my suggestion before you actually get dirty with the armor..tryta complete your concept designs..at least you'll be working with a solid reference point should anything go wrong..hope to see more pics soon..XD

Thanks for the advice ramikad. I am picking up the fiberglass and going ahead with the helmet. I almost finished with the concept design for my outfit. I am also just about done with my wife's concept design. (She was skeptical at first, but decided that it looked kinda' sexy) The drawing of her costume was laid out using her as a pose.(That was fun). Can't wait for you guys to see them and tell me what you think.

Those are some cool schems for the outfits, I can't wait to see the finished products!

And you're wife is going to "endulge your insanity", that's hilarious!

You may even turn her into a Mando when it's all over with. Good Luck!

ok everyone, I'm back. The holidays really took their toll on us, and I'm also in the middle of a custody battle for my youngest daughter. Please bear with me.

Anyway, I started with a wall panel of fiberglass from Lowe's. I started tracing out WOF's templates onto the panel and am cutting them out with my dremel. I promise to post pics next time. They will be the upgraded concept pics and progress pics. I now have a digital camera (thanx to Mrs. Claus). Can anyone tell me the size they need to be for viewing without having thumbs like above?

ok, as promised, I finished the concept art for my costume. Here it is, and critiques are welcome.

I have run into some problems on the helm. It seems that the fiberglass that I have bought is a little stronger than I anticipated. It will take quite some time to get it cut out. I can cut the fiberglass with snips just fine, its the sanding it smooth on the edges and getting it flush with the lines that is taking longer than I thought. Oh well, I guess some things are worth waiting for. If it turns out to be too troublesome, I will warn others away from trying this method.

I have run into another problem. I solved the issue of cutting out the bucket pieces and getting them smoothed by using a different tip on my dremel. The problem I have now, I bought some glue that claimed was good for fiberglass, but it isn't holding well. I have had my bucket c-clamped for two days now. Does anyone have any ideas on what will glue to pieces of finished fiberglass together?

ok, I have decided that already formed fiberglass sheets do not work well. After many different forms of adhesive, nothing seems to hold it hard. I decided to use another method (from Old Vart at the Mercs). Bought a bike helmet and some signs to cut up. Also a craft ring, bondo, etc.

I took the "stuffing" out of the helmet, and sanded it a little with heavy grit to rough it up a bit around the holes to make sure bondo would stick well. I couldn't help but smile during this. There's just something about buying something that is perfectly good just so you can mess it up Anyway, I filled the holes with bondo and let it dry, did some rough sanding, and went back over it with more bondo to fill really bad spots. Sanded more, and am about to use filler to take care of small places. Here are a couple of shots of the helmet.

Jeez, anyone know what size to make pics so they don't pull up as thumbs? The first pic was 8" wide. I dropped the two helm pics to 6" wide, and they're still too big. I'll try dropping to 4 next time.

Originally Posted by BrenSett

Jeez, anyone know what size to make pics so they don't pull up as thumbs? The first pic was 8" wide. I dropped the two helm pics to 6" wide, and they're still too big. I'll try dropping to 4 next time.

If you can, work in pixels not inches and you'll find that you'll have fewer problems when posting pics online. At the smallest I'd size your pictures at 640x480 at 72 dpi and 800x600 at 72 dpi at the largest and you should be able to post full sized on most boards, anything larger than that your pics are likely to get resized.

I love watching scratch built jobs! Keep up the good work and remember to keep us posted!

Originally Posted by BrenSett

I took the "stuffing" out of the helmet, and sanded it a little with heavy grit to rough it up a bit around the holes to make sure bondo would stick well. I couldn't help but smile during this. There's just something about buying something that is perfectly good just so you can mess it up Anyway, I filled the holes with bondo and let it dry, did some rough sanding, and went back over it with more bondo to fill really bad spots. Sanded more, and am about to use filler to take care of small places. Here are a couple of shots of the helmet.

From someone who also used a helmet to create the basic shape, take a piece of advice from me. You will need to cut the helmet so it will sit square onto the lowerpiece, this is around where those metal pins are that are holding the chin strap. I didn't cut square and tried to cut around the metal pins instead and made a right mess.

I wished I had cut a "V" from underneath and took out the pins before planning my work as it would have saved me a LOT of repair work. I'd also sand all the way so that you can just see bondo hole shapes, it will smooth out when you come to put the primer on and give it several goes with wet and dry paper. A bit of extra work, but worth it

The primer also helps you to see dinks.

Went back in with the filler, and sanded the whole thing smooth. I left two of the holes in the back for more air and a more custom look. I thought about the problem of getting the interior mask to lay flat on the helmet with those two pins sticking out, and I'm not sure how I'm going to get around that. I do understand what you mean about the things, but I kinda want to keep the chin strap attached for more secure fitting.

These are my boots. I am going to restain them until they are black. Then, I will attach "metal" plates to the parts where you see the white stitching( these were racing logos). I tried resizing, as suggested, and it still doesn't seem to work. The first pick is 640 pixels at 72 dpi. The second is even smaller.

Nice boots! And your bucket is coming along. Pic size is no prob for me, no worries.

I love your designs for yuo and your wife. It seems you've put alot of thought into this. Always a good thing!

The boots are a nice touch! They are definitly differnt.

Thanks for all the support, guys. It really helps (even when life seems to constantly get in the way). I am still having trouble with the bucket. I cut out the inner surface, and wrapped it around the helmet. It was about a 1/4 inch too short. So, I enlarged the inner surface and made it longer. Strangely enough, it is still about 1/4 inch short?! Anyway, I am now going to measure the helmet, and use math to figure the correct distance and try again. New posts coming soon.

Do what I did, take a big piece of paper and wrap it around the helmet, then mark where they meet, you may want to use blu tac to keep the paper against the surface, but only a little mind, unfold the paper and measure the distance, that is how big it should be

Just remember that the helmet flares at the front, so you need to take that into account too.

Originally Posted by BrenSett

I tried resizing, as suggested, and it still doesn't seem to work. The first pick is 640 pixels at 72 dpi. The second is even smaller.

I think the issue might be with the board software, I think it automatically thumbnails images over a certain size. I think you might need to host the pictures yourself on a site like Photobucket and link them using the img code to embed the pictures in your post at full size. I'd just make that they're not much larger than 800x600 so they don't take up the entire screen or more and force a lot of people to have to side scroll to see the entire image.

Btw, your work looks pretty good so far. I like your concept art, I like that it looks very Mando like while at the same time it doesn't look simply like a recolored Boba or Jango.

Thnx for the advice, Saz. No worries about the flare. Once I get the distance correct, I will simply take the template and lengthen it. This should keep the overall look the same. I appreciate the help and the complements, Riceball, but I am giving up on the picture issue. No one seems to be complaining about the thumbs, anyway. Next post will include more pics. Going to go see a tutorial now. Bye.

Just checking in. Man, this is absolutely the largest and hardest costume undertaking I have tried. I've decided to go with trash can armor, but I'm going to try thicker trash cans. I am going to try a "brawn" if anyone knows what they are. (Big gray industrial types). I promise I will get back to work soon, but I had to take a break to get back custody of my youngest daughter. Will be back in court July, so bare with me.

Finally got more done to my helmet. Have attached the inner surface and the face part. Also started working on cheek pieces.

Had to slow down and take my time putting in the cheek plates, but little by little I did get that finished. I went ahead and cut out part of the visor slit so I could check the appearance and size ratio to the rest of my body. Finally, I have something that is really starting to look like a mando bucket.

Will try to get more posts up tomorrow. I will show what I have done to the boots, so far. They are red, but will be black when I am done. I know I am being kinda sporadic here, but it's just the way I am. See ya tomorrow.

ok, as promised, pics of the boots in progress. Dang things had to be red so .... very light sanding with fine grit to break up the finish on the surface. Then, covering in black shoe polish. It will take many layers to make this work, but I really like the boots for this. When I am done, I will make armor to fit the front where the racing logo was.

those are nice nice boots!

thank you Artek, I will be working more on the helm and boots tomorrow (today, as I have not gotten to bed ). Also, will be trying to figure out how to paint rifle and not mess up the firing mechanism. It is a nerf longshot that I will be replacing the barrell with a nerf recon. It's a bit longer and heavier looking than I anticipated, but I hope will still look like a heavy scout and or sniper type.

good luck

i kinda like how the part of the boot you put polish on has a hint of red that shows through. The red will probably go better with your wifes color scheme. those boots are gonna look really cool.

Any Updates??? Seems like a lot of people use the Nerf Longshot, but it works just so darn well! I was going to use one, but was out of my reach and sadly I didnt hold on to mine (Me being a teenager I had one). The boots look great! The armor one the logo spot sounds like a good idea too. Or you can just paint the logo spot with some design. It seems to be plastic there and may not require additional armor on it. Keep us posted!

Thanks to everyone here!! You have all been so supportive. I printed out Alan's earpiece templates today. After looking at them, I kinda feel , so I will find a tut to help me out. The boots are coming along just fine, and I will post more pics as soon as I can. Also downloaded the Mando dictionary from Karen Travis' stuff. I am going to try to learn the language (it seems easier than Tolkien's elvish, which I gave up on ). Any advice or help on this would be appreciated. Again thank you all for your support in this, you are all fantastic.

Tolkien and C.S. Lewis are great though, you've got to admitt.

Mando'a isn't to hard to learn, just a LOT of memorizing--like any language. Good luck with it!

O.K. Does anyone have any ideas on what to use for ear pieces? The plastic I am using for the bucket will be good and strong when I have sprayed in bed liner, but before that it is kinda' flimsy. I am afraid that if I try to use it to support a moving range finder, that the plastic will just bend and tear.

Will be working more on the boots today, as I am not sure where to go on the helmet. (see above question)

Old mobile phone pieces, an aerial from a walkie talkie, a small torch, cut pieces of plastic toys such as guns or swords.

I haven't seen many people use cabling, as in a cable going into one part of the earpiece and then into another.

Just have a look in your loft or cellar for all those old things you never use anymore.

Christ, I even have a dental tape box in front of me that could be used as part of an assembly

Hope that helps mate!

Well, I feel stupid. Isn't that one of the things mandos are known for. Just pick something up and make it work!! Thanks apparently I need a cup of coffee to wake me up better.

After a few hours of searching, I'm getting a little cross-eyed. Can anyone direct me to a post or tutorial on building ear pieces out of plastic? I really need help with this.

You don't have to use plastic, you can use cardboard then reinforce with resin

OK, I know I have really been slow at this. Helmet is almost finished, and I will post pics of progress this week. Also, I have decided to go ahead and work on the armor while I am waiting for funds to buy more supplies for helmet. The part I am concerned about is the codpiece. Can anyone help me to understand exactly how much it should curve and a good way to go about making heavy plastic bend and stay? This is really important to me, as I have only two months left to show everyone at my in-laws' bar what real costuming looks like.

i wish i could help you with the curve but i too am new to this but as for bending heavy plastic... what type of plastic is it? how heavy? i would think there could be a few things. heat gun or hair dryer depending on how thick it is, there is also hot water... i have used the hair dryer and hot water method my self and would just run it under cold/room temp water from the sink, i would then dry it off and stick it in the freezer just to be sure to lock in the shape

as for the concept art?? thats freakin awesome!!! i wish i could draw that good and be that accurate! would you be willing to draw a blank one for those of us without drawing talent?? that way we could print it out and color it in like a coloring book?

great work so far and good luck on finishing it up in time!!!!

Like all cod pieces, it needs to be big enough to hold the meat and two veg comfortably, so you will have to size to your own manhood.

That said, the curve is fairly easy when you break it down into its component shapes, glue the components together, smooth out with car body filler and you should be done fine

If you are not going for Boba or Jango, then the cod can be of anyshape as long as it's a cup.

Thanks, guys! I really appreciate the help. I will be posting pics again, soon. So stay tuned and let me know what you think.
As for the concept art, I can easily do a blank. The problem is getting me to actually put it out there for all of you. If you really want me to I will put forth the effort. However, they have a small program called mando-maker somewhere around here if you want the easy way out.

B^) i know i would appreciate it if you would B^) and as for the mando maker i have used it but the problem i find with it is that its at an odd angle and not a frontal view where as yours is and is much better detailed. B^)

keep up the good work you have inspired me!! cant wait to get working on my armor!! B^)

ok not a problem. The one posted here is actually on this computer; tell me where to send it, and I will. If you want one that is a little more detailed, I will try, and it will take a lot of patience and hounding.

ok, someone asked how thick the plastic is. Here is a pic of my "Brawny" brand trash can with all of the templates taped around it.

I, then, traced around the templates with a marker. Took it all outside, and with my drimmel, I cut the pieces out. Broke about ten heavy cutting wheels in the process but it was worth it. Then, I sanded the edges a bit to clean them up. I tried the boiling water method to bend the ones that needed it, and it worked fine Thanks for that one, guys. It really helped.

hey hey great job! The boiling trick didn't work for me, ended up doing it with a heat gun and a bath tub full of ice water... heat it, bend it, dunk it...lol then stuck it in the refridgerator for 24 hrs! lmao ur stuff looks good so far, keep up the good work!

Now, back to the helmet. After putting it all together, as seen above, it felt a little flimsy, so I cut a brass craft ring to fit from cheek to cheek. I used tape to hold it in place, and then hot glued it. Doing this actually helped the overall shape of the helmet by flaring the cheeks a little. I had thought that my helmet looked a little too straight, and this solved that little problem for me. Then, thinking a little reinforcement might help, (hot glue sometimes comes loose) I bought a can of spray-in bed liner for trucks. Remembering this little trick from someone else's post around here somewhere, I sprayed the entire can into the helmet inside. No way is this stuff gonna come lose.

Thanks kal'ika. I will be moving on to the painting momentarily. In the meantime, here is a pic of helmet and armor prior to painting laid out on my flight suit.

not bad... so going with a green flightsuit? Shew... I have to wear those things enough as is... I wanted a grey one, but I'm begining to think I'm gonna go with a more AF style suit, since it is an AFSOC mando.

Amazing! Such an inspiration for a two day member. I as wondering if all these "pros" just made it look easy. I'm not saying you don't have skills, you do.

We apparently make it look easy. Trust me it isn't always like that. Take a look at the dates on my posts. That wasn't always idle time, it was also screw-ups and a lot of head scratching. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do with the ears.

Now, for the painting: first, I used a grey primer over everything. Next up, metallic paint over the primer. Fill damage areas and paint primer over that. Fill damage areas more, put on grey paint. Take out filler so that "damage" cuts through paint and primer to "metal".

First pics: Primer

Next comes the metallic paint. I was a little disappointed with this at first. It was supposed tp look like chrome, but after a little while it looked alright.

And the grey paint. I am currently peeling out the wax I filled the damage spots with. It was suggested somewhere else to use liquid latex, but I am out of that. I don't recommend using wax, it's a pain in the butt.

Great progress Bren, ossim scratchbuild!

Looks great!

More pics coming soon, I have actually finished painting the body of the helmet. Now, I have to make the ear pieces and paint them before mounting them on the helmet. I am off today to try to find something to use as a base for my gauntlets, and what will become my visor. I am running out of time to try to complete this before the end of Oct., but I am really liking what I see.

Picked up a plastic face shield. Will have to apply tint to make it dark enough, though. Then, I'll cut it out and lock it in the helmet. Will post pics of that when finished. Almost finished painting the front pieces of the armor. I will post those when that is done. Boots are now black, and ready for me to make armor pieces for them.

Now, one question: How should the cod piece and back belt be attached. Should it hang from the belt, attach to the bottom of the flack vest, or what?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Great Pics! That trashcan idea looked great and easy, I'm gonna go buy one tonight, I'm starting my armor today!

Originally Posted by BrenSett

Picked up a plastic face shield. Will have to apply tint to make it dark enough, though. Then, I'll cut it out and lock it in the helmet. Will post pics of that when finished. Almost finished painting the front pieces of the armor. I will post those when that is done. Boots are now black, and ready for me to make armor pieces for them.

Now, one question: How should the cod piece and back belt be attached. Should it hang from the belt, attach to the bottom of the flack vest, or what?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

where did you find the face shield at vod? been looking here in florida can't find them anywhere.

Jason, I bought it at Lowe's. It is perfectly clear, but that's ok because some of want different colors for our visors. This allows the choice, using window tint for cars. It cost me $13.

Nice bucket! Love the visor design!

ok, I promised pics, so here goes. Let me know what you think. First up, the helmet, still w/o visor and "ears".

Here are the shoulder bells, or pauldrons. Still need skull design, but that's not a prob.

At last, black boots. I will make armor for the front and sides.

Before anyone asks, that is my eldest daughter in the background.

Hey Loshi, before you get too far in.... The only adhevsive that seems to work on the brawny can is industrial epoxy. You'll have to rough up the surfaces some and then use the epoxy and clamps.

More pics to be posted later. I have almost finished my blast vest. I used a pattern for a rennaissance vest, and modified it a little. Next up is to epoxy snaps to the back of the armor pieces, and to put the snaps on the vest. Then, I will have to start on the gauntlets and belt.

Originally Posted by BrenSett

At last, black boots. I will make armor for the front and sides.

The shoe polish seems to have worked very well! How many layers did it end up taking?

I wound up using a black paint that would work on leather, then put on three coats of polish. That's all on top of another three. It took some time, but they turned out fairly nice.

Now, for the pics.
Finished Helmet from all sides

My blast vest. Not quite finished, though. I am going to line up the pieces of armor (which I have epoxied snaps to) and put the backs of the snaps through the vest.

Here is the armor seen from the back. This is to show the snaps. I had to add two more to the collar piece because it would not lay properly.

This is the front of the armor with finished paint job and damage.

Finally, the pauldrons. The skull and chest emblem were printed onto sticker paper from my computer. To keep them from getting too messed up, I went over the whole job with two layers of clear coat.

Looking good, friend. I've been putting off doing my own armor for too long due to time, money and other personal issues. But I gotta say, this thread is hugely inspiring! Keep up the good work, man! It looks like it's really gonna pay off.

yup it looks pretty frackin' awesome Bren... kandosii!

Thanks for all, guys. I have run into problems. I will post pics of what it looks like so far while I am wearing it, but things have gone bad. Even epoxy has a problem sticking to the inside of this particular type of can, and if you don't lightly sand the outside, the paint will try to come off as well.
Overall, I am seriously disappointed in the materials. As soon as I can get a job, I intend to fix this problem. Next time: STEEL

Originally Posted by BrenSett

Hey Loshi, before you get too far in.... The only adhevsive that seems to work on the brawny can is industrial epoxy. You'll have to rough up the surfaces some and then use the epoxy and clamps.

Thanks for the tip! I ended up getting Rubbermaid bins, and what worked on them was - surprisingly - roughing it up and using hot glue. Worked amazingly well, actually. Armor survived Halloween. The paint job, on the other hand... Totally different story. Lol.

Going to start work on V2 soonish, working on a LInk costume right now... Amazing progress with your suit, ner'vod!

Mr.Sett you have a real talent for this. Good work.!

Thank you all for your encouragement and kind words. I will post pics of what I looked like for Halloween when I can get the pics back from friends.