Female mando! Boob armor help?

violentyoda

New Hunter
Hello all!

Ok, here's the deal, I'm making a female mandalorian... Here's the concept art (please ignore the uneven coloring & horrible porportions - I was to excited to take my time. lol):

Fem__mando_in_gree_by_ViolentYoda.jpg


I want to add more detail as I go, weaponry and other things that would make it more detailed and realistic. But, currently I'm stuck on the chest pieces... I LOVE this armor:

http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/showthread.php?t=17581&highlight=female+mando

And I LOVE the Mando wedding armor - that was the picture that convinced me that I should do this. :love BUT, I don't know how to get that lovely curve... I'm using sintra (I hope... lol it's a for sale sign from home depot), and while I can get it to curve somewhat, it doesn't want to curve that much. I'm experimenting with making "darts" (my costuming experience is heavily sewing based) and then going over that with bondo for stability, but I'm not convinced that will work. There seems to be way too much tension.

Vac forming/paying someone for it is completely out of the question - flying to dragon con is already going to kill my student budget - any other ideas? If all else fails, I'm going to give paper mache a go, but I'd rather use sintra. It seems sturdier and gives a smoother finish.

Any thoughts would be most welcome! Thanks! :)

P.S. I just have to explain the mid section, because I love it so much... lol It's overlapping leather petal/leaf shapes sewn together into a wide belt/corset type piece. Inspired by the Elven armor in LOTR. Yeah, ok, so probably no one cares, and it really has nothing to do with my question, but yeah. There you go. :p
 
hey, this is a very cool FM concept that one that you have here...really like the colors, (looks like a Leia in mandalorian armor...:))
I think that the sintra may be the best option, or maybe if you want to try something different, you may use PVC (just look for my PVC armor threat)
good luck with this one..
 
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Very very nice concept. Sintra is probably your best way to go unless you want to learn how to form your own fiberglass pieces.

Looking forward to seeing this set.
 
Very very nice concept. Sintra is probably your best way to go unless you want to learn how to form your own fiberglass pieces.

Looking forward to seeing this set.
In order to do fiberglass you need a mold first.

If you choose to make a mold of your own chest, that might work well, just might be uncomfortable, haha. I've actually heard of women doing that before..
 
Just don't do it badly, I have seen baseballs vacuuformed with shapes of plastic, and sold for 100 bucks or so.

I like your costume concept, it looks like the Wedding mando a bit, but different colors, and some other differences.

Hope to see more progress, and Good luck!!
 
Very nice concept! That will look sweet when done! Sintra won't be able to get that "curve" you want, but I've seen it used by female Mando's and they can still get it to look great.

P.S. I just have to explain the mid section, because I love it so much... lol It's overlapping leather petal/leaf shapes sewn together into a wide belt/corset type piece. Inspired by the Elven armor in LOTR. Yeah, ok, so probably no one cares, and it really has nothing to do with my question, but yeah. There you go. :p

I'm glad I saw what you wrote here, because I almost didn't see the detail in the mid section. I really like this idea. :)
 
Sintra can also become brittle under stress. I'd recommend ABS or Styrene. However plastic has a higher melting point than foam, so this would need to be vacuuformed.
 
Just don't do it badly, I have seen baseballs vacuuformed with shapes of plastic, and sold for 100 bucks or so.

Please please listen to Clay on this. There are some really horrid vac formed female chest pieces out there that look awful. The best female chest I've seen so far has to be Rotton's Vhonte Thervo armor. If you have plenty of time and arn't afraid to learn some molding techniques...I think fiberglass comes out looking the best when curves and bulges are in effect.
 
First of all, thanks so much to everyone for the encouragement! This is my first venture into non-sewing based costuming and it's been quite a learning curve (and I've barely started! lol).

In order to do fiberglass you need a mold first.

If you choose to make a mold of your own chest, that might work well, just might be uncomfortable, haha. I've actually heard of women doing that before..

Actually, I *do* have a chest cast (which really isn't difficult or uncomfortable to make if you don't mind someone seeing you in your skivvies. ;)), but I'm leary of fiberglass, it seems to be rather dangerous and on the expensive side.

Just don't do it badly, I have seen baseballs vacuuformed with shapes of plastic, and sold for 100 bucks or so.

I like your costume concept, it looks like the Wedding mando a bit, but different colors, and some other differences.

I just want you to know that your "just don't suck" reply really made me laugh. I'll do my best not to suck! :lol:

It is heavily "inspired" by the wedding mando, but switched up a bit to suit my character and to make it more practical. The skirt bits for example? Yeah, I really didn't want to be pulling them out from between my legs as I walked. 8)

I'm glad I saw what you wrote here, because I almost didn't see the detail in the mid section. I really like this idea. :)

Thank you! It's one of my favorite parts of the design. :)

If you have plenty of time and arn't afraid to learn some molding techniques...I think fiberglass comes out looking the best when curves and bulges are in effect.

I've seen the softball boob armor and am determined not to fall into that trap... I have no fear of learning something new, only of finishing it before dragon con (time is short!) and spending a lot of money. I would actually like to learn how to make fiberglass armor at some point, but don't think I have the time or resources for it this go round.

So far it would appear that my 'darts' reasonably successful in creating a nice shape with the sintra. After I got it hot enough (the oven worked much better than boiling water!) I formed the shapes on my chest cast and let them cool. Well on one side - the other side got too hot and did strange things... :rolleyes Anyways, after it cooled the piece seems perfectly content to stay in the right shape, i.e. I can take the duck tape off and it retains the shape, so I attacked it with bondo. My *theory* is that the bondo will be strong enough to hold the 'darts' together... I don't actually know how strong the stuff is. Anyone know the answer to that?

It's drying now (hopefully the bondo actually sets this time - the first batch never dried... I assume inexperience was to blame. Good thing it was just a test batch.), but here is a picture of my chest piece all covered in gooey bondo. I also put the pattern piece in the picture so ya'll can get an idea of what I started with.

So, my questions are: how strong is bondo? (I'll find out what the relative strength is in a couple hours when I start flinging the armor around, but I'm curious about longevity) And what do ya'll think of the shape the piece has? Am I successfully avoiding the softball look? ~crosses fingers~

100_1796.jpg
 
I know this is going to sound bad, but could we get a side shot of the Bondoed version? The reason I ask is I'm putting together an armor set for my wife for a project for school. If you can get a decent shape out of sintra... to say I'd be happy that I don't have to put together a vacumformer and make molds, would be an understatement.

As For Bondo… As long as you didn't sand it to far down and weren't taking direct hits to the chest, it “should” hold. But either way, looking forward to seeing your future progress.
 
The cast looks good. If you pulled it from a mold it should be fine, as long as you like the mold. As for the bondo, you need hard set OR quick set (i forget the name) but its red and when mixed with bondo makes it look orange like. It sets fast and makes it harder. comes in a tube

darts? were be the darts? if you want something to hold i suggest super glue or an adhesive for the type of plastic used. i use PVC and PVC glue (it melts it together).

Your plastic should keep form, after you mold it try running it under water. The fast cooling keeps it in it's place. looks good!
 
Side shot attached Hagen. :) The shape isn't fantastic, but I like it. It's curved to accommodate and not to flaunt. I don't think a shaper curve would work, but I dunno. In any case, it very very badly needs to be sanded, and probably have a bit more bondo added to really smooth it out. But you get the general idea.

darts? were be the darts? if you want something to hold i suggest super glue or an adhesive for the type of plastic used. i use PVC and PVC glue (it melts it together).

The piece isn't cast, it's just heated and formed sintra. I have a chest cast that I've been using to make patterning easier though.

See the newspaper piece in the picture? I took a piece of newspaper and put it on my chest cast, and then folded and taped until it fit nicely. I then made three sorta straight cuts - top, side, bottom - to make the pattern lie flat again. I traced that onto the sintra, heated the sintra until soft in the oven, and then kind of pulled the cuts together so it formed a piece like my pattern did before I cut it. I duck taped the darts/slashes together until it cooled (and I let it cool slowly because I was terrified that it would warp under sudden cold water, though I was on the floor near an AC duct, so maybe not that slowly). Next, I sanded and bondoed the front, and then I used off-brand JB weld on the back. On the next piece I'll probably use the JB weld before the bondo, but either way should work ok. If I hadn't had JB weld stuff on hand from building sabers than I would have bought the plastic weld stuff, but impatient me already had one thing and didn't want to go buy another... ;) I've had really good luck with that stuff anyways, so I'm not too worried about it.

After the bondo & JB weld seemed solid (a couple hours for the bondo, about 40 mins for the JB) I dropped it on the deck repeatedly. And then I whacked the railing with it. No dents, no cracks! I guess it's going to work... My only potential worry is the difference between humidity in Utah and GA, but hopefully it'll be ok. :)

Also, what do you mean hard or quick set? The bondo I bought - the "all purpose" stuff thats supposed to pretty much stick to everything - came with a tube of white stuff....? Is that the same thing, or is there some fancy stuff I should buy separately?

100_1799.jpg


100_1800.jpg
 
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What you have so far is looking good. Yes you are avoiding the softball armor, I think that can only be made by vacforming anyhow as that's the only type I've ever seen made like that.

Bondo should work, or you can use fiberglass resin that comes in the small cans at the automotive store. Either one will work well. I wouldn't worry to much about putting large amounts on your sintra, just enough to cover it and any rough spots you may have. Sand it down smooth and then apply your primer and paint.

Your really rushing it for DragonCon =D If you want a really quality set, then your going to literally need to work no less then 4 days a week on this with such a short amount of time (Some people may disagree with me, but personal experience will win out, and I'm telling you don't get comfortable with 4 or 5 weeks to go.).

While bondo and paint is drying, work on soft parts! Keep us updated on this! Mercs will be at DCon, feel free to march in the parade with us =D
 
Your really rushing it for DragonCon =D If you want a really quality set, then your going to literally need to work no less then 4 days a week on this with such a short amount of time (Some people may disagree with me, but personal experience will win out, and I'm telling you don't get comfortable with 4 or 5 weeks to go.).

While bondo and paint is drying, work on soft parts! Keep us updated on this! Mercs will be at DCon, feel free to march in the parade with us =D


lol, don't I know it! I'm going to be a complete nutcase due to fumes and long hours by the time D*con gets here. :) I have to work during the day, but 5-6 evenings a week are devoted to this, with the other 1 or 2 for my other costume. Thankfully, I have no social life - hooray for moving! ;) Hopefully that will be enough, if not, well, we shall see how life goes without sleep!

I'll keep the thread updated as I go!

If I'm awake in the morning (always debatable... lol) I may join ya'll in the parade. That sounds like fun. :D
 
Looks like your off to a great start there violentyoda, I look forward to more updates on your progress. I also love you design picture, you Amrmour and colour scheme will work so well.... Great work... :)
 
Love the concept pic. Great colour choice.

I wouldn't be too scared of Fibreglass. As long as you read up on it and take all the right precautions you will be fine, but to start with a light plastic should be fine, you can always upgrade later!
 
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