Hey all,
I made an account not too long ago on this site and was really inspired by the immense creativity of the members here. You guys are awesome at what you do.
So after seeing all the costumes that you've made on here I decided to make one of my own and I'd like to share my progress with all of you. With my build I was going for something cheap and quick, but still good looking. I finished all the armor in about a week/week and a half for around $100.
So here is the majority of my armor stenciled out on cheap trash cans, ready to be cut out. I used WOF's Jango templates. I'm now a huge fan of WOF. How he has the time to create such awesome templates for all of us to use I'll never know.
One of the first things I did was create a vest. This one is just a quick temporary one, I'm planning on upgrading soon. Here is a shot of the back. Please excuse the lack of craftsmanship on this, I did it very quickly without much accuracy...
I used a t-shirt for a basic pattern. To create a snug fit I sewed a stretch fabric into the sides and shoulders. Like I said, this is just temporary, I'm a little embarrassed about how janky the overall product is...
This is a shot of the front. The armor attaches to the vest via velcro for now although I find that this method is kind of hit or miss in terms of the strength of the hold.
This is my armor all cut out and sanded, ready for painting. This was probably the most time intensive portion of the build (not to mention the messiest). My garage is currently covered with about a ton of plastic dust that my tarp didn't catch. I used a dremel tool to cut out and sand the armor. The trash cans worked brilliantly in terms of the fit of the armor. Where the fit wasn't quite right (such as the legs and back) I used a heat gun to bend the armor. I'm still having problems with that darn back plate.
For my helmet I used a Rubies two piece. Here's my helmet right out of the box. It was a little more flimsy than I expected, but what can you do?
To fill the gap in the helmet I originally used a modelling putty called green stuff (all you 40k players out there will know what I'm talking about), but that didn't quite do the trick. So after that failed I did a little experimenting and found that a good method was to melt the plastic trashcan scraps into the gap with the heat gun. It's not as pretty as some of the other buckets I've seen on here, but it provides as strong a bond as I require.
Here's my armor base coated in silver. Before the silver I did an original coat of black so that the silver would adhere more readily. I almost thought about leaving it in this state and making myself a suit of Jango armor!
Now here's my armor painted, almost ready to go. I sprayed it with a metallic paint that has a hammered texture as I wanted my armor to look old and weathered. I used the mustard method for exposing the silver base coat to create a weathered look.
And here's my armor all painted up with my awesome orange stripe and orange kill marks. I used latex paint and sponged it onto the armor in 3 coats with a piece of foam scrap.
So that's my armor so far! I'd love to hear some feedback or suggestions from all of you. I'll post updates as I can. I have since created a sash, cape and handwrap, installed a new visor, and touched up the painting.
I made an account not too long ago on this site and was really inspired by the immense creativity of the members here. You guys are awesome at what you do.
So after seeing all the costumes that you've made on here I decided to make one of my own and I'd like to share my progress with all of you. With my build I was going for something cheap and quick, but still good looking. I finished all the armor in about a week/week and a half for around $100.
So here is the majority of my armor stenciled out on cheap trash cans, ready to be cut out. I used WOF's Jango templates. I'm now a huge fan of WOF. How he has the time to create such awesome templates for all of us to use I'll never know.
One of the first things I did was create a vest. This one is just a quick temporary one, I'm planning on upgrading soon. Here is a shot of the back. Please excuse the lack of craftsmanship on this, I did it very quickly without much accuracy...
I used a t-shirt for a basic pattern. To create a snug fit I sewed a stretch fabric into the sides and shoulders. Like I said, this is just temporary, I'm a little embarrassed about how janky the overall product is...
This is a shot of the front. The armor attaches to the vest via velcro for now although I find that this method is kind of hit or miss in terms of the strength of the hold.
This is my armor all cut out and sanded, ready for painting. This was probably the most time intensive portion of the build (not to mention the messiest). My garage is currently covered with about a ton of plastic dust that my tarp didn't catch. I used a dremel tool to cut out and sand the armor. The trash cans worked brilliantly in terms of the fit of the armor. Where the fit wasn't quite right (such as the legs and back) I used a heat gun to bend the armor. I'm still having problems with that darn back plate.
For my helmet I used a Rubies two piece. Here's my helmet right out of the box. It was a little more flimsy than I expected, but what can you do?
To fill the gap in the helmet I originally used a modelling putty called green stuff (all you 40k players out there will know what I'm talking about), but that didn't quite do the trick. So after that failed I did a little experimenting and found that a good method was to melt the plastic trashcan scraps into the gap with the heat gun. It's not as pretty as some of the other buckets I've seen on here, but it provides as strong a bond as I require.
Here's my armor base coated in silver. Before the silver I did an original coat of black so that the silver would adhere more readily. I almost thought about leaving it in this state and making myself a suit of Jango armor!
Now here's my armor painted, almost ready to go. I sprayed it with a metallic paint that has a hammered texture as I wanted my armor to look old and weathered. I used the mustard method for exposing the silver base coat to create a weathered look.
And here's my armor all painted up with my awesome orange stripe and orange kill marks. I used latex paint and sponged it onto the armor in 3 coats with a piece of foam scrap.
So that's my armor so far! I'd love to hear some feedback or suggestions from all of you. I'll post updates as I can. I have since created a sash, cape and handwrap, installed a new visor, and touched up the painting.
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