I've finally started.

As some of you may know me, I tend to be a bit of a perfectionsist and with all my helmet work taking up all my time, it's been hard to start, despite the amount of prodding from the guys here and on mercs.

Anyhoo, you also may know that a heavy dump of snow brought Britain to a halt a few weeks ago and made it impossible for me to make helmets due to the cold delaying the cure time for the resin.

So I badgered my mom to help me sew up my vest and she did a fantastic job of it.

Ok time for piccies.

My original concept:



I'm now going with silver as opposed to gold, it was influenced by that secret santa present I made.

Some of my soft parts and my cat...



Here are my plates bent around my frame and stuck to me with tape



Then me dressed up in all the soft parts with the vest my mommy kindly sewed for me:



I decided to go the snaps route, I first tried glueing the snaps, but they got pulled off when I tried to remove the snaps, after much thought, I decided that I would have to put a hole into the plate and cross the bridge of covering the hole when I came to it.

Firstly there was the chest plates:



And I did a quick sketch to see what the plates would look like with the pattern from my original concept:



Then I just popped all the plates and attached them to the vest:



Now I was at the bridge, I decided to cover the holes with some fiberglass, file it down and then cover the whole plate with a cold cast of Aluminium:



Voila! Holes begone!!!



Now my UK clan have had a thought and have decided that all people who will be allowed to troop must show the clan symbol, there was further discussion and it was "generally" agreed that the clan colours were gold and black, so I decided to cold cast in bronze for the plate on the side.

Lots of buffing later:



And me looking buff... *Ahem*





The plate will have the logo done tomorrow hopefully, I may hand paint it on, as stencilling might be a bit tough with the way the symbol's been designed.

Anyhoo, that's my current progress.

The clan bell is now sorted:

Woot, Saz! Good work. keep it comin'.

NICE!!! Go SAZ!!!

Excellent work, vod. As always. Looking forward to more.

Right,

I've done the other bell, this time it has a cold cast coat of aluminium and I've just done the basic Mythosaur skull.

Now, tell me, should I elaborate more on this side to make the border as decorative as the clan bell?





Also, should I do more with the collar piece?

I say stick to the drawing...looks good on paper, so prolly will look good on the beskar.

I agree w/ A'd'ika... stick to the concept that one's awesome

Mhhm, ditto. You don't want it so complex it's overwhelming.

dude u look like the green arrow

I'm chiming in a lil late here... go for the concept scetch SAZ, it's gonna look SICK!

Just so you guys are kept up do date, here's my current progress:

Chest plate design done, slightly different to the concept, but close enough.



Plus a cold cast bucket, I brushed brass resin into the dragon and then followed up with aluminium resin.





Then I did a paint job:

Wow, Saz! That looks fantastic. I'm absolutely loving the bucket, bro.

A bit more work done, I used my etcher to get the keyslots out, added the comms antennae and did a little bit of light weathering on the bucket.

That is a thing of beauty there SAZ.

Gonna ask... how does this "cold cast" work? Is it powdered metal mixed into resin?

This is legendary! What color is the visor going to be? Reflecting gold would be awesome!

Originally Posted by adonian

That is a thing of beauty there SAZ.

Gonna ask... how does this "cold cast" work? Is it powdered metal mixed into resin?

That's exactly it, you need a lot of it though, the resin is basically binding the metal powder together, so when you come to sand it back it will begin to shine. The issue with Cold casting is the cost of the metal powder. It's ridiculously expensive!

Originally Posted by KaosDaniel

This is legendary! What color is the visor going to be? Reflecting gold would be awesome!

As awesome as that idea sounds, I want to keep the gold on the armour pretty brief and I want the dragon to be the eyecatcher, I think a gold visor would take attention away from the design. So I'll be sticking to a plain old boring standard green.

Have you thought about a mirrored black or mirrored smoke visor? That's an awesome buy'ce Saz, I love seeing ppl finish these Krayt buckets of yours

Hey! I'm not done yet

Gotta spray the inside with Plasti dip, install the fans and head sponges and of course the visor.

I think I also need to get some grill material for the keyslots as well, I have one fan that has LEDs in it too, so should glow real purdy!

Just the rest of the fans done and the helmet is complete.





I did install one fan, which was the most difficult, it's one with some LEDs attached.





Tadaaaaa!



Well, there's a little more to go, install the rest of the fans, make the crotchplate and buff up and paint the belly plate, as I said before I will probably wear a cloak for getting myself a member status, but I fully intend to backplate and jetpack in the future.

I found my old lycra baggy pants, back in the days of being stupidly overweight and I have cut them down to make a girth belt (they are red), I also cut the leg from one of my old singlets to make a collar, lycra breaths very easily, so it will cover the neck without being unduly sweaty.

All then is to get my gaunts and kneepads all sorted out and I'll start on the weapon.

Front part all sorted, now to make the crotchplate, the cloak and await for my stuff to come through the post.

SAZ, that is looking totally cool, did I just say totally anyway, great work.
I just got my internet set up at the parents pad, so I'll be back on line a little more often, but the move isnt complete as of yet.

Now I just gotta get organized so I can finish workin on the snow man, and then start my dark jedi.

I'll keep ya posted.

Wow. That's lookin' absolutely fantastic, Saz.

WOW!!!! way to go saz! btw i guess ive been around here too long to ask this noobish of a question but ill ask anyways LOL
When you're painting your helmet, how do you avoid painting the parts that arnt supposed to be painting (if you get what im trying to ask)

and i can figure out how to get things like the mithosaur skull painted on so well... right now im having trouble with the jaig eyes

Two ways, you can use painters or masking tape and cut out the bits with a stanley knife or, I tend to brush my stuff on, then snad it back to take away some of the brush marks, then go over with a bit of wire wool.

I guess another way would be to draw the outline in pencil and carefully follow the line with masking fluid too. So that's three ways then

My theory is that these are warriors and don't have time to mask areas off nicely

Originally Posted by Saz.

My theory is that these are warriors and don't have time to mask areas off nicely

My thoughts EXACTLY!

thank you saz! you just saved me a lot of screw up time lol

Fantastic Saz! Keep it up. I love how the Kryat dragon stands out on your bucket.

Here's me looking manly:



My knees and crotch ready for cold cast painting:



And my rather ironic minigun gauntlet:



Nearly done now, just the cloak really!

wow... nice...Looking amazing ner vod!!! I love that minigun and the paint up on the plates look really good!!!

I agree. The paint scheme and minigun gauntlet are freaking' amazing!
I especially like the sickle mag that juts of the side of the minigun. Very futuristic-looking.
Can't wait to see the finished costume!

It's actually a sterling mag from a stormtrooper blaster upgrade kit for hasbro guns.

Here's the lot painted up, I finished the left gauntlet last night but haven't had chance to take any piccies.

OK Saz... I have to say that gauntlet is amazing, very...very cool ner vod

Ok, today was test fit day...

I noticed a few issues straight away (Like my right gauntlet being too padded to fit my suit in as well as my arm), but I did (finally) manage to dress myself. I will need to transport a mirror with me though!

Here are the pics:

lookin' good Saz!

Right, I think I'm done.

Short of someone spotting a gaffe on Mercs, I think I am ready for application.

This is amazing man. I really like the pattern on the plates. What kind of gun/blaster is that?

looks like a Blastech E-11, just a guess (it's laying on the table in the other pics). I like it too Saz, looks good. Are you going to add more gold or is it finished?

It's a stormtrooper blaster from my costume until I have time to make myself a new weapon.

No more gold matey, all I need to do is weather the softparts, make some segmented back plates and I have skip's pep model of the jetpack to glue together.

This is just approval ready.

Just a quickie to say I've been accepted into the Mando Mercs, it's a great milestone and I'm proud of that acheivement, now just to get my armour perfect!

Oya mate! Way to go!!!

congrats Saz!

Way to kick shebs SAZ!