I've started.

Last month I asked around TDH to try and get some price quotes for armor. I finally took the advice of countless members and made my own. OK, well...I am in the process of making my own. I was fine-tuning one of my chest plates when the X-Acto knife slipped and sliced my hand open. A month and 8 stitches later I have finally gotten back to my suit.

I was bored a couple of weeks ago (when i couldn't move my left hand) and drew up a concept. I will try to get a picture posted by Saturday, because I don't have a scanner right now. But, it's matte gold armor with silver highlighted areas, on an all black suit. I have a black cape that I am working on, and will apply a gold trim to the bottom. I figured since it was a custom Mando it didn't neccessarily have to have any battle damage. I figured that since I will be using this on an almost weekly basis when my friends and I go airsofting it will become scraped up enough on its own and then I don't run the risk of making it look fake.

Oh yeah. I left out one MAJOR detail. My character (which I have yet to name) is a force user. The concept that I drew up has his holding a red lightsaber. Because he is a force user I thought that he wouldn't have much, if any, special gadgets on his suit. Such as the flamethrower in the gauntlets. The gauntlets will still be there, but they, and the rest of the armor, serve more of a cerimonial purpose. I also don't have a jet pack.

I'll get the picture up ASAP. Feel free to rip my idea to shreads if you think that I am going in the completely wrong direction. Nothing works better than a little constructive criticism.

Thanks.

sounds neat looking forward to those pics and sorry to hear about your hand ouch that must have hurt at least you will get a cool scar out of the deal

That's the first thing that I thought too. I actually thought about not taking it in so that I could maybe get one that a Mandalorian would be proud of, but after the mess I made I figured it was for the best.

lol ok i will need a scar pic too ... you must have cut it deep

Not too deep, I just scar REALLY EASILY. It was a curse that I was born with. I'll definately get a pic of that up though it may not be for a while. Seeing as I don't have a camera at my disposal right now.

And I said it was on my hand. It is, but it is on my index finger, so i guess that that takes some of the coolness out of it. But its still there and looks pretty cool.

Well, your idea sounds great, and I can symphathize with you... bad spelling ftw.

Anyway, sorry about your hand mate, but, your concept sounds good. My Custom is also Force Sensitive, though he uses the weapon,. but isn't really big on meditation or anything, he's more Mando then Jedi/Sith.

Anyway, the concept sounds cool, and I can't wait to see it come to life

-Naas

Just a random thought but you could carry your saber on one of your gauntlets. Modify it so that the saber sits on there similar to the missile. Would be different, and defiantly with in easy reach.

Make sure to write up some back story to how your character got the scar on his hand. I.E. a run in with an angry tradoshan.

Here's the pic. Hope you guys can give me some pointers. Thanks.

I think that that is too big for the rules. If you know how to make it smaller please tell me so i dont get in too much trouble. lol

Originally Posted by Z-man12

Just a random thought but you could carry your saber on one of your gauntlets. Modify it so that the saber sits on there similar to the missile. Would be different, and defiantly with in easy reach.

You, Sir, are my new best friend.

That is a GREAT idea.

Errm, sorry to steal your thread vod, that concept looks great

-Naas

Alright. I've got a garbage can, and have printed off the templates. Now I just need to get started.

Well, the armors cut out, and it looks pretty nice. now all i have to do is paint it and mount it.

Originally Posted by Z-man12

Just a random thought but you could carry your saber on one of your gauntlets. Modify it so that the saber sits on there similar to the missile. Would be different, and defiantly with in easy reach.

I am planning on taking this advice. But should i put the whole saber in the gauntlet and have it spring out, or just the blade.

Well are you going to have stunt blades on it? Because I don't understand what your meaning unless you mean the blade comes out of the gauntlets.

Fairly certain he meens just the hilt setting on top the gauntlet like the missle on the Fett gauntlets. Mabey.

Thats what I need to do. Should I have the hilt in the gauntlet, so that I can take it out, or should I have just the blade. Sry if I didnt make much sense the first time. Hopefully this is easier to understand.

while its not too realisitic...i woudl like to see if it woudl looknice. youll have to use something about the size of yodas saber

Gonna go with Jax on this one and say that having a lightsaber in the gaunt probably isn't that realistic for a mando. I would suggest putting the lightsaber emitter (hilt) on the side of the gaunt in place of the flamethrower. That way you can build it into the gaunt.

Originally Posted by NovallTalon

Gonna go with Jax on this one and say that having a lightsaber in the gaunt probably isn't that realistic for a mando. I would suggest putting the lightsaber emitter (hilt) on the side of the gaunt in place of the flamethrower. That way you can build it into the gaunt.

Thats more or less what I was thinking, its attached but easily removable. Hidden in plain sight.

Originally Posted by Z-man12

Thats more or less what I was thinking, its attached but easily removable. Hidden in plain sight.

I like it. I'll def. try to work that in. I might just go w/ the traditional "loose" lightsaber.

I'm gonna get the upperbody armor painting finished tomorrow. I'll post as soon as i am done.

Hi sorry to leave you guys hanging. But my family has fallen on some tough times. My great grandfather passed away about a week ago and I've been busy with the funeral and have had family in town for a while. I kinda blew off my armor. I've got the silver base coat done and will be painting the gold later tonight if the weather holds off.

On the subject of the lightsaber/gauntlets. I've given it some thought and I think that I will stick with the conventional lightsaber for now. That way I can focus more on the rest of the armor. Who knows, I still might incorporate it into the gauntlet later.

I also just recenlty saw Iron Man for the 3rd time. God I love that movie. Well, I wanted a way to incorporate something from Iron Man into my armor and was thinking that I could take out the diamond piece in the chest armor and alter the other chest pieces to make room so that I can incorporate the glowing chest piece that tony stark had in the movie. Just a suggestion. Tell me what you think.\

Oh yeah. I'm gonna scratch the cape idea. I think that it will just get in the way seeing as that I am actually going to be using this armor when I get together with my friends and we airsoft. It's just not practicle.

I'll try to post some pictures later tonight...That's if the weather holds off. We are supposed to get a bad storm later and I cant paint in rain.

Sounds like a good plan, look forward to seeing the progress pics

Wow. Those are really big
I think I need to find a way to scale them down a little bit.

If you use Microsoft Office Picture Manager, it has a compress function.

Like this (forgive me, I stole your pics)





PM me if you need any help with it!

David.

Thanks soooo much. I'll keep that in mind for pictures to come

I'm also open for suggestions on how to bend my armor to put some curviture in it. I'm not sure what the best way is to heat it up, but if you have ideas I'm open to try pretty much anything.

There are several methods.

METHOD 1) (slightly hazardous) THE OVEN: Set the temp to about 200 degrees. You can either a) tape your pieces (NOT duct tape! I recommend painter's tape) to a cardboard form slightly smaller than the piece you are heating. Take the belly plate, for example. The cardboard would make the straight side of a "D" form. Heat for no more than a couple of minutes then allow to cool.

METHOD 2) HEAT GUN: You can either make a shaped form of your piece out of foam or cardboard and let the piece form to that, or heat the piece and shape it by hand. I recommend good high-temp gloves either way.

METHOD 3) BOILING: If you have a pot big enough, bring a enough water to boil that you can dunk the whole piece into in one shot. Again, with high-temp gloves, shape the piece to what you want.

With any method, there are hazards, specifically burning. BE CAREFUL!

Oh, and have fun!

BTW, as someone I know can attest to, DO NOT try to shape a hot piece of plastic directly to your body. That's just asking for trouble.

David.

Thanks for the info. I've read around and some members said that they were using blow dryers to shape their armor. Do you have any experience with this, and is it easier than the ones mentioned above?

As far as I know, using a blow dryer is meant to be the same as Method 2 above, with a heat gun. The only real difference is that blow dryers don't get as hot as a heat gun will. I first tried forming plastic with a hair dryer, and it just took way too long to get the plastic pliant enough to shape, and it was almost impossible for me to heat a large enough area to shape at a time. I believe I've read others being successful this way, but I've never been able to do it. In my opinion, using the heat gun is easier by far.

I've used the boiling method for all of mine, if you use tongs, common sence, and an open widow to vent the steam, you should do just fine. I actualy have molded the armor to my body before, I just doubled up a large towel and put over me, and did it that way so there wasen't any direct contact, but I don't think I'd recommend it to someone else.

In a sorta related note, I can remember about 2 or 3 years ago walking someone through heating Sintra, and when I recommend them the boiling water method, they asked me if they could boil water on the grill. She didn't want to boil the plastic inside because she didn't have any exhaust fans, or windows in her kitchen to catch the fumes, so she told me she wanted to do it outside.

What do you think. This is the concept for my Iron Man Mando. There will be gold highlights and the glowing chest piece. What do you think. Should I go for this, or stay with my original?

i think version two is better

Yeah. I was kinda leaning towards that myself.

I've decided to scratch this build seeing as I wasn't getting anywhere. It really sucks that I have to give up on this, but it wasnt working out. I have started a nother thread that consists of some questions and my Iron Man Mando concepts that I hope I am able to bring to life in the next couple of weeks. Thanks for all you input. This website is truely one of the greatest star wars communities that I have ever stumbled upon.