New Mando couple

gymbeau2000

Active Hunter
I bought some Evolution stuff and was and happy, so now I'm making my own set along with my girlfriend's so we can troop together. I bought some 3mm sintra, but decided that forming it wasn't as appealing for my first scratch set, so I chose the trash can method.

As of today, shoulder bells are cut out (Dremel style - I cannot say it enough, this is the way to go. Tin snips just don't cut it, no pun intended). Our other plates, minus the back, are traced out and waiting on me to go on the back porch in a hour to cut out. I think I should also mention for all you Mando couples/families - you can get two full sets off of each can (i.e. two sets of shoulder bells off the small can & two sets of frontal chest/neck armor off the big can). I am going to experiment with trying to get our kneepads off of the remaining chunks of can.

Helmets are still in paper form. I am fiberglassing my dome today and cutting a 1mm sheet of sintra for the barrel. If I cannot get a good grip on this bucket my Monday, I might just suck up the cost and buy ours. The only thing I am worried about is that she is very petite (4-11 & 115lbs). I was very humorous to see her plates stenciled out next to mine (I'm almost 6 ft & 200). Speaking of size, Its very strange to see the Evolution armor next to the WOF templated armor...Evo is so much smaller.

I had bought a cucblack vest (which is alittle snug for my tastes) so I am not gonna use it for my custom Mando. I have chosen to go a different direction for that & I will have pictures posted later of it. I am lucky and have a military surplus store right down the road, so I got a nice blue jumpsuit for 11 bucks. A side note, they have tons of nicely real world weather shelter halves for those of you wanting Boba style capes, just lemme know if you need one.

All & all, I feel real good about this build so far. Since it's a custom Mando, I feel so much less intimidated scratch building it since I do not have to meet the exacting standards of the community by building a Boba. Pictures to follow this evening, but other than that... Questions, comments & tips?
 
All & all, I feel real good about this build so far. Since it's a custom Mando, I feel so much less intimidated scratch building it since I do not have to meet the exacting standards of the community by building a Boba. Pictures to follow this evening, but other than that... Questions, comments & tips?


That depends on the community, because you also have the Mandalorian Mercs which is the LFL approved club for custom mandos like the 501st and RL is for canon costumes. We do have a sizable list of standards, but not as canon-focusing as the 501st and RL. We however stress quality and recognizability as a Mandalorian while promoting customization and individuality between armor.

Feel free to check us out: http://www.mandalorianmercs.com

If your having a hard time with your girlfriend's chest armor, many people have taken to using mannequins. You just trace and cut out the chest areas of the mannequins then form them to your appropriate needs.
 
I see what you are trying to say, yeah there are standards, but custom mando builders are a little less intimidating than the boba builders. I found that too when I first joined here.

I would probably mirror Novall's comments though that you need to try get the best out of your stuff as much as you can, there is lots of advice to be found all over this site, all it takes is looking for it.

What you are doing is fine, but you may want to gradually improve over the years :)

Good luck and look forward to seeing your progress!
 


I have been all over your WA State board Mand'alor, lol. I will be submitting my application sometime in the beginning of Nov. My squad is having a clan meeting Sunday and we are trying to help as many as we can to get complete.

I hope no one gets me wrong about my comments about the 501st. I was just saying how its easier to make a costume when you don't have to worry if there is a seam out of place or 1 too many dents on my helmet.
 
Don't worry, we know what you were saying, I think Novall was just ensuring "less pedantic in standard" didn't mean "no standards" is all :)
 
If your having a hard time with your girlfriend's chest armor, many people have taken to using mannequins. You just trace and cut out the chest areas of the mannequins then form them to your appropriate needs.

I like how delicately you put that : ). Nice.

GmB, is your girlfriend on here or a SW fan at all? Have you (or both of you) decided on design or is that still a bit too far in the future? Good luck and have fun!
 
I like how delicately you put that : ). Nice.

GmB, is your girlfriend on here or a SW fan at all? Have you (or both of you) decided on design or is that still a bit too far in the future? Good luck and have fun!

GF is a Star Wars fan now. I told her when we got together a year ago that she needs to watch the Saga on DVD. She was skeptical, she knew a couple of things, but really had no SW knowledge. She watched them (in old school order BTW) and really liked them. It was pretty amazing to watch her watch it and literally hear gasps during key parts!

I have my baskar'gam figured out to a tee of course. She is still thinking about hers, but really started thinking out of the box when I told her that there is really 1000s of ways customize and accessorize. I do not see her as being a pink cartoony fem Mando, so she will be convincingly real.

I had looked into the fem plates for her, but she is a solid B so I am monkeying with the idea of a mid level simple horizontal bend in the chest plates, so you can see she is a fem, but it would be subtle. I would imagine that a real fem Mando would not wanna look like something out of Marvel comics. I think the bend would look more practical, unless of course the fem was large chested, then actual cuppage would be more stream-lined. Anyone agree? Nomadbride, feedback?
 
I had looked into the fem plates for her, but she is a solid B so I am monkeying with the idea of a mid level simple horizontal bend in the chest plates, so you can see she is a fem, but it would be subtle. I would imagine that a real fem Mando would not wanna look like something out of Marvel comics. I think the bend would look more practical, unless of course the fem was large chested, then actual cuppage would be more stream-lined. Anyone agree? Nomadbride, feedback?

I'm all for a more subtle look-- personally, the LAST thing I would want were I a Mando would be for someone to notice my gender first thing. My husband, however, has it more in his head that it's something that NEEDS to be accentuated. I think the slight bend sounds good, though I'm not sure how comfortable it would be for her, per se.
 
Well she is very petite (4-11, 115 34b) so I don't think a slight bend will be too bad. I mean the nice rounded comic style plates are def attention grabbers, but we are applying to the Mando Mercs, so are trying to be more "real world" I guess you could say.

Pics to follow for sure!
 
Battle damaged the plates today and put a light coat of primer on em. I forgot to take pics after sanded and during the Dremel tearing them up for battle, but I will remember later since I don't think my damage is deep enough.

This afternoon I should have some pics up
 
All armor has now been painted silver for a base layer. I am cutting another set of plates for the girlfriend for my experimental "plate bend for fems" style. I also finally got bold and glassed the dome for my helmet. I did not know that resting the foam brush in the resin pan would result in a toxic chemical reaction! It started smoking, hissing and giving off horrible fumes. Luckily I had my fiberglass filter mask on, but the fumes burnt my eyes alittle before i could huck the brush. So warning to all, be careful with the foam brushes. Oh and of course I almost tarred & feathered myself - resin & fiberglass style.
 
Ok, here is the sort-of progress:

Since my girlfriend is much smaller than me, I was able to put her templates on the same cans as mine
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If you do this, be careful not to place the template close to the bottom, like hers. There is a small chuck of reinforcement on the bottom running vertically. This wreaked havoc with my Dremel, but I got through it.

After all cut out roughly, I got the Dremel and cleaned up the edges. I soon discovered the Dremel is a little too much brute force for this and whipped out the Xacto and was able to make much better edges.
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Speaking of Dremels, I had read previously that people had gone through several cutting wheels making armor, so I bought the EX lock metal cutter set for $15 (like 5 wheels and the new quick snap connector). It's my new best friend.
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Next, newspaper down & priming. I used an Rust-o-leum automotive rattle can type from Fred Meyers at about $5. I'm not a big fan of priming, but I wanted a nice thick looking paint job.
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After that I wanted to lay down a layer of metallic silver as an undercoat and for the battle damage. I wanted to get the buffing sprays made by Testors, but they are messy. I made model kits as well and those sprays made awesome results, but between the buffing dust and the fact that I didn't really want it to look polished but more like a raw look. I bought a can of Krylon's "Short cuts" metallic paint color Chrome.
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I didn't take any good pics raw of the battle damage, but here is a small peak at what I did with my Dremel. I got the buffing nub and ground the dents and cuts, then the tiny cutting ball attachment and refined & deepened them.
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While waiting for it all to dry and settle, I laid glass on my dome (next post) and finished zombifing this skull for Halloween.
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I particularly like my girlfriend's anime kitty bank behind it, as if it's sneaking up on the skull to scare it.... maybe paint fumes are getting to me...
 
i use foam brushes all the time when applying fiberglass resin. i've never had any problems like that before.
 
Here is my mess of a dome. I saw some simple army type helmets at the Spirit Halloween store and thought about modifying it, but I am worried it's too small. Well I didn't have any real problems making the paper shape. I printed the templates out on cardstock from Costco. It holds it's shape pretty good and not really flimsy. I got regular scotch tape and then resined it good, maybe too thick though. I have never messed with resin before. I cut the fiberglass into small strips and wanted to like cross spoke it but realized when the layers overlapped, they didn't lay good. So I only cross spoked three strips, then just filled in the gaps with the rest. I had a real mess on my hands though with the fiberglass and resin and latex gloves...after awhile I was just making a mess and called it good enough. I laid it upside down on three gallons of water and then later once it stiffed up on a Kleenex box.
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It feels good and solid now...and the shape is ok. It's getting bondoed and puttied tonight!
 
My armor is all done. The girlfriend is picking out colors for hers. I may have discovered another way to make custom gauntlets, more to follow on that. For my battle damage, I could not find masking fluid at Micheal's so I used toothpaste instead. Was better i think because I just ran the plates under warm water, which actually seemed to make the paint chip off better & more realistically.

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Dome turned out ****** in my mind, so I found a helmet at a costume store i'm gonna try to adapt.
 
Can you tell me how exactly could you use tooth paste to add in for battle damage. I have been wondering that for the longest time when I saw someone use tooth paste.
 
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