New Mando couple

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?

Originally Posted by gymbeau2000

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!

Originally Posted by NovallTalon

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

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

Originally Posted by NovallTalon

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!

Originally Posted by nomadbride

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?

Originally Posted by gymbeau2000

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!

Interested to see how this turns out! Scribed!

Oh, and she's ^^ my wife!

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.

Fun stuff isnt it? Sounds like your having a blast!!!

Do you have any pics of the armour?

yeah, that's why no one says to use foam bushes.

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



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.



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.



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.


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.



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.



While waiting for it all to dry and settle, I laid glass on my dome (next post) and finished zombifing this skull for Halloween.




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.









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.




Dome turned out ****** in my mind, so I found a helmet at a costume store i'm gonna try to adapt.

Looking good man!

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.

Yeah, I think the fumes got to your head on that anime kitty picture : )...but it is pretty funny, I'll admit! It does look like its sneaking up on the mask.

Nice armour! Looking forward to seeing the GF's.

Here's a few more pics. My retarded dome & battle damaged plates. I just bought two helmets from a Halloween store and plan to modify them tomorrow to make domes.










Well I have to say I am happy with mine. Tomorrow, gonna blast it with gloss coat, then matt. Hoping that the girlfriend settles on her colors and I can whip her's out. I might go buy two extra cans so we can both have backups. On top of that, I had bought an Evolution set on Ebay and he sent me another FULL set since the back & cod were cracked! Well, minus the knees on the replacements, but he included the flamethrower for the gauntlet....weird.

That dome is salvagable if you're rprepared to put the work into it.

Bondo it and then sand like your life depended on it!

Nice peace of work there vod. And thanks for the info here on the toothpaste. May use it may not. Not entirly sure. LOL! For now thanks you for following my thread in my armor. I appretiate it.

Originally Posted by Saz.

That dome is salvagable if you're rprepared to put the work into it.

Bondo it and then sand like your life depended on it!

I'm in agreement here 100%
I have only done 2 buckets, I have #3 in the works, my first one looked all wonkey, but I bondo'd the poop out of it and sanded and sanded and sanded, and it looks nice and battle damaged because of it.
My second bucket came out better.
Now my 'mini' bucket is looking really cool, so what I'm tryin to say is

DONT GIVE IN TO YOUR ANGER
keep workin', you will be successful, just give it a try.

Yeah I think I didn't really do the right technique. I resined the inside and before it cured, I fiberglassed it and then resined it again..all within like 30mins. I only did the inside. I didnt like how thick the resin was so I figured I would just light spackle the outside and now I think it's a weird-o bucket. I am just gonna sand the **** outta it and maybe bondo over it.

I have a question...you can print the WOF templates at different scales right? I might need to make a mini bucket for the girlfriend if the ones I bought don't work.

Looking good so far Gymbeau. Missed you at the party but we'll catch up with you sometime soon.

yeah you can print them at different sizes, but I dont recommend less than 90%... I did and 85 percent and it wont even fit my 5 year old.
So I am turning it into a display for my oldest, then will go back to full size buckets.

lookin' good so far ner vod, glad u're gettin' ur cyar'ika involved!

Thanks, Kal'ika. We went to Fred Meyers this afternoon to get her paint. She used the Mando Builder on the Merc site to pre-vis it. As we were walking out of the store she tells me, "Hey, I'm pretty excited to get my armor painted!" So yeah I think the bug has struck.

So on the back porch is her burgundy chest, neck & belly plates along with her yellow shoulders.




That's of course the first coat. She is also going to have Yellow knees and a burgundy & Yellow bucket. As a last coat we have a pearl coat sealer we are going to use.

While waiting for it to dry, I came up with a quick, easy & cheap way to make gauntlets without doing the soccer shin guard thing. I was trolling at Lowe's like and good Mando and thought about using PVC pipe as the body for gauntlets. I found a weird shaped one, got the appropriate connector and a softer rubber end connector for that size. I squeezed them together and am very happy with the results. Once sanded & primed, they will be ready for mounting various things to make them look good. I have not made up my mind if I should saw it in half or not and mount a hinge. Honestly I don't have to, it slides on and off easily, which I really liked.

Looking good. Great job on painting and great job with the gaunts.

can you get your hand out? it looks stuck

Yeah I can Adonian! Actually that's the real beauty of the way I made that gauntlet. The wrist part that tapers (see the first picture of the parts separate - the one with the big label on it), that part is a soft rubber and stretches. It fits snug, yet I can easily get my fisted hand in and out. Instead of connecting the rubber to the main part just to have it break off, I use the connector piece and it's all together firmly with no glue even needed. I'll be gluing it though, but while sanding to roughen it up to prime, it's staying as is.

I just put the second coat on the girlfriend's armor. I'm using Krylon fusion which everyone speaks highly of, but the second coat looks like it's starting to orange peel. I hope it evens out while drying cause I bet it's going to be a mess to have to strip the paint with all that toothpaste mixed in too.

Tomorrow I pick up material for kamas, loin cloths & my custom vest.

Alright, many lessons learned, and some things accomplished. The girlfriend's armor was done with painting after two coats of Krylon Fusion and a coating of pearl spray so now it's time to take the plates to the sink and wash off the toothpaste. Here goes problem #1. I don't know if I waited too long to wash it off or if it's just how the fusion acts, but the stuff is not washing off. I took my finger nail and scraped off the toothpaste and I discover the root of the problem - the fusion paint is very stretchy and latex-y. I ended up taking off the silver undercoat by scraping also. I didn't really know what to do, so I figured screw it, I might have to repaint. So as a last measure, I grabbed the dish washing sponge that's got the handle you fill with soap and start scrubbing.





I got lucky and the paint along with the toothpaste started coming off. Some of the silver undercoat still came off but it's barely noticeable. I sat the plates aside to dry and sanded down my gauntlet body to prep it for priming.





Meanwhile, I cut a bunch of pleather from a sheet I got at Joann's Fabrics for $8 bucks. I followed WOF templates and hot glued a demo together. it turned out pretty well, so I glued on the back strap and attached a button snap to finish it.







I spent a couple of hours cutting and gluing and churned out 15 pouches, 6 for the girlfriend and 8 for me, leaving my demo. I was surprised that they were so easy and still usable. I wouldn't say I'm at the level of selling them, but I would feel comfortable trading pouches for stuff to be honest.

To finish off the day, I got out some silver Warhammer 40k paint and touched up the battle damage on our plates and hit the edges on all the plates as well. I had watched a guy on YouTube make armor and he hit the edges of his plates with silver. His theory, which I agree with, is that if this were all real, the edges would definitely be where the paint would be wearing off. The pictures above are after the edging. I'm very happy overall with my progress.

Hey that is looking mighty fine there. The progress you are making is how to say really good. Sucks with the Krylon stuff. Good thing I am not planing on using toothpaste to get more battle damage. I am actually going to fill in with silver and some black to add that more battle damage look along with some rust for my helmet. And then with my armor pieces it will have the same way with grey, silver, red, and black.

Lookin good Gymbeau, yeah the krylon is flexable, I used it as a base coat, but used rattlecan car touch up paint for the layers, I used masking tape for my damage, then a metal pick, I have only tried the toothpaste on a scrap piece and the auto paint chipped away nicely.

Now I see how easy the pouches are, thank you for show and tell I wll make some soon.

They are easy Adonian. You should buy a couple of bucks worth of scrap pleather and give it a whirl. I have to be honest, mine look sortof ratty, but do-able. I burnt myself too many times to count and lining stuff up perfectly is a pain. But as long as you know going in that it's not gonna be perfect, it becomes fun. Oh, and as a tip, once everything is cut out, I glue the sides to the front edge of the body strip, then inverted "s" fold the sides and clamp them down with $.20 spring clamps for a couple of minutes to give you the proper folded shape.then just glue the other edge of the sides to the strip as you fold it to the top to make the front flap.

"All to easy"

Looking good!

Fun updates today. The girlfriend chose her Mando name for when she applies to the Mercs. She is Dralshy'a Atiniir & I am Bes'kad Prudii.

Ok, on the costume updates. I received our t-visors from Ebay today and realized that the person I bought them from was t-visor.com itself! They are very thick and good quality, very impressive.

I slapped on one final, final coat of gloss & matt, so plates are 100%. I had some shopping to do & hit my favorite salvage stores. I made a golden find at one store and found some guns actually labeled as blasters. That must be an omen I say. even though they were cheap no name guns, all they need is painting in my mind. I would tell all of you guys where I bought them, but I would have to kill you. Ok, here's a hit - the store starts with a "big" and ends with a "Lots". LOL Yeah, Big Lots gave up a good find. So if your looking for cheap alternatives to Nerf or just wanna look different, like my motivations, then hit Big Lots or a Dollar Store. Pics tomorrow of the guns before and after.

The next great find for us was at Value Village. I was on the quest for soft parts and looked at a version of Salvation Army we have up here and also Value Village. At the Village I found a cheerleader uniform top. Not a costume, but a real one. $5 bucks and ten minutes of work at home taking off the logo and sleeves and now the girlfriend has an excellent vest!

So it's Monday night and basically all we are waiting on is buckets.

XLNT vod, cant wait to see more, but right now I;m seeing double, I must be really tired

can you do me a favor and post a link to the WOF template that you used for the pouches.

Thx,

G-night

http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f28/jango-belt-pouch-pattern-10712/

Ah, thanks a lot, it'll help

Excellent progress so far...

Can't put any actual helpful input in, apart from I like the names ^^

Mine is Je'Karta Prudii, Vengeful Shadow.

Nice pouches mate!!! What did you use to glue them?

Adonian - Your very welcome!

Jodo Kast 3 - Thanks for the feedback!

PacxIblix - Liking the names is helpful input, maybe we are Mando'a cousins (Prudii)

A'den - I just used normal hot glue. The cloth backing that is on the pleather held the glue very well. I have seen a couple of my snaps pop off since the snaps are too strong in their connection and the pleather too slick for the glue. I have been thinking of distressing the pleather in the gluing spots with a wire brush to give the glue more to cling to. I know I could have used JB Weld or something, but why at that cost, esp when I already have tons of sticks of hot glue.

No pics today, too tired from working out hard...and reading the new RC book. I picked up the PVC for the girlfriend's gaunts and some odds and ends to cement to it. Also, found some weird lawn sprinkler tips at Lowes that are gonna be grenades. I found a nice rope at Lowes thats gonna be our girth belts. Lastly, I picked up the last of the PVC piping for my long rifle.

Well lots of updates on our kit. We are very very close to finishing! Went out and bought the last of the bits and pieces, I hope, for our gear. I found a nice fabric for the girlfriend's cape & loin cloth at Joann's Fabrics. Also, I trimmed up the sleeves on her cheerleader top sleeves, so now it's a rough vest. I also found a great deal at a surplus store and snagged a tiny (since she is very petite) German Army jumpsuit in black, which is what she wanted. I made her dig through her closet, which was not hard...the neat freak, and she had some very usable boots already. We picked up some work type gloves from Wal-Mart while I was grabbing some more trash cans as well.
I found these sprinkler toppers and am just gonna hit them with a dusting of darker metallic paint and turn them into grenades.




Best of all, she got her bucket in the mail. It's a scratch build, but decent workable quality. I quickly masked it and started painting. Silver (actually I tried the Testors buffing Aluminum Plate color) and now hit it with the burgandy. Tomorrow morning is the yellow followed by coats of pearl, gloss and a touch of matte.







I also finished the belt for my pouches. Looks very good and usable, however, when I checked them after leaving them on the belt overnight, several back loops popped off. I am going to experiment with JB Weld to attach them. I think I may have figured out a way to cut the form so I can sew em next time.



Basically just working on accessories until my bucket arrives from Sgtfang or the other guy. Tomorrow I will probably post 95% complete pictures of the girlfriend in beskar'gam.

lookin' good! keep up the great work

Here is her finished (minus glossing) bucket

very nice. That's a fine looking buy'ce. I think that the glossing will look really good on that armor set, the colors are good for it. Won't be glossing mine (trying to stay low profile), but I will say that that looks really, really good.

Thanks, Kal'ika, just added in the voice modulator system.

wont that hurt her ear?
I think I have that same voice amp.

It shouldn't when I'm done. Once I place the padding in there, I'm gonna cover that in foam too along with a foam ring, which is why I used adhesive backed Velcro on the bottom. She tried it on today and said it was fine & that was without padding and all that.

Or were you talking volume? I don't think the volume will be that bad. If it is, I'll just rewire it and put the speaker elsewhere. The reason it's there is cause of the length of the speaker's wire.

I'm happy to see my ole' scratch build get some proper attention I hope it serves you well.

yeah, I was thinking about volume, but your gonna cover it with foam, that'll absorb it.

Yeah Chucko, it's a great bucket for my girlfriend!

Just put the liner in my girlfriend's bucket. She says it's very comfortable & best of all no wobble head.

Got my bucket, so I will most likely be complete by tomorrow night! Pictures to follow

helmet = 90% complete!

I'm liking your work so far gymbeau... definately gonna have to troop with you guys, may be lookin' u up when I hit OK city to get some help with my armor! lol

For your consideration, Bes'kad Prudii & Dralshy'a Atiniir:

impressive, most impressive

Taco Bell cups work really good for gauntlets also. thats what i used.