Discussion on Variant armor progress thread within the Expanded Universe Bounty Hunters forum, part of the Star Wars Universe category; I'm still working on my helmet , but I decided
I'm still working on my helmet, but I decided to take a break from that and start on my armor pieces. I'm planning on glassing this weekend and figured I'd do this as well.
This is the start of my Mando Merc costume. I used the WOF Jango armor patterns (medium size surprisingly was big enough) and cut it all out of less than three sheets of foam board. After cutting, I rolled each piece with a regular rolling pin to get the shape I wanted.
I'll post more pics as I glass the stuff.
David.
cool man, cant wait to see it painted
Now that Christmas is over, I'm beginning to work on the other parts of my costume.
To begin with, I spent about six hours today building the left gauntlet. I was given a good-size roll of hardboard (cardboard as thin as poster board) and, with WOF patterns, knife, and hot glue gun in hand, got to work.
It's still in a rough stage. I need to clean it up a bit, but this is my stopping point for tonight.
I'll be working on the right gauntlet when I get more ink and paper for my printer and I'll put on a coat of resin probably within two weeks.
David.
That's gonna look nice when it's smoothed out! Good job. I'm gonna try and do the same tomorrow while my wife is at work.
While the wife is away, the mando will play?Originally Posted by samlynn79
8)
While the wife is away, the mando will play?
8)
Cheers, my friends.
David.
I finished the rough form of the right gauntlet today. I figured between the two gauntlets, I've invested nearly 12 hours so far with many more to come.
There's a lot of pics, so I'm putting links in to most of them.
The top of the right gaunt comes in three main pieces (not including the clamshell). Here's the front and middle pieces.
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n...0armor/R01.jpg
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n...0armor/R02.jpg
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n...0armor/R03.jpg
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n...0armor/R04.jpg
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n...0armor/R05.jpg
As a mini-tutorial, here's building the top-back piece.
Lay your pattern out flat and tack down with tape.
Gently score every line on the pattern.
Firmly score all the outer lines and remove the excess material.
Bend along each scored line in the proper direction, testing to make sure it will fit correctly. I used tape as a temporary hold while applying the hot glue on the inside. Some areas may not be easily accessible with the glue gun, but take your time and you can get the glue in the cracks.
All three pieces put together...
More views...
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n...0armor/R12.jpg
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n...0armor/R13.jpg
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n...0armor/R14.jpg
Here's the upper clamshell...
At first I wondered what the extra patterned material strips were fore. Then it dawned on me that they are spacers to add strength to the clam shells. There's still a few pieces I don't know what they are for, but I got the general idea done.
Completed upper half...
Another view...
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n...0armor/R18.jpg
Completed right gaunt with my costume glove on...
Same thing, left side...
Left and right gauntlets ready for resin...
Something I noticed was that since I didn't resize the patterns, the peripherals came out great, but I had to add extra material to join the two halves of each clamshell together to accommodate my meaty forearms. You can see it here...
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n...gauntlets1.jpg
Once I coat it with resin and do some Bondo fill, I think it'll look half decent.
David.
Wow, sometimes people make the coolest things out of cardboard. good job on the armor and the gauntlets. Question. What did you use for your plates?
If you mean templates, you can find them by clicking here.
Alan Sinclair has perfected the templates for all things Fett. He also has the templates for the helmet available if you want to build one.
David.
Hey Jaiden, great work man! I've got about half of my left gauntlet completed, I'll post pictures on my thread when I've got it done. Yours are gonna look great when you're done!
Oh I know about the templates, I used them for both my plates and helmet, but i meant what material.
Oh,:o.
I used hardboard. It's like brown poster board without the waxy coating. A guy I know was getting rid of a roll and I snagged it.
But, you can use garage sale signs or regular poster board. Either one should work well.
David.
Those gauntlets are looking really good David!
Those extra parts were probably the strips that are glued to the underside of the upper and lower clam shells to add extra depth and strength to the gauntlets? One of your pics posted above has it glued to the top section of the clam...
Will you be adding a fine layer of bondo to take out any score marks etc?
Yep. My plan is to clean up the glue a little, coat it in resin, and add just enough Bondo to fill in and smooth out. I'll keep posting pics as I go along.
David.
I took some time out of building my armor to get started on my son's set. (His Mando'a name is Jauri.) I began with his left gauntlet.
After about five hours of cutting and gluing, here is the end result next to my own left gaunt. (I printed his templates at 80%.)
I have a lot of clean up left to do on this one, and the right one will have to wait until I get more hot glue sticks.
David.
Last edited by Jaiden; 01-12-2008 at 06:18 AM.
Do you have enough room in your gauntlet to account for clothing material? Looks kinda tight with that meaty forearm shoved in there. :-P
Good work on both, tho.
Gee, thanks!
Seriously, I worked on mine during the last cold snap and had no trouble fitting them over a thick jacket sleeve. The only thing I'm worried about is making the front work. I made it a little big to make sure my glove would also fit. But I managed to pick up some foam I'll use to make a tighter fit.
David.
Yeah the front of mine is way too big, I was brainstorming for ways to make it tighter. Foam sounds good. I've got a bunch of it. :-P I put on my flight suit and nomex glove, and the back part is nice and snug, but the front was still way too loose.
UPDATE:
I finished the rough form of Jauri's right gauntlet last night. I'm going to try and bondo glass them today or tomorrow for his 6th birthday on Monday.
Here's mine and his together showing the size difference.
Here's all four together (his in the middle).
And here is Jauri with his new (still rough) gauntlets.
I'll post glassing pics when I have them done.
David.
These are looking great! Can't wait to see them glassed.
Let the glassing begin...
I decided to try cutting out one step and bought Bondo Glass from Wal-Mart instead of resin AND Bondo. I started on my right gauntlet tonight.
Before...
After...
Sanded...
I still need to touch up a few areas with some minor Bondo fill and do A LOT of sanding, but I'll probably hit that tomorrow or later...once my Dremel battery recharges.
David.
Looks like the glassed part came out of a swamp haha. Its looking nice. Have fun sanding. Its a PITA
Here it is. I finished the right one!
Since this is a custom, I'm going to leave it with this coloring and rough texture. I wasn't too sure about it at first and I thought I'd want to hit it with more bondo and more sanding, but I like the way it turned out. It has sort of a "forged" look to it.
I painted it all black first to fill in the deep areas and then added two coats of the yellow. It's not the same yellow as my glove, and I may repaint it in the future, but for now, I'm going to put this one down and start glassing the left one.
David.
I like that rough look.
Okay, time for the left gauntlet.
It's pretty much the same as before, so here go the pics...
Pre-glass.
Bondo-Glass.
Sanded.
Black paint.
Yellow paint.
Wearing it with my glove.
And, finally...both finished gauntlets together.
Yeah! I'm done!All that's left are the peripheral add-ons.
Now on to the armor.
David.
Lookin great!! where did you find the templates for the gauntlets?
WOF Jango Gauntlets blueprints
Alan's plans are the best I've seen. Good luck!
David.
You're doing a good job on the gauntlet construction, but I would recommend adding more bondo and such and then sand to give it a smoother surface.
True, but if you look at post #23, you'll see that this rough look, while an accident at first, is what I'm going with. It's a "forged" look for my variant.
And speaking of...
Yeah! Pictures!
I didn't have my camera available when I was glassing the upper armor, but I did manage to snap these two of the painting.
You'll notice that I've done the same thing here that I did with my gauntlets with the "drop-forged" look.
I guess now I have an idea where to go with my back story.
I'm planning on using a coat of resin on the back to make them stiffer and to have something to attach the velcro or snaps to.
And, I hope to get my leg armor done sometime soon.
David.
very cool look, how many layers of fiberglass do you have going on?
I understand that you're looking for a rough look, but with such a rough body and a clean paintjob, it looks rather unprofessional. If you were to put a paintjob that contours with the bodywork, then this could be a possibility.True, but if you look at post #23, you'll see that this rough look, while an accident at first, is what I'm going with. It's a "forged" look for my variant.
And speaking of...
Yeah! Pictures!
I didn't have my camera available when I was glassing the upper armor, but I did manage to snap these two of the painting.
PICTURE 1
PICTURE 2
You'll notice that I've done the same thing here that I did with my gauntlets with the "drop-forged" look.
I guess now I have an idea where to go with my back story.
I'm planning on using a coat of resin on the back to make them stiffer and to have something to attach the velcro or snaps to.
And, I hope to get my leg armor done sometime soon.
David.
Andy
There's still a lot of work to be done. This is just a progress pic of my latest stopping point.
David.
Last edited by Jaiden; 01-28-2008 at 02:15 PM.
More pictures...
I thought the silver was going to be too bright, so I decided to mute it down to a galvanized grey color. But, I also decided to add some battle scars to it in the process.
Masked off...
Still not quite finished...but close...
And, I used the last of my can of Bondo-Glass for my shins.
Just glassed...
And with the black paint...
I'm thinking about changing the color of all the armor (including the cheeks and ears of my bucket, to the galvanized grey. I guess it'll depend on the jumpsuit - which I haven't even started thinking about yet.
I'll be working on my backplate probably next weekend when I get more Bondo-Glass.
David.
Its all starting to look great! Good job on the battle damage!
This is really coming along quite nicely.
i actually like the rough look its different. gotta love bondo. nice job on the scars and the paint. the galvanized looks sweet. galvanized can be polished to look shiny so you can always do that as another layer effect.
It's been a while, but I finally got around to doing some extra stuff to my gauntlets. Well, just the right ones (my son's included).
I found some "pins" today on a jobsite. They are used to hold rubber floor tiles (like in an exercise room) together. I thought they might look good for darts. What do you think?
David.
Ooohhhhh! Gnarley!
It looks like it would be really nasty to get hit with one of those. Not that other gauntlet darts look cuddly or anything. I always love found item construction the best. Reflects the spirit of the 'waste nothing' Original Trilogy.
p.s. is gnarley still a word? My spell checker calls me a heretic!
There's nothing wrong with showing your age.Like me, you probably also remember "Tubular, far-out," and "radical."
80's rock!
David.
"Wow man, those gauntlets, they be like, chya, totaly awsome!"
I could never even imagine doing wood work like that!
I love the gauntlets!! I will use this method to do mine after the holidays (the wife needs a break from my armor obsession. ) and my for rent sign helmet came out awesome thanks for the support and help
I completely forgot about this thread...
I guess it's about time for an update.
Here's my finished V1 armor.
And now I've moved on to my V2 armor.
I started with the trash can method...
repainted my helmet and gauntlets...
And ended up with this...
I've also added a cape...
and I just got my girth belt in the mail. I'll be adding that along with pouches and a cod piece. You can also see my new sidearm in the pic, but here's a better one...
This is a scratchbiult weapon I call a DH-16, the cheaper cousin of the DH-17. You can read about how I built it here.
That's about it for now. Thanks, MrUptown, for resuscitating this thread. And get a few pics up of your work! I'd love to see it!
David.
I'm glad this thread got resurrected, I love your armor, I just started my trash can armor $22.00 for small and large trash cans, and my simi-free bucket... Used priority mail envelopes and boxes FREE BABY!! and will be using resin and glass from the wal of mart $14.00 so far about $36.00 invested. Gonna download WOF gauntlets soon enough. I love the rough look, I may have to do that.. And also glad to see you're doing it with your son, my oldest (8yrs) wants me to make one for him, so I will. Keep up the totally bodacious work its mondo bi*chin! 'nother 80's dude.
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