Greetings from San Diego!

drkone

New Hunter
Hey everyone!

I just got home from teaching martial arts at Fanime Con in San Jose, CA. While there, I met a scout trooper from the 501st, and I finally thought to talk to someone (him) about his costume and how he made it. After chatting for a bit, I admitted that my interest wasn't in troppers, but rather Fett/Mandalorians. He directed to this site, saying it was the best resource for getting in touch with fellow enthusiasts and costumers.

I'm going to start browsing through these forums, but to let you know where I'm at... I'm at square zero. I have never done any costuming of any kind, and am not even sure if I have the skill set to make my own (though I'd love to learn). It would be great to chat with some of you to see where is the best place to start, and to even help me get an idea of what I'm getting into (budget, time commitment, skills & tools required, etc). My biggest interest is in doing a custom Mandalorian, but I do love classic Fett. I'd like to hear people's thoughts on which I should started with. Should I buy all the armor pieces and customize them, or should I make my own? Also hearing what people's experiences are with custom Mandalorians would be great (colors or color schemes that seemed cool but didn't work, custom gadgets or armor, etc).

To give you a little more background on me... I live in San Diego and work full time as a personal banker. I am also going to school to get my Bachelors in Criminal Justice, with the goal of making a career change into law enforcement. In my spare time I: practice Krav Maga, practice & teach 16th century European weapon styles, target shoot with my recurve bow, game on my PC, read, go to the beach, and spend time with my fiance.

I look forward to getting to know everyone here, and chatting with you all to get the ball rolling on an awesome costume!

Thanks!

-DrKone
 
Hello DrKone and welcome to your new obsession! :)

Really though, you've come to the right place when it comes to everything Fett. Be sure to read around and never jump to buy anything until you read user's reviews on the item or the time maker.

About the estimated cost... I'm no Jango or custom mando expert, but I'll hit the $3,500 mark when I finish my ESB Boba Fett. To do any Boba you're looking at or around this figure. Now I haven't done much of the work myself, paint has been commissioned and I went for the most expensive parts so I don't need to upgrade later. You could very easily save a lot of money by making the costume yourself, but make sure you study reference photos and read plenty of scratch built Fett threads just so you know what you're getting yourself into.

Which version of Fett would you want to do? There's the supertrooper/prepro 1, prepro 2&3, ESB, ROTJ and Special Edition.

The Mandalorian Mercs site is the best place for custom mandalorians...though Boba is much cooler in my opinion.. :p

Just remember, take your time and ask any question that comes to mind.

Oh and here's a very informative thread.
http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f22/new-tdh-read-about-how-much-you-will-spend-17421/
 
Which version of Fett would you want to do? There's the supertrooper/prepro 1, prepro 2&3, ESB, ROTJ and Special Edition.


The Mandalorian Mercs site is the best place for custom mandalorians...though Boba is much cooler in my opinion.. :p


IF I do Boba, I will likely go for ESB. It was the first time I ever saw him (as a child), so I'd kinda wanna pay tribute to that.
More likely though, I will go custom (for my first time around). I figure this gives me unlimited flexibility in design... which ultimately means I'm not trying to keep up to the standards of the Boba costume, and therefore can cut out and add things as I see fit (meaning I can be missing items for budget reasons and still be good, because I'm not Boba).


Since you said to ask questions, I'll already ask my first one (and it may be better suited in a different thread). How do people feel about 3D printed armor and accessories? The reason I ask this is because I just happened to mention my Mandalorian costume interest to a client of mine who, unbeknownst until to me today, does 3D printing as a personal hobby. He has already done some 3D printing of Han's DL-44, and he said he'd be up for taking a crack at Mandalorian armor and accessories. Is this something I should explore? Or has it already been tried and failed?
 
IF I do Boba, I will likely go for ESB. It was the first time I ever saw him (as a child), so I'd kinda wanna pay tribute to that.
More likely though, I will go custom (for my first time around). I figure this gives me unlimited flexibility in design... which ultimately means I'm not trying to keep up to the standards of the Boba costume, and therefore can cut out and add things as I see fit (meaning I can be missing items for budget reasons and still be good, because I'm not Boba).


Since you said to ask questions, I'll already ask my first one (and it may be better suited in a different thread). How do people feel about 3D printed armor and accessories? The reason I ask this is because I just happened to mention my Mandalorian costume interest to a client of mine who, unbeknownst until to me today, does 3D printing as a personal hobby. He has already done some 3D printing of Han's DL-44, and he said he'd be up for taking a crack at Mandalorian armor and accessories. Is this something I should explore? Or has it already been tried and failed?

Definitely understand wanting to cut corners and go for a custom first, no worries man :)

To my knowledge, no one has made entirely 3D printed armor. I know AprilStorm is 3D printing her gauntlets for a Bo Katan costume. It's definitely something to look into because you could make some killer designs with that thing. If its not something you want to do financially, a lot of custom mandalorians make their armor out of big sheets of styrene. They do this because they don't have to worry about screen accurate dents that boba armor requires. Just something to consider :)

Keep the questions coming!
 
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