Cheap quality armor for SW Celebration VI?

Hi guys,
GoGators here and I was just looking for some tips... I just baught tickets for my son and I to go to celebration VI in Orlando. Anyways now he wants to have a _____ armor to wear at the convention. But he only has about $100 dollars and I don't have armor myself yet so I cant give him mine. He is 13 so he wont be satisfied until it looks good. Anyways I am looking for some ideas about how to make clone trooper armor under the buget of around $100. Possibly Pep?

Thanks guys,
GoGators

Fun foam maybe?

Clone for $100... I got nuthin'

You could do a sintra Mando with a Rubies Jango helmet for that...

I am thinking of pepikura... As we have all the way until Aug 2012 we cold make a bit more $$ And get some fiberglass, Bondo, respirators, spray paint and other stuff. Any idea where to get paperboard (that paper that you use for peps) in the US? I would only need a small amount (20-50 sheets)


::IMPORTANT::
My son REALLY wants a SWTOR trooper or bounty hunter costume... (swtor.com/) Does ANYONE have ANY way to get these in a pep file? Thats all my son really wants and I really want to get him what he wants! This is the first thing my son has REALLY connected with. He said it doesnt matter what version of the armor it is or if it is bounty hunter or trooper but that that is what he really wants. Possibly ask Skip you guys think? Does Skip do this kinda stuff and what does he charge?

TY GoGators

muahahahaha the game hasn't released yet, so unless you have an in over at Bioware good luck getting the game models.

I've been working on a SWTOR BH for awhile now and it's slow going.
The concept art doesn't transfer well to real people.
He can pretty much forget that for a budget as tiny as that.
Heck my Helmet is about his entire budget and it's not finished, nor do I have the lights for it yet.
There is a Lady here on TDH doing a female SWTOR BH I believe and she has sunk way more than his budget into it sofar.
There is also a Gentleman here that did a bangin' SWTOR Bucket and he tried to sell it awhile back for around 250$.

For a hundred bucks and good quality you are looking at a LOT of sweat equity.
The old adage holds true: Fast, Cheap or Good. Pick two.

What you could pull off is a Custom Mando, Pep'd TK or CT.
Mind you a GOOD Custom Mando will run more than a 100$ unless you build/sew virtually all the bits yourselves.

What do you have tool and skill wise?

Start cruising thrift shops and surplus stores now, cheapest places to get coveralls/flightsuits, belts and leather skirts/jackets (for taking apart and re-sewing).
If you do a Mando You have the benefit of excellent build resources, both here and at the Mandalorian Mercs board (both free), Wizard of Flight's most excellent Templates (free) for helmet as well as Armor and plenty of tutorials for sewing the softparts.

If you do a TK or CT scratch build You'll have to look and shop around for Pep files, there are free ones out there but your mileage will vary.

If your son insists on SWTOR, I'd suggest the Trooper.
If you look real close the individual armor pieces are mostly Clone or Storm Trooper pieces with a few others thrown in for good measure.
Some pieces are unique and you will have to figure out how to make them yourself.
Again the Bucket will be ... interesting ... to build, but if that's what he insists on...
You may have to redo it a few times to get it right, fit and look.
Cruising places like Whitearmor and CTN may help you here when it comes time to attach it all, as it's essentially the same armor with a different look.
You could try to find pep's for the pieces you can identify and use the others as base pieces to modify for the ones you can't identify.
This project will take alot of time, you may run short even starting now... Darth Real Life will show up atleast once before CVI.

Ebay might be an option for you, I know there is a guy living in England making cheap armor for around a 150 pounds sterling, as for the child armor I would recommend kidsclonearmor.com, otherwise it will be the party dress up stuff for less than a hundred bucks.

Pardon me saying, but other than the stuff mentioned above you will not get anything decent looking for around a hundred bucks, with pepakura you won't get anywhere decent either below a hundred dollars, those are just simple facts, nevertheless I wish you a lot of luck with your search, maybe you might get lucky on ebay for that price.

TY for all the tips. He is now almost forgotten about the armor because he loves SWTOR... So he needs money to go to pay for the subscription fee. I told him this and he agreed so now he at least wont be expecting it. I am still goin to try to get him some armor but if all else fails I will just get us some cool star wars t-shirts as they are cost effective and comfortable! Anyway If you think of any other ideas please post!
GoGators

Its possible to do a custom mando using the WOF templates here. You can use them for the guants/ armor... you might find a Rubies 2 piece helmet you can modify and make decent looking. I have a Rubies Jango Bucket I modded for my son... I also have a black child size flightsuit too. I picked up the flightsuit on Amazon for about $25.

Alright Custom mando might work! I just moved so I have the 2-layer cardboard and also eat serial (OK who doesn't ** Head smack**) so i have thin cardboard if that's your tachneque. You mentioned templates do you have any liks to save me some time? Thanks! Besides it would be fun to do a custom!

U mentioned a 2 piece mando helm. I am thinking like this one: Amazon.com: Deluxe Jango Fett Adult Mask: Toys & Games

WHY IN CHRIST SAKE IS THE RANGEFINDER ON THE WRONG SIDE?????????????

Any tips or help?

okay 2 layer cardboard won't bend, it will crease and look like ****.
Cereal boxes can work but you'll need to fiberglass the hell out of them.
You could use a jigsaw, heatgun and a 10' 6"dia PVC pipe from Home despot for some serious plastic armor.
The pipe isn't very expensive and will yield ATLEAST one full adult costume (minus helmet), with some scrap left over.
Or you could start cruising all the signshops you can find and asking them for scrap plastic.
Any kind of foamed PVC sheet, HIPS, ABS or similar should work okay.
Some people like to buy 7$ walmart totes and using those for plastic but I would suggest not going that route.

Finally... sign up over at the Mandalorian Mercs and start browsing, we have it all already worked out.

I used Mat board from Michael's framing section to do all my helmets with, ~7$ a sheet and I need 1 and a half sheets for an Adult helmet.
Figure 3 sheets will do both of you Helmets, a can of bondo for ~15$, bondo spreaders ~3-4$, a thing of fiberglass resin ~18$ and a roll of drywall tape ~3-4$.
let's call it 70$ with sandpaper and spray paint for two helmets, throw in another 10$ for two faceshields (visor material) and we have the buckets done.

for the vest I suggest snagging a canvas drop cloth from Home depot, WASH IT, then sew your own vest using patterns from the internet.
It can be dyed easily to taste and shouldn't cost alot.

Armor plates well like I said.. scrounge the plastic from somewhere.

Boots either thrift or surplus stores (brick or online)
same goes for accessories, belts and weaponry.

You'll still break that budget but he's got a year to come up with some more cash.
There is atleast one birthday, easter and christmas so asking for financial support of a constructive hobby instead of sweaters and socks ought to work.
After all he will learn some skills here at the very least patience.

TY for the tips ghostwalker! I am still absorbing all of what you said because its a little over my head! But I am sure when I get it I will be like OH THANKS YOU GHOSTWALKER!!!!
Until then mate

Here is what I am looking for... Basically I want to add a resperator and them have a tube come out the bottom of resperator. I know it is not perfect but I like the way it looks and will do a custom paint job on the resperator. Where can I get a orange faceguard?

gonna have to make it yourself out of Lexan sheet or a clear faceshield and automotive tint.
There's a guy on ebay that sells alot of tints by the foot, for somewhere around 1.65$ if I recall correctly.

however this thread really needs to be moved from the clone armor section now, either to Mando Armor or SW costumes.