Mand'alor the Uniter. V3.0

Here's some pieces I was working on this past weekend.

I've designed a very mando looking articulated heavy boot armor. 3 pieces hand hammered out of 14 guage aluminum and articulated (how we describe moving armor in the armorsmith world) to allow for maximum foot movement.

Also an updated picture of the stainless steel knees I've been working on. I decided to go with a heavier steel so that I can actually get down on them without worrying about breakage or bending. These are 18gu stainless, and the launchers contain small nickle plated brass darts. Just gotta finish capping the launcher boxes and the knees will be ready for painting. =)

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Updates!

Knees are done. I'm including a picture of one in the finished stage, and all thats left is putting in some padding.

Back plate is also just about finished. I have dished the piece out so that it conforms naturally to my back structure. I still need to trim the sides and neck up a bit and give it maybe an hours worth of planishing work, but other than that it is pretty much done. I've placed some extra pics of it in here so you can see the nice sweeping curves of the back, so if any of you plan to try to the same thing then you have some reference.

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Here is the left shin armor. Skip made me some of the clone shin patterns, and I used those to build off of. These are basically a longer Jango style shin guard with a back piece that fits inside just at the bottom of the calf muscle to keep it covered yet comfortable for all kinds of motion.

I put in some flutes both on the top right and left sides, basically these are for show but it's a very nice look that gives it a deeper appearance. My only problem is that the bottom front has a crack in it that I need to fill in with some aluminum braze. Once I get the right one done I can work on the sheaths for the knives that will sit on the front of each greave.

This is what it looks like at 75% done.

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I'm liking the heavy four-spiked boots - very nasty! Isn't it hard to walk around covered in all this metal? :confused:lol:

LOL yeah, everyone loves my boots! =P

Actually, it's not that hard at all. Everything is articulated to fit perfectly and move fluidly. The greaves fit my leg muscle structure perfectly, so that makes them highly comfortable. The backs of them only go as high the bottom of my calf muscle and are rolled out just enough to keep from digging into my skin. Plus with this being aluminum, the entire boot armor w/greave may weigh in at 3 pounds max.
 
I worked up my thigh plates yesterday. I was sitting in my workshop on Sunday trying to figure out how I was going to do the thigh plates, and as much as I wanted to make completely enclosable thighs...I realized that not only was that not practical but it was just going to be more armor that anyone would want to wear. So I took my Jango thigh pattern and stared at it for about 30 mins.

Then...it came to me!

I took the pattern of a 15th century cuisse (knight thigh armor) and put my jango pattern ontop of it. It was like they were ment to be put together. The wing that wraps around my thigh was actually hinged on the 15th c piece, but I figured that if I could give it enough curve then it would wrap around perfectly creating a nice "heavy" thigh armor that wasn't cumbersome. The idea worked, and after about 2.5 hours of hammering I had 2 great looking thigh plates ready to hit the wire brush.

I will be putting some brass loops on these to run my holster belts through once these are painted up and ready to go.

Also, once I am finished with this armor I will be making the custom patterns available for anyone who wants to use them. Most of these will work with sintra and plastic just as they work with metal.

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Painting at this point is around 60% completed. Upper body and back plate are all that is left as far as painting goes, and that will take a day or two to complete.

In the mean time, let me thrill you with some video of the jet pack CO2 system test from this past weekend. This was a prelim test to see if the system would actually work, what voltages were necessary, how it looked/sounded so that tweaks and fixes could be made. The link below goes to the test vid:


Also posting up a pic I took of the pack before I hit it up with carbon dust and put some wording/graphics on it.

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Posting a small update.

Chest/shoulder armor will be painted this weekend. I had ordered a custom chest display board from Fettronics with a little different light pattern than the normal Fett display.

For now, I will continue to use my current helmet. I have a metal helmet that I am working on, but it just won't be done in time for cons this year and my main focus is getting the body armor completed. Ladysewforus is working on a nice leather armor vest, and my local seamstress is working on a custom flight suit with earth magnets sewn in to hold the leg armor on.

I've also made some custom hand armor based off ST hand armor with some minor differences. I may go the full route and put some finger armor on...just depends on time.

I'll get some pics done up this weekend!
 
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