Custom Mandalorian All metal Mando

Bumblebi

New Hunter
I've recently started building my second ever costume/cosplay, my first being a Psycho out of Borderlands, but that's a whole other universe so nevermind that, it was a long, long time ago (Get it? No one? Ok..). Anyway, this second costume is one that I've been dreaming of building for years and years now, actually ever since I saw my first Star Wars movie, probably more than 15 years ago; a Mandalorian armour. On the 18th of November 2014 I finally got around to get it started, and since then I've been working 25 hours to get where I'm at right now.

I never intended to buy any armour pieces, nor the helmet, so basically everything pictured in this thread was made by me, in my school's workshop or at home, on the floor, where I work best. My first plan was to make all the pieces out of worbla, but after some consideration I decided that only the armour plates would be out of worbla and the helmet either casted in resin or made out of fibre glass. My plans changed however when I, one day, stumbled upon some 0.8 mm steel plates laying on one of the "pick what you want and use it for whatever you want"- shelf at my school's workshop, and the idea of an all metal Beskar'gam came to me, and so, here it is, the start of my all metal Mandalorian!

I started making templates of the helmet and the armour pieces out of cardboard...

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After a few days and a whole lot of cardboard, three versions of the helmet, and one destroyed racing/motorcycle helmet (to get the dome good), this was what I ended up with...

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And don't worry, the T visor will be cut out as soon as it can be cut out without risking destroying the whole thing...

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I think I got the size out pretty good, it's perhaps a bit too big, but it's alright for now...

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And so, on to the armour plates.. Templates were cut out of cardboard for these too, and my first plan was to make them out of worbla but...

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...this happened...

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Did some test fitting of the leg plates using neodym magnets.

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And here is the armor plate set, almost complete. Still missing is the knee pads, the backplate, some bootplates and the cod plate (I think it's called that.. If not; the crotch plate) and the gauntlets.

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So yeah, this is where I'm at now, with about 25 hours spent so far. My prediction is that it wll take about 150 hours to finish everything, but we'll see about that in the end.. I'm hoping that my first version of it will be finished in the end of February 2015, as there is a con' here in Sweden which I'd like to attend with it. This first version will most likely not include a jetpack, but with that said, I'll probably start building that along with all the other things anyway.

So yeah, that's the start of my Mando project, I'm hoping you're going to like this!

//Bumbi
 
I love using those magnets. What gauge plate did you use? If there's some flex in your pieces, you may want to reinforce the backside with additional metal strips.
 
I love using those magnets. What gauge plate did you use? If there's some flex in your pieces, you may want to reinforce the backside with additional metal strips.
Yeah they're great, I bought them for one of my other hobbies (I seriously have too many hobbies..), but realised they were perfect for the test fit. To be honest, I have no idea... There's not that much flex though, but I can reshape it by hand if I put some force to it.
 
So after a few days of hard studying (university tests are a rea pain in the a** when you want to build cosplays...), I finally got around to work some more on my Mando. So today I've been making the first of two halves of a jetpack, and kind of a dagger or knife, took about five or six hours to get where I'm at right now.

Started out with this, two half pipes, a piece of plywood and six pieces of MDF board.

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And added a three quarters of a pipe in the middle.

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And then some pieces in between all the pipes.

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And then I filled all cracks and such with filler, though only one layer on so far.

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And while I waited for all the pieces to dryg from gluing, I started with a small (34 cm) blade/dagger/knife...

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With some more details and a leather wrapped handle I think it's gonna look great...

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That's all for now, will be updating more in a while!
 
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Good work so far... Are you planning on doing the helmet out if sheet metal too?
Thanks! Well... I don't think I will make this version out of metal as I'm not 100% pleased with how it looks. A friend of mine, he's too from Sweden, will perhaps make a helmet out of metal though.
 
So yeah, I kind of lied yesterday when I said there wasn't any progress being made... Started building my left gauntlet today, I'm not quite sure about it though... What do you think of it so far? Still some work left like smoothing it out and filling some cracks, and I'll also keep also adding more details over time...

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Here's all the parts that I've made and are in progress...

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What's missing now is to finish the gauntlets, the jetpack, make the backplate, flakvest, the belt, some pouches and a few other small things..

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I got a hold of a racing suit which will have to due instead of the normal flight suit (it's nice to have parents and grandparents who has been racing for decades..).


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I'm pretty satisfied with everything as of now but there is a long way to go. There's about 35 hours of work in it so far, with up to 120 more to go... My hope is to have it mostly finished by February, but we'll see about that...
 
Quite a lot of dust in this thread.. There hasn't been much activity lately on my Mando, but now I've started to work on it again, finally.

My Flakvest is started, thanks to the help of my girlfriend who helps me with the sewing (I'm doing all the work but she shows me how to do it and gives me tips about it).

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The COD piece is made, I'll get a pic of it finished later today...

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And the knee pieces are being made today, one is basically finished.

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I've also got an update on the helmet I've built. It's going to be too big for me, and some proportions are a bit off, so I'll probably buy a helmet kit from Head Shot Props, where another Swedish Mando cosplayer bought his. This will have to wait a while though, since I'm going to Italy next week and won't have any money at all after that.. :D
 
Made the other knee piece yesterday...

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And a pic of the COD piece.

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With these pieces done, the gauntlets and back piece are the only armour parts left to finish. I might not do the back piece at all and just have a cape or the jetpack with some pieces behind it, I'll have to look into that.
 
Very nice! Looking forward to seeing this completed :)

Thanks! I hope to have it mostly finished by July, as the biggest convention in Scandinavia is held then.


great build. great progress pics. ill be back to check it out.

Thanks, I have this idea that taking a lot of progress pics could be to some help for others!

I'll post an update in a few hours, the flakvest is basically finished now, but that'll be an individual post!
 
Here's the update finally!

So, I decided to make the flak vest by myself, and while it isn't as advanced or as nicely made as I've seen others make theirs, it'll due for me, at least for now! My girlfriend helped me with it, she helped med trace a pattern and showed me how to sew by hand since I haven't sewn since 5'th grade, which is about 8 years ago now I think...

But anyway, to the pics!
Here it is with the chest and stomach pieces just laidout so see how much shorter it's going to be. Sorry about the blurry pic...

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I decided to shorten it with 4 cm on the lower end of the vest, it turned out pretty good!

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And here it is on me, with the plates temporarily on using double sided tape. They're gong to be held in place using velcro in the end. Note that I don't have the flight suit on in the pic, which means that is looks a bit weird, but when I have the flight suit on, it fits perfect!

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I've also bought a few weapons which I'm going to transform into the main and side arm.

The side arm, a nerf gun...

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And the main arm, a crossbow which will be modified to something like a Wookie Bowcaster with a blasterrifle built into it.

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That's it for now, hopefully I've got some more updates later this coming week :)
 
'cuy


gosh, i wish i've had noticed this Thread earlier!


good choice for metal.



Writing how you can improve your Breastplates would take so long....

so i made you a sketch.

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the idea is to cut the sides of the lower plates in an angle. You are small frame bodytype so you can get alot out of a elaborated waist line. The rest does a Knick-bend along the yellow line of the brest and abplate (it will also harmony with your edgy bended Leg-plates)
The Neckplate could be a litte more round- bended in the middle to extend the shape of the upper chestplates. - the lower edges of the neckplate will eventually collide with that overall look -> thats why Bobas and Jangos Neck are acually Pointy on the lower middle-point. Cut away what blocks the way. :D
Also i think the inner line where your Neck lies is way too tight.
Either you make the hole bigger to avoid cutting your throat when trooping -> or you take a look at old medieal Armors how they managed to handle sharp edges ;-)
 
Jaro Krieg: Thank you vey much for the input! The plates have been shoved up about 1 cm since the pic was taken, and the neck piece is going to be altered quite a bit; basically everything you suggested is going to be made :)
 
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