since I am only about 1 step ahead of you I'll fill you in on what I learned.
Most people make the armor goodies out of sintra, fiberglass, trashcan plastic, or cardboard. Cardboard was really easy, but I gotta tell you the results are faaaar from perfect.
Enough chipboard (matteboard) will probably be $10 that enough to make all the "hard parts" $10 in vinyl for a vest, and $30 for a set of blue coveralls (jango BTW)
gloves and boots vary, with jango you can get away with more generic stuff I suppose
Its taken about 15 hours if I were to guess to get where I am now, which is not anywhere near what would pass muster for 501st. This is a halloween costume, I know its going to get beaten on.
I used cardboard for the helmet and got pretty good results in the tube section, knowing what I know now I would likely use something different for the dome.
price of fiberglass varies, if you buy little packages from the auto parts store or a patch kit from lowes, its pricey, buy it by the yard from fiberglast and resin by the gallon. You save a lot.
welding sheild as a visor hands down. it fits the curve almost perfectly and is flexible enoungh to go the rest of the way.
spraypaint (rattlecan) can produce good results if your prepwork is good and you use light and even passes. Airbrush works best.
I bought a rubies set of blasters for my jango costume, they are fine for halloween but they will not be the final pair.
people here are fairly forgiving of noob questions.
If I can give a bit of advice, don't expect amazing results the first time around. Most of the best costumers on this board have done 3 suits before their current. It is just as much about refining your technique as it is the materials you are using. It was my first attempt so I went cheap. My next will have much better materials and will not be "wasted" money because I will be able to apply the lessons I learned through triumph and mishap 9mostly mishap) in this costume.
Build you skillset. Its amazing what you will learn once you convince yourself that you can.
