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After an entire month of back to back trips and personal events, I finally got back to writing on TDH. Those of you who follow my Instagram have received much more frequent updates. Anyways, let's just get on with it.

First, I printed and painted the jetpack beacon.

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I also got a 12v light to fit inside, but I haven't wired it up yet. I also repainted the top of the beacon so it's less copper and more brass looking.

Then, a guy on Instagram was selling some parts, so I managed to buy a Westaby Electronics chest display from him.

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It's one of his earlier models, but I'm not very concerned about the accuracy of the sequence.

Finally, I went ahead and made the shoulder cape. It took about 4 hours of total work, and I am so happy with how it turned out.

[ATTACH=full]237349[/ATTACH]

There are a lot of things that I improved with this cape compared to the last one.

     1. The first cape I made was a tan fleece blanket that I found at a thrift store.

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The pros were that it was $2 and super cozy. The con was that it was dead wrong. This time, I sacrificed my fuzzy blanket for some correctly khaki colored canvas fabric.

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This material is my best approximation at the moment of the WII US Army half shelter. The canvas fabric I got is a little too light and thin, but is way better in terms of drape and the way it tatters and frays.

     2. The stitching this time around is far superior. The hems on my old cape were literally the first time I had ever touched a sewing machine, so they were pretty awful.

     3. This is still a 3D printed and Spray Painted Build, so I sprayed the stripe on with Rustic Orange.

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I have been told though that my stripe color is in the ballpark of the actual rust paint, which was all I needed to hear. The accuracy in color probably comes from the fact that I did it in pretty transparent coats over the khaki colored cape.

     4. I'm really proud of this tip I figured out. After the paint dries, it's gonna be crunchy and not fit in with the rest of the cape, but I gave my stripe a light sanding to soften it up and give it some really nice patina around the edges.

[ATTACH=full]237354[/ATTACH]

The end product seriously FEELS straight out of Star Wars. Or maybe just a boring Earth War.

     5. Keeping on the topic of stripes, last time I decided to be a little anarchist and not put a stripe on the other side of my cape.

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This time I did, but I made the stripe blurry and faded. This is because we have theorized that the stripe on the ESB shoulder cape was painted with a roller, bleeding to the other side of the cape.

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The way I did this was by taping the stripe on the other side like I had lost the will to live (which I was naturally very good at) and even folding the tape upwards to make sure the edge was blurry. Then I sprayed the stripe cautiously to make sure it was lighter than on the other side. I didn't do that good of a job, but the effect is there.

6. Finally, the tattering is more true to the one and only template by Rafal Fett, and the frayed edges are actually there.

Okay that's enough about my new cape. Sorry, this just has to be my favorite part of the whole suit, and I'm so proud of how it came out.

I'm even considering buying a bunch more canvas and doing a run of shoulder capes. Would y'all be interested in that?


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