Iron's ROTJ WIP

[Lazerjock]

Man I am so impressed that you got it done for the event. I love the star wars backdrop. Looks like you had a great time with your daughter too.

I agree with the upgrades/changes you plan to do with one exception and one addition to your list.

The last item on your list. Pull the knees together more with tighter elastic. Be very careful putting too much pressure on the knee armor. They are prone to stress fractures. I wouldn't change them, they look fine to me, but the picture isn't at a good angle to really tell.

I know we talked about this before. Your thigh pockets look too square to me. You may want to cut down the foam some more. I've heard guys just putting a wash cloth in the pockets.

How did your sound system work?


I put my Fett on to hand out candy. We had no idea if we would have any trick or treater or not. We ended up running out of candy and having to turn off all of the lights, but that didn't stop them from ringing the door bell well into the night. My house is known in the neighborhood for its front yard decorations.

 

[603Fett]

I hope everyone had a great Halloween!

I was lucky that my Alterations gal was willing to do those last minute changes. Having the Kidney Armor Velcro'd to the Flight suit was great and didn't move on me at all during my event! In addition, shortening up those white Jetpack straps was also a good move too. I shortened it by 3 inches which was enough to have it sit higher on my back and looked way better!

Here are the few shots we got from my community's Halloween event, which was called.....
View attachment 200564

My wife took this shot of me and my daughter who went as Marvel's "Spider-Gwen" this year.
View attachment 200565

And here is a pic that one of the Community members took of me...
View attachment 200566

The experience was two hours and I was pretty exhausted after. The Fett Costumes takes a toll. Thankfully the weather held out as 48 hours earlier it was just down pouring. But we had a cold and clear night for the event! I can only imagine that the 501st boys who troop 8 or more hours in their gear.......sheesh. But I will say I got a ton a gawking and jaw dropping looks from my costume. I kinda felt like a Disneyland character with all the looks I got.

Too bad my right shoulder armor was missing, but that's ok.....next year! As far as I know it is still on it's way back to me from Portugal. I shipped it back to Daz (Boba Maker) on July 7th (To have the Decal fixed) and paid expedited shipping it was with Portugal Customs on July 14th........stayed in customs as me and Daz worked to get it released to him. Ultimately we decided to have it Returned to Sender late September. Over a month later......still don't have it. (Did I say I hate the shipping on this planet?) Not much anyone can do though and certainly NOT Daz's fault. It is what it is.

So now with the critique, here's what I see, when I look at myself....
1) First and foremost.....need my Right Shoulder Armor.
2) Weather the back side of the cape - you can see that no black soot markings show.
3) The bottom of the vest when compared to the gut armor......needs to have THAT no more than 1/2 an inch fabric showing.
4) Gloves need to be darker - I'll be looking for suggestions on this - But Mike M. seems to be setting the standard.
5) Wookie Braids - need me that Woodman set!
6) My EE-3....while OK.....still want to get it upgraded to Sidewinder's EFX variant.
7) Knee Straps could be a bit tighter, which will pull the Knee armor closer together.

Of the other things I'm looking at upgrading are an actual Patterson Squeege for Shin Tools with MCR Shin Tool Rods instead of my cast MoW ones. And maybe a MCR Copper Gauntlet Rocket. What do you guys think I could change up to be that better Fett?

And lastly wanted to give a huge shout out to all the members on TDH that helped me along my Fett-Quest. Couldn't have done it without you guys!

Thanks,
-Iron

Always enjoy reading your posts and the informative pics that go along- thanks!

 

[Irongladiator]

That's cool man, especially love the shot with Spidey. Looks like great fun was had.
Doesn't seem like 5 minutes ago you were putting those first paint sprays on the armour. Now look at you. Well done for all the hard work.

I've not ventured out as we are in lockdown (again) here, so nothing much happening. But I'm still tweaking things anyway. My mother mentioned my cape, she said "shouldn't it be dirty there?". I too had left the underside brand new :|

As as UK resident we do feel your pain here in Europe as we get that all the time, as most things are shipped with a hefty cost. QuestDesignCanada don't even ship here, so I had to buy eBay to spikes that don't even fit. Gutted.

How did you pad out your gauntlets in the end? Any pics of them internally and was the left one ok for balance? Mine digs in my hand, so i maybe have to bring it back more.

FettHam
Thanks man! Concerning my Gauntlets I simply used foam to pad the insides. Worked great. Every now and again I found myself adjusting JUST the right Gauntlet as it shifted a little bit. Nothing too drastic. But here is what the padding looks like....

Looks GREAT Irongladiator - how does it feel to have it all behind you!?!

quite honestly, my only comments are on the weathering. The flight suit is weathered from your previous pics, but the ones you just posted make it look “clean”. That, the vest and the boots could use a good washin’...

While your at it, the gloves could be dirtied up some too. Besides that and the stuff you mentioned - you’re good to go!

I agree with the upgrades you mentioned and have planned those into my build from the start - I just have to finish. I have the EFX from sidewinder too - great stuff!

Boochman
Thanks buddy! Yeah, I know we talked about how the "Black Misting" can get out of hand in a hurry and after seeing pics of my costume in action. I agree that there could be a bit more. As far as how does it feel to have it all behind me? Well I can tell you I'm not done yet, but will be taking a bit of a break on it as the last couple weeks were exhausting. Right after work I got right on Boba and didn't stop till 10pm or 11pm that night. Super fun.....but tiring.

Man I am so impressed that you got it done for the event. I love the star wars backdrop. Looks like you had a great time with your daughter too.

I agree with the upgrades/changes you plan to do with one exception and one addition to your list.

The last item on your list. Pull the knees together more with tighter elastic. Be very careful putting too much pressure on the knee armor. They are prone to stress fractures. I wouldn't change them, they look fine to me, but the picture isn't at a good angle to really tell.

I know we talked about this before. Your thigh pockets look too square to me. You may want to cut down the foam some more. I've heard guys just putting a wash cloth in the pockets.

How did your sound system work?


I put my Fett on to hand out candy. We had no idea if we would have any trick or treater or not. We ended up running out of candy and having to turn off all of the lights, but that didn't stop them from ringing the door bell well into the night. My house is known in the neighborhood for its front yard decorations.

View attachment 200643

Lazerjock
I can see the plastic piece I gave you for your cape! I'm not sure it's meant to be flipped out like that though. But looks great! (Where's yer center chest piece in that photo?) Yes, we have talked about the pockets before and I also thought that they were a bit too square still. I'll perhaps round off the edges of the foam in a way to make it appear more random. For them knee's, Boba Maker uses ABS which has more flexibility and I feel like they could be tightened a bit more without fear of busting them. But I'll use caution and take your advice under advisement. Which leaves the sound system - it didn't work out all that great as the generators that were being for lighting made my voice not noticeable at all. So I opt'd to leave it out. a bummer cause in a quiet room, it tested out great. The model of Voice Box I tried using was the: Aker VoiceBooster MR1506. Which is a 10Watt Amplifier. I had the volume jacked all the way up and got zero speaker/microphone feedback - which I know was a concern. And again, it tested out great in a quiet room and I could be heard without issue. I feel like in a crowd it may be more difficult for folks to hear me and with a noisy generator......nope no can do! I'll keep searching for a better way - cause this ain't over, yet!

Always enjoy reading your posts and the informative pics that go along- thanks!

603Fett
Thanks man!


Thanks,
-Iron

 

[Lazerjock]

Lazerjock
I can see the plastic piece I gave you for your cape! I'm not sure it's meant to be flipped out like that though. But looks great! (Where's yer center chest piece in that photo?)

Yeah my wife never noticed that the plastic cape piece was flipped over. That was not supposed to be like that.

The center chest piece is there but slightly turned so it is edge on to the camera. Most likely due to me twisting and moving my arms together for the pose.

Too bad about your sound system. Mine is 10 watts too, but seems ok under normal conditions. I did notice that I can't hear much when I have the helmet fans running, so yesterday I bought a personal amplifier kit and some cheap earbuds. The amp is stereo so I will be able to hear which direction the sound is coming from. I extended the mic wires and did a quick test today with it and it seems like a good solution.

Here is what I bought if you are interested. It is a kit so you will need to solder it together.

Super Stereo Ear Kit

Boosts sound 50 times!

skycraftsurplus.com

 

[BobaFettAZ]

....Also received my soft parts back from my Alterations Girl. Once again she did an awesome job. Here's a rundown of what she did.

1) Attached the Full Metal Fett Hooks to the White Straps for my MoW Studios Jetpack Harness.
View attachment 199980

2) Also got Holes cut into my Arkady Vest to run the White Jetpack Straps through.
View attachment 199987

3) Flight Suit - Attached Velcro for Knee and Cod Armor. Also Sew'd in a Hole to route my Headset wire through (Aker Voice Box).
View attachment 199981
View attachment 199982

4) Sew'd in a mesh pocket for an Aker Speaker on my Arkady Vest - with hole to run speaker wire through it. (Hidden under Gut Armor)
View attachment 199983

Heres the Speaker....
View attachment 199984

...and here's what it looks like with the Gut Armor attached. See? Nothing shows!
View attachment 199985

And here's a side view. Shouldn't interfere with Armor too much.
View attachment 199986

How does it sound? Not sure, but a preliminary test yielded that it doesn't have that reverberation feed back nonsense. But I'll let ya guys know what I think of it, once fully suited up and can run a valid test. But hopes and confidence are high!

More to follow...

-Iron

Hey Irongladiator , how did that MoW jetpack harness work for you? I have one just like it that I got with my soft parts order but I have yet to sew my Full Metal Fett hooks to the white straps or cut the slots in the vest. I'm waiting for my armor from Boba Maker and am thinking I should wait for that to size the white straps correctly and to determine the vest slot locations. Does the jetpack only hook onto those two white straps and then hang loosely on the bottom?

 

[Irongladiator]

Hey Irongladiator , how did that MoW jetpack harness work for you? I have one just like it that I got with my soft parts order but I have yet to sew my Full Metal Fett hooks to the white straps or cut the slots in the vest. I'm waiting for my armor from Boba Maker and am thinking I should wait for that to size the white straps correctly and to determine the vest slot locations. Does the jetpack only hook onto those two white straps and then hang loosely on the bottom?

bobafettaz
The MoW Studios Jetpack Harness worked out great for me. I made a small error in measurements on them white straps, but that was my fault. Thankfully my Alterations Gal was able to get it fine tuned the day of Halloween! So I know Full Metal Fett offers not only the "Hooks and Rings" but also "Clips", which also get installed on the Jetpack. While I'm not 100% on the clips, I do believe they get clipped to the Ammo Belt (Unless someone wishes to correct me) But being that my Jetpack is pretty light to begin with I opt'd to not get them. My Jetpack simply hung right on the white straps and that was just fine for me. When I was walking around, it's not like the Jetpack was going wild on my back or anything. (I would discourage jumping around with the Jetpack on though - Haha! )

For fitting I'd say you can get your white straps attached to the MoW Harness now and then later follow-up with fitting the rings whilest measuring where the Jetpack would sit with your back armor.

-Iron

 

[BobaFettAZ]

bobafettaz
The MoW Studios Jetpack Harness worked out great for me. I made a small error in measurements but that was my fault. Thankfully my Alterations Gal was able to get it fine tuned the day of Halloween! So I know Full Metal Fett offers not only the "Hooks and Rings" but also "Clips", which also get installed on the Jetpack. While I'm not 100% on the clips, I do believe they get clipped to the Ammo Belt (Unless someone wishes to correct me) But being that my Jetpack is pretty light to begin with I opt'd to not get them. My Jetpack simply hung right on the white straps and that was just fine for me. When I was walking around, it's not like the Jetpack was going wild on my back or anything. (I would discourage jumping around with the Jetpack on though - Haha! )

For fitting I'd say you can get your white straps attached to the MoW Harness now and then later follow-up with fitting the rings whilest measuring where the Jetpack would sit with your back armor.

-Iron

I'm glad to hear that it worked fine being only hung by the white straps. I have a DVH jetpack and it's not very heavy.

The white straps are already attached to the harness. And yeah, I was figuring that I needed the back armor before I could measure where to attach the rings. I bought rings, clips and hooks from FMF and have the hooks and clips attached on my jetpack. But it seems the clips would only be used with the horizontal bar of the diver's type harness. If that's the case, I could just remove the clips and shave that little bit of weight off. Although I'll wait until I have it all set up and tested out since the clips and hooks weren't exactly easy to install.

 

[Lazerjock]

I don't know about the MOW harness, but the BigDane scuba harness attaches at 4 points. 2 at the top with the white straps and square rings and 2 at the bottom. The bottom of the harness has flat metal bars that the clips slip over. They keep the pack very secure.

 

[Irongladiator]

I don't know about the MOW harness, but the BigDane scuba harness attaches at 4 points. 2 at the top with the white straps and square rings and 2 at the bottom. The bottom of the harness has flat metal bars that the clips slip over. They keep the pack very secure.

Ah! Used in conjunction with the Scuba setup....got it!

-Iron

 

[mattman1138]

Glad you got it all done Iron! Looks awesome! You should make a gauntlet launcher for next year that shoots the little candies out lol

 

[ShortFuse]

Glad you got it all done Iron! Looks awesome! You should make a gauntlet launcher for next year that shoots the little candies out lol

Lazerjock Go!

 

[Lazerjock]

Lazerjock Go!

Done! Pew Pew Pew Pew

It's about the only use for candy corn.

 

[Irongladiator]

Hello Fellow Fetts,
I've begun my Phase II initiative and as part of that, I wanted to upgrade my MoW casted Shin Tools. While MoW's was good in terms of quality and visual detail. I wasn't too thrilled that they could only be positioned one way. (You can't flip em') And thus I had to settle for that. I've since ordered an actual Paterson Squeege, which arrived yesterday!

As far as I know, the Paterson Squeegee along with a set of Shin Tool Rods, some paint and gaffers tape, is all you'd need to complete this. While I wait for Dakota (Machine Craft Replicas) to reply to my email I've started my hacking this fine tool apart.

Using a needle nose pliers I was able to easily remove the rubber pieces.

Using a Dremel I made my rough cuts and got it cut down some, I'll also be using my buddies belt sander to level my cut out...

I've opt'd to make the Sonic Beam Weapon a bit longer than the MoW one due to Arkady's Shin Tool Pocket on the flight suit I bought from her.

I got the bottom finger slot sanded down (Which had a spring in it, that I simply removed) and also opt'd to remove the bottom hinge as that is not apparent on the final prop. I'll get some bondo to fill the holes in and sand them down.

In addition, I also used my drum sander attachment to notch out where I'm meant to place the MCR Shin Tool Rods for the Anti-Security Blade.

More to follow! For the US Fett's, have yourselves a Happy Thanksgiving this week!

Thanks
-Iron

 

[RamSkirata]

Hello Fellow Fetts,
I've begun my Phase II initiative and as part of that, I wanted to upgrade my MoW casted Shin Tools. While MoW's was good in terms of quality and visual detail. I wasn't too thrilled that they could only be positioned one way. (You can't flip em') And thus I had to settle for that. I've since ordered an actual Paterson Squeege, which arrived yesterday!
View attachment 202382

As far as I know, the Paterson Squeegee along with a set of Shin Tool Rods, some paint and gaffers tape, is all you'd need to complete this. While I wait for Dakota (Machine Craft Replicas) to reply to my email I've started my hacking this fine tool apart.

Using a needle nose pliers I was able to easily remove the rubber pieces.
View attachment 202389

Using a Dremel I made my rough cuts and got it cut down some, I'll also be using my buddies belt sander to level my cut out...
View attachment 202390
I've opt'd to make the Sonic Beam Weapon a bit longer than the MoW one due to Arkady's Shin Tool Pocket on the flight suit I bought from her.

I got the bottom finger slot sanded down (Which had a spring in it, that I simply removed) and also opt'd to remove the bottom hinge as that is not apparent on the final prop. I'll get some bondo to fill the holes in and sand them down.
View attachment 202391

In addition, I also used my drum sander attachment to notch out where I'm meant to place the MCR Shin Tool Rods for the Anti-Security Blade.
View attachment 202392


More to follow! For the US Fett's, have yourselves a Happy Thanksgiving this week!
View attachment 202393

Thanks
-Iron

The Turkey Fett made me happier then I should admit... Thank you for that

(Im not even American)

 

[Lazerjock]

Turkey Fett is awesome! Made me laugh.

 

[Irongladiator]

Hey Everyone!
I hope everybody had a great and safe Holiday and New Years! Now with the Holidays over I can concentrate a bit more on the upgrades I'm looking to do. Back to the Shin Tools. So I ordered and received Machine Craft Replicas "Shin Tool Rod" set which is specifically for the Anti-Security Blade.

First and foremost, these things rock! Dakota sure does some damn fine work! The thing I do like is that they are pre-tapped to accommodate a screw (Or threaded rod).

....And that's just what I was intending to do. Concerning on how to get the two rods to attach to one another? I opt'd to hack up a screw (#10-32 X 3/4") via dremel.

I then used some #271 Loctite - Thread Locker to secure my makeshift threaded rod into place.

I then lined up the two rods and screwed it into place.

Whats kinda funny is that you can see the threaded rod in between the two Shin Tool Rods, but it is also apparent in the 501st's reference picture too.

Now for the handles of these two Shin Tools. I know I said I was going to use a buddy's Belt Sander, but I convinced my wife to let me get one of my very own this Christmas. .

It made short work of getting my rough cuts sanded. I just gotta hit them with a finishing sand grit to get them baby smooth. I also used it to forge the Vibro Blade piece for the Anti-Security Blade. I bought a large square of polycarbonate plastic sheet - Dimensions: .220 in X 18 in X 24 in. I ensured it was thick enough to slot right into the Paterson Handle.

The overall dimensions of the Vibro Blade are .220in X 2.25 in X 4.50 in

And here they are in the Shin Tool Pockets....

They appear to fit good in my Arkady Flight Suit. Next up.....Paint! Stay Tuned!

Thanks,
-Iron

 

[Irongladiator]

Oh, I also wanted to show the Paterson Tools vs the MoW Molds - in case any were wondering.

Thanks,
-Iron

 

[spicy fett]

Man I already wanna upgrade my shin tools after looking at this! I also got the MOW ones lol

 

[ShortFuse]

Can’t beat found parts.

 

[Irongladiator]

spicy fett
It’s definitely one the those things I kinda had buyers remorse on. I’m mean they’re not that bad! But MoW’s molds are really meant for the ESB Fett and I was using it for ROTJ so the tools themselves only faced one way. And it is like ShortFuse said, can’t beat them found parts. Plus I enjoy putting stuff like this together!

-Iron