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[Pheonix023]

I meant to start this thread in January....you can see how that turned out 

So the early part of my year has been spent making upgrades to my husbands armor, which I will get around to posting up at some point, but I've also been plugging away at a new set for myself, the weather has been a little icky, meaning I've been restricted to working on soft goods.  However, with today being the first sunny nice day I've had off in a while, I got outside and did some dishing.  On to the updates!

First off, Made myself a new flack vest! Pattern is 100% drafted from scratch by myself, and sadly I didn't get any pics of the muslin test run before it was destroyed, so I can only show you the finished product.  Features metal boning, double princess seams, and lots and LOTS of piping....please ignore the pins, I was marking where my plates are supposed to go.....I'll get into that a little further down on the boob tutorial.

Front and back:



Three quarters front and back so you can get a look at the tailoring/laces:



And a close up of the edging:


I also made a flight suit, but I'm undecided if I will remake it...there were a couple of things I'm not  quite happy with.  If I decide to keep it, I'll post it up, otherwise, look to be seeing a WIP here in the near future.

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I was testing out a new way of making chest-plates (the bane of every female on these boards) and was surprised/pleased by how easy this was, so I decided to take pictures and post up a tutorial for you all. 

BOOB TUTORIAL

This works fantastically for anyone who wants to have fitted chest-plates without doing angled plates or "boob cups",  for those of you that are well endowed enough to not be ABLE to dish a solid sheet into chest-plates, or if you have a hard time getting them symmetrical.  It is a combination of darting (cutting out a "V") and dishing metal that should work pretty well for almost any experience level.  Here we go!

Required tools:

• ballpeen hammer
• tin snips
• pliers
• dremil
• bowling ball
• gloves
• 1 tube plumbers epoxy
• bondo scratch filler
• some good beats to beat your metal to

(1) First step....it is very important to have your flack vest on when you are making templates for your armor....it is the only way to make sure it will lie smoothly when you are wearing it, and the ONLY way to get the spacing consistent on your plates.  If you have to wait to start on your plates until your vest is finished, I promise you it is worth the wait for the results.

I know your first instinct is going to be to start with the chest-plates, because they are the hardest plates to make.   Don't.  For this tutorial, you will want to go ahead and make you collar and stomach plates.  Go ahead an make them, and shape them the way that you want.  Hold them up against your flack vest, and mark where the edges are.  I used pins, you can use pins, chalk, ect, anything that will not permanently mark your vest.


(2)  now you are going to wrap paper around your boob/boobs (I usually only do 1 side, and just flip it so its symmetrical....line the edge of the paper up with the center of your chest).  Fold it as necessary, to make it fit smoothly over your chest.  try to do it in as few folds as possible, tape them down.  Make sure to draw lines on the top and bottom of the paper to mark where the bottom edge of your collar and top edge of your stomach plate are.  This is a good time to trace where you want the outer edge of your plate to be.  Remove paper template.

(3) draw a line down from the top outer corner to the point of the breast (NOT on your darts).  It should be on a part of the pattern that is fairly flat, with no folds, because having the seam on a non-angled surface will make it harder to spot when your plates are painted. Cut along the line, this should give you a template that will lie mostly flat.  Decide what you want the spacing between your plates to be....at this time, regs say it can be up to 1", I like to space mine about 3/4".  Trim off the  spacing (all the stuff I colored with bold red sharpie).  This is your template.   Yay!



(4) Trace on to metal, and cut out.  when you do, make sure you leave alternating "teeth" on the open V.  These will enable the edges of the plate dart to lock together and make a smooth seam. Make sure you use the dremil to LIGHTLY score along the base of the tabs, it will make them bend clean.  Should look something like this:

(this is the point I thought it would be a good idea to make a tutorial, so sorry I already dished part of it)


(5) Dishing part 1!  So that I'm not covering the basics, please watch the dishing tutorials that we already have op on the site, if you haven't already.  I have the order that you should be doing this in labeled 1-3 and sharpied all over it so you would have a better idea of what I was doing.



*(1) you will be hammering a curve into the plate across the widest part of your chest.  Don't worry too much about shaping at this point, you can tweak it later.  This just lays the groundwork for where you will definitely have some curve.
*(2) Draw a line from the point of the chest to the bottom of the plate.  It should be a little bit of a < shape, because it will force the metal to curve around your chest.  Aim all of you hammer strokes towards the bottom of the plate, instead of spinning it in circles as you go.
*(3) Now for the spinning!  as usual, aim all of your strokes towards the edge of the plate, but rotate as you go.  It will create a bit of a dome to go over the top of your boobs.

You will notice the "V" in the plate is already starting to close.  it will continue to do this in later steps, this is a good thing.  It'll make you seam smooth.

(6) Flip plate, and planish what you have already dished.

(7) Dishing part 2!


*(4) Aim all of your strokes towards the outer edge, and work in rows back and forth until the triangle is covered.  You will notice the "V" in to plate is almost closed....take this opportunity to line up your tabs so that they are all on the back side of the plate.
*(5) add a little extra dishing to the area where the points of the darts on on your paper pattern fall.  this will get the plate out into the rounded shape it needs to be to fit around your chest.

(8 ) Hammer tabs


(9) Flip plate, and hammer with the FLAT side of your hammer in the drawn triangle.  it will tweak the shape of the plate and make your teeth lock closer together.


(10) Repeat steps 8 and 9 until your seam is tight.  It may help to push the seam in a "v" shape with your thumbs from the outside, to get the seam closer together.


(11) Gently tweak the edges of the plate with your fingers until the shape fits your chest perfectly.

(12) Repeat steps 4-11 for your second plate.....Presto!  Perfect, symmetrical plates!


(13) Reinforcing time.....pull out your 2 part plumbers epoxy (you can get this at home depot or lowes for $4-7, and it sets in about 5 minutes), and your Bondo glazing and spot putty (same bat-time, same bat-place, same bat-price).



Cut off appx 3/4-1" of the stick of putty and knead it together until it is a uniform gray color.  Apply it to the inside of your plate along the seam.  You shouldn't need to make it very thick....the teeth of the plate hold the seam together pretty well on its own, the putty will just re-enforce it, keep the seam from wiggling, and fill the small gaps between the teeth.  although it has a fast dry time, you might want to clamp it down on the corner while the putty dries, to keep your seam as small and flat as possible (I used clamp on the handle of my pliers to keep it tight, because I didn't want to sit there holding it for 5 minutes)

When your done, should look about like this:



(14) Sweet!  Time to break out your glazing and spot putty....apply to the front along the seam, and sand.  I usually do this 2-3 times, beforeI am satisfied with the smoothness level.



Finally, cut out the shape of your chest diamond, and your done!

Start to finish, the dishing process shouldn't take more than 30-60 minutes per plate, and they come out with a better fit, more symmetry, and better spacing than anything I've tried so far.  Hope this is helpful for you, let me know if you have any questions!

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Thats enough tutorial for now!  Here's where I'm at on my new set so far:



[edit 3/25/16:updated the last couple steps with pictures and descriptions]

[Kavryn Falco]

aaaaaa everything you do is gorgeous!

That vest fits like a glove, I'm super impressed! And that chest armor is super nice, too.  This kit is going to be even more amazing than your last one. I didn't think that was possible hahaha!

[Havelock]

This is awesome.  Thank you so much.  Bookmarking this so I can easily reference it when I'm able to start working on my wife's kit.

[Kryamla Redalur]

Oh my goodness - simply stunning! I love that vest! And those plates.. *faints from the beauty*

[Fenrir Kyramud]

Absolutely stunning. Going to be an amazing kit and I can't wait to see it complete.

[SkiBlue1737]

Love it! Great tutorial!!

[Pheonix023]

Thank you all so much for your kind comments!

Quick update....edited to tutorial with the finishing steps/pictures, and by consequence, finished my chestplates! Yay!

I went ahead and took a picture of the whole torso, so you could have a better picture of the shaping on the stomach plate

[Kris Jasra]

Interesting method, wish it would work on heavier steel Definitely useful for lighter stuff though. What gauge do you use?

I definitely second doing the collar first. The stomach plate I don't find so important to do before the breast plates, but the collar absolutely. And you have a lot longer torso than I do, that ab and cod would be overlapping on me

[Pheonix023]

*grins* well, if I get my hands on some heavier steel, I will definitely give it a try and see if it does!

I think this is about 20g, maybe 24g? 'Cross the pond, I think that's about 0.8-9mm....  I kinda get scraps when I can *shrugs*  My first set was made of 16g, but I never actually got to wear it, because I had a growth spurt.   I find the thinner metals get quite rigid when you get a bit of dishing into them, and are easier to wear over long periods of time....although I wouldn't mind upgrading to something heavier whenever I decide on what I want to do on my final plate shaping.  This is my 5th design so far.

It is entirely possible that it could be my torso or chest shape, but i find that if I make my chest-plates before my stomach, I have issues getting the space between my chest and my stomach plates to match the spacing between my collar/chest.....I'm going to assume that it is mostly because the shape gets all outta whack as I try to scrunch over to see the underside of my boobs, lol.

And you have a lot longer torso than I do, that ab and cod would be overlapping on me

Yeah....I struggle a bit with girth-belts.  I've got about a 14" difference in circumference between my waist and my hips, so they all tend to want to slide up.....I thought I'd try an alternative solution and try armoring the area, instead of trying to wrap cloth all over it.

BTW, just wanted to throw out....you have one of my favorite kits...... 

[Kris Jasra]

*grins* well, if I get my hands on some heavier steel, I will definitely give it a try and see if it does!

I think this is about 20g, maybe 24g? 'Cross the pond, I think that's about 0.8-9mm....  I kinda get scraps when I can *shrugs*  My first set was made of 16g, but I never actually got to wear it, because I had a growth spurt.   I find the thinner metals get quite rigid when you get a bit of dishing into them, and are easier to wear over long periods of time....although I wouldn't mind upgrading to something heavier whenever I decide on what I want to do on my final plate shaping.  This is my 5th design so far.

I use 1.2mm steel nowadays, it's a pain to cut out so getting those tabs would be a nightmare and shaping takes some serious arm muscle. It should work though, metal is metal, but I stick to straight lines when possible because ouch, my hands hurt after cutting one plate, let alone a few with lots of angles

And lol at the scraps, my first kit is a a real mix of stuff, the shoulders are 1mm alu, chest is 1mm steel, cod is 1.2mm steel, knees and shins are about 0.8mm steel...
And yeah, growing  My first kit is in retirement at the moment till I can redo it as I've grown in the breast department (thanks getting older - just what I always wanted; not) and it's thrown the plates way out of alignment. My spacing. My lovely, lovely spacing!

It is entirely possible that it could be my torso or chest shape, but i find that if I make my chest-plates before my stomach, I have issues getting the space between my chest and my stomach plates to match the spacing between my collar/chest.....I'm going to assume that it is mostly because the shape gets all outta whack as I try to scrunch over to see the underside of my boobs, lol.

LOL. Yeah, that feel, I know it - a full length mirror is a good investment. And whichever way works as long as the collar is done first, giant space filling collars irk me

Yeah....I struggle a bit with girth-belts.  I've got about a 14" difference in circumference between my waist and my hips, so they all tend to want to slide up.....I thought I'd try an alternative solution and try armoring the area, instead of trying to wrap cloth all over it.

I have very little room for my girthbelt, got about a 1" gap between the bottom of my ab which is shorter than normal and the top of my cod. I gave in and padded my waist so that they are more of less the same as my hips so it'd stop moving so much since I have so little room.
This is what I keep trying to explain to people though, work to your own body, not to somebody else's templates. My work around wouldn't work on you, nor would yours work on me, but on our own frame - hell yeah.

BTW, just wanted to throw out....you have one of my favorite kits...... 

And thank you, love yours too, always look at them and growl at why it's unfair that the shapes you use would never fit on me, you long torso'd fiends.

[Pheonix023]

Update!  Got my last three plates dished out today, back and shins!  Weather permitting, tomorrow will be full of drimil-ing to smooth down all the edges of my plates....that or working on a new flightsuit, lol.



Its a little difficult to see, but I did in fact dish a slight T-shape into my shins....just for kicks. 

[Pheonix023]

Update time!

Spent pretty much all of today working on a mostly metal DE-10 blaster....not quite done yet, I hope to have it done in the next two days or so....

First off, started with a Gonher 121 Die-Cast Cap Pistol as base.....had to shop around to get one for a good price  Its  about 9.5" long.  I know the handle is a bit different than the actual blaster, but I have a HUGE weakness for cowboy pistols....something about the handle shape.  Custom it is!


Then I spent some time doodling to figure out what I needed to do with the proportions to make it all fit right.  After some thought, I did decide I wold have to stretch out the barrel more than I did in the pic, but I had my basic idea down.


I'm not even going to tell you how long I spent at home depot trying to get the right fittings to make this work....to speed up the process for anyone who wants to give this a try themselves, I ended up using EMT fittings....the barrel is 1/2" pipe with 3x 1/2" set screw couplings on it....I forget what the copper piece is, except it came from the plumbing department.  To make them fit over the barrel Cap Gun, I had to dremil a slot down the length of all of the pieces.....I have been using that tool ALL DAY LONG.  The lower barrel is a random curtain rod I picked up at the Goodwill, and I covered the cylinder with half of a 1.5" EMT set screw coupler.....took a while to dremil out the tree grooves on each side.


Being as this was a cap gun, it had a stupidly short grip.  Extension time....I took a screwdriver and popped off the plastc ones that came with the gun.


Then I used one of the detached grips to make a pattern in some scrap plastic and extended it by about 3/4".....stuffed the empty handle with some plumbers putty, and locked the whole thing together with some set-screws.  Filled in the extra handle with plumbers putty too.  Love that stuff.  while I was at it, I added an extra piece of pipe for that weird 3rd barrel the DE-10 has.....and cut out some sheet metal to box out the shape.  Looks a lot more "to scale" now.


And did a second layer of sheet metal that I'll be using for raised details and such.....that is as far as I got today.


Now I just need to get down to the detailing, cut out the trigger guard, and start filling in the gaps with.....you guessed it.....plumbers putty.

I have also been working on painting my plates, but I'll save the pictures of that for tomorrow!

[Kris Jasra]

Nice, reminds me of a conversion I did for a fellow clan member. The die cast base was a beauty to work from and gives it a nice weight.

[Pheonix023]

It does!

Made some Progress on my pistol, Couple more detail bits, then i can sculpt the grip, and paint (my favorite part of the process)


As a side note, I'm really happy with how the trigger guard turned out....I can actually twirl the gun, no sharp bits or snaggy things! Yay!

And am now on my third layer of paint.....Got a base 3-4 coats of matte clear, 4-layers brown primer, and 6 coats of hammered gunmetal.....now on to polishing before I clear coat and then go for the designy bits!

[SkiBlue1737]

The paint on your plates looks amazing! Did you say you used gunmetal on that third layer? Where did you get it? I want to incorporate gunmetal color into my plates somehow, but I cannot find any gunmetal colors.

[Pheonix023]

Its a Rust-oleum Hammered 7214 Grey....I grabbed it at Home Depot for about 5 bucks a can.  Its fairly easy to find...I believe Walmart carries it as well.

Its a pretty standard "gunmetal" color, at least for paint...unfortunately, the internet has been extremely useless on telling me how to simulate "gun blueing" with paint, without actually using the chemicals, which do not work on anything aluminum or zinc-plated.  Seeing as i tend to make stuff from whatever is around, that is not exactly helpful.....

So I'll toss it out there to the boards.....does anyone know how to get that effect?  Without covering something in graphite.....

[GardenGeek]

I'm absolutely in love with that gun. Looks gorgeous!! Armour is looking great too. What is your method of attachment for your plates?

For the bluing....I would stop by an art store. Not Michaels...but a place that specializes in paint and brushes and all that and ask them their recommendation. I know golden makes a line of paints; iridescent interference colors, which may work for what you're looking to do.

[Pheonix023]

I'm absolutely in love with that gun. Looks gorgeous!! Armour is looking great too. What is your method of attachment for your plates?

For the bluing....I would stop by an art store. Not Michaels...but a place that specializes in paint and brushes and all that and ask them their recommendation. I know golden makes a line of paints; iridescent interference colors, which may work for what you're looking to do.

Thank you!  I like to use velcro...its very forgiving when it comes to placement
Excellent, I will give that a try!

Whooohooo!  Updates!

First off, Got my plates all painted! 


They look pretty now.....time to trash them and flithy them up, lol.  I want this set to be really beat up. Bring on the Sandpaper and blackwash!

2nd update, I wasn't happy with my old knees, so I got a new set all dished up at the armor party!  I did the one on the left, and MFox1986 did the other as learning/practice for starting his own armor.  Thanks Mark!

I think he did a better job of planishing than I did 

Also, side shot so you can get a better look at the shape


Now I just need to add some greebly-bits n' darts, and paint these bad boys up!

And Lastly, my pride and joy, my beautiful beskad.....I've been working on this bad boy for the last two weeks strait.  Worth every second for the result.  There is an aluminum core, and plastic construction.  And Sanding.....lots and lots and LOTS AND LOTS of sanding.  And bondo.  And then more sanding.  Did I mention sanding?



It measures 27" from pommel to tip, with a 17" blade.  I wanted to do something a little different with the blade, because most of the beskad I've seen here on the site look like machetes.....and I do think beveled edges are pretty! The handle design is something I lifted strait out of the Clone Wars cartoon....although I think mines prettier. 

Its short enough to be comfortable to use with one hand, and long enough that you could two-hand it if you wanted to use a lot of force.  I suppose the reason it took so long for me to make it is 1) I don't really have any tools beyond a drill, a boxcutter, a dremil, and sandpaper, and 2) I am an insane perfectionist....

That's all for now, future updates to come!  I've got to pattern out/build my gantlets, finish adding greeblies to the blaster/myknees, make a 2nd gun (I want it to be similar to the first but  a little different), weather/gunk-up my plates, and decide what I'm going to do on my flightsuit....and my helmet. And of course my favorite part, paint!

[Seltas Atin]

Oh my. This is incredibly beautiful. That flak vest almost gave me a lady boner, it's amazing. And those plates as so dreamy as well. I can't wait to see how everything will turn out.

[SkiBlue1737]

Your plates look awesome! I love the shapes and the paint really flows with them. It's also a nice reminder for someone who's stressing too much over her own paint scheme that it doesn't need to be overly complicated to still look awesome.

And your blade looks fantastic! And very familiar. I like yours much better though. I think it looks better as a longer blade.

[Havelock]

Wow.  So much goodness here.   

[Pheonix023]

*deep breath*  Well, I really haven't posted in a while.  In fact, since April.

My job at the time was putting me under a lot of stress.....so much so, that by the end of June, I actually had a mental breakdown, and completely lost it.  At work.  My boss, realizing that something was terribly wrong, pulled me to the back and we talked for about 2 hours.  At the end of the conversation (he was very kind and really cared about what was best for me), I ended up putting in my two weeks, and now, for the first time since the age of 14, I am unemployed.  If you had asked me before I quit, I would have thought the idea would be terrible in frightening, but to be 100% honest.....its actually really liberating.   I've been taking the time since to mentally recover and try to put myself back together.

I did not realize it at the time, but apparently I was under so much stress I was putting on weight.  As soon as I quit, it started dropping.  Fast.  So much so, that within 2 weeks, my almost finished armor kit no longer fit, and I had to start over from scratch.  What a downer, right?  All that work, LITERALLY down the drain. Made me want to cry.

But, problems exist to be overcome, and I'm going to look on the positive side of things......for the fist time since I started, I can actually fit into non-cupped plates (if I forgo a bra anyway)!  So much easier to make!  Hoooray!

I kinda didn't want to post until I had gotten some ground back....So here I go to bring you up to speed on what I've been doing over the last 2 months.

Since I ended up having to scrap pretty much everything except my cod, knees, and shin plates (two of which I had to trim down)  I started by finishing up things I knew wouldn't change......my blaster #1, and my sword.

Sorry the pic is kinda washed out....





Yeah.....I need to vacuum the carpet

Next up, I started drafting a new pattern.  I pulled out one of my reeeeeeaaaaally old vests (like, from back when I started doing this 12 years ago) and used it as a base pattern.....I don't normally draft that way, but I had some smooshing to do in the chest region.  I also took the opportunity to modify to traditional "boba" plates to make them fit on a female a little better, and to make the shapes of my plates a little bit more "accurate" to the shape they are on screen.



I also have been doing trades with some of the local mando's in the area.....I got this spectacular belt custom made for me by Mfox, in exchange for doing his soft goods....the is still some holsters and sheath that are coming my way. 




When I re-did my backplate, I took the extra time to put in the "jetpack slots".....it was a pain in the butt.  I also dremiled out the sword damage, and actually put in dents where the "blaster marks"  are.  Forgive the bad fit, all of my manniqins are dudes. 



I trimmed down the sides of my knees, and made some dart boxes for them




And last picture, the one everyone really wants to see:  ARMOR!



I'm not sure if you can see it so good in the pic, but I did grunge up my flack vest a LOT.   I can do a tutorial/take better pictures if anyones interested......shoe polish, for the win.

I still have a list of to-dos.....I need to:

• Blackwash my helmet
• Attach my Cod and Knee armor
• Make/paint new bootplates
• Make some spats
• Make some arm-wraps
• Get/Paint my gauntlets
• Build Blaster #2

Hopefully I can have this set done in time to Debut it at the Thanksgiving parade!  I'll try to actually post stuff this time, instead of just dissapearing. 


EDIT: Almost forgot to post.....hers a detail pick of the design on my shoulder plates, pre un-toothpasting and grunging up:

[Aria]

Good to see you back in the saddle.  Sorry to hear about all that went on, but hopefully you're in a better spot now.

Weapons look good over all - are you gonna do anything with the hilt of the pistol? It looks a little odd being white right now.

I definitely like design and colors/damage on the new armor. Looks very good. A little difficult to tell about your spacing in a 'selfett' ( ) but it looks good over all. I'm trying to remember....you do metal plates, right?

[Kryamla Redalur]

I'm sorry that all that happened but glad to see your building again! I love your new design that belt is awesome!

[Blackdugal]

Oh this is so cool.  I'm sorry I've missed seeing this for so long.