Hey Everyone,
I've been lurking on these forums for a darned long time, and I've been goofing around with character design the whole long while. I'm just going to go through a small selection of pictures, there will be a wall of text at the far end of this post.
The earliest drawing of what I consider to be "Shevla," the Mando I want to build, has been kicking around since what I tentatively date as late 2009. I've always wanted to do a Recon or Sniper type of character- if the forum name Shevla Ram'ser, or "Silent Sniper," didn't make that abundantly obvious. Fun Fact- the Brigades didn't exist yet, when I penned this! This early version was heavily influenced by Mereel Adenla and Dha'ward Krayt, and you can see that very influential post here;
http://mandalorianmercs.org/forum/index.php?topic=28402.0 I think that the influence is apparent.
Fast forward to 2011, and the Brigades exist! I've always thought it would be less work, in the long run, to build a kit with the end goal in mind. In this image, top and center, you can see my awful handwriting, and that is the design checklist for the Recon Brigade. I've moved from 'Bic' pen and colored pencil, to 'Sharpie' and watercolor pencils. This is basically the same kit, but without the red accent colors I had been playing with.
When I registered my account I was a verd'ika, and I didn't have a parent that would be convinced to join with me. Up until my 18th birthday, that was my excuse for not working on anything armor related. In 2013, I turned 18. This drawing is from around that time period. I still had the excuse of highschool to keep me from building anything. This design is a big shake up in design- it's were I end up with two different branching concepts, which you're going to see shortly. This design stuck to a "soldier" archetype, but was a light kit, where the "original" design thread was moving in a heavier direction. (this will make sense with the next couple pictures)
While the previous design was a little bit of a divergence from where things had been going, this design picks it back up where I had left off. This design is meant to also have a grey kama, but it is not pictured in the drawing from behind because I was playing with paneling with the flightsuit and it's construction, influenced by Rako Hardeen's character design. I've always loved Scout Trooper's and Kashyyk troopers, and these fill the same role I envisioned for my Mando, so I'm pulling more heavily on those as influences, as well.
Rako Hardeen; an undercover Identity of Obi Wan from The Clone Wars TV show
A kashyyk trooper! While it may not be obvious, my mando is supposed to have the same sort of inner thigh patch thing going on in the inner thigh / groin region.
A bonus, since this is a picture heavy thread... I saw this toy way early in my introduction to Mando's and I could never find it again for a very long time. This *crusader era* mando seems to have half sized plates above his knee plate, but below a boba-style pocket on the front of the leg. This is something I loved, and borrowed for my design.
Now for the "soldier" version of the character:
This Grey and Green "soldier" design as I have begun referring to it is the result of years of lurking on the forums and doodling mandos. I think it is been thought out pretty much as thoroughly as possible before getting into building. Suffice to say, I'm a little sick of it.
The design I mentioned being a fork in the road? The other fork of the road is a redesign on the "soldier" and leads to a Bonnie and Clyde, 1930's hot rod driving submachine gun toting "Gangster." I was trying to have a little more fun with my mando, and this design uses exactly the same armor components, but with the soft goods I am trying to bring to mind a dress shirt, with a loose tie, a vest, and a pair of slacks. My lovely significant other (and art major,) did the ink and marker drawing for me, as I have (accidentally?) introduced her to the Mercs, and now
she is designing her own armor to join up as well. (She also did my signature banner!)
You're still here? I'm impressed! A wall of text, as promised;
At this time, I've developed two different character designs I could go and build. The original design thread is the "Soldier" concepts, Grey armor on Olive Drab soft goods. The Alternate Design, or "Gangster." is the same Grey armor with brown pants, and a light grey shirt.
The Gangster is a very basic kit, and that is appealing for a first build. It is a bare minimum Light armor set, on a pretty basic flightsuit.
The Soldier takes that same armor, but adds more complicated pants, with Boba style pockets, a half plate of armor between the pocket and the knee, and shin armor. Shin armor has leather strapping, and that leather strapping has X-wing Pilot or Sabine style flares attached. Soldier also has a small pauldron type plate covering the gap between the collar plate and shoulder plate, with a boba style half cape attached. This would be on my left shoulder, as I would be tucking my swarsy weapon up into my right shoulder when pretending to shoot things. *pew pew pew!* Soldier also has a kama.
Starting with that turning point drawing, that leads to these two different options, I've settled on a custom helmet design, which you should be able to see a little of in subsequent drawings. It's somewhere between an NME Stalker and a Pre Vizla Helmet, but simplified and streamlined.
I've played with markings for the armor to make things more interesting than solid boring plate. I've elected to do a two tone very light and pretty dark grey scheme with whatever design I end up with. (our Mandalore himself being the inspiration for that decision) Markings are also the same between the two designs.
I would be remiss to not also mention Kavyrn Falco, Ithaca, and perhaps most importantly, Remo Jadd, who have all been significant sources of inspiration to me fiddling with this.
Like I said, I've been a forum lurker since 2009. I've checked my profile- I registered an account on January 19th, 2010. Pretty soon it will have been seven years, and it's about time for a change. I'm from Vermont, and we have a group cropping up of hopefuls. We hope to have ourselves a squad at least in the coming year, and it's about time I got myself official. (Can we have a "longest lurker" contest? I bet I'd win!
)
My question for you folks- I've done all of this character design and put all this thought into it. I have two potential designs I could build, and ultimately, I could build both. What do you think? Have a managed to miss something? I already know that it is very good advice to get yourself official, and afterwards do all the upgrades and fancy stuff. The icing on the cake. It is my feeling that the "Gangster" Mando is a much less complex design, so easier to achieve. That being said, I still love the "Soldier" design, even though it will drive me nuts to have it Approved as Official, but with any of the designed parts absent.
I'm sure I've missed something, but at this point I've listened to two episodes of Keldabe Talk Radio I had missed, and my brain is melting out my ears. This'll just have to do.
Please leave your comments, questions, concerns, thoughts, and nitpicks!
~Shevla
