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[Shammah]

I love my Droodles, but it is large. Definitely try to make your own plates. Just be careful what material you use, 6 mm sintra is the material of choice for first kits; not terribly expensive and relatively easy to work with.  Other material that has a flex to it often won't hold paint well (bends and the paint cracks off). Some plastics won't form a persistent bond with paint or adhesives, and you're going to have to install attachments to fit it to your kit. I remember this one guy in the clan who had this thick yellow plastic... Never mind.

[trashcanmando]

Due to all the encouragement to try and make my own plates again, I printed out the templates to try and see how hard it would be to trim down what I have. The results are pretty encouraging, I'm feeling optimistic about this! I found the 5'3" templates, it turned out that on my first run I had the 5'6" ones. Whoops.

Here's how they line up on my current plates- you can see that I need about half an inch off all around.



The collar plate that I modified is narrower than the template, which is probably the main thing I would have to change to make fit my body type. I'm more or less taking the templates as 'suggestions' and planning on reshaping where needed.
Here they are taped up on me, finger on my belly button as suggested:



I think it looks much better! Gonna need a little modification around the shoulders for my considerably less broad torso, but it's amazing what a difference half an inch made.

Here's a picture of how the beskad is coming- I was going to wait until I had the hilt bulked up and things sanded down a bit more to post a picture, but I'm too excited, and the title does say pic heavy, haha. It makes cool swishy noises when you swing it!

[Havelock]

Great job.  Your templates look pretty good.  The collar looks a bit wide for you - like it's sitting too far toward your shoulders.  If you trim a bit off, then trim the chest plates to match, you should be good to go.  From what I can tell from the picture of the templates on top of your plates...your plates may actually work as they are.  Can we get a picture of them taped on for comparison?

And hooray for cool swishy noises!  Your beskad is coming along very nicely.  Keep up the great work!

[Shammah]

I'm really tempted to suggest another 1/2" off the outside of the collar, chest and ab. Slim people don't usually need much of a bend (that's what the extra material is for) so what you see is what you get. Can you reach forward without being gouged by the collar?

[Bare Col'Mera]

Got my boots at walmart, they're both steel toe and waterproof. I love them and wear them for many other things as well, so I'd like to not have to modify them. (Rest assured, they are authentically weathered.  ) The boot plate would cover the brand name, which is on the tongue. The only other thing is a small tag that simply reads 'WATERPROOF'.

I am in the same position.  I have a very nice pair of naturally weathered boots that I wear for other things, and didn't want to deface them for my kit.  So I looked for ways to cover the laces without having to glue snaps or velcro to them.  After seeing R Dano Camino's solution, that's what I went with.  I glued belt clips to the underside of the boot plates, and you can just clip them to the laces.

[trashcanmando]

Great job.  Your templates look pretty good.  The collar looks a bit wide for you - like it's sitting too far toward your shoulders.  If you trim a bit off, then trim the chest plates to match, you should be good to go.  From what I can tell from the picture of the templates on top of your plates...your plates may actually work as they are.  Can we get a picture of them taped on for comparison?

And hooray for cool swishy noises!  Your beskad is coming along very nicely.  Keep up the great work!

Here's the templates taped onto the plates-



Collar's a little funky, but I'm hoping I won't have to cut out a third one. I'll trim to the templates first and then see what needs to come off after that- thanks for the pointers on that, Shammah, the collar place is definitely still stabbing me with any forward arm movement.

Thanks so much, Bare, that sounds like a perfect solution for the boots! Does the clip slide around any or is it pretty stable?

We made a duct tape dummy today to help with the flak vest and armor placement, here's how that turned out.





edit: Trimmed 'em up! I was way too nervous the entire time. The collar plate is probably going to need to be cut out again. I don't think it comes back far enough on my shoulders. It's definitely in need of some trimming. Maybe it should come closer to my neck, too. Does it look like I should still narrow the chest plates out?

[jett drexel]

hello mate, your collar plate should be up as high as you can get it without choking yourself this will give you that extra space to play with i think then it's a simple case of measuring your other plates off the collar plate.

[Havelock]

Jett's right, vod'ika.   

And your plates are still looking pretty wide.  If you take a look at Jango:



You can see just how much of his torso his plates don't cover.  You'll want the sides of the collar to end far enough from your shoulders that it doesn't interfere with your mobility.  Then cut your torso plates to match the lines of your collar.

The spacing for your plates appears to be pretty even, so I think vertically your plates are good.  You just need to get the width trimmed, and you'll be golden.

[Shammah]

Is that the latest picture of your plates? Definitely need to be narrower. Havelock's right, look at Jango then look at that picture. The collar is about right for size, but the chest needs trimming (maybe on the inside - chest diamond side). That should bring a little length back to fill in the gap between collar and ab once your collar is up. You may want to slide them together in the middle and see if that will actually help before trimming. Then the ab will need trimming on the outside edge to match the chest plates. Don't be too shy, follow the same contour on the inside of the chest and outside of the ab edges and you'll be fine. Raise the collar, keep the same spacing, belly button is just below the ab plate. That space will be filled with belts, and that will pull everything together.

[trashcanmando]

It's looking like I'm gonna need a whole new collar plate again... the neckline is too shallow, so I can't get it up any farther, and the tab thingies don't go far enough back on my shoulders.

It feels so counter intuitive for plates to actually cover so little. Nothing covering your floating ribs and having full inch gaps between your plates goes straight against my practical soul, and I keep thinking of the weak points in the armor... But I got everything trimmed up!



I think it looks pretty much okay, gonna need a new collar piece. From that angle the chest plates almost look like they could use still more off, but they're a little bit distorted from where the duct tape holds them down. I don't want to take any more off until I know how they are attached to the flak vest.
And the duct tape kept falling off, so the gap between the chest plates and collar plates looks bigger than it actually is... it just wouldn't stick to the shirt. Shoulda taped the plates to each other.

[Havelock]

Once you've got your flak vest, we'll be able to get a better idea of your plate fittings.  The vest will bulk you up more than you'd think.  I'm pretty sure, though, that you'll need to trim the width on your chest and ab plates more.  Oh, and you don't have to have a full inch spacing. 

It feels so counter intuitive for plates to actually cover so little. Nothing covering your floating ribs and having full inch gaps between your plates goes straight against my practical soul, and I keep thinking of the weak points in the armor... But I got everything trimmed up!

And I am so there with you! 

From the CRLs:

MUST be fitted and spaced correctly depending on armor/body type. Good rule of thumb, maximum spacing should equal no more than 1 inch between collar/chest/gut plates. No more than 1/2 inch between diamond and chest plates.
Must be of adequate size in proportion to your chest area. Chest plates should not exceed 1 inch beyond edge of collar maximum.

So you've got some wiggle room. 

But lack of really complete coverage is why my eventual goal of joining the Force Hunter Brigade has me planning on adding flank plates, and having my biceps, thighs, and shins as enclosed as possible.  hehe

[trashcanmando]

I'll probably end up with roughly half an inch spacing all around.... I like it closer together, proportionally, and my proportions are already super scaled down, haha.

Dude! Force Hunter Brigade would be amazing! Have you considered Legacy armor? The overlapping plates look considerably more protective.

I take a martial arts class and have been obsessed with armor since I was, like... ten. Being so small, I rely on a lot of speed and mobility, so Legacy and full coverage plates wouldn't work for me, but I sure do like my body armor. Technically, though, the flak vest is also very protective, and the plates more or less get all the vital organs, so I suppose if you think of the flak vest as armor as well...

[Havelock]

I considered Legacy, but with Boba being my favorite character, I really wanted to go Modern Era.  Plus...I'm still very much a newbie at this, and a Legacy build is probably a bit beyond me at the moment.  heh

In the stories I've written for my mando, the flak vest and flight suit are both additional armor.

[Shammah]

I think you've got it. Still look a bit wide though. The upper outside chest corners should line up with the lower outside of those on the collar. The shoulder plates will need a little shortening. That they no longer look proper scale is witness to how much you've taken off the rest. Your collar is right on the outside, but may be loose about the neck, neck seal and buy'ce will affect the look of that.

[trashcanmando]

Okay, last picture for the chest plate trimming, I hope! At least until I get the flak vest done and see how everything is on that. I took about 3/4ths of an inch off the shoulder plates, but that's all that's different in this one.



I worked on the back plates today- ended up with four plates instead of three, and I added an unplanned little indent in the middle there. Saw it on a couple other back plate designs like this one and really liked it! They might need just a touch more trimming for spacing, and they look like they stick out on the dummy, but I'm not too worried about it. I'm sure it'll look different with the flight suit and flak vest instead of taped straight onto a mannequin. And of course the blanket cloak will cover most of that. At least when it's not too hot to wear it, heh.



Also, look what came in the mail today!



I'm actually shocked that it fits so well, I was sure a men's 34 would be way too big on me. It's actually a tad tight in places, like around the armpits. And when I raise my arms straight up, the crotch seam rides right up... I'm considering sending it back and getting a 36, but I'm not really sure how much bigger that would be, and maybe coveralls are supposed to be tight in places. I won't sew any pockets shut until I'm sure, though.