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[Ruus bal'Neta]

I am starting to build the TCW Deathwatch Grunt (Kenobi/Maul variant) with the intention to have it approved by the "Big 3" Clubs by Celebration. Being a Merc first I want to build it to MMCC standards. Given that we currently do not have a published CRL for the Maul Grunt I am hoping I can get a lot of guidance from the members and resources here.

That said, this is what I have so far for the build.

Helmet - Imperial Surplus cast of the Cruzer mold
Armor kit, Westars and jetpack - Eternal Armory
Boots - Palladium Pampa high tops as suggested for other DW kits
Lightsaber - Saber Forge Redeemer (I know that's not allowed for MMCC but I'm going to be documenting my work on the RL and 501st forums as well)

The Rebel Legion CRLs call for a black or charcoal gray flightsuit. I believe this should be charcoal gray but I need confirmation before I make the plunge.

For the flak vest, is leather/pleather the preferred material or would a waxed canvas/duck cloth suffice? I ask not just for accuracy but also comfort. I'm in SoCal and leather/pleather isn't very comfortable in this climate. If its the preferred material I'll use it but I'd like to know if there's a more comfy option.

My plan is to get the helmet and armor rough cut this weekend so I can start checking shape/size.

The Rebel Legion has a nice repository of reference material for this particular variant so I think I can manage the paint colors and detail. If there is anything I need to look out for on this please let me know.

Pictures of the armor kit and questions (most likely) coming soon!

For my own reference
Hik'aari WIP thread

[Mi'ix]

Hik'aari is definitely a great place to start as he's brigade cleared.  Give me a little bit to look over what you have. 

[Ruus bal'Neta]

Thanks Mi'ix. Hik'aari has the only WIP on the forums that I've found was followed through to completion and approval. That's been a great reference as I started planning this kit.

[Kryamla Redalur]

Commenting to follow!

[Ruus bal'Neta]

Thanks to a warm, dry couple of days I got a decent start on my armor and helmet.

I have the helmet all cut out and almost ready for paint. I want to take another pass at sanding and fit the visor before paint.





I also got all of the armor rough cut. The collar and backplates were too wide. With the help of a fellow ruus’alor today I got them marked and cut down to a much better width. I need to fill the gaps (out of spot putty) and sand. The return edges don’t quite meet my personal standards for realism. So I plan to fil the underside edges of all the armor with a narrow band of 3mm sintra. This will help give the armor the illusion of thickness without the added weight.



And because I wanted to get something actually built, I put the gauntlets together. They are 1 piece with no hinge because I have narrow hands so I can slide them through easily. I’ll be trimming the ends with sintra as mentioned above and filling the seam lines.



We have a busy weekend coming up so I’m going to try to get some work done in the evenings this week.

I do need to know what material I should get for the vest and girth belt. Pleather/leather or duck cloth?

[Hik'aari]

Commenting to follow.

In my opinion black duck cotton is correct for both the flight suit and the vest, and I have been approved with them.

The girth is an odd one; mine is made from leather, but turned back-to-front so the "soft" side of the leather that is a bit more textured faces out. This gives a nice contrast against the "ammo pouches" which are just more black leather, but this time with the smooth side out, which are sewn to the girth to make sure it is always in the correct place. There is an appoximate order for the size and shape of boxes, but in my opinion it is more important to get them spaces to the center piece is correct, and the pieces with the square cut outs are on the outside of the hips.

Also watch out for the height when you mount the ammo boxes to the girth, the top and bottom gaps are not equal, the ammo boxes are actually mounted slightly above center to give the top side a smaller amount of girth showing than the bottom.

[Ruus bal'Neta]

So a fellow Mando mentioned this new way to attach armor to a vest using pin blanks and locking backs. So I snagged this stuff to give it a try on this kit.



Basically you epoxy/glue/whatever the pin blank to the back side of the armor and poke it through the vest. The locking back secures it and there is no need for a reinforced hole like with Chicago screws. Just pop the back off and reset the plate as needed, leaving only a small pin hole. In theory it should make alignment easier without the "get it right or you're hosed" pressure of bolts or screws. We'll see...

[Mi'ix]

Ha, that's the attachment method I use for my Boba. 

It pulls the armor in really nice so you don't have any floating plates. 


That helmet cleaned up really nice. 

Who is the maker of your helmet and armor? 

[Ruus bal'Neta]

The helmet is from Imperial Surplus and the armor is Eternal Armory.

[Padm Thano]

Chiming in to talk about that flightsuit;

In agreeance that black is the color that makes the most sense. And I agree with duck cloth, as well. It's a good sturdy material that I think matches the visual refernces fairly well. A little weathering on it would help it match up, too

[Ruus bal'Neta]

Would a dark charcoal gray for the flightsuit be acceptable? In the references it appears to be lighter in color than the black vest.

[Hik'aari]

Would a dark charcoal gray for the flightsuit be acceptable? In the references it appears to be lighter in color than the black vest.

Personally I still think it is black, but weathered. In that episode too the "light bleaching" is unreal. Some scenes are so bright what is accepted as black in some scenes turns a blue colour (like black cloth does with a bright enough light). It is really hard getting any consistent colours from it as references.

However, I am not who will be approving anything. Purely personal opinion from my own research.

[Mi'ix]

I'm in the weathered black camp.

Padm and I have spoken about this at length and that's what we feel would be the most accurate. Just keep in mind we represent the Brigades, not the app team. If you haven't done so already, I would shoot them a question and get their take on it.

[Ruus bal'Neta]

I've sent the question in via the Q&A forum, just waiting for a response.

For Brigade approval you're saying the flightsuit and girth belt (as it matches the suit) need to be black?

[Mi'ix]

I can post the images that we are looking at when I'm at a proper computer again but yes the weathered black looks the most accurate to me.

[Ruus bal'Neta]

http://www.kjo.rebellegion.com/?portfolio=obi-wan-kenobi-mandalorian-super-commando-armor-tcw

That's the main source of reference pics I've been using. If you look past the light gray weathering, the main color of the flightsuit looks lighter than the unweathered areas of the vest. Its a slight difference but enough that it doesn't look like the same base color, in my eyes.

[Hik'aari]

They are horribly low res images, here is my folder of references I took from the Bluray: https://imgur.com/a/WyYOt



Images like this, to me, make it very much seem vest and suit are the same material, colour and weathering as each other.



Further examples of suit and vest matching.
Taking references that are not under a direct light is how I approached mine.




This is an example of how badly the lighting in this episode warps stuff. Outside, under a direct light, is really light bleaching this to almost seem a blue colour. This is what real black material can do under bright lights in real life too.

[Ruus bal'Neta]

Look at the exposed flightsuit between the vest and girth belt. The unweathered areas are clearly a different color than the unweathered vest.

[Hik'aari]

...seemed to jump over the examples I gave in the last post. So, using the photo you gave the area all around the legs shows a black flight suit with weathering.


In this one the vest and flightsuit sleeve match, as does the legs, and the gloves, all showing black.


Indoor photo showing all matching soft parts.


Even images like this, where the flightsuit looks lighter than the vest, to me just seem black with weathering.

If we are saying that the lighter colour is the suit (making it charcoal grey) then the weathering must be darker and black patches? Which to me doesn't make sense. Dark material when heavily used, warn, and weathered, will go lighter as the dyes come out and it show lighter weather more obviously.

[Ruus bal'Neta]

I still see the flightsuit and vest as different shades. Its very very close for sure but in my eyes there is a distinct difference. The vest is black and the suit is a very very dark charcoal gray with light weathered highlights on both.

[Padm Thano]

I'm going to have to agree with the others on this; that suit is black and weathered with some gray.

The images Hik'aari posted just emphasize this to me. (& a lot of those are the same images Mi'ix and I have been looking at)
Black, aesthetically, even makes the most sense.


Also no, that space between the flak vest & girth belt is not a different color. That is colored that way to, more than likely, show wrinkles, to show that the flightstuit is held tight by the girth belt. It's showing lighting & shading differences on the animated model.

[Ruus bal'Neta]

I have all of the armor pretty much ready for paint except the thigh plates. I think they might be a bit big but I'm not sure 100%.

The plate is slightly forward of where it should be on my leg but even moving it back a half inch or so it still seems too big at least in the front.







Also started the paint on my helmet before the weather took a dump and decided to not be warm enough to paint more.

[Kryamla Redalur]

You may need to take a little bit out of the front of the plate depending on where the cod sits with the thigh plates. I’d guess only an inch out? But I’m hesitant to say to do it lol

The paint on the helmet is looking good so far

[Hik'aari]

Those thigh plates do look really big, they are not hard to make from Sintra either (including the ammo boxes) to custom size them to yourself. Really you need to get your knee plate on, and your girth belt in the right place to then size the thigh to sit between them.

Interesting approach with the helmet painting there. Interested to know how you're approaching the layering now..
Are you putting a blue underlay around the front face, rim, etc. to weather through to?

[Ruus bal'Neta]

Quick CRL checklist so I keep myself on track. I'll try to lay everything out tonight and add pictures of the current status of it all.

Helmet - need to finish painting, add padding and fans

Collar/Chest/Ab Armor - Install pinback attachments then paint

Shoulder Armor - Add velcro attachment, then paint

Back Armor - Add pass through holes for jetpack harness, velcro attachment and paint

Gauntlets - Prep for Level 2 LED, paint, install padding and LED

Hand Armor - Add velcro attachment, then paint

Cod Piece - Add velcro attachment, then paint

Thigh Armor - I'm adding an internal drop strap from a hidden belt to help hold these up. The resin blasters I have are too heavy for velcro alone to hold to my pants. So install harness strapping, velcro attachment then paint and padding inside the holster to keep the blaster secure

Knee Armor - Add velcro attachment, then paint

Shin Armor - Add velcro attachment, then paint

Boot Armor - Paint then glue Toe Armor to boot and attach ankle spat and heel armor with velcro

Jetpack - needs assembled, harness attached, then painted

Flight Suit - 2 piece Dickies scrub pants and shirt. Need to add double sleeve to shirt and velcro to pants for the armor

Flak Vest - Need to pick up the duckcloth for this and the Girth Belt then get them put together. Also need to include the neck seal and pass through holes for the jetpack harness

Girth Belt - Need duckcloth then assembly, velcro for the Ammo Belt attachment

Ammo Belt - Once the Girth Belt is finished I'll cut out the Ammo Belt pieces, get them finished and painted then velcro attachment to the Girth Belt

Gloves - Velcro attachment for Hand Armor

Boots - Remove logos and attach velcro for ankle spat and heel armor and glue toe armor

Westars - The only reference I've found for lights in the blasters is when they are firing. So to get the Level 2 requirement I'm going to add red LEDs inside the end of the barrel, a switch to the trigger area and battery compartment in the grip somehow. Then finish cleanup and paint

The plan is to weather everything at the same time so it is consistent across the whole kit and to match the references. Then its all about final fitting, a shakedown troop and pictures for approval. All before Celebration in less than 3 months.