activation email

[jedi.on.horseback]

Greetings Vod! My name is Lili but y'all will know me as Dar'soon Ra'cayer in hopefully a month or two <3 This is my WIP thread that really isn't a WIP since my kit isn't really a work in progress anymore. Either way lets just get to it because I don't know how else to start this.

_{Just as a note all photos (and more) can be found at the google photo album found at the link below
https://photos.app.goo.gl/utDrgBjkksjhdmZFA}

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Like any armor project, it starts with concept designs. I knew I wanted legacy plates, a night owl helmet, and I wanted her to be a sniper with a big gun from the first concepts but as you see the color scheme and plate designs changed until we found the one on the right. There was even a more complex heavy armor design in the original pencil sketch of the right image that was taken away when I put in the colors. I also ended up not making a kama with the loincloth which shows you that no matter how much you plan your kit out, there will always be some level of adjustments that you make on the fly, and that is completely okay.

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Soft Under Parts

To start with I will just put Amazon (all hail the overlord) links to the scrubs, fingerless gloves, and boots I got for this kit. I will note that scrubs make it easy to get in and out of for *eh em* bodily needs for us females that coveralls wouldn't allow us to do, however there are some cons to them. They need to be taken in at the arms and legs to make them tighter to the body, I recommend doing this prior to sewing on your fastenings for your shoulders and gauntlets to not have them set askew by it. **The photos below show you the difference taking in the arms looks for comparison.** The other con I have found is that my thighs chafe badly in the scrubs because they sag too low, to remedy it I wear spandex shorts under them because I obviously need another layer of clothing to sweat through. ;-;

   
_{please excuse my cat, tired face and shoddy shoulder placements #tiredcollegekid}

Scrub Top: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000UJE79G/
Scrub Bottom: https://www.amazon.com/Cherokee-Workwear-Scrubs-Chocolate-Medium/dp/B004DKI36G/
Fingerless Gloves: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DT838RB/
Boots: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00U9Y73R0/

Now on to the flak vest, which is the main event in the soft parts of course!

      

Now is the time I wish I kept all the scribbles of designs to how I designed and drafted a pattern for this flak vest instead of turning them in with my college math homework like a fool... because clearly, cosplay is more important than a college GPA of 3.93    Basically this pattern is drafted off of one of my tighter fitting t-shirts which I traced on my duck cloth. You can't see it in any of these photos but the shoulders are actually attached to each other by 3 heavy-duty one (1) inch elastic webbing that I sewed to each side. This gives me a little bit more upward motion to my shoulder than most. The main part for us ladies is that I made my darts for how the chest comes in to make our lovely figure by literally making it purposely too bit on the front and then folding it over to pin it to itself to make those tighter darts. Be sure that you make those pin placements when you have the sides closed, as you can see I chose to lace up my sides, it is very hard to get in and out of and is a lot easier with a friend to help you with your laces but having so many tight eyelets to lace through it gives a very even pull across your body to create the smooth plane that makes armor placement a dream.

The final element to the flak vest is the nylon webbing that the armor attaches to. The webbing makes a 'V' shape in the front and runs into a larger 'V' in the back where it is sewn down. You can also see in the 3rd picture the little buckles that I have as well. They are also on webbing that is sewn across the back of the flak vest too. Those buckles help keep the breastplate down and not flopping about all willy-nilly. Speaking of flopping around, the 3rd photo actually shows off a later addition which was to sew velcro to the bottom hem of the vest and then glue it to the bottom of the ab plates as well to help them from flopping about too. The 3rd pic is also nicely showing the darts a bit better if you care about that.

The snaps the hold the armor to the webbing are heavy-duty snaps that are a 2 part snap you hammer together. I spaced them about 2 inches or so apart across the webbing so you had one per armor piece, save the last ab plate that I added in at the last minute because I thought I needed it. The 'V' webbing in the front is not fixed hard to the vest and can be lifted and manipulated for ease of suit up and take off by one person and then has a velcro spot of its own to go to when all the armor is on.

If y'all have more questions about the flak vest I can find time in my busy college schedule to help a vod out and take more photos if y'all so desire it <3

As for the loincloth, waist sash, and cape, they were just crudely made scrapes of fabric. The cape has heavy-duty snaps to snap to the shoulder plates that I rarely use because I can't reach them too well in the armor (grave oversight on my part) and was just a rectangle with a loop for my neck cut to length and then tattered along the edges. The loincloth was the same, just sewn to the sash which I made like a Jedi obi, and it was a grave mistake because it is way too stiff even after a lot of beating it up against rocks. We all make mistakes.

The neck seal is just more duck cloth with a softer brown fabric on the inside for comfort with velcro and a little flare out a bit to help cover any skin still showing past the scrubs and the flak vest (aka none). I used a tutorial I found on the 501st forums for the stormtrooper neck seals, that I can't find anymore like a fool but props to them!

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Armor Construction

            

The first step to armor construction is always cutting the pieces out of sintra (cintra?) and then ordering or making your helmet (if you are a super person). My helmet is an NME Props Night Owl that I love to death. It is heavier than some helmets but it was such a beautiful cast that I never had to sand it, minus the parts I cut into it of course. It was just that smooth. I highly recommend them if you have the patience to wait for it.

Cutting my armor pieces happened in two sets. The first set was the chest armor itself that I made with the help of my local costume person whose special name I totally forget because it is currently 11pm and I am tired. They wrapped me in aluminum foil and then tape across my chest and then marked the pieces out on to the tape/aluminum foil combination. After cutting them out we use those shapes as our template for our armor shapes. As you can see the breastplate is made from 6mm sintra and the rest is made from 3mm. This is because we were scared to use the thin stuff for such a massive piece that would be shaped so excessively. He actually did most of the shaping to the breastplate at that initial armor party, so much so that I only had to do minor work later on. The second set of of the armor was the shoulders and shinknee plates. These were made by first making paper stencils I then traced onto the sintra and then cut using a box cutter. The shinknees are actually two parts that you can see in that photo. They started out as one piece but later became individual pieces after more thought.

For the helmet I used my knock off Chicago dremel I got from Harbor Freight because I am a cheap college kid (I also got their $20ish heat gun for shaping too) and cut into it using a method of basically drilling holes through it and then cutting between the holes. This is because the cutting wheel attachment kept breaking instead of holding firm, I guess the resin cast was just too strong for it. Thank god for safety goggles! I also drilled a hole the size of a Chicago screw to attach the scope with. NME props designed it so it has a cool grove that helps it be able to move. The screw can be just tight enough where it can stay up but still go down if you want it to, but I have never seen a use for it other than for what I call 'storage mode' when I put the helmet into the Huskey box I have for traveling.

      

For shaping, I used that Harbor Freight heat gun I mentioned earlier, a lot of time, and ibuprofen. I don't know if there was a better way to do this but I ended up just putting on my flak vest and just heating up each piece a little bit at a time and then pressing it into my body to shape it. Honestly, it was my hands and fingers that hurt the most from the heat but it was not a pleasant experience all in all, but it got the job done and I didn't have a friend to help me so I did what I had to do. Following getting them all shaped I started work on attaching the snaps to the backs of the chest armor that would hook them to the flak vest. I glued these on with the mighty E6000 which worked great... except for keeping the pieces attached to other pieces like the double collar and the 3 ab plates, I eventually just drilled holes into them where the snaps were and placed Chicago screws in their place. Much more effective should have just started with that.

The shinknees were made by gluing the diamond and partial diamond shapes to the backing with E600 after roughing up the spots to be glued a bit and then curling the edges back by 90 degrees (or pi/2 in radians lol #mathjoke). A thing to note is that E6000 will come off with heat even after a 4-day cure time under the pressure of heavy college textbooks. I ended up later pulling the diamonds off completely, finish bending the backing plate and then regluing the diamonds after shaping them. They are not in any way attached to the boots at all, they have two holes for Chicago screws (I really love them okay) on the sides and a piece of elastic webbing that connects them.  I ended up having to hot glue the sides of the elastic to keep them tight and not wanting to fall off the screws while wearing. They are tight enough to the boots that they hold their place well with just that little bit of tension from the elastic. Also having them free from the boots allows me to pull them up slightly as needed to crouch down and have extra mobility to be cool and flashy. I have one side of the elastic able to come off the screw so they can be stored together making a little square opening between them that I shove 2 little pool noodles in to help them not get accidentally smooshed in travel. (I also store all my chest and shoulder armor in a small box in my Huskey box off my flak vest because I have seen too many people have their pieces break on their vest in their box.)

As for the gauntlets that you have yet to see, they are the cheap (under $5) toilet brush holders you can find at Walmart (see link below). I just cut the ends off of them to be the right length for my arm. They are a bit big for my boney arms but they work. They do have a tendency to chip paint even after a lot of clear coats and primer coats too. Kind of annoying but because I can't afford the nice ones (because I let myself spend all the money on the pretty helmet) they will do! They attach to the scrubs by use of velcro!

Part two below!!!

[jedi.on.horseback]

PART TWO!

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Inital Painting

I am just going to list all the paints I used below with links as I can find them online because I just got them at Walmart. These are just the main ones I used, I had a variety of old cans of browns, blacks, and a lighter blue that I used to lightly weather the colors as I did this initial painting on them. Mostly they were used for the weathering of the soft parts (aka just randomly spraying them at a distance)

Rust-Oleum Primer Filler Paint (red): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003CT4AMA/
Rust-Oleum Hammered Metal (cooper): https://www.amazon.com/Rust-Oleum-210849-Hammered-Finish-12-Ounce/dp/B000C0175U/
Rust-Oleum Satin Lagoon: https://www.amazon.com/Rust-Oleum-327921-6-PK-American-Accents/dp/B079KJJ3GB
Rust-Oleum Satin Ivory: https://www.amazon.com/Rust-Oleum-249073-Painters-Purpose-12-Ounce/dp/B002BWORVI/

      

I started out doing two coats of the filler primer on everything, and then one coat of the hammered paint on everything as well. I am not the best spray painter but that was sort of okay here because the heaver I was with the hammered paint, the more it broke into that effect it has that is very rust like! After letting those two coats dry over a week while I was out being a camp counselor, I started the tedious process of masking everything for the next layers of paint. The parts I masked is where the rust would be so I covered every edge and crevice because that is where paint starts to chip away. I also made rust lines down the center because that would be the path water would take down the armor as well. I used Maskol, (Amazon link below) it comes in a tiny bottle and I barely used any of it. I bought a pack of those trash baby brushes of like 20 for like $1.50 at an art store and used probably 10 of them since I had to swap them out whenever the stuff dried on the brush making it lumpy and unusable. Maskol was very helpful in the cracks as well as varying the edges of the larger rust pieces that were scattered about.

Maskol on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006ZY3KZW/

   

To get my perfect lines (or nearly perfect anyway) I started with the lines instead of the other way around. I sprayed the white base on (actually ivory to already give it a sun fade look) and then once it was dry I covered it with the painter's tape. This gave even and uniform line thickness to my armor. I then sprayed the blue over that to give it the final look we want. There was some faint distance spray from the lighter blue I had and the ivory to create a light sun bleaching/fade look to the armor. We want this armor to look like it has taken a turn or three waiting around in the elements for a bounty to come through. 

                 

My Visor is from Kalevala Visors in their Bronze color: https://www.kalevalavisors.com/product-page/12x12-visor-sheet
It was hot glued in just as a temporary placement at first but then I just never bothered to use the fancy things to put it in... so now it is just permanently in with hot glue and working like a charm!

You will also notice that some of the paint came off on the gauntlets when the tape came off, I ended up just making that a new rust spot with some Ancient Copper acrylic paint I had laying round to be used in the weathering process.

Part three below!

[jedi.on.horseback]

PART THREE!

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Weathering and Rusting

This is what y'all came here for right? My secrets on how I rusted this kit... well first, I weathered it in the way most of us do, with a black brown wash. I chose to use brown instead of black because black is more attributed to the smoke and residue from gunfire and firefights. As a sniper, I rarely see actual shoot outs, I instead hang out in the mud and the muck of grassy plains and rocky hillsides waiting for my target. For this reason I used mostly browns and coppers to do my weather washes. It is the same process as a black wash, slather it all on there with a little bit of water and then wipe it 'clean'.



First-round weathering test with a mostly black wash compared to having a second round of weathering with a mostly brown wash. If you think your kit isn't dirty enough, it probably isn't and you should weather it again.

         

The rust is what y'all want and the rust y'all shall have! I did my rust by first dabbing on satin mod-podge glue (so it wouldn't be glossy afterward)  and then sprinkled cinnamon on to it. I honestly can not for the life of me remember where I got the idea to try cinnamon for this but it is somewhere out there on the interwebs because I know I didn't think of it all by myself. The techniques I used to put it on come from a model maker on YouTube by the name of Luke Towan. He seals his dirt on his models with the mod-podge glue spray that I also used for the cinnamon. I found out though, do not use the alcohol spray first like he does because it reacts with the acrylic paint you weathered with and it will cause it to be able to wiped off when you dab up the excess with a paper towel.

I used two coats of the mod-podge glue and then a coat of matte spray paint to help my peace of mind to it staying on there for good. The first 2 photos show the cinnamon prior to the mod-podge coating and the 3rd shows it after the mod-podge and spray paint coating. (The 2nd also shows the difference between having cinnamon and not having it) The cinnamon lost a lot of that brightness it once had when it was dry so to brighten it back up I took a paint that was called 'old gold' or something like that and mixed it with a bit of my ancient copper paint from earlier to make it a bit dark and then dry brush it on. The 4th photo shows all the difference a little dry brushing can do. <3

You will notice that the gauntlets are distinctly different in their rust patterns, this is because the left is held at a more vertical angle where rain would run down from the gun straight off the gauntlet unlike the right which is held more horizontal to pull the trigger and thus water sits in one place before falling to off one side or the other of the gauntlet. When working to rust a kit, make sure your rust patterns look believable!

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All done photos!

Yay it is done! Some cool completed kit photos and action shots because why the heck not!!!!

      

      



May your kits pass the app team and you go on to do good in your clan. Oya Vod!

[Jenga]

You’ve done some really beautiful paint work on this  Keep it up!!

[Anansi]

It's even more impressive in person! Outstanding work.

[Straka Zulu]

Very nicely done.

[Corvyn Nuhunar]

This kit is GORGEOUS! Your rust weathering is so realistic and lovely, and that bucket has me floored. 

[jedi.on.horseback]

PART FOUR!!!

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Welcome back y'all. Sorry for not updating in a while, but college and work has got this little sniper really busy! However, now I am submitting to the official app team tomorrow so I thought I should spend tonight updating y'all on all my fixes; AKA I am just cramming before a test like the senior in college that I am.  Anyway, let us get right into this and thanks for reading this craziness, I hope it helps you in some way. 

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FLIGHT SUIT ALTERATIONS

A few issues came up with my flight suit. My pants were still too loose, the thigh pockets were not 'closed' enough and instead needed to be covered or removed, the shoulder plates were still super wrong and the velcro needed to be completely redone, and the whole thing needed to have more weathering done on it in a new contrasting color to add depth.

The first edits I made was to add patches over my thigh pockets, my hindsight being 20/20, I should have tailored the pants first as tailoring them after the patches made it hard since I could only pull from the inside of the pants instead of equally from each side. Please learn from my mistakes if you are in my place and save yourself some trouble that I endured.

      

I am not too amused how my claw marks on the left leg came out, they really don't look like claw marks that I patched at all and I am pretty disappointed but they do the job of covering the thigh pockets and so it is not a total loss. The right side has a real smattering of patches because eventually when I am no longer a broke college kid I will get a thigh holster and a Westar-35 and it will lay on that thigh. The patches are it just rubbing through my flight suit because Dar would rather spend the credits buying new toys for the beasts and creatures she rescues rather than on her own armor (that is why it is rusted to hell lol).

The next edits were the corrections of the velcro for the shoulder plates. This was something I had been struggling with since the start since I really work alone for the better part as I don't have the time or resources to make it to armor parties often. Finally, I got the tip from one of our Ruus'alors that I should hang the shirt on a hanger for better placement. IT WAS AMAZING!!! Best tip ever! It made it easy to figure out where to put it and of course, this time I took photos of the shoulder plates on it with the velcro attached by sewing pins and sending them off to the Ruus'alor for approval before sewing it down because I have learned my lesson after so many problems with these darn shoulders!



The final edit to the flight suit was weathering it further with a contrasting color. My Ruus'alor suggested a green since snipers are often tigers stalking in the tall grass after all. I had my suspicions about how good it would look but at this point, I decided to trust them since they have more experience than I on this. BEST CHOICE EVER. The green added such a depth to the flight suit that I also added it to all soft parts. It is most noticeable in photos on the cape since it is really muted on the dark brown of the flight suit, so the photos I have decided to show y'all are the app photos before the weathering and then after the weathering. I also took this opportunity to weather the patches a lot since we can't have anything clean and shiny on this kit! Clean? What is that??

   

The weathering on the patches is so good that you can barely see them at all. It is kinda sad since I spent so many hours hand stitching them on too...

   

Part five below!!!

[jedi.on.horseback]

PART FIVE

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UPGRADES TO CYPRESS

I don't know if I have introduced y'all to my main gal Cypress yet which is a shame! Cypress is my modified Tusken Raider Cycler Rifle. It has been modified to make it more accurate at longer ranges, pushing it past its original max of 1,000m/1km although Dar doesn't like to do that to her girl. She also can fire a modified tranquilizer round that has the firing pin of a standard ballistic round, it makes hunting animal bounties easier for her as she doesn't like to kill an animal that doesn't deserve it. I have such a love for this gun that I actually had a mini impromptu engagement photo set taken with her using my earring as a ring because the running joke in my crew is that y'all need to find yourself a partner that looks at you the way Dar'soon looks at Cypress.

ANYWAY...
The upgrades that were made to Cypress since I got her was mostly just cosmetic changes and weathering her to make her look less clean. This was done by literally scrapping her wooden parts against rocks, taking dark brown shoe polish to the leather strap and wrappings randomly and unevenly, and then cinnamon rusting her in key locations. You can see the difference from when I got her to the initial changes I made in the two photos below. I got her from a member of my 501st group that I can put anyone in contact with if they are interested in work from him.

   

The next edits came when I finally got to an armor party and our Ruus'alor who is much better with tools than I am and who had really cool little things I could use; helped me conduct major surgery on my lovely lady. The scope being on the side of the gun was just too frustrating for me even though that is technically where it should be for a cycler rifle. Just another way it is modified now! To fill the holes that the gun mount left when we moved it, we filled it in with little greebles. The only photo I have is a screenshot from my instagram story, sorry y'all. (I am jedi.on.horseback on instagram if that interests anyone by the way...)



Following this upgrade, I couldn't leave those little greebles all clean and new like that, so I took them through my weathering process. The same one I took my armor through so I won't go into detail here again. Just brown washing with a touch of black wash, mod podge and cinnamon, and then the special mod podge and water spray mixture. Before I did that, however, I did go in with my hot glue gun and add hot glue around all the greebles to help make sure they are on there really good since they only have a few small screws holding them in place and I don't want them leaving since they look too cool!

      

   

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And just like that, we got done and made it past regionals and to the official app team. It has been so long coming. I started this journey in July of 2018 and now in November of 2019, I am finally at the official application. I am so excited to submit and while I know I probably will have at least one more thing to fix (if regionals has taught me anything it is to never think your kit is perfect), I really hope to be approved and finally be in. I am ready to add Dar'soon to my arsenal of costumes I can wear out to troops and continue to be bad/good guys doing good by raising money for charity. I love my armor, a lot more than I thought I would actually and I am already planning my next helmeted character for 2021 as either a female legacy trooper or a clone trooper. I have learned a lot on this journey and I hope this WIP thread can help you learn something that I learned. (I can tell you the easiest thing I learned was how to bother the Ruus'alors with a million questions. I really recommend everyone learns that.)

May the Force be with you, always.
- jedi.on.horseback aka Dar'soon Ra'cayer

[Jennari]

Awesome work! Everything looks amazing!

[jedi.on.horseback]

Can't believe I tempted y'all by saying I took those engagement style photos with Cypress and didn't actually post them.
Sorry, vod.

   

   



We will be holding a small ceremony on Naboo in early autumn next year. Details and RSVPs to follow soon. <3
Having a fancy kit and a fancy gun is no fun unless you can get really silly with them!
_{These photos were taken in August and are before all the new upgrades in case anyone is wondering...}

[jedi.on.horseback]

This kit has been approved on November 10, 2019!
Dar'soon Ra'cayer is now #2335!

On to Special Operations - Sniper profession Brigade work for 2020!

[Anansi]

 I can't begin to congratulate you enough on this. It's an amazing build and you worked really hard on it.