activation email

[Talev]

Remo kicked my behind to start this thread in the international part of the forum, since I've just done one in the German subpart.
So here she is: Joha Suvarir.. or what will be here, hopefully soon.

This originally was my second kit in built, because I couldn't get the proper helmet for the other one in time for CEII.
So I worked and worked, Darth Real Life caught up with me and of course I wasn't finished in time.
Now, with a new helmet that was granted to me by the "big guys" on CEII, I'm even more motivated to finish this project as well as the other one.


So what is it going to be?

A Firrerreo. I love the fact, that Star Wars has so many species to offer, so why not use them a bit more? Since prosthetics don't agree with me, I decided to go with a near human species where I wouldn't have that much trouble with make-up, etc.
She's supposed to be an archivist, more or less an archeologists that procures items from places, where people usually don't want to go (war zones, environmental hazard zones, etc.).
And she's going to be a bit more girly, at least when it comes to the soft parts. I thought about a slit skirt in some lighter fabric. We'll see how that goes.


At first, I wanted to go all sunset with the colours, like this:

But I believe my painting skills aren't that good, so I narrowed it down to black and red for the soft parts and gold and red for the armouring.


Make-up/hair

Firrerreo have colourful hair, since mine is sort of reddish-brown right now, I decided to get some blond clip-ins.



Weapons
I found this with my old larping gear:


Nirob made this Verp, I repainted it according to the chosen colour scheme for the armour.




Soft parts
Boots

Kama
Basic  Kama Mock-up
Kama Variations
Undyed Kama
Dyed Kama
Kama detail front
Kama - final version
Dirty Kama


Armour
Painting process, first layer: gold
First layer, battle damage visible
Whole set, first layer paint, battle damage
"Dirty little bugger!" - grime
More grime
Europe sigil on the right shoulder
Painting Process: Red highlights
Painting Process: Red highlights, battle damage
Finished chest

Bucket [/b]
Golden Bucket with adhoc grime
Painting Process: Details
Finished Bucket

Trophies
"The Key"




Bonus: The General, blocking the creative process as usual.





Looking forward to comments and especially constructive critique!

[Nagra Shysa]

As I told You several times before, you are so close and this will be an outstanding kit, I'm sure!

[Kolrek]

it looks great. can`t wait to see more

[Tracyn Ordo]

Oh man! This is looking so good! Can't wait to see it finished. I love the design of your backplate!

[Talev]

Thanks guys

I'm still not totally happy with it, but I'll see about that after I've moved.

[Thaxos]

Looking forward to seeing it all come together.

[Remo Jadd]

We need to work on your weathering a bit, Looks a bit blotchy. You need to get some scratches in there. Have a good look at mine, it'll give you an idea on where the weathering needs to go. Think of it as wear and tear, how do the plates move or interact with each other. Where are they most likely to get knocked or hit. Take all these things into consideration when weathering.

But you know i like it so far .

[Talev]

The weathering.. yeah ^^. I applied some silver in a.. let's say: free form? Thought I better put on a bit too much. I'll go with the toothpaste technique Tyno and the others told me about, so before I'll add the gold spray colour, I'll cover the spots. Don't now yet, if I'll do all of them.. probably not, because it's way too much already.
It's on all the places I wasn't happy with, while working with the heat gun. There are some small dents (especially the one in the middle of the chest, wanted to make a blaster hit out of it), thought they could work good for intensifying the damaged look.

Already got a collection of battle damage, bullet holes and some other kits where I liked the damage . I'll take a closer look at yours.

Thank you for the advice

[Reeza]

I'm really liking the concept of this kit, especially the idea of a Firrerreo archivist - very neat.  8)
I agree with Remo about the weathering. Have you tried going over some of the armor with sandpaper? It's a great way to add roughness and scratches. I look forward to how you develop a more "damaged" look. 
How are you planning to attach the armor on?

[Talev]

Thanks, Reeza

About the sandpaper: I'm used to be rough to stuff from post apocalyptic larping. So I've got a full arsenal of tools to torture that armour with XD. Probably will be the most fun. But then again, it's not supposed to look to damaged.. I mean: Archivist. Come on. How dangerous can books and caves be... .. ..

I'm happy about any advice, so far I've just weathered clothing. Making something look like metal is completely new land for me.
I've got metal gold spraycolour that I will apply as soon as I've moved into the new apartment, all the while covering the silver parts in whatever form of battle damage I want them to be.. but from there on, I'm sort of clueless. Especially because I'm worried that the yellow will shine through if I'm too rough on it.

What do you mean by attaching? The chest armour is self carrying, so I'll just add some clasps on the sides (two to three, not sure yet), so that it will stay in place on its own.
Do you mean the leg plates, etc.?

[Reeza]

Welcome Talev. 

Ah, yeah I get what you mean. Well you never know when a gigantic rock will chase you out of a cave..... 
Good luck with the painting! Yes I meant the leg plates and such. However I think your method with the chest armor is nifty. 

[Niabi]

Looking real good vod

I agree with the weathering comments oh and thats a nice Verp

archivist  Ill point Nala over this way to have a look

[Talev]

@Niabi: Yeeeeessss.. archivists united. Nothing more frightful for unsuspecting visitors in the library!
And thank you .

I'll look over the weathering, promised!


@Reeza: Legplates.. uuhm yeah. That's something I need to sort out, because I don't like velcro. The gaunts nearly hold by themselve, but I think I'll add some leather straps on top of it to make it a bit mor feminine... or something like this. Not my field of speciality ^^.
With the leg plates I actually thought of a similar system: Attaching fabric straps to the inside of the plates, adding some loops to the suit and pulling the straps through there to get a criss-crossed look on the back of the legs. As long as that would be ok with CRL, I have a solution. If not, back to the drawingboard .


Still thinking about how light I can make the kama. Since Joha is not supposed to be a frontline fighter, more of a diplomat/adventurer type, I thought of adding a bit more girly parts in there..
What do you guys think?

[Ne'tra Cuyan]

Bumping to stay tuned for your progress

[Talev]

Bumping to stay tuned for your progress

Aaaah.. the pressure!

Can't do much right now . Packing up for moving in about two weeks. But after that I'll finally have a good workroom and will work as much as possible on this project.


But maybe another small idea: I found a old (cheap) touch tablet in my electronic trash box. Thinking of building a datapad like this one out of it:

I'm not quite sure what to use as material, so that I can still press the original buttons to switch it on/off.

[Tracyn Ordo]

You could make it removable, so you take the touch pad out and turn it on before trooping, then put it inside the datapad body while trooping, then once you are done take it out to turn it off.

[Talev]

Hmm.. good idea, thanks!
Could work if i get a case in the right size and just add stuff up there *thinking*

[Thaxos]

I agree with Tracyn, probably the best method of incorporating it.

[Nala]

Really liking your progress on this so far
And you're welcome to visit my archive any time... although it'll give a few researchers a bit of a shock!

[Talev]

Thank you

Why should your archive give me a shock?
Archives are there to be searched in. Would be boring, if every book would be in the right place.

Going to move in six days, so there won't be any updates soon .

[Nala]

I meant more that you'll scare the other researchers if you turn up in Armour!

[Talev]

Oh. Ah well. They're used to stuff like that by now .

Updates coming soon. Finally moved and sorted most of my stuff in, so let the spray painting begin.
 I'll keep in mind what Remo said about blotchy spots.

[Talev]

It's a sunny warm day (and I'm procrastinating), so I'm taking my chances with spray paint. Added the first layer of gold.. and it's .. shiny!
The strangely structured parts are mustard (for the battle damage), hope it will not look to blotchy. These are just the silver parts, I will probably add something else later on.

[Niabi]

Shiny

[Talev]

And here's the result for the chest armour.
Any suggestions for the battle damage?