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[SamuelFett]

Hey everyone!  Blessings upon all of you.

So, while I may have a kit for DragonCon, I'm going to be honest...a lot of it is being commissioned, and while it doesn't make a difference (a Mando is a Mando), I want to build my own; to put work and sweat into a project, knowing that I built it and that it is mine.  Combine that with seeing Hondo Karr's armor for the first time, I've found the motivation to want to build a legacy Mando.

I'm gonna need A LOT of advice and help from these forums, so I hope y'all have patience. 

I'll be focusing purely on the helmet before anything else.  Here is my concept art:



I forgot who it was, but a member of these forums had a bad shebs red visor that looked outright menacing, and I've always wanted to do a red visor helmet.  Regarding the base, it will be a shade of purple MUCH MUCH darker than in the image.  I'm hoping to find a shade of purple dark enough to the point that no one can tell it's purple until I simply stand still. 

Regarding the concept art, I'm only unsure of two things:

1) Dark blue eyes, yay or nay?  If nay, what would work well with a red visor and a DARK purple base?
2) This is the tricky part.  I've seen variations of flames, shark teeth, and even a snowflake on Mando helmets, so I wanted to do one I've seen no one else do...lightning.  Is that acceptable, and if so, is it a good concept?

Let me know what y'all think...

[Zerxus Dral]

Lightening will be fine, and talk to your GA Ruus'alor about red visors. He's about to cut one for me.

[Straka Zulu]

Dark blue over dark purple... I can dig it. 
If you do go with lightning, will it be realistic, or stylized?

[SamuelFett]

Thank you all for the support.

I would love for the lightning bolt to be realistic,  but seeing as though my art capability is equivalent to a hutt doing CrossFit, it may have to be style-ish, unless I found someone on the forums that is really adept at fancy artwork.

Just for note, when I start working on my helmet, I'll probably go the bucket route.

[Wolfin Sylvermane]

This is when the internet is awesome.   Search for pictures of actual lightning strikes.  Once you find the one that jumps up and yelling me me me. Print it and trace it.   Then just play with colors till you get the look your after.

I do that a lot when designing tattoos for myself.

[SamuelFett]

Something beautiful,  you say?  Something that says PICK ME, you say?

Oh, you mean like this? 



That lightning bolt would be awesome and lovely considering I also play Magic: The Gathering.

[Wolfin Sylvermane]

There ya go. Half the battle is done.

[Bowfanny]

Lovely ideas Vod,
Plum is a fairly dark purple that I've seen in a rattle can color and is as dark as it is purple, me personally would do the rim in the dark blue as well as the lightning or add a touch of red in there to set the colors together nicely. When doing Legacy plates my suggestion is for the Ohld Vart style instead of the Legacy Project plates as the LP style is more square and boxy looking. Another style is the Ronan legacy plates that are very humanoid tank like.

Helmets are my favorite part of building and I probably have more helmets than I'll ever wear in kit even with variations for each kit. So if you don't mind my randomness I'm willing to drop info your way.

[SamuelFett]

Yay, Bowfanny!  Was really hoping you'd show up   

Plum is an excellent suggestion, I think I go with that, thank you.  I'm thinking dark blue as well, but not too dark to the point that the purple overshadows it.  As for the lightning,  I'm not sure of the color yet.  To be honest, I'll probably have to wait until the helmet is painted and finished, then make a judgment call from there.

I downloaded Vart ' s templates earlier in the week, so I was ahead of schedule there   Any helmet aid, I welcome

[Welkin]

I used Ohld Varts template for my kit, it's pretty awesome to work with, love the overall look of it.

For the visor if you're looking for a mirrored look to the visor I always like to point people to Seragon Visors, I got mine there and it's great.

It might be a tad bit complicated, but one thing you could look into is trying a kind of ghost effect for the lightning bolt. It'll be less obvious but it'd be a really cool effect if you're willing to jump into that level of effort for it.

[SamuelFett]

Never thought of the ghost effect. I'll think about it

[SamuelFett]

7/1/15 Update

Bad news: Tried building a helmet from scratch last week, failed miserably.  Will try again in the future.

Good news: Did cut some upper body armor templates out of poster board.  Will have pictures up Thursday night EST

[Welkin]

Scratch Built helmets can be pretty tough, I'm not sure if anyone in my Clan did their own, most of us purchased them off of helmet makers. Can't wait to see the templates all cut and such.

[Ohl'd Vart]

SB helmets can be tricky to build, but they're worth the challenge; I've built upwards of 7 so far, and Drake just bought his first-ever resin bucket about a month ago....up 'til then, we made them all ourselves. 

Rob

[Zerxus Dral]

I scratch build all the time, it's an art of try try again. You basically have to teach yourself how to not do it each step of the way.  Next time I'm going to be at an armor party at Krango Seragons I'll message you and I can talk you through the process in person, or you could make the 3 hour drive over to one of our parties in Alabama and I can show you on one of the several I have sitting in the shop in process.

[SamuelFett]

Hello everyone!  I'm happy to say I've made progress...I think...I hope.  So, no more waiting.  Here they are.





Okay, after putting it together, observing it as a prop, and observing myself wearing it, here is the following:

What I like

• This is the first scratch build armor I've attempted, and I think I did good for a first time.
• I made numerous cuts and edging to make the templates as even as possible; the perfectionist in me.
• While I'm sure there are things wrong with it, I think the back came out better than I thought.

Now, unfortunately, what I don't like

• The front appears...well...not good.  The chest appears to be too big, and the abs too short.  Disappointing.
• While I like it, the back was...forgive my stressing...ABSOLUTELY ANNOYING!  In fact, I may just wear an open front vest for the sole reason of not having to wear back armor.  Last time I check, as long as an open vest/cape covered the entire back, that was acceptable

At any rate, what do y'all like/don't like?  What is good/needs fixing?

Before I forget, two things:

1) Thank you Bowfanny, as I've tried to follow your thread as a guide.
2) Thank you Ohld Vart for the templates.
3) To Zerxus Dral, I do plan on going to July's armor party, so I can def learn more there [/list][/list]

[Straka Zulu]

You could go that route, hiding the back under a cloak or long coat.  Had to do that with mine, but I still have a back plate, hideous as it may be.

[Bowfanny]

Hello everyone!  I'm happy to say I've made progress...I think...I hope.  So, no more waiting.  Here they are.





Okay, after putting it together, observing it as a prop, and observing myself wearing it, here is the following:

What I like

• This is the first scratch build armor I've attempted, and I think I did good for a first time.
• I made numerous cuts and edging to make the templates as even as possible; the perfectionist in me.
• While I'm sure there are things wrong with it, I think the back came out better than I thought.

Now, unfortunately, what I don't like

• The front appears...well...not good.  The chest appears to be too big, and the abs too short.  Disappointing.
• While I like it, the back was...forgive my stressing...ABSOLUTELY ANNOYING!  In fact, I may just wear an open front vest for the sole reason of not having to wear back armor.  Last time I check, as long as an open vest/cape covered the entire back, that was acceptable

At any rate, what do y'all like/don't like?  What is good/needs fixing?

Before I forget, two things:

1) Thank you Bowfanny, as I've tried to follow your thread as a guide.
2) Thank you Ohld Vart for the templates.
3) To Zerxus Dral, I do plan on going to July's armor party, so I can def learn more there [/list][/list]

Oya Vod,
You can probably trim the chest plate down on the edge and still be fine; however, I would heat form the plates before I trimmed so that you know where you need to trim and where you need to attach your straps,  also your length looks like it's hitting in the right spot right near your belly button but if you're not happy you can always add in another plate at the bottom. Just remember that you'll still have belts and things that go around your waist so too many plates can get restrictive. The backplate looks fine and all just needs that shape so it fits you like it should.
If these are just your templates then I'd say trim down the chest plate so that the edges line up with your collar plate and make that armor distinctly your own as modifications to standard patterns are often very nice. I'll be updating my strapping thread with more photos and things in hopes it makes it easier to understand in the future you're doing great and keep at it!

[Ohl'd Vart]

Looking good so far, Mike....like Bowfanny said, these patterns pretty much have to be customized to every user, as everyone has a different body shape and/or style, and unfortunately, "one size does not fit all", lol.

Making your templates from poster board first is always a good idea, so you can trim them to the correct size. For instance, you can always take a strip off down the center of the breastplate (where the diamond goes) to narrow it up a bit, if you don't want to trim the edges. Also, keep in mid you will be shaping those plates to a certain degree, so they will not be maintaining a "flat" look...they need to fit your chest/pecs a little, anyway.

The backplate is a matter of taste; I've seen them large to cover the back completely, and I've seen them small, just to cover the spine...personally, I use a cape and not a backplate, so I haven't had to deal with it. 

Keep up the good work! 

Rob

[SamuelFett]

Just a quick update and question.

Update: Trimmed the templates a bit, and I think they're going to be good. I haven't really gotten to work on anything else because I got a small case of the flu. I can put some work in next week.

Question: Whenever I look up PVC Sintra, it only appears on certain websites I can only order online from. But, whenever I look up PVC foam, it shows that Home Depot has it.  Please tell me PVC foam = PVC Sintra.

[Demor Kodiko]

I'm not sure if it is the same. Try searching Expanded cell PVC.

[Bowfanny]

Sintra is expanded Foam Board. Suntra is a brand name, it's also called Foamex or simply expanded Foam Board. You can also find it at sign shops.

[SamuelFett]

Thank you! 

[Zerxus Dral]

You do not want the foam cored PVC though Because it won't heat up evenly and will distort as you try and shape it. I highly reccomend buying it from a local sign shop,if you don't want to buy a whole sheet, ask them for expanded PVC. Most shops will sell you their scraps of you tell them it's for a costume.

[SamuelFett]

Hola mi amigos!  Switching up the greeting style today    I have a few updates and a few questions, so let's get started:

1) Legacy Armor update.  Went to Krango Seragon's armor party this weekend, and he helped a lot!  Here's what got accomplished:



    Now what I have to do next is strap the armor pieces together.  I've been told Nylon strapping, e6000 glue, and velcro will get the job done, so I'll give that a shot.  After I do that, I plan on making templates for shoulders, knees, and boots (no shin armor, not a fan really).

2) Color scheme update.  It's official that Prussia Blue is the primiary color with a red visor, but I'm torn between a secondary color scheme.  Silver or black?  I'm leaning towards silver, so long as I could find a good silver color/primer.



3) This is a forum question.  I've seen others update the title in their original forum post, but every time I try, it does not work.  Anyone know how?

4) Because of my house circumstance, I really can't do a whole lot of strapping, painting, etc.  Does anyone know of a place in Gwinnett where you can just take stuff to a public workshop (or something similar) and just do work there?