activation email

[Draceline]

Drac'lyn Antares

• Post OM Status Upgrades
  
• Light Melee Build Thread
  

Original Build

• Soft Parts
  
• Buy'ce
  
• Armory
  
  
  Original Build Starts Here
  
  So, like many others here, I have begun the planning stages of my first kit. At the moment, I call her Drac'lyn Antares. Sound "in-universe" enough?
  
  I'm planning on a modern era, lightweight kit, with extra plates for the boots and shins. I wish to have kama and a loincloth as instead of a codpiece. I overheat rather easily, so I am trying to plan as lightweight and moisture controlling a kit as possible. I'm 5'8" and rather curvy, so I'm trying to design my way around that as well.
  
  Color wise, I'm liking a similar color scheme to my MM screenshots. I'm thinking either this dark eggplant purple or a forest green. So it would be Eggplant/black/brown/tan or Forest/black/brown/tan. I have also considered using both the green and purple instead of the brown, which is shown in the last screenshot.
  
  I shall expand this post later, with a more fleshed out and detailed planning outline.
  
  Advice is more than welcome.
  
  
  
  

[mandoschMUh]

Wow, I like the colors of your kit very much. Very excited how it'll look.

[Kris Jasra]

I like all of those concepts to be fair, they would all work really well together.
The curvy issue - I know your pain (literally, I have the bad back and everything). If you have any questions on shaping plates around assets, don't hesitate to ask.

[Havelock]

Very nice.  Watching with interest.

[Kaden Amas]

As someone who has an problem with overheating plus a auto-immune disease that causes pain when things are touching me, I feel you on making your kit conform to you. You've got solid concepts, keep up the good work. It will be worth the effort. The best advice I can give is to stay adaptable in your design, meaning don't let something stop you because it won't work or doesn't want to work.

[Draceline]

So I've decided that I would like to aim my build toward joining the Beast Tamer brigade. I am planning on building my own bucket, mainly to save money, however I would be happy to buy a Night Owl provided I can come up with the money. If anybody has any tips on building a buy'ce I'd be glad to hear them. All I know for sure at this point is that the WOF template is going to be too big.

I've got some progress on my soft parts. I made a pouch out of some spare leather (no picture yet), custom for my cell phone.... My Kama and loincloth are finished, minus the hooks to secure them. I also have arm wraps. I'll be working on my vest this week. I shall also hopefully be picking up some sintra from a very generous Falco in my area! (Thanks MRivera).

I've seen examples of sleeveless mando builds. With the long arm wraps, along with the gauntlets, would it be acceptable to go sleeveless or short tight sleeves, or should I go with something long but skin tight to try to manage the heat?

Here's my progress. My sleeves are rolled up to show the wraps (enormous t-shirt...). And yes its a Star Trek shirt. Sue me. ;P

[Havelock]

If I recall correctly, the CRLs were updated a few months ago to allow short sleeved, and even sleeveless flight suits.  I don't have the actual post handy, but I'll see if I can dig it up and link it for you.  And assuming I'm correct, a short sleeve flight suit should be no problem.

[Draceline]

Thanks Havelock. I've been looking, and I've been finding evidence of mixed results in the past. The guidelines available on the main page were less than helpful, especially considering the difficulty in finding usable soft stuff for female armor.

[Vailin Flynn]

App team clarified the change in a Q&A thread back in July.
http://mandalorianmercs.org/forum/index.php?topic=95808.msg1392308#msg1392308

In short, (sleeves ) they're allowed on custom mandos. Unless something has changed again

[Kris Jasra]

Aye, they are allowed. If the lack of sleeves fits the kit then they will be fine - just having no sleeves on a basic bounty hunter doesn't seem to work most of the time. But having no sleeves on some of the environmental or beast themed kits can look really good. Just remember to follow the usual rule, that the short sleeves match the trouser portion of the kit.

[Havelock]

Have you checked out the Female Armor Resource Thread?  Lots of great stuff there.  The female armor board in general has a lot of great stuff for the ladies.

[Draceline]

Aye, they are allowed. If the lack of sleeves fits the kit then they will be fine - just having no sleeves on a basic bounty hunter doesn't seem to work most of the time. But having no sleeves on some of the environmental or beast themed kits can look really good. Just remember to follow the usual rule, that the short sleeves match the trouser portion of the kit.

Thanks very much for this clarification. I was planning on a semi-environmental beast tamer. I realized that with a little tweaking, my colors would be perfect for a dense rainforest or an environment like Felucia, and I will try both short and long sleeves to see which looks better (and keep the other for days on which I need the different amount of coverage). I'll send both to approval if needed.

SO I've had a little more progress. I managed, by myself to make a rudimentary (read: crappy) body form in order to start designing the chest plates. I will make a better one when I have help, and will likely end up fiberglassing that cast.

How does my plate shape look? I've got the chest plates and have marked the bottom edge of the collar plate.

[Kris Jasra]

Made a little adjustment to the bottom tab angle and length.
I ended up cutting at least an inch off the bottom of mine (they started out about that length) so that I could bend without them sticking into me in uncomfortable ways.



I do like that custom collar shape though. My paint doesn't do curvy lines so I couldn't try and mirror it on the ab. You'll just have to imagine that I made the lines all super curvy like yours

[Draceline]

Thanks Kris. So you think I should bring the bottom tab forward instead of having the outside edge run straight down? and did you mean that you liked the bottom edge curved as well and paint wasn't letting you? Or was that just referring to the belly plate?

I'm rather long-waisted so I'm having a hard time telling where the plates need to end. Every off the shelf vest pattern I've used in the past had to be lengthened, including the one I'm working on for this project. That's a pain in the butt simply because of all the angles, but it is doable.

[Kris Jasra]

Just to the fact that you had it drawn with a curve that I couldn't replicate. My paint does straight lines only.
And yeah, definite tab forwards a little. It's a breast issue, I'm in the same boat. As you curve the plate around to cover all side boob it widens the plate far more than if there was no breast present. If you don't correct for the plate widening then you end up with a very wide ab plate that looks more like a stomach band (I speak from experience ). By pulling them back in it reduces the width of the ab and allows you to give it more of an ab shape.

From the pics I'd say about an inch above the bottom of the tape would be where I'd put the bottom of the ab. That should allow space for girth and belts without having them squished in and hanging from the hips.