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[J'Khara Vontess]

I just started cutting out my armor and placing the pieces on my duct tape dummy. I found it useful to put one of my regular bras on my dummy because, though I stuffed the dummy, that area didn't hold shape very well. I also found it helpful to cut darts into my paper chest pieces so they would curve better and I can get a better idea of what it looks like. Because I didn't have enough material to stuff my dummy, the ab plate is a little too close to the other pieces, so I'll wait till I get more stuffing, or tape the pieces on my body, before making a final template for that piece. I'm so excited to see my ideas start coming alive! Any feedback is much appreciated, thank you!

[GardenGeek]

Excellent start!  I think your chest plates might be a bit on the long side. One of the most helpful pieces of advice I got with my armour was that the chest pieces didn't have to cover your whole breast. Kris Jasra pointed out that if you follow the curve to about halfway down then it's significantly less curving/darting and messing around than if you try to cover it all exactly. I ended up recutting my chest pieces and I'm way happier.

[Aria]

Kirs and Garden (I'm gonna call you Garden now, ok?  ) Are both correct. You want your ab plate to end at your belly button and the tails of your chest plates should end about half way down your rib cage.

I love the shape of your collar plate and chest plates!

[Kris Jasra]

I feel summoned... I like the shaping on those plates.
And lol, yeah, unless you have a really long torso, you may find it easier to have the ab start higher than you'd expect. The top of my ab is actually sitting against the bottom band of my bra rather than against my stomach. And my chest plates cut off at my lower breast, makes for a lot less curving as you don't need to go all the way back under the breast.

And some advice you likely won't find on the main boards so much - buy yourself a couple of mando only bras. Something comfy to wear for long periods that has no bits that dig in if armour is over them. Shape and trim and fit everything while wearing that bra only. And drop the other one into whatever you use to store or transport your armour. There's nothing worse than realising you have the wrong bra on for an event (alas for the experience to say that).

[Draceline]

Also, remember that the dart on the chest plates may make things fit differently in sintra or metal. I had a much more, umm, severe need for curves, so more darts, and then had to completely change everything when I noticed the sintra fit differently (read: badly) than the paper which had been drafted and formed to fit me. I ended up actually rotating the chest plates 180˚ and swapping the sides they were on (it was strange, really. I couldn't believe that it actually worked).

This, sadly, means that I now have to redesign and recut the ab and collar plates as retrofitting them to the new shape didn't work. My collar is going to end up similar in shape to yours. I haven't posted pictures of the current configuration on the forum yet, but this post is basically reminding you to expect the unexpected.

Unless you have a great deal of patience and money to replace things, I personally recommend fitting the chest to your desired shape first and then reshaping the surrounding templates as needed before you cut them out of your material. I also waited to cut the edge with the diamond until I was happy with the fit. This may not be how others do it (I don't know), but if it might help, great!


Note: contrary to Kris' and Garden's suggestion, mine DO cover my entire breast, but because of my shape, and the bra I've got, that was necessary to get the spacing of everything right.

[J'Khara Vontess]

Thank you all for the advise and compliments! I've got a few more adjustments to make and then I'll post another update soon.

[Aria]

And some advice you likely won't find on the main boards so much - buy yourself a couple of mando only bras. Something comfy to wear for long periods that has no bits that dig in if armour is over them. Shape and trim and fit everything while wearing that bra only. And drop the other one into whatever you use to store or transport your armour. There's nothing worse than realizing you have the wrong bra on for an event (alas for the experience to say that).

^^THIS.^^^ ALL FEM-MANDOS TAKE NOTE.
This is why Kris is awesome.

Believe me, the more you troop, the more this makes sense.

[SkiBlue1737]

I must echo everyone already; the shape of your plates look great!

And some advice you likely won't find on the main boards so much - buy yourself a couple of mando only bras. Something comfy to wear for long periods that has no bits that dig in if armour is over them. Shape and trim and fit everything while wearing that bra only. And drop the other one into whatever you use to store or transport your armour. There's nothing worse than realising you have the wrong bra on for an event (alas for the experience to say that).

I believe you just saved the lives of fem-mandos everywhere. You just saved mine, and I haven't constructed my armor yet.

[J'Khara Vontess]

Update: I trimmed a few template pieces and they seem to fit nicely. I am going to trim the top of the ab plate a bit more to match the spacing between collar and chest plates but other than that I'm happy with it. The back plate is done too but I need to take a better picture of it.

[Aria]

You could also try shifting everything up just a little instead of trimming the plate down, but it all looks really good so far. Are you going to even up the sides of the chest plates when you move them to sintra?

[Kryamla Redalur]

You could also try shifting everything up just a little instead of trimming the plate down, but it all looks really good so far. Are you going to even up the sides of the chest plates when you move them to sintra?

Oh you beat me to it! Lol so uh what she said

[Kris Jasra]

Couple of tricks I've found while doing breast plates in sintra. Cut the sides of the chest a little longer than you think you may need - that will give a margin to cut them all down smoothly without having to worry about trimming to one section thats ended up a little short. And cut and form the collar and chest, then re-template the ab - between paper and sintra the angle of the bottom tab on the chest plate can change and the ab made now may not fit as well.

[GardenGeek]

I was going to suggest the same thing as Kris- I ended up having to recut my ab plate a lot smaller after my chest plates were formed and attached so that they would all meet up properly

[Vheh Zoller]

Your armor looks like it's going to have a great shape on your body! I love the little details with the points <3

[J'Khara Vontess]

sorry it has been a while, but I've definitely been working. I changed up the spacing on my templates and evened up the sides of the chest plates. I started cutting pieces out of 6mm sintra...well technically I've only cut it the collar so far. Y'all were so right about the bra thing, I'm wearing a different one in this picture than the one before and it's more comfortable and tons cheaper than the one I had on the the other picture, so I bought another just like it for my Mando.

[Kryamla Redalur]

The spacing looks like it might be a little wide between the collar, chest and ab. But other wise it's looks great! I love the shape of your plates

[J'Khara Vontess]

I designed my own vest template and now I'm sewing it out of duck cloth. Before I finish stitching the sides, I want to make sure my plates will fit on the vest, so I'm going to start cutting plates soon.

[Vheh Zoller]

coming along nicely

[J'Khara Vontess]

I cut out my back plate and just realized that I might have a problem and I need your help. My design does not include the neck armor, will this be an issue?

[Kris Jasra]

Looks fine to me. It covers the required 2/3rds of your back and it's not sitting around your kidneys

[Natan Vizsla]

If anything I'd shave off a tad to open up the neck hole. Other than that it is good to go.

[J'Khara Vontess]

I've been making tons of progress. I finished sewing my vest. I cut, formed, sanded, and painted the base metal on most of my plates (except my back and collar plates and my gauntlets). I decided to have thigh and cod plates in addition to the other required plates. Below is a picture of my cut upper body plates laid out on my mostly finished vest along with my bucket. Next is my finished vest, front and back. Finally, my plates laid out for their base metal painting.

[Havelock]

Great progress, vod.  Keep it up.

[Vheh Zoller]

I love the shape of the plates

Your vest looks like its a great fit

[Aria]

I am quite enjoying the cut out at the bottom of your comando bucket.