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[Karl Dha'Werda]

This is a combination of other threads I may or may have not hijacked with questions on their threads (figured I'd start my own):

Following with extreme interest ^^, I'm in the planning process for a late crusader build with similar armour, helmet, and gauntlet styles to this canon character.

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My helmet thread is HERE

Is this helmet acceptable for a late crusader kit?

Yes.

Yeah, you might want to modify it a bit though so it's not exactly the same as Rohlan.

Oh, it will be.  I'm switching up the colours for along the lines of Beast Hunter environmental colours and will have an air hose on each cheek/face on my design.  I'm working out a few details, but here is the concept design I did the other day:

I'd recommend different chest armor and gauntlets as that looks exactly like Rohlan with shins switched out and some spikes added to the right shoulder.

Many Thanks to all the people that gave me encouragement, suggestions & comments during the construction of my kit. I look forward to trooping with you all in the near future! 

FYI, this is the same armour style as Ru'Der Marekar used for his kit, as seen above ^^.



Yep, I wasn't a super big fan of the other late crusader armour types, but I can easily modify this armour as it is still in the planning stages (to be less Rohlan).

Does my conceptual back armour work or is it too much like Legacy armour?  I was looking for something simple, that may be used during the era.  The only things I've found so far are backpacks or jetpacks.  Gearing towards a brigade and a backplate is required.

[Naran Baatar]

So looking over your pictures, if you want to have a segmented backplate. The most common style during the crusader era is this sort of pear shaped three piece segment, but like I said there isn't anything anywhere that says only legacy kits can have segmented plates.

Also on that topic NOT ONE of the small pool of example legacy mando's have segmented backplates, the idea of the segmented backplates being a thing tied to the legacy era comes from Old Vart's patterns, that are widely used for legacy kits and the thing with those patterns, that most people forget is that he made them to draw on the armor style of the Savage Opress combined with legacy era plates. So in my book segmented backplates make a whole lot more sense in the crusader era where they pop up more commonly than they honestly do in the legacy era where they don't show up...

As for your chest plate there are a number of options you can go with like I said over on my build thread, the crusader era is wide open in terms of plate design, if you don't want Rohlan style plates just pick another mando from the era that has some neat looking plates and go from there, you don't have to match your reference 1:1 so long as you can go this is the design style I am going for everything should be good, just keep the App Team in the loop.

[Karl Dha'Werda]

Well the funny thing about crusader vs legacy is there are many reference images where crusader plates look very much like they could be legacy plates. The general issue with the legacy era is there is only a very very tiny pool of reference images to pull from and by tiny I mean one comic book. Where there are a TON for crusader at the end of the day the only thing that really sets legacy apart from crusader is the bucket and that is only true if you go with the quad-T or the triangle T

Really the fun of building in the crusader era is the flexibility you have in your plate design. The general rule of thumb for crusader is make sure you have a reference image or two, to back you up and just keep the App team looped in if you are breaking off and doing something wildly different from the norm, ie: my new plate design 

If you haven't yet take a look at these two threads, the crusader era is a HUGE time period and covers everything from before the neo-crusaders, clearly skips the neo-crusaders themselves and then covers everything after them up until the modern time, it is a huge sand box

http://mandalorianmercs.org/forum/index.php?topic=10377.0

http://mandalorianmercs.org/forum/index.php?topic=12625.0

Thanks Vod, I've looked through both threads and found some other types of chest armour to explore.

Here is what I've drawn up so far (the idea is for a late crusader beast hunter, first get approved and then make the minor changes for the brigade):
Colour Version of Concept1 & Concept2:


See the backplate, that is what I refer too as the legacy plates.  It is all on paper right now, researching like crazy and only working on few things such as bells and knees (hard hats).  The bucket is on order (Rohlan Dyre from Bigwater99).  I have to have a backplate for the brigades and I'd like to change up the chestplates (as I said less Rohlan).

As stated in a different thread, I'm working on a concept different than Rohlan's chest plates (also suggested by Briks).  I also want better mobility.  I was thinking something like this and more 3D like this:


But with more mobility like this:


I've got started on a few parts and pieces to my kit.  The shoulder bells are modified hard hats.  Dots represent where holes will be drilled for metal spikes:


I'm still working out the shape of the knees, other half of hard hats:


Lots of research later . . . my second concept excludes thigh plates, dual holsters, and similar gauntlets.  I'll figure something out with the gaunts, but for now they are going to be green hard leather bracers with buckles.

Working along with Brigade requirements as well as Late Crusader CRL's; this will be a light armour kit (mobility):
http://mandalorianmercs.org/get-involved/brigades/525-2/#7-Beast-Masters
http://mandalorianmercs.org/get-involved/costume-requirements/

List of materials, parts, and pieces:
Purchased. Arrived 7/19/16. Rohlan Dyre full size 1/1 scale helmet from Bigwater99 .  WIP found HERE
Armour: The Ramikadyc - Late Crusader armor from TMA.   
  Chest plates - conceptual design plate purchased from The Mandalorian Arsenal (TMA) for The Ramikadyc plates. DONE.
  Cod piece - conceptual design purchased from The Mandalorian Arsenal (TMA) for The Ramikadyc plates. DONE.
  Back plate (brigade required) - looking at a segmented pattern, still need to run past App Team purchased from The Mandalorian Arsenal (TMA) for The Ramikadyc plates. DONE.
  Shoulder bells - hard hats, spikes purchased shaped, painted, spikes attached, attached to leather flak vest.  DONE.
  Knee plates - also hard hats, leather strapping.  DONE.
  Shin plates - design cut out from 6mm Sintra, needs heat gun work shaped, painted, detail work, weathered, ready to attach to shins with leather strapping.

Soft Parts: See below
  Flight Suit - Tan in colour, medium long, ready to weather. Weathered.  DONE.
  Flak Vest - Brown leather jacket, similar to my current flak vest.  Found a mountain man leather jacket, removed "earthy" leather fringes, sleeves cut off, ready for armour attachments.  May not use, as not required for LC era.  DONE.
  Ammo Belt w/Pouches - Leather per Beast Hunter requirement.  Belt purchased.  Real leather pouches purchased.  DONE.
  Boots - purchased, brand removed, waiting for half chaps to arrive.   Chaps arrived, weathered, and zipper covered.   DONE.
  Neck Seal - tan/khaki in colour, purchased, shipping will be here mid-July balaclava here, needs weathering with flight suit.  Could not find, used my wife's old one and painted to match flight suit.  DONE.
  Sash - army green, still working at details of whether or not I want this.
  Cape - TBD.
  Gloves - preferrable leather, possible longer, TBD Leather "deer skin" tan yellowish gloves purchased.  Weathered, ready to wear.  DONE.
  Sheath - leather, 7.5" length, found one at Wal-Mart and modified the blade to be con-friendly/blunt.  DONE.
  Bracers - green hard leather, weathered, ready to wear.  DONE.

Weapon(s)/Accessories:
  Hunting knife - working with 6mm Sintra for realistic Con-safe blunt knife.  Will have wood handle with leather strapping.  Hunting knife, rubber handle painted to look like bone.  DONE.
  2 handed long rifle with scope - open for ideas - going to work with this concept from the SWTOR sniper rifle, airsoft sniper gun as base purchased, working on making it look similar to this rifle from SWTOR (see below): completed see this thread for update on sniper rifle. DONE.



  Macrobinocular - design in place, need to order base and get greeblies.  Found a WIP on the forums, but can't find it for reference.  Completed WIP on this thread. DONE.
  Snare - ready to purchase when funds are available purchased.  Weathered.  DONE.
  Trophies - jaw bone (of unknown species at this time) for bucket.  This did not work.  Spikes along helmet completed, low profile like Clone Helmets.  See WIP here: http://mandalorianmercs.org/forum/index.php?topic=116573.0
 other trophies are "teeth".  DONE.
Attachment Methods:
  Velcro (plates to flak vest), 10 ft purchased.  DONE.
  Chicago screws (depends on segmented backplate), will now be used for leather strapping adhered to armour.  DONE.
  Leather strapping/buckles for strapping. Mostly purchased, still need side and back strapping for flak vest.  DONE.
  Magnets (fan box to back plate)
 
Open for ideas!!

[AGConstrux]

The shoulderbell/hard hat idea = brilliant! Will have to remember this

[Karl Dha'Werda]

The shoulderbell/hard hat idea = brilliant! Will have to remember this

Credit to Ref Al'drann and Ru'Der Marekar for this idea.

[Naran Baatar]

So as I guy with two kits with solid chest plates, you are going to lose mobility no matter what you do. The modern style plates have the most mobility hands down any solid plating, even with segmenting things and you lose mobility just the way of it.

That being said if connect your back plates and chest plate and make one solid piece of armor it means you get to be that cool guy that can kit up all by themselves and plus you never have to worry about your plates wandering off

Now that being said if you build your chest plate out and do not connect it to your ab plate but instead allow the ab plate to move under your chest plate doing that you will gain a bit of mobility, however going route has it downside as well as your ab plate can pop free and well no one wants that 

[Karl Dha'Werda]

So as I guy with two kits with solid chest plates, you are going to lose mobility no matter what you do. The modern style plates have the most mobility hands down any solid plating, even with segmenting things and you lose mobility just the way of it.

That being said if connect your back plates and chest plate and make one solid piece of armor it means you get to be that cool guy that can kit up all by themselves and plus you never have to worry about your plates wandering off

Now that being said if you build your chest plate out and do not connect it to your ab plate but instead allow the ab plate to move under your chest plate doing that you will gain a bit of mobility, however going route has it downside as well as your ab plate can pop free and well no one wants that 

Ya, it will be a lot of cardboard templates before it goes onto Sintra.  My current kit is one of those that I can kit up by myself (except the back zipper of my flak vest).  I'm thinking of a flak vest, although not required it might help in keeping plates lined up.  I'd like to be able to run, if necessary like I can in my current kit.

[Tiric Keel]

Commenting to follow, this is going to be fun helping with!

[Karl Dha'Werda]

So looking over your pictures, if you want to have a segmented backplate. The most common style during the crusader era is this sort of pear shaped three piece segment, but like I said there isn't anything anywhere that says only legacy kits can have segmented plates.

Naran, do you have a example of this pear shaped three piece segmented backplate?  I'm not finding a reference photo.

[Karl Dha'Werda]

SWTOR Tac-HUD Heavy Sniper Rifle

I chose a two handed rifle from Star Wars The Old Republic (SWTOR) as my Mandalorian Late Crusader weapon.   It is this Tac-HUD Heavy Sniper Rifle.  SWTOR started sometime around 3653 years Before the Battle of Yavin (BBY).  The Late Crusader time period is after the Early Crusaders (3996 BBY), but before the Neo Crusaders (which ended cir. 3060 BBY).  This places the Late Crusaders somewhere in same time period or thereabouts as SWTOR and makes this sniper rifle a logical choice for my character.



Per Mandalorian Mercs Costume Club CRL’s on Crusaders (hence Late Crusaders) the weapon requirements are as follows:

At least one weapon of late/crusader style (not modern-looking)
Ancient melee weapons and ancient style blasters are acceptable
Modern Era weapons are NOT acceptable
This eliminates my modified DL-44 blaster and my modified EE-3 carbine rifle from my current “Modern Era” kit of Karl Dha’Werda.  Under the CRL’s for the Beastmaster Brigade  subcategory Beast Hunter within the Mandalorian Mercs comes these BRL’s under weapons:

ONE of the following is required:
   - A knife or vibroblade

*Note: Though knives of this nature aren’t often seen in the Star Wars universe, they must be of a Swarzy design, meaning no obvious flea market Rambo knives or      unmodified knives from the shelf.   Knives may be made to resemble any in-universe material as well as bone, tooth or sharpened scale.  They must be dull and completely safe.  As per club rules, no retractable or spring loaded blades are allowed on gauntlets.  Fixed or removable blades only.

ONE of the following is also required:
   - 2 handed, ranged weapon with scope – any in-universe weapon that fires lethal projectiles

Although I am still working on a sintra blade for my knife, I was able to conceive this 2 handed, range weapon with scope for my beasthunter build from the SWTOR sniper rifle.  I started by researching the sniper rifle and after carefully studying them I purchased a modern “earthy” airsoft sniper rifle as seen below:



The first thing I did was had pieces of sintra (3mm) to the face of the stock and other parts of the rifle to make it more blocky looking and less “earthy.”  I added a hand grip from off of an old orange hunter pro game rifle.  You can see the slight orange left.



I then added a pipe to the desired length I wanted the barrel to be.  I spent hours at our local Lowe’s walking down the aisles looking for pipe fittings that resemble the tip of a SWTOR sniper rifle.  I don’t remember its name, but it was found in the electrical section and can have a cap screwed on the tip (to which I will paint orange) for cons and other events where it may be needed.



I added a secondary pipe above the chrome mini flashlight piece which holds the barrel in place for more stability.  Then I worked on the shape of the scope as seen in the SWTOR sniper scope (1 1/2″ PVC pipe).  I also added a iron sight to my barrel tip and a digital display from the calculator I used on my modern gauntlets (Casio calculator keypad), I figure it could be one of the blue lights on the side of the rifle as seen in the first images from SWTOR.



After going back and forth from my apartment to the garage with bits and pieces my last trip involved painting all the pieces flat black; this step made it look like a real rifle.



My colour scheme is to be similar to my late crusader beasthunter helmet with environmental in-universe colours.  Lots of greens, sort of like a camouflage with colours.  I also wanted to added leather wraps to show wear/tear and most of all use of the rifle.  It needs to look like I’ve been stalking through the woods after my prey.

BRL’s state:

   - Substantial environmental weathering that suggests prolonged exposure to the elements (no pristine kits) – Hunters get dirty stalking through the woods or crawling through the sand, and your kit must reflect this. Keep in mind, a profession like this wouldn’t have much demand in urban areas.  Most of your jobs will be in the Outer Rim or in frontier areas where luxuries like baths and electricity are not common.



The above image shows my sniper rifle without the scope.  As I was using a real scope; a 4×32 Sniper Riflescope Hunting I got off Amazon for under $20 bucks I wanted to have the least amount of spray paint near it (to protect the lenses).



The result turned out way better than expected and I spent the following day with acrylic paints adding detail work to the overall look.  It turned out just how I wanted with my unique twists and close enough to the SWTOR sniper rifle I was going for.  Yes, I’ll probably added light displays down the road, but my primary overall look is completed (ignore the scope in the first image as it looks like it is tilted downwards.  It is a camera angle and isn’t really crooked).

[Tiric Keel]

Replying to follow, love that rifle!

[Karl Dha'Werda]

Replying to follow, love that rifle!

Thanks Tiric and here is an update on my macrobinoculars:

Beast Hunter Macrobinoculars

There are few references to Macrobinoculars or Electrobinoculars and as it or  a range finder is required for the Beast Hunter Brigade I need to have one or the other (see below for BRL).  My kit is from the Late Crusader Era, so the rangefinder on my helmet is not an option.

Additional Required Gear
   - Electro/Macrobinoculars or a rangefinder. (one or the other is required)

Below you can see examples of these electro/macrobinoculars used by Imperial, Rebel, Sith, and Jedi.



I was browsing through the forums the other day and came across an unique build for macrobinoculars and right in my price range.  I’ve since searched for this post and can’t seem to find it (I believe they were working towards the desert ops brigade, but can’t find the post to clarify).  Anyways they used the Radica Sub Assault game as their base for the macrobinoculars.



Adding a few knobs, a lens, and other greeblies it can pass as an awesome prop.  I quickly searched both eBay ($24ish) and Amazon ($34ish) for this game and put it on my wishlist for future reference/when funds became available.

Probably about a month or two later I purchased the Tank Assault version and then I need to figure out greeblies.  I went to a local thrift store called, A Cause for Claws here in Bismarck, ND.  In my opinion they have a back section full of junk or in our sense full of greeblies for our kits.  Anyways I found an old video camera (VHS) for about $10 bucks and bought it.



The next day I unscrewed all the parts and pieces looking for useful parts for my marcobinoculars.  I finally got down to the lens itself and got that part out among other components.  Then I took the Tank Assault apart to see what was inside; after stripping everything out I was ready to build my macrobinoculars.



I used a hole saw with my drill to cut out a circular hole to fit the lens from the video camera into.  I tried several different lenses to see if I could magnify the view like a pair of binoculars.  Nothing really worked so I smashed out the lens with a hammer.



I purposelessly offset the lens to add greeblies on either side.  A lot of the day was waiting for glue to set and dry before moving on.  I alternated between these macrobinoculars and my LC sniper rifle.



I then added greeblies to it and made it look different from the original game and closer to the Stormtrooper macrobinoculars seen in the first image.  Most of the parts were pulled out of the video camera, but some were from recognizable components of screen accurate props.  Such as the white plumbing pipe connector thingy seen above.



I then painted it to similar environmental/in-universe colours to my sniper rifle and LC bucket; greens, tans, browns, and blacks.  The next day I went in with some acrylic paints and added touch-ups to make it more detailed and unique.





The cobalt blue part on the front, I’d like to think is a mic to pick up sound in addition to the lens for sight.  It will need some more work before I think it is complete, but thought I’d share it with y’all for reference.  More weathering is needed, as per BRL seen below:

Substantial environmental weathering that suggests prolonged exposure to the elements (no pristine kits) – Hunters get dirty stalking through the woods or crawling through the sand, and your kit must reflect this. Keep in mind, a profession like this wouldn’t have much demand in urban areas.  Most of your jobs will be in the Outer Rim or in frontier areas where luxuries like baths and electricity are not common.

I’ll need to either add a strap or pouch for these to be part of my kit, something to figure out down the road after I’ve got some armour.

[Karl Dha'Werda]

Tried some different configurations for chest armour, but nothing seems to be fitting my kit just right.  7/3/2016



So taking a break from trying to figure out my chest and back plates I worked on my shoulder bells, helmet, macrobinoculars, and a LC sniper rifle.



Concept #3 (see image below), waiting to hear when The Mandalorian Arsenal will start selling individual pieces (Ramikadyc armour).  I just need the chest plate, ab plates, and back plate for my kit.  I also conceptualized an alternative air tank(s) for the back of my kit.  This design should give me more of the mobility I was looking for in armour and closer to the Brigade aspect I am shooting for with Beast Hunter.

[Karl Dha'Werda]

Update 11/5/2016: I've bought armour from The Mandalorian Arsenal for the Ramikadyc plates.  I only bought the pieces I need for my kit: chest plate, back plate, abdominal/kidney plates, and cod piece.  Should be shipped out in a couple of weeks and then I can get my design based off the above picture (in previous post) in correlation with these and move forward on my kit.  I've got plans in my head for a back apparatus for my helmet hoses to go into as well; more to follow.

[Karl Dha'Werda]

Update: 11/13/2016

I bought a tool belt pouch from Harbor Freight several months ago and some cable snares more recently from eBay.


I converted it into my macrobinocular belt pouch.  The pouch itself works also for hanging my cable snares off of.  The snares and pouch still need weathering, I’ll do that with all the soft parts at the same time to get the same effect.



Sort of the way my real leather ammo pouches, belt, and macrobinocular pouch will sit on me.