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[Yolah Hyperion]

Pics of the kama or it didn't happen  Just kidding vod

Algebra.. that's a dish of some sort right??

[Thel Ihveen]

Pics of the kama or it didn't happen  Just kidding vod

Algebra.. that's a dish of some sort right??

Haha! Yeah - a standard internet request!  As promised: pics! The kama exists! In need of a good ironing, but I'm gonna torch the thing, anyways, and maybe run over it with a truck...



It's pretty big - hits me mid-calf and actually takes up the entirety of my narrow little dorm-floor... You can see one of my dirty hobbit-feet in one corner if you look hard enough. I would model it, but the picture-taking wall is currently occupied by a pile of leather and sewing stuff, so I'll probably wait till after I have my vest ready...

Speaking of which! Vest! I started with $2 worth of random black lining fabric, and my lovely duct-tape assistant (dubbed "Ni'ka" for clarity...) whom I finally filled up with newspapers and wrestled into my flightsuit... I started pinning the lines of the seams how I wanted them, pinching fabric as I went...




I'm doing some tricky tailoring and giving the whole thing a nice triangle shape - this was before adding some extra fabric to the sides...

Then, it was on to cutting, evening-out and sewing the princess seams! I only did half the vest because I wanted to keep one half of the pattern free to use to trace things with...



Here are some poorly-drawn plates! I was trying to figure out how much "side" to give it, and how far out he shoulder seams should be... Excuse the incorrect angles on the sides, though. It was just fun to imagine plates on the thing, even if they are the wrong shape!

Then, I had to take the whole thing apart and trace it onto what was left of that big leather trenchcoat... Again, please excuse the fabric-pile/dorm mess... it literally took up my whole floorspace.



You may be asking "where did the rest of the coat go, though?" and the answer is these bad boys:



The straps aren't trimmed down, yet, and the bottoms still need hemming/d-rings/rivets, but they're like 80% done after a day pounding rivets using nothing but two ball-peen hammers and my knees (yes, they are called that...). The d-rings are super flashy and make em look kinda... medieval? Not sure how I like the look... They go over my knees, though, and fit great. I had to match the top-stitching on the seams that came already on the coat - hence the V-shaped seams on the fronts and backs of the legs. I actually had to do all kinds of fabric wizardry to make the seams line up, but it all paid off!

However, this morning I woke, half-asleep, with a very strong and important thought: NO MORE D-RINGS. It was as if some deceased jetii was trying to tell me something; I couldn't get back to sleep after that. I'm thinking of just velcro-ing or elastic-ing the things and doing away with the complicated fastenings altogether... Not sure, yet!

Anyway - after I cut and assembled (and painstakingly topstitched...) the vest bits, the whole thing ended up looking pretty good!





It still needs, well almost everything; hems, neck facing, and proper side-closures, among other things. It looks kinda blocky at the moment due to all the extra fabric on the sides - it's overlapping now (just pinned to poor Ni'ka) but after I figure out the closures the whole thing will be much tighter. I'm going to do nylon webbing and buckles, but I left my buckles back in Vermont, so I may have to wait until Thanksgiving to get them back... I also need to grab a zipper for the neck while I'm there (again - have it in the sewing hoard, but not on-hand) and then I'll be ready for plates!

Oh - and during a late-night foray to a local craft store, I picked up some wonderful spikes for my gloves and the backs of my boots! Call it $5... I may have to buy my over-gloves, much to my dismay - I used most of the leather on spats/vest, and will have to go scrap-hunting to find the right pieces for gloves... Oh well. Can't win 'em all...

Total Beskar'gam Credit Expenditure: $75

[Thel Ihveen]

Hey, vode!

I'm headed back to my native craft cave this week, and will be picking up fastenings/buckles/possibly some poster board for armor templates... But I'm concerned about the spats and whether or not they're gonna work. I'll swing by a craft store, probably, and might get some heavy-duty snaps. I figured I'd ask anyone reading this for their opinion...

Do you think the spats work with the d-rings? Or should I clip them off and go for elastic/velcro or snaps? I don't think I've seen many spats with visible fastenings, since they're less Star Wars-y and more plain ol' functional... I'm honestly not sure how to move forward with them at this point...

Thanks!

- Thel

[Bowfanny]

If you do the double d rings with the leather strap or nylon strap that's perfectly fine. My original spats that i was approved with had 4 straps and buckles to keep them on. Those spats have been traded around my clan and are in the next clan over from a co-op clan troop we did so they work great.

[Thel Ihveen]

If you do the double d rings with the leather strap or nylon strap that's perfectly fine. My original spats that i was approved with had 4 straps and buckles to keep them on. Those spats have been traded around my clan and are in the next clan over from a co-op clan troop we did so they work great.

Thank you! That's good to hear - I'll just finish the bottoms and they're done! I was real worried for a sec that they just wouldn't work visually... I'm glad other people are using strapped spats, too!

[Rohm Iy'Kadaysh]

Loving how the vest came out. Great lines!!! Has a lot of character to it. I'm happy with mine at the moment, but it was my first crack at it. So there is a lot of noticeable "learning" that can be seen in the finished product. Your vest is definitely motivating to give another pass at it.

Bookmarked and looking forward to following. OYA VOD!

[Thel Ihveen]

Loving how the vest came out. Great lines!!! Has a lot of character to it. I'm happy with mine at the moment, but it was my first crack at it. So there is a lot of noticeable "learning" that can be seen in the finished product. Your vest is definitely motivating to give another pass at it.

Bookmarked and looking forward to following. OYA VOD!

Thank you so much! I just checked out your WIP thread and - wow! Guess we both did black leather with buckles, huh? I'm glad it's motivated you - your kit is coming along great! I like how you made your chest plates, especially, and your sash turned out amazing. Gotta find me some nice drapey fabric like that...

And, without further ado... Some pics of how mine finally came out!

Today I had a friend over and we both worked on projects and chatted... I'm heading north again and did NOT want to schlep my sewing machine, so I took pretty much all of today and finished both my spats and my vest. Tackled spats first and well... Things went not quite how I'd expected. I'd collected some D-rings for the bottoms, and also bought a whole lotta O-rings, and it turns out the boots I have are too short to really work with any kind of harness.

I realize now that in my original drawings, I thought I'd be working with my workboots, not the shorter ones I have, now... I ended up just sewing the bands that run under the boot right to the spats themselves, then doing a separate band with the spikes and riveting that to the rest of the main piece. I'm definitely going to have to put some glue on the threading for the spikes - they look awesome, but the leather they're mounted on is thick enough that they get knocked off easily - I've already lost one somewhere in my room and had to replace the thing. I'm also hoping to find a better solution to the tiny rivet at the ankle... More rivets? Thin the band? Not sure, but it works for now. My only other grievance with them is that they keep falling down - I'll hunt for some fusible interfacing to hopefully stiffen them up!

After the spats were done, gawked at, and bounced around in, I finished up my vest. First, I tackled the zipper; I somehow defied all logic and sewed a very invisible zipper using a regular zipper and a regular machine foot. It's like bees - something that really shouldn't work, and maybe sounds like a dumb idea, but somehow... happens anyway? This zipper was like that.

After much putting-on and taking-off, I managed to finagle a reasonable gap to accommodate the buckles I got! (They were like $3 and look suitably strange and futuristic... They aren't just plain) I'd initially intended to use the 1" nylon webbing I had kicking around and have a large gap with adjustable straps, but when I found the perfect buckles... They turn out to be 2cm. I scoured the rest of Hobby Lobby looking for 2cm strapping, but they only had 1", and the 1" buckles they had were awful and opened from the top not the sides...

I considered cutting the strapping down by the required 0.54cm, but I'd have to melt the edges. ALL the edges. And I didn't wanna risk getting kicked from my dorm... At the last possible second, I realized I had black elastic that looked just like the webbing and was the right width! After some fiddling around and much chalking (and my assistant holding the vest straight while I clipped) I finally took a risk and just... Sewed them on. No adjusters - the elastic lets the vest shift when I move, but looks like regular strapping. I guess I got lucky - after eyeballing literally everything, I clip on the vest... It fits perfectly.

Of course, my friend and I had to go out into the hall in my building and take some pictures! Special thanks to Mikaela for using her nice phone to get some good shots! Pardon my face... Also the makeshift stand-in sash has returned - it's NOT the final, just there for effect because I wanted to see how the vest hit...




Here's a good shot of the striping, plus you can see the gapping from where the thin spat leather is wrinkling... It's great for vests, not so much for boots...


Aaaand my personal favorite; A 3/4 view where I show off the buckles on the sides, but also look regal as heck.

Anyway - that's what I got, and I'll be dragging it all north again to (hopefully) meet up with the locals and see if I can hunt down some sintra...

Running Armor Expenditure;
Buckles were $3 and O-rings... I forget, but I ended up not using them at all, and will probably use them for something, I'm sure... Not gonna count them as an armor expense yet, though. Call it $78...

[Havelock]

I'm envious of your tailoring skills. Mad props!  I can sew a button back on.  heh (My wife hasn't taught me to use her sewing machine yet)  You're off to an amazing start!  And I absolutely love your kama.  Well done, vod.

[Thel Ihveen]

I'm envious of your tailoring skills. Mad props!  I can sew a button back on.  heh (My wife hasn't taught me to use her sewing machine yet)  You're off to an amazing start!  And I absolutely love your kama.  Well done, vod.

Thanks, vod! Glad you like it!

I'm actually super excited to start the next part of my kit - the helmet and armor! I'm keeping the armor plates on this thread, but my helmet is gonna be the trickiest part and I'd really like some specific feedback. I've got a helmet WIP thread started if you guys wanna check it out! I'm doing cardboard templates right now, and will check sizing when my other plate templates are put together.

I went out on Monday to get some interfacing for my spats and some fabric for my sash. I ended up with some unbleached cotton gauze with a pretty tight weave. No pictures yet - gotta dye the stuff - but it's heavy and drapes nicely, while having a fun texture as well. I almost went with a light knit, but at the lest second I found the gauze stuff and had to have it!

More updates soon when I finish paper templates and sizing, hopefully...

Bike helmet: $10
Fabric total: $24
Grand running total: $112 (yikes)
The gleeful look on my dad's face when I ask to use his old autobody tools for a Star Wars costume: Absolutely priceless.

UPDATE 12/16:

So last night after seeing Rogue One (aww yeah) I got home late and managed to photograph how my plates are going... So far I only have the chest and shoulders done - I'm gonna do back plates, boots, gauntlet bases and elbows/knees next - but I'm very excited to show it off! I originally printed WOF's 5'9" plates (I'm 5'10"-ish) but they ended up being too big, so I had to try the 5'6" plates (which still needed modification). I guess I'm just incredibly narrow for a guy.

The chest plates are being... difficult, but hopefully they're the right width...? After one round of pictures (the lightly-modified template) I I decided that the plates were just too wide, so I narrowed them a little and then re-made the ab plate to keep that triangular shape going...

The Old:


(My parents are kinda freaked out by the dummy I've set up in the living room... They're calling it "Bob Fett" and my dad is still delighted...)

The New:


The shoulders are a little weird in paper because it doesn't hold a curve, but I'm pleased with them and how they balance out the helmet. They're kinda big, but that's the kind of absurd look I'm going for, anyway.

I also made my knees, gauntlet pattern, and boot-plate pattern. In the end, I decided that elbows would interfere with the gauntlets, and I can mount the knees right to my boots because of where they hit. I might make elbows later... not sure. I did, however, make the back plates! Again - they're strange now because the cardboard doesn't hold its shape like plastic will, but I'm pleased with them! A little more than 2/3 coverage! I also made a minor tweak to the helmet by moving the earcaps up. (Also pardon my messy wall...)



That's hopefully all the work I'm doing on it today... What do you guys think of the plates? The wider or the narrower? (I can print another set of the wide ones very easily...) Also hoping my helmet checks out, scale-wise!

Thanks for all the help!
   - Thel
 

[Bariikas Talgal]

That's some fine work right there! Wish my soft parts were that good!! But alas, i'm still learning how to sow a piece of nylon and elastic together I definitely like the look you've got going on, and the method of building the soft parts before adding the plates! I'll have to keep that in mind when I do my next kit.

[Thel Ihveen]

That's some fine work right there! Wish my soft parts were that good!! But alas, i'm still learning how to sow a piece of nylon and elastic together I definitely like the look you've got going on, and the method of building the soft parts before adding the plates! I'll have to keep that in mind when I do my next kit.

Thanks for the encouragement! The good thing about soft goods is that (assuming you use a removable attachment method) you can always have multiple sets and make new pieces as you gain sewing ability. So keep at it, vod! Doing them first (and making a dummy) also really helps with spacing/sizing plates.

Okay, update time!

On Sunday I bought some buckets ($8) to cut up for my helmet, and shelled out the extra $2 to get them in black so that they'd match the base plastic of my dome and I won't have to paint the inside of the helmet... However, I didn't end up cutting them at the armor party.

When I showed up, I realized that I had to cut out and tweak the new (by which i mean old) torso templates, and use those instead of the narrower ones. The narrow shape... is a bit too V-shaped when the shoulders are on. It reads "1950's dress bodice" instead of "suit jacket"... Plus, I shortened the shoulder plates by like 1" so I looked less like a member of KISS. They were a little over twice the width of my bucket before, so they're closer to "correct" now, and less likely to take someone's eye out.

The host of the armor party actually lives within walking distance of a sintra source, so after paying in $20 to the plastic fund, I had free reign of the sintra pile. I marked all my bits (and I do mean ALL) on some black 3mil. Unfortunately for me... I have a lot of bits...



When I was finally done marking them all... Everyone was startled by the amount of plates I actually have. I've made crazier costumes before, so I guess it didn't occur to me that I have lots of stuff going on. I guess that's what happens when your boot armor, your shoulders, AND your back plate are segmented...

People were shooed out due to a developing snowstorm, but the coordinator of the party did lend me a PVC-cutting saw he hadn't even opened, yet, so I may end up taking the next week few days to cut my plates by hand...

I haven't touched my bucket yet, but that's okay - I'll be doing my plates first! (sorry to those of you following that thread...)

Armor total: $140

[AndySanchez]

This kit is so beatiful, I'm really looking forward to seeing it completed!

[Yolah Hyperion]

Good find on the sintra!!

One things for sure..you will need a few cans of paint 

Keep it coming Vod your thread is awesome!

[Thel Ihveen]

Good find on the sintra!!

One things for sure..you will need a few cans of paint 

Keep it coming Vod your thread is awesome!

Thank you to everyone for encouraging me! I'm glad you guys like it!

Also, you bet I'll need paint... There are a total of 29 plates on this thing (not including the buy'ce), so I'll probably need at least 2 cans of silver, one can of black (a "primer" between silver and purple, plus knees/elbows and cheeks...) and then two cans of the purple I end up using. Add on whatever weathering/wash, plus the brush-on can o' glowy nonsense for stripes... Yeah, I'm gonna spend more on paint than I have on the plates themselves!

Speaking of plates... Five hours, one sawblade, one band-aid, an x-acto knife, and a whole lotta black PVC dust later:



I've cut out all the plates by hand. I was originally gonna wait until after Christmas (the hinted-at arrival date of a hypothetical dremel... Shoutout to my wonderful dad!) but I got impatient and would rather have the things in my hot fists than wait a whole four days to start cutting. I'll wait to cut up bucket pieces (the saw won't touch that plastic due to the angles going on) but I'm too stoked to see this thing finished not to put in the hard work with the rudimentary tools I have on hand. They will definitely be getting cleaned up and beveled when I do have the tools to do it... The saw's pretty rough on them! Rough enough that I managed to crack a shoulder plate, and put some smaller cracks in a few weird places on other plates...

What do you guys use to fix cracks in sintra? Bondo? And should I form them before I sand them, or after?

The ab plate and inside the chest pieces will still need cutting down, hence the extra material. I don't trust the ~mysterious curves~ of my torso at all, and I know that once I form the chest pieces I may end up with a different gap than the one I got when I tested them in paper. I'm also... not sure if I want a chest display or not? Some kinda working lights would look amazing, but I'll have to go digging to find out what kind of usable electronics I have.

Last night, I tried ironing the interfacing into my spats... Yeah, not happening. I wasn't thinking when I got the stuff, and I'll have to glue it in. The suede backing on the leather resists the adhesive, and the leather might burn if I heat it high enough to melt the glue. I'll throw some fabri-tac at it sometime...

I also put in an order for my over-gloves! I stumbled upon the perfect ones on ebay for a total of $15, and hopefully they show up before I have to pack up and head back south again... I'll keep you posted!

Cost tally: $155

[AndySanchez]

You should wait for it to be formed to sand, since you could get imperfections in the molding process you'll have to sand anyways.
Whenever any material has cracked on me I tend to only use some bondo, but if the crack gets worse with the heat, which it might, I like to do a little bit of fiberglass in the back after it's formed to stunt any breaking!
Hope that helps!