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[Shammah]

What they said for size. You should be able to reach not quite straight out front without getting armor bite from the collar. As for spacing, I like the rule of thumb width between plates because that automatically scales to the size of the person wearing them. Love the blanket. That level of damage/weathering is perfect - do the edges. Use your imagination. Think of who your character is, where she operates, what she does and how she moves, then let that guide what the weathering looks like. Be random with scratches and dings; uniformity is unrealistic. I was inspired by my metal water bottle and how the paint has chipped off of it over the years. Each scratch, each ding tells a story. Look for these sorts of examples around you.

As for the weapons, if you spend a little time filling in some details on them and maybe drilling or filing out new ones, then paint and weather them they may be fine. I know there are a lot of people here that can tell you exactly what they are and where you can get them. The idea is to make it so they say, "Hmm, is that a (fill in the blank)? She did a good job of fixing it up."

Glad to have you in Vhett Manda. Keep up the good work, look forward to seeing more.

[trashcanmando]

Welcome aboard, Fork, ConDar, and Shammah! Two from my clan and an approval team member, nice!

I found several incidents of mercs using small skulls or real bones, general consensus seems to be that small animal skulls are okay. The bigger they are, the less likely, it seems, but mine's got a beak and fits in my closed fist; it's also a lot tougher than it looks! Should it be an issue later on, it'll be really easy to switch out.

Thanks for the tips, Shammah, very good advice!

I worked on the blasters for a while until I got frustrated and switched to the beskad. I've got way more experience with stabby things than shooty things, heheh. I'm going to use Cakes' advice and try to use the practice knife for the base. This is the design I found that I liked best (straight from the beskad wookiepedia page, too, sometimes original is best )



Here's the quick template mockup I did, also wrapped the handle with some leftover cloth from the sash.



Changed the blade cut out to mimic the patterns on my armor. I'm going to see what we've got for easy to work plastics lying around, more or less make a sheath for the practice knife, and glue it in.

[Shammah]

How big are you thinking of going with this? I made my beskad 18" long overall - good size for a melee weapon or chopping brush for cover. Need to think of how you're going to use each thing you carry because weight cost you when you're going into a fight so you only carry what makes sense.

[trashcanmando]

The blade alone is ten inches, the full beskad is 14. That was about as big as I could get it before the blade started looking ridiculous in proportion to the hilt. I found some plastic and tried a couple things, but I don't know if I like how it's turning out. I might just ditch it and find a different way to build a beskad entirely. I really like the design, though.

Two days in and I already feel like this is going to be one long line of false starts and ditched ideas, but I'll get there! We all know what Thomas Edison said about lightbulbs, after all.

[Shammah]

That he knows like 10,000 things that don't work. I built mine out of oak. Any hard wood would do, but pine is too soft for the design I used. Scale it for the finished product, the blades often look funny without the handle and beskads should be the heavy design you've chosen.

[Havelock]

And yeah, a lot of this will be trial and error.  But even the attempts that don't work out will generally teach you something, and help you make your kit even better.   

[trashcanmando]

Today I made the final decision to just buy my plates. I'd like to be able to say I built them myself, but I want this to be quality and I just don't have the experience or tools to pull it off.  My ori'vod's little sister decided she had some interest, though, so we're looking to cut down the plates I already have for the ad'ika. Nothing too fancy, but she'll feel included.

My brother is way more experienced with weapons building than me, so I recruited him to help me build the beskad. Here's the design I drew up- sixteen inches overall, the blade alone is just a tad shy of twelve. He usually builds his knives out of PVC. I personally think a wood- like oak- might be easier, but I'm not going to mess with his method.



I also finished the cloak- trimmed off some all around so it's less bulky. I feel less like I might die of heatstroke in it, lol. I also took a candle to it and singed up some of the holes and edges, make it look more like it's been through a firefight involving lasers and flaming shrapnel. Turns out it's made of a very flame retardant material, which I like, because there's no way a mando would pick something that has a tendency to go up in flames to wear on their body.



Closer shot of the burn damage:



Next on the list is building the beskad and finding someone to buy a bucket and plates from!
Maybe I can start the flak vest this week, we'll see.
And the blasters, which I'm kind of avoiding because they're the only thing I've absolutely never messed with before. I did a lot of soft parts projects when I was younger, I've painted and played around with armor on occasion, and there are nine swords currently in my field of vision, but I have absolutely never done anything with a gun. Here come all those trial and errors, time to learn a bunch!

[Havelock]

I'm really glad to see you're making progress!

And don't stress too much about your blasters.  You'll knock this out.  I have faith in you, vod'ika.

[Shammah]

Nice job on the cloak, is that wool? First pictures it looked like it, but now it looks more flannel. Love the design you came up with for the beskad.

As far as buying a helmet and plates, look around in the merchant area on this site. And whatever you do please ask for recommendations from people (more than one) on the Mercs site before you buy anything. I can give you lots of horror stories about people paying hundreds of dollars for stuff that either never gets to you or is junk/unapprovable.

[aforklikeutensil]

As far as buying a helmet and plates, look around in the merchant area on this site. And whatever you do please ask for recommendations from people (more than one) on the Mercs site before you buy anything. I can give you lots of horror stories about people paying hundreds of dollars for stuff that either never gets to you or is junk/unapprovable.

^This, 100 times

I'm far from an expert, but I'd be happy to discuss buckets.  I'm a bit obsessed.  I would definitely steer you away from Etsy.  Stick to the merchant area here.  I'll skip espousing the benefits of building your own bucket (again) or Shammah's eyes will roll back in his head.

[trashcanmando]

I'm really glad to see you're making progress!

And don't stress too much about your blasters.  You'll knock this out.  I have faith in you, vod'ika.

Thanks, ba'vod!!  8) I'll try and do you proud.

Nice job on the cloak, is that wool? First pictures it looked like it, but now it looks more flannel. Love the design you came up with for the beskad.

As far as buying a helmet and plates, look around in the merchant area on this site. And whatever you do please ask for recommendations from people (more than one) on the Mercs site before you buy anything. I can give you lots of horror stories about people paying hundreds of dollars for stuff that either never gets to you or is junk/unapprovable.

Thanks! I'm terrible about keeping my wrappers, but I poked around on walmart's site and I think it's 100% polyester. I almost want to say there's catnip in it, my cat loves lying on it so much lol.
My brother practically pounced on the beskad, and it's already roughed out and has some preliminary sanding! Gonna bulk up the handle a little, clean it up a little more, belt grind the blade, and then paint it!

I'm far from an expert, but I'd be happy to discuss buckets.  I'm a bit obsessed.  I would definitely steer you away from Etsy.  Stick to the merchant area here.  I'll skip espousing the benefits of building your own bucket (again) or Shammah's eyes will roll back in his head.

Happy to discuss buckets anytime, I think we're all obsessed here, haha!
It'd be awesome to build my own, but I already tried it three times with cardboard (uhg) and it went... poorly. If I hadn't burned myself out with those, I might be willing to give it a shot, but I also just don't trust myself to not screw up something major.

I'm having trouble finding anyone on the forums who sell just a standard Jango helmet- I'm 5'4" and might need something a little smaller, but aside from that the Droodles helmets look really promising. I tried to find the sewing tape measure to get my head circumference, but it seems to have gone mysteriously missing...
This one also looks encouraging (the one right on top there)- it's a #nobobblehead, standard Jango, and I'm loving the idea of an aluminum outer coat.-> http://mandalorianmercs.org/forum/index.php?topic=105237.0
I'd like the RF earpieces and I'm going to be picky and fill in the arrows on the dome, but I can always ask about all that. They don't sound like alterations that would be too difficult to make on my own, either, so long as I can find someone willing to sell just rangefinder sets.
And of course there's finding the visor and installing it, but that doesn't sound hard. (I just jinxed myself, didn't I?)
 I couldn't find anyone at all currently selling plates, some recommendations would be fantastic.

[Malakier Vhett]

Looks like you're on the right track!

As far as the bucket goes, if you can afford it,  go with NME props. They are the only shop that doesn't sell in the forums you'll see actively recommended,and for good reason. They're buckets are top notch, and they have a reasonable selection. They even offer visor installs for a relatively low price. They are not, however, cheap. There are also a number of good sellers here on the forums. Droodles, Dah Brahl, Vessk, and Lonewolf all also have good quality helmets. Each has their own unique offerings so it's worth checking them all out. If you're on more of a budget, you might look into TMA. They'll take a bit more work, but I understand he's recently lowered his prices and remastered his mold for better quality. You also migjt keep an eye out for B-Pulls. Sometimes you can pick up a bucket for a pretty good deal if you're willing to deal with some defects.

Be careful with buckets.  I'm up to 6...not including my fiancee's...abd I'll be getting probably 2 more before the end of the year...

[Havelock]

As to visors, you can get a welding face shield, shade #5 for a very reasonable price.  That's what many of us use for our visors.  The welding supply shop here in town sells them for around $7.  You can find them online for pretty cheap.  As an example, you can look here if there's no welding supply shop reasonably near you.

As for plates, I think the Mandalorian Arsenal sells female armor.  Check out the Who Sells What post for some good leads on vendors here on the forum.

[Malakier Vhett]

Honestly, I wouldn't buy plates. They're expensive and eCD end for the ladies not that hard  There's a very useful resources to help if you want ideas,  which you can find here. Its more work but I honestly believe you will end up with something you are much happier with.

[trashcanmando]

What!! I ran all over looking for visors last year, and all I had to do was call it a welding face shield instead of welding visor replacement?? Thanks so much!

My plan so far is to just go ahead and use male built armor- it's easier to find and I'm... small. Before I got a more feminine haircut and still had teenager face, I was constantly mistaken for a guy. But I'll trawl through the femmando forums and see what they have on the topic.

Honestly, I wouldn't buy plates. They're expensive and eCD end for the ladies not that hard  There's a very useful resources to help if you want ideas,  which you can find here. Its more work but I honestly believe you will end up with something you are much happier with.

Thanks for the advice, I'll do more research on making before I order anything, then! Right now I'm pretty much just considering my options, I won't be rushing to buy helmet or plates. Thanks for the link, too!

edit: Didn't see your reply on buckets, thanks for all of that as well, I'll be sure to check them out and consider my options well!

I did find this forum, I'm loving the idea of real metal, and it's a great price with shining recommendations, but the only problem is that the plates are just 1mm thick and I love the more solidly three dimensional plate look.
http://mandalorianmercs.org/forum/index.php?topic=61771.0