Had to put this project on the backburner for a few weeks due to family vacation, the flu, and just a busy schedule.
Either way, I've slowly been purchasing the stuff, with the knowledge that I'll get around to it some day. Well, that day was today!
One of my clan members invited me over to his house to get some work done, and we were pretty productive. Today we ended up officially scrapping my old vest, cut templates for a new vest, then traced and cut plates from the plastic. Big thank you to Kordon Bleu for all the help!
And everything together!
(i know i'll need to add Bicep plates for Force Hunter brigade, but that shouldn't be too difficult. I just wanted to see how all of this looked together to decide how i want to do those.)
As for status updates on everything else -
Helmet - My NME Stalker Helmet came in! Yay! I was quoted 3-4 months, but it only ended up taking 6 weeks or so! So i promptly turned around and ordered a visor and helmet pads to help hold it in place.
Blaster - I also got my blaster pistol in! I plan on adding a PVC pipe barrel with a cap on the end to really make this thing look more like a real blaster
Staff - I haven't gotten much headway into the staff lately. I plan on using the template found here
http://mandalorianmercs.org/forum/index.php?topic=103053.0 except using pvc pipe for the base instead of the aluminum flag pole. I will be drilling holes towards the top then weaving some pink/purple EL Wire through to simulate the electricity in the Magnaguard staff, which is why i need the hollow PVC pipe instead of the solid flag pole. I got the EL Wire in the mail, and that control switch is HUGE. It definitely wouldn't fit into the staff normally. So i've got this half baked idea of cutting open the switch, moving the batteries to two seperate single-AA battery cases, but wiring it up for the same voltage. Basically just instead of the 2 AA batteries being parallel, they'll physically be in series, though wired to still be in parallel. No idea how that will turn out, but I'm willing to experiment. Whats the worse that could happen?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017GCSULA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1Flight Suit - I spent a good amount of time teaching myself to sew by taking in this thing. I normally wear a small/medium size, and found this one at Goodwill for super cheap. Too bad it was a large! So i took in legs, arms, waist, even the neck line. It may be pretty sloppy, but it should look just fine once all the plates and vest are covering it
Vest - I ended up scrapping the vest I'd previously made. It was a rough draft, and my first time sewing, so I'm not too heartbroken. My friend ended up picking up some dark gray duck cloth, and helped me build new templates, so this is the top of my work list. The dark gray should help break up from all of the black
Gauntlets - One of my clan-members was going through some financial issues, so i was able to pick up a used set of April Storms gauntlets for a good price. Love those things! I had planned on ordering from her anyways, but was balking at the shipping time from Australia, so when the chance came up to help a clan-member, I jumped at the chance. I plan on sanding his paint job down, then repainting it my own colors. I may switch out the darts, not sure yet. I absolutely love the dagger that slides out!
Sash/belt - This was supposed to be a temp thing, but i'm liking it the more i look at it. It's one of my wife's old scarfs/shawl things. I plan to sew it to the correct length/width, as well as add some batting (?) to help it hold shape. It's a pretty lose material now!
Cod piece - I've been back and forth about how I wanted to do the cod piece, with out really finding an option that i fell in love with. When i was over at Kordon Bleu's house today talking about it, he offered me a hand-me-down Cod Piece that was given to him when he was first starting his kit. I'm thinking this may be the start of a new tradition - the Cod Piece that gets around!
So with that, my top priorities are to sew up the vest, then work on the staff, and maybe shape some of the easier plates. I have a clan armor party in a few weeks that I'm hoping to get started on actually shaping the more difficult plates.
Question here though - is it recommended to sand the plates down before or after shaping?