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[Slade Kel]

Hey folks, old timer here. You might remember me from such times as several years ago, the OG Horns-On-Head mando. I popped back in briefly shortly after Celebration lamenting the regrettable POS kit that I wore to that lovely event. I made the mistake of helping a bunch of other people get their armor done with the hubris-laden belief that I could slap together a new set of armor in a week. It did not go well.

So here I am, back from Outer Space and starting the job right, from the ground up.

The outfit is heavily influenced by the SW Rebels mando armor, specifically clan Wren:


Now, the helmet came out pretty good, in my opinion at least, so that's going to be kept from the travesty that was the Celebration Kit.

BTW, I had the bloody handprint before TFA made it cool

Torso plates have been rough-cut out of 16 gauge steel.
Chest, Collar and Ab:

Back Collar and Main Back:


My Hitachi metal shears are almost a decade old and a little clunky, so I need to cut the diamond out and do cleanup of angles and corners with the dremel, but that'll be going forward. Hopefully I'll have more updates soon. I'm planning to keep my nose to the grindstone on this, as I've been putting off building a new kit for years now and I have to blot the disappointing sack of dung that was my Celebration armor out of my own mind.

Edit: I had a request for templates, and as I found none online and had to draw my own, I figured I'd offer them up if anyone is interested. Just gimme a shout-out if you use them for a build! . It's an incomplete set, as I'm doing a custom job here, but it should be a solid start for anyone looking to do their own Wren grunt/Rebels mando.

https://imgur.com/a/LVnO5

For actual Clan Wren plates, I have the back plate and back collar, front collar, chest plates and ab, knees and the top half of the gauntlet shells. I appear to have misplaced or chucked the shoulder, and the lower half of the gauntlet shell I just free-handed using my measurements...

The gauntlet shell top and collar plates need to be mirrored to get the full template, and the back plate needs to be cut out, put together and then mirrored. I was also having some issues with the lines showing up, so any extra thick lines you need to cut on the outside of the line to get it at full size. My printer/scanner was also otherwise acting up so I could only do jpegs, but they theoretically were scanned into 8.5x11 inch size and should print out accurate to size for that. For reference on sizing, I'm 5'7", stocky and chunky, 16.5" from armpit-to-armpit across the chest and 16" from collarbone to navel and the bottom of the ab plate sits at about the center-point of my navel.

And upon closer inspection the tip of the ab plate was out of the scan area and the front end of the gauntlet shell top is a bit past the printable area. Neither should have a great effect on the final product, easily fixable with a pencil and a ruler.

[Slade Kel]

Day two, most of the remaining armor parts rough-cut out.



All that's left for actual armor parts are the gauntlets, and if I decide on finger armor for the full crushgaunt look. Tonight and perhaps tomorrow will be dremel cleanup of the current pieces, as I more or less ran out of metal and can't even start cutting out the gauntlets...and we're supposed to get 12-18 inches of snow tonight into tomorrow, so it'll be a few days before I can get out to buy more metal.

[Havelock]

Nice.  Very nice.  Not sure the bloody handprint will fly, though, with the House of Mouse and "No Gore."  But very nice.  I'm going to enjoy watching this come together.

[Darasuum Prudii]

Cant wait to see those plates formed!!! Helmet pain is nice!!!

[Slade Kel]

Nice.  Very nice.  Not sure the bloody handprint will fly, though, with the House of Mouse and "No Gore."  But very nice.  I'm going to enjoy watching this come together.

Thanks! And on the handprint, if that's the final ruling of the App Team when go time approaches, then fair's fair, but the handprint has been a bit of a thing since 2011 so I'll just have to repaint it. My one defense of the 'bloody' print is that (even though I did it first!) the Powers That Be used it in TFA on Finn's helmet.

Cant wait to see those plates formed!!! Helmet pain is nice!!!

Thanks 

[Havelock]

Unfortunately, it's a case of "Do as I say, not as I do," with the higher-ups in the Galaxy Far, Far Away.  That aside, I'm really interested in seeing this kit come to life.

[Slade Kel]

Fair Havelock, I'll burn that bridge when I get to it, though before submitting I'd appreciate it if you would do me the favor if pitching it to the full team to see if you all officially think it would violate the no gore rule. If that's the ruling of the team, it isn't the end of the world, I'll just repaint it another color.

Anyway, progress. Spent all day cutting, dremeling and hammering. Nothing has had the final sand and polish, some still needs to be touched up with the dremel and a lot of it still needs at least a little hammering.

The torso plates are the closest to done:





The gauntlet shells are about done, but I need to either find a source of templates for the toppers or make my own:



I intend on doing crushgaunt style hand armor, but until I find a suitable pair of gloves all I've done are the back of the hand and the plate over the first knuckles:


Thighs are a cross between those seen on some of Wren Clan, and the old TCW Death Watch, knees are standard Wren, and feet are custom for comfort.I'm also working on enclosed greaves, but they're not far enough along to be worth posting.






The cod piece is going to be attached to a padded vinyl backing for comfort, and attached to the flight suit so that it fits snuggish, not loose hanging.


Oh hey, and the mess that is my hammering workspace . I have a sliver of log for a dishing stump at the moment, a small anvil and a cast iron pedestal for them to stand on, along with a set of ballpeens in various weights from 12-20 ounces and a rubber/plastic mallet combo job.


I also finished the back collar plate, but I'll picture it when I get more done on the back plate. I will say it was a stone cold sonofa-you-know-what to get shaped so that it lay flat to my back, and in the end doesn't quite line up with the collar plate anymore and will require some adjusting. I ran out of arm strength before I could get far with the back plate. Been a while since I hammered for more than a few minutes.

[Talon Ven'ad]

I'm gonna have to go with Havelock here. That hand print isn't gonna fly. No blood and gore, and that's clearly a bloody handprint. I think you could change the paint color and keep the hand, but the bloody version will get bounce back. 

[Sep Ho'ban]

Powers That Be used it in TFA on Finn's helmet.

The hand print would be fine if you were doing a canon FN-2187 -- but that would be Rebel Legion or 501st territory. As a merc, it's not CRL compliant, regardless of what prior CRL's or approval precedents are.  The CRL's are a living document.  Otherwise you wouldn't be able to use the Clan Wren inspiration. 

I think you'll do great things with this kit, and I want to see that, but I don't think you need the bloody handprint as a crutch to sell it.  You can find other ways to show your Merc means business vod!

[Mereelajum]

Slade lives!!  Long time no see, good to have you back in action. 


Looks great by the way.  I love metal plates so much.  I’m using Sintra now for my new set (one you commented on on FB) and it just doesn’t have the same feel.  Gonna have to go back to metal again eventually

[Slade Kel]

I'm gonna have to go with Havelock here. That hand print isn't gonna fly. No blood and gore, and that's clearly a bloody handprint. I think you could change the paint color and keep the hand, but the bloody version will get bounce back.

The hand print would be fine if you were doing a canon FN-2187 -- but that would be Rebel Legion or 501st territory. As a merc, it's not CRL compliant, regardless of what prior CRL's or approval precedents are.  The CRL's are a living document.  Otherwise you wouldn't be able to use the Clan Wren inspiration. 

I think you'll do great things with this kit, and I want to see that, but I don't think you need the bloody handprint as a crutch to sell it.  You can find other ways to show your Merc means business vod!

Thanks for your input guys. I'm not one for pedantry, but the current phrasing is

No gruesome themes or items/elements including, but not limited to, human or human-like bones, skin, or organs. This policy is not limited to trophies and includes sculpted or otherwise attached elements.

But like I said, if the App Team makes the call that it meets those restrictions, I'm okay with repainting it. As it's been a staple of 'Slade' for so long I'd like to keep it as is if I can. And I'm well aware of the changeable nature of the CRL's, I used to be part of the revision process, after all . 

Slade lives!!  Long time no see, good to have you back in action. 


Looks great by the way.  I love metal plates so much.  I’m using Sintra now for my new set (one you commented on on FB) and it just doesn’t have the same feel.  Gonna have to go back to metal again eventually

Thanks bro, glad to be back . And yeah, sintra isn't a bad medium, it's just not my favorite. Takes less time to make the plates, but more time and tlc to make them look as good with paint and weathering, in my opinion. Metal is definitely my preferred medium .

[Havelock]

No worries on the pedantry.  While not specifically included in the CRL, "gruesome" includes bloody hand prints.  And blood an gore in general.  Sorry, vod.  I wish you could keep it, as it's pretty bad shebs, but it's a no-go.

[Slade Kel]

No worries on the pedantry.  While not specifically included in the CRL, "gruesome" includes bloody hand prints.  And blood an gore in general.  Sorry, vod.  I wish you could keep it, as it's pretty bad shebs, but it's a no-go.

Understood vod, no worries. I'd like to have kept it, but if that's the official word then I'm not going to fight it .

I made a little more headway on the gauntlets, the hinges are attached and they're more or less final shaped, just waiting on the toppers and such. Next is touch-ups on the other plates and attaching the hinges to the shins. More pictures to come.

[Havelock]

Looking forward to more pics, vod.  I"m really enjoying this build.

[Slade Kel]

Ask and ye shall receive

We got another slight snowpocalypse up here in the frozen northeast, so shoveling wore me out enough that hammering the back plate was not in the cards...and I got the wrong size belts for my belt sander the other day and didn't notice until I opened them today. Still got a fair bit of sanding done with dremel and mouse and hand. Realized in the sanding process I'm more out of practice hammering than I thought, so I had to do extra finishing work, but we're getting there.

The front torso and upper back are almost finished, except for some trimming to make the collar plates line up again now that they're shaped.





The gauntlet shells are more or less finished and hinged together, they just need a little edge smoothing and for my magnets to arrive. Plus I'm still working on the topper problem. Still no luck on templates, so I'm going to try mocking some up myself. I guess I've made all of the other templates, so I should be able to come up with something. Maybe build something up out of foam and face it in thin aluminum? Hand and top knuckle plates are essentially done, though I'll be adding 'rivets' to the hand plates and small spikes to the knuckles later.




That's all for now, more to come soon!.