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[Avelin Kel]

Hey Vode!

I have been extremely busy getting my kit together for Star Wars Celebration. I am hoping to put in for approval in the next week or so. My fiance (Slade Kel) gave me the amazing gift of a set of light armor made by Mandalore the Uniter  . My vest was made by Mandalore's wife, Elisha. Aside from clear coat I am almost finished with my painting. I need to cut down my boot plates a little before I can paint those as I have small feet. I also have to paint my chicago screws the same color as my armor.  I do have thigh and shin plates that I made from 16 gauge steel, but I don't know if I will have those painted and attached before going for approval.

 I am currently working on vest attachment, making leather ammo pouches and blaster holsters, and 3D printing some belt accouterments.

I have a 2 piece flight suit with Dickies, so I don't have to strip everything off when I inevitably need to pee.

I 3D printed a realistic Westar 35 (modeled by 3dpicasso). It will be my primary weapon.

Here are a few pics of what I have going on. I will hopefully post up some pics with me wearing the armor for placement over the next few days.

Helmet:







Overall shot:


Back Plate:

[Slade Kel]

She's really close to done, mostly it's just down to attachment and supplementary soft parts right now, and reforging a pair of my old gauntlets to fit her. She neglects to mention that the paint was all her; I pointed her at some reference pictures, but she went to town and did a really great job. Without the flash on and under our semi-indirect living room lighting you lose a lot of the weathering details, so when we get the armor mounted on her I'll make sure we get pictures with good lighting. I know step one is usually 'get it on so we can check the sizing' but the bossman did a bang up job on the fit of everything. Only issue, like she said, is the boot plates because they're made to the standard pattern and she does have smallish feet.

[Carid Vhett]

Looking forward to seeing more.

[Straka Zulu]

Looks amazing, and with Slade's experience, you should have no trouble getting your killstripes!

[Avelin Kel]

Evening everyone!

Thank you for all of your input! Much appreciated!

 Some small updates. I did a preliminary test fit for the chest and back plates. Mostly to make sure I had velcro in the correct places. I definitely need to add some more to the belly plate as that will sit a little higher than I originally traced out. The red shoulder plate that sits lower will get some padding. My shoulders are not level with one another which throws off the alignment of the plates. I will also adjust the spacing of the chest plates to be a little more even. I will add some more velcro to the tops of the chest plates as they float a little at the top right now.

What is not picture but is outlined in chalk are the 2 purple shoulder bells that will sit on those empty flaps. I need to add attachments and I seem to have put 1 of them in a "safe place." Lets hope I remember where that is. haha 

[Carid Vhett]

Looking good vod.

[Sep Ho'ban]

Ok... first off -- WOW! You've got a good eye for the paint and weathering, and your plates are fitting you very well
Don't forget to weather your soft parts to match

Love your helmet choice!

My shoulders are so uneven that it's visible when you look at just my vest.  I solved it by giving symmetry the finger, and using two entirely different shoulder designs.  Your shoulder's are looking good as is though, and we make exceptions for body assymetry, and other issues of the like. 

The only thing that really jumps out at me atm, is that the back of your helmet, below the brow ridge, is a lot cleaner than the rest of the bucket, or at least is in this lighting. 

Hope to see you and Slade both get your stripes before Celebration!

[Dar'manda]

Looking great vod!!! Can’t wait to see more progress!

[Avelin Kel]

Good evening Vode!

Thank you for the added input and suggestions!

 I have added some better pictures of the helmet. It did look very clean in the image I shared previously.

I have been hard at work trying to finish up everything. I have all of my soft parts now and I have started weathering. I am not going to use diluted bleach on mine. I see that is a common thing for weathering black cloth, but I am a little weary of doing so. I have found a few good brown and lighter grey paints. I figured those combined with good ole sandpaper should do the trick.

I realized my boot armor does fit with the boots that I picked out! So I don't need to cut them down. I have painted and weathered those plates. I finally found the safe place that my diamond was in so I also completed the weathering on that.

I snagged a spare pair of metal gauntlets we had and today my focus was cutting them down to fit and removing the gazillion layers of paint on them.

 Tomorrow I will have those painted and weathered, and with luck I will have better pics of me wearing everything!

For this kit I decided to delve into leatherworking and so I made my own holsters for the Westar-35s I will have as well as my belt pouches. All of my armor straps will also be leather attached with chicago screws.

Here are so more pics Please ignore the mess in the background!

[Slade Kel]

Everything is coming along great,  cyar'ika, keep working on the list and it'll be done in no time!

[Havelock]

This is all looking great!

[Avelin Kel]

This is all looking great!

Thank you Havelock and Slade. I am making steady progress. I focused on weathering my soft parts today and I got my blasters casted and mostly painted. I am also working on adding in the thigh and shin plates that Slade has graciously helped me make. I realized the old mando pants I have, already have velcro on them from a few years ago for thigh plates. Figured I'd go ahead and utilize it instead of ripping it off. Here are some more pics.

I also found some maroon fabric that matches my paint scheme really well. I am going to use that for a waist sash because my girth belt has seen better days.

[Sep Ho'ban]

nice work with the softgoods weathering! black is tricky!

[Shar Dagger]

Wow! This is coming along very nicely.  Love the leather work. Bravo! 

[Avelin Kel]

Thank you Shar and Sep!

I am still plugging away at this. I have since attached all leg armor. I am having some trouble with the chest plates. The spacing looks good up close but in photos it looks like the collar and chest plates are almost touching.

I think I have a solution for that. I need to figure out which bra I was wearing when I made the duct tape mannequin that I sent to Tom... haha. The amount of lift changes how the plates sit on me.

I also miss interpreted Slade's "The chicago screws need to match the armor" as, as long as they go with the color scheme they are good. So I need to repaint most of those. My main color is the cream color and I did all of the chicago screws in the maroon (my secondary).

I will have updated images tomorrow provided the rain/snow clears out by the afternoon. It is tough in our apartment to get a clear head on shot. I have a pic of the first test fit below, but it is at an angle.

I have since curved the cod plate more and added extra attachment up to my belt so it sits better, added stirrups to my pants so they don't come out of the boot as pictured and scrunch up my knees,. The plates look really crooked because of that. I also raised my left purple shoulder bell a little to help offset my crooked shoulders.

I will add my attachment for the chest diamond once my chest plates have their permanent home.

Gauntlets are almost complete. Letting the glue on the hinges cure.

I did make a kama with leather and I lined it with maroon fabric. I am also debating on remaking the sash so it is wider and covers more of my abdomen. It bunches quite a bit. I am hoping my holster belt will help hold it in place. I'll test that out tomorrow.




Cheers!
Avelin

EDIT! So my shaping is off because my spacing is definitely off. I just pulled up the photos Tom posted to his Mandalore the Uniter facebook page and he had the plates much closer on my mannequin than I do on my body. I will adjust accordingly