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[Fenn Beviin]

Sounds good man!

I have been wondering this for awhile now - why do so many of our Protectors pain the sigil as white and black? The comics show it as white and red. Random thoughts! lol

Enjoy your trip dude. Looking forward to seeing more progress upon your return.

[Kol Hokan]

Back from Spain and back on the build. Took some 3D printed death watch knees and modified them to be a bit more Boba/Jango looking. Used printer cartridge caps and drilled holes in them to set the connectors I’m using as knee dart launchers.

 The 90-100 degree heat here in Portland made the paint dry super quick, so I was able to do silver, masking, gray, and yellow all in one afternoon. Just need to add some brushed on extra damage and do the black and brown washes.

[Fenn Beviin]

Yeeeeeeeeeeeees!

How was Spain?

[Kol Hokan]

Spain was incredible, thanks for asking. It still doesn't entirely seem real that I was over there swimming in the Mediterranean and visiting sights I've only ever read about in history books.

But I'm getting side-tracked. Hopefully the pictures are working for everyone. The IMGBB hosting site I use seems to be very intermittent in their image displays. Sometimes I log in and the pictures are missing, other times they are there.

I have made a TON of progress in the past couple months since returning from Spain.  To the point where the kit is not only wearable, but I have submitted it under basic app as advised by my Ruus'alor.  Unfortunately I was unable to update my app for a bit due to my laptop being down. New laptop has been acquired and I'll do my best to show the progress I made to this point.

Last we left off I had put down the initial paint layers for the helmet.  After Spain I got back to work. I stenciled out the Jaing Eyes and added kill stirpes to the helmet as well as some small details on the earcaps:






I added a modified/simplified version of my clan logo on one of the yellow shoulder bells:


I also added my signature scorching blackwashing using a misting of flat black spray paint followed by 0000 steel wool buffing:






I also added my original/personal House Crest (Hokan) to the right chest plate:


The helmet turned out great with the scorching, I could have stopped there, but didn't:








The gauntlets ended up falling way behind. The Kruser gauntlets I originally intended to use ended up having quite a bit of damage to them (they appear to be B-pulls) and needed a lot more work than I wanted to do with a debut con coming up in a couple weeks. So I sanded down my old RKD Kol gauntlets from 2014 and started on a fresh repaint. I was inspired by the pre-pro Fett and Kelan Ord's protector for the mis-matched gauntlets. I originally had no intention of using orange, but after seeing it on the helmet, I knew I had to add it to more places on the kit:








I mentioned I didn't stop with the blackwash. No. I needed to add more grime and rust effects.  So that happened:






With a fresh visor installed, trimming off the bridge I had left to keep the helmet shape sturdy, and some basic padding, the helmet was done!








But because I'm crazy and I do my best work under a time crunch when pressure is applied, I decided that I needed a Poncho.  I'd never made a poncho before that wasn't just a square piece of fabric with a hole, but I was inspired by Stephen Walker's work at Rebel Base Creations.  In fact I've never sewn anything custom before - the most I'd ever done was hemming some pants.  I used some curtain fabric I had found at Goodwill and some leather-looking vinyl I had picked up a while back. Combined it with scrap from a crappy Din Djarin belt from a cheap costume and my wife's Fennec Shand chest box, and it turned out pretty dang good!  Oh, and I broke two of my machine needles sewing through that vinyl. Ouch:




I was ready to debut the costume at Rose City Comic Con! The same event that I had lost the duel at exactly 3 years previous (see post 1)!









I even had a couple professional shots taken at the con that turned out perfect.



The following week my clan had an armor party.  I kitted up, and took my app photos.  They have already been submitted per my Ruus'alor's advisement, and I'm currently in the waiting stage for basic approval.  My eye picks up two very minor things. First the spacing between the collar and the chest plates appear to be too close from the front view - in actuality they are a full thumb's width apart consistently all the way across. It's just the angle of the front shot. I supplied an additional photo showing the spacing.  Secondly one of my knees appears to be slightly lower than the other.  It's not. This is due to my posture. I broke my foot earlier in the year and still have some lingering issues, not too bad, but I do tend to shift my weight unevenly to favor my better foot when standing still. The fabric weathering doesn't show too great on the app photos, but the close up shot shows that the flightsuit is sufficiently weathered. App photos:









Overall I'm very happy with the results and look forward to approval. It still needs a bit of work for Brigade approval. I need to finish the jetpack and swap out backplates.  Going to add some hip pouches and change out blasters to a canon/legends blaster. But it is VERY close!

[Fenn Beviin]

Looking great dude!!! Love the hooded poncho.

I would say that you might honestly have to add more weathering to the soft parts to match the grimy plates. Clever way to weather the armor though, I haven't seen or heard of anyone doing that before. Very interesting!

Also, you may need to damage that lightsabers a little more but overall, well done!

[Kol Hokan]

Looking great dude!!! Love the hooded poncho.

I would say that you might honestly have to add more weathering to the soft parts to match the grimy plates. Clever way to weather the armor though, I haven't seen or heard of anyone doing that before. Very interesting!

Also, you may need to damage that lightsabers a little more but overall, well done!

Thanks a lot! I'm super pleased with the poncho and I already have a couple clanmates asking me to make them one too,  so that'll be fun - a whole Poncho Squad.  The weathering technique using the black spray paint and steel wool is what I've always used on all my custom kit. It turns out wonderful and the same method can be used with browns and redish browns to get a battered and rusted appearance as well. The trick is inconsistent coverage for using the browns (which I didn't do for this kit - I used acrylics for the browns this time, like I did with my Din Djarin).

The weathering on the flightsuit and the vest are certainly there. Mostly black with some browns as well. Unfortunately, it just doesn't show as well in the photos - so I'm probably going to have to add more than I want for it to show up. Boba, Fenn, Tobbi, and Jodo all don't have much weathering on their flightsuits overall, however - which is the standard for Protectors.  Boba has tons of damage on his armor, but the flightsuit is relatively clean in comparison.  Trying to find a balance that respects the source material while also meeting mercs "consistency" rules can be difficult.

The lightsaber trophies are significantly damaged, as show in my first post.


UPDATE:
We had a photoshoot out at Silver Falls in Oregon this past weekend. I didn't have time to finish the new backplate I had picked up and the proper jetpack, so I made one that is /similar/ to the side mounted ones we see in the marvel comics.  I don't think it quite meets the BRL regs, but it was just a fun side project.  The little orange jump pack ended up better than I expected for something made from literal trash.  I call it the SLGP-01.   For "Sh*ty Little Garbage Pack."  I used a used container of Chlorox wipes, a food tray from a costco microwave meal, a misprint for my wife's Fennec Shand belt box, a plumbing connector, old CPAP hose from my grandfather's house, and an old generic-nerf slide.  I used the same weathering technique on the pack (black spray paint w/ steel wool and brown acrylics).  It attaches onto my temporary TK backplate with 4 9 lb pull rare earth magnets (same magnets my torso plates are held on with).  So it snaps on nicely and does not come off without a serious tug.  It worked perfectly!











I only have a couple photos from the shoot so far, but we had an incredible time and there will be MANY more photos soon.  Our photographer was Bernadette A Photography, and I could not recommend her more!  And yes, I'm using an SE-14r blaster pistol. It's a bit heavy as a solid resin prop, but it is gorgeous.

[Fenn Beviin]

Ah yep! It was probably just the less damaged areas facing out.

As for the soft parts, yeah that's tough to make it dark enough to show up in photos but not be too dark in person. Happy middle ground there for sure.

[Karl Dha'Werda]

Love the damaged lightsabers, I was just going to show my clan's foundlings this example of weathering to the lightsabers.  Crystal removed, wires exposed, not useable to all 4, great looking trophies.  My favorite is the second one down where it looks like the hilt was crushed.



I also like the weathering you did to your helmet with the extra plate added where heavy damaged occured.



Others have mentioned, but the thing that stands out the most to me is the blue girth belt.  It doesn't seemed to be weathered as the rest of the soft parts and kit overall.  Might be the lighting though.



Overall great looking kit.

[Kol Hokan]

Love the damaged lightsabers, I was just going to show my clan's foundlings this example of weathering to the lightsabers.  Crystal removed, wires exposed, not useable to all 4, great looking trophies.  My favorite is the second one down where it looks like the hilt was crushed.

I also like the weathering you did to your helmet with the extra plate added where heavy damaged occured.


Others have mentioned, but the thing that stands out the most to me is the blue girth belt.  It doesn't seemed to be weathered as the rest of the soft parts and kit overall.  Might be the lighting though.

Overall great looking kit.

Thank you! The crushed saber hilt was a dog toenail trimmer with some add-ons that I melted with a heat gun before painting.  The blue girth belt, shockingly, used to be even brighter.  There's a ton of lighter blue and grey spray paints on it to tone it down.  May have to just throw it out in the sun for a few weeks!  It definitely pops more than I expected.

[Kol Hokan]

Quick update. Several months have gone by and my kit is still in App. 

After several weeks the first round came back with a few easy fixes:
- more weathering on the flightsuit
- smooth out print lines on the gauntlet rocket
- reshape the shins
- slight vest/chest reshaping along the edges

I completed all of that and sent it back in then waited a month and a half. I made all the necessary fixes and they accepted those but then they sent me back more fixes that were fine the first time.
- More weathering on the vest and gloves
- Adjust the spacing on the chest plates

This has been quite frustrating as the chest plates never moved from the first round of app photos and they were deemed fine the first time. And the weathering on the vest and gloves was also fine - but because they made me add more weathering to the flightsuit, now they claim my weathering is inconsistent.  Ugggg.  I feel like this is the Bert and Ernie bit from Sesame Street where Ernie keeps trying to make the licorice even by biting off bits of both pieces until there is no licorice to share at all; add more weathering here, now more weathering here, now more weathering here again.... Pretty soon my entire kit will look like Din's after the Mudhorn fight. /rant

Frustrated and annoyed that the root of these problems seems to be the vest (it also won't meet BRL's because of the updated change discussed on page 2 of this WIP) I decided to go buy new fabric and try to sew up a completely new vest.  I chose some light/medium grey to give some contrast with the flightsuit.  I don't think I'll be able to finish it in time for my App Team deadline in 7 days, so I might have to just let the app expire and start this all over again.

I'll update with photos soon.

[Karl Dha'Werda]

I completed all of that and sent it back in then waited a month and a half. I made all the necessary fixes and they accepted those but then they sent me back more fixes that were fine the first time.

That has happened before to some recruits over the holiday break when the App team goes dark.  Made adjustments and sent back, took over a month because of being on break.  When response came back there were additional changes spotted to adjust, that weren't seen before.  This can be from different photos in different lighting/environments.

You are doing great Vod, I can feel your frustrations but you also have a really fantastic kit that will be even better once you make a solid color vest and weather everything to match.  Hopefully not mudhorn weathered though, haha.