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[trashcanmando]

Been inactive for a little while now, but The Mandalorian is dragging me back with a vengeance! Progress is going to be a bit slower than my first time around, but I'm finally ready to come back, and oh how I've missed the MMCC.



So far all I have is a pair of 3D Rav Bralor gauntlets and most of my fabrics, but I have a lot of big ideas for this kit. I feel like there's less of a rush with this one since I have a troopable kit. The main things I want out of this kit are:

-Zabrak (may just forget about this if it becomes too difficult or expensive, but it would be super cool)
-Layered plating (gonna have to break and use sintra, which I miraculously avoided in my entire first kit)
-LED visor and vibroblade
-Thigh pouches. I just really have a thing for those thigh pouch things.
-Pauldron/cloak combo, if I'm gonna do LEDS, it can't be any harder than that
-Magnet plate attachments

I'm rethinking the flight suit color and will probably not end up going with the dark navy. Perhaps an olive green would be better for the other earth tones on this kit. I do really want a diamond quilted pattern for the flak vest, but I haven't ever seen anything like that solid enough to hold plates, so I might need to double it up on top of some duck cloth.

[trashcanmando]

The snowball is slowly rolling! Plate templates are finished and to be cut out this Saturday. Flak vest materials have been acquired, belt, gloves, and zabrak makeup items purchased on amazon.

The templates for the Shrike build are a bit sharper than my first build and will be trauma plated. Double shoulder bells are in the works.



Since I'm mostly waiting for items to arrive, I've been working on some trophies for this kit. The plan is to have a clan logo trophy, and one for each OM. Clan trophy finished today:



And patterns for all the OM trophies with their screen names in mandoa are ready to go:

[aforklikeutensil]

  *clicky* to follow.  Very cool.

[trashcanmando]

Thanks

Spent a lot of time on my flak vest today! It was going great until my sewing machine needle broke...

This flak vest closure system is heavily inspired by whitecrow1's flak vest, with zippers sewn in to where princess seams are usually located, and then strapping and parachute buckles to finish holding everything together. Unfortunately I didn't have enough of the zippers that separate and had to use zippers meant for jeans, so the front and back won't actually be able to separate when finished, but it's still enough wiggle room to get in and out. This same pattern will be used to replace the flak vest on my first kit as well, but only one side will open on that one (but will fully separate).

It's not quite all put together because my sewing needle busted in the middle of finishing the right side, and I still need to make shoulder bells and a neck seal, but it's most of the way there. The neck seal is going to be removable by zipper so it will be easier to wash out all the makeup I will inevitably get on it if the zabrak thing goes well.

The individual parts, which were made into a pattern so I can easily replicate it:


Front view, no plates:


What the side looks like closed (the straps will be shortened after I have my flight suit and know exactly how the flak vest will fit over):


Full view of the finished side:


With front plate templates:


With back plate templates:


The one thing I'm concerned about is the lack of any extra room on the front when the plates are on. There's a slight seam allowance that I could maybe buy half an inch with, and the collar plate could be a bit shorter, moving everything up, if it turns out to be a real problem. If that doesn't work, I'll just have to add more material to the bottom.

It's all also a bit snugger than I intended, but that's easily solved by just ripping out the zippers and moving them an inch or so out.

The shoulder tabs don't quite match up either, but the neck was a tight squeeze in the first place, and I expect they will be easy to fix when it's time for the neck seal.

[trashcanmando]

Got the plates cut out from sintra at today's (yesterday's?) armor party! Double checked that the templates were correct first:





Somehow this is my first time working with sintra, but next is cleaning up edges and heat forming! Plates will probably get sidelined for a bit until I can make it to another armor party. In the meantime, there's a few finishing touches for the flak vest, and I can start testing zabrak makeup.

EDIT: Here are the plate blanks!

[trashcanmando]

Whelp. Life threw me for a total loop, but personal business has settled down and college is almost over, so I finally finished my flak vest!











Tutorial for this vest style in my signature!

I also have the gloves, belt, and the boots are shipping. I'm talking to KalProps about a helmet, and have ordered coveralls for my other kit- if they fit right, I'll order the same size in a moss green for this one.

[Slade Kel]

Missed this when you started it, so I'm glad you brought it back to life! I dig the concept, like a lot, lol. My original Slade build had zabrak horns on the bucket and I've always really wanted to incorporate it into a full build. Like, helmet off, horns on head build .

Looks like a great start on the armor; the traced out lines are to be trauma plates? Or just paint designs?

I really like that vest design, thanks for making a tutorial for it! Flak vests are the bane of my existence in armor builds D:. Your style and tutorial look like they're easy to follow, so I'll probably take a shot at making one in that style for my upcoming new kit.

Looking forward to seeing this kit come together!

[trashcanmando]

Thank you so much!  The lines on the plates that looked traced are in fact cut out trauma plates, there's just no depth in the picture, lol. I'm hoping to get the plates cleaned up in the next week, but I probably won't be able to get them shaped until armor parties start again.... sigh.

Lots of people really loved the closure style for my vest, so I figured a tutorial would be in order! I hope it's helpful!

Since you've thought about zabrak builds- any ideas on how to pad the helmet to accomadate horns? They'll really only be along my hairline, and I plan to keep them relatively small so I don't have problems getting the helmet on and off, but I have enough padding problems without sticking prosthetics to my face lol

[Slade Kel]

Cool; that makes yours yet another design bringing me around to trauma plates, lol. I went on a multi-year hiatus when there were maybe two people in the entire club with them, and came back to them on every third kit D:. I honestly hated them at first, because a lot of them just looked like bolt-on parts. I've seen more and more well executed designs, now, though, and I think I can get behind them as a thing.

I'll definitely let you know how I make out using your vest tutorial!

Re: horns...basically...D: lol. I've given it quite a bit of thought quite a bit on it and never quite come to a solution. One thing I considered, and I might give a shot with using a helmet that got busted when I moved, was actually having like an armored headband with horns poking through it, and actually having a cutout on the helmet that the headband and horns fit into. No idea how that would work getting it on and off, though :/. Maybe try one of those builds where there's a faceplate on the helmet that comes off?

Otherwise, I'd say some padding on the top of the head in the helmet, and then maybe some just above the eyebrows? It would still require a little finagling to get the helmet on and off but would probably take less effort than a multi-part helmet.

[trashcanmando]

Lol! It's going to be a while till I get to plates, but I'll keep that in mind. I love trauma plating, makes everything look so much more solid to me.

I'm hoping to experiment with makeup and make the horns as soon as I have about three free days off from work so there's no panic if it doesn't all come off right away, lol, then I can maybe try some things with my existing bucket. Are we talking about a twi'lek-style headband? That might be a really good idea, I'll have to mess around with that.

[Slade Kel]

Yeah, that's basically what I was thinking, but with armor over the forehead part, around the horns. I figure if I do it right, I wouldn't even have to worry about actually gluing the horns on, I could have them as permanently part of the headband.

[trashcanmando]

Hmm, I'm thinking more of just a fabric hairband style, holes for the horns cut and then reinforced so they look nice, and then slot the horns through and secure it with possible craft foam. We'll see if I can get it to look good or not.

Small bit of progress today- I ripped the earth logos off my gloves and did a bit of mechanical weathering! There used to be a machine embroidered logo on the strap. The fire damage is from accidentally going through the strap seam ripping (with an exacto knife cause my seam ripper couldnt get in) and then I figured hey... can't unravel if it's charred.



Planning on doing a bit more mechanical weathering with these, get them all dirty, and they'll be all done.



Botts came! I absolutely love the look! I'm a little bit torn though- they could be a size smaller. I stuck the insole from my other boots in there and my foot fit perfectly, though. I don't know, I'm afraid if I return them and get a size smaller boot, that they'll be too small with an insole. I guess I'll wear them around a bit with insoles in and then decide.

The flight suit for my Akaleh kit came, and it's just right! Minor alterations to make, but I went ahead and ordered the coveralls for this kit too! The clan has a virtual armor party Sunday, hoping to bang out the Akaleh flight suit at least during that, and the Beviin one should follow shortly after.

[trashcanmando]

Real quick makeup test today- Just seing what I could expect from the paint, getting a better idea of face markings, seeing how well it came off. Keep in mind that I have literally never done my makeup for anything outside of Halloween! And that was all crappy dollar store paint, so I'm really loving this fancy Mehron stuff. It goes on light, doesn't feel weird on my face, I get really good coverage with it, and it came off fairly easily with just water and face scrub. Doing this for real, I would do more layers of the red, I'm also going to need to buy an eyeshadow as the cream paint isn't for use around eyes.





EDIT: Finished the horns today too!

[Slade Kel]

I'll definitely be keeping an eye out to see if that headband idea works with the horns . Test run on the paint looks pretty good, I've always hated painting my face, lol, but I've done it a time or six. Definitely some decent eyeshadow needed, and you'll want a sealer for the paint; I've never met anyone that didn't sweat under the bucket, and adding face paint in definitely ups the sweat factor, at least in my experience.

And your horns look great!

[trashcanmando]

Thank you!! I have a lot of time off this week, so I'm hoping to do more with the makeup and horns. Defiitely will get a sealer. And it's looking like I'm going to have to order eyeshadow online, can't find bright red in Walmart.

Worked on cleaning up plates today! All I've got is a dremel and some sandpaper... I'm debating asking a friend if I can come use his belt sander to get a cleaner, straighter edge.



Next thing is to see how far I can get on plate shaping all by my lonesome... I just want to get to the painting stage!

[Knight0351]

I LOVE your art style and can't wait to see the finished product

[Slade Kel]

Your cut lines look very clean, very well done

[trashcanmando]

Thanks guys! 
Today I'm trying to clean up the edges even more, I'm worried that the dremel marks will show up worse after the plates are painted. I'm also working on the girth belt today and cursing myself for not extending the cod plate about an inch so more of it was hidden under the belt.... Ah well.
I also shaped the plates that don't need to go directly onto my body and ripped pockets off the flight suit. Here's my progress so far:



Sorry about the glowing plates! It's all or nothing lighting in here lol

[AmiSky]

Looks super cool! And wow, great tutorial for the flak vest--yours looks amazing! I might have to try your method as I'm about to start on mine.

[Bade Duun]

Nice work on the horns. Weathering looks damn good too.

[trashcanmando]

Thank you both! Feel free to PM me with any questions you might have about the flak vest.

Just a couple small updates tonight. I meant to alter the flight suit this evening but instead I watched Mercsconline! Loved the twi'lek makeup tutorial. I also have a strong desire for rubber knees now...

So a couple days ago I realized you can totally put craft foam through a sewing machine. I was trying to make a pauldron, and that didn't quite work out, BUT I realized it would be a great way to make a girth belt! I didn't expect the first try to really work out, but I have a pleasant surprise:



Totally did work! I'm super pleased with how this turned out. I'm making a second one for my first kit. The girth belt for that one was too small and also terrible quality to begin with. All I did was cut craft foam to the shape I wanted, tape it all together for rigidity, (if you do this, try to keep the tape out of the areas you will sew in, at best your thread will break and at worst you'll majorly screw up your machine) and sew duck cloth over it! If anyone decides to try and sew with craft foam- make sure to set your sewing machine to the widest stitch you have, or you will just perforate the foam and cut it to pieces. After I had the whole piece covered in duck cloth, I just added sew-on velcro in a wide patch. This girth belt can adjust by a margin of probably at least six inches.

I still have to weather this belt, which I will do in a batch when my second girth belt and my flight suit are finished. I'm also trying to find an empty spray bottle for some diluted bleach weathering. Never thought an empty spray bottle would be a dificult item to source.



This is the other thing I did today (mostly while watching the online con)- updated clan trophy and MMCC logo trophy. My pattern for these is posted on page 1 as well as the patterns for a trophy for every Vhett Manda OM- whether or not I can fit all 11 trophies on my kit is a different matter! I didn't like the way I finished the edges on the old clan trophy, I like this way much better. The old trophy will be finding a new home with another Vhett Manda OM.

After this I'm getting into a busy week at work, so we'll see how much I can get done this week. I would love to finish the flight suit, but we'll see. Hope you all have a great weekend.

[Slade Kel]

Looks awesome . Awesome weathering, and I like the way the foam bulks up the girth belt; should add some nice rigidity there. That's something we had a lot of trouble with when making my wife's, and even my leather girth on my last kit had a tendency of bunching.

[trashcanmando]

Just a few small updates after coming off a busy work week. First off, boots are nearly finished being de-logo'ed!



There's a few touchup spots yet and then I need to reweather them, because I wasn't thinking and weathered once before logo concealment. But after that boots will be completely finished.



Finished some clan trophies because it's something I can do at work. Alor'ad and Ver'alor down, Ruus'alore next! After the officers are done I'll have five more to do. So seven total. My fingers hurt already lol



And finally, I made some mando bottles! Made the design myself, printed it on clear sticker paper, and slapped it on some bottles from Hobby Lobby. The ink didn't turn out as vibrantly as I was expecting, but I still like it a lot. I want to fill a couple with some spacy looking fluids- glowing blue like from the Mandalorian would be great if it's possible- and keeping a few food safe. Maybe I'll figure out a way to attach one to a belt so I can carry around a safely swarzy water bottle lol

I'm moving into a slower work week, so I'm hoping to FINALLY get the flight suits finished. If I tell myself this will be the week often enough, eventually I'll be right! I also had some magnets come, which is some nice motivation to keep working on plates.

[Athin Ordo]

First, I want to say your work is awesome!  Love the zipper on the inside of the vest and the art on the planning page. 

Now, I have questions. 

So a couple days ago I realized you can totally put craft foam through a sewing machine. I was trying to make a pauldron, and that didn't quite work out, BUT I realized it would be a great way to make a girth belt! I didn't expect the first try to really work out, but I have a pleasant surprise:

When you say "craft foam" what do you mean?  Close-cell? Open-cell? and how thick?  It doesn't look like the blue one is very thick but since it's covered I can't really tell if it's open or close.

[trashcanmando]

Thank you!  Hmm, I'm not entirely sure what the right terminology is for the foam. If the package had labels I threw them away and I've had it for years. It's the sort of foam you'd use for children's crafts. Pretty sure I just got it at Walmart. The blue one certainly looks better when the fabric isn't being stretched willy nilly by pins but the one made with duck cloth does look more solid. Here's a picture and maybe you'll know more about it than me.



Just noticed I posted the boots picture twice! Previous post has been updated with the right pictures.

I finally finished the flight suit for my other kit. Had to remind myself what the heck I was doing but now I have a better idea for this one, and hopefully won't make a grievous error when bringing in the legs. It's fine now I fixed it, with much frustration and seam splitting. Also decided to try my hand at leatherworking for the bags since I can't find what I want anywhere, and my policy is 'give it a try before you buy' for everything except blasters and buckets.