Oya, vode!
This is going to be a progress post for my first kit. I've sketched out my own legacy-ish modern-ish armor and am finally ready to embark on the journey that is building it! I plan on adding some el-wire detailing among other things, so there's definitely going to be a lot of layering in my future. Otherwise here's some sketches, for your amusement:
Please ignore the full body sketch on this page, it's an older idea.
Some blaster/ rifle ideas! I'm not sure exactly what I would want to mod for this, I just know the general silhouette I want. Also it needs to be big enough to house an arduino board, some LEDS, and wiring. I'd also like to make a medium-length beskar sword, but I'll need to come up with a way to make it sturdy enough for me to be able to put cut outs into the blade.
Another sassy little sketch with an updated colour scheme. There will most likely be a kama in there somewhere too I just couldn't fit it on the drawing:
Now, I am but a humble university student, so everything is going to have to be on a budget i.e. most likely scratch built and thrifted. To be honest I am kind of dreading the day I'll finally have to pull out some fiberglass and resin (and a respirator!) to make the bucket, but hopefully by then I will acquire a sufficient number of youtube tutorial watching hours and will be able to proceed with confidence.
For a bit of background about the character, I thought she could be sort of like a renegade ex-elite-guard type of person. Forced to join the troops at a young age where she found a real family in the form of a couple mandalorian friends with whom she later escapes. This all ties into the armor design in that most of the plates will be old and worn except for the blue "hand painted" stripes which she adds later once she's free. I'm also thinking of 3-D printing a name tag with a personal number issued to the soldiers, which would be scored and scratched out with a knife with a new name written above it in Mando'a.
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Alright, first things first - the vest. What I really want to do is have a padded and quilted material. So I'll be making two copies of each panel, sewing foam in between them, and then sewing the panels together. Now do I actually know how to sew? Absolutely not, I've sort of touched a sewing machine before but that was about it, so this may very well turn into a disaster along the way but we're doing it anyway! I draw and sculpt, so in theory I should sort of know what the human body looks like and the patterns make spatial sense to me, so I'll do my best.
I wrapped myself in cling wrap and cut it until the pieces looked more or less legit. Updates to follow!
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Cut out and quickly hand stitched the panels before I start sewing. I'll need to alter the neckline a bit, but it sort of works?
One side came out better than the other but otherwise not bad for a new sewing machine user
Next step would be foam, but there's a massive snow storm raging outside (which is why I'm not at work), so that'll have to wait for a bit.
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Went to Value Village to hunt for supplies:
I got lucky with my flight suit - found a shirt and pants of almost the same colour. I might have to dye the pants slightly darker and remove the shirt collar, sleeves, and pockets, but other than that it's pretty much good to go! Also found a nice thick belt and an old bag to make belt pouches out of. It was about 4 times cheaper than a small sheet of leather and already came Naturally and Consistently
TM weathered
Also found a lonely suspender that no-one wanted which is made out of nice thick elastic and matches my flight suit perfectly, so I'll be cutting it up to use as leg armor strapping. Total spendings: a little under 30$
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Finally got my sew-in foam today and got started on the quilting! I had to re-do this back sooo many times cause my sewing machine keeps skipping stitches on the thick material, but here it is
Time to assemble and attach the front halves
Only 6 hours of work and the vest almost done! I'll add some detailing on the front later, but for now it's bed time
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Finally got around to starting the arm wraps! I'm using the same fabric as I did for the vest and basically sewing together strips to make a layered looking fabric for the sleeves (I've tried just wrapping my arms in the past and as people probably know they're a massive pain to wear
). Big thanks to JenEcho and Echo Cosplay for keeping me company and helping out with the dyeing, the fabric looks perfect
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Can I offer you some arms in these trying times?
Hope everyone is surviving alright! I've had an order to work from home for an indefinite period of time since (luckily) my co-op job is very well suited for that kind of task. Dedicating my free time to building the kit is helping ward off cabin fever so far, let's hope it stays that way. Stay safe everyone
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This is kind of a minor update, but I got started on my leg cover thingies! The hidden zipper turned out kind of wavy (it also probably just needs a gentle pressing... with my iron... which is currently 500km away at my University), but I'm banking on that part of my leg being covered by shin armor anyway so eh.
I also made some adjustments to the vest to make it less bad. Altered and hand quilted the front and replaced the weird cloth loops with metal ones (still need to find a leather chord to pull through them and around my back).
Most importantly though, I thought of a ton of small world-build-y things to add to the kit that should really flesh out the character, so I'm gonna write them down here so that I don't forget.
I was thinking, since she will be will be an ex-royal-guard character it would make sense if she had some kind of flag/ crest on the armor that could be partially obscured by the blue paint. I also want to design and print out a label for some sort of alien snack and stick it on a container. I can make the container and the label look worn and put something unrelated inside cause that's sort of what people do in real life, so I thought it would be a cool thing to carry around. Lastly, since the character travels a lot she would probably have stuff from all over the galaxy on her person. I want to design some "bumper stickers" from different places like Coruscant, Mos Eisley, etc and stick them on the back of my helmet (not sure how that'd fly with the approval team, but it'd be super cool if they let me do it
)
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At last the flight suit is done!!! I might make a couple more alterations and add detailing, but otherwise this is it! Now just have to make a sash and a balaclava and it'll be armor time!
