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[lordteth]

Hey Guys, I'm Randy from Louisville.
This is my first Mando Build, but I'm very acquainted with costuming and Sintra.

I wanted to go with a medium set of armor, and I know people keep telling me to keep it simple the first time around.
But if you know me then you know why I can't do that... lol

I have already gotten a lot of work done, but I want as much feedback as I can get. So I appreciate any comments.

These are my Armor Plates so far:


Along with the Back Plate:
I went for a Jango Style back plate , as I plan on possibly adding a pack/jetpack later


I do my own sewing, and have my neck seal finished:


as well as finishing up my vest:
(which does end at my Bellybutton)


and last night I started test fitting the plates:
(mind you, I am horrible at selfies, so hopefully I will post better pics later)


I have my color scheme primarily planned out, and have a basic quick sketch of the look I am going for.




And here are some of the materials I have picked out for accents on my Kama, Loincloth and Cape.
The armor piece in the pic is from another cosplay, but it is the basis of the color scheme I am wanting to use. The color scheme is inspired by Deathstroke, from DC comics.


Like I said, this is my first Mando build, so any help would be more than welcome!
Thanks Guys!

[Kaska]

Like people said on Facebook, the chest area seems a bit wide. I like the added detail plates and color mockup you did. The neck seal looks really good. I've been meaning to make one for my kit & my husband's (Duvnar). Good luck with the rest of your build!

[lordteth]

Hey guys, just started my helmet build the other day and thought I'd add it to this post.

I am scratch building my own custom helmet from a hard hat, a 5 gallon bucket, and sintra.

First I disassembled the hard hat and trimmed the brim off of it.
Then I cut the bucket up and wrapped it around the hard hat (making sure of the shape/fit as I went.
I attached the bucket with screws at first (so I could move it when necessary) and later with pop rivets.

the next step was to mark my eyes onto the bucket. I did so by placing the bucket over my head and looking at bright lights, then I marked where my eyes were with a sharpie.


After I had my eyes marked, I wrapped the helmet with paper and started to layout the Visor and other Items


I then cut the visor out of Sintra and attached it to the bucket with 2P10 CA glue.
I waited until after it was attached to cut the center out of the visor.
Next up was cutting out the cheeks and forming Sintra to fit. I'm not gonna lie, this was BY FAR the hardest part of this build so far.
After hours of work and getting help online, I finally got them done and glued in place (with tape as support until the glue dried).





As I was working on the cheeks, I toyed with a few ideas and I asked the other UMs what they thought about adding a bottom to the cheek.
Thankfully everyone (myself included) thought it looked better that way.




After I finished the cheeks, I test fitted the helmet...
and thankfully I think it looks and fits great so far.


I have also started to layout the earcaps  that I plan on adding.
Once I finalize the design I am going to rough them out with a CNC router and finish them by hand.


As of tonight, Mar 4th 2020, this is as far as I've gotten.
Please, if you have any advice or thoughts, positive or negative, I'd love to hear them!

[lordteth]

I know it's been a while since my last post here, it's been a rough year to say the least...

But recently I have moved into a new house with a full workshop in the basement and I have begun to work on my kit once again.
To begin with, I had gotten most of the plates ready for painting.

My Custom Bucket

My Chest Plates/Shoulders

My Legs

After lots of prep work, I painted the entire kit with an aluminum metallic base coat. Then I used rubber cement to create weathered areas.
Painted a second coat over that using a matte black primer. Once again I added more rubber cement to the weathered areas.

After those coats, I continued my paint job using a custom slate blue I had mixed and a bronze metallic.
Hours after everything dried I went back and removed the rubber cement to show the massive amount of weathering I had added to the armor.

I decided not to add any physical scarring because it view this to be Beskar and as such it should not be easily scratched beneath the surface.
I did add what appears to be a large dent from a high powered blaster in my back plate.
I want my kit to look like I've been through years of combat in harsh environments, causing my paint to wear heavily and I plan on weathering my soft parts equally as well. I have yet to do the fine detail work nor the black wash and drybrushing to finish the paint job. But I thought I should update my post here with my work in progress.

My Bucket





My  Chest plates


My Shoulders


My Backplate


My Legs



And Lastly, my test fitting of the plates


I still have more work to do, but I think I am on the right path. Let me know if you see anything I am missing.

Also, I have hand made my own custom Blaster Pistol from Urethane Foam (Hard Foam) and Metal.


As I said, any advice is appreciated as this is my first kit.

[bathman]

  seguo

[Sylvilagus]

Man, all I can say is it looks cool as heck. What kind of waist items are you planning on?

[Jennari]

I LOVE your bucket. How'd you make/acquire it? And did anything in particular inspire its design?

[lordteth]

I LOVE your bucket. How'd you make/acquire it? And did anything in particular inspire its design?

Thanks! I made it myself from a 5 gallon bucket and a hard hat plus lots of bondo... lol
I designed it kind of as I went, to ensure that it fit my huge head taking inspiration from a few buckets that I liked along the way.
There are a few things I would do differently if I do it again, but I like it, and I like the idea of it being unique.

I also posted reference pics of the bucket as I made it earlier in this thread.

[lordteth]

Man, all I can say is it looks cool as heck. What kind of waist items are you planning on?

Thanks!
I am doing a girth belt, ammo belt with tons of accessories, plus I have a cod piece and am planning on using  kama on the sides.
I still have to do the holster for my custom blaster, and I may end up with a bandolier...
Big Plans.... we'll se what makes the cut. lol

[Thebob21]

Damn that looks great! Keep up the awesome work!

You might want to take a look at the width of the chest plates in relation to the width of the collar plate, thess should to be the same (it's somewhere.in the crl's I Believe, I got that wrong on my modern build ), other than that, it looks great to me! 

[RookBartly]

I like the second layer/strips you put on the plates and collar.  That gives it a lot of life. I'm kind of jealous I didn't come up with that idea myself.

[lordteth]

Well, I spent last night doing the final weathering on the armor plates. Added a few washes of color and did some drybrushing to highlight the metal edges.

Helmet:





Torso armor:




and legs/codpiece:




I think the weathering turned out great on the plates (at least I'm happy with it).
But now my attention turns to the softparts... I have them made, but now I have to weather them equally as well.
If you guys have any good tips/tricks for weathering black material, let me know... I'm just gonna wing it for now.

I can't wait to fully gear up and see how this all looks together!

p.s.
I know my gauntlets are missing...
I tried to hand make them ( like everything else) but in the end I just like the look of 3D printed ones better.
So long story short... my ender 3 arrives Friday.
This is the way.

[Aratris]

That paint job is killer 
Can't wait to see how everything else turns out.