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[Kalska Nubu]

I've started on a new kit since the old one is . . . a little tight. 

And partially broken.

So new plan: everything is metal, now.  Except for the soft bits. 

I've already made a concept thread for this which can be found here, but the basic idea is Heavy Legacy armour with a focus on heavy weapons and demolitions. 

I've designed just about everything, so now with all this sudden free time, I plan to get some actual progress made on the build itself.



Soft Parts (in need of someone that knows what they're doing with needle and thread)
     Comms Carrier Assembly (cap) - Planning Stage
     Flight Suit - ✓
     Flak Vest - ✓
     Girth Belt - ✓
     Kama - Template Cut Out
     Boots - ✓

Armour
     Helmet - On Its Way
     Plates - Template In Progress
     Gauntlets - Planning Stage

Weapons
     Heavy Rotary Cannon - Well Underway

Tech
     Comms Carrier Assembly (insert) - ✓
     Fan Assembly
     
     

[Kalska Nubu]

Minor update, I've got the commission started on my helmet and once I get my garage cleaned out and organized with my shop tools set up, I'll be getting started on fabrication proper for the rest of the metal parts. 

My goal is to be an official member by New Years.  By that point, I will have been an UM for six years. . .

[Slade Kel]

Your concept looks solid, you have your influence references lined up and all that jazz. Official by New Years is definitely doable, just gotta keep your nose to the grindstone. It's not a race, or at least, not a sprint, so it takes as much time as it takes and not a moment more or less. The one fortunate thing about current events is giving us lots more free time at home to work on stuff, eh? As a longtime metal mando, I'm glad to see another up and coming! Have you done any metal armor work in the past?

[Kalska Nubu]

Kinda-sorta-not really.  A few years back I tried my hand at making gaunts out of metal and with no experience working with metal and a. . . unhelpful room mate that claimed to know more about it than he did, all I got was a piece of sheet metal twisted into a vague cone that has since been lost to history.

Fortunately, I have a new room mate that not only worked as a mechanic for a while, has also worked in a machine shop and actually knows what he is doing.  In fact, we'll be building our armours side by side, except that we'll have to scratch build his helmet while mine is being made by Dres.  Also fortunately, we found a series by The Welding Geek that covers making a full set of metal merc-ware from the soft parts to the metal, all of which I believe fall within the CRLs, so if we follow his directions, I don't think it should be too much of a problem, especially since I work at a hardware store with a pretty decent discount on shop tools.

Unfortunately, I'm simultaneously working full time and going to school. . . well, I'd say full time, but it's not exactly normal classes.  Regardless, there is a definite balance, and it seems like the most time I'll have to work on this will be weekends/normal time off.  But the motivation should also be there since I'll be working with a partner.

[Slade Kel]

Yep, it's always easier to work when you have someone who has an idea what they're doing. I've seen a video or two of The Welding Geek's, and he knows what he's doing. Keep in mind that things are easier and faster for him because of access to an entire shop full of every piece of metalworking equipment you could dream of, lol. With enough time and effort, however, you can do nearly as will with nothing more than a dremel, hammer, a sleeve full of sand and something solid to planish against. If it helps, there's a bare bones metal armor making tutorial in the Jadd Halls of Knowledge that has a list of basic tools you need if you guys don't actually have them already acquired.

If you're roommate has ever made a motorcycle gas tank or the like, he already knows 2/3 of what you need to for metal armor making! From there, it's just adjusting the techniques for the slightly different shapes.

[Kalska Nubu]

Kandosi!

Yeah, I have to admit I got a little jealous watching him, lol. 

Right now my shop consists of a bench and a half (one's a portable [racing mechanic's?] toolbench/toolbox combo and the other is three 1x3's set up under three sheets of plywood set up in a scale pattern over two sawhorses), a miter saw, a band saw, a skill saw, a drill press, a grinder, a belt/disk sander, an airbrush, and a handful of hand tools, including a Dremel and an angle grinder.  I'm slowly but surely building it back up again, now that I have someone to use it with.  Working at a hardware store helps. . .  I really want to pick up one of those expander/contractor presses and a roller, but the cheapest ones we sell are still triple digits.

Unfortunately, sourcing materials at the moment is a bit tricky.  We have one option where I live and I'm currently boycotting them.  I'm not sure if any metal shops in the area sell sheets of metal, or if that's even a general practice.  Requires further study.  Fortunately, room mate used to work in one of said shops before deciding to move onto greener pastures, so he might know.




In other news, I've finally picked my colours.  Exciting, I know.  Orange (#ff6600) and grey (#333333).  I'm thinking predominantly grey with orange as a highlighting and detail colour, though we'll see.


As it turns out, apparently #333333 is the exact same shade of grey that the forum background is. . .



In the meantime, I still need to make sure my template will fit me as well as I'm hoping, so paper-board and tape are the materials for now.

[Slade Kel]

Colors look just fine . And yeah, definitely jealous of Geek's workshop, lol.

For metal, I use onlinemetals.com. The prices are good and the quality has always been on point. Mandalore pointed me at them years ago and I've never had any regrets buying from them. Pretty prompt shipping and delivery, too. Even with all the stuff going on, I had my most recent order arrive in under ten days. Otherwise, I've bought steel from Lowes and Home Depot in the past without too much regret, lol.

[Kalska Nubu]

By Manda, that's possibly the best website I've ever seen!  Thank you for that!  I know where I'm spending my next paycheck. . . 

[Kalska Nubu]

Slight change of plans:  I was originally going to make a completely custom legacy kit, but I'm lazy and I'm going to try the print-off templates first.  I'll keep the custom plate design for a rainy day.  What's that?  Its raining right now?  HahA!  Its night, so doesn't count. 

Hem.

I've also done a rough mockup via Mando Maker for what I'm going for with my color scheme:



I want the orange to offset the overall darkness of my kit.  I'm not Batman.  Dark colors are just slimming. . . With that in mind, I'm planning on having the orange run down in stripes, possibly just one, possibly three.  We'll see. . .

I really wish you could add in a kama to it, as I absolutely plan to use one.  I've got some pleather on hand, one in black and one in red (they were on sale at Hobby Lobby literally the day before we went into lock down).  Not sure if I'll use one, both, or neither in this one.  Maybe I'll just keep it around for someone else to use. . .

[Kalska Nubu]

Another day, a little more progress.

I printed off two of the Legacy armor templates (Original and Ohld Vart's) and got the original put together today.  I made a quick mock-up and it looks ok, but I want to see what Ohld Vart's looks like tomorrow.

Here's how it looks on me.  A little big, but plenty of space to go around the sides.



And it works for Geoff (aka, Silpas Torgo), too.  I'll send this to him for his WIP.



And Eddie, the Shop Dum-Dum, also modern art.



Now then, to cut out this lovely stack of paper. . .

[Shurik Bhar'vani]

The legacy plates might still be just a *tad* too big. I'm mostly going off the size of the collar, as I know the breastplate is a layered design and generally wraps around more than Modern plates.

Love the color pallete by the way, It's refreshing to see something that isn't  mono-black and red  no offense to anyone else's kit, that color combination just doesn't do it for me.

I really wish you could add in a kama to it, as I absolutely plan to use one.  I've got some pleather on hand, one in black and one in red (they were on sale at Hobby Lobby literally the day before we went into lock down).  Not sure if I'll use one, both, or neither in this one.  Maybe I'll just keep it around for someone else to use. . .

I'm not sure if you meant "wish you could" in regards to Mando Maker, but you absolutely can have a kama on your kit.

[Kalska Nubu]

Yeah, I'm actually going with the Ohld Vart template (reminder to self, upload a picture of that).  The one I have printed, cut, and assembled is a tad large as well, but I'm planning to do it all over again at 3/4 size as the current size heavily limits range of motion in my arms.  I'm actually printing them off as I type this.

I blame Twitter of all things for my colour scheme.  I was messing around in the settings and I stumbled accross the "night" setting along with the base colour setting and I realized that dark grey and orange make a good pairing.

As for the MandoMaker, I didn't see anything that would allow for an added kama.  I'm using one in my kit and the ability to see what colours work for that would have been nice.

[Kalska Nubu]

This is the template that I'm going with:


I scaled it down 75% and brought the plates together more in the chest.


I still need to bring in the arms somewhat, even on the 75% one, so I'll probably end up printing it out one more time at 85% and see how that fits.

[Slade Kel]

Yeah, I'd go up a little bit in size and then trim the arm holes manually to fit. No template is going to be perfect unless you designed it yourself, to your own dimensions, but they make an excellent starting point to work from with little tweaks.

[Kalska Nubu]

Yeah, really glad I got a French Curve a few months back.  That'll really help with that nice gradiated arc.  My plan is to see about where a plate would stop interfering with my arm's range of motion, set the curve on that line parallel to the original, then set the new angle for the rest of the plates, if that makes sense.  And before I print out yet another set of templates, I'm going to measure the length of the plates as is, measure the distance from my navel to where my collar plate ends, and do the math to see what exact percentage I need to set it at.  As it is, the 100% exactly covers it, so I'm not sure if I'd even need to re-do the printing, cutting, and taping to make yet another template.

[Kalska Nubu]

Also, just for my own quick reference, I'm C&Ping the CRLs relevant to my kit here.

Chest armor:

• Must be fitted and spaced correctly and consistently depending on armor/body type. Generally, maximum spacing should equal no more than 1” or 2.5 cm between the collar/chest/abdomen plates and no more than ˝” or 12 mm between the diamond and chest plates.
• The Boba Fett style gap as seen in The Empire Strikes Back between the collar and chest plates is not allowed.
• Must be of adequate size in proportion to your chest area. Chest plates should not exceed 1” or 2.5 cm beyond the outside edge of the collar at maximum.
• Abdomen plate should be proportionally sized to chest plates.
• Abdomen plates and backplates may not extend past the edge of the flak vest and may not touch accepted waist items.
• Rivets and screws used for attaching armor must be painted to match armor surrounding the screw or rivet. Visible screw heads must be filled and sanded smooth.
• Armor plates used for custom costumes cannot include the same dents and weathering that appear on canon costumes. They must be visibly modified with effort put in to alter the look and are judged on a case by case basis.
• Armor worn on the front of the torso must include a collar plate, chest plates, a chest diamond, and an abdomen plate. Custom styles are allowed. However, if you are unsure whether or not your design will be approved, you should ask the app team here: App Team Q&A
• If a Boba or Jango Fett style abdomen plate is being used, the height of the plate must be approximately 1/2 the measurement of the width.
• A chest diamond is not required if the applicant is wearing Boba Fett Holiday Special style chest plates. It is required in all other cases.
• Sabine-style chest armor is approvable for custom costume applicants with modifications. Applicants must add an abdomen plate as well as a collar plate that covers the upper chest area between the shoulders horizontally and between the throat and the top of the chest armor vertically.
• Unmodified Rebels Imperial Commando chest armor is not approved for custom costume applicants.
• Rebels-style female and male armor is approved for custom applicants. Costumes using these armor styles must adhere to the custom CRLs in all respects.

Legacy Armor:

• Legacy chest armor must not have any gaps between collar, chest, chest diamond, and abdomen armor.

Body Armor:

• Knees and a cod piece are the minimum of lower armor required. Soft cod or loincloth is acceptable, as well as shin/knee combo plates (shnees) being an acceptable variant for knees.
• If shnees are used, the knee area must be physically distinguishable from the shin plate even if connected. An example of this would be to hinge the knee part of the shnee or add trauma plates to the top part. Simply extending an existing design or giving the top part a different paint job will not be accepted.
• If shnees are used, they must cover at least the same area of the knee that regular knee plates would.
• Asymmetrical armor is allowed, e.g. applicants can have only one shin, one thigh plate, or a combination of different styles, such as a separate knee and shin on one leg, and a shnee on the other.
• A cod piece or loin cloth is required. Either may be counted as one piece of armor below the waist. Soft cod armor may also be used as well as hard cod armor and loin cloths. However, soft cod armor must look in-universe and be of high quality. Examples would include Darth Vader and Biker Scout-style soft armor.
  If a hard codpiece is used, it must be fitted/shaped/proportionate to the wearer. Flat plates will be denied.
• Rivets and screws used for attaching armor must be painted to match armor surrounding the screw or rivet. Visible screw heads must be filled and sanded smooth.
• The top edge of the cod plate must be fully covered by an accepted waist item.

Back covering:

• A hard backplate or other armored cover, such as a hard backpack, jetpack, air tank, etc. is required.
• The back covering must cover at least 2/3 the overall width and length of the back.
• If hard backpacks or jetpacks are used, they must completely cover the back as to make it unknown that there is no backplate present.
• If soft backpacks are used, they must be used in conjunction with a hard backplate.
• The top of the backplate cannot extend past the width of the collar plate.
• Capes and dusters can be used in lieu of an armored back covering. Please see the Soft Parts section for further details.

Legacy Armor:

• Legacy-style back armor must not have any gaps between plates.

Shoulder Armor:

• Is not required to be Fett-style.
• Must be centered above the bicep muscle and cover the deltoid area.
• The top edge of the plate can either be lined up with the shoulder seam or sit slightly above it.
• The gap between shoulder plates and collar/backplate should not be more than 2” or 5 cm.
• Must be mounted evenly on both sides.
• Double plates are acceptable.
• ARC trooper-style shoulder pauldrons are allowed in conjunction with regular shoulder armor, but not in lieu of them.

Acceptable Armor Attachment Methods:

• Velcro
• Magnets
• Snaps
• Bolts
• Rivets
• Screws (if visible, screw head must be filled and sanded smooth)
• Strapping
• Leather and nylon strapping may be exposed.
• Elastic strapping must be concealed EXCEPT on knees, elbows, and “Boba Thongs” where they must be color matched to flight suit.

Further Information:

• Unmodified armor pieces from any modern Mandalorian armor template including Boba, Jango, Legacy, The Clone Wars, and Rebels are not permitted to be used in place of other armor pieces. For example, unmodified shoulder armor cannot be used in the place of knees. The shoulder armor can look similar to the knee armor in this case, but they cannot be the exact same template.
• Any easily visible, unpainted armor that stands out in stark contrast to painted sections will not be accepted. All pieces must have an even, consistent paint job completely hiding the base material. The only exception is metal and cold cast resin, both of which can pass for an in-universe material.
• If applicants include damage and weathering on their costume, a clear effort to make the level of damage and weathering consistent across all parts of the costume must be apparent. Damage and weathering must appear to have been applied in a realistic manner.

[Kalska Nubu]

Ok, been about a month, but my metal finally came in, so now I'm just waiting on my paycheck so we can get a welder and a metal cutting blade for my bandsaw.

Otherwise, for my template, it looks like a one foot is the gap needed for both arms to fully extend straight forward.  I don't think that's exactly kosher for a guy whose shoulders are 19.75" or 1.65' wide.  Any suggestions on where my arms should be able to go while maintaining some decent proportions?

[Slade Kel]

You should be able to touch opposite shoulders, if just barely. You don't want the chest plates to be too narrow. The 75% one is probably as narrow as you want to go, but you can tweak it from there for a little comfort. For example, bringing the whole thing down about an inch and either extending the top of the chest or bottom of the collar to maintain proper collar sit, or bringing the arm scoop down lower on the outsides of the chest plates, so that the top corner is in line with the collar and the bottom in line with the top ab plate, rather than having those little tab things there, if that makes sense.

[Kalska Nubu]

For example, bringing the whole thing down about an inch and either extending the top of the chest or bottom of the collar to maintain proper collar sit, or bringing the arm scoop down lower on the outsides of the chest plates, so that the top corner is in line with the collar and the bottom in line with the top ab plate, rather than having those little tab things there, if that makes sense.

You lost me about here.

I'm a pretty 3D guy, so the larger one fits my. . . proportions a little better, except for in the shoulder bit where it's a few inches too wide for easy movement.  I've had an idea, though, where I lay out the 75% template on the 100% and use the width of the smaller at the shoulders and the overall length of the larger, as it goes down to my navel. 



Then I just lay out lines to something like this:



. . .

Now that I look at it, I really like how this looks.  Not sure if I'll recreate the "feathered" look of the original or not.



**EDIT**

So about two hours of work later, I've gotten everything cut and looking pretty.  Due to it being almost 3 am, I don't have a minion to get pictures of it on me (darn minion rights groups. . . ).  I do, however, have pictures of it on my bed, along with my brand new backplate template.





And because I'm apparently deathly allergic to sleep. . .





In other news, it looks like I'm about to have a few weeks of unexpected and mandatory "vacation time," so I really hope I'll be able to get a lot of kit work done.  Picked up a welder as soon as I thought it might be coming down the pipeline, as well as a few metal cutting blades for my jigsaw and Dremel.  Unfortunately, it looks like my bandsaw will be completely useless for any metal work, since it looks like 59.5" blades are almost exclusively for wood.  Aw well, for other projects, then.

[Kalska Nubu]

[Slade Kel]

Sorry for lack of clarity; the outer parts of the chest plates, where they curve inward and then come back out to points, those points are realistically supposed to be a few inches lower, so that if you hold your arms straight out and then cross them over your chest, the points should be under your arms and in no danger of stabbing your armpits even if they're not shaped flush. It doesn't look bad as is, though, with your tweaks. As long as you make sure to shape them to lay flat you shouldn't have to worry about poking your arms.

[Kalska Nubu]

Lol, the. . . curviness. . . of my torso makes them look high, but when everything is held flat it lines up decently.  Just hard to get that in pictures, as I learned with my original kit when doing pre-app pics.

[Kalska Nubu]

Ooph, been a while.

I haven't done much with my template in a while, other than hang it in my closet.  Once I do get it figured out, I have all the steel ready and on standby, along with my grinder and welder.

But, my helmet should be on it's way soon, and I've got a few bits for the internals coming, hopefully arriving by Tuesday (eyes Amazon and local PO suspiciously).  Specifically, I've got a wireless headset (and a wired one for Cons where I'll definitely have some interference) and a cheapo-cheap amplifier on the way that I want to have rigged up so that when I take my helmet off, the mic stays in the helmet for that cool factor.  Stretch goal is to have the amp rigged up somehow in the helmet, but right now I'm just going to do a pouch.  According to the Amazon listing, it's battery life is supposed to be something like 15 hrs of constant talk time.  I'm kinda doubting that, but we'll see.  The thing was like, $35 (Giecy) and Amazon does free returns, so I'm not overly worried if this does turn out to be cheap junk.

[Kalska Nubu]

Everything came in on time and intact.  After charging everything up and doing a few preliminary sound checks and tests, I ran into a few known issues.  On many of the reviews there were complaints of an echo, and having dealt with audio equipment for years, I had assumed/hoped that they just didn't know how to dial in the settings.  Turns out, the only real setting on this is volume.  After some further testing including isolating the mic from the speaker, the issue is definitively the amplifier.  Going to try some more troubleshooting before sending this back.  The mic, on the other hand, has been nothing but wonderful, though I'm beginning to rethink the wireless mic.



Something else I've been kicking around and kinda working on.  As you might have noticed, I love immersion and added layers of difficulty.  I know a lot of people use simple balaclavas, more to ensure no skin is seen I think than an under helmet costume part that few will see.



We see in Rebels (and Attack of the Clones on Jango) that many Mandalorians do wear something under their helmets, though I hadn't given much thought as to "why" until just the other day, re-watching Apollo 13 for the millionth time and I noticed their communication carrier assemblies, otherwise known by their nickname "Snoopy" caps, so named for their resemblance to the Peanuts character.  They're headsets, plain and simple, holding two microphones and two headphones for redundancy, and just happen to also function as a head covering.






Convenient, considering that many people also wear headsets (connected to amplifiers, not transmitters).  These were also modular, so you didn't have to wear the entire cap all the time, but rather just take the headset out and wear it separately, such as when floating around the modules.  I actually found a really neat article about these that explains a lot of the inner workings and such.

Also incredibly important to these is the time of their development.  These were made for early space age, and are so effective that they're still being used on the ISS, to my understanding.  They definitely have that 60's/70's Swarzy vibe, and the balaclavas the Mandos are wearing in Rebels bear a striking similarity to them. 

Anyways, I'm going to try my hand at making something along these lines to hold my headset. 

Because why engineer when you can over engineer?

[Kalska Nubu]

Ended up returning that amplifier, exchanged it for one about the same price that works waaaaay better.  Need to do some further testing to establish it's limits, but good enough for now. 

In the mean-time, I've reworked my template some more (note to self, upload pictures) so that the plates fit much more closely to my neck and contour to my weirdly well developed trapezius.  I'm also now planning a gorget that will be fitted before putting the plates over top, partially for layering, partially for comfort as it will prevent the edges of my chest and back from constantly rubbing against cloth and skin.  Last thing I need and want is a friction rash on my neck.  The gorget will itself be lined with foam and fabic, leading up to my balaclava.  I foresee extremely limited head movement, but I'm a Heavy, I feel like that kinda comes with the territory.

And finally, right now I'm waiting.  And waiting.  And waiting for my helmet to be released from the treacherous maw of the black hole that is international shipping during the holiday rush period.