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[Vercopaanir]

VOD!! 

The shiny yellow visor jumps out wonderfully and ties in the warning yellow and other subtle yellow hints.

You have been bit by the "Make someone's day by showing up as a plastic space man bug"  (I need a better name for that infection).

  It is not an exaggeration to say that your work has been inspiring and motivational for me.

You to have been an inspiration for me.  A challenge to keep testing the limits and making awesome stuff.  Keep it up!

[Second Son]

It's upgrade time. First round of electronics test: success(ish)! To help meet the Toxic Avenger requirement for enhanced sensors/life support monitoring, I went ahead and added some lights. I purchased a light bar and mini chest display as two separate pieces. For now I have the light bar installed.

The back side of it is a pretty ugly mass of wires and kludged connections, but I'm pleased with the results so far.

I (somewhat stupidly) decided the day of an invasion to install it as a test, so I did a flurry of hole-making, switch-soldering, and hot-gluing to make it happen on my lunch break.

From a distance the slightly sloppy opening isn't apparent.
The lights showed from across the grand entry at Powell Hall (Home of the St Louis Symphony Orchestra - well worth the price of admission).

The next step will be adding a nice trim plate around the opening, and improving the attachment to something better than hot glue, electricians tape, and hope.

The mini chest display might find it's home on my life support box, or be another gauntlet greeble. I haven't decided yet, but it'll get a good home.

After those get sorted I'll be looking at doing a full Boba-style light kit for my left chest plate. There are a couple different color combinations from several sellers out there, so I have some options.

Speaking of the SLSO, this weekend they performed the score of The Force Awakens live while the film was projected on screen.

I was too busy working to check it out, but Mrs. Second Son and Child 1 attended the show and said that having the score done live is an amazing experience.
This was the first time either of them got to see me in full kit and working the job - Child 1 saw me and bolted straight into a hug so fast that my trooping partner was startled and asked if I knew the kid...

Gotta say that this was a highlight for me.

People's faces lighting up as I patrolled the balconies and interacting, keeping character as best I could with curious kids, and generally Mando-ing around - I think it all went really well.


Lots of selfies, action poses, bestie-type pics, one pair of ladies wanted to do a Charlie's Angels style pose - endless variety and lots of good times.

{photo courtesy of Mrs. Second Son}

Several attendees dressed for the occasion - my partner for the night was in a Tie Pilot and we saw a patron in a (pretty decent!) Rebel Pilot - the opportunity for shenanigans was too good to pass up.


And I absolutely love this photo - It has a 'Misfit Mobilization Moment' crossed with an Unlikely Team-up flavor.


Still riding the high from this.
Meanwhile, I've made a rash decision to make another kit. Not much movement there yet, but there will be. I'll keep the build logs separate.

[Second Son]

I mentioned that I'm working on another upgrade - I'm looking at adding Toxic Avenger (Hostile Environment Specialist) as an environmental overlay to my Brigades work. I'm fairly certain that Privateer & Gunslinger, with a Hostile Environment overlay hasn't been done before. I've added a shiny visor, and begun adding some lights for 'life-support monitoring' to meet some of the secondary accessory option requirements.  But the most visibly striking aspect of the specialty is extreme and exotic weathering.

First up: playing with fire and following up with some topical paint work on my spare test plates.



White opaque tracing some patches and edges, Chartreuse translucent wash and stipple, Orange opaue stippled.


Brown wash and wipe


Black Stippled



This layers nicely on top of the heat bubbled damage, but I can't replicate it fully on my cast resin helmet (because fire).

I've been working on tuning the methods to sell acid splash and corrosion in general, working with existing paint chipping. All done with my Jacquard acrylics over the spray paint metallic on my helmet:

Stippled some thick body white in some existing bare patches (that happened due to some masking issues...)


stipple some thick body  bright orange:


Add some acid green wash:


Thin Black stippled, no wiping:


Brown wash and wipe (2x) over top:


Once I felt good about That I extended to some of the metal plates and my flightsuit sleeve:


I did try out some variations with blues.


Wrapping around the sides a bit more, gotta remember that I'm a three-dimensional object and damage can come from unexpected angles.


And moved further to put some extra splash onto my vest. For this I stippled the white base layer onto the plate and the vest at the same time, and then extended the white just slightly behind the plates to simulate liquid spread on the surface. Then the orange, but mostly on the plate and very little on the vest. Then green wash, black stipple, and brown wash to blend.



I've got a parade coming up shortly, I'll see if I can get some snaps to show the splash all together and evaluate my Leopard Spot Level. I feel like I'm walking a fine line here, between cartoonishly overwrought and appropriately extreme sci fi space dude damage. And I need to accomplish it without pushing so far on the envelope of my Privateer weathering (supposed to be mostly combat and ship-to-ship type stuff) that it goes outside of reasonably compliant with the BRLs.
For now I'm enjoying the challenge and enjoying the art.

See all you armored space maniacs next time.

[Karl Dha'Werda]

That is some cool additional weathering there Vod!

[Second Son]

That is some cool additional weathering there Vod!

  Thank you!

Well, it's been a little while. I never got to that parade, Darth Corona struck me down. I had to recover and then do a family trip (fortunately the timing worked out there!) and then get extra busy at the real job...so I only have small progress to report.

I felt my right gauntlet was a little bare. It's not a huge problem to have a low profile look, but my left has more going on so I thought I'd balance it out a bit.

I designed up a little whipcord launcher to call back to the OG and got to work folding and shaping.
The base plate has some PEM studs to hold it on. I used plastic acorn nuts on the inside for comfort.
If it turns out to be too unwieldy I'll use the mounting holes to attach a lower profile greeb or accessory.

I took some paint patterning cues from the ESB version of Boba's gauntlet to bring in some more OG flavor, with adjustments for my color palette of course.
Then I weathered the shebs out of it. I used physical scratches, latex masking/layering techniques, kosher salt (mist with water, scatter salt and let dry, flake off after painting) and steel wool to add varying levels of texture.
And then I did regular brown wash and added some corrosion effect for Toxic Avenger. 


It still needed something, and I haven't been totally satisfied with the big wear spot on the top box. I had been designing a commlink / transponder device and gone so far as to get the parts cut out, but hadn't decided where it should go (or if it went with this kit). My momentum was going so I just kept making. 
I think it turned out ok. I could have done a better job of executing the assembly but I've got a heavy weathering kit so it blends .


Because it is taking obvious inspiration from TCW wrist comms, it needs to have a glowy disc. The acrylic bit is actually bolted through the greeb and the gauntlet shell, using a polycarbonate screws and nut I had from my first H'Ween Mando build (pro tip - you can solvent weld polycarbonate screws directly to PLA and use them to hold a hard hat suspension inside a printed bucket). This allows light to shine from the inside, where I will eventually rig up an LED to enhance The Look.


That's the story so far - I'm working to keep the progress steady without adding Way Too Much. 

[Second Son]

I've been looking to add story and weathering depth via damage and repair. I decided to test it out.
I added some space grime to my left sleeve in a linear streak, like it was a glancing shot or tear of some sort, and put a patch over it.

The patch itself was way too clean and didn't quite show layering like I wanted, so I added a bit of rusty ochre in the corner and overlapped the seam to sell that the staining happened after the patch was placed.

I got pics before, during and after an invasion over the weekend - Star Wars day at Scott AFB.
Before

During

After





I took the "after" pics to see how everything was holding up to the rigors of the trooping.
From that standpoint, everything went great. The right chestplate is exhibiting the bandolier scrunch, and it looks like one of my throwing knives is trying to escape.
The lighting was fluorescent so it may not be great for telling how it really looks like.
My weathering is not over the top. It's visible but not overpowering, and it doesn't look particularly spotty. It may still need more? I'm consulting with the Environmental Specialist crew to see how it's going.

As for the invasion itself - a great day. Kids and kids at heart were out in force. The sibling organizations were well represented, and I did my best to represent the side.


The little one in the Mando helmet absolutely melted my heart.


Good fun with a good crew.

And - I was on Instagram!

I got to practice the craft and projecting the character in a 2.5 hour continuous stream (I took one ten minute break, to grab a slice of pizza and reassemble a part of my sling that popped loose. Always carry extra connectors and a repair kit!).
Mandos are super hot right now, so I was busy doing photo ops and even talking with some folks interested in making mandalorian kits of their own.

All in all, a good day. See all you armored space maniacs next time.

[Fenn Beviin]

Looking good man!

Also side note - if the faces you blurred out were local other Star Wars costume group members - you don't need to blur their faces out (generally that's just for kids)

[Second Son]

Looking good man!

Also side note - if the faces you blurred out were local other Star Wars costume group members - you don't need to blur their faces out (generally that's just for kids)

Thanks Vod. I was itching to get out since I hadn't done much since February.
Blanking out faces is just habit, I guess. If they don't give me explicit permission I usually default to caution for other people.


Had a good time on Friday night! Grant's View Library Star Wars Fan Fest.


Tried something new - Mrs. Second Son had another engagement so my Ad'ike came with me. The event is family-friendly and costumes were encouraged so I had them suit up in their 2020 H'Ween suits (the thing that started this whole mess for me) and had them hang out and patrol with me - It was like having a crew of armored ducklings and it was pretty awesome.


They enjoyed themselves and I think I'll have to remake some small sets of armor...


Shenanigans ( I waited until they had already taken some "serious photos" )


And had some fun with a 360 photo setup. I really felt the character in the moment.
https://youtube.com/shorts/IoKmCZjTRzE?feature=share

That's it for now, see you all soon with more updates.

[Second Son]

...I'm back with more of my nonsense. Toxic avenger requires a dedicated life support box and hose(s). Since my initial profession (Space Pirate) and planned secondary (Walking Arsenal) are very dynamic & combat oriented I don't want it big and obvious in front.
I started with playing about with form and scale.

And figured out a rough place for it. I figured on the off side, mostly concealed by my cape but still reachable to swap the air tanks would look right.
Mocked it up (on the wrong side...) for general scale.

I figured that the hoses shoud be protected th whole way up.


Then got to the business of building the thing.


Additional mockups for general placement

Neck plate painted and initial weathering and temp attachment, testing the mobility.


Looking at the location, scale, fit with the Portable High Ground. 


Still a work in progress, got to figure the ends of the hoses out and weather the heck out of it but I'm feeling pretty good about it so far.