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[Nattori Myruki]

Hello there! Nathan (or Nattori if you want to keep it from a galaxy far far away) here. I've recently decided to get a custom Mandalorian kit together and I've been working on it for the last couple of weeks making good progress on the helmet. I've been scrolling through the forums during that time learning and admiring and I'm finally getting around to posting. When I was about 14 or so through scrolling through Pinterest I had the bright idea to make a Mando costume out of EVA foam, which didn't go super well. After trying to salvage the 5 year old armor I've decided to do it for real this time from the ground up with Sintra to try and join the Mercs.

First the concept after some messing around in MandoMaker. The gold is a little overpowering here so that might change and I plan to add red striping in certain areas. The soft good colors are also not entirely final, I might change some of them depending on my preference/feedback/material. Also considering adding a kama. I also tested the paints on a strip of sintra.




I haven't done much armor work yet since I was looking for some feedback on sizing. I used the 5'7" Jango templates, despite being 6', and trimmed about a 1/4" off the sides of the chest pieces at the arm pits. This was probably the best pic I took in terms of spacing and sizing, even though the collar was hanging low. It seems comfortable enough and the plates just touch when I put my arms out in front of me or touch my opposite shoulder.


As for the helmet I made the most progress there. Sanding the 3D print, bondo, sanding, bondo, primer, sanding... well you know how it goes. I'm pretty happy with it. The metallic coat is on, which is a Rustoleum Hammered paint which I was worried would come out to textured but I think it's good on most of the helmet. The addon bits got it thicker I think though, but it'll be mostly covered.














And last but not least my jumpsuit and boots. I took the pockets off the suit and am overall happy with the fit. It could probably be pulled in a bit in spots and I might have needed a tall version since the legs ride up above the boots when I sit down. I'll probably just add some gaiters to my to do list.






So that's it for now, next steps are probably finishing the helmet, cutting out the correct plates on sintra, and then trying to sew a flak vest. I have no skills in that regard right now but the tutorial seems easy enough and my dad should be able to help out a little bit. Thanks for taking a look and I'm looking forward to seeing what I can finish before I go back to college!

[Nattori Myruki]

UPDATE 7/27/2021

I applied the gold paint to the parts of the helmet that needed it, using toothpaste as the weathering masking. I kinda went a little overboard on the toothpaste, since I wasn't planning on a super weathered kit but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I feel like it's pretty uniform across the parts and random/natural enough. But if it looks to be a bit much I'll gladly mask off and paint over some of the spots.

[Fenn Beviin]

Hello there! Nathan (or Nattori if you want to keep it from a galaxy far far away) here. I've recently decided to get a custom Mandalorian kit together and I've been working on it for the last couple of weeks making good progress on the helmet. I've been scrolling through the forums during that time learning and admiring and I'm finally getting around to posting. When I was about 14 or so through scrolling through Pinterest I had the bright idea to make a Mando costume out of EVA foam, which didn't go super well. After trying to salvage the 5 year old armor I've decided to do it for real this time from the ground up with Sintra to try and join the Mercs.

First the concept after some messing around in MandoMaker. The gold is a little overpowering here so that might change and I plan to add red striping in certain areas. The soft good colors are also not entirely final, I might change some of them depending on my preference/feedback/material. Also considering adding a kama. I also tested the paints on a strip of sintra.

Really digging your concept colors.

I would agree, all the gold trim is a little too much. I would drop a lot of the gold trim on most of your plates. Keep the trim on the shoulders and torso plates potentially.

If you want to have a lot of your soft parts brown - I would suggest changing your flight suit to tan. That's really going to make your dark blue armor parts pop a lot more and bring more cohesiveness to your overall kit.

From there, add Mando type symbols or writing in the gold color (perhaps a Mando script down the length of a thigh plate or gauntlet).

I think you should add more of the red accent that you placed on your helmet - perhaps making both knees red and one one bicep and gauntlet red to match (perhaps add some gold Mando symbols and writing to those red plates as well).

All in all, great start and sizing of your plate templates look great.

[Nattori Myruki]

Really digging your concept colors.

I would agree, all the gold trim is a little too much. I would drop a lot of the gold trim on most of your plates. Keep the trim on the shoulders and torso plates potentially.

If you want to have a lot of your soft parts brown - I would suggest changing your flight suit to tan. That's really going to make your dark blue armor parts pop a lot more and bring more cohesiveness to your overall kit.

From there, add Mando type symbols or writing in the gold color (perhaps a Mando script down the length of a thigh plate or gauntlet).

I think you should add more of the red accent that you placed on your helmet - perhaps making both knees red and one one bicep and gauntlet red to match (perhaps add some gold Mando symbols and writing to those red plates as well).

All in all, great start and sizing of your plate templates look great.

Thanks for the comments. I agree, I'll remove the gold trim at least on the lower body. I was planning to incorporate a symbol or two and the script when I get to that point, as well. I'll think about the tan but I was leaning towards just changing the brown parts. I also never really considered changing the colors of the plates but I guess going back to Boba it's certainly part of the aesthetic. I'll see how it looks on MandoMaker and maybe take it into Phototshop too.

[Fenn Beviin]

I would say you could definitely keep the brown but you would need to find a proper color that wouldn't clash with with gray bur accent it instead.

That being said, might be easier to make the flak vest a dark grey or even white (like fett has over top of his darker flight suit. I only suggested the tan as that would pair better with brown gloves and boots (though again that would depend on the shade of brown - at least in my opinion ha)

[Nattori Myruki]

Ok time for a long overdue update, but with a good bit of progress. Going off what Fenn Beviin suggested I looked at new colors for the soft parts, one with brown and tan, and then one with gray and white. Not entirely sure which one to go with but I might be leaning towards the tan. Making some of the armor solid red was also a good idea.




But onto the actual build I got most of the plates cut out and sanded at the edges. All that's missing is the backplate, gauntlets, knees, and the one bicep plate. Really happy with how they came out.



I also put all the of the base paint on the helmet, but in hindsight I should have practiced on a piece of sintra first. It really shows in some spots that this was my first go at things, and I've kinda been bouncing between waiting to see how it looks completed and just sanding off the paint and redoing it entirely. The colors came out looking great though.

[Fenn Beviin]

Loving the progress 

Not going to lie - that tan flight suit and brown vest look great with your color choices.

As for the helmet paint job - I wouldn't fully sand off the paint on the helmet if you want to re-do it. Building layers is the best way to paint a kit and make it look as realistic as possible. I would go over the whole thing if you want to repaint with a bit higher grit sand paper - maybe 200 grit? - this way the current paint has the "finish" sanded off so other layers of paint can stick easier to it.

Overall your current paint job looks pretty great. I would suggest that if you do repaint - add that darker grey (like you have on the cheeks) onto the base layer of the yellow as well. This way you will have a gradient of the "older" exposed metal along with the silver. It will really help the silver and weathering in general pop. As for the areas of the weathering itself - make it more streamlined. Most realistic weathering will be around the edges of the ear caps, helmet rim, mandibles, etc. I would suggest using all the different Fett helmets as examples of where/how to place the areas of weathering and model yours off of that (or find a custom Mando that did a good job of weathering that you would want to use of a weathering reference and mimic that).  I weathered my helmet off of the ESB Fett helmet but added more or less in certain areas to get the overall look that I wanted. To me, it takes all of the "guess work" out of it as someone has already done the thinking for you essentially, you just have to paint it up!

[Nattori Myruki]

Loving the progress 

Not going to lie - that tan flight suit and brown vest look great with your color choices.

As for the helmet paint job - I wouldn't fully sand off the paint on the helmet if you want to re-do it. Building layers is the best way to paint a kit and make it look as realistic as possible. I would go over the whole thing if you want to repaint with a bit higher grit sand paper - maybe 200 grit? - this way the current paint has the "finish" sanded off so other layers of paint can stick easier to it.

Overall your current paint job looks pretty great. I would suggest that if you do repaint - add that darker grey (like you have on the cheeks) onto the base layer of the yellow as well. This way you will have a gradient of the "older" exposed metal along with the silver. It will really help the silver and weathering in general pop. As for the areas of the weathering itself - make it more streamlined. Most realistic weathering will be around the edges of the ear caps, helmet rim, mandibles, etc. I would suggest using all the different Fett helmets as examples of where/how to place the areas of weathering and model yours off of that (or find a custom Mando that did a good job of weathering that you would want to use of a weathering reference and mimic that).  I weathered my helmet off of the ESB Fett helmet but added more or less in certain areas to get the overall look that I wanted. To me, it takes all of the "guess work" out of it as someone has already done the thinking for you essentially, you just have to paint it up!

Tan it is then! Thanks for the encouragement and advice on the helmet. I sanded the finish off the gold and I'm going to repaint those parts with a blue base under the gold and better weathering to match what is existing on the cheeks. There isn't any gray on the cheeks, it goes silver->dark blue->dark red, but it still gives the same effect I think. I might also get more picky and cover up some of the less effective weathering on the blue.

It's been really hot and humid lately, when it hasn't been raining, so I moved to working on the leg armor and here's where I'm at-







After doing some digging on the boards I managed to figure out the knee templates and they didn't turn out too bad. Still just held together with tape and I have yet to figure out how I want to do the dart blocks. I was wondering if the outer side was sticking too far back, it seemed a little large.

[Cattriss Wren]

Su'cuy vode, helmet and armor are looking very nice keep up the good work!

[Aster Veris]

Armor is looking really nice, those knees are impressive!

[Nattori Myruki]

Armor is looking really nice, those knees are impressive!

Su'cuy vode, helmet and armor are looking very nice keep up the good work!

Thank you both!

Oh and evening.echiveria, I saw you were in Mav Oya'la Clan as well. I'm on the west side of PA but I'm hoping to get out east for some events where most of the clan is when my kit is finally done and approved (hopefully no later than next summer given school).

[Aster Veris]

Oh and evening.echiveria, I saw you were in Mav Oya'la Clan as well. I'm on the west side of PA but I'm hoping to get out east for some events where most of the clan is when my kit is finally done and approved (hopefully no later than next summer given school).

I am, I'm on the east end. Would love to team up at some point 

[Nattori Myruki]

 

I am, I'm on the east end. Would love to team up at some point 

Sounds like a plan.

So last update for a while probably, just moved back to college and I left the kit at home. I wanted to get more done before I left but unsurprisingly real life things get in the way. Got the gold on the helmet (minus the rangefinder) re-done. Definitely happier with the helmet now, at most I might cover some weathering on the blue but I think it'll stay where it's at for now. Plans for the future are to add a diagonal red stripe on the dome and "dirty" it up.









Also couldn't resist a bit of a helmet selfie since it's getting there. 



Also put the beskar and blue coats on the cod and shins. The shins are probably gonna get some gold paint too before the washes and scuffing.





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So unless I buy some new parts to work on while I'm at college, I doubt I'll have any updates until December when the semester is over. Looking forward to getting back to it then!

[Aster Veris]

New paint looks awesome, great job! I like the helmet and think it would really benefit from a black and brown wash, it just adds that little bit of realism and makes everything look so much more believable. Good luck with school!

[Fenn Beviin]

Looking great 

[Cattriss Wren]

Super cool!! Love the colors!!

[Nattori Myruki]

It's been awhile, but I'm not writing this project off yet (and hopefully I won't). Sooooo I didn't get to work on anything over winter break but summer is here and I've been getting back into the swing of things.

Working to finish the leg armor before I try and tackle the soft parts. The shins and cod are tentatively done as I'm pretty happy with them. Gave them a black wash and some silver and brown dry brushing.




Also got the base paint on the thigh plates, but they're still unweathered. I'm planning on doing a kama so if it looks a little front heavy on the chipping, it's because most of the plate would be covered. I might still add gold or red accents to one or both of either the shins or thighs but I'm waiting to see how it all balances together.



But the big work right now is applying a metric ton of bondo to the knees. I'm using all-purpose putty to build up the shape and it’s working pretty well so far. Still have a lot of sanding to do, even with just the one. I did learn how fragile the knee armor can be after it fell on the floor and partially snapped, but a little bit of super glue and it should be fine for now. I might look into a resin coat after all.




Hoping to make a good bit of progress this summer. So far so good!

[Fenn Beviin]

Looking good!

Keep up the progress 

[Nattori Myruki]

Thanks Fenn, appreciate the support!

I've been a bit MIA (again) being pretty busy with work, but I've spent most of my days off on this project and I've almost got a complete set of Mando Pants done!

Leg plates are all weathered and tentatively complete.



And I have one knee armor primed and more or less ready for paint. It's not as pristine as a 3D print but I'm pretty happy with how it came out. Definitely was a lot of work, and while it may have been worth it to just buy 3D prints, I feel like I learned a lot.







Right now I have the other knee in the finishing touches stage, with the dart block and knee both being Bondoed and sanded. After that I'll get them painted and look into dying my flight suit and get a girth belt together to get something sort of wearable. And if all goes well that'll take me to the end of the summer and the beginning of the fall semester. But I'm sure I'll be lucky if I even get most of that done with how this has went so far. Slow and mostly steady! 

[Treb Draalbucc]

the tan with dark blue looks awesome (but maybe i'm biased since mine is similar)  also I like the gold trim on the plates I don't think it's too much.  not every mando has to be a mud-scuffer, some of us have some credits to spend on making our kit look good!

[mandojoelo]

Those knees look great vod. I wimped out and did mine as a single piece of sintra just bent around.