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[Second Son]

I made some Westar 35s with a slightly customized grip profile, and I played with the barrel ends a bit too. And of course a custom paint job.
I intentionally walked on the 'plastic and cartoony' line with these, partly to try to show a "sealed polycarbonate casing" kind of look, and also because I want these weapons to be clearly not-real for safety and to feel less threatening to kids.
   Scratch built from 3/4" PVC trim board, 3mm Sintra, and aluminum bar and tube.




  Filler primer, spot glaze, and sand till cry


  first coat of paint primer!

I added a coat of satin Granite (rustoleum) and then re-touched the side plates with flat black paint, and then.....DANGER STRIPES


They were still missing something, so I got back to masking and painting.  Wildflower Blue and Ink Blue from my armor and helmet paint scheme.



I experimented here, and it turned out pretty well - I used spray-on truck bed liner to create a textured grip. Not terrible.



I mentioned some aluminum bits...



Square heads because there's no phillips heads in Star Wars.

I also threw the bed liner on some Sintra throwing knives I slapped together earlier but was unsure of how to finish.


Next on the docket:  some aluminum butt caps and some reloading cartridges (in case I want some brigade type stuff....), space grime and then I get to learn how to make some holsters and a bandoleer (mando-leer?).

Constructive feedback is always welcome.

[Second Son]

Main construction complete. I got a chance to get a little progress done after Spookmas, so I added some butt caps which will also be a design feature on my (future upgrade) reload/power packs.
I mocked one up to see how it feels, not too bad. I've been workshopping the shape since the photo to make it more plausible as an engineered piece of equipment.   









I believe I have been successful with my goal of 'slightly cartoony but not too unreal'. I think that the next layer to add is a brown wash and to pop out the barrels and take a torch to them to get some heat coloration. (also holsters...) Constructive feedback always welcome.

[Second Son]

I made some holsters for my paired blaster pistols. I haven't done finer leather work before so this was an excellent learning opportunity, and I had a great time doing it.
My first step was research and prep - I found a few tutorials on the YouTube, procured a few new tools and a nice bit of leather and went for it.

So the next step, pattern making. I folded some paper in half, offset a line (half the main body thickness) and traced around the profile of the barrel and trigger guard; I offset the line about 5/8" to give some room to stitch the piece up (more on that later). I went around with it a bit, figuring out where I wanted to put holes for hardware, added an extension to the top (it was originally straight across just below the grip and it felt wrong the more I looked at it) and test fitted it. so far, so good.

Cut,

X2 and drop in holes for my hardware.

I went ahead and put in a stitching groove all around at this point, which may have been a bit early, but didn't affect the outcome badly. It did help me lay out my tooling pattern better though.
I doodled up a simple geometric pattern that evoked the blocky aesthetic of the Westar-35 design and also played off my kit's Danger Stripes motif.

I made these in two layers, with the back of the hardware sandwiched between to keep it from scratching up the surface of my blasters and adding unwanted weathering.
Glad I remembered to mirror everything instead of cutting everything double. Not that I've ever made such a mistake....


Beveled and slicked the edges - I beveled all around the outside face, and only the inside face at the top and bottom openings. I don't have a slicker yet so I used the handle of the beveler, and it worked out ok.


Remember how I mentioned an offset earlier? It wasn't quite enough. I forgot to account for doubling the material thickness (duh!) so I adapted and cut a filler strip for each piece.
Note, I pre-punched stitching holes all around.


I got some lovely blue leather stitching thread - it's fairly subtle against the black leather but I love the little detail it provides.

Once again, adapting - I had a work meeting that only required 60%(give or take) of my brain so I kludged together a stitching pony and kept my hands moving.

Lather, rinse, repeat and test the fit - I was really happy with how they were turning out.

The next thing to do was wet-molding. I put each holster body into a pitcher of cool water for about a minute, slid a blaster in and started pressing and creasing the leather to the shape of the blaster body. The top I flared out a little bit to make it a bit easier to slide them back in. I had to work carefully, shaping the leather to the angles of the blaster without adding obvious tooling (thumb) marks and without ruining the linework I'd tooled in.
Final construction step - add retaining straps and belt loops. Threw some light grooving around the edges to give a more finished look.



I am waiting for the leather to be 100% done drying, then I'm going to pluck up my courage and start beating up my brand new work.

[Cattriss Wren]

Wow those came out great!! The holsters look so nice with them! I love how you added the metel edge. So cool. I really like the colors too.

[Second Son]

Wow those came out great!! The holsters look so nice with them! I love how you added the metel edge. So cool. I really like the colors too.

Thanks Triss, I appreciate it.  Only little update:  belt layout I have settled on for application (I have no illusions that it won't evolve) and I added some Space Grime to my blasters. 






Getting there.

[Second Son]

So. I have been distracting myself from the actual job of getting my kit finished out and my initial application under way.
I'm foolishly looking past the OM thing and seeing what kinds of upgrades and options look like a lot of fun to work towards....
For now I will limit myself to the paired pistols I have finished, but once weather conditions permit painting and finishing - we gonna get this armory going.
There will be more Danger Stripes for sure.

In the works: Westar Carbine variant, grenade(s), some little pocket sized blasters that I'm trying to make look like a hold-out variation on the Westar 35 chassis, knives, knives, knives....

For the long-term plan, does this group of weapon-shaped objects look like it meets the needs of one who performs ship-to-ship 'extreme acquisitions' while also slinging guns?

[EricL]

It looks like an awesome start! I like how they all are coming off the same product line so to speak. It’s a nice touch, like a professional buccaneer who met a Westar rep and said “do I have a commission for you!” lol.

I say more grenades, always more. Flash style and small breaching charges sound perfect for clearing a ship that doesn’t want to be cleared.

I know just what you mean about getting distracted by this stuff though. I have a fantasy of a whole wall of Swarzy weapons set up next to an armor stand, like Djarin’s cabinet. And as such I prob have seven or so blaster projects that have progressed past the conceptual stage. 

[Second Son]

Hey vod, thanks for the feedback. My goal with these is definitely a unified aesthetic, so it looks like I'm on the right track. It's funny you use the words buccaneer and breaching charge, part of my long-term goal for this kit involves adding a bit of a space pirate flair...

Made strides on my holdouts (for additional planned future upgrades).  I'm about 95% satisfied, I need to add some grime and do some work on the butt caps of the recharges (the proportion of the plate to the size of the main body of the prop pieces was off, so all instances need to be updated). I've kept my danger stripes motif but played a little with striping in my blues.



Got them with the big siblings for some family photos.





I also felt that the Westar carbine was not quite what I wanted it to be so I started in on a more compact variant in a bullpup style. I call it The Monstrosity. It's currently in the grey primer stage while I make myself focus on my official application process. Do not despair, my carbine and The Monstrosity will both be finished and have a proper place in the arsenal.




As part of the future upgrades, I've got some progress on recharge props (gotta modify the plates, dry-brush some silver on the edges, and add a light brown-wash, times about 10) and started collecting greebs and cheap 'gun cleaning' tools from the Big River to start a maintenance kit.



That's it for distracting myself from the main goal - I've been waiting for pre-app round 2 feedback for a bit so I've filled my dedicated MANDO TIME with some other projects. 
Next steps for this portion of the kit:

• patterning and making holsters for my little guys, with built-in loops for holding and displaying the recharges.
• Finish the carbine and The Monstrosity
• make and finish a nice bandolier for The Monstrosity and the carbine
• make like 10 grenades
• make sheaths for my knives
• design and build some sort of tool for convincing ships' doors to open up.
• Finish my actual application for OM already...

[brizzlebot]

Nice progress!

In the last picture what's the black key like tool second from the top?

Ive been putting some Greeblies away in a separate box for things that look like they'd belong in a splicer's tool kit, too.

[Second Son]

In the last picture what's the black key like tool second from the top?

It's from a cheap "Mosin Nagant" tool kit I bought from the Big River, as are the funky threaded rod and the round wire brush. It definitely doesn't feel that authentic but it was low-cost, and the rest of the pieces that didn't feel right for this job went in my own greeble bucket for later. The bright steel picks and tube are selections from a toothpick set - they look like detail cleaning tools and a little oil container to me.

[brizzlebot]

Cool thanks!  There are for sure some similarities between a few of those pieces and Fett's shin tool shapes.  Always enjoy seeing the little details.

Here's a few of my tool ideas if you're looking for some others yourself

https://www.instagram.com/p/CboiW7VuGGn

Thanks for sharing!

[Second Son]

Current status of my arsenal.
Mostly a cross-post from my privateer WIP but I'm updating this thread to track progress and motivate myself to do more.


1. Twin Westar-35 style blasters with custom-tooled holsters (OM equipment)
2. Customized Bullpup Westar Carbine variant in progress; needs a sling
3. Westar-inspired snub pistols, made and in need of holsters
4. Combat knife (tried to make it look like a sharpened block of Durasteel)
5. pair throwing knives
6. blaster reloads - "universal" for all my Westar inspired blasters. 8 finished, need at least 2 more because of reasons


7. Pry Bar and Fusion cutter to meet breaching tool requirements (In progress but haven't touched them in a minute)


Not Pictured: double barrel Westar Carbine. Still working on it, but it's shifted down the priority list a bit. Also I have a bunch of other quickly-made knives but they will find their proper places in time.

See you all later when I have actual progress to share.

[Second Son]

Logging an update on The Monstrosity.






And the sheath for my combat knife:

a sheath for some throwers:

And reload holders:

[Second Son]

Since Last I posted here, I made holsters for my snub pistols.






I made a proper holdout blaster


Full size 35, snub for comparison.



While preparing for a no-weapons troop, I had fun recreating one of my favorite tropes (Extended Disarming), laid my weapons out for inventory, and weighed them out of curiosity - 5lbs 8 oz  or ~2.495kg for the 99% of the world using metric.
 

Current count:
2 Westar 35s
2 Westar-inspired snub pistols (not holdouts!)
The Monstrosity
8 reloads plus blanks for 4+ more
Breach Kit: Anti security blade, skeleton keys, prybar, Imp code cylinders
2 Grenades
4 throwing knives
(what's left of) 1 big knife
90% of a blaster maintenace kit
and of course one holdout blaster

I also discovered a Tragedy - my Sharpened Block O' Durasteel^tm brand knife got broken.


I remade the Knife. I also took lots of inventory pictures.

Some accessories






More Accessories




I worked on holders for my exploders:





That's it for now, there's sure to be more.

[Medieval Mandalorian]

I like your leatherworking. Is that a 6 ounce vegetan you are using?

[Second Son]

For the blaster holsters, I used 4-6oz black veg tan - I got a pretty good deal on a side so I'm using it for everything I can. It's a decent weight for lots of jobs and I can double it up if it needs to be heavier. My belt is two layers of it glue and stitched together (except the end tab, I left that a single layer)  I doubled up layers for my 35 holsters, and used some blue chrome-tanned upholstery remnants I had to line the holsters for my snubs.
Reload holders are the same black veg tan, I doubled up for the belt loop/backer plate part. Throwing knife holsters are the same. My boot sheath is single layer - if I were to do it again I might do it as a double layer.

I dis-assembled one of the surplus pouches I got to pattern from, so maybe in the future I'll switch out the brown ammo pouches for black ones.

For my grenade carriers, I actually got a hold of some surplus pepper spray holders and modded them to suit. They are about 5-6 oz if I were to guess.

[Medieval Mandalorian]

I am tempted to hit Tandy for their extended Black Friday sale and getting whatever they have available in those lighter weights. However I've got a Ford Fusion to repair, the AC Compressor broke free of everything holding it and pretty much made it a one ton paperweight.  My spare funds for the foreseable future will be going into crafting a mild steel bracket to fix the problem. Bad timing I guess. Probably have to wait until after Christamas. My mother gives everyone no matter their age or her attitude toward them the exact same amount. Since we wont be visiting her that means a check for arounf 200 bucks. Now that will buy the leather I need to get going on the accessories. Probably the Sintra to work on the plates as well.

I will be using your examples for a lot of that work, you've not only done an amazing job but your photos are very helpful.

[Second Son]

I will be using your examples for a lot of that work, you've not only done an amazing job but your photos are very helpful.

Thanks vod, I’m grateful for the kind words.
I’m glad my build logs are helpful - I took lots of care documenting my process because I figured if I get it right, someone else can learn, and if I get it wrong, everyone learns what not to do.

And yeah the unexpected car thing is always a fun little ‘kriff you’ because there’s never a good time for that….

[Medieval Mandalorian]

And yeah the unexpected car thing is always a fun little ‘kriff you’ because there’s never a good time for that….

The Ford started blowing white smoke out the tailpipe in June just after I broke my left wrist while doing some melee training with kids. When college started back up my son started driving my Pontiac while I was trying to fix the ford. Then the Pontiac ate it's own engine a couple weeks ago. I'm hopeing to get a nice cardbard mockup of the new mounting plate I need made and can talk my brother into putting it together when we visit for Thanksgiving... He teaches shop and has an actual shop out on the farm. I have a driveway...

I'm going to get some square head screws for the rifle I'm making. I like your argument for square heads are the future.