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[Saz]

Hi guys and gals!

My concept, drawn at the start of last year (Christ has the time flown) was supposed to be a heavy mando based on the rail guns from Aliens.



However, practicality has kinda hit me a bum deal, so I decided also, for the moment, or should I say for the ability to just get the plates and stuff done and be ready to help out the UK vode in trooping, I put that to one side.

I also did a quick secret santa present with one of my old buckets and I actually really l;iked how the paintwork came out.





So imagine my model but with some slight changes to silver instead of gold.

Anyhoo, I have been collecting my soft parts for a while, based on the original concept.



The major stalling block has been the vest as without the vest there is no real way to bent the plates, yeah, it's ok to my body as shown here:



But the vest will change the shape, anyhoo, I got myself some PVC faux leather from a craft store (very surprised they had it) and made a template out of it, just needed to persuade my mom to get out the  sewing machine and help. My mom's been procrastinating because she keeps saying she's not a professional sewer, well, she's better than me.

I do have to say though that she has done an absolutely fantastic job with it.

Anyhoo, here's me with the plates taped to the vest, I realise the belly plate will need a bit of trimming once I get the chest plates formed correctly.



I'll be expecting knees and wrists from Bradley Fett shortly and a helmet really isn't a problem for me

So to do, shoulder bells, backplate and crotch covering.

[Remo Jadd]

good start vod, it's about time you got your armour started

[Da'Rang Falco]

It's a good start.  I may make a small suggestion.  You may want to cut those armor parts down a little bit (maybe another .5" or so) so that there is a little bit more of a gap between plates.  They look a little large on you.  But it's looking like a good beginning.

[Hondo Karr]

Looks great man! I'm surprised you're not using one of your custom helmets for this project?

As for the plate spacing, I'd disagree with Kal. I think if you take much more off you'd run the risk of having too wide a gap. The gap shouldn't be larger than the width of your thumb and if they're closer that's fine and even practical, from a protection POV, as long as they're not overlaping or hanging over the sides of the chest (too big).

Can't wait to see it all come together.

[Cdr. Ch'ren Jud'se]

haha, ya, don't cut the plates to have more room.... the smaller=better as long as they are not touching... Thats what kept holding me back from being approved, was my spacing was to far... SO again... don't do anything with the spacing....

Anywho... your armor looks great!

[Saz]

Right,

i've started the tricky task of putting the pop studs on, unfortunately the glue wasn't strong enough for the stud and ripped right off, which has forced me to metal back right through the plate. Not the best of starts I'm afraid.

Anyhoo, it's revealed that I will need to do more plate bending before I can attach the bottom half od the chest plate to the vest.

I've had a productive day, I guess, just a little worried that I've skewed the plates.

[Sinclair Reau]

I'm a huge fan of your ammo belt. I like the gold idea, but silver works too.  I'm excited to see some updates. Great work, keep it coming! 

[Mandalore the Uniter]

I think I can understand why Kal thinks they look a little big.  Your collar armor doesn't touch the outside corners of your chest armor, so the chest armor looks bigger than it actually is.  Looks good Saz, it's about time you got to work on this stuff. 

[Saz]

Yeah, my major problem I've had is the muscles, as a pro wrestler I'm bodily bigger than the normal person and I had to cut the corners from the shoulder piece so I could move my arms without the corners sticking into me AND be the same size as my chest plates.

As for the ammo pouches, I got them off the UK fleabay as airgun pellet pouches, I thought they were a lil different to the norm, which is me all over

I'll pop a picture up shortly of the fixed plates, perhaps someone can help me with a neat way of covering the holes I made, as I suspect Bondo would crack with movement.

And don't worry Iron boots, I have the original Krayt bucket to play with once the run is done

[Druan Krayt]

your armours is looking great, hope you can get it done by july for lfcc.

you sticking with that colour scheme?

[Saz]

Took a quick piccy for y'all



Hope the spacing is ok as I'll cry if it isn't!!! I took A'den's advice and brought the chestplate in closer, which i think has lined it up a bit more with the collar plate.

My two major issues are:

1. What to do with the holes for the pop studs, how can I fill them in without them cracking at a later date?

2. I'm having issues with the plate bending, it seems that the corner of the curve that would meet the belly plate is pulling away, leaving a gap when I try to bring the bottom piece down towards my ribcage. No matter how much i try to heat bend it, it always seems to come to this issue.  I haven't secured the bottom to the vest atm because of this worry.

[Saz]

your armours is looking great, hope you can get it done by july for lfcc.

you sticking with that colour scheme?

This is kinda what I'd like the armour to look like when it's done, though I'm not so sure about the 25 on the chest atm

[Saz]

Righty ho,

Finall bent the plates ok and attached to the vest.



However, there is a little separation, I've done a side shot, is this ok?



Wondering where my stuff is from Bradleyfett too, sent me an email just after Christmas to say he'd be sending shortly.

[Rego Kezz]

The little separation or distance between the vest and the armor plates is ok. Everyone,who uses this eyelet/pop studs combo,has the distance,same goes for the snap system. Won't be a problem,i think. unless you can put a whole pack of cigarettes between vest and armor  Looks good,so far!

[Asil Kor]

Looking good. Great progress. Like your concept design. 

[Saz]

Ok, so I've been a little busy sorting all the plates out:



(Though i've only tightened one strap, silly me)

Just to show you what I did with covering the holes, I experimented with the collar plate, I put a square of fiberglass over the hole and let that cure. I then took some aluminium powder, mixed it with the resin and put a cold cast layer over the top. Not 100% successful, as I only put one coat on and it's sanded off the plastic in places, but I shall sort that out with another coat.

Apart from that it looks quite cool and at least the holes are covered.





Tomorrow I bronze the right plate for the clan logo.

[Saz]

More cold cast shennanigans,

In the UK clan we've been talking about having clan colours, which I believe are a goldy black colour, I wasn't going to make a whole set, but as a nod to the UK boyus and gals, I decided to bronze one of the pads and have the clan symbol painted onto the side.

I also experimented with totally covering the panel with fiberglass, it makes for a thicker plate, but there is no real redeeming feature to use up all the glass when covering the holes is all that is needed.

Anyhoo, here's the cold cast plate:



And here is it on me





All in all coming together

[Saz]

Clan shoulder bell sorted:

[Dar'manda]

Looks great Saz! I would have gone through the same steps to cover up the snaps. A square of fiberglass and cover that with resin. I might have missed it, but what are your plates made of?

[Saz]

It's a pvc bin.

What I have learned is that I am going to have to reinforce the PVC as the flexibility means the cold cast coat peels off, so I have stiffened the back with some fiberglass for the collar and gone over the other shoulder bell with fiberglass, I think that way works best.

[Dar'manda]

That's how I would do it. What I would want to know is that would the fiberglass peel off the pvc plate?

I tried to reinforce some thin aluminum plates with fiberglass and ended up getting perfect casts of the plate! It was a eureka moment, but my idea of "hybrid aluminum-fiberglass armor" went down the drain! LOL!

[Saz]

If you rough up the surface enough with a sander, it's more likely going to stick, I wouldn't say the fiberglass will ever stay on permanently, but as long as you coat the fiberglass with the outer layer and go over the edges, it seems to have stuck nicely.

[Dar'manda]

In other words, coat the pvc in fiberglass? Yeah, that will work!

BTW, why don't you try the aluminum "mold" technique next time. Just put on a layer of rondo first, and then one or two layers of fiberglass. My latest suit uses that technique.

It took me just a day to make the whole set of plates, and by the second day, got them painted and ready to mount!

[Saz]

I'd have to try some experiments with rondo first, the main reason why I didn't use bondo is that it would more than likely crack with use.

The major issue is the flexibility of the pvc, even if I painted it, it would eventually crack, so I need to stiffen the whole piece, makes the armour look thicker though, which is good and the cold cast plates weigh quite a bit too!

[Dar'manda]

I tried to cast the plates using just fiberglass but I didn't like the results. The rondo helps with the surfacing and painting. Here's what I got, FYI:

The rondo will not crack because it's rather flexible (being mixed with resin) and the fiberglass backing is very sturdy. I'm gonna use heavier fiber mats on my next set.

Yeay to thicker and heavier plates!