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[AboveAverageGeek]

Hello Everyone!

My name is Aeon and here is the general concept for my kit (w/o weathering for ease of viewing). I have a lot of cosplay experience (though no armor), so I'm not feeling too worried about my soft parts, weapons, and paint job. As far as a name in Mando'a I am currently looking at Mir'wer as a combination of the archaic word for Eon and a prefix commonly associated with brain, inteligence, thought etc. I'm mostly confused about conventions for last names, but perhaps this just requires more research.



My main concern is fitting the armor to my body type as I am quite small, (5'2" and ~108lbs), are there any helpful threads anyone knows of?

Additionally, I modified the visor in mando creator, any obvious reasons this style wouldn't fit CRLs?

Thanks for any and all input! More to come soon.

[Yorwoin]

Suy cuy'gar!

Welcome to the group. The only thing I can really see as a potential problem is what era you are trying to fit into. Knowing where you want your armor to fit will help the planning process significantly. Each era has their own little differences. You can find the CRLs and different eras here: http://mandalorianmercs.org/get-involved/costume-requirements/

Mandalorian names seem to follow the naming convention most humans have. Basically, family ties as far as I can understand Fett (Ordo, Kryze, Vizsla, Saxon, et cetera). Maybe someone with a more extensive knowledge in the lore can explain the nuance, but it looks like affiliation to me. Here is an online name generator I found that could be of some use: https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/sw-mandalorian-names.php

I wish I was an expert on sizing, but I usually I take measurements of every axis I can. Basically, keep the ratio of the armor piece and scale to fit. For the chest-plate, too big will bleed into the belt-line, neck, and/or over the armpits. Definitely start with taking paper cutouts of the armor and seeing if the look meets the expectations.

Here is the parent forum for tutorials. This has been very helpful for me, personally.
https://mandalorianmercs.org/forum/index.php?board=740.0

Great concept and I hope this helps!

[Arco'thyel Wyshla]

Wow, what a cool paintjob!

Mir'wer is a great name, it's neat that you're using proper Mando'a. I just threw together syllables I liked the sound of. One suggestion to keep in mind as you pick a last name is the number of syllables. Mando names have a tendency of having three syllables: Boba Fett, Jango Fett, Din Djarin, Paz Vizsla, Pre Vizsla, Koska Reeves, etc. Though this certainly isn't a hard-and-fast-rule (Bo-Katan Kryze, Fenn Rau, Rook Kast, etc.), so don't worry too much about it. I say with a six-syllable name...

For fitting the armor to you, that will depend on if you do 3D printing or sintra. For sintra you could make paper and cardboard templates as Yorwoin suggested, but 3D printing is trickier. There are apps where you make a model of yourself then size the plates appropriately, but I'm not familiar with them.

As far as CRLs go, I'd like to have more folks weigh in, but since you have a Post-Imperial chest plate, I think you look good for that era so long as you have one more lower body plate (a kidney plate or tasset could be hidden from view here). I don't anticipate the visor shape being an issue; you fit the 2/3 rule. I'm not familiar with the helmet base, so make sure it has keyslots in the back!

I noticed the cape is a different color around the neck -- do you have a cape design in mind?

[AboveAverageGeek]

Welcome to the group. The only thing I can really see as a potential problem is what era you are trying to fit into. Knowing where you want your armor to fit will help the planning process significantly. Each era has their own little differences. You can find the CRLs and different eras here: http://mandalorianmercs.org/get-involved/costume-requirements/

Mandalorian names seem to follow the naming convention most humans have. Basically, family ties as far as I can understand Fett (Ordo, Kryze, Vizsla, Saxon, et cetera). Maybe someone with a more extensive knowledge in the lore can explain the nuance, but it looks like affiliation to me. Here is an online name generator I found that could be of some use: https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/sw-mandalorian-names.php

I wish I was an expert on sizing, but I usually I take measurements of every axis I can. Basically, keep the ratio of the armor piece and scale to fit. For the chest-plate, too big will bleed into the belt-line, neck, and/or over the armpits. Definitely start with taking paper cutouts of the armor and seeing if the look meets the expectations.

Here is the parent forum for tutorials. This has been very helpful for me, personally.
https://mandalorianmercs.org/forum/index.php?board=740.0

Great concept and I hope this helps!

Thanks for the response, definitely helpful. As far as era goes, I definitely find myself drawn to the post-imperial era the most and that is the era that I am planning on having my first kit fall into. Lack of widespread/easily accessible canon for this era I think is both a blessing and a curse, but I'm excited to get going. Paper/cardboard mockups for armor are absolutely a must before I start cutting/molding my sintra.

Wow, what a cool paintjob!

Mir'wer is a great name, it's neat that you're using proper Mando'a. I just threw together syllables I liked the sound of. One suggestion to keep in mind as you pick a last name is the number of syllables. Mando names have a tendency of having three syllables: Boba Fett, Jango Fett, Din Djarin, Paz Vizsla, Pre Vizsla, Koska Reeves, etc. Though this certainly isn't a hard-and-fast-rule (Bo-Katan Kryze, Fenn Rau, Rook Kast, etc.), so don't worry too much about it. I say with a six-syllable name...

For fitting the armor to you, that will depend on if you do 3D printing or sintra. For sintra you could make paper and cardboard templates as Yorwoin suggested, but 3D printing is trickier. There are apps where you make a model of yourself then size the plates appropriately, but I'm not familiar with them.

As far as CRLs go, I'd like to have more folks weigh in, but since you have a Post-Imperial chest plate, I think you look good for that era so long as you have one more lower body plate (a kidney plate or tasset could be hidden from view here). I don't anticipate the visor shape being an issue; you fit the 2/3 rule. I'm not familiar with the helmet base, so make sure it has keyslots in the back!

I noticed the cape is a different color around the neck -- do you have a cape design in mind?

The insight about 3 syllable names is super cool, it's something I hadn't noticed before but now that you point it out, I keep seeing examples of it. As far as armor goes, I probably will be doing some combo of sintra and 3d printing. I have access to a family member's printer, but it has a small print bed so it would require printing in many different pieces. I went to a local sign store that agreed to give me their foam PVC scraps for cheap, so I'm not too stressed about acquiring materials which is nice.

Cape wise: so far, the plan is to have the two sections you pointed out be different pieces. The purple/lavender section mostly serving to help mask the gaps between the actual cape and the armor as well as some future electronic plans.

As someone also working in the post-imp CRLs I quite appreciate your insights.

[Yorwoin]

3D printing can be a bit tricky when sizing since the slicer only really knows the XYZ dimensions in regards to sizing. I usually design my own armor in a CAD software, so I have room to move when modeling my proportions. Reference images and multiple measurements means I can really tune proportions. However, if you are downloading files, then do test prints before committing to a large one that takes days to complete (nothing worse than finding the print won't work). For my knees (Jango style), I printed the very top rim at varying sizes. Eventually, I found a size that fit around my knee an gave me adequate space for velcro and/or straps.

People mainly print their helmet and gauntlets, then sintra the rest of their armor panels. 3D printed armor panels can be extremely temperamental to mold with a heat-gun. I have done it successfully, but it is probably best to use the paper-to-sintra method.

[Second Son]

For P/I the 'four lower body armor' count is if you skip on the standard minimum of cod+knees, but Aeon's concept looks like it has a cod plate and knees (Shnees+cod also works). Skipping the cod means you start counting knees, shins, thighs, tassets, etc to get to 4. It feels odd to me to have additional arm armor but just the minimum lower body armor, a bit unbalanced. Granted, since you're 'optimized for scale' most enemy strikes are coming down from above so leg armor may not be as big of a concern.

Otherwise: love the colors and the almost-camo patterning. It makes me think of snake patterns without being an overt snakeprint; don't know if that's what you had in mind but I like it.

Don't worry about your physical stature, you'd need to build to and modify your plates if you were 6-0 / 215 lbs of muscle, or 5-8 / 250 and built for comfort, or....etc. You just build it to fit the size and shape your body has, and template adjustments shouldn't be a big shift from what you've done for other cosplays.

For the custom visor, best to get ahead of that and ask your ruus'alor and possibly fill out a Q&A form. To me, it appears to meet the 2/3 requirement for the vertical slot but I am neither expert nor authority.

[AboveAverageGeek]

People mainly print their helmet and gauntlets, then sintra the rest of their armor panels. 3D printed armor panels can be extremely temperamental to mold with a heat-gun. I have done it successfully, but it is probably best to use the paper-to-sintra method.

That's the plan! I started messing around with helmet sizing in a CAD program today and split it into sections small enough for me to actually work with (I've got an Ender 3) If all goes to plan, I should start a test print tonight. Hopefully I'll get to post an update tomorrow. Sizing wise I decided that slightly too large was better than slightly too small. I want room for fans, and eventually a microphone/headphones. If I run into width CRL issues I can always modify my shoulders to appear larger so my ratio still looks correct.

For P/I the 'four lower body armor' count is if you skip on the standard minimum of cod+knees, but Aeon's concept looks like it has a cod plate and knees (Shnees+cod also works). Skipping the cod means you start counting knees, shins, thighs, tassets, etc to get to 4. It feels odd to me to have additional arm armor but just the minimum lower body armor, a bit unbalanced. Granted, since you're 'optimized for scale' most enemy strikes are coming down from above so leg armor may not be as big of a concern.

Otherwise: love the colors and the almost-camo patterning. It makes me think of snake patterns without being an overt snakeprint; don't know if that's what you had in mind but I like it.

Don't worry about your physical stature, you'd need to build to and modify your plates if you were 6-0 / 215 lbs of muscle, or 5-8 / 250 and built for comfort, or....etc. You just build it to fit the size and shape your body has, and template adjustments shouldn't be a big shift from what you've done for other cosplays.

For the custom visor, best to get ahead of that and ask your ruus'alor and possibly fill out a Q&A form. To me, it appears to meet the 2/3 requirement for the vertical slot but I am neither expert nor authority.

After further review of CRLs regarding the visor, I think I'm good, but the initial helmet print doesn't have the modifications just in case. I plan to reach out to my ruus'alor tomorrow. I adore the term "optimized for scale", I'll have to start using it. As far as paint/patterning goes, I wasn't actually designing around a snake-print but I also like the affect. Mostly I just like triangles. Thanks for the input.

[Yorwoin]

Ay, I run an Ender 3 too. They are pretty good but can be a bit quirky with the Z motor. What filament do you plan on printing with?

[AboveAverageGeek]

Ay, I run an Ender 3 too. They are pretty good but can be a bit quirky with the Z motor. What filament do you plan on printing with?

For now? Whatever we have on hand, which after quickly running to check, is 1.75mm standard PLA. Not necessarily ideal, but it'll work.
Luckily for me our ender hasn't had any issues to date vis a vi the Z motor. Fingers crossed that continues. At least I have someone working from home that can check on the print while I'm at class and abort if anything starts to go terribly wrong.

[Yorwoin]

PLA is pretty good. Low glass-transition temperature, but paint, fiberglass, and general reinforcement can mitigate that (just don't leave it in the car lol). Sounds like you have a good working plan!

You can always move to PETG later. I would just stay away from ABS if you can help it.

[AboveAverageGeek]

Update of the tiniest caliber.
Finally started the first print for my helmet (migraines are a -censored-), and so far, no major catastrophes, so fingers crossed it makes it through the night okay.

Also, I attached a pic of my unmodified nerf blasters from before I started to fiddle with them, just for reference. I found a couple threads modifying these specific weapons that should be helpful, but this is my first time modifying a nerf weapon, so any sage advice is welcome. Mostly I've just gone at them with an exacto knife, a screwdriver, a shucking knife, some sandpaper, and a whole lot of enthusiasm.

[Yorwoin]

Off to a good start by the looks of it!

Looks like the brim is coming up on the front-most piece a little, but you should be fine. That happened on my helmet print, too.

[AboveAverageGeek]

 

Off to a good start by the looks of it!

Looks like the brim is coming up on the front-most piece a little, but you should be fine. That happened on my helmet print, too.

Yeah, I'm not too worried, that front left side always rides a little high no matter how often or how much you adjust it. So far it doesn't seem to be causing problems in the print itself.

[AboveAverageGeek]

Sigh..... bad news gang. Brother managed to hit the switch for the printer, and I was unable to recover the print despite my attempts to modify the gcode effectively. Still the little bit that did print does serve as a proof of concept so I'm still excited. Attempt #2 has just begun. As far as my sintra goes, the sign store should be getting back to me soon which is exciting if a bit daunting. Tomorrow hopefully is the beginning of cardboard mockups.

[Yorwoin]

Bummer; snags are bound to occur. Regardless, looking forward to the concepts!