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[zdw9999]

Starting my live action Death Watch build. I have not done anything like this before, this is my first cannon kit, it is also my first Post Imperial kit. My builds always seem to get very chaotic very quickly, I always jump to the armor right away. As tempting as it is to just fire up the printer and start printing out files, it can be difficult to judge sizing and spacing without anything to mount them on, so I am starting with the softgoods. The first of those is the less daunting of the two, the vest.

First step is finding a good pattern.



I found this one on Etsy, It seems to have what the CRLs are asking for for the most part, all of the top stitching and quilted portions look acurate, the shoulder straps meet in the middle, and it closes in the back, so lets get started.

The material that I found is a cotton polyseter blend for the main vest, and some white duck canvas for the shoulder straps. I couldn't find the exact colors that I wanted so I went with white, and picked up some rit dye. I also picked up some cotton batting to add some thickness.



Next I printed out all of the pattern pieces, taped them together and cut them out.



I used some spray adhesive to tack down the batting to the main vest material and started to cut out the pattern pieces.



once that was done it was time to test out the dye. The CRLS state that the vest is an off white color, I opted to go with more of a greyish off white, as apposed to the more cream color that I have seen.



I did two swatches, the second one I left in there for less time, and I think it came out a bit better, so I used that time for the rest of the vest pieces.



The actual vest came out darker than I would have wanted, but with some weathering I think I can get it much closer.

Here are some photos of the pieces sewn together and some closeups of the detail and top stitching. This is all I have so far. I still need to add the lining, as the zipper, and hem all of the edges of the vest. Some sizing adjustments will also be needed, as it is just a tad baggy in places.

[Geila Alo]

I am looking forward to follow your WIP and your first Canon build  . You can do it!

I agree on that's its' a good idea to start with the soft parts, makes it easier to judge sizing and spacing of the armor.

Geila

[Bryn Cin'Prudii]

Looks like a good job sewing - And you are correct on the weathering - you can use light paints to get the bottom lighter in color.

I will follow this build rather closely

[zdw9999]

I ran into some very discouraging hiccups while trying to sew the lining into the vest. What I ended up doing was removing the shoulder straps, and finishing those and the vest separately and then sewing them back together. I still have some cleanup to do, but it looks okay for now. I learned a lot and have a few ideas of what I will do differently next time. I am making another vest for a clanmate as well so I can apply what I learned there and see how it goes.


I tried it on with my flight suit top from another kit to see how it would fit and I think it fits pretty well.

Next step will be making the flight suit. I picked up about 7 yards (way more than I need), of a medium grey cotton canvas fabric that I found at Walmart for pretty cheap, and I purchased the flight suit patterns from the same etsy vendor. I will be posting pictures of that as I go, but I think I am also going to start printing some armor pieces now that I have the vest made.

[Geila Alo]

Great job vod! Yes it's fun to learn new things. I am looking forward to see your flight suit  , and when trying it with the vest, you can do some final tailoring to the vest, just in case it needs since it must fit snugly to the body.

Keep up the good work!

[zdw9999]

That was kind of my thought as well, I may need to take it in slightly, but I'd rather that than be too small haha.

[zdw9999]

Little progress. I printed out a helmet, little bit of cleanup still needed, I printed this in PETG so there was a little bit of stringing. I also got a chest plate and ab plate printed. The files that were used were from Bucks Armory on etsy. Chest plate scaled down to 98 percent to fit me a little better. I verified the acuracy of the helmet file. The triangles on the dome are shorter and farther apart, which is consistant with what we see in refrence images. The vents (not printed yet) have the dental file in the bottom two keyslots. As for the rest of the armor, not all of the files from this vender are acurate, so I will only be using the chest and shoulder files, which is what I have for now.  Vest is a little loose, so next project will be to take the zipper back off and taking it in from the closer point.

[Vi'per]

Hi Vod,you are starting very well, that seller has decent pieces including his thigh armors. From what I can see in the mirror photo with the flak vest you can still reduce the space in the armpits and it will fit your body much better consequently the chest armor will occupy its top width closer ,let see a photo with chest on it we will see the balance

[zdw9999]

Thank you, I was gonna start with taking it in from the back first, but I agree, I could probably take it in at the armpit as well. Once I get the back part taken in, I will post up a picture of the chest plate on the vest while I am wearing it and see how it fits.

[Raquel91]

I applaud your efforts so far on the LA Death Watch, this build will be totally worth it once completed. You are heading in the right direction, looking forward to your progress.