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[Slade Kel]

So, at CV, I was unable to bring my Slade back plate (made by the Imperial Outpost Armory, go buy one ), and had hoped I could just slap my secondary back plate on. That turned out to be a failure, so I gutted my girthbelt and turned it into a temporary cape . I'd forgotten how much more comfortable capes were than backplates, so upon arriving home, I set about devising a more permanent cape.

After a little futzing about,  I came up with this cape to get me through DCon, at the least, after which I'll go about making it much better.


I decided I still liked the idea of a back plate, and decided to compromise. So, I butchered the IOA backplate ( D:), and ended up with this:

On the bright side, it's miles more comfortable than a full back plate, and gives the illusion of having back armor, even though there's pretty much nothing from the shoulder blades on up. Like I said, after DCon, I'm going to see about doing a better job of it, but I figure this'll look better than this:

Sure, I'm blurry, but the photographer was focusing on the wee Bob'ika in the midst of all the mandalorians . Or, as the Orlando Sentinel's tagline went, "Boba Fetts of all shapes and sizes. Gratuitous Mand'alor crotch shot included for no extra cost .

Also, I finally got around to making boot armor.


I bought the boots probably about a year ago, specifically for this costume. I ended up wearing them to work more often than not, and never quite got around to armoring them. Again, I plan on doing more with it after DCon, probably a segmented sabaton kinda deal, but I figure this is better than no foot armor.

[Ohl'd Vart]

Looks good, Slade....I like the shape of that cape...
Rob

[Slade Kel]

Thanks . I'm probably going to keep it pretty much the same after I get the chance to tweak and revamp it, I'll just be doing it better than it is now .

[Prometheus]

Really liking the boots. How did you make the toe spikes?

[Slade Kel]

The spikes themselves I bought on eBay, from this ebay store. Then, I cut a piece of 26 gauge steel down to fit around the toe of the boot and bent it into shape. The spikes are screw on, so I just drilled holes in the metal, screwed them on, then glued the whole shebang right onto the boot. Now, if you have a pair of boots with a higher sole in the front, you could do the same thing, but just screw the steel plate right into the sole. Unfortunately, the front soles of these boots are too low for that.

[Prometheus]

Thanks I may be stealing that from you to add something to my kit. My boots look really plain. All Ive got is spats to cover the laces.

[Slade Kel]

Feel free . The only issue I ran into was with the shape of the screws:. It's designed to sink into the spikes, so when I drilled the hole through the metal, I couldn't quite get the screw flush with the actual plate. You can't tell from the pics, or really at all unless you get right up to the boot, but the fronts of the toe plates are pushed out about 1/8th to 1/4 of an inch from the actual toe of the boot. Next round of upgrades, I'll likely end up just gluing spikes to new toe plates.