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[Tracyn Ordo]

Hey all
I'm finally starting to get some more free time again so I figured now was as good a time as any to start planning my new custom beskar'gam.
Not long after Republic Commando Triple Zero came out I started making some custom mando armour from corrogated card and paper mache, needless to say the end result wasn't brilliant but I was reasonably happy with it. It was only really in the final stages of the build that I stumbled upon this site and had my eyes opened to how good it could actually be.
Here is a pic of that first kit at a local con;

At the con I meet some of the local 501st members and despite the poor quality of my armour they were all extremely positive and encouraging of me. Over the past 2 and a half years I have been working (on and off) on a set of Jango Fett armour and that is now nearing completion, and I hope to have it approved by an upcoming con in ~6 weeks.
With that project nearing it's end I have decided to start planning my first proper set of beskar'gam, in order to bounce ideas off of you guys and get some feed back before starting on it.

Here is a sketch i did of my current plan;


It draws inspiration from Neo-Crusader armour, but this will be most apparent in the paint job and small things like the shoulders, shins, and back plate, but it will definatley be a modern era mando, with my character's back story being set during the Vongese War.

The right gauntlet will be a crushgaunt, and as far as weaponry goes I intend to make a Verpine Shatter rifle, a blaster pistol of some sort and a bes'kad.

The backplate will have some jump-thrusters similar to those seen here;


The colour scheme will be red, with sky blue and royal/navy blue details.

So yea and feedback and constructive crit is appreciatted, don't hesitate to point out something that could be improved or is ridiculously impractical, you guys are the experts.



P.S. All photos are thumbnails so just click on them to make them bigger

[Tracyn Ordo]

Okay just did this which should give you guys a better idea of what I plan to do. The picture needs some more work (shading etc) but should be good enough for you to give me some feedback.

**edit** see 2 posts further down for finished illustration

[Tracyn Ordo]

Okay this afternoon I did a bit of work on modifying the WOF templates I used for my Jango so thay are a bit more to my liking.
The chest piece and thigh on the right are the original WOF Jango templates to give you an idea of size

and a close up on the chest templates

The differences are subtle, mainly rounding the corners, and elongating the bottom outside corner of the chest pieces by about half an inch as well as taking the top outer corner in slightly just to make it slightly easier to raise my arms to shoulder height when stretched out in front of me. And the thigh has been extended sideways so it will wrap around the side of my thigh more too.
This is an old shot of my Jango to show how the chest plates fit me

In that pic they are spaced slightly too far apart making the plates look a little too wide, but a0 when positioned correctly they should be good and b) i've broadened out a bit more since that photo too.
More to come soon hopefully.

[Tracyn Ordo]

Really, still no repies. Anyway, here is the finished painting of what I plan to do

Hope you like it

[Zaali Kalcyan]

From a simple ge'Mando, I'd say that looks great.  I hope you'll forgive me for bouncing some questions off you . . .

You might've mentioned this in your post, but what kind of materials are you using for this set?  Still cardboard and paper mache?  Did you create the templates yourself or did you find them somewhere? 

I like the color scheme; ge'tal par'parjai, yes?

Anyhoo, probably didn't help much, but the armor looks pretty awesome.  Definitely looking forward to seeing how it works out!

[Hagen Nor'ak]

Least on your left side your going to need some knee armor, you might get away with out it on your right side if the shin is long enough to cover the knee. Could we get a colored pic of the backplate, it looks intrest, but the line drawing is a bit confussing.

Have a good one,
Hagen

[Tracyn Ordo]

From a simple ge'Mando, I'd say that looks great.  I hope you'll forgive me for bouncing some questions off you . . .

You might've mentioned this in your post, but what kind of materials are you using for this set?  Still cardboard and paper mache?  Did you create the templates yourself or did you find them somewhere? 

I will be using sintra and fibre glass to make this set of armour, the only reason I used card for my 'v1' was because I hadn't thought to look on the inter webs so didn't know there were better ways.
The templates I will be using are the WOF Jango templates modified slightly more to my preference.

I like the color scheme; ge'tal par'parjai, yes?

Anyhoo, probably didn't help much, but the armor looks pretty awesome.  Definitely looking forward to seeing how it works out!

Yes I agree! It's one thing to see a mando coming, it's another thing entirely to do something about it
And cheers your encouragement is very er... encouraging, and appreciatted.

Leaston your left side your going to need some knee armor, you might get away with out it on your left side if the shin is long enough to cover the knee. Could we get a colored pic of the backplate, it looks intrest, but the line drawing is a bit confussing.

Have a good one,
Hagen

I am working on a better picture of the back currently, hopefully I will finish it either tonight or tomorrow so expect to see it within the next 24hrs.
Thank you for pointing that out Hagen. The CRLs had given me the impression it was more about the number of plates and their coverage, but I just checked it now and you are right it does say you need knee armour. Can someone on the app team confirm whether or not I do need armour on both knees? or whether my design will be okay.
Thanks

[Tracyn Ordo]

Could we get a colored pic of the backplate, it looks intrest, but the line drawing is a bit confussing.

Ask and ye shall recieve

Hope this clears up your confusion Hagen

[Hondo Karr]

Not much to say about the design other than it covers the needs of the CRL's. Start building it and we can offer alot more guidance and help  8)

[Tracyn Ordo]

Not much to say about the design other than it covers the needs of the CRL's. Start building it and we can offer alot more guidance and help  8)

Sweet thanks. Yea hopefully I will get to start cutting out some of the armour this weekend.

[Niabi]

Loving the Concept art looking forward to seeing this come together.

[Tracyn Ordo]

Okay got some of the plates cut out now. They were cut out of the left over sintra that I got for my Jango Fett costume. Some of the corners still need to be rounded off, and I will hopefully be getting some more sintra sometime soon.

[Tracyn Ordo]

Got the plates shaped this evening


The thigh armour has a dart cut into the side of it in order for me to get a better fit to my leg, but this will be bogged up and won't be visible

[OriKad]

I'll add a note on knees: If having one knee gets you dinged, you can make a soft knee that matches the color of the flightsuit for the off knee.  The CRLs say you need knee coverage, not that it has to be the same kind of knee on both sides.

As an asymmetric mando, I like the asymmetry.  Also, the colors are well thought out and should look really good when finished.

[Tracyn Ordo]

Cheers, yea i've spent much time and made many sketches in order to find a colour scheme that I'm really happy with.

[Tracyn Ordo]

Okay, an update!
I have bogged the thighs and codpiece where they had the darts cut in them so they are nice and smooth now. I have also given all the plates several coats of primer and they have been wet-sanded with 400 grit paper. They are now ready to have the silver base coat applied which will happen tomorrow.


Also a while back I was given a small resin kyr'bes by a mate, and so have decided to integrate that into my chest diamond like so;

I am yet to decide for sure but at this stage it will either be painted gold or to look like bone but that may change yet. As I don't want to use the original on my costume I have made a latex mold of it and should be able to cast another one to use tomorrow

[Pointoforigin]

Looking good so far. Before you go too far with it, do you want to chuck up a pic of the plates just taped to your body? We can make sure there's no sizing issues that way, before you get too much detail into it

[Tracyn Ordo]

Looking good so far. Before you go too far with it, do you want to chuck up a pic of the plates just taped to your body? We can make sure there's no sizing issues that way, before you get too much detail into it

Yea mate, I'll try and get that done this morning before I start painting the silver

[Tracyn Ordo]

Okay here we are. The thighs are sitting a bit lower than they should and the chest plates are sitting a little too far to the left (my right) but that is just because they were taped on slightly lop-sided. Personally I think the sizing is more or less spot on, which was more evident to me while wearing them than from the photo.

[Pointoforigin]

I agree, they look good. The thighs may need to come up a little, and you could get away with a little more gap between the chest plates and cod, in which to put a nice thick belt, but you don't have to. Excellent!

[Tracyn Ordo]

As I said in my last post I was holding the thighs too low in the pic, and in regards to the gap between cod and chest plates, all the cest pieces have sagged due to the weight on my shirt so that will be rectified when I make my vest.
I have given the plates the first coat of silver


And I have also cast the new kyr'bes with rondo (mixture of resin and bondo) which has worked well it just needs a little clean up before it is ready to use. The one on the left is the original and the one on the right is the cast.


Just about to go out to the garage and put another coat of silver on, and tidy up the new kyr'bes a little

[Talos Kot]

looking very promising so far vod, keep it up !

[Tracyn Ordo]

looking very promising so far vod, keep it up !

Thanks, coming from someone with a kit as inspirational as yours is that means a lot! I have been very busy lately with RL stuff, but I have managed to make some progress on the flightsuit, and should have pics in the next few days or so.


**EDIT**
I have pics of the flight suit, as it currently stands. The legs need to be taken in, as they are currently way too baggy, and I will take in the side seems after I get a zip to put on it, then add the sleeves. Just the simple single long sleeve for this one, none of that double sleeve osik, Boba and Jango have got going on as I don't intend to have hoses on the gauntlets. Once the flight suit is done I will move on to the vest, however there won't be any more progress on this until atleast next weekend, as I won't have access to a sewing machine again until then

Sorry about the poor lighting, it was late at night but the only chance I had to get a pic taken with the progress to date.

[Tracyn Ordo]

Some progress has been made in recent weeks.
The flightsuit is now finished and the vest is almost finished so when it is done I will put them on for pics.
I have also cut out the shoulder base, bicep, gauntlet base and neck armour pieces from 3mm sintra


More progress should hopefully come soon

[Tracyn Ordo]

Ok time for a long over due update. I've been very busy with life lately, (and a little bit lazy) but here are some pictures of the completed flightsuit and vest. The vest looks very wrinkled in the pics but it's not that bad in person, and it may need to be tightened a bit more, but I will do that after the armour is attached. The collar of the flightsuit isn't sitting right either, and the shoulders look a bit funny but hopefully once they have some weight on them they will come right.