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[Zophar Ptay]

Ajax - Thanks for the comments and suggestions

I like the creative solution of placing the filter housing in the back and understand that in a sealed suit it wouldn't matter, but would the general population see it that way?  Maybe I'm underestimating the fans, but half the fun is making something they can appreciate and enjoy.  I think if I did it in the back I would have to maybe over-exaggerate it to make sure someone looking at it the first time would recognize it and not wonder why my helmet had a wart.  At that point, I may as well just go with the stereotype and run a hose to my pack.  I'm not shooting the idea down, just trying to discuss it.  if you think otherwise, by all means say so.  I love the idea personally and it would be both very unique and realistic.  I'm just not sure it works on a costume.

As for weapons load, I've mulled it over and discussed it with a friend or three and I think I'll go with the setup you seemed to like.  Blaster right thigh, long beskad left hip, blaster left back, various tools in assorted places.  There was also a suggestion to convert a bandoleer into a tool "belt" which I am pondering.

Regarding the helmet skirt, I had thought to do one that went from the helm's inner rim to the chest's neck line, essentially replace a skin-tight balaclava with a leather one that would drape a bit but I think I have decided against it at this point.  Using maille hadn't occurred to me.  I saw a pic when I was first getting ideas that showed what appeared to be a mando with a chainmaille cape which looked interesting and oddly incongruous at the same time.  Would chain [gorget?] hanging from the helmet to the chest plate [worn over a black balaclava] be in-universe?

Which brings us back to armour design.  I've been looking a that sketch for a couple days now and it is just too damned busy.  Went back to the drawing pad last night and I'll have something else up soon.  Keeping his support role more firmly in mind this time, I am dropping the collar in favor of better vision and flexibility and the plates will be less sculpted.  Still going with the full chest with two articulated gut plates and same overall combination of plates, but reworking the chest design.  Also found a huge box of colored pencils so it won't be scanned and flood-filled to lose all detail this time :-P

[Ajax Kaal]

I agree that the housing on the back would need to be somewhat sized to look like a filter housing and not something small. I also like the idea of using one on the side of the face in the normal position, I just like to think more outside of the box as we can, to make the look really unique. Either way it will work for you, but esthetically speaking, you will have to make that final call of just where it looks best.

I know that one of the Mando's here in the midwest got his kit approved using a chainmaile coife that he wears to cover his neck with the helmet on so it is accepted. It doesn't have to attach to the helmet, it could just be a coife or such or even you could make a neck tube and sew metal links or chainmaile to it, having the neck tube reinforced on the inside to make sure it doesn't collapse under the weight will have to be done though. There are many different ways to possibly protect your neck from damage.

That's the fun part of this process, design, design, design. When it's right it will just seem right to ya, remember to have fun with it.

[Zophar Ptay]

A new design on the armour.   I'm liking this a lot more.  The original design looked too sculpted and too "fantasy plate" for my mando taste.  Still sporting single piece chest and dual segmented gut plate.  Dropped the collar.  Black bits are flightsuit to help delineate plates. The baton-looking-thing in the left hand is a beskad sheathed on a separate [the low-hanging] belt




So.. comments?


Also, 520 views?  Wow.  Someone fall asleep on their F5 key?

[edit]
Too "Rainbow Connection"?  I'm liking it.  Subtle-ish.

[/edit]

[seugtai]

I like the new design alot more than the previous one. I think you dropped and added just the right stuff this time, I believe you have a winner!  Now let's see that made!

[Zophar Ptay]

I like the new design alot more than the previous one. I think you dropped and added just the right stuff this time, I believe you have a winner!   Now let's see that made!

Thanks, I'm liking it a lot more than the first design as well.  It is going to be a while getting this together.  You always hear "Fast, Cheap, Good: Pick two"... to which I always like to add the DIY Corollary:  "You can have either time or money, rarely both."   Since "cheap" is chosen for me, and I'll take good over fast any day, that narrows down my options. :-P   I'll start out a model using cardboard perhaps but I want to final kit to be done in Talos Kot's casting technique so it will take some work and a decent bit of money.  Also, as I don't have a seamstress' dummy, I'll likely be making one so I can form the kit's bits to fit my bits. [yeah, I went back and reworded that just for the alliteration... I'm a dork :eyeroll:]  So I have a good bit of prep work before I can start in on the real deal... plus it's my first build so of course there will be hitches along the way.  

Looking forward to the adventure though :-D


[edit]  What do you think about basing the pair of blasters off of the 434 DeathHammer?

[/edit]

[Zophar Ptay]

Just showed the pics to a friend and noticed I've been putting the wrong dome on the full-body sketches.  I didn't mean to ignore the advice and conversations earlier about which to use... I just copy/pasted the helm from the wrong file.  oops    I'm heading out of town for the weekend but I'll get those changed up when I get back early next week.

[Kel Toi]

Looks great, blaster looks good too 

[Bubba D. Fett]

Dude, I so want to see this kit in person when its finished, great design!

[Zophar Ptay]

Dude, I so want to see this kit in person when its finished, great design!

You will, ner'vod.  I'm disappointed that I didn't catch you at GGC, but to be honest, had a blast with some good friends who came up from Tacoma/Ft Lewis that I haven't seen in far too long... so not really ALLL that disappointed, if you know what I mean   I'll do my best to catch you at the next troop you folks do down that way.  Kit won't be anywhere near done by then, but I'd love to meet up anyway and put faces to buy'ce.

[Zophar Ptay]

An un-update; I've been busy and tired, started a new job this week and the schedule change is beating me up a bit.  I'll hopefully start prelim fabrication stages early November, after I get some pay coming in and after I get back from my vacation.  Nothing to do right now except sketch out a few other ideas, get that helmet sketched out correctly and possibly make a cardstock helmet mockup, depending on how much time and energy the new job leaves me with in the next week or two.  Not to worry, I'm not going anywhere.  You can't get rid of me that easily

[beccamay]

I really like your design ! Cant wait to see it come together !!

[Zophar Ptay]

Found the perfect dome to work my helmet with at a halloween costume shop.  I get paid tomorrow and I'm going down to pick up a couple so I have spares.  It is a military flack helmet style moulded out of what appears to be 1/8" abs or something thereabout.  A slight orange-peel texture on the outside surface should be easy enough to sand off, as well as a very slight lip on the front edge. 

[Ajax Kaal]

Gots to love Halloween time, always a good time to find stuff. Here's hoping it works out well for ya.

[Zophar Ptay]

Found a pair of broomhandle airsofts on ebay as seperate lots but from the same seller.  One expired in 5 minutes and the other in 30 minutes, neither had any bids.  Threw in a bid of $5 on each, figured what the heck.  I'll surely get sniped, but a of right now, with under 1 minute left on the first one, I am lead bidder for $0.06 LOL

• [edit]  Won the first one for $.06, the second has 25 minutes left and I am lead bidder for $0.01.  LOL.   I may have a matching pair of DL-44s instead of the M434 Deathhammer pistols I had planned LOL [/edit]
  
  
• [edit2] I r gud readr.  Turns out they were two different sellers, but I had already sent a message asking if I could combine shipping, so to save face, I did the only thing a mando could do... I bid on a third which expires in about 40 minutes and is currently down for a whole penny. LOL   Not like they won't get used one way or another.
  
  Also came across what the seller claims to be an airsoft  "Tec-9 pump shotgun" whatever the hell that is... LOL  but thought if I cut off the mag well and maybe removed the trigger guard altogether, it may have some potential:
  
  
  
  [/edit2]
  
  
• [edit3]  Naturally, I won all four.  LOL  For what was to be a lightly-armed kit, I'm going to have a decent bit of blaster-building practice.  Ah well.  including shipping, they average around $10 each, which is still better than I'd have found locally I think. [/edit3]
  

[Zophar Ptay]

So I am sitting here in my computer chair polishing my bucket [if you know what I mean] getting rid of the orange-peel on what is to be the base of the dome.  120 grit sandpaper and #0000 steel wool seems to be doing the trick nicely but it is building up static pretty nicely.  Any suggestions on how to release the static buildup?