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[Zophar Ptay]

Some updates:  Doubled the space between the mandibles, cut down the horizontal bit of of the visor, lengthened the mandibles and added a little beefiness to them, and reshaped the curved bit of visor a little..  The visor ends about the tip of my chin as it sits now.  Extended the 'hawk forward and added the brows which decreased the size of the opening for the head lamp.  I think it is looking about right...

[Zophar Ptay]

If I made a kit using primarily bronze, would that look particularly odd?  I'm afraid it would be too steampunk or something if I go with a suit of primarily bronze and leather.

[Kel Toi]

Up to you which colours you use mate, I think it would look cool 

[Zophar Ptay]

Hey Kel, I like the little profile makeover you have going :-P 

Very minor update, I've been scrounging the local thrift shops looking for a used full-back bike helmet to use as a base to play with without destroying my wife's brand new one but apparently they don't accept/sell them out of fear of being sued f it was faulty. I'll hit craig's list and give it a week or so, then give in and buy a new one at wally world.

Job interview today, wish me luck :-P

[Kel Toi]

All this health and safety nonsense makes me want tae spew ! LOL Good luck wi the helmet and the Job interview ner'vod 

[Zophar Ptay]

Tell me about it.  Heck, hang a big sign that says "Used helmets are obviously used and were donated for free so clearly there is some reason the previous owner didn't want them.  If you get hurt, it's on your head." *snicker*  can't resist a good pun.  Nor a bad pun, come to think of it.

I may just try to use the old-shirt-and-duct-tape method of body casting to make a cast of her helm, then I can go from there perhaps.  It just seems silly to waste $60 for something I only need as a template, but we'll see. The end results I plan on cold casting using the Talos Kot method so if I use the bike helmet as the base on the plug it should have plenty of room inside for padding and electronics. We'll have to see what comes of it.

[Kel Toi]

Double Good luck mate 

[Zophar Ptay]

Can't sleep so I threw this together quick.  I'm still sketching out the armor on paper, this is just a modified mandomaker screencap with the basics of the design in mind to show the paint scheme I am currently mulling over. 

Armor is bronze over black soft bits; light gray or silver loin cloth/oil rag; leather pouches, mainly for tools but a few sized for ammo; comm backpack instead of a jetpack.

Armor highlights:  single piece chest; single piece combined knee/shin either with a hinged/pinned connection to the boot plate or a separate "steel toe" plate;  single piece collar/shoulders; thigh plates will incorporate built-in hard blaster holsters; left gauntlet kitted out for electronics, right one very plain.

 I am thinking I want fingerless gloves, if that is permitted, and I am debating some ear-height pauldrons to protect the exposed neck sides, but I'm thinking as a wrench monkey it may be more important to be able to move the head about than worry about an axe to the neck; maybe I'll save the high pauldrons for the next [heavy weapons] kit, it seems a bit more fitting.




As always, please help.

[Zophar Ptay]

I will have a first sketch of the armour up either tonight or tomorrow.  One thing I am trying to sort out is weapon load.  I am/was picturing a pair of medium blasters in thigh holsters and a beskad.  A comm pack on his back and a pair of thigh rides for the blasters kinda rules out my immediate ideas of where to carry the beskad.  Suggestions?  Between the back and the pack is an option I suppose, but that would be rather awkward from a practical point of view.  On a belt like a traditional long sword would cause issues with the holster on the thigh.  

[edit]

  A thought.  Right thigh holster, left hip beskad, second pistol either right shoulder holster  and reach across the chest [armour design willing] or left side on the back of the belt with the grip up and drawn by reaching around your back.  The second choice sounds a little better and more easily done with the single-piece chest armour I have in mind.  Better/other ideas, please share...

[/edit]

[Zophar Ptay]

So not exactly symmetrically drawn, but the idea stands.. shoulders not quite as high as drawn, naturally the shin plate doesn't actually fasten above the knee as drawn, but the plate's front will extend over it like kneepads.  Trying to sort the weapon kit out, current thought is a beskad in a scabbard off the left hip, medium blaster on the right thigh and a medium blaster horizontally on the left side back of the belt.

Single piece chest, two overlapping segmented gut plates.

Add comm backpack and that is more or less what I have in mind at the moment.

[Slade Kel]

I don't believe fingerless gloves are allowed with late-era Crusaders; goes with the requirements for a 'sealed flight suit' appearance. The second design on this page is much better, scrolling through, I was going to say that the chest and ab plates of the first one were too modern era, even with the chest being one piece. This other one looks good though, assuming I'm getting the delineation between armor and soft parts right on the torso. You might want to toss up a colored version to make the difference clearer.

[Hagen Nor'ak]

I have to say the rebreather on the side of your helmet worries me for two reasons. If you install an actual one used in the modern US military gasmasks you're going to have to counter the weight of it by gluing fishing weights or something of that nature to the other side to balance it out. Even with proper padding that side of the helmet is going to be sagging compared to the rest of the helmet.
The second issue I see is with your raised armored collar, I don't think the rebeather is going to let you turn your head with out it causing damage to the armor.

So I'd recommend trying to fabricate something that looks similar out of plastic ( as I don't believe a resin copy would be much different weight wise) and then you'll have to play with the armored collar or the placement of the rebreather so those two don't conflict with each other.

Have a good one,
Hagen

[Zophar Ptay]

I don't believe fingerless gloves are allowed with late-era Crusaders; goes with the requirements for a 'sealed flight suit' appearance.

Quite right, I had forgotten that bit.  Thanks.

The second design on this page is much better, scrolling through, I was going to say that the chest and ab plates of the first one were too modern era, even with the chest being one piece. This other one looks good though, assuming I'm getting the delineation between armor and soft parts right on the torso. You might want to toss up a colored version to make the difference clearer.

The first one was just a namdomaker that I colored in and modified slightly, the color scheme is what I was tinkering with there.  I'll color this one in tonight and see what I can come up with, it ended up more complex than I had initially planned so a simple sash paint job likely won't work.  I'll either clean up the fake abs or come up with another scheme.

Thanks for your feedback

I have to say the rebreather on the side of your helmet worries me for two reasons. If you install an actual one used in the modern US military gasmasks you're going to have to counter the weight of it by gluing fishing weights or something of that nature to the other side to balance it out. Even with proper padding that side of the helmet is going to be sagging compared to the rest of the helmet.

The entire thing is going to be cold cast, so the canister itself will be hollow.  Much easier to counterbalance.

The second issue I see is with your raised armored collar, I don't think the rebeather is going to let you turn your head with out it causing damage to the armor.

That, however, is a valid point that I saw when I popped the helmet over the armour sketch.  As much as I liked the idea, it may be time to drop it.  I'll just have to wait until I throw it all together and see how frustrating it really is in person.   I was hoping to avoid the ubiquitous hoses and came up with something more unique.  I may just leave off the collar and give him an exposed neck.  That collar would make it a pain to do any work in too so it's rather out of character....

Ah well... plenty of time to mull it over and modify it.   Thanks for the suggestions :-D

[Zophar Ptay]

delineating armour from flightsuit 

[Ajax Kaal]

I like your color choices and you could always stick the filter housing, which is what you are refering to on the back of the helmet...it doesn't have to be on the side. In theory/sci-fi land the helmet is sealed so it doesn't matter where the filter housing is located.

I like the idea of the blasert in thigh holster and small of the back and beskad on the hip. If you are going to have a long beskad, then a hip is a good place for it. If it is more of a fighting knife you can put them anywhere, especially in the small of the back. When I was doing my foam weapon fighting I used a flail and shield and had a knife/dagger horizontally on the small of the back. When the flail got tangled up, I would drop it, thus encumbering their weapon, and then pull the dagger and lunge for a stab at the same time. The look of sheer surprise is still priceless to this day.

Another way to do the side shoulder/neck protection is to build them onto the shoulder plate itself with an outward bend so when you raise your arm they don't hit you, kind of a like a Roman gladiator shoulder shield of sorts.

You could also use a chainmaile helmet "skirt" of sorts that attaches to teh bottom of the rim of the helmet to add in that layer of protection you are wanting. It is also flexible and moves with you as well.

Just some ideas...