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[Ru'Der Marekar]

EDIT 8/8/12: The use of the acid barrel did not work because I could not find a paint that would stick to the barrel material. New pictures using 6mm sintra starts the bottom of page #1.
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Cut the major pieces out of a used acid barrel and the shoulders and knees from some hard hats.
The overall look will be based on Rohlan Dyre and Dr. Demagol from the KotOR comics.

Overall front, shoulders, back & legs...



Chest and shoulders ...



Legs...



  Next step is shaping and trimming to fit. Comments or suggestions on the start would be appreciated.

[Kelan Ord]

Looks good...! Liking that chest design!!

The only thing I'm "worried" about is the material itself... Those barrels are made out of HDPE (high density polyethylene) and it DOES NOT keep paint well... At all. My first kit is made out of this material and I had a heck of a hard time getting ANYTHING to stick to it... Be VERY patient if you want to stick with HDPE, let the paint dry for very long (I mean like a week...!!). I tried a little trick I picked on some website, I laid a coat of spray adhesive before I applied the paint. The thing is, again, BE PATIENT it took literally weeks to dry properly... The good thing though is that your material is black, mine is blue so if yours get scratched, it wont show as much and will look like "normal" weathering...!

Also when came the time to mount it on my vest, I wanted to use snaps... But epoxy putty wouldn't stick either,  even if I roughed up the area where I put the snaps... I went with pop rivets, worked out pretty good...!

Finally, and this is more of an advice, you really need to "shock" the plastic into place once you heat form it. IT WILL go back to its original shape if not...!!

Maybe you already knew all that and I' m just rambling here... But I thought I might give you a heads up just in case...!!

Cheers!

[redkraytdragon]

Yes, I've messed with that plastic before and it's a royal pain to get anything to stick to it, including any kind of adhesive..which could really prove to be difficult down the road when you get to the assembly stage. :/

I think part of the reason for that is because it's a petroleum based plastic, which means it has the same slick properties as fuel, only in solid form. Even sanding won't help much, but it's worth a shot. Good luck with it and let us know how it works out. Heck you might even be able to figure out a way to make it work that we can all learn from.

[Kelan Ord]

Heck you might even be able to figure out a way to make it work that we can all learn from.

Boy, would that be cool!!!

[Havoc13]

can you make a template of the chest and back pieces?

[Carter]

I've used HDPE for other projects and on one, we used a metallic heat shrink material (I'll try to find the name) and then painted, which came out great.  The other thing we used was a powder based pigment that you cook into the plastic, but it took forever to do, (looked great when it was finished) because we used a heat gun and did small sections at a time to keep it from warping.

Hope this helps.

And the plates look good, but a test fit picture on the chest would be helpful.

[Kane Friax]

very cool!

i've never really worked with that plastic so i cant help there, but i do believe that the chest and abs are supposed to have a raised portion where the abs have that gap in the lower middle of the chest, along with any raised portions necessary after that (rholan dyre had two more below it). well, that is the case unless youre making it more demagol style where you'll have something in that area to disguise the awkwardness of the gap.

and what do you have planned for the helmet? they make an awesome full demagol helmet at forgeprops, and for way cheaper than most helmets. http://forgeprops.bigcartel.com/product/demagol-style-helmet

-Kane

[Theran_Bakagin]

OK, I will caveat, haven't made any Mando armor of yet. 

I have made quite a bit of SCA armor with that material, though.  We know that paint doesn't stick to it well.  What does stick to it well, though is fabric when sprayed with 3-M spray adhesive, which could then be painted.  (I'm using some ideas "Cross-hobby")   

I have used canvas normally--but I am planning on people hitting my armor with big sticks in SCA wear, and painted canvas LOOKS like painted canvas due to the weave.  Using a broadcloth, though should work very well, and paint would go on smooth from that point--primer will take to the fabric and give you a very nice smooth base.

Painted fabric is what is normally used to make flats for theater, which is where I came up with the idea here.  Worth a shot with it.

[Dar'manda]

nice

[Novoc Mereel]

I don't know if fabric-covered plastic would be approved, though.  Having been around theater drops myself, none of them ever looked realistic to me, so I don't see it working as an approved method.  Though, I will definitely withhold judgment until I see it done.

[Ru'Der Marekar]

I have been long absent due to an extended job assignment in New York. But, as a famous actor once said, "I'm Back!"

Thanks for all the comments. I definitely appreciate the input. The results of the armor paint boil down to this:
I tried four paints that were supposed to be for acid barrels ... two of them were recommended by the barrel manufacturer. None of the paints worked ... so I purchased some 6mm Sintra and started over.

<cut> ...  but i do believe that the chest and abs are supposed to have a raised portion where the abs have that gap in the lower middle of the chest ... <cut> ... and what do you have planned for the helmet? ... <cut>

The Rholan Dyre chest armor pictures in the KotOR comics vary depending on the artist (sometimes drastically). The new sintra armor has the raised ridges on the abs section and it looks much better then the bare stomach. I also purchased a helm that you might recognize =)

can you make a template of the chest and back pieces?

The template for the chest and back I used was based on the legacy template found here on the boards. I printed the template for my size, taped the pieces together to make a solid piece for the back. Then I winged it and notched the chest piece where it looked good (according to the wife =) I trimmed the ab plate to fit under the chest piece.

Chest and shoulders...


Back plate ...


Shins and knees ...


Taped the pieces on so you could have a general idea of the look ...


The back side ...


I know the shoulders need more work ... they look a bit small (not to mention the left one needs some spikes installed.
All comments/suggestions are appreciated.

[Naasad Tal]

Like I said the other day, your doing an excellent job! I'm totally diggin the look of the armor, I'm not very familiar with the era or character, but I'm fairly sure I know armor & you gott some good stuff going on there! Keep up the good work & I'm definitely looking forward to seeing this kit finished!

[Hondo Karr]

We actually have a Rohlan CRL in the works thatnks to Ref Al'draan getting approved with his. It should be up soon!

[Niabi]

Looks cool to me Vod nice work

[Ru'Der Marekar]

We actually have a Rohlan CRL in the works thatnks to Ref Al'draan getting approved with his. It should be up soon!

I was just looking at Ref Al'drann's WIP:
http://mandalorianmercs.org/forum/index.php?topic=47879.0

I love all the work Ref put into make his Rholan kit. It gives me a few more ideas for completion of my kit. I am not after a cannon Rholan but I plan on using a lot of the aspects from his armor.