Since I first started lurking around the boards and planning my own kit, I always thought about making a set of armor for my little cousin Josh. I was always hesitant with the idea because he is a growing boy and I didn't want to spend time and money making something he would grow out of in like a month.
Flash forward to March of 2012 and I figured now is the time to make him a kit. I have been official for a couple of years now and I felt I had enough time, money, and skills to tackle another set of armor. So I spent some time in March and all of April to finish his kit.
I have a bunch of pictures to show the process. Hopefully this thread can help others build kid size kits. Things go better the second time around for sure. I am proud of his armor and he himself just loves it. So far he has done one event, and he loved posing for pictures. I think when he is all grown up, he will look at his 8 year old self and remember how much fun he had. Unfortunately, he is too young and I am not his parent or legal guardian so I can't get him official yet. I just hope to pass on the love of Star Wars and Mandos onto him. Maybe he will troop with me when he reaches 18. Fingers crossed.
His favorite color is red so I wanted that to be the main color. I also love the look of helmet macros so that is what I wanted to add to his kit as well.
I took the small sized WOF templates and printed them out. Then at work I used our fancy copy machine to mess with the scaling of the armor. I was able to reduce the size of the templates to fit his stature. I decided to use trashcan plastic for his plates.
Once the plates were cut, I did a quick test fit to make sure they weren't too small. I wanted them a tad bigger so he had room to grow and to extend the life of the armor. Sorry for the bad pic.
He is using a black 2 piece "flightsuit". Basically I went to Walmart and bought a matching pair of pants and a long sleeve button up shirt. Both the pants and long sleeve are "George" brand clothes just in case people are looking for something similar.
His gloves are just $1 store black mittens. I was thinking about adding a hand plate, but for now he just wears the gloves.
His pair of blasters are $1 store water guns. I liked the look of them so I bought them back in the day. They came in handy for his kit. I figures 2 blasters would be more fun for him rather than a rifle.
Krylon brand paints are what I like to use. They are available at Walmart and come in a great many variety of colors. These are the paints I used for this build. The primer, black, and nickel are what I use for my under layers. The red and white are obviously the main color layers.
Since he is a growing boy and I loved my helmet, I bought him a Rubies 2 Piece Jango. I knew it would be kind of big on him and he can grow into it. I like the bobble head look on the kids. I had all the supplies needed to make that helmet legit, but sad to say these helmets are crappier than when I bought mine back in the day and it was sort of hard to find one.
After gluing the 2 halves together, adding plastic scraps to the inner seam, bond glassing the inside, and bondoing the outside, I felt the helmet was good enough to paint. When done with everything helmet related, I added the ear caps, bolted on the custom macros, and black washed it all. I then padded it with foam like crazy and of course added a new T visor.
The backplate, front plates, and shoulder bells are all made out of the trashcan plastic. The gaunts are cups from the $1 store with extra cup plastic to make that upper part on the guants.
This is all my hard work all laid out on the floor. The holsters are actually Kraft Mac & Cheese boxes covered in vinyl. I am quite proud of those. The water gun pistols fit perfectly. The other black items are his pouches. His boot armor is also trachcan plastic just like the other upper pieces. The greaves are pvc pipes cut in half and cut to that shape. I was going to do normal knee and shin armor, but I wanted to try the greaves look first.
My awesome sister made Josh's vest out of black ultra suede. It is nice and thick, but not too heavy and was easy for her to work with. She made little tabs to attach the shoulder bells too and everything was just velcroed on. We used industrial strength sticky velcro on the armor and sew on velcro on the plates. The cod just hangs on with a longer piece of velcro sewed onto the vest
The kama was made out of red duck cloth. I like the look of a Clone style kama with a triangle slit on the bottom so that is what she aimed for. It is actually sewn onto the vest so it is one less thing to worry about when suiting him up.
It's done. Here he is all suited up and ready for a test run/photo shoot around the house and front yard.
I made the right call, he loves the double pistols.
He is sneaking around the front yard. I like that the kama flows as he moves. The greaves are so awesome looking. I love the look it adds to his kit.
I love this shot!
That's my Josh
So after that test fit, I looked at the pics and analyzed what I needed to fix. I wanted to widen the white sash ($1 store scarf), get his an actual leather belt, and rivet his armor. The sash my sister fixed in no time so that was easy to take care of. Since the old belt kept coming lose and making his belt/holster fall down, I just bought a black leather belt from Target for like $6 and that solved that issue . The main thing I needed to fix was the armor attachment. As he moved, he plates would sort of pop off and shift. That looked sloppy so I bought a pop rivet gun and small pop rivets and fixed that issue. His kit looks so much better now. When he moves we have no issues. Him and I are both so happy.
For his front pouches, I have these black box things that I will use. They are pictured above with all the items laid out. I need to add straps to add them to the belt. I will do that this weekend and his armor will be pretty much done. I will finish it all off with a helmet fan. Poor little guy heats up fast with the helmet. That's all I have for now.
So what do you all think of his armor? Say he was my son, do you think his kit would pass the application process? Thank you all for looking.
