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[Thaxos]

I'm digging it, really like the gauntlet design. Knees look good as well.

Keep up the hard work!

[Jaa'det Otxoa]

Another update! 

Soft parts!

So here's the current status of my soft parts:
- Pants fitted
- Shirt modded with double sleeves
- 1 Boba thigh pocket added to pants

And some pics (minus neckseal... It's done I just forgot to put it on )


And the soft parts "To Do" list:
- De-color and Dye "Flightsuit" dark gray
- Re-fit flak vest
- Get suede/leather gaiters and "armor plate them"
- Mod Grab-it pack with PVC armor plates
- Find/Make belt and pouches

I'm looking at these for the belt pouches and planning on dyeing them to match the dark brown that my shoes are...


And something like these for the gaiters


So what do you think?

If anybody has any suggestions on where I can find the gaiters or pouches any cheaper, or are trying to get rid of some, it would be appreciated (although I think the prices are pretty low )

[Thaxos]

Looks like it's coming together real nicely.

[seugtai]

- De-color and Dye "Flightsuit" dark gray

THANK GOODNESS. I was raising my eyebrow at that one yellow pocket.

[Jaa'det Otxoa]

Looks like it's coming together real nicely.

Thanks vod!

THANK GOODNESS. I was raising my eyebrow at that one yellow pocket.

What?  Aww, c'mon, what's wrong with a patchwork Mando??

Yeah, I'm gonna use some Rit Color remover prior to dyeing it with the black so that the color will be more even when it's done

[Byrek Avery]

This is coming out great, Jon. I was going to tell you to re fit that vest, but I then saw it was on your list.

Your sleeves might be a bit long, but that's on you.

Think you'll be ready for RICC? 

[Jaa'det Otxoa]

This is coming out great, Jon. I was going to tell you to re fit that vest, but I then saw it was on your list.

Your sleeves might be a bit long, but that's on you.

Think you'll be ready for RICC? 

Thanks Vod,
The sleeves are long on purpose, they will tuck inside the gloves to keep them from coming out under the gaunts
As far a RICC goes, I'm hoping to be done by then, and would love to come out as an OM! ...Just gotta have the funds

[Jaa'det Otxoa]

Ok, quick update...

I was able to retailor my flak vest, so o was originally going to take in the sides by completely resewing them ...then figured that a second row of velcro would help the sides hold better!

So that's exactly what I did!


And the fit...
Front Before and After:

Side Before and After:


So how's the fit now?

[Vindar Falco]

I think it looks much better  8)

[Niabi]

Looks Nice  Vod

[Tracyn Ordo]

Looking great man! Only thing I've got to say is hurry up and finish it already

[Jaa'det Otxoa]

Thanks vode!

So I decided to try my hand a dyeing last night... 

Soooo... I was using RIT liquid dye with the bucket method:
(wasn't going to use one of our good stock pots to do this... my wife would kill me!! )


And here are the results...

Yeah... um... apparently the fabrics were 2 different poly-cotton blends
The sleeves (made from another pair of scrub pants I know were a 50/50 blend (and apparently so was the fabric the thigh pocket was made out of), but apparently the pants and the body of the shirt was a 60/40 blend so it came out darker

So the next step is to dye the poly part of the fabrics, I found that alot of people have mixed results with the iDye, but apparently the Dylon brand is supposed to do real good on blends, so I'll be picking a couple packs up this weekend to see if I can get this sucker evenly colored!

If anybody has any suggestions on how to even out the poly coloring I'm open to suggestions!

[Jaa'det Otxoa]

Updates!!

...Well, update...

Got the backplate mostly shaped...

So this is what I started with:
(Prior to final trimming )


So now I have to join the 2 halves together, so I made 3 2" wide joining plates, marked them with a centerline and marked their positioning on the backplates so that I could pre-drill the holes for the rivets (yeah, glue might hold but I want to make sure this sucker doesn't budge so that when I put the body filler on it I don't get any cracks)
Once the plates are matched outer face together and the rivet holes drilled I roughed up the joining faces with 60 grit sandpaper, glued the plates in place (PVC cement) and clamped them:


After they dried (about 10 minutes) I flipped the piece over and repeated the procedure, to make alignment easier prior to laying the halves together I aligned the halves while flat and taped the seam on the outer face so that when it gets flipped open to glue the seam is as tight as possible.
(You can see the pre-drilled holes here just prior to gluing the other side of the plate down:


Once that half dried (another 10 minutes) I drilled the holes all the way through the joining plates for the rivets and riveted the plates together:


Now I had a full backplate and was ready to form it, like my other plates I used various size/diameter metal ducts, silencers, water filter housings, pretty much anything that would give me the desired shape to form the PVC to, along with some hand shaping to clean up the edges and the "folding" technique I've used on other parts I came up with this:


And a test fit:


So there are a few little issue that I need to address before mounting the "Scout pack" first of all...
1. The "wings" on the lower corners have to be flattened out a little more (It feels like I wearing a Recaro racing seat on my back with the tight fit)
2. The shoulders don't align with the collar:

To fix this I think I will be modifying the shoulders of the backplate (chopping & re-shaping slightly ) and using leather or PVC plates to join the collar to the backplate...

So whatcha think Vode??

[Thaxos]

Solid chunk of progress, hope you get the dyes to perform for you well.

Think you've already made a point on anything I would recommend tweaking, looking forward to seeing additional progress.

[Tracyn Ordo]

Dying is always tricky, and most costumers will have a story about how it produced some weird or wacky result. That backplate looks really good though