activation email

[Kol Varek]

Such clean, beautiful work! Both of you!

[spideyplumhead]

congrats on your OM ...jaynes kit looks great as well ....good luck

[Bowfanny]

One year for a quality pair of kits! Congrats Vod you earned it!

[Nikjay Voss]

And thanks to all Simes hard work (I can take no credit apart from support and coffee making) I have just received my email to say my application has been approved and I am now an official member - woo hoo!!!

[Dar'manda]

And thanks to all Simes hard work (I can take no credit apart from support and coffee making) I have just received my email to say my application has been approved and I am now an official member - woo hoo!!!

Congratulations Vod! Your kit looks awesome! Only regret is that there won't be anymore project updates! I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the progress!

[Bowfanny]

Congratulations Vod! Your kit looks awesome! Only regret is that there won't be anymore project updates! I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the progress!

It's called Upgrades Vod. Much to be done with upgrades!
Congratulations to the Both of you for high quality kits and the new Official Member status! Now pretty please do trading cards as I need a pair!

[Havelock]

Congratulations!  That's so awesome!  Your kill stripes are going to look great - as soon as the tech team is able to add them. 

[Syko Voss]

Pleased to say that finally the stripes arrived on the profile, and that Jayne is now OM #1492!

So, a little update after a lot of sewing recently...

Discovered that I had problems with the gun sling stlipping off my shoulder - so added a pleather strip to the inside to hopefully give a bit more grip to my flak jacket...



Sewed some his-and-hers matching helmet padding - attaches with Velcro to the inside of the helmets...and is detachable...and therefore washable...



Added some detachable pads to the insides of my gauntlets - attached with a single snap in the middle - just to bulk out the back end of the gaunts as the right one has a tendency to slip and twist a little...



And then, pouches...

By pure chance, my Mum had bought an Aker Amp in an attempt to help with some hearing difficulties but found it impractical.  When she asked if it was any use to me, I jumped at it.

Custom pouch for my girth belt!



And, planning ahead for Celebration, the topic of carrying around our stuff came up - we don't have pockets in the kits (of course!) so needed to come up with a solution that would not only look in-world but be secure.

So I bought some really cheap leather neck wallets from Amazon at £2 each and sewed two into Jayne's pouches, and made a third, horizontal pouch for me (pic above)



The great thing about the neck wallets is that they are designed to carry phones, cash, id, etc and have some nice zips to keep everything safe, any they're the perfect size to hide within the pouches, and being dirt-cheap I had no qualms about sewing them into our gear so they won't fall out.

Current things on the checklist to be done next:

• Finish making a couple of custom padded helmet bags to carry our buckets
• Make some padding for packing our kit into the big Homebase Storage Trunk we bought to carry our kit
• Put the Vok'Chi clan logo on our shoulders now we're OM
• Create some graphics for the digital frames in our gauntlets
• Create some graphics for the iPod I have in my chest display
• Compile a repair kit to take with us to Celebration

...and a whole lot more stuff including building a sidearm to fit my holster and a breaching charge so I can apply for Urban Assault

It never ends!  (And that's brilliant!)

[Syko Voss]

A follow-up post for another day (so I'm not double-posting!)

Ages ago I bought a sheet of waterslide decal paper that I thought might come in handy for creating decals for our kits.  Now that we're OM's I decided to give it a try and see whether it would work for us, and whether it would be any good for putting the clan markings on our shoulders.

So, I broke out Illustrator and did a couple of vector versions of the clan logo, sized for our respective shoulders, did a couple of colour variations to see what would work when the paper was used as a decal.

(The paper's great - print onto it with your printer, let the ink dry for 30 minutes, then 3 coats of clear coate 15 minutes apart, leave over night = page of customised waterslide decals...)



Anyways, rapidly discovered that the clan logos weren't going to work for us as the underlying transparency means the colours don't hold up against a dark background (you can get paper where the white stays white on the decal, but this paper the decal is transparent and relies upon the ink for all its colour)



But, where the paper really shone was in small decals - Mandalorian letters and numbers that represent our OM # and our characters' first names...









I'll weather these in with a few intentional scratches, a bit of dirt wash and a clearcoat.

As for the clan logos, I'll do them now 'the old fashioned way' with a stencil and spray paint, but this was a worthwhile exercise since the paper only cost a few pence and it's definitely a good way of getting nice clean lettering and symbols.

Right, back to sewing tonight - to finish off the custom helmet bags or else we'll be wearing our buckets in the car to Celebration...

[Bowfanny]

Love those decals Vod.

[Kris Jasra]

I actually really like the faded out look from the clan logo you've got there. Not what you were after for that, but definitely a nice effect when used where you want that sort of look.

[Syko Voss]

Yep - can really recommend the decal paper - here's what I bought: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006DDK0OY 1 sheet for £1.45

One thing I didn't use it for but should have would be decals on my gauntlet keypad...only occurred to me once I'd printed the whole sheet out and cut it into bits!
But definitely the way to do lettering and complex, accurate details, things on the side of Rebel Pilot helmets, etc.

The approach I eventually took was this one...

Masking tape on the plates, then glued print outs on top with some contact glue...



FRESH knife blade to cut the whole thing out...



Spray, remove tape, curse at the layers of paint the masking tape lifted...

(I'm beginning to think this may be a side-effect of the salt weathering - despite getting a good scrubbing with soap and water, the hairspray used to fix the salt is creating a thin barrier between the coloured paints and the silver which weakens the grip on the top coats.  Add masking tape and it lifts the top coats in a few random, but annoying places.)



Touch up the missing bits of paint...



Dirt wash and clearcoat it...



(Anyone on the App Team that has to deal with UMs wanting to put the clan sigil on before app, worrying about weathering, etc, feel free to point them to this post! )

For the rest of the weekend, I broke out the soldering iron and made a couple of USB-powered fans for mounting in the helmets.



...and spent many hours working on tiny tweaks to our kits, practicing the whole dance routine of the two of us getting kitted up together at the same time as well as sewing both padding for our immense armour crate and a couple of helmet bags so we can get everything to Celebration in LESS THAN 4 DAYS!

Still have a list of minor 'To Dos' as long as my arm to be completed before Friday morning, but as long as I 'Stay on Target' I'm sure we'll be fine.

[Syko Voss]

...and the prep for Celebration continues...

Finally finished two custom helmet bags...



2m of material, some filler, a circle of card to give the base a little more resilience and repurposed the webbing from an old laptop bag strap.  Learned how to sew button holes on the bag for my helmet - to allow two of the antennae to poke out of the top of the lid!

(These took a lot longer than anticipated - the fabric is lightweight, water resistant but really tough, which meant lots of opportunities for the sewing machine to jam at the most inopportune times and a few meters of hand-sewing that I swear has improved my grip strength by 500%!)

More tiny details and tweaks to address tonight as the Countdown to Celebration continues!


ADDITIONAL UPDATE 13 July:

Added a grey Wookiee braid after this thread popped up about us older members of the MMC...



And to stop my carbine sliding off my shoulder (despite the sling being attached in the same way as Boba's) I turned the sling into a 3-point one by adding an extra strap that goes from my right shoulder, across my chest to my left shoulder...

[Dar'manda]

Very nice vod! Love the wookie braid! I read the link, love the idea behind it!

[Syko Voss]

Thanks Den - I understand it'll be a while before you join the Grey Brigade ...yep, Zolar made it a thing!

Just sharing a link to Jayne's blogspot where she blogs her take on our first year becoming OMs...


http://jp2mk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/star-wars-celebration.html

[Dar'manda]

Thanks Den - I understand it'll be a while before you join the Grey Brigade ...yep, Zolar made it a thing!

Just sharing a link to Jayne's blogspot where she blogs her take on our first year becoming OMs...


http://jp2mk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/star-wars-celebration.html

I'm not sure what the age requirements are ,but I'm sure at least another 23 years if it starts at 40. 33 if it starts at 50. But I plan on still being an active member then.

I checked out the blog, it looks good vod!

[Syko Voss]

Thanks! You'll see why I had to give Jayne the option of mouse ears now!

Last minute running around doing stuff on the computer...

Finally got the iPod slideshow set up and working in my chest plate...



Added a couple of elastic straps to guarantee it doesn't slip out during trooping...



Created slideshows for our gauntlets digital photo frames...





Here are the 128x128 pixel images I cooked together for it mashing up bits of Google imagery.



(I had to include a Lothcat in there at the end, sorry...)

Right - it's 22:15 here in the UK.  Time to start packing for the big drive to London tomorrow and the culmination of the journey I began over a year ago - two Mandalorian costumes to go cosplaying at our first convention together....wow, what a ride it's been so far!

[Ragnar Jast]

Wow!! Both those kits are extremely awesome!!! Congrats on your OM

A follow-up post for another day (so I'm not double-posting!)

So if you wait a day you post rather than just edit your other post? I ask cause my WIP sank to page two and I'm adding stuff but people probably won't see it Have fun at celebration!

[Syko Voss]

Thanks.

With the double posting thing - I've always taken it in the spirit that I believe it's meant in - don't post multiple times during a day and spam the feeds, but sometimes if no comments have been added and a few days have gone by then it's okay - especially if you're posting a sufficiently different update to what you posted before.

I could be wrong, but that's the way I've approached it and I haven't managed to tick anyone off yet!

[capnsmirk]

Mate. It's like you got OM and went mental with your build! the detailing is excellent, well done!!

Love the loth cat btw! made me chuckle haha

[Bowfanny]

Mate. It's like you got OM and went mental with your build! the detailing is excellent, well done!!

Love the loth cat btw! made me chuckle haha

That's the way it's supposed to go Vod.

[capnsmirk]

That's the way it's supposed to go Vod.

Oh. Yeah! *facpalm* haha

[Laaran Kar'ta]

Seriously.......seriously dying from the awesomeness....

[Syko Voss]

Well, I thought I'd better drop a line to let you know how it all went in the end.

Technical stuff first:

• No kit failures on either kit, save for one ammo pouch came loose on Jayne's ammo belt so we had to re-stick it at the hotel
  
• The iPod chest display worked a treat - lasted for hours and hours and didn't run out of power
• Digital frames in the gauntlets automatically turn off after about 5 minutes so will seek a better solution for that some time
• Turning the carbine gun sling into a three point sling was the best decision I could've ever made - I never had to bother about carrying the blaster around or dealing with the weight of it
• Thankfully my gloves were able to operate a touchscreen while on, Jayne had to remove her gloves to operate a smart phone - think about that one in advance folks!
• My gaunts held up fine but rested on the backs of my thumbs - after only a few hours of wearing them I found the backs of my thumbs had gone weirdly numb - the feeling has just about worn off some two weeks later - but I'm thinking of installing some Velcro inside the gauntlets to take the weight in future
• Helmet fans for the win - perfect for staying in kit for hours, just enough breeze and virtually no noise - the power pack lasted for as long as I was in kit so pairing up 2 12v fans to a 5v USB pack was a good thing
• Uncomfortable moment on Day 1 when a Chicago screw in my boot came loose - the plate held fine without it, but I had to quickly find a spot to take my boot off as it was like having the most evil stone in my shoe ever

We had a terrific 3 days at Celebration and spent the majority of the time in kit.  Indeed, what with the prices on the stalls and the ridiculous queuing times for everything we quickly decided to sack off every aspect of Celebration and spent our time having fun with our Mercs Family - indeed, I think as a first con experience, Jayne and I wouldn't have stuck around for much longer than maybe a day-and-a-half if we hadn't decided to go in costume.

This was our first experience of any type of costuming/cosplay at all and boy, was it fun.  I've had a terrific time this past year constructing our gear and had not really been thinking much about what it would mean to wear it - I've heard Adam Savage talk about wearing the costume being the other 50% of the experience - damn straight.  On some days it took us a good 30 minutes to get to the booth.


^{(photo credit: Niabi)}

Highlights of the weekend were:

(Friday) in addition to meeting all members of our wonderful Mando Family, meeting loads of folks who I hadn't seen for years, who happened to be at Celebration and I ended up bumping into by chance.


^{(This believe it or not is my childhood friend who I went to see Star Wars with back in '78 and our head bridesmaid - we hadn't seen each other in 8 years until Celebration...where we promptly dumped her in a jail cell)}

(Saturday) working on the booth for few hours, helping man the jail cell and being a training sergeant for the kids in the games area, attending the Mercs talk and with Jayne, Ryi'nock, Tracyn & others being able to show off our kits to a vast audience of folks who attended


<sup>(photo credit: Saz & Niabi)


(photo credit: Saz & Niabi)</sup>

(Sunday) helping out with the Family Area and meeting a whole bunch of Dads who, after chatting to them wanted to make their own kits...and I believe some of them have actually started on them here on the boards!



And joining in the group photo and the Honour March with everyone who attended in kit - standing amongst some 50 Mandos shouting 'Oya!' together - that's something, I tell you!

^{(video credit: Slimsidious)}

And finally, spending time with Tom (our Mandalore) and the rest of our Mando Family for a terrific meal - never felt more welcomed by so many folks I'd never met in person before.

...and to top it all, a total surprise - Dave Filoni (yes, THAT guy - that guy who could've been at any swanky London meal that night but chose to spend it with us) stopped by the Meal on the Sunday night to say hello to everyone - a really nice chap who had time to talk to everyone...and in fact got into a discussion with Jayne all about her mouse ears and whether or not they could be made canon...



For more a in-depth report and more photos from Celebration, Jayne's been busy on her blog:


http://jp2mk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/wow-what-weekend-day-1.html
http://jp2mk.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/wow-what-weekend-day-2.html

Oh, and we made it onto the Star Wars Live! stream too:

https://youtu.be/1xfVtfdervc?t=17042



A truly memorable weekend, an amazing experience and so many lovely people.

When I got back to the hotel on Sunday night I found that Adam Savage's Love Letter to Cosplay talk at TED had appeared in my feed - this dude not only knows how to build costumes, he manages to articulate what they mean too...I recommend sparing some time to watch this...

Oh, yeah...and then, like a week after Celebration, this happened...

Um...wow.

Thanks everyone for sharing my journey these past 14 months - I've had such fun, made so many friends and I'm looking forward to helping as many folks as possible in this exciting new role.

Oya!

[Dar'manda]

First,  congrats on the new rank vod!  8) And second, I so wish i could have been there!