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[Blackdugal]

It's been a long time coming since last fall when I decided to put together a Kit and I've decided to buckle down and get my kit done. 

Here are the soft parts that I've put together.  I constructed the vest out of two leather jackets I got at goodwill, I got the jump suit from a thrift store, and boots at a western store.  I still have to sew on the bells to the shoulder which I will be doing this next week.

Front soft parts:



Back soft parts:



Chest armor on vest:







Thanks for any thoughts and directions.

[Havelock]

I think your armor may be a bit wide.  It looks like you would have trouble with mobility.  Additionally, the collar needs to be moved up.  It's supposed to be almost choking you.  Moving it up, and consequently adjusting your other plates up a bit to compensate, might help with the appearance of your ab plate being too low.  I don't know that it is, but the ab plate ideally is supposed to end around your navel, and in these pics look to low.

That being said, this is a great start, vod.

[Zerxus Dral]

The soft parts look fine, the plates are definitely a little big. You could try trimming them down, or you could go to the next nearest armor party and get some help in resizing them. If you do it yourself I would definitely reccomend sending pictures of yourself with the templates taped to you that you are going to use for the resize. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.

[Yutah]

I'll add that those back pockets should be seam ripped off. Keep it up.

[Kris Jasra]

Vest looks awesome, glad I'm not the only one who murdered a jacket or two in my pursuit of vest making.

Make sure the chest plates are as high as they can go - generally at the point just not choking you seems to be the best way of describing it.

And as mentioned the flightsuit pockets will need to come off. However, only if you are not planning on having a kama. If you are then you can leave them as they'll not be visible underneath it.

The ab plate width looks right, just the collar which seems far to wide to me. Could do with a good inch out of the centre so it sits closer to your neck (if you don't want to cut new plating I will add that segmenting the collar plate is acceptable) and then just tapering the chest plates in at the sides to match the new width of the collar.

[Blackdugal]

Thanks for all the input guys. 

Ok, the plates are from the Boba Fett download I got from here somewhere and used my height of 6'.  So I went back today and printed off the next size down which is 5'9" and here are the paper templates cut out and taped on the vest.  The vest hits right at mid navel so when you look at the ab plate it is about 1 1/2" above my navel.  Also from the previous comments I think the back plate I already have cut out may be too big for me so I added a picture of the template cut out as well for food for thought.

I moved the neck plate up higher this time.

Chest:





Back:

[Zerxus Dral]

Those templates are much better man

[Kris Jasra]

Pull the backplate up an inch or so and they are a big improvement.

[Blackdugal]

Ok here are the resized plates.  I know they need to be remolded but before I do that I just wanted to make sure that the size based on the templates works or if I need to trim them a little bit more.

[Blackdugal]

Ok I need some help here.  I'm having some gapping problems with how my back plate sits on my back at the shoulder blades.  Is the gap at my shoulder blades too much or is it ok?  And if it is too much any advise on how to bend the sentra to make it fit better.

Left SB:


Right SB:


Here is how the collar is also matching up with the back plate.  I know that the collar needs to be trimmed down to match up with the back plate and I'm hoping that adjusting the above might fix this. 

Left Shoulder:



Right Shoulder:



Here is a picture of the back straight on:



Thanks for the help.

[Zerxus Dral]

It looks to me like the back plate is angled a little bit in your pictures. If it is straightening it up should elivate any problems there are. If it is straight try heating up the back plate and collar and getting them to sit evenly and then trim them. If either of those two options seem to be too complicated I would suggest holding off on it until the next armor party, or try bribing someone close by with food to get their help. Keep going man your progress looks good.

[Welkin]

The best way to shape a backplate is to have a good 2-3 other people there doing the shaping whilst you stand there and enjoy the heat. Though one extra person does in a pinch.  There've been some folk that've done it themselves of course, but the best option is to have someone else take care of it for you, they'll be able to see what's going on with the shaping and that's invaluable.

Of course you could make a duct tape dummy of yourself and shape it to that as well.

[Blackdugal]

Ok it has been a month since I last posted but I have been working hard on my armor but especially my wife's.  I've got mine fully painted and now what is left is to black wash it, which I will be doing this week.