cyne's 30-day Con-Crunch Mando

[cyne]

Hello 405th peeps, I have not forgotten about this site. Haven't updated my threads in a while, but fear not, they are not abandoned. I still plan on having my plasma rifle and ODST ready for October.

Little bit of backstory for this build; At my kitchen job on May the 3rd, me and my fellow kitchen workers decided on a whim to come in the next day in our most Star Wars'y stuff. I used this as an excuse to finally get a Mandalorian helmet, any variation worked as I planned on making it my own down the line. Found a great deal: an Axe Woves helmet for half price.

The next day comes, and three of us rock up to work in Star Wars helmets. We loved it, other staff loved it, customers loved it (a few of them wanted us to come out and sing happy birthday to a group! Which we had to oblige)

After the shift was over, I thought more about the helmet, and the armour that would go with it. And realised a Mandalorian suit is quite an easy build compared to most Halo costumes. And since I had already bought my tickets for Adelaide OZCC at the end of the month, I thought why not. Let's convince my work mate to join me in making a Mando suit in ~30 days.

 

[cyne]

To make this an easier process for my mate and I, I made a new channel in my personal "notes" discord for the build. (highly recommend having your own personal Discord server for quick sharing files/images across platforms, backing up ideas/clips etc.)

First order of business was compiling references for the build, which included;

• Short youtube video tutorials
• Other mandalorian cosplayers
• Official mandalorian armour
• Various blog posts/threads

After gathering sufficient details, we decided to knock out the supplies/armour check list;

On the 8th of May, we went out shopping to get as much of that list bought as we could. (these screenshots were taken today, so obviously a lot of that stuff wasn't ACQUIRED)

We ended up finding a perfect set of gray pants and sweater, with a tan oversized tee right next to it. Also grabbed the leather belt and boots from a store nearby.

Went over to our craft store, Spotlight, and he grabbed a sheet of 10mm foam for his armour (I still had a sheet of 10mm, 5mm and 2mm left over). We grabbed our cape material, faux leather for the belt sash, some fabric scissors and press buttons.

 

[cyne]

Next order of business was scaling; We had to do two methods here since we were doing 3D prints and foam smithing.

First was the foam armour on the 10th. We put on our soft parts of the suit, then had each other wrapped up in plastic and taped.

We drew the rough outline of the armour on the tape, ripped it off and moved it to our foam. We used the marked tape to get our measurements for each piece, using . ݁₊ math . ݁₊ to get our lines nice and even/straight.

We made our cut lines and called it a night (for the foam)

Second was armoursmith scaling for the 3D prints. Back inside in my office, we went through the process of taping each other on the section the avatar builder required, taking the tape off, putting it on the desk and measuring.

Once we had our avatars built, I uploaded the parts onto my friends avatar first. The lucky son of a gun didn't need ANY scaling done, each piece was perfectly sized for his dimensions. I put the files he needed on a USB and off he went to print.

I was not so lucky. My special size required some more effort. (which I did in my own time)

 

[cyne]

While we had a few days apart, we spent our spare time browsing Amazon and local online stores to find our missing parts; black leather gloves, boot covers/gaiters, and leather pouches. I ended up balling out on the pouches, compared to my mates more reserved selection.

The parts came in real quick, and I thought I deserved a little suit up of what I had.

After these, I figured I could trim the beige flak jacket up properly. So I just simply cut the sleeves off, cropped the bottom to my desired length, folded the bottom up and glued it to the inside. Took 10 minutes, but made the look 10x better already.

 

[cyne]

I cut out my pieces from the foam sheet, heated them up with a heat gun, and my friend generously held the very hot pieces against my body to shape them.

I cut out my pieces from the foam sheet, heated them up with a heat gun, and my friend generously held the very hot pieces against my body to shape them.

I then used a dremel, which I just bought, to shape the edges and indents. I started with my chest piece, which turned out well for my first try (subtle foreshadowing)

My perfectionism got to my head and I convinced myself that the lines weren't good enough for my standards. So I decided to remake the whole chestplate again, because yeah that's smart.

MK3 came out better, I decided to switch out the dremel tips for different parts. (and yes, MK3. I ended up measuring out my first chestplate too small, way back at the start)

After that awesome use of my limited time, I finished my other pieces. Did some quick wet sanding to bring the 'fluffiness' down. In future, I will be spending ALOT more time sanding to get a nice smooth appearance.

And I'm happy to say that I harbour a newfound respect all foamsmithers in this community: it takes great patience and skill to make smooth complex shapes out of this stuff.

 

[cyne]

Priming and painting time! I did all this yesterday.

First step was putting some Plastidip layers on, I ended up doing 3 layers. Not sure if I went too little for each layer. But this image makes it look real good.

In between the layers of Plastidip, I thought I might as well put the base silver coat down on my helmet.

Seeing the fully silver painted helmet almost made me go with a clean look, replicating Din Djarin's pure beskar look. But no, I have the time to finish a proper paintjob.

Next was the visor painting: I decided to go with a dark metallic grey. Added some toothpaste patches, sprayed multiple layers and viola. I lined him up fr fr.

Then to put tape over the gray and give it the blue colour.

Did this same method to my other pieces of armour, ending up with this;

 

[cyne]

Picked up my 3D prints this afternoon, and while the shoulders are perfect, the kneepads were out of scale. I had tried to scale them based on their x axis, but because one kneepad had extra stuff sticking out the side, I'll skip these for the con.

Just some light sanding needed for the shoulderpads before I prime and paint them.

Now you may be thinking: "Where the hell are the gauntlets?! That's an integral part of a Mandalorian!!"

And to that I say THEY DIDN'T FIT ON THE PRINTERS BED AND I COULDN'T BE BOTHERED SLICING IT MULTIPLE TIMES OK

When I perfect this kit after the con, I will 100% be adding gauntlets into it. Just not right now.