Mandalorian Armor Project 11: Painting and Weathering

Before I started priming the armor, I used the palm sander to give the plates a quick scouring. The slightly roughened surface keeps the primer adhered to the PVC. Since this was the base layer of my paint job,  I definitely wanted good adhesion to the plates.  

My next step was to apply my silver undercoat. I used Rustoleum's Ultracoverage paint/primer, which worked much better than the first type of silver used. Unfortunately, the silver layer isn't as thick as I thought. When I started to sand and weather the top layer of paint, I would accidentally sand through the silver layer underneath.

Like the body plates, each of the shoulder guards received a double coat of primer, in preparation of the silver undercoat.

The kneepads and shoulder guards were the first pieces to receive the experimental masking process. Instead of weathering these pieces with sandpaper, I decided to paint over the dents and scrapes with a thick coat of machine grease. The grease would block, or mask, the spray paint from those areas. Once I wiped off the grease, the silver undercoat was completely untouched beneath, giving the convincing impression of battle damage.

I applied the masking material to create two different types of damage. I originally applied my grease on top of the dents in the armor. This gave the impression of fresh hits that dented the armor and chipped off the paint.

The second technique was to lightly brush the grease across the surface of the plates. These long streaks created a convincing impression of grazing hits, or damage left by claws, teeth, or blades. 

Once the top coat of paint had completely dried, I would use a Q-tip to gently wipe off the grease underneath.  

The large scuffs and paint chips made the armor battle damaged, but they still required some extra detailing. 

The hard plates of the body armor would rub against one another, rubbing and distressing the paint on the inside edges. The surface of the plates would also be scuffed and worn from the regular wear and tear. I also added some scuffs that crossed over between plates, 

 

This picture does a pretty good job of of showing the different types of weathering on plates. Large battle damage and scratches looks cool, but it can easily be overdone. Weathering the edges of the plates makes each one look worn, rather than abused.

The gauntlets were my favorite part of the armor to distress. I used the grease to create battle damaged areas and used sandpaper to weather the corners and edges. 
They looked good, but I wanted more. I needed to make these look like they've been through an entire campaign on Kashyyyk. So to get the heavy scrapes and scoring on the bottom of the plates, I threw on my armor and started crawling across the floor.
And it worked really well!

I finished my plates by painting on layers of watered down acrylic paint.
This process is called brown-washing and is incredibly helpful when trying to add dirt and grime to a prop or piece of armor. I used Apple Barrel's Melted Chocolate acrylic paint and drastically watered it down. Then I applied several coats of brown with a large paintbrush, concentrating it towards the bottom of the plates. 

Weathering and distressing the soft goods of the armor was just as important as the hard parts. I spent a lot of time painting, scuffing, and dirtying my coveralls, vest, and gloves. 
When I began weathering my gloves, I started using charcoal to smudge the high points of the gloves and exaggerate the creases of the gloves. I then followed up with several coats of pure acrylic paint. I painted brown and black paints in between fingers and underneath the knuckle pads, anywhere dirt and grime would normally accumulate.




The intricate patterns of the gloves made them ideal for catching dirt. I spent a considerable amount of time painting the palms of the gloves. 

Unlike the Nomex gloves, the cotton coveralls accepted quite nicely. I used a combination of watered down browns and black paint to dirty the knees and elbows of the coveralls. Unfortunately, weathering the entire coverall by paint and brush would've taken far too long. I had a solution to this...
So I decided to do some "organic" weathering. After a weekend of intense rain, I took my coveralls to the local construction site, and threw it in the mud. And then jumped on it.
repeatedly. I probably looked really weird while doing it, but damned if it didn't work wonders. I spent the next few hours wiping off the excess dirt with a thick paintbrush.

To weather the gaiters I painted pure brown paint over the bottom surfaces, making sure to cram the dirty brown paint in between the creases of the gaiters. Again, this is where dirt and grime would accumulate when in the field.

This is a comparison photo between the weathered leg pouches (left), and the clean pouches on the right. The left pouches were painted with a series of watered down layers of black and brown paint. I also used charcoal to darken the white thread and add grime to the recessed areas of the pouches.

 In hindsight: 
1) I would definitely apply two coats of silver paint to the armor plates. This would give me extra insurance against sanding through the silver undercoat. 
2) When weathering the hard armor, I'll try using using steel wool instead of sand paper. It may give me more control of how much paint is taken off. 



Full Album: Imgur 

Mandalorian Armor Project 10: Armor Plates

For the armor plates I, once again, turned to Wizard of Flight's templates. These body armor are completely dependent on the wearer's size, so WizardofFlight uploaded a series of different templates for people to use. Being rather tall, I elected to use the "Large" size and modify the width to fit my body.

These plates were cut from 5V sheet aluminum, which is usually used for barn roofing. I happened to be at a yard sale where they were selling several sheets, and was lucky enough to pick some up for this project.

In order to properly shape these plates, I used a ball peen hammer and the lab's anvil to begin working the metal. The sheet metal is beaten on both sides. This process is called stretching, because it forces the metal to expand as it's beaten.

After I had hammered the entire surface of the plate, I started shaping it. The first step was to create the convex shape of the plate. Once I hammered out the rounded shape I started to focus on the individual angles of each side. Each plate was a challenge to shape, especially if they needed to perfectly mirror the plate opposite of it.

This material was wonderful to work with. The 5V sheeting is thin aluminum: only 20 gauge, which is about 1/32" thick. While it was too thin to make armor from, it was an excellent material to make a template from. The metal kept its form better than paper templates did, was thin enough to shape with hand tools, and was easily modified.

 Because I used WizardofFlight's "Large" template, I had to drastically modify these plates. The only way to figure out these measurements was by taping these plates to my body and checking the size. After repeatedly consulting with members from the Mandalorian Mercs forum, I ended up trimming the metal templates by 1.25" on each side. 

When I finally perfected the metal plates size, I traced them back onto the paper templates and cut off the extra material. Then I taped the paper templates onto my 3" PVC pipe. 

These pieces were a challenge to cut. Because of the complex angles, I could only use my PVC saw a few times. After breaking a coping saw during making a cut, I turned to my jigsaw. By using the jigsaw, I finished cutting the pieces in record time.

Once I finished cutting out my pieces I took them back to my metal templates. Because the metal sheets already had the correct shape, I used them to form my PVC pieces. 

I used my heat gun and slowly started to heat up the plates. Because I needed to shape the whole plate, I had to evenly heat the entire surface without burning it. 

As soon as the plate was malleable, I clamped them to the metal template. The PVC plates retained their heat fairly well, which meant that each plate needed ~10 minutes to cool to a decent temperature. 

After ~45 minutes of heating, shaping, and waiting, I had a full set of chest plates. As they cooled, some of the plates warped a bit, which required a bit of reheating and adjustment.

The nice thing about using PVC is that it can be reshaped at any time. 

I needed to create a pair of shoulder pads for my flak vest. Instead of cutting and shaping more PVC, I recycled the unused pieces of my first gauntlets. 

The gauntlet tops were cut in half and then rounded. The top pieces needed to be reshaped with the heat gun. As I reshaped each piece, I created scratches and battle damage by pressing various objects into the softened PVC. The two pieces were then joined together with PVC cement and a pair of clamps.

The following pictures take place after the plates have been painted and weathered. To see this process, visit Part 11 of the Mandalorian Armor project.

To attach the plates to the flak vest, I adhered machine screws to the back of the plates which were fitted through grommets on the vest. I spent ~$12 at Home Depot, getting six packets of screws, washers, nuts, and JB Weld. I picked up eight packets of machine screws, which was overkill, but was just in case I needed to re-cut screws.

Remember kids: Buy more supplies than you think you'll need. It could save you a second trip to the store, and you can always return what you don't use.

I wanted to make sure the plates would sit well on the vest, so I marked 6 points on the large plates to attach screws to. These spots were chosen very carefully. As I described in Part 9, I placed grommets in the vest. I then held the plate up to the vest, and marked the center of the each grommet by sticking a fine-point Sharpie through it. 

I had check my placement several times. The easiest way to do it was supergluing the screws in place and then putting the screws through the grommets on the vest. The superglue dries quickly, but is easily broken off to re-adjust it's position.

These are the machine screws I used to hold the plates to the vest. The regular machine screws are normally too long, but are easily cut down with a Dremel. I clamped the screws in my vice and put on a grommet, a washer, and the nut. The washer was a stand in for the fabric layer of the vest. Without it, I would've cut the screws too short, and risked the nut falling off.

JB Weld is a two-part epoxy that you mix together, which completely solidifies after 24 hours. I would take a pea-sized amount of each material, and then thoroughly mix them together until they're a uniform color. That amount would be sufficient for two screws. 

I would then clamp my plate to the table and place the screw onto the plate. 

And then wait for 24 hours. Impatiently...

Because all of the plates are curved, and JB Weld doesn't have any adhesive properties until hit hardens, the screws would slide down the plate as it hardened. I quickly learned to work on one side at a time. Chipping hardened JB Weld off my pates was an experience I did not wish to repeat.

The plates mounted perfectly onto the vest. The screws sat completely flush when screwed in, and when I wore the flight suit beneath the vest, I couldn't even feel them.

 In Hindsight:

1) Use a jigsaw to cut plates from PVC. Using a jigsaw made life infinitely easier when cutting plates out of PVC pipes. The cuts are cleaner and more regular, and cutting tight becomes much easier.

2) When cutting or shaping PVC pipes, wear a respirator with organic vapor filters. 
Heating PVC releases phosgene gas. When phosgene gas reacts with the moisture in your lungs, it creates hydrochloric acid. Yes, acid in your lungs; I'm not even kidding. I walked around for days, wondering why I was coughing so much.
3) Roughen the back of the PVC plates before JB Welding the screws to it. When wearing the armor at PAX East, I found the screws that were attached to smooth surfaces tended to break off much more easily.
4) Grind down your screws BEFORE adhering them. I originally adhered the screws to the plate and used the Dremel to grind off the excess length. Unfortunately, the heat and vibration caused the JB Weld to break off. 



Full Album: Imgur
Next Step: Painting and Weathering

Mandalorian Armor Project 9: Flak Vest

Prior to making my girth belt, I have never made any type of wearable clothing. Therefore, I had to do a lot of research on creating clothing, sewing tutorials, and vest patterns. Luckily, I found a thread on the Mandalorian Mercs costuming forum from a fellow named Pointoforigin. He created a phenomenal tutorial on how to create a custom flak vest.

Two hours after I started, I finished my pattern. Taking my own measurements was an interesting experience, especially because I didn't have string, or a sewing tape measure. The only thing I had was a length of aircraft cable. Actually, I found a ton of other uses for that cable, like tracing all of my curved lines.

 

These two pieces created one half of my vest pattern. Each piece would be cut out twice, to completely cover my torso.

By a happy mistake, I grossly over ordered material for my girth belt. I was able to pull my entire vest out of the spare duck cloth I had left over.  

This shows both templates, as they were cut out of the fabric. This time around, I remembered to include a half inch of allowance along each edge. This half inch would let me fold over each corner, ensuring that I would have a clean edge around the exterior of the vest.

This vest pattern was designed to be a unisex design, so the original pattern was a darted design. These cutouts are to allows for the maker to adjust the chest size of the vest without  affecting the size of the waist.

The first step of attaching these darts was to fold over the rough edge. 

As I was about to start sewing these pieces together, my grandmother looked over my shoulder and suggested that I use a blanket stitch to close it. The blanket stitch, supported by another row just below, held the seam very nicely.

As soon as I tried the vest on, I realized I made a mistake. The back section of the vest was too small! My grandmother, once again, came to the rescue. Instead of starting over again, she suggested cutting the back piece in half, and adding a panel to it. This extension fit perfectly, and gave me just enough clearance to attach a zipper to the vest.

So this is called a fashion zipper. I've never encountered one before in my life, and naturally, was very confused to find out that it didn't separate when it was unzipped. While this wasn't a huge problem, it makes getting into and out of the vest very awkward.

Mating the sides of the vest went smoothly, but the collar required a bit of modification. For some reason, the back of the vest sat 2" above my neck. I fixed this by folding the tallest portions under the collar and sewing it into place. I would eventually dart underneath each shoulder strap, so that the vest would sit flat upon my shoulders.

After creating the main body of the vest I had a few small tasks left. The first was to attach a pair of shoulders for the shoulder plates to attach to. The last order of business was to attach grommets to the front of the vest. 

The first step in placing the grommets was tracing out the placement of the plates. I threw on the vest and had my friend Jared trace around the edges of each plate. We started with the collar plate and worked our way downwards from there. 

Before I went any farther, I backtracked and quickly made a pair of shoulders flaps for the shoulders to mount onto. This involved tracing the pattern of the shoulder guard, and then attaching it to the vest.
There are two ways of attaching shoulders guards a Mandalorian's flak vest. The first style, Boba style, uses sleeves like you would see on a t-shirt. I chose to use the second type, Jango style, which uses the single flap.

Setting the grommets was remarkably simple. To put grommets into the vest, all you need is an awl, grommets, and grommet pliers.

First, place the awl through the duck cloth. I went approximately 2" through the material.

Then place the grommet through the hole. 

Lastly, flatten the grommet with the grommet pliers. You do need a specific set of pliers to properly flatten the grommet.

Repeat the process 34 times (yes I counted), and you have a functional flak vest. 

In Hindsight:
1) Put Fray-Stop around the grommets. Before putting the grommets through the duck cloth, put Fray-block along the edges of the hole. This will keep the holes from expanding, and will keep the grommets anchored in the cloth.
2) Don't use a fashion zipper. Common sense to most people...

Full album: Imgur

Next Step: Armor Plates