Pandatrooper

You can never have too many push pins.

Boots http://forum.bikerscout.net/index.php?showtopic=903 Mudflap http://forum.bikerscout.net/index.php?showtopic=4450 Pouches http://forum.bikerscout.net/index.php?showtopic=7084 The vest and cummerbund aren't really based on a pattern, as they need to be custom made for each individual. I would use reference photos from the blue rays as a guide and the CRL of course. http://forum.bikerscout.net/index.php?showforum=35 Some info on the vest. http://forum.bikerscout.net/index.php?showtopic=9135&hl=%22vest%22&fromsearch=1

Pouch specs and template are in this link http://forum.bikerscout.net/index.php?showtopic=7084

It's looking a bit low right now for sure. My suggestion is to not trim the chest shoulder straps until you have your bund and pouches made and belt assembled. It's a bit of a chain reaction and it starts from the belt. The pouches (depending on their size) sit just on top of the belt, if not slightly overlap them. Then above the top of the pouch sits the bottom of the chest, which shouldn't cause a gap pushing the shoulder straps up. Does that make sense? Don't get too eager with trimming the chest if you are growing. You could also overlap the shoulder straps for now, and hide the overlap with canvas / elastic, and as you get taller you could expand the distance between the straps.

Finished the pouches. These are such an integral part of the costume and they took a long time to sew! I used the original pattern on the forums here, as they have the seam around the whole front panel like movie pouches. http://forum.bikersc...llery&album=150 I scaled the pattern down slightly, so that it was 1" smaller in dimensions since I'm 5 foot 8 inches tall. I mocked up a set in the screen size and I just found them a tad big, so the scaled version fit me better. I am using off white duck cloth to match the other off white webbing etc. for Lancer spec. Per Marcel's recommendation, I only used one layer of fabric for the body of the pouch, and double layer for the pouch flap. There are no visible exterior stitches, in particular the velcro seen here (only sewn to the inside of the pouch flap) I found this great material called "Heat Bond" which is an iron on interfacing that bonds fabric together. Here, I have ironed it on one side of the pouch flaps. I got the Heat bond that you don't sew through, so I left a gap for the pouch to fold over the front. Here, I have sewn the 2 layers of fabric together for the pouch flap. Then I peeled off the paper for the heat Bond. Then flip the pouch flap inside out, and iron it again. Now both panels of fabric are glued together (even behind the velcro). Nice and tight, and the pouch panel stays nice and flat. The pouch panel on the left is flipped inside out but not ironed yet, the right one needs to be flipped inside out. Completed pouch flaps with no visible seams. Here's the body of the pouch. I have already made the upper inside tabs (optional I believe) and the tab of fabric which will have velcro sewn on to attach the pouch to the cummerbund. All the separate pieces. The front panel has the loop velcro sewn on the bottom. Completed pouch. I have inserted a set of these cool boxes from TB6782 / Lucas. http://forum.bikersc...ox&fromsearch=1 My pouches are slightly smaller, so I just trimmed about 1/2" off the top of the box. makes it easier to drop stuff in. Just working on some final rig straps for the cummerbund, glove mods, and some last minute tweaks to the SC helmet (non Lancer) and I will submit pics!

Curved Lexan scissors are the best. Lots of leverage to cut through 1/8" ABS plastic like swiss cheese.

Thanks Conor, glad you like it. I just finished the pouches, will post pics shortly.

Thanks Jim. last few things are the pouches and some small tweaks to the helmet.

Holster has cured. Here's the magnet housing inside the holster And the open side. I found that the magnets were actually too strong, making it slightly hard to remove the blaster. So I simply laid down a small strip of white sign vinyl over the magnets. This is actually good in that it just softens the contact of the trigger guard to the magnets, and it prevents the trigger guard from being scratched up. Painted the trigger guard and countersunk bolts with black paint, and gave them a matte finish. I've also finished attaching the holster to the boot calf. I curved some pieces of ABS and riveted them inside the calf vinyl, but I also sandwiched in some 1.5" elastic that I sewed velcro on. This will brace the holster against my leg, and makes removing the hold out blaster super easy and is less wear and tear on the vinyl. *Note, I ran out of black thread and subbed in tan, that's why the stitching looks so gnarly. I also added some foam padding to space out the holster from my leg, to somewhat center my leg in the boot and not make it look offset. Hold out blaster is now super secure inside the holster. I might still trim the holster and pad the inside slightly so the blaster doesn't wobble inside. Regardless, the blaster does not fall out. Boots are more or less complete. I just need to cut the soles, and paint the edge sole solid tan, and weather them.

While the holster was curing, I drilled a hole into the side of the blaster, counter sunk it, and tapped it for an allen bolt to hold the 2 halves together. Not totally required but I want the blaster sturdy, plus you don't really see the bolt once the scope is on. I added electronics from a Hasbro Boba Fett blaster inside the hold out blaster. I upgraded the scope to a cast from a real Singlepoint scope from Smitty - awesome detail! You can even read the words "Single point" cast intot he plastic. I drilled and tapped holes to secure the scope to the back plate. I drilled holes into the ends of the scope and used a unibit to enlarge them, to reduce some of the weight of the blaster. I might cover it with a reticule or something later. Completed pics of the blaster and holster to come, once the paint and glue cures.

For the holster, I trimmed it down to match the screen used look, added more rounded corners and marked the locations for the rivets. This is how the holster comes from SC. I'm a fairly slim build, so I heated the holster body and curved it more to conform to my leg better, and to avoid the weird "sticky outty" shape when it's rivetted to the boot calf. After heating One of the tricks I wanted to do was to secure the hold out blaster with rare earth magnets. Here, I made a new trigger guard from 1/8" thick x 3/4" wide flat steel. I simply traced the dimensions from my original trigger guard, put the metal into a vice and bent it to shape. I drilled counter sunk holes and tapped the blaster for the small countersunk allen bolts. Note they aren't fully tightened in this pic. And of course, the trigger guard will be painted black. I used a 1/8" thick piece of ABS and rivetted 2 steel magnet cups to the strip, using 1/8" rivets on the inside. The steel cups amplify the strength of the rare earth magnets. I made a shim from more ABS that surround the magnets but leaves enough room for them to stick out of the surface of the holster slightly. Here's the matching hole inside the holster Test fit the magnet housing inside the holster Good fit, the magnets just stick out slightly. Test fit. The magnet housing will be glued in place with Plastic Weld and riveted to the holster. I trimmed out the outer shell of the holster to make room for the magnet housing (I could have glued it on top, but the SC holster parts do not lie flush, and I didn't want to bother reshaping it.) Test fit (not tight) of the outer shell and holes were drilled for the magnet housing You can see the tabs where the outer shell will be glued down The magnet housing is glued and riveted down, and the outer shell is glued in place with E6000 after sanding the surfaces. I used rare earth magnets to hold and clamp the outer shell in place. Old TK armor building trick. I'll post a picture or video once everything is done, but the blaster is incredibly secure in the holster. I can flip the boot upside down with the blaster inside, and shake the boot pretty hard and the blaster will not fall out. All you need to do is grab the holster and twist slightly, and the magnets will release the blaster. I will also be doing some special strapping / rigging inside the holster to secure it to my calf.

Thanks all, she's a handful already. Back on topic - finishing the boots! In the previous pics, I had started to glue down the calf section, but a few hours after I glued them, I decided I didn't like how they looked, so I removed the calves and sewed all new calves with a slightly narrower ankle area, and more taper to them. I have realized that with the hiking boots with the padded ankle, it's harder to get the tight ankle look like the screen used boots since the Sierra's had a fabric upper with no ankle padding. I figure these boots will do for now, and I will upgrade the soles for Lancer, but in the future I may make another pair using more accurate base boots. Here, I have glued the uppers on but I didn't like the gaps at the bottom So I applied some more E6000 under the loose edge and clamped a few small paintbrushes to push in the vinyl tight to the boot sole edge Upper glued on (the torn up area around the instep is from me removing the first pass at the calves. This will be covered by the dog bones.) Sewn the details on the dog bones. I probably resized the dog bones 5 times going smaller each time until i got them to what I wanted. Test fit. I think I still trimmed the dog bones by a 1mm smaller after this pic. 1/2" toe trim glued in place. Better photo of the completed calves Finished boot pics to come, but I moved onto the holster for now.

Looks good, smart fix with the foam. I think overall it looks nice, but I think if you want to go for Lancer in the future, the overall width of the cod might look better if it was a little wider. You can see on the ILM pics that the top of the cod is about the same width as those pentagon shaped boxes. I know, it's goofy wide but hey - that's what was in the movie.

Awesome!

Hi Andy, please let me know if I can be of any assistance. My background is graphic design and illustration, and I worked with sportswear companies / apparel for 10+ years. I then went into game development as a 3D artists and modeler, and art director / creative director for 16 years. My last 2 years at EA, I conceived and helped design soft goods and hard goods (electronics, injection molded plastics, ABS extrusion, etc for peripherals) which were manufactured in China. I did a lot of technical drawings and collaborated with manufacturers in China as well as marketing departments and focus research. I agree with what people have said so far, maybe touch base with Paladium or someone that makes a similar boot and see if they could modify it. We could also approach a Chinese manufacturer and see if they can make the boots from scratch. Most western companies want to produce much higher quantities and have more focused markets (eg: they want to know they can sell X number of product in X countries and create a high enough order to bring costs down. Making 5000 units of something is a flash in the pan / cheap compared to 100 of something. Molds like the ones required for boots and shoes are very costly to make. I had to work with a designer and industrial design company to create the 3D CAD models for the manufacturer, and the molds cost thousands of dollars. Of course, you need one set of injection molds for each size of boot, plus there's a left and right! One approach is to propose the boot as a shoe / design that company X can sell / manufacture on their own and release to market, and just state we have "some interested customers" ready to purchase them (a very small number really, I think we would be lucky if there were 300 people who knew what these boots were and wanted to use them for Scouts or Rebel Troopers. This number is potentially not high enough for an exclusive run). It's likely they would want to CAD the molds themselves. Even if we did clean up the model, they would want certain cuts or reliefs to aid in the manufacturing of the soles, which something we might need to compromise on. From a legal perspective, they may (if they don't want to get in legal trouble) want to remove any of the original logos / branding. Yes, China makes a lot of knock off stuff, but trust me - you don't want to be the person paying a company to knock it off... One question I had was, would we want them to make the boots exactly like the originals using a canvas upper? Or is the idea to actually make the uppers out of white vinyl / leather material? Do we want people to glue on the vinyl like we do now with hiking boots, or more idealized like TK boots? Obviously, canvas ones can be used for Rebel troopers too. Anyways, some food for thought. Cool discussion here!

Just go to your local hardware store and look for dark green welders face shields. That's all those are, just cut up smaller. They usually cost about $5.00

Here's how I trimmed and curved my shoulder bells, hope that helps. http://forum.bikerscout.net/index.php?showtopic=9781&st=60&p=83307entry83307

Perhaps try different glues like Shoe Goo or Tana Gloo. Maybe they hold up better in warmer climates.

How about something a step up? Like these boots. Maybe keep the tan sole and white toe area, glue on the 1/2" strip, and just do the calf vinyl and vinyl dog bone. This way, the main bendy part of the boot is a "real" boot, but the other areas are still accurate, but less prone to wear and tear? I kind of agree that the rubber boots aren't the best option. Yes, kids won't notice but the shape and details aren't quite right either.

Awesome, thanks for the insight Marcel!

Looking good. I can't tell in the pics, but I would add the stitching on the dog bones if they aren't there already. Nice work!

OK, I'm about to finish sewing my Lancer spec pouches, everything is cut and I have a few things sewn. Just a couple questions before I do final aasembly: - we all know the front flap is 2 layers of material, with no visible top stitches. But is the body of the pouch one later of fabric or two? - is there a definitive photo of the inner "sides" of the pouches with small inner flaps? I don't see these in the reference pattern, but I see people adding them. Is this a requirement? - if there are inner side flaps, how are they sewn onto the body of the pouch? In the photo below (yes, I know it's the MOM version) there's clearly some kind of stitching on the top outside edge of the side body. Is this how the inner flaps (if there are any?) were sewn on?

OK, one more pic and it's back on topic to building armor. Pre- robe Yoda

Thanks Patrik! I made this for my daughter Emma for her first May the Fourth a couple weeks ago. Here, she is contemplating the Force... or the time of her next feeding.

It's been a long time, but finally - updates! My baby daughter (8 weeks old) has been taking up most of my time, so I only have a little time between feedings, diapers and baths. Good times! Boots were started about 8 months ago! I already heated the vinyl and formed it to the toe shape. I replaced the round profile hard laces with soft flat laces for a lower profile, and used a barrel lock for the ends, cut them shorter. I made this cool little tool to test out that wraps around the toe of the booth and keeps the vinyl tight. It's just a curved section of ABS plastic with a curve I cut into it, holes drilled in the ends and elastic cord / barrel lock to tighten it. You can see how it keeps the vinyl tight to the sole of the boot Sanded the lower portion of the boot before applying E6000. I also drew pencil lines to indicate where the vinyl lined up when fully heated. Pre-gluing E6000 applied with a paint stick Both sides applied, let it tack up a couple mins. Initial pull down to line the vinyl up to the original placement with the pins. I smoothed out the vinyl to make sure there was full glue to glue contact. I then wrapped the little tension tool around the toe of the boot, and tightened the elastic cord. This cinches the vinyl right around the whole front half of the boot. Pin it down! While the glue dried overnight, I cut out my calf sections I've sewn the top edge and added the velcro to the sides I added this small detail, this fabric tab which is thin 3/4" cotton webbing for a pull tab. As seen on the MOM boots. Original boots from the MOM exhibit. I have seen the pull tabs in a couple of pics, so I thought I would add them. The next day, the glue is dry and check out the tight seam! Brought the vinyl nice and tight to the sole. Finished toes, still needs the 1/2" strip I glued the calf sections in place, also using E6000. I'm not going to use rivets (don't need them digging into my feet) so I just used some rare earth magnets and some tape to hold the vinyl in place while the glue cures. Will cut out the dog bones tomorrow! *A note re: lancer spec - I'm going to cut the slots in my soles at a later date.