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Thanks for the feedback all, much appreciated to help me get this looking good and over the line. More soft goods weathering was the feedback from the garrison armourer after these photos too, so I will be working hard on that while I start on the blaster. For the belt boxes, I always thought mine were very close due to having the body shape of a stick figure (30" waist) and just didn't have the room for them all! Looking into it more after you mentioned it there seems to be a few variations on the hard belt cover size. I spaced the boxes on the belt evenly based on the space not covered by the belt cover. There's yours with the cover ending at the belt box, then theres this squad leader with some cover past the belt box: Then there is this grunt with quite a lot of cover past the belt box: And one that looks like it might have broken? Do you think I should cut the belt cover back and redo the belt so that I can evenly space the boxes, including the ones on the cover in the spacing?

I weathered the right shin and put the wash over both of them, which meant everything was done enough to warrant a full suit up! I did it in the dark and the lighting wasn't quite enough to light me evenly, but hopefully shows everything well enough: Things I noticed from the photos to sort: Left shoulder bell ended up under the foam Abdomen could do with coming up higher Forearms need foam or velcro to stop them twsiting Some helmet electronics poking out the left of the helmet (but boy was I glad I fitted fans as the lens steamed up nearly instantly!) Talking with my garrison armourer we agree that the shins need to be beaten up more, as I expected so I will be doing that along with working on sorting the above. If anyone spots anything I've missed, please let me know! It was great to be able to finally put it all on together and get a real feel for how it will look. Definitely entering the home stretch now which is very exciting!

I've had a productive week this week. My garrison armourer was happy with the modified neck seal, but it'll probably be on first on my post approval upgrades! In the mean time I have complete the last of the bits that needed doing on the kama: Against the shins for displaying the angle at the bottom against the straps: It was then weathered: I also weathered the breeches: And the boots - I had worn them to get some weathering before, but darkening them up covered most of it. I've sanded some areas but will need to wear them again to add some more natural weathering back in. I also added some sand (which I stole from the supply for my fiancé's aquarium) into where the sole meets the leather. A little too much there for my liking but hopefully wearing them should knock some more loose: I've also pretty much finished the right shin, it just needs a few bits of touch up before I start weathering it. I think I'd like to weather the left one a bit more in some places, I imagine the shins taking a lot beating from things getting kicked up: I lined both shins with some eva foam to help grip the breeches and stop them twisting, as well as some upholstery foam just below the knee where they were a bit loose and for comfort: So in theory (I'm sure I will have missed something!), its just the weathering/wash on the shins to go for the armour side of things, then its onto concentrating on the blaster.

Yep, absolutely agree with them - not sure how I got my original measurements so wrong! After halving them, they are at around 5mm now. I'm not sure if they are "pronounced" enough though. I'm also not convinced by how neat they are... In the meantime, I found a very good closeup picture of the bottom front of the kama on the Fam facebook. Using 14mm as the internal diamater of the eyelet, I was able to measure the distance between the top stitches and have gone for 10mm (or 3/8") as the distance. With this I've been happy to start on the final one. I've got the two halves made up now, they just need attaching at the back, hemming and eyelets adding (and the weathering of course).

After feedback from my garrison armourer that the neck seal ribs were too big and not enough of them, I split them in half to make them half the size and double the amount. I wasn't happy with the original look and I'm still not convinced by this. I'm awaiting feedback from the changes from the garrison, but I would be curious to here people's thoughts from a level 2 perspective, as if its not going to pass muster there I might as well redo it even if it would pass basic approval. Any feedback greatly received! I've also worked on a couple of revisions of the kama and am happy with how it's looking so far. The only major change I need to do is get the triangles to overlap on the egde, which is a simple fix: The bottom is angled (ignore the single front top stitch, the thread ran out half way through the second stitch and I couldn't be bothered to go back and finish it for a test!): And here's a couple of me wearing it. My handy helper was pointing out where the front and back needed to hang to on the shins: Any feedback before I start on the final one appreciated as always. I'm not sure the top stitching is far enough apart. Its at 1/4" between the parrallel stitches at the moment, I'm not sure if it needs to go up to 1/2"?

I'm glad this has been well received and I hope it can help someone in the future! Glad I can give something back to the community that's helped me so much with my build. I've edited the first post with a link to the pattern now that I've finished it off. I've done it as an SVG as it should scale losslessly to help people size it to them. If anyone does use it and needs any help just let me know and I can try and clarify anything I might not have detailed clearly. I plan on doing something very similar for the kama when I make it up, which should be a very easy pattern even for those without any sewing experience - its almost entirely straight lines!

Finishing Turn one leg inside out and keep the other right way out Put the right way out leg into inside out one, so you end up with the right sides together. Keep the waistband open at the back and then stitch the back closed, starting from the stitch you did before the starting the fly and going all the way up through the opened waistband. Then stitch a complete stitch from fly all the way round to the waistband to reinforce. Important: try the trousers on now and see if you need to adjust the waistband. It will be very difficult to make adjustments to the waistband after this point, so do it now! Trim as much of the back seam in the waistband as you can Fold the waistband over and pin in place From the right side “stitch in the ditch” of the waistband seam (stitch in the seam so that the stitch will be hidden) The waistband facing should be big enough that it will get held by this stitch Stitch the bias binding to the bottom of the legs matching right sides and long edges. Have it overlap slightly and fold the overlap over so that it is caught by the stitch Fold the bias binding over and stitch in the ditch like we did with the waistband, make sure to catch the back of it on the inside. Finally, stitch your eyelets (or punch and add if using metal ones). I think there are 10 on the outside of the legs and 9 on the inside, so that’s what I did, but I’m not 100% on this Lace your laces And enjoy your creation!

Waistband Take one of right waistband. Lie with back on left and curved like a smiley face. Press ⅜ bottom up. This will be our facing. Stitch facing to right waist Press seam towards facing. Understitch to the facing and then trim Press the facing over, so it is right side out Open the fly and the waistband, then stitch right waistband to top of right leg, overhanging the centre front Press waistband up. Trim the center overhang to match the fly and trim the excess zip Stitch your button the right fly (sorry, I forgot to do this now, so my button suddenly appears later after I struggled to add it!) Use right fly pattern to mark the circle on the right fly facing Press ⅜ of the left side above the mark towards you Stitch the right fly facing to the right fly along the curved edge and along the top matching the seam of the waistband. Catch the pressed edge to hold it. Trim the seam, including the corner of the fly facing and waistband facing Turn the fly so the facing is on the inside, use scissors to push the corner out. Press. Hand stitch the pressed edge of the fly facing to the edge of the fly, careful not to stitch through to the outside Take one left waistband. With the back on your right and as smiley face, press the bottom ⅜ up. (Apparently I forgot to take photos, but it’s the same idea as we did with the right waistband) Stitch the two left waistbands together, then press the seam to the facing. Understitch the seam and trim (again, like we did with the right) Stitch the left waistband to the top of the left leg, matching the back and overlapping the middle Fold the waistband over twice so that it is correct and do up the zip, then mark the button hole position. Stitch your button hole and cut it out (As I forgot the button, I forgot this bit too. Don’t be like me, do this now, please!). Then fold the faistband back open Cut the excess of the zip off. Fold the left facing along the seam so it is right side to right side with the left waistband, it should be ⅜” from the edge. Stitch ⅝” from the edge - this should just catch the pressed edge of the facing - from as close to the main body as you can and along the short edge Fold the waistband up. Trim the short edge and cut the corners at an angle (this will help us push the corners out when we turn it) Fold the waistband over so it is the right way and then turn the tab right way out using scissors to push it out and get the corners pushed through. Use the left fly pattern piece to mark the shape of the “J stitch” - you should make sure this line will go through the front and the left fly piece Stitch the j-stitch making sure you stitch through the front and onto the fly. You want to stitch through the right fly at the bottom of the stitch, but make sure it is out of the way as you stitch the vertical part, or you won’t be able to open the fly! Once stitched, stitch a bar tack (a zig zag stitch with a very short stitch length so you end up with a solid “bar” of stitches) through the bottom of the j stitch to reinforce it.

Fly Stitch ⅝ from crotch to the mark on the tappern piece Press 3/8inch of right front opening. ⅜”, not ⅝” - this is important if you don’t want the zip to be seen! Baste zip to right, so that it looks like this on the front Basting is a temporary stitch, usually done with a longer stitch length, just to hold something until you do the permanent stitch Baste right fly under the zip So you get something like this Use a zipper foot to stitch close to the zip, stitching through the seam, zip and fly piece Stitch left fly to left front piece Press the left fly over, then open it up and understitch it to the seam. Understitch is like overstitching, but not seen and is usually used to stop pieces from “sticking out” after they are folded Trim the seam close to the understitch (to get rid of as much bulk as we can) Press the fly to the underside Pin/baste fly closed - the left side should overlap the right by about ¼” (as we only did ⅜” press earlier) While closed, stitch the zip to left fly (make sure everything else is out of the way), then stitch again for security Closing the legs Mark the location of the knee diamond on the top. Clip between marks Mark centre of diamonds Line up centre of diamonds with top/bottom marks, ⅝ from edge, right sides together Stitch - using the same method as we did before, keeping the knee diamond flat and pulling the legs, which are clipped, round to match Stitch back to front, right sides together from the bottom of leg to bottom of diamond Then do from the top of the diamond to crotch (meeting the crotch stitch) Clip back between stitches for the knee diamond Stitch the diamond to back Press side seam open, or away from diamond

The legs With right sides together (this means the outside bit of the fabric), pin the lower back and upper back together, with the tabs of the lower back on the same side as the weird curves of the upper leg and the narrower part of the lower leg to the upper leg: Remember there is no right and wrong side of the fabric, so at this point there is no right or wrong side, so just make sure you mirror what you are doing between the two legs or you will end up with two of the same leg: Stitch ⅝” from the edge - all stitches for this will be ⅝” seams unless noted otherwise, so learn where this mark is on your sewing machine. To end up with something like this: Press the seam open. This means to use an iron to open the seam up. This isn’t ironing it, you should place the iron down for a few seconds, then lift it up, move it, put it down again etc. Pressing is very important for getting a professional look at the end. Here is a pressed (right) vs unpressed (left) seam: Topstitch the seam on both sides. Topstitching is stitching that holds a seam that will be visible on the outside of the finished article. You need to stitch closer than ⅝” from the seam to make sure you catch the seam allowance. I recommend using the edge of the foot to line up with the seam to stitch it. Depending on your machine this should be about ¼” Fold the two darts, at the top of each leg, matcing the marked points and stitching them to the marked point. Make sure the small folded bit of fabric is on the inside. Press the darts towards the back. They should look like this: And from the right side: Darts are used to “bring in” pattern pieces. In this case to bring in the waist after the wider hips. Press eyelet facings to inside on both front and back pieces (remember front has no right side, so mirror which way you do it). They should be pressed in by the amount extra that they stick out, plus ⅝” (in my case 1.5”) Open the eyelets back up for now Lay front and back pieces right sides together, matching thighs. Clip the front piece at the “V” of curves on the back. This will be your stop point for the stitch we’re about to do. Clip between your mark and the eyelet facing, make sure not to cut more than ⅝” so the clip in in the seam allowance. These clips will allow us to better get the fabric to turn how we want. Now for the most difficult part of the pattern. We will stitch the back to the front from the eyelet facings to the mark we made/the “V” of the back curves. You’ll notice that the front piece curves the wrong way. This is why we clipped it, so we can bend it round to match the back piece. Have the back piece on the bottom while you stitch, as that just needs to stay flat, allowing you to keep an eye on the front piece and manoeuvre it as needed. Use lots of pins and stitch slowly, from the “V” to ⅝” past eyelets (you can use the press line to get the right stitch line once the facings are in the way) Clip back eyelet facing from corner to near to the stitch line Press seam towards the front (except for the back eyelet facings, which will be able to go the other way now we’ve clipped it) - this means instead of opening the seam up, we’ll press both of them the same direction, in this case against the front piece. Top stitch the eyelet facings. You can stitch from the wrong side, putting the foot right against the edge and using that to guide you. Stitch a triangle from the topstitching to where the tricky stitch finished Stitch the sides together at the thighs, right sides together Press seam towards the front Top stitch the side seam (so the stitching will be on the front piece) from the top down to the eyelet facing topstitching By the end you should have something like this:

Hi all, As I made my own soft goods for my Shoretrooper build, I thought it would be nice to make the pattern pieces I drafted available to the community to use, along with instructions on how to piece them all together to make something you can wear. I would class this as an intermediate skill level requirement, there are some tricky curves to do and a small amount of hand sewing. Somebody with no sewing experience should be able to do this with a little patience. Before making your breeches, I highly, highly recommend you make a muslin first. A muslin is a making the garment using very cheap fabric first. This is for two reasons, one it lets you go through the instructions to make sure you understand them, check how much fabric you need and more importantly, lets you check the sizing and make adjustments as necessary before using your nice fabric. You can use any cheap fabric, or make sure of old fabric to make your muslin, just so long as you don’t use stretchy material, as the real thing won’t stretch! For example I made mine out of some green fabric I had lying around from a previous project: You can also see I didn’t bother finishing the waistband, adding a zip etc, but feel free to if you want to! Preparation What you need The pattern pieces file from this link 3.5-4m of brown duck cloth canvas Sewing machine Thread (approx. 400m) of a similar colour to the fabric Bias binding (light brown or tan) Zip (brown) Iron Button Clasp Waxed laces (approx. 1.5 m each) Pins Sewing needle Getting the pieces ready The pattern pieces have been created entirely with me in mind. I am tall and skinny, so as-is they will be the wrong proportions for everybody else. To get a good start point for scaling the pattern pieces I recommend using the “Front” piece to compare against an existing pair of trousers. These breeches are quite high waisted, so don’t use a pair of trousers that sit on your hips, or if you do, remember to add a bit to bring these up higher. You can measure the side sea and waistband to get a rough idea of how much to scale against the X and Y axis to get proportions about right. But remember to make a muslin and then adjust as necessary! Start by washing your fabric, using what it recommends. This will help clear any excess colour off as well as potentially shrinking the fabric slightly (which you don’t want to happen after you cut it or stitch it). Next cut out all of your pieces. You’ll notice that all of the large pieces need two copies of each (two legs, two copies). The easiest way to get these is to fold your fabric along the selvages (this will be the long edges), then lay your pattern piece on top and cut through the two layers, getting two copies. This would also give you the mirrored copies you would need for most fabric, but duck cloth doesn’t have a right side (outside) and wrong side (inside), so it doesn’t actually matter in our case. Once you’ve cut the pieces out you will want to iron them and then finish the edges. This means putting an overlock stitch over the edges to stop them from fraying (which this fabric will). While this is an optional step, I would highly recommend it. It will be a long and boring process, but is well worth it to keep your garment nice through many troops! If your sewing machine doesn’t have an overlock stitch, you can just use a normal zigzag stitch. This stitch won’t be seen on the outside of the garment, so feel free to use any colour you want. You can see here I used black, because I have loads of it. Don’t worry about finishing the edges of the waistband pieces, we’ll do those later. Once you’ve finished the edges of your cut pieces you’re ready to start putting them together!

After what felt like an eternity... I have finally finished anything that involves stitching ribs. If anyone is reading this and think of trying it, my advice is don't! Just by the undershirt and save yourself hours of pain! The bib is essentially finished: Zipping top to bottom I have made it purposely too wide (better too big than too small!), so I will need to trim down the sides so they don't stick out from the chest armour. The left shin has now been assembled and needs a few bits of touch up (mostly the rim and the print lines that are visible on the "under" side of the cover) before it is ready for weathering, while I start on the right one. I tried my first draft kama on with them and it seems my measurement guess wasn't far off! The kama is a couple of inches too long, which is good as it will be hemmed anyway. I'll need to chope up the pattern for it now to create the different sections and create a second test to make sure the panels look right.

Thanks Minimo, always worth checking before I go cutting decent fabric! Looking back at my pictures they do make it look straight at the bottom (and I realised I posted the bib twice instead of the led flat picture below), so here’s a couple to hopefully show it better. Led flat they are straight, but the curve of the “belt” part means that when it’s worn the front drops lower. and held out - the light fabric doesn’t help. The heavier waxed canvas should drape better, especially with the eyelets to help weigh it down: Hopefully that should give the basic shape, then once I have a shin made up I can put it on to get the lengths correct so that the back is in line with the top of the back and the front in line with the bottom of the strap. I’ve gone with around a 3” height difference on the test piece.

A couple of little bits of progress across a few things. The forearms have been assembled (the same way as the biceps), painted, chipped and weathered. I need to check with the undershirt if I need to add any foam inside to stop them turning, but the are very (very) tight to get my hands through so they shouldn't need much, if any. Now its onto the bit I've been dreading... the shins... Starting with the left one, with various parts at different stages: I've also been back at stitching endless ribs, making up hte bib: And I've made up a first template of the basic shape of the kama. I won't do any more on this until I have a shin complete so that I can get the length right, but I'm pretty happy with the shape and size so far: And finally I started looking at the circuit I would need for the LEDs for the E22:

Over the weekend I managed to finish off a couple of pieces. First up was the weathering of the biceps, as well as the rigging of them: I was also able to finish the breeches off and I am very pleased with them. Just need to take all my hard work outside and mess it up! I tried them on with the undershirt to check everything looked okay: At which point I had to try everything on to see how it all looked together for the first time: I put it all on by myself, so missed a few bits (the chest wasn't closed up at the sides properly for example and I need to pull the sleeves down). Definitely easier to do with some help! Seeing it together is really helping with the motivation to continue to drive forwards, getting so close now with just the forearms and shins to go with the armour, bib and kama from soft goods and finally the E-22 (which I've been slowly collecting and printing parts for in the background). As always, if you see anything that needs adjusting, please let me know!

Just a small update today. I've been working on the biceps, which are almost done. Both were done the normal way of a dark brown base, then sahara beige. The right bicep pieces then had the Toyota Red applied over the top, before the yellow rectangles were painted onto cover strip. I added some elastic cord to the back before gluing the front, to allow some expansion if needed for my elbow. I sanded back the paint where the cover strip goes so that it wasn't being glued to the paint And glued the strip on The left bicep is going through the same process now. I have also been working on the breeches, now that the undershirt is out of the way. I threw together another mockup with some size changes after my first attempt, then once I was happy started work on the real ones. It is still open at the back, while as I still need to finish the waist/fly area. The knee diamond in place The top stitching around the knee area. The eyelets for the laces will be added once I've finalised the length. I'm very happy with how the breeches are coming along. If you spot anything that would be a problem for level two, please let me know!

What seems like quite a small update today, but with a few less obvious changes/additions. The obvious update is that I now have some shoulder bells. They got painted up all nice: And then made all dirty: I added some strapping to them and put that on the nylon straps between the front and back pieces. On the first test I found that the bells immedietly went behind the plastezote at the front of the armour. I thought this might happen, as it did seem to stick out quite a lot. So I took the foam off the fronts, cut some off the bottom and reattached them, pulling them tighter in and stopping the shoulder bells from being able to get behind them. You may also notice that there are now two sleeves! I finally finished the ribs on the right sleeve and the undershirt is complete. After trying it on I made some size adjustments. KO was absolutely right that the sleeves needed taking in - around 1.5" off of them. I can now take a rest from ribs until I do the bib, which will likely be at the end of the soft goods now, so that being the last thing will give me the motivation needed to stitch more ribs!

Next update is a completed belt. This took a lot longer than I expected it to, but the weather hasn't been great for painting and I wasted a lot of time (find out why later). All the boxes were sanded back, painted and weathered, then attached with a soldering iron to make holes in the belt and mark the boxes, followed by some self tapping screws. Then onto the abdomen. Those medium boxes are a pain with their little tops hitting the raised strip on the abs, but that's how it is in the promo photo. And round the back: Then the back plate and belt cover were weathered and attached. I changed the back plate to just have a "lip" at the top rather than a "hook" and put magnets on to make it easier to put on/take off - especially if trying to do it yourself. I was also trying to figure out if there should be a gap between the bottom of the ab and the top of the belt cover. The files make it so there must be, due to the "tabs" at the bottom, so I assume there should be, but I've not been able to find any good reference. Then the thermal detonator. This thing was a pain. All those grooves. I spent quite a while getting all the little seams between the main body and the caps nice and smooth. Then the painting and weathering. The weathering, looking at the references and realising I'd been a donut. There is a seam betwen the body and the end caps. Doh! So time to break out the Dremel and take it to all my hard work to undo it, then it was done. Next up, the shoulders!

Some significant progress over the last couple of weeks. I finished the ribbing of the main body pieces, so just the right arm and bib to go with that. But it meant I was able to make the undershirt wearable. Some size adjustments to be done, but pretty minor and I'll do them once the other sleeve is attached. I'd have liked the zip to be longer, but that's what I could get... I added strapping to the abdomen, so that it could be worn more comfortably: The back was weathered: Then had its plastizote added and finished collare attached. I added 2mm foam to the inside bottom edges of the chest and back to reduce noise and wear against the abdomen, work approved by the dog: Then with some strapping between them and some velcro on the side pieces, I was able to wear them too (or in this case the tailor's dummy was!). Excuse the unweathered back plate! Very satisfying finally getting to see it come together like this! I'll be continuing with the back plate/belt cover and then belt boxes next.

Hi all, managed to get some much better progress done this week. First I decided I really should finish of the abdomen armour off. So I finished off the weathering of it and created the zipped piece for the back of it I also painted the black parts of the back piece (the recess and the insides of the boxes) sand started the weathering process. The back plate and straps had their coat of sahara beige. The collar has had its first couple of smoothing passes And I've begun the process of filling the biggest gaps on the belt cover and thermal detonator While working on the belt cover I've been trying to figure out what to do with the "countersunk" holes on it. I've circled the ones I mean here I know the vertical pair are for the snaps for the belt buckle, and the horizontal are for attaching to the back plate, but do they get filled in once the screws/snaps are in place? Or do they get left exposed and the TD covers them enough to not be seen?

Only a small update for now. The back piece has taken a lot longer than expected to get as smooth as I wanted, lots of dciifferent angles and directions on it. But I finally got it where I was happy and has had its brown base coat and sahara beige: I also completed another piece of ribbed fabric, so the second back piece is now finished. While the machine was setup for single stitches I thought I would get the belt stitched up so that its ready for when I get to it.

I've had a couple of weeks of holiday, so not much progress to report since my last update. The ab armour has had half of its weathering done: The back plate is almost ready for final paint and the back piece just needs a couple more sanding passes until it too is ready: I've also received the back box greeblies and belt boxes from Mr Paul ready to finish off the back and get started on the belt (also the belt slider not pictured): Now it'll be back to my normal amount of time spent working on it, which still isn't a lot, but I am in no hurry! Once I get the shirt finished I'll be able to work on the arm armour, as I don't want to do too much on that until I know it fits correctly over the shirt.

Thanks for the feedback. Its tricky to get a real idea at the moment due to only being the half, its always trying to fall down my arm as there's nothing to hold it up! I slapped together the arm armour to give a better idea (with the neck clipped to my tshirt to try and pull it up): I think you’re right. Definitely a bit of bunching due to being loose, especially at the top. However with this photo I can see the top of shoulder seam is not on my shoulder, which won't be helping. I'll need to get the whole thing finished up so I can see if this pulls up when finished and where any other adjustments need to be made, but making it smaller will be fairly simple once I know where needs it.

With the printer issues all out of the way I have been able to make some real progress on the build this week. I finished the chest piece off, with weathering completed and postezote added to the arm holes: The ab armour got its coat of Sahara Beige and the weathering started: Then I realised something was missing... Oh yes, the black parts. Meanwhile I had finished off the ribs of front panel of the undershirt, got everything sewn onto the main panel pieces and added the mesh sections: Which when combined along with the earlier completed sleeve, gave me half an undershirt! I would love to get feedback on the shirt and get confirmation that everything looks okay for level 2 certification? I really (really) don't want to stitch the rest of the ribs if there's something wrong!

Printing issues are (hopefully) finally resolved! The issue with my first print after the hot end change was due to the new one needing a cooler temp to print, it was too hot to stick to the bed. Brought it down 10C and first layer went down lovely. Got one small print done to test and it was time to get back to printing the back. 12 hours into the next part, thermal runaway kicks in and shuts down the printer. After investigation, there was a fault with early Revos where the thermister stopped reading properly. It instantly read 50C cooler, even though it wasn't, so the heater kicked in, thermister then read temp correctly and it rasied over 100C instantly. A good advert for fire safety for printers! E3D support were great, I explained the issue and they sent out a replacement the next day. Thats now installed and the last 2 parts of the back are finally printed! While this has been going on I have been able to make a bit of progress on parts that are printed. I got the kidney plates attached to the front armour and the weathering process has begun: I finally got the ab armour smooth and it has now had its brown base coat, ready for a laquer before the sahara beige goes on: With the printer fixed I can spend more time progressing now and hopefully get back on track!