Scout Trooper: The Mandalorian - (Approved) Christina's Build

[Dart]

Really nice work! This would also be great reference for other Scouts going the remnant way.

[TB5994]

lovely build, any links to the ribbed elastic you found?

[TKZombie]

Removed

[Aradun]

Awesome! Again, can’t wait to see you suited up and everything complete. You’re gonna look amazing!

I’m saving this thread for reference down the line should I elect to do a build with similar weathering. This is a great resource Christina. Thanks for documenting the process with such detail and posting so many photos!


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[TKZombie]

The backpack is up next, I had to do some modifications first, as the ROTJ back piece is attached with black elastic straps at the top and bottom along with a rivet on the bottom of the tank. I removed those, added a bracket on the back plate to attach the top of the tank and at the bottom drilled out the rivet and filled the hole (still needs some filling around the edges) and added a bracket to secure the bottom fo the tank down. 

[TKZombie]

Did a test assembly of a few pieces over the flight suit and neck seal, the back is still being weathered so I had to hold the chest in place also the cummerbund and pouches have't been weathered yet. Their up after the backpack and helmet are done

Base weathering is done, I have to start the distressing adding scratches and wear marks across all of it still.

Thoughts on the colour?

[andylah]

this weathering is simply stunning...

 

well done.

 

[Retrofire]

Really well done Christina! Your weathering techniques are outstanding and do justice to the live action version!

If you’re in need of any 1.5” off-white webbing for your strapping let me know. I have a roll of it that’s been sitting in my fabric bin forever and needs a home.

 

[TKZombie]

The back armour...

Base colour applied

The base wiped down and then a darker base in the creases added

First layer of weathering

Finally the weathering is done

The helmet will be this weekend.

Then onto adding distressing and wear marks to finish the armour off but everything needs to dry for a few days for that.

Then onto the straps, cummerbund, pouches, and cod weathering. 

 

[TKZombie]

Work gets far too much in the way...slowing down my progress. I had to work the whole weekend.

In the few spare hours I had I wanted to start to weather the cummerbund and cod piece but when I started to analyze the photo reference I noticed several details that needed to be adjusted before I can start weathering. 

This is the cummerbund from Steph's Imperial Outfitters who made the ones for the series. You can see there are flaps above the pouches that attach to the them to the cummerbund. 

But in the series they did not attach that way. Here in these screen shots you can see those flaps are not present, this is the same on all of the costumes.

So I took the flap and folded it down and sewed it down against the back of the pouch and added velcro to that flap (TIP: sew on the velcro strip before sewing the flap down)

Then you need to adjust the placement of the velcro that is sewn on the cummerbund as its too high for how low the pouches sit in the series. The problem is once you remove the velcro you have holes left over and once you weather those will stand out much more. So I rotated the cummerbund 180 degrees so those holes are at the bottom under the pouches. This of course creates a problem with the closure of the back flap as its is supposed to close right over left rotating makes it left over right. So that then requires re-switching the velcro on those flaps to keep the right over left closure.

Here is the adjusted velcro position on the front and the pouch modified. 

And here it is with the pouches both adjusted and attached.

Now back to the flap closure. In studying the details I found two things, first they added an additional seam in the middle of the flap,  its not exactly middle it varys Scout to Scout but they all sea to have that detail added. It really stands out as the seams are all weathered. 

The second thing I found is there is a shot were a Scout is riding away to get the package and his cummerbund closes left over right and doesn't have that added seam detail. It's overlapping quite a lot so its possible this was just dressed incorrectly, as he's one of the 2 Scouts with the child after and his cummerbund is right over left in all other shots. 

Here is the added back seam in the middle of the top closure flap.

So all these adjustments really slowed me down my progress, I know these are not flagged as a requirement for the CRL, but they are visual details that should be there to match screen accuracy. 

Lastly the cod piece, I don't like how it attaches with Velcro to the back of the Cummerbund, two reasons you need to sew velcro on the back of the cummerbund but not have that thread go all the way through to the front so you don't see those stitches. The other reason then it's really fixed as to where it sits and can't be adjusted lower or higher. 

So I took a piece of 1 1/2" black neon webbing and sew on velcro at the ends to create a belt you can wear around your waist. Then sew a velcro strip to the belt so that the Cod attaches to it, I add a loop on the Cod strap to go over the webbing belt. Then you step into it and you can adjust where it sits around your waist and easier to put on that first then add the cod overtop. 

Now on to the weathering...then the helmet this weekend.

 

[Aradun]

Great attention to detail Christina. Your cod fix is genius!

[BikerScout007]

6 hours ago, TKZombie said:

The second thing I found is there is a shot were a Scout is riding away to get the package and his cummerbund closes left over right and doesn't have that added seam detail. It's overlapping quite a lot so its possible this was just dressed incorrectly, as he's one of the 2 Scouts with the child after and his cummerbund is right over left in all other shots. 

 

 

The "bar code" on the helmet is on the wrong side, so this is a shot that was flipped in editing.   

Nice work as always, Christina.  

[TKZombie]

12 minutes ago, BikerScout007 said:

The "bar code" on the helmet is on the wrong side, so this is a shot that was flipped in editing.   

Nice work as always, Christina.  

I was looking for sign if it was flipped and totally missed the helmet bar lines that their only on one side. Theres a lot of flipped shots in the series in all the action sequences. Non symmetrical costumes make those leap out. 

[BikerScout007]

1 minute ago, TKZombie said:

I was looking for sign if it was flipped and totally missed the helmet bar lines that their only on one side. Theres a lot of flipped shots in the series in all the action sequences. Non symmetrical costumes make those leap out. 

Yeah it's just something that happens in editing.  You got all the shots assembled and realize the scene would work better if such and such character was facing the other way....  brings me back to my film school days!

[TKZombie]

10 minutes ago, BikerScout007 said:

Yeah it's just something that happens in editing.  You got all the shots assembled and realize the scene would work better if such and such character was facing the other way....  brings me back to my film school days!

I'm a film producer so I know all about flipping shots. 

[TKZombie]

As we don't know how the chest to back and shoulders are connected on the Mandalorian Scout Trooper. I tried to find a way based on screen shots. There is no canvas connector between the chest and back like on the ROTJ Scouts. There is a tiny to small visible gap between both pieces and its black underneath so I would guess the used black nylon or likely elastic to connect the two pieces. Its also doubtful they used the zip tie method ROTJ Scout use to connect the shoulders to the chest/back, so I would imagine they likely used the same black ribbed elastic strapping they used on the all the other pieces. 

Screen shots of the chest and back connection, on one Scout the gap is very tiny and on the other its a little separated. 

So here is my approach to connect the pieces. Here is the top view of the chest and back pieces connected on my Scout.

And with the Shoulder attached.

I attached these so the chest, back and shoulders separate so the pieces breakdown easier for transporting. The black elastic is glued with e-6000 to the back piece. Then the other half is connected to the chest with a sew on snap.

Top view showing the snap that connects to the chest

Bottom view of the chest, a sew on snap is sewn to a piece of white elastic and that is they glued to the chest plate. 

Bottom view connected together. There is a second sew on snap sewn to the bottom of the chest to back connection for the shoulder strap to attach to. 

The shoulder strap has the elastic strapping used on the rest of the pieces glued to the piece and has a sew on snap at the end to connect to the chest/back strap.

Here it is attached.

I prefer these types of snaps as I've used them on multiple costumes and they have never failed or popped unlike the Line 24 snaps most people use. 

 

Then for the lower chest and back connection I glues the elastic strap to the back plate and then glued a strip of velcro to the inside of the chest and the strap that feeds through the chest has velcro sew onto it. 

I went this way instead of feeding the strap through the chest and folding back on itself and connecting to the back of the strap so there was no stitching visible on the strap. 

 

[TKZombie]

Onto the helmet...Weathering in mid progress.

And the finished helmet, I keeping with the rest of the armour the heavier weather was applied as well. 

Just need to do the chin cup to finish it off then all the armour is weathered. 

[TKZombie]

Onto the soft parts weathering. First is toning down the white so it blends better with the weather armour.

I used a tea dye to take away the bright white. First off was a test using various scrap of nylon and fabric to see how they all take the tea and trying different teas to see what colour to dye the pieces. I tried 3 different teas and got a variety of results. The test glasses each had 2 tea bags steeped for 15 minutes then the pieces were added for 5 minutes. 

I decided to go with the Earl Grey.

I boiled a big pot of water and added 4 tea bags and again steeped the tea for 15 minutes then added the pieces. The test pieces were a little darker than I wanted so I only had the pieces in for about 30 seconds except for the pouches, their material was different and they sat for 15 minutes to get to a similar tone. Once dyed, I ring out the left over tea and I hang them outside in the sun to dry. Then iron them smooth and here is the final colour.

Next up is weathering the seams and edges. That is a whole different process from the armour, details to follow...

[TKZombie]

On to the cummerbund, cod piece and pouches weathering...

 

 

[bobafett4ever]

You're help and detail has been invaluable.  Thanks for posting this.

I'm basically doing exactly what you're doing.  I'm nervous about the weathering though.  I'm going to use the Earl Gray Tea today to dye my white goods... but the painting... that scares me

[Omaha Joe]

Excellent work Christina..!  Here’s to nominating your finished Mandalorian Scout build for the CRL example when completed!!

Me, watching this thread:  

 

[BikerScout007]

3 hours ago, Omaha Joe said:

Here’s to nominating your finished Mandalorian Scout build for the CRL example when completed!!

She's miles ahead of everyone else so as far as I'm concerned she's got the job.

[TKZombie]

2 hours ago, BikerScout007 said:

She's miles ahead of everyone else so as far as I'm concerned she's got the job.

Thanks,

I just got replacement webbing in the mail today to attached the belt and drop boxes, that is the last build detail. Then just some final tweaking of some weathering in spots and its ready to go. Hopefully by the end of the weekend it will be finished to show the full costume. 

[Aradun]

Hopefully by the end of the weekend it will be finished to show the full costume. 

Cant wait for that Christina! Been following this from the start. Your work is amazing. I agree with Joe and Mickey about you being the CRL model when all is said and done.

[TKZombie]

I originally had Imperial Boots gloves but found them quite tight fitting so I ordered Wampa Wear gloves.

Imperial Boots left, Wampa Wear right.

They are both size large but the Imperial gloves fit a little small. This is the Imperial glove on top of the Wampa glove its lined up on the right so you can see its noticeable the width difference.

I'll be using the Wampa gloves.

It looks like those are what was used on the series as the clips Wampa wear has on the right glove are visible on screen and on the SDCC display.