A Jawa's Scout Build (aiming for Lancer!)

[LittleScout]

Hello again all!

All soft goods are ordered and in production at Pilot Bay, helmet is ordered from them too, and SC's armor kit is incoming. Balaclava, boots, and gloves will be ordered soon. Nacho set me up with some small miscellaneous parts for the armor build. It's almost go-time!

This is my first armor build, so I'm nervous but excited to get started. Any tips, tricks, and things to keep in mind before starting are welcome as I await the BBB. I pretty much know next to nothing about it all and will probably be asking some simple questions here, so your patience is most appreciated, haha.

I'm aiming to get this submitted by April, with Lancer tweaks beyond that as needed (just in time for RotJ's 40th, hopefully). Let's do this!

[Aradun]

Awesome Victoria!  Sounds like you're off to a great start.  The armory team is here to help get you across the finish line so be sure to ask any questions you may have as you work on your build.  Looking forward to seeing your progress once everything is in hand.

In the meantime, take a look at the following threads, and take a look at some of the WIPs, perhaps search for those that may be tagged with SC so you can see what lies ahead and get some tips and tricks advice as you await BBB.

For Reference Photos as you work on your build:

If Lancer is your ultimate goal, keep the CRL handy during your build.  Don't stress about Lancer though.  Your primary goal is to get basic approval and start trooping.  You'll be able to fine tune the Lancer stuff after basic approval, but keeping the CRL handy during your build will help you build with an eye towards Lancer.  Check out the following post and make sure to look at some of the Lancer app to see what the armorers are noting so that you can plan out your build.

 

 

[BikerScout007]

Hey Victoria, since you're a local, make sure you join up at Scout Team Six.  We do armor parties throughout the year focusing solely on Pathfinder costumes!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1491559237815157

See ya there!

[LittleScout]

Thanks for the references everyone! I'm in ST6 and bookmarked Aradun's threads. Those plus the many WIP threads I've saved, and there's a lot of info to work with! Great recommendation to just get approved first too... as I build, I'll make Lancer mods as I can, but will definitely just get this thing done and looking good first.

The armor is here!!

Now waiting on my Dremel and files to arrive (they should be here by Sunday) and will run out to pick up some E6000, clamps, and a good Xacto knife within the next couple days.

Looking at Jen's Lady Scout build, it looks like boiling water is the way to go to get the armor pieces molded to your arms' and knees' size. Should I do that before or after doing some trimming/slots?

[Chopper]

I would do the final fitting and heat shaping after trimming, though some of it may be a bit of back and forth. Trim a little, fit the part. Trim a little more, fit the part, etc.

Doesn't matter so much for slot cutting, but I'd prob do it after shaping.

Did you get some lexan scissors? Those can work better for cutting in some scenarios vs the dremel.

[LittleScout]

23 hours ago, Chopper said:

I would do the final fitting and heat shaping after trimming, though some of it may be a bit of back and forth. Trim a little, fit the part. Trim a little more, fit the part, etc.

Doesn't matter so much for slot cutting, but I'd prob do it after shaping.

Did you get some lexan scissors? Those can work better for cutting in some scenarios vs the dremel.

Thanks for the info! I might try some boiled-water armor shaping later today if I have time, but otherwise today's plan is to E6000 some greeblies to the tank and TD.

Perfect - I just picked up some lexan scissors today, so those are ready to go!

Things can really get started once the Dremel arrives, so until then, it's probably just tinkering with the kit. Updates to follow!

[LittleScout]

Lots of progress in the past 24 hours!

First, I sanded the tank and glued the topper in place with E6000. So far so good there! It's clamped in place and curing now. Tomorrow, after a good 36 hours, I'll unclamp it and use the clamps to glue the TD's greeblies.

Then it was a couple hours at the stove bending the armor to shape with a pot of boiling water. Worked like a charm!! Looks like the forum is limiting the size of my picture uploads, so I won't post those, but you get the idea  EDIT: Dropbox is working now! See below...

Today I trimmed the bicep armor with Lexan shears quite a bit, curved the sides inward a little more with boiling water, and got them looking much better and form-fitting to my arm. A bit of back-and-forth, but the method worked amazing. Thanks @Chopper! Now they're off to the side until the suit comes in and they can be dialed in a little more. Super happy with the results though, and it was much easier than I thought armor would be!

Tonight I'll trim the knee armor just a little, because the bending is enough to make it fit my leg now. A little off the sides where the bottom elastic goes, and those will fit perfectly.

After that, there's not much I can do without the dremel, and the suit and soft parts will help with finishing the armor off. But I'll keep tinkering with this thing in the meantime...

Edited January 27, 2023 by LittleScout
Uploading pictures

[Aradun]

Sounds like your off to a great start. Regarding the posting of pics, the forum is limited in its ability to host photos in order to keep costs down. See the links below concerning how to get photos posted.

http://forum.501stpathfinders.com/index.php?/topic/22990-sharing-photos-with-dropbox/#comment-215704

http://forum.501stpathfinders.com/index.php?/topic/23053-faq-how-do-i-post-images/

Most people use an image hosting site like Imgur to insert their photos. The free Tapatalk app is another convenient method that allows you to post photos directly into your posts from your phone.

Keep up the great work!

[LittleScout]

Thanks all! I've set up Dropbox and the pictures are posting perfectly (see updated previous post!)

Today is a bit slower, progress-wise: I've glued the first TD greeblie on and am waiting for it to cure before I handle the piece and glue on the second. Like the tank topper, I lightly sanded the area where it would go and then glued it with good old E6000:

Otherwise, it's just sanding the finished pieces all day... oof. So far, the knee armor, TD caps, and belt are all done trimming-wise, so I figured it was a good time to really finish those off by cleaning up the edges. I used 400-grit sandpaper (very fine, so it takes a bit longer to use, haha) but the edges look very smooth. Satisfied with the results!

If I'm feeling brave, I'll try cutting slots in the knee armor. It's one of the lower armor parts, so at least if something goes wrong, it's not the main part of the costume, haha.

Just 2 days until the awaited Dremel gets here...

 

[LittleScout]

Edit: Here's the boots link, for anyone who comes across this thread and is interested in them: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ozark-Trail-Men-s-Troy-Boots/876076656

Remembered that I had the base boots lying around and decided to tinker with the sole pattern a little! It doesn't come out well in pictures, but I've started sketching the rectangle cut-out patterns.
 

But I realized that the back side of the sole (in the picture above) has an extra groove in the bottom, so I'm not sure how to go about making the pattern. The Scoutopedia and others' Lancer builds have 4 rectangles in this area, but their boots also have 4 grooves existing in the sole to match (hopefully this all makes sense). In the picture above as an example, my boot has 5. To get this to Lancer standards, do I need to have the correct number of rectangle cut-outs along the sole (so, 4 in this case) or do I just need to have enough to go with each groove? (so for my boot here, 5 for the 5 grooves)

Edited January 28, 2023 by LittleScout

[DukeOfNachos]

It comes down to close enough for government work. 
 
same boot, only bigger  

[Aradun]

You won’t be able to get a perfect match as the soles are different.  As as the Duke said, close enough is fine. Here’s a couple of shots of my boot from my build. You’ll see not all of the notches in the sole line up with the cut outs on the boot. I reworked the pencil drawings multiple times until I settled on this final iteration.






Play with it a little bit and once you have something you like, post up pics and the armory team will give you feedback. Don’t sweat it though. Close enough is what you’re shooting for.

[LittleScout]

Another day, more great progress! Thank you so much to everyone for the feedback. It made it much easier to tackle the bottom design on the boot sole this morning.

So with that info, the aim was to reach "good enough" and "clean enough" and so far it looks pretty decent. For the design, I used pictures of the original boot from the Scoutopedia, altering it to match the few extra grooves my boots have and simplifying some cuts that were more complicated. My main reference photo here, for the pro scouts' feedback and for any future scouts using this thread:

I picked up a nice cheap hot knife last night from Michael's, and it made the cutting much easier and faster... but still inevitably slow-going. After three hours of work, I got all of the inside sole's bottom bars done. The result for the back:

I tried to make the front half of the sole match the alternating big-small grooves of the originals instead of just cutting shallow rectangles the whole way down. I'm trying to make more work for myself I guess!  

Not sure how approval/Lancer mods will take it, but it looks decently like the originals I think? The full-boot shot a couple pictures down looks more official. A little messy, but could be worse:

Even messier inside, but hopefully no one can see much of that when trooping (and I'll clean it up more, plus reinforce any thin spots with Shoe Goo, once the main design is all done):

And finally:

Overall, not too bad for boots day 1! I'll probably work on them some more after lunch, since I like the Duke's method of using a drill to cut the slots' starter edges and will wait on the dremel to do those. The dreaded slots wait for another day!

Thanks in advance for any feedback from you experienced scouts out there. I'm liking how the boots look so far, but of course they need to meet approval and Lancer standards, not mine 

 

[Chopper]

Hi Victoria, I think the cuts your did on your heel look great. My option on the forefoot cuts though is that the big chunks you cut out are going to be an issue for level 2.

The boot cuts for Level 2 don't need to exactly match the Sierra Sneaker sole, they don't even need to match the length of each cut in the pattern. If you had done the shallow cuts, like you did on your heel, then you would've been a-ok.

The boots don't need cuts for basic approval, so GML dependent, you might be alright there. If your goal is to prep for Level 2 as much as practicable, then that's my take so far.

We're here to help, so stay motivated!

[LittleScout]

1 hour ago, Chopper said:

Hi Victoria, I think the cuts your did on your heel look great. My option on the forefoot cuts though is that the big chunks you cut out are going to be an issue for level 2.

The boot cuts for Level 2 don't need to exactly match the Sierra Sneaker sole, they don't even need to match the length of each cut in the pattern. If you had done the shallow cuts, like you did on your heel, then you would've been a-ok.

The boots don't need cuts for basic approval, so GML dependent, you might be alright there. If your goal is to prep for Level 2 as much as practicable, then that's my take so far.

We're here to help, so stay motivated!

Arg, well that's what I get for getting a little too creative, haha.

So for you folks who approve Lancers, is this boot design a no-go for approval? They weren't too pricey, so if the consensus is "no," I can toss this one and re-do the design on a new pair. Might as well fix that early on before the wraps and all, even though it isn't needed for initial approval.

[Chopper]

The boots you were using as a base seem fine.

The Level 1 and 2 requirements for the base boots are:

• The soles of the boot are tan.
• The boots have slots cut into the heels and toes as seen in the film.
• The boot sole is a single color with no visible stitching.

 

[LittleScout]

25 minutes ago, Chopper said:

The boots you were using as a base seem fine.

The Level 1 and 2 requirements for the base boots are:

• The soles of the boot are tan.
• The boots have slots cut into the heels and toes as seen in the film.
• The boot sole is a single color with no visible stitching.

 

Awesome. So same boot, but get a new one and re-do the cutting so there aren't those big notches, and it's Lancer?

[LittleScout]

Update: sketched a new pattern on the other boot... how does this look for Lancer? I've copied the previous posts this time for the pattern, and all the cuts will be shallow. I also tried cutting the top squares on the back sole of the already-cut boot to see how it looks:

For the top squares, I cut them so they go all the way up; I'd do this for the long bar between the front and back parts of the sole too. It made the cutting much easier. Is that all right?

Figured I'd get some input before cutting this time 

It isn't required for basic approval, but since it's tricky, I'll try to get these cuts finished and Lancer-worthy before submitting. That way if they aren't right, I don't have to redo the entire boots.

 

[Chopper]

23 hours ago, LittleScout said:

Awesome. So same boot, but get a new one and re-do the cutting so there aren't those big notches, and it's Lancer?

Just to be clear, "Lancer" is not just about the materials and the craftsmanship, it's also about how it fits on you.

Generally though, yes -- that boot, with the cuts, and with vinyl coverings that fit properly in proportion to the rest of your costume, should have what it takes for Lancer clearance.

Your marked pattern looks okay. Just remember that the cuts don't need to be all that deep. The depth you made them on the heel is just fine.

[LittleScout]

Boots Day 2...

18 minutes ago, Chopper said:

Just to be clear, "Lancer" is not just about the materials and the craftsmanship, it's also about how it fits on you.

Generally though, yes -- that boot, with the cuts, and with vinyl coverings that fit properly in proportion to the rest of your costume, should have what it takes for Lancer clearance.

Your marked pattern looks okay. Just remember that the cuts don't need to be all that deep. The depth you made them on the heel is just fine.

Awesome, thanks @Chopper! The cuts were my biggest worry since you can't undo or redo those much without having to buy a new boot. I'm planning to have PilotBay do the wraps, and they tailor fits, so the rest of the boot should be proportional. But that's a good point to keep in mind.

That being said, I'm glad the pattern was a-ok, because I cut that boot today; I had nothing else to do for this costume, and the other boot is a goner, so there wasn't much to lose 

Kept it to shallow cuts, and followed the patterns of the folks above as well as other tutorials on the forums. Once again the hot knife made it easy to slice through the rubber, so that was a good investment. Now this boot is much more like the others on here:

A little scratchy, but based on what I've seen on the forums, that seems difficult to avoid, haha.

Otherwise, the TD's rectangle greeblie has been glued and is now curing. And the dremel arrived!! I'll look over the manual tonight and get a feel for it, and then maybe try drilling some slots tomorrow, starting with lower armor like the knees and working up to the more major, easier-to-see stuff on the torso and arms. After getting the hang of that, it's on to the armor trimming once the soft goods get here.

A bit rocky yesterday with the boots mishap, but things are getting back on track. Woohoo!

[Aradun]

Nailed it! The boots look great!

[LittleScout]

So happy that the boot cuts are now approvable... thanks to all for your input and help to fix that up! I'll order a replacement pair within a week or two, but at least that one boot is set. In the meantime, back to the armor work.

Today... slots!!

The Dremel worked like a dream, thanks to some help from the Duke during a little setup confusion. Using the cutter it came with, it chewed pretty easily through the plastic in just about a minute per slot:

Did this for all four knee armor slots today. With that starter opening, I slowly hacked away at it with an Xacto knife, followed by sanding it down with needle files, then back to the knife, then files, repeat, repeat. A couple cuts shot out and scratched the armor, argh, but they're faint enough, and inevitable for a first-time slot-cutting job. Truly slow, agonizing work... about a good dozen to go... woohoo 

But the result is good:

When it's time for elastic, I'll gently smooth the slots just a little with some of the 400-grit sandpaper. Otherwise, this one's done!

Off to keep cutting, slicing, and sanding these things... and maybe tomorrow, I'll glue some velcro inside this armor piece in preparation for the elastic (unless I'm on a roll with slot cutting, haha). The elastic job itself is on hold though until my suit arrives, so that way the elastic length is measured with the suit's fit in mind. 

[LittleScout]

Good progress these past couple days: the knee armor is fully done and just waiting for velcro/rivets, the dropboxes have been sanded and have slots, and today I chipped at the forearm armor pieces to size them down just a little, followed by more shaping via the boiling-water technique. At this point, everything is pretty much set for when the soft goods arrive and it can all be tried on together.

In the meantime, I've checked out how the tank sits on the back armor. I know it should have some gaps like it does in the movie, but I wanted to run it by the folks here. Are gaps like this approvable, or should I try getting it to lie a little closer to the back armor?

 

 

[Chopper]

The gaps you have between your back and tank armor are totally fine. No need to do any more with the fit.

[LittleScout]

Thanks to an armor party last weekend, progress has picked up again!

Knee armor is done, and pretty much all the costume's rivets are in thanks to the Duke's help. The tank is now secured to the back, elastic and all. I'm now just procrastinating on applying the decals, haha. The tutorials on the forums have been super helpful, so it's just a matter of sucking it up and doing them. One day soon...

This week has been pretty much all strap/elastic work. The knee armor's was easy, but the dropboxes are proving to be a little tricky when it comes to having them hang right. Being a trooper on the smaller side, the straps are shorter, which is not giving the buckles a whole lot of room. I've attached the straps inside the boxes with velcro so they have more adjustability. The back strap of the finished box in particular is being difficult, because the buckle is resting slightly behind the corner of the belt. Some pictures:

(The box on the right is finished; the left one is dangling until I can fix the first one)

Side view of the finished box:

And the back strap, the one having the issue (the top left corner of the buckle is slightly under the belt at this angle, but it's a bit worse when it's hanging normally):

Any tips on how to resolve this? The straps are pretty much the perfect length to have the boxes hang about 1 inch from the belt, and the front straps look great. It's the back ones that are a good length but are causing the buckle to get pressed under the belt...