Gloria's ROTJ Biker Scout Build Thread

[Glory530]

More updates! I finished the cummerbund and pouches.

For the cummerbund, I used a sateen fabric and 2 layers of low loft batting (like I used for the vest sleeves). Because of my short torso, large hips, and having to wear my belt lower, the typical straight cylindrical shape of the cummerbund won't work for me without leaving a big gap ap the top. So I opted for a truncated cone shape. As much as I looked for and would have loved to run the calculations myself to get the dimensions, I found an easy button. I used the website https://www.templatemaker.nl/en/co/ to plug in the top and bottom diameters (calculated from the measured circumferences where the top and bottom of the cummerbund will sit) and the height (trigged out from the cummerbund height. The website unfolds the 3D geometry into a template, which when printed full-size, becomes a very nice pattern base! All I needed to do was add seam allowances and Velcro overlap to one side (the website lets you add overlap, but only to one side).

I sewed the two layers together at the top and bottom, inserted the batting, sewed the ribs (drawn on first with one of those markers that fades with air exposure, and I just followed the lines with the machine), hemmed the left and right side, and sewed on the Velcro. Here's the finished bund:

For the pouches, I used white duck cloth. I ended up making them from Woobiee's pattern in the "Pouch Dimensions and Patterns" pinned thread, which worked out great! The only change I made was to make the flap/attachment tab piece 5 in wide instead of 5.25 in so I could meet the 5 in wide attachment tab lancer requirement. To help the pouches keep their shape and also make them functional (which I am SUPER excited about), I made some boxes out of foam core and hot glue and slipped them in the pouches. I sewed the pouches on to the cummerbund right next to the top edge. Here's the bund and pouches together:

And here are some photos with me wearing everything together that I have finished so far. This is the first time I suited up in the costume and said, "wow, I'm actually starting to look like a biker scout!". It's amazing what the addition of one piece does for the overall look. I'm also taking note of all of the pieces that I will need to Velcro to each other to keep them all in place before submission. The bund was really having fun drooping at the pouches from the weight of them, so that will need to be stuck in place. Oh, I also took in the vest sleeves to fix the flare issue.

 

[Aradun]

Excellent job on the bund Gloria! Things are really taking shape nicely. If you have seen it yet, the post below contains pointers on where to strategically place velcro to keep things in place while trooping. It will help with your bund and pouch shifting.

http://forum.501stpathfinders.com/index.php?/topic/w18894-some-tips-for-keeping-your-scout-costume-together-while-trooping/

[Glory530]

Getting there!

I spent the weekend on the codpiece and butt flap. The codpiece is the same sateen fabric that I used on the cummerbund, and I used Aradun's pattern from his build thread (which has been very helpful for the soft pieces, by the way!). On the inside, I used one layer of batting and one layer of 0.5 in thick EVA foam underneath the double curve stitching to keep things from bunching up at the bottom, and two layers of batting above the curves. I had the batting on top of the foam on the front side so the edge of the foam doesn't show as the codpiece bends.

I was originally going to Velcro the codpiece to the inside of the cummerbund like most do, but the more I thought about it, the more I worried about the codpiece pulling the bund down. So I opted to extend the codpiece a few inches higher on top (sans batting) and sew it to the bottom edge of the vest. The elastic strap also goes up to the vest and Velcroes to the bottom edge of the back of the vest, on the outside. This way, the codpiece is essentially anchored by my shoulders and won't be pulling anything down.

 

I arrived at the butt flap dimensions by trial and error, starting with a pattern leant to me by a fellow garrison member. I think it's good, but if it needs to be shortened or taken in at the sides at all, please let me know!

[Chopper]

Eyeballing it, but I would take maybe an inch off each side and maybe a half inch off the bottom of the butt flap. You can always try marking the cuts with chalk first to see how it looks.

Compare yours with the CRL model:

 

[Glory530]

Butt flap: take 2!

Thank you for always providing constructive feedback, Chopper! This time, I measured the CRL photo and my photo and ran some ratio calculations to determine exactly how much I would need to trim off horizontally and vertically. If I were smart, I would have done this to start with. 🙄

I ended up trimming off 0.75 inch from each side and 0.5 inch from the bottom. It looks much better now!

[Chopper]

I agree, that looks much better. Great job.

[L0CKSTER]

Hi @Glory530 ! Just thought I’d let you know that this costume thread has been super useful to reference for materials and the like for my biker scout build that’s still in its veryyy early stages at the moment It’s a great resource and is very much appreciated. I’m sure others would agree!


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[Glory530]

Arm and leg armor update!

I built the bicep, forearm, and knee armor today. As with the chest and back, since the arm pieces were way too wide for me, I used boiling water to bend the sides in as much as I could. Between that and Lots of elastic tension, the forearms are still kind of loose. Velcro is going to be my friend for sure when it comes to keeping things in place! No issues with the knee armor (I've got plenty of leg circumference). I added the additional level 2 strap and rivets to the knee armor at this point, since I'm planning on level 2 submission.

I received my gloves from Wampa Wear a while ago. I got the smalls, and they fit perfectly. They are very comfortable with lots of lining on the inside, which I will be quite grateful for during those outdoor troops in November!

Here I am again with everything I have completed on, which is now the entire costume minus helmet and boots. Please let me know if I didn't put something on right or if any adjustments need to be made. I did my best to match how the CRL model is dressed, by my arms are much shorter, so spacing with everything on the arms is much different. Oh, and I did notice after taking the photos that the yellow tags in the gloves are extremely noticeable when not tucked inside, so I'll probably just trim those off.

 

[Chopper]

Everything looks good so far. You might want to bring your pouches up slightly, but that's all i can see. Overall, excellent work. 

[Glory530]

Next up is going to be the boots. As I mentioned in my first post, I have small feet, so a base boot with a single-colored sole in womens 7.5 was extremely difficult to find! I found this pair of Timberlands for $25 on Poshmark *in my size* a few months ago, so I scooped them up.

But I before I start cutting them up and gluing vinyl to them, I just want to confirm that they will be good for approval. I think I've seen other women here use this boot or an extremely similar pair from Timberland. If not, let me know and I will start searching again.

[Chopper]

Those boots should be fine.

[Glory530]

How did I spend my entire 3-day holiday weekend? Making boots!

I started with the base Timberlands from my previous post. When it came to marking the soles for cutting, I made things a little easier for myself - I made some templates out of card stock on the Cricut. Then I just held them in place on the soles while I traced. 

 

Cutting... was challenging with these boots. Luckily, my husband did this part for me, for which I am eternally grateful! He used an INSANELY sharp chisel and carefully hacked away at them for several hours. The cuts didn't end up very smooth, so I took over at that point with the Dremel and the long, skinny, cylindrical grinding attachment and just went back and forth over each cut until it was smooth. Some sprayed air and a little scrubbing with water and a toothbrush, and they were good to go.

   

From there, I just followed the cheesewhoopy tutorial, which was really good. Just to be safe, I used E6000 for everything instead of Super Glue for the few steps that call it out so that I don't have to worry about anything cracking or being too stiff if the boot flexes. Also, since my boots were a little floppy (maybe because they're used), I found it helpful to stuff them with crumbled up packing paper to help them keep their shape while I formed and glued on the vinyl.

Here are the finished boots. I still need to assemble and attach the holster because I ran out of time and energy, so that will be next!

    

[Glory530]

OK, NOW the holster is done!

The SC holster is pretty ginormous, at least for me, so I trimmed quite a bit off the front edge so it wouldn't go across the center of my shin and start wrapping around the other side of my leg (which would require quite a bit of heat forming anyway to fit the contour of my leg). I also rounded off the corners to make is look like the film holsters, even though I did not see that as a requirement for basic or L2 approval. I just think it looks better.

I was concerned that I would need to add something (like an internal Velcro strap) to keep the boot shaft from sagging under the weight of the blaster, but since the holster is nearly as tall as my boot shaft, I'm not sure if I need to do that. What do you guys think?

My blaster is from Blasterworks, and I feel like it sits kinda funny in the holster (tilted forward). It also bothers me that I can't take advantage of the magnet in the nose feature to keep the blaster from clunking around in the holster because the surface where the magnet would need to go is way below where the nose of the blaster is when holstered. Does this look ok as is, or do I need to do something to fix this? I could make a shim to go inside the front of the holster (under the slots) for the blaster to lean against so that it sits up straight. Again, I will do whatever the experts here think is best!

    

[Chopper]

Yes, the SC holster is quite large. It was originally sized to fit the Hyperfirm scout blaster, which was also inaccurately large.

Up to you, but I don't think you need to do anything to fix how your blaster fits for approval. I have a Darthvoorhees blaster, which is accurately sized and, even with magnets, it also jiggles around in the holster. Some people have made shims that sit inside the holster to help seat most blasters better, but that's a personal preference.

A velcro strap to will definitely help keep your boot up, even though, as you say, you might not need it. Maybe do a few troops without it and see?

[Tarok]

Lovely work on those boots @Glory530

Do you mind if I ask whether you needed a “walking foot” on your sewing machine to fix the velcro to the vinyl? Or was it just the leather needles?

(Apologies, sewing noob here, and the first thing my local place told me was walking foot else the vinyl will slide)

[Glory530]

1 hour ago, Tarok said:

Lovely work on those boots @Glory530

Do you mind if I ask whether you needed a “walking foot” on your sewing machine to fix the velcro to the vinyl? Or was it just the leather needles?

(Apologies, sewing noob here, and the first thing my local place told me was walking foot else the vinyl will slide)

Thank you!

No worries about the sewing question - we are all noobs at one point! I used a normal presser foot and leather needle to sew the Velcro onto the vinyl. There was enough texture on the back side of the Velcro that I had no issues with it sliding just holding it in place as I went. Where I definitely do recommend the walking foot, if you have not done these yet, are the quilted parts of the cummerbund and vest. Two layers of fabric and multiple layers of batting will want to shift around as you sew, and the walking foot will help with that.

[Aradun]

I second the walking foot to keep things straight and guide the material as you sew.

[Glory530]

After an entire weekend plus a few bonus hours, the final piece is complete! It was a pain to get everything fitted up and lined up correctly, but in the end, it worked out.

I followed the SC instructions for assembly with a few deviations:

• Long black snout greeblie painted medium gray (basic approval requirement)
• Earholes cut out instead of using the provided decals (basic approval requirement)
• Hobart #770580 replacement face shield used to make black color lens instead of using provided green lens (basic approval requirement)
• Fibre-Metal by Honeywell FM4001 Quick-Lok Helmet Adapter Kit used in place of provided bolt assemblies (Level 2 requirement)
• Added matte black adhesive vinyl to black out the areas inside of helmet exposed through earholes (basic approval requirement)

I'm going to share the process I used for marking and cutting the earholes, since I think it worked very well. I also used the same cutting process for the lens cutout:

1. I stuck the provided earhole decals onto paper and cut them out to make templates.
2. I placed the templates in position on the helmet and stuck them on with tape. 
3. I traced the outside of the template with dry erase marker. 
4. Then I removed the templates and traced the inside of the dry erase marker line with a sharpie and erased the dry-erase line.   
5. I drilled a hole in each earhole area to stick the Dremel in.
6. Using the Dremel and a drywall bit, I cut all the way around, just on the inside of the sharpie lines.
7. I switched to a small diameter sanding barrel and smoothed just to the outside of the sharpie lines, removing them.
8. Finally, I cleaned out the holes with a deburring tool. 

For the pads, I used a universal airsoft/tactical/bicycle pad kit that I found on Amazon for $10.99. With all of the included pads (and doubling up the ones in the temple area) I was able to get the helmet to fit my tiny child-sized head. Also, my balaclava is the Under Armour HeatGear Tactical Balaclava.

I think the only other thing worth noting is that I had to heat bend the lens clips (they came flat) before gluing them on to get the right shape like the photos in the instructions. Speaking of glue, I used Devcon plastic welder for all of the helmet gluing, which it looks like it is what most folks use for the helmets in my forum search. This is the most foul-smelling adhesive I have ever used in my life, but boy does it set quickly and hold fantastically!

And here are the photos of me in the helmet. All I have left to do is go through the "tips for keeping your scout costume together" post and Velcro the heck out of everything so that it says in place. Full costume photos to come after that is complete.

   

[Aradun]

Fantastic work Gloria and great documentation of your methods for future scouts. Keep up the great work.

[Retrofire]

On 9/12/2023 at 6:03 PM, Aradun said:

Fantastic work Gloria and great documentation of your methods for future scouts. Keep up the great work.

I'll have to second Aradun's praise. You're doing excellent work and threads like this one are invaluable for Pathfinders coming after you. Great reference and again, great work!

[Glory530]

Velcro is attached so everything stays in place, and submission photos are taken! Here's a sneak peek. If anyone sees any issues jumping out at them, please let me know, otherwise, I'm going to shoot these over to my GMLs and let the anxiety begin. What a wild ride this has been - I can't believe I'm finished!

[Chopper]

Should be an easy clear. Nice work. 

[masteroftheforce]

You look amazing!!! I'm so excited to have another scout sister in the garrison! Fantastic job.

[CatfoodRob]

Looks great, especially with the pouches raised . The gap between faceplate and helmet looks large on the left side , is that something you can adjust ? 
loving the boot work by the way . 

[Glory530]

Approved! Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who provided helpful feedback and advice in this thread or answered my questions. Also, a very huge thanks to fellow GLG scouts @masteroftheforce and @chillywill22 who gave me some awesome pointers, let me borrow patterns, or let me photograph the heck out of their helmet for reference. I'm excited to take this armor out for its maiden voyage on Saturday!