Marrok Kel WIP SWG-style armor starting Page 2 (very pic intensive)

[Slade Kel (Marrok)]

Su'cuy vode and burc'yase. Other than the brigade stuff, I haven't just been sitting on my shebse, I've been slowly working .

Marrok Kel is Slade's adopted son, an orphan of the war instigated by Darth Caedus. Some of these plates are literally years old, others are as new as today, but they've all been tweaked and modified using the skills I've slowly but surely built up in the years I've been doing this stuff. Given the wibbly-wobbly nature of the creation, I don't have any un-hammered or un-painted pics of most of the plates, but I'll put up what I have. Without further ado:



Torso and thigh plates, base coat of Rustoleum metallic bronze (or possibly brass, I can never remember which). Yes, these were painted at night . I do a lot of spraypainting at two in the morning, though perhaps no so much soon with the winter coming. Disregard the cod piece and hand plates. The cod is not long enough (insert obligatory cod-length-joke here) so I'm hitting the drawing board with it again. The hand plates will be replaces with more extensive coverage versions.




Same plates, second coat, Rustoleum Hunter Green. You can see that the left chest plate is the same colorshift blue-purple as much of Slade's. It's supposed to be one of his plates, worn to honor him; I'll be making templates of the exact battle damage on my Slade plate soon and transferring it to this one, along with the weathering that's already there. I also sanded the shab out of this one, to the point where the color shift barely works anymore.






Here they are after a little further weathering. Probably not the end of the weathering, but nearer to done.



These shins date back to about mid- to late-08, probably the second or third set I ever made. They never made it onto a kit, but with a little trimming and re-shaping, they look to be about wearable.


CW Death Watch gauntlets, courtesy of Stormtrooperguy and Watch City Armory.

22gauge steel vambrace shell with a 22gauge plate added on top of the back. That second plate dates back to my DCon 09 version of Slade. Its brother was 16 gauge, and uncomfortably heavy when added to the back of another 22ga vambrace.

So I hacked up one of the DW gaunts and used it to back the second plate . I may do the same with the first, or just wear the other DW gaunt itself. Eventually, I'll have to pick up another pair from the illustrious WCA, when they go back into production.





Shoulder and bicep armor, medieval style armor, pattern courtesy of armourarchive.org. The plates are 16ga aluminum, the same as the torso plates. They're actually made from a piece of scrap aluminum I've had hanging around since making those plates. I only had enough for the one arm, and the shoulder plate of the second, so the bicep armor for the other shoulder will either be 22ga steel or 3mm sintra. These are only dished and planished, they haven't had a finishing sanding yet.

So, from here I have to finish the shoulders, make some knees, a cod piece, a back plate and new hand plates. I also have a shiny new M-DSB Mercenary helmet on the way for this kit. Soft parts are either going to be predominantly dark brown or dark grey, I haven't decided yet. Knowing me, updates will probably be sporadic, as I tend to go waffle between hardcore work mode, banging out the most of a suit of armor and lazy mode where I might finish one piece in a month. Either way, I'll do my best to keep you lot updated. Comments/criticism/adoration welcome and demanded .

[GreatSkyRiver Falco]

nice!
I want my next set to be metal, just have very limited space in my apt.

[Kel T Skirata]

Love the Metal , cos - You Cant Kill the Metal ! lol looks brilliant vod , my metal armour is getting down sized for the wee Kel T (youngest son) once his dad is in order . Looks great .

[Slade Kel (Marrok)]

nice!
I want my next set to be metal, just have very limited space in my apt.

Thanks, and don't let space issues discourage you! When I first started metal-working for mando armor, my workspace was literally about 4'x4'.  I still use the same equipment that I bought way back then, too.

Black and Decker folding worktable

Tin snips for cutting, Ball-peen hammer, 2x4 with chunk drilled and sanded out for dishing and automotive half-football dolly for planishing. The 2x4 and dolly both clamp right into the workbench, the two parts can be widened or tightened. A while back, I also invested in a set of hitachi open throat shears, at the Mand'alor's suggestion. $150, but saves hours of cutting. It take me about fifteen minutes to cut an entire set of armor out with it, from throat to toe.

Love the Metal , cos - You Cant Kill the Metal ! lol looks brilliant vod , my metal armour is getting down sized for the wee Kel T (youngest son) once his dad is in order . Looks great .

Heh, you in fact, Can't Kill the Metal, vod . Plastic armor is all well and good, but I'm a metal lad at heart; thanks .

[GreatSkyRiver Falco]

my landlady live below me

[Kel T Skirata]

my landlady live below me

LOL , put in the plug ! and let the bath runeth over " YOU cant KILL the METAL " lol

[Slade Kel (Marrok)]

Heh, I can see that being a problem. Pretty much everyone within a hundred feet can hear when you're hammering inside, and if you do it outside, you're talking a couple blocks, unless you live in the middle of a city. On the other hand, depending on where you live there aren't noise laws in effect until around 10 PM .

[GreatSkyRiver Falco]

yeah, my dad used to be foreman of an iron shop when i was much younger and i was there all the time messing with the scrap pile. even put the handle of an oxy-acetelene torch in a table vise to heat up steel (I was such a little sword monger!) so i am no stranger to the noise and hammer impact. in fact the work tables were steel! smashing a big steel hammer on a steel bar on a steel anvil which was mounted on the steel table! what was that? I cant hear you on account of my ears still ringing

not to mention this old building transmits every vibration all over( you can feel doors closing in other parts of the structure)

Ive actually used a maul( sledgehammer head with an axe on the backside) without a handle as a mini anvil for some small stuff with several layers of leather , old towels ect. under it to absorbe the impact, but that aint working for large plates.

I still have stuff to do to kit #1 so metal can wait a spell.

[Slade Kel (Marrok)]

So you have a higher starting point than me . I didn't even have shop class in school, just jumped into this stuff feet first. There's no rush though, mercs isn't going anywhere, so metal plates can indeed wait.

That said, I'm somewhat bored, so I mocked up my new hand plate design in paper, then in some scrap sintra to see how it'd fit together.









The final version will be metal, and the shapes will be tweaked to fit together better. I silver sharpie'd the edges because I didn't think the black sintra would show up as well against the dark brown gloves, but it also helps show where the plates meet a little better.

Haven't decided if I'm going to put plates on the top of the fingers, but I am going to put some on the palm and underside of the fingers of just the left hand. That one's going to be a legit crush-gaunt, designed for grabbing lightsabers, amphistaffs and vibroswords. While the gloves are theoretically made of 'beskar impregnated fabric' or would likely have internal plates, I figure having them visible plays to the costuming aspect better.

[Kel T Skirata]

Good job you mentioned the Sharpie ! i thought you were finished , i was ready for a scathing critique . lol

[Slade Kel (Marrok)]

Finished hammering the other bicep armor, and cut the hand armor out of metal and hammered it out.








Like the shoulders and biceps, I still have to finish them off; grind and smooth the edges, sand down and wire-wheel the top surfaces of the plates. I'm definitely thinking to put plates on the palm and underside of the fingers on the left glove; I ripped the shabla thing while fitting the plates. They're cheap $10 Walmart gloves anyway, so I'll be gluing the plates right onto them.

[Kel T Skirata]

Very cool Slade . i might give that a go .

[Slade Kel (Marrok)]

Thanks, and go for it . With the hand plates, I didn't dish them like you would other plates. Instead, I shaped them pretty much by way of planishing; put 'em against the automotive dolly and hammered them into shape. The good thing with using the 22ga steel and 16ga aluminum is that after hammering them, you can still bend them a little bit to get the fit just right.

Edit: Moar.



Copper pipes cut down. I have to grind the edges down and even 'em out, and do a little hammering to straighten out some parts.

[GreatSkyRiver Falco]

 

glove armor gonna be nice!

[Sarsk]

Looking good!

I'd hate to get backhanded by that glove!