New Mando

[Patrikar Dala]

LOVE the Backplate!!! Nice job on the spines!

[Ronik]

Seriously? Those spine vents look awesome!  Cant wait to see that backplate finished up! And thank you, thank you, thank you so much for molding it around to your sides. It's disheartening to see a great kit from the front, then they turn sideways and you realize there's nothing there.

Did you like the helmet you used? There's so much mixed feedback on that model I don't know what to think. It looks pretty flimsy in the box, but I'm hoping it'll hold up...

Thanks, vod! I'm pretty freakin' excited myself. And as for the helmet, you get what you pay for and this is the cheapest bucket you can buy, so... For my first kit I bought an MDSB assassin helmet and loved it, but, I just don't have the extra money this time and with DSB's current situation, he's not making any more. The problem with the MDSB helmets is I feel like modifying it is like doodling on the Mona Lisa, you just can't improve on perfection. With the cheap helmet, you're polishing a turd to make it prettier, so, who cares if you break it. This time, I figured I'd buy a cheapy and mod the hell out of it. The nice thing with this bucket is if you break it, you're not out too much money and it's easily modified/upgraded. I'll take and post more pics to show you how I've reinforced it. And I also plan on continuing the spine vents over the vents on the back of the helmet, so watch for more modification pics!

[Kiel'ani Cardas]

Ahhh, yeah. The lines on the asassin are really -in a strange, intimidating way- gorgeous. Wish those were still in production, because I'd like a helmet that can take a beating and I don't have the means to scratchbuild a metal one. (If I had my way, my world would be hammered out of sheet metal to guard against klutz moments.)

Your reinforcement pics would be super-helpful, vod! I am pretty much limited to the cheapy, but if I can toughen it up a little that would be great. Hopefully I can get started soon to get some modding experience, and this way if it's awful..... scrap it and get a new one.

Continuing the vent design on the helmet? Again, my little design-nerd-self is grateful to your attention to detail. Amazing, how so many would have glossed right over that!

[Ronik]

Thanks for the encouragement! I figure the vents on the helmet would be stupid to ignore considering I'm adding vents, lol. I'll get those pics up tomorrow!

[Ronik]

Here ya go, Kiel.

So, here you can see where I've reinforced the seam on the inside of the helmet. I initially glued the pegs together with gorilla glue to keep them from separating. I then added some high strength, high heat hot glue to give it a little more stability since I'm going to be sanding and Bondoing the exterior seam.


Then, around the base of the helmet, I added some support using an unfolded wire hanger and used the same high strength hot glue to secure it in place.




Now, on the exterior, you can see where the seem runs across the two halves (green) which continues down behind the included snap-on ear pieces (red). These add some more support to help keep the halves together. The snap-on portions are just as cheap as the rest of the bucket and on one of the ear pieces, the pegs that hold it on actually broke off when I was trying to attach it. This actually wasn't too big of an issue because I gorilla glued the ears on anyways.



So, while it does take a little more elbow grease on your part to make this kind of helmet look good, it's a lot cheaper than most and requires less modification than the HBF helmets.

Hope this helps and I'll keep adding more pics as I go!

[Kiel'ani Cardas]

Thanks so much, Ronik! Sorry; life hit this week so I didn't get a chance to take a good look until now. This is going to be really helpful! (Never would have thought of using a cheap lil' coat hanger.) I'll definitely refer to this as I build.

[Ronik]

Getting working on bondoing the helmet





And starting to lay on some Bondo on the pistols

[Ca'tra Talyc]

Would you mind if I was *ahem* directly inspired by those vents? I'm looking for mod ideas for my backpack and I think something like that has potentional.

[Ronik]

as long as i get mine done first so can rock them out for a bit first!

[Ronik]

So, I haven't gotten a whole lot of work done recently. Been working when I can, but mostly been busy working on helping some of our new members work on building their stuff.

But, got done sanding the Bondo on the seem of the helmet and gave it a couple coats of primer.



And got some work done filling in the holsters' gaps with Apoxie

[Pointoforigin]

Everything about this build looks good. That backplate and those pistols are gold.

[Ronik]

Ok, haven't gotten a whole it of work done lately, been busy helping others with their armor. But here's a new pic of my back plate WIP with the vents.


And a shot of my bucket with the first layers of primer, trying to make it all smooth.


And working on continuing the vents up the spine into the head.

[Patrikar Dala]

The spines are still amazing vod!

[Kiel'ani Cardas]

^^This. The spines are still a great touch, especially in the helmet!

The helmet looks great too! Thanks for all the guidance on that.

[Ronik]

Pistols are almost ready for base coats of paint


Added a little more detail to the shin/knee plates with the vertical stripe


Vents on the helmet are finally done!!! Bucket's almost ready for paint