I do a lot of instant armor updates via Facebook, but everytime I get to a good WIP point...I like to post my progress on that certain item.
Those of you who've met me know that for the last 4 years, I've used a set of custom Wickedbeard metal gauntlets. These have been excellent pieces, and although required yearly maintenance...served me well. This year however I decided it was time for an upgrade to match some of the upgrades I'm doing with my armor.
So, I downloaded and printed out a new set of WOF Boba gauntlet patterns, and decided on using 2 left gauntlets (the right would just be flipped pattern) as "heavy" gauntlets.
I started with 18 gauge cold-rolled carbon steel as my clamshells. I wanted a strong base that couldn't be bent, dented, or broken short of a train hitting me head-on. This is actually the clamshells for the right gauntelt that I switched out later. =P
18 gauge steel isn't easy to roll, but my beakhorn steak and a leather mallet work wonders.
Next, I cut out and welded on the housing foundation. This one piece pretty much sets the tone for how good your gauntlets are going to look. I had a little trouble with this on the right gaunt, but was able to modify it to work as needed.
Next thing was cutting out, bending, and welding all the small parts together. I used 20 gauge steel for the upper portion, because I needed to be able to bend these parts semi-easily. It's difficult to weld 2 different thickness of metal together, because the thicker metal always takes less heat and your chance for blowing holes in the thin metal is high. However, I made it through with relatively little issues.
Before I went to far, I wanted to do a test-fit of my old gauntlet blaster. Looks like it fits great, and don't mind the droopy tip (hah!). I like to incorporate old parts into my new parts, and this blaster is a homage to my former gauntlets that served me well for years. Currently, the blaster is having some electronics added for light effects. =)
Here's a top-down, and side shot after the keypad plate was installed, and some clean-up was done.
Here she is with the lower clamshell welded on (I used a piano hinge, and welded both halves to the hinge). You can see where I've started cutting out the block on the side of the lower shell. I think I'm going to do something a touch different with that...we'll see.
Here's a nice side shot of the entire rig. Currently it weighs almost 2lbs without electronics or blaster attached. I wasn't kidding when I said "heavy" gaunts. =P
I purposefully put some dinged up areas on the gaunts, to make them look war-beaten. Since these things are going to be next to impossible to hurt, adding dings during construction seemed the most logical choice.
Here's the right and left gaunt. As you can see, the pattern was flipped for the right so it's a mirror of the left. I'm working on detachable side weapons so I don't have to stick with the old flamethrower Boba/Jango used.
I'll have more updates coming this week.
