I Accomplished Something! I promise!

If anyone who's following this is curious, this is what I managed to get done before life got in the way.

It's not 100% complete, because it's still in pieces. And it did get slightly crushed under the hot glue... cartridges? what are those things called, but it wasn't anything I couldn't fix.

My hope is that after the holidays I can start working on this more, so I can maybe get it done well before NEXT Halloween, because right now, I barely have time to eat most days, with everything I need to do every day.

A Second Apology For A Lack of Updates

At this point, I probably seem incredibly flaky. In reality, I'm only somewhat flaky. It's just been a ridiculously busy, stressful year. About 2 weeks after the last apology post, we found out where we'd be moving, but it took them a little while to actually give us a timeline... which we got literally 24 hours before they dropped my husband on an airplane and sent him home to me. After which point we had to pack, get the new (used; apparently, VERY used) car repaired (a $35 part cost about $1200 to replace... because it was about 12 hours of labor to disassemble basically the entire engine, because GM uses shitty parts; this same part apparently requires replacement every 2-3 years. We are never buying any GM vehicle, ever again, even if they develop a hybrid that runs on dreams and unicorn farts), and then pack all of our valuables and the cat into said car and drive 2000 miles across what can be charitably called "flyover states" (flat, boring, with more cows than people and more churches than bars) until we reached North Carolina, where it is humid and flat and wet and unpleasant, and it means fiberglassing and resining my armor is going to be a bitch because of the humidity, which is what I get for procrastinating.

So, yeah. Needless to say, being a badass for Halloween did not happen this year.

I suppose you're thinking, "Oh, great. NOW she's going to claim that the gauntlet she had mostly done got squished by military movers and she has to start over which means even more delays." NOPE! I actually packed those in a shoebox between two pillows, so my gauntlets are fine. Although the military movers managed to wreck three bookcases. All of our actually delicate shit survived (because if I learned nothing else at Macy's I learned the following: how to fit bras and how to pack china so your idiot customers don't break them on the way home), but they managed to crush our bookcases (classic compression fractures; something heavy was put on top of them).

And then we spent 2 months getting settled and then I got a job which was supposed to be part time but turned out to be almost full time but is now part time again and we STILL haven't replaced the damned bookcases so all the books are piled up in the corner of the computer/work room. And on top of that one of our boxes didn't get shipped so my in-laws have my Star Wars heels and my favorite sweater ever.

I DO however have all of the stuff I need to get at least a prototype of all of my pieces done, so as soon as the holidays are over and I'm not doing all of the things (because my husband works 12 hour days usually), I'm going to see about getting back into it, because if I lose track of it again, it'll never get done.

So Merry Christmas, or Happy Whatever-You-Happen-To-Celebrate-This-Time-Of-The-Year-And-If-You-Don't-Celebrate-Anything-Have-An-Awesome-Month-I-Guess, and I'll see you all when the Gregorian Calendar turns over. Assuming we don't all die in the Apocalypse next week, which we won't, because there's no prophesy and the next person who says the words "but MAYAN CALENDAR!!!!" gets their teeth knocked in for being an idiot.

Apologies for the Lack of Updates

THE TL;DR VERSION:
It's been an incredibly crazy couple of months, and I had to put my armor build on hold for a bit. I have the left gauntlet cut, folded, and mostly glued. A couple of scaling problems on the smaller pieces, but nothing I can't fix. I'll be working on the right gauntlet and torso next. My hope is to have the whole set completed by Halloween. I've also got a couple of other nerdy Star Wars projects and similar in the works, and since hopefully after Labor day my schedule will have cleared a bit, I should be able to get back to work.

FIRST, AN APOLOGY...

I've been out of town a lot lately. I went to go see my husband graduate from USAF Basic Training (he was an honor grad!), then my work schedule got incredibly hectic because of the time off I took, then I went to go finish moving out of my parents' house (which is roughly 3000 miles away from my current home), and then I got back, my work schedule was hectic again due to more time off, I had a bunch of paperwork to do for my husband's command because our first base assignment was going to be in Europe, and then my ceiling started leaking, because why not just make it rain in my living room?

And then I was bumped to full-time at work so I work 40 hours a week and when I get home I'm tired and hate the world (because every customer at my job seems to be an idiot, since I have to read the pinpad to them and half of them hit yes for everything anyway because they don't read the prompts all the way through) and don't have much energy for anything other than putting food in my mouth and moving my thumbs on an XBox controller while slouching on the couch. Certainly not for using very sharp blades very carefully.

And then it turns out we're apparently not going to Europe (or maybe we are, they'll get back to us on that), and it means more delays so over the past few days I planned a spontaneous Labor-day weekend trip to another state so I can visit said husband because 6-month separations are for deployments, in my opinion, and not for various paperwork and bureaucratic irritations (in other words, 8 weeks of tech school after 8 weeks of Basic was fine, but since they're apparently not sending us to our assigned base and haven't picked anywhere else for us to go, we're stuck spinning our wheels until that crap gets figured out, which is stupid, in my humble opinion, and he's not allowed to take leave, so I must go to him, which is fine, or would be if his base actually had affordable flights going to it, but it doesn't because it's in the middle of nowhere and only one airline actually services it, so I'm stuck taking a bus) , but the Air Force apparently doesn't see it that way.

So the apartment I'm living in is half-packed, half-not, I'm averaging 1.5 days off per week (which are spent doing things like running errands), my cat is incredibly needy ALL THE TIME, and at least the husband and I can talk, which we spend hours doing pretty much nightly at this point.

It's been a busy couple of months, is what I'm saying. And when I found out we were, in theory, moving to Europe, I was trying to figure out if I should halt my armor build until we were settled, so as to avoid damaging incomplete components, because it can sometimes, apparently, take up to a year for your belongings to show up, during which time it's in various storage facilities, or try to finish it in a hurry and do a shoddy job, since we weren't sure how long the paperwork could take (we figured we'd be moving sometime between September and Christmas). A continental US move, which is what we will probably be doing instead, is much faster and easier, and if we travel by car, valuables and delicate things can come with us in person, so we don't have to worry about them.

So I'm sorry for the lack of updates. I'll try to be better about that. And I'll start working on that armor again soon. When I get back from visiting the husband.

HERE'S WHAT I HAVE DONE AND WILL BE WORKING ON NEXT...

Once the aforementioned second-degree burns healed, I managed to get the left gauntlet mostly folded and glued. Discovered a couple of minor problems with scaling, but nothing I can't deal with, and they were small pieces. I need to finish putting the pieces together, but it's mostly done for now.

The next piece I will work on will be the right gauntlet, followed by the torso plates. The method I intend to use for the torso plates will require two people, so I need to wait for a day that a friend of mine can come over to assist, which means our work schedules have to actually coincide somewhat. She also just got engaged and is planning a wedding, to complicate things a bit further. However, she's also the most craftily-minded person I know, which means she's the least likely to mess it up.

I'm hoping to get my build done by Halloween, so I can be the biggest badass at my store. It's worth noting that even though I'm assigned to the home department, I'm actually a certified bra fitter, and I routinely work in lingerie. And also the  children's department. Which means my beskar would either look wildly out of place while I'm folding panties and putting bras back on hangers, or be hugged constantly by properly-raised children who have seen Star Wars (not showing your child Star Wars should be considered a form of child abuse). LAST Halloween, I pulled my old Hermione Granger costume from high school (OK, technically I was Ginny Weasley that year, and two of my friends went as Hermione and Luna Lovegood, and lost the senior class costume contest to four slutty Ninja Turtles, but my hair isn't red anymore, so I was Hermione last year) out, and then ended up assisting the Governor of my state in sleepwear and bras, feeling mildly sheepish while doing so. THIS year I would like to feel like a badass.

OTHER NERDY PROJECTS...

Though I tend not to find girly things like shoes particularly interesting (they go on your feet, and then you walk on filthy floors and sidewalks in them, and you are somehow obsessed with them?), I saw a pair of Star Wars heels online a couple of months ago and, on a whim, Googled them. Turns out they were custom made by some Etsy shop, who will be more than happy to make you your own for around $200. Ouch. Some link following later, and I found myself reading a tutorial on how to make my own, for the cost of whatever pair of shoes you want, plus tax, and a thing of Mod Podge (so, I guess it could still be $200, if you used really expensive shoes). Since it happens to be my birth month, I am going to get myself some nice, affordable shoes at Payless, and then use decoupage to plaster them with Star Wars images, and this will be a birthday gift to myself. Maybe I'll weatherproof them with polyurethane, too.
Since I'm expected to wear professionally-styled shoes to work, but the dress code does NOT say they can't have images on them (simply that they cannot be sneakers or similarly casual shoes), I will enjoy wearing them to work for the nerd cred. Find me ONE customer who will call in to complain about my shoes instead of telling me how badass they are. "Well, she was very helpful with towels and sheets, but her shoes had Yoda on them, so I'm not shopping at your establishment again!" I can't really see anyone legitimately making that complaint. If they do, they have no soul.

This has also given me a fantastic idea for a Christmas gift for my sister, who is a HUGE Doctor Who fan.

I also knit, and recently discovered some Star Wars charts, which I intend to use to knit Nerdy Home Accessories. I'm planning an afghan of the Battle of Yavin. And I'm making the husband a beer cozy with Boba Fett's helmet on it.

So while I still intend this blog as a Femmando tutorial, don't be surprised if I showcase other nerdy projects on here from time to time. As a military spouse who will not be living with her husband again for... I actually don't know how long... who works full time in retail, I have hours of time that are spent playing Skyrim with an incredibly needy cat on my lap instead of making nerdy crafts. I intend to rectify that.

Off for a week...

Sorry I haven't posted. While gluing my gauntlets on Sunday, I ended up with a 2nd degree burn on my left index fingertip from the hot gluegun. Apparently ours lacks a temperature cutoff for safety.

In other words, I'm not working on the armor until that heals full. So probably the week after next, I'll get back to work.

I'll edit this post later with a photo of what I did get done.

The Left Gauntlet - Cutting, scoring, and folding

As I mentioned, I'm doing this in Pepakura, from a template. To start a project with pepakura, you first of all need to create or download pep files. Checking out Mando Mercs or The Dented Helmet are good places to start, but Star Wars costuming communities have an irritating tendency to look down their noses at pepakura, so if all else fails, try the 405th forums. It's technically a Halo costuming community, but if you need help with pepakura, they're the ones to ask.

Pepakura files can be viewed and printed from Pepakura Viewer 3, which is available for free here. It's a legit download. Pepakura viewer is free, but the designer program is what requires you to pay for a license. As long as all you want to to is scale and print pepakura files, it will be just fine. I'm assuming you're running a Windows system; if you're using Mac, you're on your own; I'm not sure that there's a program for viewing and printing pepakura files for it.

You will also need access to a printer and everything you see here:

That's printer-compatible cardstock (I recommend buying two packages; if you're new to pepakura, you will make mistakes, and will need to reprint, recut, rescore, refold, and reglue everything until you get it right), a ruler, a pen, sharp scissors, a piece of cardboard (or a cutting mat), Xacto knives, and a hot glue gun. This whole setup cost maybe $40 at our local Walmart, though I wish we'd gotten a better glue gun, because this one is not ergonomic in the slightest. The manila folder is optional, but useful for containing pieces between work sessions, since it keeps them together, and keeps say, curious kitties from using them as toys when you're not looking. If you've print and cut several models, I recommend keeping each model in a separate folder and labeling it to keep them all straight.

When you go to print your files, you will need to scale them to your own size. I'm fortunate in that I'm 5'4" and 125lbs; I printed my gauntlets on letter-size paper with no custom scaling and they seem likely to fit perfectly. My husband is a wizard at scaling pepakura because he's 6'2" and had to make the pieces bigger. He'd be the one to ask about that, but as he's currently unavailable, a more detailed tutorial can be found here.

One recommendation that the tutorial makes is using differently colored pens to trace where mountain and valley folds go before you cut the pieces out. Since I had a couple of errors the first couple of times I tried folding these models, I recommend doing so.

I've seen a saying on a bunch of costuming forums regarding armor: you can do it fast, you can do it cheap, it'll look good. Pick two qualities. Pepakura is, in my opinion, the cheap and good-looking option... if you go slowly. Rush it and it's not only cheap... but looks cheap, too. Starting this now, I'll be very surprised if I have it done by Halloween this year.

After you've printed your files, time to start cutting them out. I bought scissors specifically for this project, so they're sharp and won't make bad cuts. Go slowly. The solid lines are for cutting; do NOT cut the dotted lines. I recommend trying to cut evenly just a hair outside the lines. When you're done with cutting them out, make sure you cut out whatever inner pieces need removing. This is the first time you'll need the Xacto knife, because it's easier to use in the smaller inner spaces. If you're like me and work well with a minor distraction, like a movie in the background, set up on the living room floor and do it. If you're doing it right, it should take awhile. The 6 pages of pieces for my left gauntlet took roughly the runtime of The Empire Strikes Back to cut out.

At the top is the left gauntlet, fully cut out, with the lines colored according to the type of fold (even dashes mean mountain, long and short dashes mean valley). The bottom is the right gauntlet, which is printed but not cut to avoid confusion between the pieces.

When you have your pieces cut, it's time to start scoring with the Xacto knife. You want to cut through a little bit on the dashed lines, but not all the way through the thickness of the cardstock. This makes the folds later on both easier and more precise. You cannot skip this step and still have good looking armor. I recommend doing several test cuts on scrap paper to figure out the amount of pressure needed to achieve that balance. When doing long cuts, it's helpful to do them against a ruler to make sure the blade doesn't slip off course.

This is one part of the project I do much faster than my husband, because I'm very good at free-handing the smaller cuts. If you're starting out or haven't handled an Xacto knife much before, I recommend doing all but the smallest cuts against a ruler. This piece took about 40 minutes for me to score in its entirety, and while it is not the largest piece on this gauntlet, it is the most complicated (less complicated pieces generally require fewer cuts and, as such, require substantially less time):

It looks slightly 3-dimensional because I have already folded it slightly. Don't do this a ton, because it weakens the cardstock and it could tear if you're not careful (and then that's 40 more minutes of scoring you have to do over, after reprinting and recutting the piece).

Once all of your pieces are scored, go ahead and fold - carefully. Make sure you're doing the right kind of fold - coloring over the lines really does help, even if it seems awfully second grade. Do every single line, no matter how tiny, until every piece is looking a little 3D.

Now is a good time to stop working and start paying attention to all of the little numbers on the pieces - they need to match when you glue them. 1 goes with 1, 2 goes with 2, 113 goes with 113, etcetera. Unless your templates came with instructions - mine did not - you should get a plan in your head of what order you're going to glue them in. Figure out which pieces go with which and figure out what the most logical order of assembly is to make it easiest.

And then take a break. Stretch your legs. Take out the trash. Rest your eyes, too - it's close work.

Armor Plan & Building Basics

One good thing about starting an armor build with a plan is that you can keep your build consistent with that plan. It also gives you something to work towards.

The biggest problem I have with the beskar'gam is the lack of coverage. Even Jango, with all of his plates, had way too many vulnerable areas exposed. For example, no coverage on the inner thigh; there's nothing on the front of the thigh but muscle, really, but the femoral artery runs down the inner side of the thigh, and, in Jango's armor, is still completely unprotected.

Brief rant complete; I love Star Wars, and Mandalorians, but tactically, the armor is somewhat... lacking.

If you haven't already, go to Mando Mercs and use their armor planner. It'll give you a rough plan like this, and you can build from there. Which is good for those of us whose artistic ability is... not stellar.

So, that's what I'm looking at. Full plates, with a kama to cover the back. Maybe I'll pull an Ordo and do dual holsters over it, too.

If you're a Mandalorian fan, you'll also probably know that Mandalorian armor colors carry symbolism. Blue means duty; black means justice. The color blue has also had bizarre amount of significance in my life so far, so I guess you could say it's representative of that as well.

As far as fabric pieces go, there's a few methods I've seen for getting those right. For the flight suit, I personally feel like going the easy route and picking one up surplus. They come in a number of colors ranging from gray to green to coyote brown to black; most flight suits I've seen have been either neutral or military colors. I guess if you want hot pink, you're probably out of luck on that front, unless you want to dye it yourself.

However, using a one-piece flight suit has its disadvantages. For example, going to the bathroom could be something of a hassle. Rebel's Haven has a pretty good tutorial for making a faux-flight suit; it's in two pieces, so it's easier to put on and remove with plates, and the seam between the two pieces is subtle. Depending on the amount of time (and energy) I have when I'm done with the plates, I may do this instead.

Most costume tutorials for armor recommend starting with smaller pieces, like a gauntlet or a knee plate, then work up to limb and torso plates, and so on. All of them advise skipping the helmet to start. However much a train wreck a costume might be, the helmet is usually done the best. It's on your head, which means it's the first thing most people will see when they look at your costume. And they're usually somewhat complex. Starting with the helmet is a good way to get burned out on a project early, and it's a stupid idea if you're still unfamiliar with the build techniques you're using; while no one will notice a screw-up on a gauntlet, someone is bound to notice asymmetrical cheek pieces. Use smaller pieces for practice, and save the helmet for last.

Since the helmet is more or less unisex, until I get to it, I'd prefer to direct you to Mando Mercs or The Dented Helmet for more information. The only issues females would typically have with the helmet is one of scale, since, in general, we're proportioned smaller than males. Using a male-sized helmet could make you look like a bobble-head, which would probably fail to instill fear in your foes.

For myself, I'm starting with the gauntlets, which I am doing using pepakura. Pepakura is a technique of folding paper, using cardstock, to form paper models, which are then layered with resin and fiberglass to create the armor. More on the process involved in that later. The files I am using for the gauntlets are from Skip's Pepakura Costumes; most of his files are for sale, but a few were available free of charge last spring, which was when I downloaded them.

More on this later, because it's somewhat late, and I'm tired. I should make progress on the gauntlets tomorrow; it's my day off.

Introduction

Introduction posts are annoying, so here goes.

I've noticed from searching the web and lurking on various Mandalorian costuming forums that there's a wealth of information for males wanting their own Mandalorian armor (or, beskar'gam), but information is much less easy to find for females, and many of the methods listed, in particular for chest plates, seem to create armor that is somewhat ill-fitting. Or, in my case, all of the methods listed are either incompatible

Ideally, I would vacuum-form my plates, but as I live in an apartment, I'm not comfortable using my semi-functional oven (OK, so anything baked on the right-hand side comes out close to raw) to do so. 

Sintra is a material that my husband and I briefly tried, but we found it extremely difficult to work with (lucky we only bought a small amount to try), and abandoned this option. 

Pepakura is a method of armor-formation my husband discovered on the 405th, primarily a Halo costuming site. Pepakura, while useful for forming fiddly, highly detailed plates, adapts poorly to producing curves. It is a method I will be using for some of my pieces however; notably, the gauntlets.

So after a couple of years worth of false-starts and research and making plans and then remaking plans, and finishing my degree (thereby freeing up a wealth of leisure time, because my time at home is suddenly not devoted to studying the human skeleton and doing various lengthy and repetitive tasks to prove I know the difference between lambda and bregma on the cranium), I'm finally ready to start. And since the husband and I will be separated for a few more months because he just joined the U.S. Air Force and he's got some training to do, and I need a project to occupy my spare time, there's no time like the present to get a move on.

And, since I know there's other dalyc Mando'ade (female Mandalorians) out there trying to build armor, I thought I would share my methods by blogging them in tutorial form, with tons of pictures. Because nothing takes a good tutorial and turns it to suck like blocks of text with no pictures to help clarify the process.

So... here it goes!