Learn Mando'a

Does anyone have any armor? I'm gonna have my brother make a set with me, but I'm gonna have to wait until I stop growing. Don't want to grow out of something so important (and expensive).

I've got the parts for it, but I've been too busy (or maybe just lazy) to finish it

Does color have any importance? I know Vau said his black armor had some significance.

There's a traditional series of color meanings, though not everyone necessarily needs to adhere to them. Hell some Mandos in comics and the like have armor that isn't even one of the seven. Though I know some on the mercs forum have suggested the idea of colors like purple being of mixed meanings. Anyway...

Grey is mourning a lost love
Red is remembering a parent
Black is justice
Gold is vengeance
Green is duty
Blue is reliability
Orange is shereshoy

I don't have any beskar'gam, though I did practice getting a set of cardboard and fiberglass plates up and existing. Just to practice the process of making it that way. I painted the plates orange. Partly as a sort of joke about how I was Buddhist at the time but here I was making fake armor for a Star Wars culture known for being what is essentially anti-Buddhism. Orange in Buddhism being the color of Enlightenment and wisdom. As some point I want to try my hand at it again and get a full suit up and going. Not sure if I'll keep with the orange plates. I may because orange has just become a very special color to me at this point, no longer Buddhist or no. I've no idea what to make the flight suit's color though if I do use orange. Besides "avoid black being I do not want to be the jack-o-lantern mando". Another possibility is a greenish blue, for Manannán mac Lir, one of my primary gods and the reason I converted away from Buddhism (well there were many reasons, but he was the point of absolutely yeah no I have to leave). I'd like to cover the plates in ogham and triskeles either way. Probably putting Donn's name on me somewhere since he is the progenitor of the Gaels and a big deal for me. I mean he's King of the Underworld, a god, and our dad because he was a stubborn, ambitious motherfucker who did not taking dying lying down. Fuck that being dead shit, I'll beat you up and steal your house you fairy fuck.

http://www.starwars.com/news/mandaloria ... -the-armor

This is a pretty helpful page.

Buy'ce and long hair, an important detail I overlooked.

So I have pretty long hair, long enough that it would come out from the bottom of my helmet if let down. Now I never thought this could be a problem, as I can always just put my hair up in a tail. But just a few minutes I realized "That probably won't fit in a Mandalorian bucket." The only solution I've been able to think of is making my helmet bigger, and that would look and probably feel very odd.

Is there anyone else here with the same dilemma or a solution? Cutting my hair is not an option.

I have long hair (as in, never been cut long) and I'd advise braiding. That'll make it a little shorter, and easier to shove up in a helmet.

Thanks, ner vod

Does anyone know any good resources for designing your own beskar'gam? I want to start designing mine so I can both get work out any problems long before I spend only money and have something to do that's Mando related.

Void

Mando Mercs is definitely the way to go for resources I've found. Just dig around the forums and you'll find lots of stuff. Not just the tutorials either. Check out people's WIP threads and you can find some neat ideas. You can also find links there to some of the Dented Helmet resources. But if you need templates, ideas on what materials to use, and how to use those materials you can generally find it there.

My advice is...get some cardboard boxes. You're not going to use these for the beskar proper but more to get an idea of how to shape the stuff without ruining something pricier. For shaping get a spray bottle and mist the plates. Do not soak them. Then start shaping them against your body. Should give you an idea of how to shape and also your natural fit. Let the cardboard dry and keep them around as templates.

And then. There's sintra. A PVC foam plastic deal. Guy told me he found a sheet worth two and a half sets of beskar'gam's worth of plates for 25 dollars or so. Basic tools for working with sintra are a dremel for cutting and a heat gun for shaping. Though depending on the thickness you can also use an oven. Sintra apparently reeks when heated though. Home Depot is your best friend where the plates and buy'ce are concerned. That and a sintra dealer. There are tutorials up about fiberglassing cardboard but I started with that and it's turning out to be a major headache. You've got to cut up the cardboard, shape it, tape it, sand it, tape it more, sand some more, bondo glass it, sand, resin it up, sand, and repeat until at last, finally, you are allowed near the paint. Sintra as far as I understand you cut that shit and shape it and bang. Good to go.

Soft parts like the vest, flightsuit, and such seem to often be forgotten about...with those look for military surplus places and check out thrift stores regularly.

Weapons? You could look into modifying toys using things like sintra and glue. I know some, depending on the gun, use wood bases that get added onto. I'm personally gonna be turning a sixshooter capgun into a DE-10 blaster, for example.

My vod and I have been making some foam armor for that I can use for now.