Sith Acolyte Costume WIP - My first time full costume build

So awesome man!

Many thanks for the kind words AbsoluteZero300 and vaderjeff1744!

Last week I was able to do just a little bit. I began working out the pattern for the belly plate which is connecting the abdomen with the chest plate. This frame from the SWTOR Trailer again is the best picture I was able to find. I will use it as my reference; I would be pleased if you have any hints for some other pictures!


Some Paintshop work; I only accentuated the contours...



Then I had to adjust the size to my cod piece (green lines)


Somehow I wanted the belly plate to be flexible. I used PVC semi-rigid foam (Guttagliss hobbycolor, grey, 3mm) for the firm parts. I glued them on a pool liner (black, 2mm); it is flexible but it does not slump down (? I hope you can understand what I mean). The small grey parts are flexible, too (1mm foam).




And that´s all from me for today. Thank you for your interest!!


On the foam side I am now, vaderjeff1744....

This is really awesome. You've done a lot of research, and a lot of fine detail work -- it shows with every progress shot. And, like others have mentioned, I love that your daughter is involved! I wish I'd had a mentor to teach me about all this stuff when I was her age!

This is just going to be incredible when you finish. Can't wait to see!

I am looking forward to the update

now the armor is in swtor so you have even more reference!

Markandson said:

Many thanks for the kind words AbsoluteZero300 and vaderjeff1744!

This frame from the SWTOR Trailer again is the best picture I was able to find. I will use it as my reference; I would be pleased if you have any hints for some other pictures!

Click to expand...

YOU'RE WELCOME! I've REALLY been ENJOYING watching this build progress! Your work on the belly plate looks pretty spot on to me! I don't know if you already have this reference, but it's some I found while doing my research on this costume for my own build. Hope it helps! ENJOY!:cool

Thanks andveryginger, uji, Balgosa and vaderjeff1744, you all are so great, helpful and friendly!! You members are the reason why I am fond of the RPF!!

Balgosa said:

now the armor is in swtor so you have even more reference!

Click to expand...

Patch 2.1: Customization... How cool is that? My son visited your homepage: Red 5 - BioWare - StarWars Trailer ... in his eyes you must be the luckiest man in this galaxy!! Your work is outstanding... May the Force be with you!

vaderjeff1744 said:

I don't know if you already have this reference, but it's some I found while doing my research on this costume for my own build. Hope it helps! ENJOY!

Click to expand...

Yes, this picture/the armor is superb! I have often wondered where this picture is from. Do you know anything about that? Awesome!


- - - - - - - - - - - - -

The belly plate is a little bit flexible. I don´t know whether this would be necessary or not; but I have no experience in wearing a suit of armor.


It took some time to get the parts fit closely.


First layer in steel, then several layers air-brushed in flat black and after that the weathering.


Only a test - the fabric between the upper parts.


Whacked! Cheers!

yah its some of the original renders BLUR sent us when we were planning the CG Trailer. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot for the Acolyte (no good spin arounds or close ups) or else I'd share them

- - - Updated - - -

Love the weathering btw

MMM the eradicator's set, sexy as hell, excellent job my friend excellent job

- - - Updated - - -

This suit is in the game swtor now, on the cartel market for coins aka cash....awesome looking set too imo

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af271/carnivoran/348q238-1.jpg

http://i1015.photobucket.com/albums/af271/carnivoran/CFGddUi.jpg

some pics to show you how well you nailed it

ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL WORK!!! I LOVE your weathering! VERY WELL DONE!!! The only concern I might have is with the flexibility of the belly plate. Having worn a number of armored costumes myself, flexibility is VERY IMPORTANT with regards to comfort. If you're planning to wear this for prolonged periods of time, at a Convention for example, the ability to bend down, bend over, & even sit is something YOU'RE GOING TO WANT TO CONSIDER! I've got a 501st approved Vader costume that I wear to a lot of events, & the cod piece & armor can often make it EXTREMELY DIFFICULT to bend down to greet a young fan, or even to sit down easily when I need to take a break! It appears that you're armor is made from Sintra, or a similar foam based plastic. Although easy to cut & mold into a lot of different shapes, it's still fairly rigid. You might want to look into some EVA foam matting material or some other similar more flexible material, especially for the belly plate, as your ability to bend in this area is going to be IMPORTANT. Having just said all of that, please don't take what I've just said as a criticism. Your work so far has been SUPERB, & of the HIGHEST QUALITY! I REALLY MEAN THAT! I've been building costumes for a long time, & I'm definitely impressed with the caliber of what you've achieved so far! I can only hope that my own build LOOKS THIS GOOD!!! But, I speak from experience when I say that FLEXIBILITY IS VERY IMPORTANT when it comes to being happy & comfortable while wearing your costume. I think you could make the belly section out of either 1/8" or 1/4" EVA foam, & then coat it with either Plasti-dip or Smooth-On's Smooth Cast 65D. That's what I'm going to use for my build, because it will still give a plastic look, but still be semi-flexible. There's a couple of videos on YouTube you might want to check out. Here they are - XRobots - How To plastic coat foam & expanded polystyrene prop and costume pieces - YouTube and Sith/Jedi Cosplay Armor Tutorial - Chest - YouTube There's also a website that has a written version with pictures of what you'll need if trying the method with the Smooth Cast 65D. Here it is. XRobots.co.uk - Plastic coating your Plastazote / EVA / Polystyrene foam / cardboard props and costumes I believe xrobot even has a thread on here regarding this method. You may be able to do a search to find it if you're interested. There are other options I'm sure besides the 2 I've mentioned that you could use to allow for greater flexibility to the belly plate. Maybe others will have additional suggestions. And what I've said are just that, suggestions. I'm by no means saying that you should redo this section. I almost hate even making that suggestion really. After all, your work thus far is VISUALLY STUNNING, in my opinion! I'm really only thinking of your comfort, or lack there of while wearing the suit! It's all "food for thought" I guess! At any rate, I hope I've given you some HELPFUL suggestions! GOOD LUCK to you! I'm sure whatever you decide to do will be GREAT! Keep up the FANTASTIC WORK, & keep the updates & pics coming! You've really got me PUMPED to get underway on my own build!!!:cool

This is simply OUTSTANDING!!!:thumbsup

Upon looking at your pics & descriptions more closely, I see that you actually do have a flexible material behind your belly piece, & part of your chest piece. For some reason, I didn't notice this initially when I read your last post, & looked at your pics. Actually, when I looked back at your post on the previous page, I saw the process you used, which by the way is QUITE CLEVER! That definitely should provide some extra needed flexibility in those areas. You're DEFINITELY going to want flexibility in the belly area. Will what you've done be enough? I don't honestly know. I would test everything out once you get the whole thing done, & make whatever adjustments are needed from there. You actually may not know how restrictive or not everything is until you've worn it at an event. That always works for me when testing out a new costume. It sometimes takes a few wearings to get the "bugs" worked out of a costume. From there, you simply modify the design to make it more comfortable to wear. Unfortunately the designs of some of the characters we love don't work as well in the real world as we'd like. All in all though, you've done an OUTSTANDING JOB so far!!! I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE MORE!!! As Lord Vader would say - "IMPRESSIVE! MOST IMPRESSIVE!!!":cool

Wow, wow, thank you so much for all the information and hints/suggestions you are giving to this build and your kind words, Balgosa, raxxis, Dynamic1 and vaderjeff1744!!

Balgosa said:

yah its some of the original renders BLUR sent us when we were planning the CG Trailer. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot for the Acolyte (no good spin arounds or close ups) or else I'd share them

Click to expand...

It is so great that you gave this insight into the background of the picture!

vaderjeff1744 said:

I would test everything out once you get the whole thing done, & make whatever adjustments are needed from there. You actually may not know how restrictive or not everything is until you've worn it at an event. That always works for me when testing out a new costume. It sometimes takes a few wearings to get the "bugs" worked out of a costume.

Click to expand...

Yes, I agree! As I have no experience in wearing such an armored costume, there was just some feeling that flexibility might be relevant. Although the belly plate is relative small and unimposing, I puzzled over the part a long time. As you say:"Unfortunately the designs of some of the characters we love don't work as well in the real world as we'd like." I think after SW CEII (end of July:facepalm) the belly plate will be definitively one thing, I will have to reconstruct. I checked out the YouTube links: Plastic coating foam - that looks absolutely fantastic! I think your armor will be great!! And then we will storm that Jedi temple!

Now it´s gauntlet time...


But first I want to make good on a promise, I made to my daughter: She asked me to do her Ahsoka Tano gauntlets at first.

I decided to cover a sheet of EVA foam (2mm) with her dark red fabric. The foam gave some firmness to the gauntlet, even so it is soft enough not to hurt her.



As I made my girls gauntlets, I had got the idea to build the Acolyt gauntlets in the same way: Usinge one material to give the gauntlets their form and then covering it with an other one. Especially I hope this will help me to speed up...

I used fierfek´s pepakura files like a pattern. I decided to use hobbyglas (Guttagliss, 1,5mm), which I can get from my local hardware store.


About two hours later I had the part got sewed out and thermoformed (120°C, heatgun).


Next up I cut out the covering panels and adapted them by heating.


Step by step I glued the covering panels on the hobbyglas layer.



So far, so good...



Thank you for your interest!!

Beautiful yet again...nicely done!:thumbsup

incredible. subscribed for sure. hope you get this done in time for CE2

the paint work and the scratching looks incredible ! have you had a lot of practise doing it ? damnnn its nice !

Once again, some BEAUTIFUL WORK! CAN'T WAIT to see what these look like finished! Just AWESOME!!! Keep it coming!!! I LOVE what you did with the gauntlets for your daughter's Ahsoka costume as well! Like you, I like helping to create things for my kids, to keep them involved in this hobby too! It's a GREAT WAY to spend time together as well! KEEP IT UP!!!:cool

Please tell me you're going to make runs of this armor?