And I thought I was finally done with spandex...after putting on the skin layer spandex body suit, I think I'll need to hobble together a custom fit one. I had to get a larger one so the arms would fit over the muscles, but that leaves a tone of room in the chest (I want the arm seams past the shoulders so they'll be covered by the leather straps), so I think I'll need to sew together two different sized spandex suits. Bah!
I also made a harness for the back shell. It's underneath the suit in the above pic, so you can't see it aside from a little bulge on the chest which will be covered up, so I'm happy about that.
I finally got some new paints for the sword blade, after the experiment with the aluminum foil was a bust. I used alclad stainless steel and aqua gloss clear, plus a quick wash with some black acrylic. I'm really happy with the outcome. Still got the other one to do now.
I started work on the elbow and knee pads. These were a total bust. I'm not liking them at all. After sitting around being frustrated for a few minutes, I thought, "I'm doing my own design of the character, with of old and new. Let's stick with that!" So I'll be designing my own versions. I imagine that the turtles would be macgyvering together everything they find, so perhaps they found some motorcycle or construction protection, but the straps were too small or combersome, so they took off the hard pieces and sewed them to old leather. I'll be making the hard parts out of sintra, which I'm pretty comfortable with after my Kingsguard outfit. For posterity, here's my first two experiments trying to make a more traditional version.