Ariana's "Vhonte Tervho" Fem-Mando Build (Pic Heavy!)

[PolyversalAri]

Originally posted this on TDH (here), but I thought I would share this with my RPFers here too

Hey Guys!

So I may be jumping the gun a little bit, but I had some free time tonight and decided to start doing some prep work for my Vhonte Tervho Build. I know that depending on who you ask this can also be armor for Rav Bralor, but I've decided to go with Vhonte for a few reasons:

1. The original artist and character creator, Tom Hodges, named her as such (According to his artwork title here) and that makes me happy
2. Rav Bralor has been depicted with very short hair in action figure form, whereas the available artwork that precedes the action figure shows Vhonte with long braids, which I intend to include in the build:

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So here's what I have done so far!

First, I stripped down and made a t-shirt / tunic out of a garbage bag. This was very simple. I made a hole in the bottom center of the bag for my head, then a hole on each of the sides starting from the corner. All of these were approximately 6 inches wide.

Next, I had my sister wrap me in duct tape. We started with a full role and ended up using about half the width of the roll. This is what I looked like:

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Then, my sister cut a straight line up the spine to get me out. I then taped up the cut and had my first torso dummy!

(Can't figure out why these uploaded sideways. They're the correct orientation on my PC...)
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I stuffed the dummy with some pillows and mounted it on a hat stand. It some how came out to be my exact shoulder height, which was serendipitous! I printed out some of wizardofflight's Jango Fett Templates,and started experimenting with placement on the dummy. These are great, but they weren't made for people with boobs, so I had to improvise a bit. The orange tape is me trying to match the lines of the armor in the above reference photos to an actual human body. My torso isn't nearly as long as Vhonte's! And my boobs are a bit bigger.....

(Again, not sure why these uploaded the wrong way >_<)
​

Anyway, that's where I am now. I wanted to get a feel for how pieces would actually fit on me before I get into shaping the actual materials. I'm still not 100% decided on what material I will be using, but I'm starting to lean towards Sintra. I've never worked with it before so I'm a bit nervous about spending money on it, though I love builds that I've seen using this material.

I have high (perhaps unrealistic) hopes of enlisting with the 501st with this build, though I don't see Vhonte on the approved list :unsure. Rav Bralor is on the list, however. Anyone know the 501st Legion's stance (if any) on Vhonte Tervho?

I'm really looking forward to getting this build going and hearing everyone's feedback!

 

[Hanslow]

Oh WOW. I will be watching this one. Looks to be a wonderful build!

 

[astralrayn]

I can't find her listed as an official costume for the 501st or the Mandalorian Mercs. The mercs are even, ironically, using her picture as their "modern" example though! Hahah. http://mercs.firespray.net/forum/index.php?action=ezportal;sa=page;p=5 I never noticed that before.

I look forward to seeing more of your build! It's looking great so far!

 

[PolyversalAri]

I can't find her listed as an official costume for the 501st or the Mandalorian Mercs. The mercs are even, ironically, using her picture as their "modern" example though! Hahah. http://mercs.firespray.net/forum/index.php?action=ezportal;sa=page;p=5 I never noticed that before.

I look forward to seeing more of your build! It's looking great so far!

Lol I noticed that on the Merc's website too. I might need to do some petitioning!

 

[astralrayn]

Oh that reminds me, I should probably share legit advice! A few things: 1) the paper templates suuuuck for mockups on women as you discovered. It's pretty much impossible to size your chest pieces correctly from paper. My mando armor is metal so the advice I got from Mandalore was cut the chest a bit bigger, shape it, then trim it. Not sure what material you're using but I imagine the same method would work for sintra or whatnot. That method seemed really simple and effective! Though I had to have Mandalore hammer out my chest plates, complex curves + metal were beyond me. Heating up plastic and molding it onto a form would be a billion times easier. 2) speaking of curves.. mercs must wear flak vests, now this character doesn't seem to have one canonically, just like Sabine from Rebels, so if they recognize her you may luck out and not need to wear one at all! But they really seem to hide some things. I'm a 34 D and with the flak vest pushing down and the subtle curve in my armor to fit it properly & flush, people confuse me for a guy. If you wind up having to wear one you may wind up with some empty space but so long as you have some solid attachment points for the chest piece it shouldn't be too much of an issue. 3) Typically you'd want to go with a one-piece flight suit but consider modding some scrubs. You'll be glad you did when you've been in the costume 4 hours and you really need to use the restroom.

Just some fun mando girl problems!

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

I've had a nearly-one-person crusade going for years to undo the damage Entertainment Earth did with their Cuy'val Dar Mandos. "Isabet Rau" ganked Tom's art for Mirta Gev's new kit; "Rav Bralor"s as you noted, stole the color scheme Tom came up with for his wife's persona; "Dred Priest" is a near-twin of Tom's art for Ghes Orade; and "Mij Gilamar" was supposed to be Kal Skirata, but they made his head too young-looking, so Karen vetoed it (I have no problem taking it as a younger Kal, personally).

I love that you're doing this as Vhonte.

--Jonah

 

[Sluis Van Shipyards]

Can't wait to see progress. I remember seeing that art some time back and thinking it looked cool.

Don't get me started on the figures. I had to reprogram my nephew, " I don't care what the package says that guy's name is Kal Skirata." :lol

 

[RichardJones]

Looking pretty cool so far! Scratchbuilds are my favorite... being covered in Duct-tape and saran-wrap to make a mannequin though, not so much!

 

[DlarianFerrel]

I have found cloth works well to make templates out of since it can be pinned and curved. That's what I did for mine.

As for the Mercs, I would shoot a message to the app team about it. I know Rav Bralor is part of the Legends Brigade, perhaps since the artwork shows her labeled differently it can be used as such. Either way, if done at the level of detail in the artwork, there shouldn't be any issues with becoming official with it in the MMCC even if they don't call it Legends so long as all of the costume requirements for membership are met.

As for the other groups, unfortunately I don't have any experience with them to be able to comment.

 

[PolyversalAri]

Oh that reminds me, I should probably share legit advice! A few things: 1) the paper templates suuuuck for mockups on women as you discovered. It's pretty much impossible to size your chest pieces correctly from paper. My mando armor is metal so the advice I got from Mandalore was cut the chest a bit bigger, shape it, then trim it. Not sure what material you're using but I imagine the same method would work for sintra or whatnot. That method seemed really simple and effective! Though I had to have Mandalore hammer out my chest plates, complex curves + metal were beyond me. Heating up plastic and molding it onto a form would be a billion times easier. 2) speaking of curves.. mercs must wear flak vests, now this character doesn't seem to have one canonically, just like Sabine from Rebels, so if they recognize her you may luck out and not need to wear one at all! But they really seem to hide some things. I'm a 34 D and with the flak vest pushing down and the subtle curve in my armor to fit it properly & flush, people confuse me for a guy. If you wind up having to wear one you may wind up with some empty space but so long as you have some solid attachment points for the chest piece it shouldn't be too much of an issue. 3) Typically you'd want to go with a one-piece flight suit but consider modding some scrubs. You'll be glad you did when you've been in the costume 4 hours and you really need to use the restroom.

Just some fun mando girl problems!

Thanks for the advice! It's great to hear from someone with similar body shape debacles. I'm a 34D as well. I think I'm definitely going to give the vacuum forming idea a try with sintra / expanded PVC. XRobots from TDH has a great video tutorial that he posted in this thread:

http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/showthread.php?t=42798&p=552212&viewfull=1#post552212

It's an easy enough project and best part is I probably won't need to buy much for the construction.

I like the idea of the flak vest because I think it would be easier to mount the armor pieces and get in and out of costume with it, so I may try doing a subtle sleeveless version. Scrubs are a good idea too!

I've had a nearly-one-person crusade going for years to undo the damage Entertainment Earth did with their Cuy'val Dar Mandos. "Isabet Rau" ganked Tom's art for Mirta Gev's new kit; "Rav Bralor"s as you noted, stole the color scheme Tom came up with for his wife's persona; "Dred Priest" is a near-twin of Tom's art for Ghes Orade; and "Mij Gilamar" was supposed to be Kal Skirata, but they made his head too young-looking, so Karen vetoed it (I have no problem taking it as a younger Kal, personally).

I love that you're doing this as Vhonte.

--Jonah

This is exactly what I was thinking when I was reading up on the discrepancy! It's a bit silly. Not sure how someone let that happen lol

Can't wait to see progress. I remember seeing that art some time back and thinking it looked cool.

Don't get me started on the figures. I had to reprogram my nephew, " I don't care what the package says that guy's name is Kal Skirata." :lol

Haha yes, we need to educate today's youth properly

Looking pretty cool so far! Scratchbuilds are my favorite... being covered in Duct-tape and saran-wrap to make a mannequin though, not so much!

Lol it wasn't so bad. It only took about half an hour with my sisters help. Plus it was very budget friendly!

I have found cloth works well to make templates out of since it can be pinned and curved. That's what I did for mine.

As for the Mercs, I would shoot a message to the app team about it. I know Rav Bralor is part of the Legends Brigade, perhaps since the artwork shows her labeled differently it can be used as such. Either way, if done at the level of detail in the artwork, there shouldn't be any issues with becoming official with it in the MMCC even if they don't call it Legends so long as all of the costume requirements for membership are met.

As for the other groups, unfortunately I don't have any experience with them to be able to comment.

Thanks for the suggestions! I think I will definitely need to start sending some emails to the people in charge :thumbsup

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

Something like this is also something I see used. You'd still have the shoulders and so forth to do, but this can be broken up into all the front-of-torso stuff, including the groin armor. Some grinding and filling would be necessary. I know you've got access to a lot of costume-piece-fabricating gear. Tossing it in as an option.

As for the flak vest... Enh. The clearest images of her show she is definitely not wearing one between armor plates and flight suit. I'd suggest rubber grommets and plastic screw posts for actually attaching the armor. The post part of the screws gets epoxied to the inside of the plates and, once you've got everything sited on a "waster" flight suit pattern-test garment, you glue in the rubber grommets in their respective spots on the finished piece and you only ever have to take the plates off when you clean the flight suit.

For fit and shaping, one option is you can run cotton webbing or elastic either: through slits in the flightsuit from backs of he armor pieces near the side edges; from the front shaping/princess seams; both, to 1) keep the whole thing riding where it should, and 2) hold the flightsuit snug to your shape without having to be made of a stretch material. A quick glance at your blog shows you've got the tailoring chops to get it fitted right. A long hidden back zip in the flightsuit, and two low-profile-buckle straps in the back for the inner rig/harness/whatever -- hips (groin plate) and above the waist (kind of like a bra strap except for the rest of the upper-torso plates). I'm basing this on how the Deep Space Nine/Voyager Starfleet uniform jumpsuits were put together. Tailoring to get it so it fits like a glove when it's riding where it should, and elastic at strategic points to make sure it does ride where it should.

--Jonah

 

[DlarianFerrel]

The mannequins are a pain if they don't fit just right since they don't change shape well to adjust. (I know from failed attempts in the past)

There is actually a shop that makes female forms for us female mandos. I bought mine from him and have been quite happy with it. Since it is vac formed, it will adjust easily with just a little heat from the heat gun. He uses HIPS to make the forms. I can pm you his page address if you are interested in checking it out.

 

[Inquisitor Peregrinus]

The mannequins are a pain if they don't fit just right since they don't change shape well to adjust. (I know from failed attempts in the past)

Yeah, it can be hit-or-miss. If you've got something close to the right shape -- and the OP seems she might -- it can make for a lot less work. You have the leeway of cutting into the rough section and adjusting positioning before trimming to size, so even if it's not an exact fit out of the box, only fairly minor work is needed to get to the point of finishing work. If it works, you've saved many hours of work. If it doesn't you're out twenty bucks and are no worse off. *shrug*

There is actually a shop that makes female forms for us female mandos. I bought mine from him and have been quite happy with it. Since it is vac formed, it will adjust easily with just a little heat from the heat gun. He uses HIPS to make the forms. I can pm you his page address if you are interested in checking it out.

Who is that? Only ones I've known of over the years have either stopped production or are so unreliable/uncommunicative as to be in effectively the same category. I'd love to have a new recommendation for people asking...

--Jonah

 

[DlarianFerrel]

The Mandalorian Arsenal. I'll not link since I don't know the rules on such things, but it will pop right up on google. He recently went full time, and his turn around is generally a few weeks since he tends to get quite busy. He offers the Night Owl helmet and pieces as well as the Sabine helmet and paint sprayer. Not to mention quite a few other things. Prices aren't terrible either.

 

[mikkonator]

Regarding 501st approval, you can create any bad guy/bounty hunter costume and submit it for approval. You may even be the legion first for this character. the catch is that you need to do your research and submit the reference photos yourself with the costume for the approval review. You must only use official lfl approved materials as sources, you need two and both preferably with 360 views of the costume. E.g. Comic book images showing all sides, official statues, video game materials. Fan art will not count. Good luck! [emoji3]