General Rahm Kota's Armor

[Koda Vonnor]

This morning I laid up the fiberglass on the chest plate. I had some difficulty. I poured in a gray gel-coat first, keeping it as thin as possible, but because it was a very warm day, and I waited too long before starting the resin/fiberglass, the gel-coat hardened and shrunk away from the mold. I suspect there will be several ripples in the surface, some quite large.

I also ran out of resin after only 3.5 layers of fiberglass or so. Due to the heat, the stuff I mixed up went solid WAY too fast and I ended up wasting half the resin. I also wasn't able to add fiberglass along the center ridge, so I put on a few heavy layers of resin and finished the whole thing with a bondo/gel-coat reinforcement along all the edges and the center ridge. No doubt I still have to fill in those wavy ripples mentioned earlier.

When I discovered the ripples it was too late to do anything about them. It was either keep going or scrap the whole BP back to the body cast.

I'll pop it out of the mold tonight and see how bad it is. If I can fill in the ripples with bondo and smooth it all out then I'll wear this one. If not, I may have to use it as a hard model and take another mold.

I really wish the polyester resin wasn't such a pain in the a$$.

[Koda Vonnor]

OK guys, that's it.

I'm giving up on this costume.

I've found a MUCH cooler character to portray!

JEDI UMPIRE!! ;D

[Jedimom/Cor-Al Gelkar]

Ha haa ha ha ha ha ha! Thats good un!!! ;D

[Koda Vonnor]

To cure all the nasty surface waves I added a bondo icing and a little epoxy patchwork. Almost looks good enough to eat. I'll sand all that down to the right shape.

Also thanks to my brother for coming up with the killer solution to harnessing the shoulder bells. Worked like a charm. I'll explain how I did it later with the full costume pix.

See ya's next week.




~ Vonnor

[JediKai]

The umpire is funny

[Koda Vonnor]

hehehe ...

Thanks Kai.

[Koda Vonnor]

Boots are on the way!





...my boi Carlos may be slow (*cough*orderedinfebruary*cough*), but he's good.

;D

~ KV

[Koda Vonnor]

Here's the chest plate ready for painting (almost). I still have to do some final touch-ups with the emery boards. I wanted to show it 'cuz of those two images that somehow got in the casting when I sanded in the final contours.

I'm calling them "Demon" the Hutt (on your left) and "LAUGH-LAC" the duck (on your right). I thought they were funny, and since I'll always know they're in there, now everybody else will too... hehehe



I know it don't look like much, but check it out tomorrow.

~ Vonnor

[Jedimom/Cor-Al Gelkar]

Man Koda! You have such patience to work with this! Pictures are fantastic every week.

[Rhydo Sabet]

Looking good my man looking good indeed!!

[Koda Vonnor]

Weekend Update part 2:

So I'm out in my front yard this morning painting this mug, and my neighbor comes by walking his dog. He stops to watch me for a minute, then says, "Tony Stark?"

I said, "close."






I'm not really likin' the overall contours. I really borked it up doing the final shaping. I went by touch mostly and not enough by sight, and the symmetry is horrendous. It's really noticeable at about 3 metres or farther. I will matte it down as much as possible in the weathering so it doesn't show so bad.

I also wanted to show the attachment system for the bells. I don't see too many crafters showing the mechanical guts of their stuff. Maybe it'll give someone else some ideas.

There's a short (10cm) strap that attaches to the top velcro strip and to the reinforced yoke of the shirt. The bell hangs from that, and the non-stretch canvas yoke in the shirt keeps the bells from sagging. They sorta pull against each other's weight.

The lower contraption has two raised plastic strips with slot openings in the sides, and soft neoprene padding. The padding cradles the upper arm and keeps the bell in position laterally. There's an elastic strap that runs around the underarm and threads through those slots to stick on that center velcro pad. The slots transfer the velcro's sticky force from tensile to shear and it holds much better.

For now, I'll run the strap over the shirt, as it is almost an exact color match to the shirt. Eventually I will put big button-holes in the sleeves and run the anchor strap through the holes so it doesn't show and doesn't scrunch up the sleeve.




Next week: full costume pix.

~ Vonnor

[acalsohei]

I SOOOO can't wait to see this, Koda!

[Koda Vonnor]

I got some good news and some bad news...

The bad news is I had a major glitch in the shoulder bell anchor system. The way I had the top strap holding the weight made it impossible for the bell to sit straight on the shoulder. I'm going to have to redo the attachment system.

The good news is I picked up my scraper this afternoon and just started scraping and scratching at the BP. Before I knew what was happening, I had finished the stupid thing.

I can't do a full costume pic. I forgot the belt is still in Colorado with the bando (plus I got one bell all taken apart ).

Here's a little teaser I threw together with what I have (sorry for the graininess, the setting and lighting weren't too good):



Only things left are the boots, the bando, and the hair.

~ BC

[Koda Vonnor]

I fixed the shoulder bells this evening. I found an old pair of cheap poly-foam knee pads. The stuff that's not quite Styrofoam and not quite sponge rubber? I trimmed them down a bit and hot-glued them inside the bells, with just a bit of sintra strips framework to help support the curve of the kneepads. This time I also hot-glued the top straps right to the inside curve of the kneepads, and made small cuts in the poly-foam for the arm straps.

When I tried them on with the shirt I was heartbroken. Even with the weight-bearing straps attached to the innards so that they lay flat against my shoulder, the things were so heavy they pulled the shirt neckline all out of whack. I could jockey them into position and they'd stay OK, but the minute I'd move my arms they'd be all messed up again.

It was then that I kicked myself.

Thats what the armor harness is for!

I put on the harness (shown a couple pages back), attached to the shirt at the shoulders and to the belt in front and back. The harness held the shirt in place across the shoulders and lo and behold, the bells snapped into position and stuck there like glue! ;D

I put on the breastplate and capes and jumped up and down, swung my arms around and still the bells refused to shift (well actually if I make huge arm circles repeatedly, they want to shift a tad to the rear). The curve of the foam kneepad sits against my shoulder like a cup and rotates like my shoulder does. It's pretty slick.

Just need to add a tiny bit of padding at the bottoms where it rests against my upper arm, and they'll be good to go.

Now I'm really itching to get the bandoleer and the boots!

[JediKai]

Looks FANTASTIC!!