Blood, Sweat, and...

... no tears yet. Though I think having a finished suit of Mandalorian armor by the end of the month may not be a reasonable goal. I accepted that when I decided to actually go forward with it. That would be a better deadline if I'd gotten on board when the idea first sparked, but it took later events to make me say "fuck it, it might not really be worth it, but I want to do it anyway."

I've learned the basic principles of using a sewing machine. How the thread is tangled and pulled still seems a bit like sorcery for me. And, well, my stitching is not good by any means, but I cut cloth and stitched it together into a vest shape. It may not be the prettiest work by any means, but I think it'll hold armor pieces well enough.

Cutting 6mm-thick sintra is a chore with hand tools. An Exacto knife is fine for scoring/marking lines by a few cuts in it feels like any misplaced pressure is going to snap the blade. A Dremel has trouble getting through that thickness and leaves dust all over A utility knife is better, and capable of cutting through with a lot of repeated work. Heating the blade actually makes it cut a bit easier, though that's back and forth work to a heat source. I think an actual hot knife might be better, but don't really want to invest in another tool at this point, so I'm going to proceed with cutting out the torso plates with what I have, I think. I have some 3mm sintra as well that I'll probably use for other parts.

The helmet torments me thus far. Paper-built forms look daunting, especially when instructions get into talk about mixing up resin and fiberglass to give structure. My first thought was just to use sintra, but there are difficulties with that, too. I got a cheap bump cap to provide a pre-made dome to work from, but getting the body of the helmet sized has been difficult thus far. I've gone through a few cut-out paper templates, most of them too small. I mocked up a bit with a couple pieces of rough cardboard, which has given me at least a sort-of-promising idea of sizing. I'm still waffling as to what to cut into that size, though. Some people have used plastic buckets and make it look easy. I could probably still work it with the thinner sintra. I'm not sure as I go back and forth between ideas, but I need to hammer something out fairly soon.

So far, I've shaved a nail with a blade and clipped a thumb with shears, the latter being a small (but annoying) wound that bled a bit much. Feh! I actually hurt myself worse in an unrelated slip on the stairs that's left both my big toes sore and bruised the last couple days. Ow.

But... I feel like I'm making some progress and I'm reasonably determined to have a costume at some point...