New Project: Jes Gistang Female Legacy Stormtrooper‏

[Sparrow]

Time for another project. My wife is currently Greedo (that is her and I pictured) but finds it a challenge breathing in a fully enclosed latex mask. I can’t say I blame her. So she has requested something she can easily breathe in and looks bad and tough in. Sounds like a woman in need of some armor and a big gun.

 

 

 

So I pulled the trigger last week and ordered her the Jes Gistang Legacy Stormtrooper from Kevin. As it has been a few years since I built my armor, I am really looking forward to this, especially the more unique aspects of this armor.  Today is big box day!! My first impression of this armor is that it is definitely not built for guys. It is much smaller than a typical TK.

 

 

 

Edited November 13, 2015 by Sparrow

[jjarmoryinc]

Following, can't wait to see this come together!

[neoakaj[TK]]

Yay!

Its a easy one to build. Only hard part that I can remember was box placement on the belt

[Sparrow]

And so the fun begins. The first thing I should mention is my wife is small, so everything will require a little shrinking J>

 

First thing I started on was the gloves, which I am using a pair of Gormex flight gloves. I got the smallest pair I could find. It is loose on the wrist, so I will get her to do a little sewing and take it in making it a little snugger. Trimmed the hand plates, sanded them down. I am not using any electrical tools for this build, so all the sanding and trimming is being done by hand, and a good metal ruler. I glued some Velcro onto the glove as well as the back side of the hand plates. To ensure the Velcro will not be coming off the gloves, I added some E6000 and put them in a grip for 20 minutes. This Velcro will not be coming off.

 

 

Then moved onto the shoulder bells, and trimmed and sanded them down. I may need to do some additional trimming when it comes to sizing it with the rest of the armor.

 

 

Next moved on to the forearms and gave them a rough trimming as I will need to size these on my wife.

 

 

Taped them up so I could size them up on my wife

 

 

Length wise they are perfect but they are too wide so need to cut some off, so score it and cut it.

 

 

Then time to trim down the edges and smooth everything out.

 

 

One thing that is different with these arms is unlike a TK, there are no outside coverstrips, they are glued on the inside to help support each half for a smooth polished look on the outside. The outside of the forearms do overlap to help accommodate this look.

[Sparrow]

Glued the pieces together

 

Edited November 19, 2015 by Sparrow

[jnnfr72[TK]]

Looking good! Congrats on your new build, and congrats to your wife!

[Sparrow]

So time for the legs. Cut out and trimmed all the pieces.

 

 

Sized the abs on my wife and as you can see, there is a lot of extra.

 

 

Cut off the extra and used spare pieces for the but joint then let it all dry.

 

 

 

Also got my wifes boots today.

 

 

[Sparrow]

Time for a rough test fit with the legs. I love the look with the knee cap.

 

As you can see, lots of extra on the leg to cut off.

 

 

This is the joint on the side of the calf. Due to cutting so much material, the ends no longer match. So I cut the corner and pulled it up, gluing it in place, creating a smother looking edge. The cuts lines I will fill in with filler later to eliminate the lines. Not to concerned as it will be covered by the knee cap anyway.

 

 

Had more time so time to work on the heart of the costume, the body. Cut it out and cleaned it up.

 

Edited November 27, 2015 by Sparrow

[Mutter]

Looking good!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Sparrow]

Time to make some snaps and start gluing them in place

 

 

Initially I was going to make my own suspenders, but turns out I had a pair. Only one snap needed on the back so Ill replace to two with one. One the right side I am going to make a tongue and groove lock to join the ab and kidney plates together, so as to get a nice flush look and minimize the seams.

 

 

In that same vein, I have decided to glue the left side together, just like I did with my TK. Again it helps attain a nice flush look and hide the seams. I used some of the extra that I cut off from the kidney plate and am using it as a butt joint to hold the two pieces together.

 

Edited November 30, 2015 by Sparrow

[Sparrow]

Starting to come together now, adding straps to the legs and suspenders.

 

 

The tongue in grove lock works great. Also installed some crisscross snaps to keep everything nice and snug.

 

 

 

Adding snaps and straps to the shoulder bells

 

 

As I needed to trim a lot off of the back of the calves I needed to add on some shims

 

Edited December 4, 2015 by Sparrow

[Sparrow]

First fitting for the upper body. 

 

 

The shoulder bells are too wide, rubbing against the chest and especially the back plate, so I’ll trim off about 1 cm on the side. The biceps are sitting to low, so will raise the snap in the shoulder bell up an inch. The shoulder straps are to long, so I will need to trip those as well.

 

In regards to the calf, I put a 1 inch cover strip on the back, but due to me taking off so much leg, it wasn’t sitting right. 

 

 

So I am going to make the cover strip a little wider, which will allow for a better overlap on the back of the calf.

 

[Pyrates[TK]]

Great work and attention to details!

[Sparrow]

As I always say, great costuming is all in the details!

[Griffin-X[TK]]

Great work on this setup.

[Sparrow]

Started work on the belt. Completely different than a TK. The belt is plastic as opposed to fabric then you attach mounts for the boxes to go onto. So I glued the left side together then velcroed it to the body so only the right side opens, just like the body. I'm closing it with a bit of velcro. I'm thinking to just leave it on the body permanently.

 

 

Edited December 7, 2015 by Sparrow

[Sparrow]

Cut off 3 tabs from the shoulder strap and glued snaps onto the knee caps

 

 

Time to attach the knees to the calves. Measure up where I want to cut, then slice and dice then mount the knees.

 

 

Moving onto the belt got to do a bunch of cutting and trimming

                                                                                                                                                             

 

Measured out and taped the boxes on the belt, 6 on the front, 5 on the back, leaving room for the two larger ammo boxes.

 

[Mutter]

I would suggest grouping the front boxes closer together. You need room on the sides for the two large boxes with flip open tops. These cover the seams on the belt where they join together.

[Sparrow]

Put the belt on the armor with the anchors for the belt boxes and looks good

 

 

Time to start the large belt boxes

 

[Sparrow]

First fitting of the upper body. Looking good!

 

[Cotton]

How are you attaching the shoulder straps to the chest piece? The hard plastic straps.

[Barcode]

Looks pretty good mate!

[Sparrow]

Attaching clips to the rear of the large belt boxes using rivets.

 

 

Technically one can build these boxes so they open, but I found them flimsy so I am just going to build them to be permanently closed. It is also much easier to build this way. Either way they are approved.

 

 

Glued the back on to the box

 

 

For the lids, there is really nowhere to glue it onto the box as the design had a hinge in mind. So I cut out some abs and built it up so it will sit flush on the box. 5 pieces on the front and 4 on the top. This also will give the boxes a bit more of a solid feel.

 

 

I decide to glue on a cover for the back of the box as the back can be seen while on the belt. This helps create the illusion of a functional box

 

 

Glued the shoulder straps onto the chest plate

 

 

 

I designed the chest and back plate to have a tongue and grove lock, which will keep the two pieces together nicely. A white elastic strap will keep the two pieces snug.

 

[Lienna]

This is just amazing, great work!

[neoakaj[TK]]

Looking good!! Makes me want to go back and fix up a few items on my wife's Jes. Maybe I can do that while I finish up on other projects