Mau's Phasma Build [RFC]

[Mau Abata]

I converted this thread into a generic build thread / Request For Comments to help me keep track of things as they move forward. I'll post what I'm planning as things move forward, if there's any feedback you have, feel free to dump it on.

Planned vendors:
* Nothing on hold...

Ordered / Waiting:

* Nothing on hold...

 

Arrived / Building:

* Armor Kit + Helmet - Jim (chrome is difficult to find someone to take you seriously, so I'm going to paint it myself.)

* Blaster - BranfuhrStudios (Etsy, painting)

* Gaskets - Imperial Gaskets, rubber

Complete:

* TK Talkie, configuring voice
* Cape - DIY, rubberized

Edited May 3, 2020 by Mau Abata
Status update.

[Mau Abata]

Update - 4/12: Planning -> Starting Orders

 

I've ordered a voice change to play with, as well as a blaster which I'm quite excited to build. I'm probably going to record some audio with the TK Talkie once it's fine tuned to the right voice. I've also heard back from the armor kits and gaskets, so I'll be moving forward with Imperial Gaskets rubber set, and Jim's armor kit.

 

After a bit of internal debate, I've settled on doing TLJ Phasma. The new waters seems like a wonderful challenge, and it is just so chrome. I will be awaited in Valhalla for this, I'm sure. This weekend I'm going to scrutinize the films for any more information on the build I can squeeze out, and start work on the cape.

 

So. Much. Chrome.

I'm still weighing if I want to chrome it myself (heavily utilizing my friend's auto body experience), or if I should get it vacuum metallized. I'm leaning strongly toward the latter; I found a couple options locally that offer this service, so once Big Brown Box Day comes, I'll probably show them the bits and get quotes. My Plan C was to find an auto body shop and see if they would chrome it, but it seems the VM route has produced superior results.

[lucnak[TK]]

Regarding chroming yourself, a friend evaluated that getting all the PPE and equipment to do it herself was almost the same cost as having it done somewhere else, so she opted for the latter. You may want to consider a cloth gasket option as well to avoid being a walking personal sauna!

[Mau Abata]

On 4/13/2018 at 9:27 AM, lucnak said:

Regarding chroming yourself, a friend evaluated that getting all the PPE and equipment to do it herself was almost the same cost as having it done somewhere else, so she opted for the latter. You may want to consider a cloth gasket option as well to avoid being a walking personal sauna!

I was thinking of getting one of the Pink gaskets as a backup on the warmer days, I'll have to see just how toasty the rubber ones get. The same with the cloak, I had been planning a lighter weight cloak that isn't rubberized canvas to swap out.

For chroming, I've decided that I'm going to have a local company vacuum metallize it, the results look really nice from what I've seen. I might have to get a smaller chroming kit for the blaster, since I don't entirely thing they'd be able to work with those intricate details, but I will inquire once some pieces start to arrive.

[Mau Abata]

Quick update from this last weekend:

The blaster came in! Here it is as a pile of parts:

 

Since taking this picture, I've cleaned it up and sanded the rough edges. I might have another progress photo but there's not much to show. The pesky trigger guard has also been removed. The next step is to do one last sand, then black gloss finish, then Alclad chrome on top. THEN I get to assemble it. Weekends are not long enough.

Cape!

So we've been playing with making the cape, and after a giant amount of experimentation with this wonderful bright red fabric that I found cheap enough to sacrifice for Science(tm) [I'm sure Captain Cardinal would approve, not that I seek his approval.]

 

The one thing we learned about the cape is: It has a mind of its own, and how exactly the bunchy side looks is entirely up to how it feels like folding. The final product will almost certainly be much more dramatic in how it moves and hangs. Unfortunately, I could not remember to take more pictures of the prototype across the front (since I had a mirror, and the photos were for my own reference on how the back looked. Alas, I cannot see my own backside.)

 

After way too long of standing about and trying to figure out a prototype we came up with something like the above, which my Lord and Saviour of the Stitching (Kylo Ren is a tailor when he's not wrecking the nearest comms console) somehow magically distilled into a working pattern and transferred it to the final cloth. If you found the google slides presentation including "that one cape pattern", heed the warning that says "This is how I made a cape that I did not like". It was a really good starting point, but plenty of information bits were not all that accurate.

Oh, for anyone curious about pocket dimensions: The D3 cape seems to have a pocket aspect ratio of roughly 0.3:1, the size that I ended up using was ~3"x~10" but they aren't all exactly the same.

 

One thing we did note is, it doesn't seem like there is a rhyme or reason to the placement of the straps/pockets. That said, the exact size of them might vary considerably considering we aren't all 6'90" and have different shoulder widths. You can see my super elaborate random squares of cloth pinned where the pockets should go. Notable: They don't sit in a straight line when laid flat, but somehow (I dunno how), it looks right when worn. Fabric is a mystery to me, but Kylo understands it, so that's good.

Next weekend we're going to stitch the actual proper cape and finalize placement, so I'm going to actually reserve passing some information on until I have those pictures. This bright-red Cardinal-approved prototype is too messy for me to use as a "we did this and it worked well" example. I'm just posting here because #documentation and I'm a programmer so I document everything (that was a lie).

 

 

THE CLOTH:

The CRL for TFA LvII cert mentioned "diagonal weave canvas" as the material used. From what I could make of the images provided in this really super cool forum post that was the best reference ever, a black cotton bull denim looks about as armorweave as a canvas. The issue I ran into is, I can't find, if it exists, a canvas with a diagonal weave. However, bull denim is available in most craft stores. I'm not textile savvy but I think I levelled up in this hunt.

This weekend I'll hopefully have the supplies to finish my armorweave, then we can stitch it. I've ordered a bunch of latex stuff so I can do some science, and share how I eventually coat the material, but the end result will be this fabric with a liquid latex coating. (Though it also looks like silicone might've been used, given the D3 pics, so I might try that if this doesn't work, but I'm about 82.1% sure that the latex should do fine.)


So yeah, that's progress dump #1, tune in next week for more insanity that I can hopefully distill into something that's starting to look more like an outfit and less like a supply pile. I'm super jazzed about the armorweave cape, though. In other news: I'm going to poke Imperial again about gaskets (I've been slacking on those), still waiting on the TK Talkie to ship, and Jim will be back on the 6th of May from a vacation, at which time my kit should arrive. Then it's off to the people with the giant vacuum tank to make it Valhalla-approved Chrome.

Ciao,
Mau!

[Pyrates[TK]]

Quick update from this last weekend:

The blaster came in! Here it is as a pile of parts:


 
Since taking this picture, I've cleaned it up and sanded the rough edges. I might have another progress photo but there's not much to show. The pesky trigger guard has also been removed. The next step is to do one last sand, then black gloss finish, then Alclad chrome on top. THEN I get to assemble it. Weekends are not long enough.

Cape!

So we've been playing with making the cape, and after a giant amount of experimentation with this wonderful bright red fabric that I found cheap enough to sacrifice for Science™ [i'm sure Captain Cardinal would approve, not that I seek his approval.]


 
The one thing we learned about the cape is: It has a mind of its own, and how exactly the bunchy side looks is entirely up to how it feels like folding. The final product will almost certainly be much more dramatic in how it moves and hangs. Unfortunately, I could not remember to take more pictures of the prototype across the front (since I had a mirror, and the photos were for my own reference on how the back looked. Alas, I cannot see my own backside.)


 
After way too long of standing about and trying to figure out a prototype we came up with something like the above, which my Lord and Saviour of the Stitching (Kylo Ren is a tailor when he's not wrecking the nearest comms console) somehow magically distilled into a working pattern and transferred it to the final cloth. If you found the google slides presentation including "that one cape pattern", heed the warning that says "This is how I made a cape that I did not like". It was a really good starting point, but plenty of information bits were not all that accurate.

Oh, for anyone curious about pocket dimensions: The D3 cape seems to have a pocket aspect ratio of roughly 0.3:1, the size that I ended up using was ~3"x~10" but they aren't all exactly the same.
 
One thing we did note is, it doesn't seem like there is a rhyme or reason to the placement of the straps/pockets. That said, the exact size of them might vary considerably considering we aren't all 6'90" and have different shoulder widths. You can see my super elaborate random squares of cloth pinned where the pockets should go. Notable: They don't sit in a straight line when laid flat, but somehow (I dunno how), it looks right when worn. Fabric is a mystery to me, but Kylo understands it, so that's good.

Next weekend we're going to stitch the actual proper cape and finalize placement, so I'm going to actually reserve passing some information on until I have those pictures. This bright-red Cardinal-approved prototype is too messy for me to use as a "we did this and it worked well" example. I'm just posting here because #documentation and I'm a programmer so I document everything (that was a lie).
 

 
THE CLOTH:

The CRL for TFA LvII cert mentioned "diagonal weave canvas" as the material used. From what I could make of the images provided in this really super cool forum post that was the best reference ever, a black cotton bull denim looks about as armorweave as a canvas. The issue I ran into is, I can't find, if it exists, a canvas with a diagonal weave. However, bull denim is available in most craft stores. I'm not textile savvy but I think I levelled up in this hunt.

This weekend I'll hopefully have the supplies to finish my armorweave, then we can stitch it. I've ordered a bunch of latex stuff so I can do some science, and share how I eventually coat the material, but the end result will be this fabric with a liquid latex coating. (Though it also looks like silicone might've been used, given the D3 pics, so I might try that if this doesn't work, but I'm about 82.1% sure that the latex should do fine.)


So yeah, that's progress dump #1, tune in next week for more insanity that I can hopefully distill into something that's starting to look more like an outfit and less like a supply pile. I'm super jazzed about the armorweave cape, though. In other news: I'm going to poke Imperial again about gaskets (I've been slacking on those), still waiting on the TK Talkie to ship, and Jim will be back on the 6th of May from a vacation, at which time my kit should arrive. Then it's off to the people with the giant vacuum tank to make it Valhalla-approved Chrome.

Ciao,
Mau!

That’s an awesome looking blaster kit!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Mau Abata]

TK Talkie arrived!



Quick update: TK Talkie arrived, and after a few minutes of playing with it I kinda got a Phasm-ish voice. I'll do more tweaking this weekend when I'm free from work, and when I get a better (cheaper) mic. Bonus: The Pyle Pro is on sale on Amazon Prime, with free 1-day shipping! Woo.

Anyway, I pulled a recording of my current voice config. Waiting to hear back from the creator to see if he'd share his wisdom, as well as just infinitely tweaking settings until the voice is just right and not too bitcrushed (Phasma's voice is a lot more pure than other TKs).

http://mypa.ws/i/FN2187Reconditioning.m4a <- there's an audio sample of what I got with only a little tweaking out of the box.

 

Cape:

 

The denim cape is almost done. I just need to sew on the pockets, which were held up by needing to sew some straps. The placement of the pockets is nonsensical and drove me mad. My best advice for people doing this in the future: Wear the cape, and position the pockets while you're wearing it, then adjust slightly on a flat surface.

 

Hopefully that gets sewn on Friday, so Saturday I can apply the first coat of latex. I'm using Monster Makers liquid latex, mixed about 1pt water to 2 or 3 pt latex. Just enough to spread into the denim but not enough to soak through. Two coats seemed to be best on my test swatches. I tried coating the material first before sewing and, uh. The sewing machine really didn't like that.

[Pretzel]

This is going to be impressive to watch. I gotta get my feet wet with some Phasma and FO builds. Good Luck on the rest of your build Mau! 

[Mau Abata]

THE CAPE
Also known as: Oh boy that dang thing.

It's like 90% done at this point. I stitched the rest of it together, settled on a closure that I appreciate (some tweaking required to make it more invisible), and started coating the outer layer. In all, this is one heavy cape, but it moves so nice.

 

And of course pockets. Straps. WHY PHASMA!?

 

I have only a couple reservations with pocket placement and alignment, but it looks fine when I'm wearing it, it's just our dress form that makes things look weird. She's got narrower shoulders than I.

 

Operation Armorweave

 

Hokay but my favorite part of this cape is the slightly glossy sheen and rubberized texture on the outside. While my methods probably weren't the same as the film (reveal your secrets, Disney), I've achieved a satisfactory feel and look by adding a couple hundred pounds of liquid latex. For those trying to do this: Slightly, and I mean like sliiiiightly, dilute the latex with water to help it flow into the denim/canvas, but not too wet that it soaks through.

 

 

I plan to add a second coat to even it out (I went kinda heavy on the pockets, and the first coat was a bit streaky elsewhere. Latex doesn't spread well.) The second coat will probably be a lot wetter so it will flow more, and the base coat should*(R)(tm) prevent it from bleeding through the material. In all, I should have it ready with just one more day of work, whenever I get around to it. After the second coat dries, all I have to do is the hem folds on the back and the red stripe, which I'm saving for last as a ceremonial "OMG FINALLY WOO" victory stripe. Without it, the cape looks pretty... unauthoritative.

 

Other Things:

Armor kit should ship soon, also, and I'm still waiting to hear back from one more company about vacuum metallization. The first quote I sent back was returned with a short "We do not work with fiberglass" response, and no additional option for followup.

 

Blaster I will return to, but I can't do much here as I turn spray painting over to my friend who is far more skilled at it than I am, and he's been busy with Kylo Ren's infinite swaths of basketweave material.

[Cpt. Phasma]

Damn! Excuse me while I pick me jaw up off the floor....

 

OK! We're all good now, hehe. I'm looking to do my own Phasma so I'm soaking up every little bit of information I possibly can. Now, if I could only do something about my height, lol. I'm only 5'3" so Phasma's going to be a bit...short for a stormtrooper, haha!