Mandalorian Armor

Starting with freely available STLs online, I started printing the files on a single Prusa MK4. The entirety of the time I was building this armor, the printer was running.

I used the tried-and-true methods of wet sanding, automotive filler paste, 2-in-1 sandable primer, and more and more sanding to post-process the parts and prep them for their shiny paint. Pieces that needed to be glued together I first glued with CA glue, then used a 3D pen to fill the seam with filament. Afterwards, I ran a chisel-tip soldering iron along the edge to fuse it. This created a strong bond.

The cape was a single sheet of boiled wool, sewn to shape, with Velcro added. The flightsuit was a vintage airforce jumpsuit I found online, which needed a lot of Velcro sewn on. Unfortunately, when I was building this, I didn't have a sewing machine so a lot of hand-sewing was needed.

The blaster was glued together, and then using a mixture of paint, graphite powder, rub n' buff, alcohol, and other weathering techniques, I gave it a paintjob to show a more handled, weathered appearance. The grip was printed, sanded, and then spray-painted brown and then stained using a large chip brush to give the appearance of wood. This was my first time painting and weathering a prop like this, and I love how it turned out.

For the armor sheen, I used a 2K black gloss spray paint followed by a gloss clear coat. Once those were dry, I buffed in graphite powder (a very messy job!). A follow-up coat of clear coat helped seal everything in. The helmet visor was PETG clear plastic with car window tint applied.

I also built light-up magnetic demo charges, cut and assembled the gloves using two pairs of cheap leather work gloves (no insulation to prevent warm hands), and built a small circuit for the LEDs on the gauntlet.