Handmade Steel Mandalorian Armor

[JamesHall1701]

Hi, this is the custom Mandalorian armor I made. It has taken 2 years so far, and it represents my first attempt at metal work, sewing an outfit, boot making, and making a blaster. It's all real metal and leather, and the only bit I didn't make myself is the pair of gloves (I will probably make those eventually). The design is based on the man-with-no-name archetype in movies. It has a lot of elements from Eastwood's character in the Dollars Trilogy, but also includes a symbol on the right pauldron that is a mix of the Mandalorian crusader's crest and the mon on the robes of the protagonist in Yojimbo. Additionally, the Mando'a script on the chest reads "nada" in reference to Roddy Piper's character in They Live.

 

[sparkmatter]

I am so impressed and also baffled how you can hold all that weight! Is there a reason you didn't opt for aluminum?

 

[Halliwax]

Wicked impressive

 

[alexbailey]

Great work, impressive

 

[Halliwax]

Was it 2 weeks of metal work? Or the whole costume?

 

[JamesHall1701]

I am so impressed and also baffled how you can hold all that weight! Is there a reason you didn't opt for aluminum?

All together it probably weighs around 50lbs, but since everything is fitted the weight get distributed evenly. After about 5 hours wearing it, the only thing that got uncomfortable was the vambraces. Those thing really pull on your shoulders after a while. I went with steel because I wanted it to keep it's form as well as possible, but mostly because we had a lot of galvanized steel at work that I was allowed to use for free!

 

[JamesHall1701]

Was it 2 weeks of metal work? Or the whole costume?

2 years for the whole thing. The metal work took around a couple months (there was definitely a learning curve).

 

[Halliwax]

2 years for the whole thing. The metal work took around a couple months (there was definitely a learning curve).

Incredible dedication and craftsmanship

 

[Daethstar24]

Incredible work, this deserves a full youtube video breaking it down. Just a leather belt is a heck of a job and learning curve, let alone forging a 3 dimensional armor set and helmet to such accuracy and then painting, attaching it all, and sewing an undersuit etc