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Maladi Build Thread


Zoomi

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Greetings!

 

Figured I would cross post between my garrison and here for my Darth Maladi build. It was a rather long road to approval for this costume (my first), with a few life hurdles getting in the way, along with some local discussion about the matchup, or lack thereof between the CRL and reference images. 

 

All up, the build took over a year, with multiple parts being re-made. To say I learned a lot along the way is a bit of an understatement. 

 

I chose Maladi after a few months of browsing the 501st CRL's. I knew I wanted a female sith, and I wanted something comfortable to troop in. I picked Maladi because I believed she was 'simple' enough to construct, with limited resources of experience, while I saved up to purchase a TK. 

 

Sure ... "simple" ... we'll go with that. 

CRL1.jpg

Full image directory for Darth Maladi can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/Wd3nt

 

Head Piece

HP.jpg

Original head piece was made with foam, silver paint, glued to a head-band. Luls. This one didn't cover enough of the front of my head, so ... time to make a new one!

Second headpiece was made out of leftover vauform plastic, heated and sculpted to the shape of my head. Slow process, lots of test fits, heat resistant gloves were a must, but eventually it was shaped well enough to not require any clips or fasteners to my hair / head. 2mm foam was then cut in to shape, and the pattern stencilled on before being cut with a scalpel. Bondo was used to smooth out the front of the head piece, and then the headpiece was painted silver and detailed / weathered. 

 

Hair Wraps

wraps.png

Two hair wraps were crafted; one in silver as the clip near the back of the head. This clip also holds in place my black hair extensions. The other, a the top of my head, was crafted out of foam, and covered with PU Leather. There was a lot of debating over this - some comics, the top wrap appears silver, others, leather. Opted for leather, and supplied enough reference photos to pass :)

 

Leather Wrap Shirt

shirt.jpg

I originally made the shoulders with 5mm foam, covered in pleather / PU Leather. After screwing up the placement of the seams, I had a fair amount of trouble getting replacement fabric which set me back time wise, but eventually I found a new shop and purchased a few extra meters just in case. 

First round of the shoulders - scrapped to the bin. 

Second round of the shoulders, was a rush job in time for a con, so they were simply sewn to the correct 3 panel width, but had ZERO rigidity. 

They lasted maybe 3 pre-approved troops, before they received a 2mm foam re-enforcement, but even then, I was still not happy with them.

Third round I completely re-sew the three panels, backed them with new 2mm foam panels, and then provided another cover on the underside. I slit off the foam on the inside, to taper down, so that the wraps were more comfortable over my chest. Subtle placement of velcro has allowed me to secure the shoulders high enough, per the CRL, with the right side overlapping at the front, and left over the back. 

The shoulders are actually cinched in place with corset, that is then covered with a wrap that I made out of multiple, off centre strips of PU leather.

 

Inner Shirt

 

For the inner shirt ... I found a super cheap black turtle neck, long sleeve top, and cut the arms out. The turtle neck was originally used as part of the ribbed collar, but in the end I opted to try and make the collar appear to cover the ribbed shirt, when in fact, the collar had a bibbed panel ... more on that next. 

 

Collar

 

After originally fixing a ribbed panel to the outside of the inner shirt, a template of the collar was made in paper, cut to foam, and then covered in PU Leather. The smooth collar comes all the way around the neck, and fixes at the front over a ribbed insert - which is also fixed to the collar. 

 

Skirt 

 

I used an A-line pattern, and chose to use an elasticated band at the top. The fabric (from memory) was a lightweight, nylon / polyester blend, that allowed me to be comfortable in the Aussie summer. This is the ONLY part of this costume that I made once, and done right. Hahaha. 

 

Boots

 

I had a pre-existing plain pair of low heeled boots that worked perfectly for this costume. 

 

Forearms Wraps

 

These are going to be re-made, but I used off-cut PU Leather to create two wraps from mid-arm, to over the top of the back of my hand. The wraps were then bulked out with 4x additional bands of PU leather, which have since fallen off in troops (hence needing to be re-made). These bands are not necessary per the CRL, but against the comics, again, enough resources and it was passed. 

 

Silver Hip Wrap

IMG_0334.JPG

First hip wrap was made out of grey fabric and silver paint. 

Second wrap was made out of grey fabric, and a 2mm foam overlay, painted silver. 

Third wrap was made out of grey fabric, darted at the back to prevent gape, with 2mm foam overlay covered in aluminium tape, weathered back to a dull metallic. 

Will need to construct a fourth wrap, as the aluminium tape - while it looks phenomenal, it has cracked to show the foam underneath. 

 

Belt

belt.JPG

The same PU Leather was sewn into a 7cm tube, and a red buckle made out of foam, wrapped in red ribbon. 

The second buckle, was made with wood and bondo, rounded and shaped to be a lovely red donut. Press-studs are used at the back of the belt to secure it, and four trims of leather were used to make the belt appear to be connected by them (they aren't. It's all totally the press-studs). 

 

Body Paint

paint.jpg

Initially, paint was a water based body paint. And dear lord it's horrible. While easy to apply for quick troops, it goes tacky at the slightest hint of moisture, cracks around any movement (elbows, mouth) and it is just, in general, uncomfortable to wear. 

I heard about Reel Creations - and subsequently found it too expensive, and too much of a nightmare to ship to Australia. 

My Garrison's local Maul was on the hunt for a local supplier as well, and largely thanks to his efforts - a new paint was found, called Fionair. And wow ... what a difference. Applied with an airbrush, I can easily get about 8 hours without ANY touch-ups. I use black water based face paint for the tiger stripes, and face marks - while I am tempted to make templates, I really enjoy the final part of detailing the black over red. It's my final part of kitting up, and I think I'll keep enjoying it for a while to come :)

 

Optional Items!

 

I use contact lenses, and if the troop allows for weapons, one half of the maul sabre. Doubt I will ever go for the pointed ears.

 

So there we go! A very quick, rough talk through of my Darth Maladi! Happy to answer any questions. Just have faith that while some projects might not be the fastest of builds - you can get there in the end!

 

********

 

I've opted to keep this build thread without pictures. If you would like to read the painful process unfold - you can head to my garrison's website and view the complete build thread and check out a bunch of progress photos as well as individual items were upgraded along the way. 

 

I owe a lot of thanks to my garrison for helping me over the final line with this costume. I burnt out a little towards the end, and remaking so many pieces over and over got old, and if it weren't for someone hijacking and helping me finish off some items - I doubt I would have made it to approval. 

 

Thanks for reading!

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Good evening,

I believe you have covered all of the points of this costume well, and I welcome you aboard.
274145-32533-darth-maladi.jpg

She is not a common costume in our ranks, but well appreciated.

10286922_690242504346382_370202573052495


To 501st Members with approved costumes covered by The Flagship Eclipse Expanded Universe Detachment;

If you are interested in inclusion in TFE Members gallery, please e-mail me(thecloneemperor@gmail.com) with the following;

1. Great picture of your costume. The portrait should be posed, show off your costume well, be of good photo quality and around 2000 px tall. (Portrait style, Ideally from the knees up with you alone in the photo)

2. A second photo of you this tyme in street clothes/daily wear in your normal environment. Again this should be of good photo quality and around 2000 px tall. (Portrait style, Ideally from the knees up with you alone in the photo)

3. Your name. If we are friends on FB I will also tag you.

4. A link to your 501st membership profile page.

5. Your garrison/outpost

Please visit our gallery for an idea of the images sought;

1071284_552036971500270_28833272_o.jpg
TFE Membership Gallery of FB

 

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I will let the CRL team know you are interested in helping.  

 

They will contact you in the future if they need a particular picture of something from your costume.

 

Thank you for your offer to help.

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Thank you for your willingness to help, we will definitely use it.  We should be starting to post in progress CRL's soon and then we can start to make changes to them.

Edited by kracker98
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Yes! We will be starting this week to get CRLs going. You can see the ones being worked on here as they are posted.

 

http://www.theflagshipeclipse.com/forums/index.php?/forum/195-incomplete-crls/

 

The Maladi one is up so you can start throwing whatever images, references, and descriptions of parts that need to be added or edited from the 501st CRL.

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Any guide for resolution of photos? I'm not due to kit up for a little while and would prefer to use exisiting photos if they are of a high enough quality.

 

I cannot view the CRL forum topics? The link says I don't have permission.

 

Edited by Zoomi
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Thank you so much for posting this! I currently have a Staff Officer Black approved costume and a Jawa approved costume.

 

I, like you, have always wanted a female Sith Lord costume that can be more comfortable for trooping in, so I've selected Darth Maladi. It will be a long process of course, but I will be following your thread extensively for input. :) 

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