Cal Kestis Inquisitor Vision Build and Research Thread

[planktonimore]

Hello and welcome to my thread where I will be researching and building a screen accurate Inquisitor Cal costume. This will be a long process but I am determined to complete this project with an end goal of hopefully getting it approved and creating the first in the world CRL for Inquisitor Cal. I also hope that this thread is a help to anyone else looking to build this costume and that we can work together to make this happen.

Edited December 4, 2024 by planktonimore

[planktonimore]

On 11/15/2024 at 1:36 PM, planktonimore said:

More research reveals a few key details:

Most notably, the entire suit is made a ribbed fabric, similar to Trilla's uniform. Note that the inner collar is smooth while the outer collar is ribbed. The red areas on the inside of the collar and on the stripes are also ribbed.

I was also able to get some great shots of the individual pieces of the uniform using a mod in the sequel game. This mod altered the fabric texture of the suit but the seams are the same so we can use that as a great help.

 

As you can see, there are the rear princess seams as well as a couple of horizontal seams between them. On the front, the seam that comes down from the collar is not there like it is on an officer tunic. There is also no horizontal seam running the circumference of the suit as there is on the officer tunic. This seam is probably farther down at the hip where the belt is.

There is also what appears to be a cyan colored top stitching on many of the seams.

Finally, by isolating the armor piece, we can see the leather vest that sits underneath the hard armor. It is one piece with joined seams at the under arms.

edit: fixed embedded images

 

Here is a link to another thread where others and I have already done some work on researching.

[planktonimore]

Starting small with the gloves. These are pretty much the same as the seventh and second sisters gloves. Black leather with a red palm and fingers.

I could not find any acceptable gloves readily available so I am making some prototypes. I got a pair of black faux leather gloves and a pair of red gloves and cut the palms out.

After a lot of stitching and a bit of black sharpie in some seams, we have a glove. It is not perfect but it just might be good enough, at least for now.

Please let me know your thoughts so far. And if you know where I can get some second sister gloves, then I wont bother stitching the other glove.

[planktonimore]

Big update, the hard parts for the armor have arrived today!

All pieces were printed in black ABS, which will clearly require some sanding, filling and painting, except for the four bridge pieces which were printed in soft resin and are basically good to go out of the box. The files I printed are from CGTrader, and seem to be the perfect scale for my body so thats good.

 

As for the soft parts, I am currently working on getting a jumpsuit put together based on an imperial officer uniform pattern I got from Etsy. I am adding and removing seams based on reference photos I have taken in game, to be as accurate as possible, and using black and red rib knit just like Second Sister’s uniform. I’ll post some pictures when I have something more to show.

[GrandMoffKK]

I got my second sister gloves from here, and they're pretty nice imo. 

https://crowprops.bigcartel.com/product/second-sister-gloves

[planktonimore]

2 hours ago, GrandMoffKK said:

I got my second sister gloves from here, and they're pretty nice imo. 

https://crowprops.bigcartel.com/product/second-sister-gloves

I did look at these, they look nice! The only thing is the shipping from that vendor is really expensive and they aren’t an exact match to cal’s gloves. Cal’s gloves might actually be different from second sisters.

[GrandMoffKK]

Ah, gotcha. 

 

Any thoughts on how you're going to attach the thigh armor? I'm working on a Grand Inquisitor (Rebels) build myself, and have similar 'floating' hip/thigh armor as shown on Cal. I'm thinking of sewing 4" Velcro to the side of the pants and then glueing/melting 4" Velcro on the underside of the armor to best capture the look while making sure they're unlikely to fall off. But... this is my first build, so I'm learning best practices as I go. 

[planktonimore]

1 hour ago, GrandMoffKK said:

Ah, gotcha. 

 

Any thoughts on how you're going to attach the thigh armor? I'm working on a Grand Inquisitor (Rebels) build myself, and have similar 'floating' hip/thigh armor as shown on Cal. I'm thinking of sewing 4" Velcro to the side of the pants and then glueing/melting 4" Velcro on the underside of the armor to best capture the look while making sure they're unlikely to fall off. But... this is my first build, so I'm learning best practices as I go. 

I have been thing about this myself! I’m not sure if velcro will be the way to go as I fear they will fall off. I used mostly line 24 snaps to keep my TK together and I was thinking of putting some of those on the pants, maybe 2 on the top and one on the bottom so they stay in place. I’ll do some testing as soon as I have my suit assembled, which will hopefully be soon.

[GrandMoffKK]

I've heard about those, but not sure what they actually are, so I'll have to look them up. I'm looking to do Beskar Gideon at some point too, so I'll definitely need some ideas better than Velcro for that build. I'm about 2 months away on finishing the soft goods part, so you're well ahead of me. Please keep me posted how it goes. Appreciate you sharing your experience!

[planktonimore]

Yes and same goes for you!

[planktonimore]

A little update, the armor is coming along. I’m tired of sanding already but so far the finishes have been coming out decent.

I also had to fill in a detail on the shoulders because it was not present in the game.

Soon I should have everything gloss black and ready for buffing and fine detail painting!

[planktonimore]

Glossy glossy glossy! Everything is glossy black and reasonably smooth. The finishes is far from perfect but I think it should be good enough.

Next will be applying Imperial cog details on the shoulders, and painting other fine details, insignias, buttons, and some light weathering. Then I’ll probably start assembling the armor pieces into a wearable state. I also need to attempt making the leather flak vest that cal wears under the hard armor, and likely use it to assist in assembly.

 

All for now. Let me know your thoughts so far!

[planktonimore]

Alright, all the details have been painted following the in game reference. First off, the chest plate, which has two little red buttons with a silver outline.

Next, the shoulder armor, which has white imperial cogs centered on them. For these I used vinyl decals.

And finally, the gauntlets. The right gauntlet has an insert with two red buttons, four black buttons, and a white outline around the panel with the red buttons. Both gauntlets have a white “=“ sign on the outside. The right gauntlet has a perfect parallel while the left gauntlet has a slight offset on the lines, making them not line up perfectly. For these, I taped them off and hand painted them.

Next I will be trying to assemble everything into a wearable configuration; I have a few ideas for that. But, so far I’m happy with how this is coming. Once the pieces are assembled, I will probably do a little weathering in matte black and silver on the edges.

 

As always, let me know your thoughts!