Sith Acolyte Armor Build - Anchorhead Outpost

[Guest slave1pilot]

We know this character has been around for a couple years now, but the costume itself has just been approved for 501st membership. We are very excited about that (congrats Darren!)

anyway...

Several weeks ago, bishopx and myself ( the 2 of us are now Anchorhead Outpost) watched the cinematic trailers again for the game and were blown away...again. We decided that it would be a blast to make the Sith Acolyte costume from the cinematic trailers. We were able to secure some pretty detailed reference materials so here goes. We are already pretty far along in the project and are planning on making all of the hard parts for it.

 

The logical place to start the project is with the helmet. We were able to determine that the faceplate is actually a full helmet. There is definitely a front and back where the front faceplate overlaps the helmet back.

 

 

 

With the helmet based out, the largest obstacle to overcome is adding the complex floural / leafy pattern to the mask. In this case, there are two different designs to the faceplate. There is the "Bengal" pattern and the "Nemesis" or ornate pattern that we chose to reproduce.

 

In the beginning, we almost made a horrible mistake. We reversed the design when we "stamped" it into the faceplate. If we had 3D printed it like that, we would have been eating about $2700 worth of material and printing time.

[Guest Anonymous]

The 3D printing is complete! Very excited. The detail is great. Very happy with the part.

 

 

 

 

[Guest Anonymous]

The first casting out of the mold. I came out great. I'm very happy with the detail.

 

 

 

 

[Guest Anonymous]

Paint continued....

 

 

 

 

[Guest Anonymous]

We've started on the rest of the armor also. We're going from the head down....Chest and Arms first. Chest armor will be vacuum formed. The gauntlets will be hyperfirm rubber same as the blasters we make.

 

 

 

[Guest Anonymous]

We machined the rear of the helmet and made a test vacuum form pull to test the fit. We will make the rear of the helmet from resin in the end.

 

 

 

[Guest Anonymous]

This is our final model for the chest armor. What do you think?

[vaderjeff1744]

All I can say is WOW! The detail on this is AMAZING! I'm already in on getting one of your masks. I may have to get in on your armor run too, once you're at that stage! GREAT & AMAZING WORK! KEEP IT UP! CAN'T WAIT to see more!

[Guest slave1pilot]

Thanks Jeff, We are pretty happy with the results so far.

 

Since the gauntlets are symmetrical, we've decided to go ahead and make them out of hyperfirm rubber. This will allow better mobility.

[Guest Anonymous]

All I can say is WOW! The detail on this is AMAZING! I'm already in on getting one of your masks. I may have to get in on your armor run too, once you're at that stage! GREAT & AMAZING WORK! KEEP IT UP! CAN'T WAIT to see more!

 

 

Thanks very much. We are working very hard on this. One of the coolest characters out of the Star Wars realm in decades!

[Obickay]

These kits are looking phenomenal.

 

Keep up the fantasic attention to detail.

[Guest Anonymous]

Thanks very much. We are doing everything possible to include all details in the final parts.

[Guest lperea]

WOW!!! When finished I think it will be the best armor at the moment. Hope I can afford one, I really want one.

[Guest Anonymous]

We're going to try to release the parts as we go so that no one has to pick up the entire set in one shot. Of course, the entire set of armor will be available when we are done.

 

We are near finishing the rear cap of the helmet. It will go into a mold tomorrow morning and we will make our first pulls of this piece tomorrow afternoon. We will we sharpening a couple of the details prior to molding.

The gap under the faceplate is correct per the cinematic trailers. I guess it will help with some airflow. Some people, depending on the shape of there head, will not necessarily be able to utilize the rear cap of the helmet. Sorry. It's just a fact.

[Guest slave1pilot]

We pulled the first casting of the rear of the helmet.

It turned out very well.

This will be a helmet set to be proud of.

 

Helmet rear untrimmed...

[Guest slave1pilot]

We found some great material today for the cloaks

We really like the texture on this . If you look at the reference pictures you can see the texture of the fabric that we purchased is very close .

We have one of the finest seamsters out there working on the patterns for this cloak

[Guest slave1pilot]

a few words regarding the cloak:

We went down to the garment district in L.A. to find it. We searched for a few hours trying to find something suitable.

We found this and bought the entire bolt of fabric.

Well, The bolt only contained 44yds at $12 per yd.

At 7 yds per cloak, that's not a lot of cloaks out of the bolt.

 

I'm sure there must be more somewhere. Lee ( our guy doing the sewing) is nearing completion for the pattern. If you are in need of a cloak, PM me and I will have him contact you directly. He'd need some measurements for sure.

 

This was the fabric paint test for the sleeves. The reference image shows the stripes as very patchy.

 

 

and on another note...

Lee had a moment to work on a test for the Acolyte neck seal. Pretty awesome first attempt. I'm looking forward to seeing how this thing looks in the end.

[Guest Anonymous]

Holy crap! This just got awesome. Lee finished the first cloak tonight. He was wearing the cloak a little forward otherwise the hood would sit exactly as shown in the reference photo. The photos are at two different angles but this thing is darn close. Obvious differences are the reference Sith wears chest armor and Lee is wearing a Family Guy shirt. The lack of shoulder pads on Lee is throwing the drape of the cloak off a tad and makes the hood appear to be a little shorter. It's actually not the case.

 

 

 

 

[Guest slave1pilot]

The rear of the helmet was painted and weathered.

[Guest shdwtrpr13]

My gods this is incredibly breath taking. I can't wait to see the rest of this build.

[Guest jwinnington]

I know im late on this but, Me and another guy from carida have been doing a lot of work on this. We had to take a year and a half off. Money. We have none. Our robes are done. We have a Seamstress from MGM put them together. The sleeves are done by sewing the red fabric in between. You'll never get it dyed right. I can take some photos. Your armor specs look great. I do have one concern. The belly/cod piece. Is there a way to do that out of rubber or something? Its definitely a not armor. I really want to sit down in this.

[Guest Anonymous]

Based on the renders from Bioware. They are posted above. I would say they look painted. There's no seam between the black and the red. You can see the black showing through. It in some areas.

[Guest jwinnington]

ITs CGI. It also shows the gauntlets twisting with their arms. Plus I have noticed that the Acolytes are not all the same. But again. Its CGI. If you can get the dying process to work then great.

[Guest slave1pilot]

You'll never get it dyed right.

 

While this pic is overexposed and far too bright (it's much more scarlet in person), I think it shows that Lee was quite successful with dying the fabric.

He's not just some geek off the street, he's a professional.

[Guest jwinnington]

Holy S! That looks great! He is a professional. I didn't think it could be done without bleeding into the black. What are your thoughts on the belly armor?