New to Costuming

[forn_usk]

Greetings all! Having recently purchased my tickets/booked my hotel for http://www.starwarscelebration.com/ I have roughly a 18 months to get my costume together. I have been a life long Star Wars fan and have often though of putting together Storm Trooper or Boba Fett armor. In doing my research, I have found that the armor set that I want to do is not one of the costumes "approved" by the 501st as it is from the Star Wars: The Old Republic video game. That being said, I am moving forward with my project plans.

I thought it best for me to be in contact with CCG/KB as I am new to the passion of making star wars costumes. After much internet research I have found that http://www.thedarkempire.org/ actually supports non-501st  approved costumes and have been in contact with them as well.

In doing initial research for my costume, it appears the biggest learning curve with the trooper/fett style costumes is the vacuum forming. As I am not that hot on electronics I am looking to avoid building the oven and may stick to using a conventional oven, possibly purchasing one to use specifically for this project.

Images for my project can be seen here: http://tor-fashion.com/2013/07/28/tt-16b-master-powertech-imp/

I am also going to see if I can volunteer as a spotter for one of the CCG/KB events in the near future.

[Aysel]

Hello and Welcome! We've got guys here that can answer most of your costuming questions, so don't be shy and ask your questions ^_^

[NavySith]

Welcome

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[Luananeko]

Welcome!

If you're not feeling quite up to building your own armor molds and vacuform machine there is absolutely nothing wrong with buying an armor set from a reputable armor maker for your first kit. Very few members actually make their kits from scratch actually, as the accuracy requirements are a bit daunting to all but the most seasoned sculptors (and quite pricey to boot). Buying and assembling your first kit also lets you get your "foot in the door" so to speak, and gets you access to the member-only sales forums, which have WAY more resources available and usually are cheaper than anything a non-member search will find.

Whichever route you choose, we're happy to help where we can

[Blue Leader]

If you want to join as soon as possible, you could always start with a simpler project just to get accepted and then work your way up to something more difficult. You could start with a costume where you can buy almost everything and don't have to build much yourself, such as an X-wing pilot or Imperial officer, or go with something like a Jedi where you might have to make a few more things yourself (like the obi, tabards and tunic) but aren't extremely complicated.

Also, that SWTOR bounty hunter armor you mentioned... I'm not sure that would with the Dark Empire. Granted I don't know a whole lot about that organization, but that armor seems to be better suited for the Mandalorian Mercs. Though I'm not sure if that would accept it because it's not really Mandalorian armor... But I don't know.

[Aysel]

Some of the SWTOR armors could eventually be accepted by the 501st, but most of them would be a new to the legion costume and as such the approval process is very tedious. I've had my hand in the approval process of a couple of new to the legion costumes and the process for the applicant can be daunting since new to the legion costumes have to be as perfect as humanly possible to the reference pictures. Like Blue Leader said, sometimes doing a simpler costume before the more complicated one is a better option, especially the ones that are new to the legion. If it's a costume that's already been accepted by the legion, then taking your time and gathering your parts is the better option (most the time).

Keep in mind that only non-customizable costumes from SWTOR are acceptable to either legion.