The Mandalorian Armor Build

Sometimes you decide your elaborate costume two weeks before Halloween. Armed with my workhouse Ender 3 3D printer working around the clock with the best silver silk PLA I have ever seen, I printed all of the plate armor for a costume of The Mandalorian.

I wore the armor to 2.009 lecture on Halloween and got stopped five times in the hallway for pictures.

I wired up some long LEDs to a switch and 9V for the whistling birds weapon on the gauntlet. In the future I hope to make a PCB or at least a soldered perfboard for rigging LED lights and keeping these wires tamed in a screw block terminal or something.

My partner wore Mando to Rhode Island Comic Con 2022. I chose to amble about in my Fennec Shand cosplay as his handler and navigator. The helmet has pretty limited vision. Most fun part: dozens of attendees telling us "this is the way."

Process pics! I did so much in removing the original fabric armor from the jumpsuit, trying to secure velcro, sorting out all the belts, etc. Still more things to upgrade and attach better.

While I still need to actually finish a helmet with fan vents (it gets hot in there) I am pretty happy with how this came together. It wears a lot better on my 5'10 partner than short little me where it is not sized properly. I hope to take lessons from this project on sizing to my body into my next build - designing my own Iron Man-style armor.

I also won a costume contest and this was my prize.

TODO: link all files used

Main file with most pieces: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4074037

Gauntlet with LED space: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5565903

Right leg armor: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4739194

Clip: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3940845

Cartridges: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5132510, https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3198489

With the completion of some of this Mandalorian build to a wearable state, I now permit myself to enjoy baby yoda (grogu) related items and merchandise as I have proven myself worthy.