SWTOR Dark Jedi

This past Christmas (2018) I got myself Jedi robes from jedirobeamerica. I was super excited and should have known better than my really tall frame would make the robes too short on me.

As you can see above the outer or over tunic is way too short. Also the faux leather tabbards look really tacky, like garbage bags.

The robes were too big in all the wrong places. I was disappointed and put it all away in the closet. A few months later we were having a Mandalorian Armour Party at my house and my TDE Sedriss (Darth Fester) was there. I explained my dilemma and he had a great idea to go Star Wars The Old Republic (SWTOR) Jedi.

I got excited again and started looking at Rebel Legion SWTOR Relnex style Jedi CRL’s.

REQUIRED ITEMS

1. Under Tunic: Brown, tan, or off-white in color and should match the Inner Tunic. Wraps right over left and is fitted to the body.

2. Inner Tunic: Brown, tan, or off-white in color and typically contrasts with the Outer Tunic. Wraps left over right and is fitted to the body.

3. Outer Tunic: Brown, tan, or off-white in color. Wraps left over right and is fitted to the body. Does not visibly extend below Obi.

4. Sleeves: Tan or off-white in color. May be part of either Outer Tunic or Inner Tunic. Extend to the wrist and are fitted to the arm.

5. Pants: Tight fitting, Tan, brown, or off-white in color. No visible pleats or pockets and fitted.

6. Obi: Brown, tan, or off-white in color. Worn over Pants and Outer Tunic but below Robe and Belt. Does not extend visibly below belt.

7. Robe: Brown or off-white in color and of looser fit. Sleeves end just above the elbow. Hood attaches at the lapel and continues around the neck line. The Robe does not close in front and should wrap roughly 3/4 around the costumer. Lower portion of of the Robe an A-line skirt that ends just above the ankle.

8. Belt: Brown or metallic wide (~3″ depending on costumer) belt worn over Robe. Belt closures (Velcro, snaps, etc.) should not be visible. No Earth-bound buckles.

9. Boots: Brown in color with no visible laces or outside zippers. Shaft should extend at least to mid-calf but below the knee. No rubber boots.

10. Lightsaber: The lightsaber may be a static prop (hilt-only). Metal hilt lightsabers are preferred, though custom lightsabers constructed of other materials are permitted. Attached blade(s), LED lights, and sound effects, are allowed but not required. Blade colors accepted are: blue, green, yellow, orange, white and violet. No red, pink or black blades. Double-blade sabers are allowed. The saber may be attached to the belt with either a Covertec clip or a hook and d-ring.

OPTIONAL ITEMS

3. Gloves: Brown in color. Gauntlet style that should extend to mid forearm.

6. Trim/Detail: Belt may have trim/detail within the scope of reference images. This includes, but is not limited to, cylinders on Belt/Gloves/Bracers/Boots, and boxes on Belt.

After reading through their CRL’s I realized I didn’t fit all of their criteria for color swatches on robes/tunics/etc. Also my green lightsaber is definitely a more modern hilt and doesn’t fit the era, more to come with a Kyle Katarn WIP.

I decided that I would do a Dark Jedi through The Dark Empire (TDE) to utilize my Ultrasaber (mystery box) lightsaber also from this past Christmas with a crimson (red) blade. Darth Fester also recommended black pants to give it more of the Dark Jedi appearance .

First thing first I needed to get my robe altered to fit me better. Also to fit more of the era I was shooting for with 3/4 wrap around and short sleeves. Picture above was test fitting with my seamstress (6/6/19).

I used a lot of reference photos to show her what I was shooting for. She adjusted to more of an A-line skirt to fit CRL’s. I picked it up and did a test fit as seen above (6/13/19).

When I got home I threw on everything that I had for this kit, which is almost everything except the belt and accessories. Before ordering always look at where it is shipping from. I made the mistake of not looking and it is coming our of China, which can take 2 weeks to 2 months to be delivered.

I was not impressed with how it looked on me all together and it needed something, weathering. Yes it needed to look more like I was a rogue/fallen/dark Jedi instead of a neat pristined Jedi straight out of the light side. So I started with my new black pants which needed to remove the noticeable pleats anyways.

Lots of spray paint (mostly tan and almond colors) mixed with dry sand was used on my pants. I even used a little bit of the butane torch to scorch the pants in a few places. I used a rock to make a more worn appearance as seen in the last image above.

Then I started working with the outer/over tunic as seen above. Mostly used tan and almond spray paints for this mixing in dry sand.

After weathering the outer tunic and my pants it was time to weather my robe. Note to self I need to also weather my long-sleeved shirt and gloves to match this weathering application. I started with a dark brown spray paint along the bottom edge of my robe, where it would be closes to the mud and dirt as I walked in it. Also adding vegetation green and black spray paints to the bottom edge.

As seen above I used the spray paints as I went up the robe making the bottom darker and using the lighter colors up closer to the hood. Then I added sand and dirt.

Along the bottom edge as seen above I used an acrylic brown paint to embed more sand and dirt into the robe. This gave the appearance of splash marks along the bottom. I also weathered the inside of my robe along the bottom edge and up at the top where my hood would be mostly down.

Above you can see that the outside of my robe has more weathering than the inside, but that there is also weathering on the inside to be more realistic and practical.

When I was rubbing dirt and rocks across the robe I accidentally tore a hole in the back. So I used my butane torch to darken a few areas and fuse the hole a little bit with the flame.

I retook my photos and was a whole lot more pleased with my rogue/fallen/dark Jedi appearance. I still need to weather my exposed sleeves and gloves a little bit to match the overall weathering to the rest of my kit. I also need to get those parts for my belt to come in, that will really bring out my SWTOR look.

Above is an example of what I looked like before and after weathering my kit.

Reference front action photo (see above).

Reference back action photo (see above).

Reference front close up photo (see above).

Reference front photo (see above).

Reference front2 photo (see above).

Reference Hood photo (see above).

Above are some of the belt boxes I selected for my kit. I have not ordered the Bosch drill bit box yet, but I think it would make a great medpac base on my belt. Notice the 5 black boxes are shipping from China/Hong Kong. Note to self for ordering in the future to look at shipping from location.

Above are a couple of other options for belt accessories including a reference for a Medpac from Legends, courtesy of KrayytDragon82 on the TDE forums.

I also got a 3D printed belt buckle referenced image from a Sith Acolyte SWTOR. I have some more sanding to do to remove the print lines from it.

The belt itself will be this tactical webbed (see above) with the 3D print buckle JB welded to the face of the buckle.

Pouches and boxes will be attached to the webbed belt and the belt itself will be attached to a leather belt stained the color of Acorn Brown (same as my smuggler’s holster). The webbed belt shouldn’t be visible as it will be surrounded by boxes. The boxes I picked out can be modified later with lights and other gadgets similar to reference photos from SWTOR.

Let me know what you think while I wait for my belt and boxes to get here.

Update 6/15/19: Belt

So my belt boxes came in on Thursday and I have no idea when my nylon webbed belt will show up, so I went ahead and bought a leather one from Walmart today. I also woke up early this morning and went to Lowe’s when it opened (6 a.m.). I found a raw wide leather tool belt that I could stain acorn brown. I also got some drill bit cases as the belt boxes were quite smaller than I had anticipated and a real first aid kit from Walmart for my medpac.

When I originally looked into a belt I found this (see above) cold cast belt on Etsy, but didn’t really want to drop $260 just for the belt. I’m losely basing my belt off this image and the reference image for belts in SWTOR.

My next step was to JB weld my Sith Acolyte belt buckle to my new belt. I also stained the wide leather belt acorn brown.

While waiting for the JB Weld to set I spray painted the inside and outside of my belt boxes/cases with Brilliant Aluminum krylon spray paint. I used rivets to secure my boxes/cases to the outer black belt and chicago screws were used to fasten the black belt to the wider brown belt.

I used my first aid kit and took out all the first aid essentials to rivet the box to my belt. Then I put everything back in. I used a fine layer of black spray paint on all my boxes/cases. Then I used a rag with aluminum spray paint to dab off the black splatter. This gave it the effect of worn down weathered metal cases. After this was done I made a template of the medpac symbol and spray painted the case with the color red.

Above is a before and after picture of the weathering applied to this belt.

Weathered SWTOR belt (see above and below).

You probably noticed that the belt is now metal colored as well. I did this when I was thinking about how the etsy belt looked and decided to make my belt also appear all metallic.

Next I put it on for sizing and really liked how it turned out (back view above).

Front view (see above). Super excited with how it turned out. My Sedriss and Alor’ad are in the area, so they are going to stop by to help me kit up and see if there is anything off with this kit. If nothing, then I’ll have them take some App pictures.

Belt front and back view (see above).

Lightsaber (see above). I weathered a little bit with black spray paint to the hilt with a rag.

Front profile (see above) with hood up.

Front profile (see above) with hands up.

Front profile (see above).

Reference Image (see above).

Lightsaber Stance (see above).

Walking in full kit (see above).

SWTOR Dark/Fallen/Rogue Jedi (see above).

Action Stance (see above).

Update: 6/19/19

There were some questions about the inner tunic being weathered, so when I got home from work I took some additional photos to show the weathering on the sleeves and around the neck. The tan/almond spray paint mixed with sand (dirt from garage floor) was hard to see in my application photos.

Seeing the weathering wasn’t easy to see against the grey concrete, so I brought it inside to get a better shot. The first picture below is the inside of the tunic for a comparison of the weathering on the sleeve. The second picture below shows the weathering around the collar.