I first learned about Dresdon when my clan’s Alor’ad mentioned a guy up in Canada that made custom metal armour, helmets, gauntlets, and pretty much anything he wants to make out of metal. I friend requested him on Facebook after joining a society on the Mandalorian Mercs forums called Aluminati. Aluminati was setup to showcase those Mandalorian that have the majority if not all of their armour metal. My number is #036. If a member has full metal armour they’ll have FMM attached to their number. Stands for Full Metal Mando in this metal armour society.
#000 – Dresdon Acacin – FMM
#036 – Karl Dha’Werda
The majority of my armour falls into this society and I requested membership on April 3rd, 2016.
Light Modern Armour (All metal is 20 gauge stainless steel sheet metal right now. future knees and helmet will be 18 gauge).
METAL: Partial back plate (covered with cape), chest plates, center diamond plate, abdominal plate, collar plate, shoulder bells, codpiece, kidney plate, blaster (DL-44), and carbine rifle (EE-3) are all metal.
RESIN: Helmet (attempted to make a metal one, but scale was off and it turned out kid size, gave it to a fundraiser for a silent auction).
ABS: Gaunts and Knees (I have metal knees but they have not been attached to my kit yet, heavier).
Update as of October 25th, 2017:
Light Modern Armour (Shoulder bells and partial back plate is 20 gauge stainless sheet metal the rest is a thicker 16 gauge sheet metal right now. Plan to have future knees and helmet also out of 16 gauge).
METAL: Partial back plate (covered with cape), chest plates, abdominal plate, collar plate, shoulder bells, codpiece, kidney plate, gauntlets (Dresdon made), blaster (DL-44), and carbine rifle (EE-3) are all metal.
SINTRA: Center diamond plate (in the works for a metal one at some point)
RESIN: Helmet (attempted to make a metal one, but scale was off and it turned out kid size, gave it to a fundraiser for a silent auction).
ABS: Knees (RedKraytDragon – RKD).
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A few months later Dresdon posted a picture of himself at a troop where it was raining. He asked if anyone would like to Photoshop him on Kamino. I took on the challenge and the image can be seen above. Dresdon still uses this image as his cover photo as of 12.10.16. Some time passed and then I got a message from Dresdon on Facebook:
“Hey vod got a request(also, in exchange for your phenominal photoshopping skills Im offering to provide my services weather you need a couple parts made for your projects out of metal or even some LED stuff like a HUD light kit)
But I was wondering what you could figure for making this pic more ….its a nice shot but the background just doesn’t do it justice…”
I inquired to what kind of background he was looking for and this was his reply:
“Im thinking something like a partially destroyed star destroyer corridor…like Death Troopers, the star wars zombie novel. On youtube theres a cinematic trailor for it ill find you a link lets see what there is”
There was a lot of back and forth questions, ideas, and background images through out conversation. Finally I started and came out with three images (see below) for Dresdon.
The #1 image above was a personal favourite of mine and the one Dresdon liked the most. It is an image background from Star Wars: A New Hope screenshot from the movie. Small details are found in the lighting on his helmet, the red LED HUDs are a more vibrant in his visor, and you can see a refection of the lights ahead in the hallway in his visor.
The only thing I needed for my kit was metal gauntlets, just basic clamshells with hinges. Dresdon said he could make them for me and had me fill out a request form in which I ended up making several upgrades that I paid addition to the free clamshells for. I also upgraded to a better material with less weight to it and paid for shipping.
Dresdon is ingenious, he took a regular old plumb bob, a curtain rod, and some other gizmos to make this missile. I was just in awe of what he was able to come up with. My logic was more metal components the better.
He responded with a quote from Dee Snyder….“if it ain’t metal it’s crap”
I won’t show his work in progress (WIP) that he sent me on a regular basis due to his business secrets and work of art. It is pretty much his copyright on the ideas if sells to fellow Vod.
The upgrades I got in addition to the clamshells with hinges were a wrist mounted laser cannon on right gaunt and a mounted missile on the left gauntlet. Dresdon put in a green LED targeting light (to be able to see where the laser will hit through my visor) and a high powered red LED for my wrist laser cannon.
Quote from my wife: “Now you will be a real life-size light-up action figure.”
These are the photos Dresdon sent me just before he packed everything up and sent them to me. I painted them up the day they arrived to match my current gauntlets and applied the same amount of weathering to match the rest of my kit. I also secured the missile with a rivet gun in place (after painting).
Super impressed by how these turned out and how awesome they look. I’ll keep my old gauntlets for troops that I want something a little bit lighter for. Overall they fit my kit well with a rock on the left gaunt and a wrist cannon on the right gauntlet.
