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MUCH better, Cory. Still a bit rough, but I wouldn't have an issue passing these at Level 3. Nice work!!

Updatet cod rivet:

If you really want some sign vinyl to make templates with, Oracal 651 is the best in my opinion. It's thicker than the 751&951 (easier to cut and lay), less expensive than those other 2, and conforms extremely well to a surface. It leaves little to no residue behind. It's a world better than hobby vinyl you might find at a local craft store. You can likely get a tiny roll of 651 on Amazon for a few dollars, especially if you don't care what color you're using. You could also try a sign shop nearby and ask if they have some extra scraps around. Source: I own a print shop and have killed miles of vinyl.

For E-11 lens and a cheap mod is use a CD for the relfective appearance and use the clear CD cover for the lens.

That's a really good tip about the book covering...I'm going to look for that, I guess at an Office Depot or similar. Also, great idea on the reverse image. I'm going to try that once I'm to that point. I'm going to get the rest of the painting out of the way, do the tube stripes then attach and paint the ears.

Really depends how much room you have, I use a 4 x AA battery pack and only run one fan at a time, fits in nicely in the bottom curve of the helmet, a few in this thread may give you other ideas.

ok, cool, will do! Just picked up some Frog Tape...can't wait to use it. Thanks!

Thank you all! I'm feeling the love. But huge thanks to @T-Jay and @justjoseph63 . This blaster would be nothing like how it turned out without the two of you. @Scimitar is sending me his Quest Design E-11 for metal folding stock fitment. And I'll need a place to post pix. Might as well put them in here.

now the full body shots:

Nice work, Adam. That’s an E-11 to be proud of. [emoji2956][emoji2956][emoji2956][emoji122]

Hey Adam, congratulations for getting this blaster done. It turned out really good. Great photos taken and nice to see an E-11 with those recent ANH greeblies. You heard the crowd: we are ready for your next one.

Thanks, Glen. I've seen the Frog tape...I'll have to try some. I was using a model from somewhere on this forum that showed a wider paint scheme on the teeth but every where I look now, they all show like the ones you posted here. Yeah, I got pretty good with the tooth pick, Q-tip, turpentine and exacto knife cleaning up the original mess. Those lines are just so straight....this will be my go-to model now. Thanks, again.

Armor Details: Helmet Accessories Blaster Details

I FINISHED MY BLASTER!!!!!!!!!!! Time for a self-indulgent photo set with a decent camera. Overview: Front: Rear: Power Cylinders: Grip / T-Tracks: (painted semi-gloss) Folding Stock: What a fun project! Man, I never knew there was so much to learn about the E-11. Now to troop around with it. Huge thanks to everyone who helped and followed along.

Thighs done! Click link below to see video build. https://youtu.be/XMZYaHh-J_U

Didn’t need a New Years Resolution of joining a gym to get sexy legs. Check out the latest work in progress build of the First Order armour kit by Imperial Surplus. Happy New Year all. CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhgw-guQ7aw

No need for the gym to get biceps... Make them! Grrrr tiger! CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO:

Latest video update. Checkout my cod-piece and butt! Surprisingly, I thought this would be simple. But it's the webbing and working out how it all attaches that made it challenging. CLICK HERE TO WATCH VIDEO: https://youtu.be/1cispAOi0JQ

John, Sorry, I have no idea how I missed your original post back in August. I’ve been very busy, but I’ve also been active on the forum since then, so oops. Yes, this costume was approved but no, they’re not seen accurate as-is. Currently, these files are the most accurate ROTK files out there, but I had to really hack them up after printing to get them to an acceptable level. Additionally, I had to do some of my own modeling to create a few of the pieces. I also continue to find things that I don’t like and I keep altering it to get them right. Here’s a list of the things I’ve changed. 1. Printed a Nico Henderson helmet 2. Printed Paul Prentice shoulders, biceps, and forearms (Shoretrooper files) 3. Cut more accurate arm holes in the chest piece and fixed bottom “bell” 4. Cut rear of both thighs 5. Printed Paul Prentice calf armor (Shoretrooper files) 6. Likely replacing abdominal armor with Paul Prentice Shoretrooper abdominal piece and modeling my own ab greeblies 7. Modeled new belt boxes. Files found here 8. Bought the Jimmiroquai kit 9. Bought gray acrylic paint, Fuller’s Earth, sand, and a Soviet army plash in order to turn the 3D print TK into a Mimban TK. Your second comment about the brow may need a little more background info. There’s photos that have been floating around for a while that make the brow appear to sit directly on top of the eyes. However, we also have reference photos that show the brow sitting approximately 1/4” above the eyes. Additionally, almost all of the ROTK helmets available currently have the brow wrong anyways. We’ve since seen references that show that the brow trim was rubber similar to the OT buckets, which explains why it’s placement seems to fluctuate. Unfortunately I don’t have access to my reference photos right now otherwise I’d post a few that show this. Look, I encourage people to 3D print costumes; I’m a big fan of the hobby. But, there’s better options out there than the TK. The ICAT Driver and Mudtrooper files available via https://mudtrooper.co.uk courtesy of Empire3D are the most accurate costumes out there. Paul Prentice’s Shoretrooper files are insanely accurate. When finished properly, Mr. Poopie’s Scout Trooper files teamed with Jesus Salmeron’s helmet are capable of obtaining Lancer Certification. Basically, there’s awesome costumes out there that are ready to be finished and approved, but unfortunately TKs aren’t one of them. There’s just too much work needed to make it a good option. However, I will finish by saying this: Nico has stated that he’s building accurate TK files. But, he announced that over a year ago and when I spoke with him a few months back, he sounded like it was the least of his priorities. I feel like it’s only a matter of time before one of our heavy hitting 3D designers comes up with something that doesn’t require the same level of blood sweat and tears I spilled. When these files are made, I expect to see many 3d print kits getting approved.

Ok. So I'm guessing that most will look at this update like it's much ado about nothing. However, any progress, regardless of its magnitude kind of gets me excited. Additionally, actually finishing a few more white pieces was just enough to motivate me beyond anything I could have imagined. First, I think I've done a fairly good job at documenting my issues with paint. For future builds, I will definitely employ a makeshift booth setup with HVLP sprayers, rather than using the rattle-can method. Actually, for my clone armor, I'll do rattle-cans, but others will receive different treatment. While the finished products have turned out great, the process, and resulting errors, has left me kind of "head shy" when it comes to painting. I think that by just going out to my garage tonight, and spraying a few small items, I was able to overcome the memories of recent disasters. Let me get you all caught up to speed... First, my printer's putting out more products than I can keep up with. Every time I finish something, I print something else and each requires a lot of post processing work. I just wanted to share this picture because it shows the lineup of current and future projects. Of course, the one in the middle is the priority, but the other two are fun. Unfortunately, Mando has the same deadline as the Stormtrooper, so I've got a lot to work on. But I also wanted to ask anyone who might know... are clone helmets really that big? This thing is enormous. I'm going to post in the Clone Trooper Detachment forum, but my gosh; I feel like I can put the entire TK bucket inside the clone helmet. Kind of like a Turducken. I posted this pic a few days ago when asking questions about the belt (which I've since corrected). But again, it kind of shows the pain of removing 3D print lines. In the previous picture, you can see the horrendous lines left on the bucket after a long two day print. In the center of this pic, you see how I used almost an entire bottle of glazing and spot putty (bottom right corner) to turn the helmet into a "sandable" chunk. After a lot of manual labor, you're left with a much smoother, almost pink helmet that's nearly void of all lines. After a nice layer of filler primer, some sanding, some touch up spot putty, and more sanding, I'm left with this. But that's enough about the helmet. I'll get back to this in a few days. Overall, I'm very excited about how this one will turn out. This pic kind of shows all of the stuff that's piled up during my "fear of painting" period. Please notice that if I would just get over it and paint everything on this bench, that I would only be left with the legs and strapping remaining for the build. I know that nothing is sitting quite right in this picture, which is primarily due to the absence of strapping, but I wanted to check everything regardless, before I start going for "permanent" solutions. As a side note, I have to print the inner forearms again, but that should be a quick fix. Which reminds me. I've started a pile of misprints, reprints, and screw-ups. In the end, I'll weigh this all up to see how much money I wasted. This is just a closeup of the hand armor to show the print lines. This is mostly due to me printing at 180mm/ sec. When I slow things down, it's much cleaner. As I stated previously, I just needed to go out there and spray something. Because of the print lines, I decided to use the gold paint method again. After putty, filler/ sandable primer, sanding, white primer, and gold, this is the hand plate improvement. The difference is remarkable. Other than a little wet-sanding, this is ready to join the white armor club. As is this. And all of these. Yeah, I got some bad runs, but I've seen worse. Also, I didn't even realize that this was more of a brass color than gold. In the end, the results are the same; it's still got flake in it that finds its way into any remaining lines or errors. I love this process. Honestly, I wasn't going to use it on these pieces, but decided to at the last minute and I'm glad I did. Also, the shoulders had a big crack going through them that got obliterated after some alex-flex, primer and gold paint. And finally, the white pieces. Butt, kidney, and ammo boxes. The arms, shoulder straps, hands, and trapezoid pieces should be white tomorrow. Again, this seems like a long post which resulted in very few completed pieces, but when I laid them down with the back and torso I got very excited. Like I said, this was the motivation I needed to start cranking this stuff out. Additionally, since I've now reprinted the shoulder straps and trapezoids, as soon as their white paint dries, I can start assembling and strapping the armor. This should be a good weekend coming up. Until next time.