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... Oops, I did it again~

What do you mean, it's been almost a month without memes??

Lighting of the Armor There are 4 parts that need lighting to be screen accurate: - The jetpack grill - The two gauntlets (2x red lights) - The chest armor (1 red light on right side) The jetpack grill was straight forward as I already had done the red transparent part (see thread above) inside the top grill. I simply put a white light you can find at any hardware store that has a remote and works on 3xAAA batteries. I will last several 10’s of hours before replacement, as with a remote no issue opening the top cover each time to power it or shutdown. For the other parts, I went with easiest way forward for me, which was to use discrete LED. The ones I picked are rectangular 2x5x7mm red LEDs that work with 15-20mA/1.9-2.2V from Amazon. I have put the link belowand hope it will stay there, but these are pretty standard and can be easily replaced by Digikey/Mouser equivalents. https://a.co/d/a1I6r5v I used a small 3xAAA battery pack with rechargeable batteries that generates 4.4V and will also last 10s of hours in the Gauntlet (around 8-10h on the chest), which is perfect for using with the LED (I put 2 diodes in series). I simply added a small resistor adjusted to number of diodes to limit current. (ex: 4ohms for 2 x 2 diodes). For the 4 squares in the gauntlets, I used 4 LEDs (2 x 2 in series), for the larger rectangle, I used 6. As for the large rectangle in the chest, I used 20 (10 sets of 2 diodes in series). I glued them on an aluminum sheet (from dollar store), it helps reflect back the light in the right direction. The reason for the aluminum is to dissipate the heat from the LEDs, you don't want those to heat up and melt the PLA. As those are still discrete LEDs, you have to diffuse their light to have a uniform red glow. I used 2x 0.3mm layers on white PLA sheets I printed, cut and glued in front of the transparent red plastic of the gauntlet/ chest armor. For the red squares/rectangles, I used 3mm dark red transparent plexiglass on amazon. I cut them with a Dremel saw and polished the sides. At 3mm it protrudes enough to be screen accurate. https://a.co/d/7DojMLk I soldered them, then added a layer of insulating tape between the leads and the aluminum sheet to avoid shorts. I also potted the lead in clear silicone to further insultate and prevent leads from moving around. and attached them to the gauntlet with white duct tape (so that they can be removed if broken). Took me around 3h to get it done for all the parts, pretty straight forward stuff. Could be nicer looking, but nobody sees it…! N.B. I added aluminum foil on top of the duct tape and secured it with yet another layer of duct tape to block the light... otherwise the armor was glowing from the inside. Below is a schematic of the assembly and basic concept of LED assembly. You should do your own circuit and validate with someone familiar with these kind of circuits prior to assembling the lighting system Below is the LED arrays prior to soldering and insultating. Unfortunately, I forgot to take picture after final assembly... The inside of the gauntlets after assembly Very difficult to take pictures of the light with a phone without over exposing the light/ under exposing the armor (phones hate LEDs), but here is a first pic that show the functional light. The most realistic view is actually from reflection on the floor…! For nicer images, I did use my reflex on the chest with two light settings and take some longer exposure to get the color right, gives a pretty good idea.

Back to MA (memes anonymous) for you, you didn't even manage your 1 month chip.

Thanks for all the links! super, super helpful. And thank you for also pointing out the thermal detonator

Interesting!

Francois, you have gone all out on this built, this is seriously good stuff. To say I'm impressed would be an understatement. Fantastic work and great details in this build thread, I'm sure this is going to make it easier for other potential builders.

Also don't cut into corners, best to drill then cut, the round hole should prevent splitting

A bit of delay as I was completing the lights for the jetpack, chest and gauntlets (will post some nice pics later, but very satisfied with low cost solution to get screen accurate lighting ). Here is one nasty part that gave me a lot of trouble... the ABS Abs section Probably the most challenging part is going to be the ABS section. The canon pictures are showing flexible armor With only one seam on the right side. On top of being accurate, I really did not want a hard armor, since either will be too large of a fit, or will be very uncomfortable (I can relate with my sith trooper). So I decided early on I would cast the ABS. I designed a mold out of 3D print (+bondo+ filler+ clearcoat to get perfect smooth finish) based on many pictures. 3D models online are not perfectly accurate and of course cannot be made flat. I will have the 3D model available on my Etsy soon for everyone. It had to be printed in 4 sections on my large printer to be approx. 330mm x 1000mm, as I am 5’8’’ /165lbs but I want the ABS mold to be fitting a bit larger/taller troopers if needed. casting material ****** old post, do not use- see updated material in later post****** So I did a LOT of research on best suited material (I didn’t want to go to silicone, unless last resort as it cannot be painted ( except with costly stuff) and with the size, would be also costly. I went with Smooth-on Tuff Stuff 15, which is supposed to be designed for cosplay. Ok, that was a learning experience which cost me 4 full bottles, chat with Smooth-on tech guys, frustrations,… I colored it with so-strong pigment white and black to end up with a grey. Just black is not accurate or enough qty. Lessons learned: - Works great if : - You cast it with a room that is 20-23C. Don’t do it in hot or cold environment. The foam WILL collapse - You have to use the proper mold release and don’t be cheap on it, urethane is very sticky - Don’t remove it out of the mold before 24h, even if they say 3h,… it WILL collapse in some areas - Mix it with color in part B only. Mix it with mechanical mixer ( I used Allway HMQHelix paint mixer drll attachment on Amazon) in a high container (from 1$ store- you will throw it away) so that your mixer on your power drill will not inject air into it. Mix it for 1min at full throttle, after the first 30s, poor in new container, otherwise you will have some areas that will not cure. - Once mixed…you have 1min to poor it and level. You’ve got to be fast and accurate as it will expand 4x, not to have thin and way too thick - You have to put a plate with stoppers over it to control thickness uniformity (aim 8-9mm) and have a nice surface finish. - Even with all this, you will end up with marble finish (after several chat with smooth-on staff) , but surface finish will nice and even, so when you apply the paint it will be smooth and nice. I used Tulip grey fabric spray paint ( you can get it at Michael’s if your in US or Canada). Fabric spray paint is the best for this flexible material. It’s scary when you apply it, but when dried it is very uniform. Below are images of the mold open and closed with the cover (showing white stoppers to have 8-9mm thick ABS ( I tried several thickness and this is the optimal for this product). ****SEE UPDATED MATERIAL IN SUBSEQUENT POST-DO NOT USE AS-IS***** Here is the ABS as demolded. Painted The ideal is to use straps on the ABS to support weight of the belt, cod and holster. I used velcros from brand 'Velcro' heavy duty, white from Amazon) inside and outside to secure the parts to the ABS

Whoever says that you're done with working on your armor once you get approved is lying. So here I am, once again! Aside from the usual clean-up and crack repair, it was time for something more unusual: Bleaching my armor Now, if you've taken a look at my troop log, you might have noticed that every since June last year my armor color hasn't quite matched up with that of my fellow troopers. Long, long hours of trooping in the sun can do that to ABS. After a bit of looking around and researching, I stumbled across the fact that you can bleach your armor. Here is a good tutorial. First things first, I got rid of everything that didn't need bleaching or that might make the process more difficult. Just look at this part of my helmet: you can clearly spot which parts were covered by the ears and which had some sun exposure! By taking my helmet apart I could more or less guarantee equal sun exposure during the bleaching process, as well as making sure the screws, the lens foil or the rubber parts wouldn't get bleached by accident. The paint however won't be impacted by the bleach. Similarly, I made sure to remove padding and strapping wherever possible. For bleaching the armor I used this hair bleach. I put a dollop of it onto the cardboard and painted a layer onto my armor. I then wrapped the armor in clingfoil and sealed it as airtight as possible with see-through tape. Remember to only use bleach whilst wearing skin protection and being in a ventilated area -- I forgot the gloves at first and my skin got really itchy and a bit spotty. Once I had everything wrapped up, I put the armor parts out in the sun, making sure to give them the most sun exposure they could get. Originally, I had planned on leaving them there the entire afternoon whilst I relaxed inside, but it was a rather windy day and I instead spent the next two hours playing catch with it in the garden. After those two hours I decided enough was enough -- at this point it was fairly likely that all the tumbling around would mean risking cracks and there were storm clouds coming up anyways -- so I carefully removed the cling wrap and wiped off all the bleach with water. Since I was already dedicating that day towards armor maintenance, I decided to give everything a good clean up as well, getting rid of some of the scuffs with a magic eraser. At a first glance, my armor certainly appears to be less yellow than before. I didn't get around to bleaching the whole armor, but only the more yellowed parts -- shoulders, helmet... anything with sun exposure from the top -- so we'll have to see just how well I will fit in with my fellow TKs at the next troop.

Any foreign material mixed can change the color of the ABS paste.

I was so into my new build, trying to get it done before our last big event, now I'm eh, I'll get to it eventually. Guess that's the problem with having a working kit already. Sent from my SM-N981U1 using Tapatalk

2022 Reflection My first full year of trooping ended, counting 34 Troops this year. I had so much fun, got my EIB and ended up forming the Chaos Division Fireteam with my Trooper buddies. Thank you to all, who made this year so special! And as long as we still have a few days left in this year, it was finally time to tackle the last big challenge for my ANH Stunt TK. I can sit, kneel, lie down. I got my EIB. What's left? Obviously the one thing still on my to-do list since September last year. Let's see if we can get this done in 2022 as well Centurion Application Well, finally the time has come, and I've submitted my Centurion Application . I'm very happy that I finally had an opportunity to take these pictures and tackle the last modifications with the help of my TK-sister @Swoby. Thank you, sister! Last Modifications One of the modifications I've struggled with the most was my thighs not being a similar shape. The difficulty was, that I had no way of controlling how the back shape of my thigh looked without someone to help me out. Now, with someone to look everything over, I managed to find a good mix between cutting the armor to size and adding padding. Aside from the regular paint and repair work, I had one more challenge: getting the ab and kidney gap to line up. I'd accidentally managed to have an angled cut at the top, so I had to put a filler ABS piece there and fill the curve up with ABS paste. I'm very happy with this one, as you can't even notice it anymore Now, I've still got a few things on my to-do list, but I'll keep those secret as long as my Centurion Application is ongoing. Don't wanna give anyone ideas Enjoy the holidays