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Well… not entirely sure how to intro this update, other than with a quick before and after. Before: After: So… all I have to say is: don’t attempt acetone vapor smoothing while dozing off in the evening. I unfortunately left the posterior plate sitting in my Home Depot tote overnight and woke up to… well… that. The piece has completely lost its complete structural integrity, and even after sitting out of the tote for the past nine hours (in an attempt to "solidify"), it can still be folded into a ball (I’m honestly not even sure how I managed to take this photo). I can’t say I’m entirely surprised, but this was a good (and expensive) experiment to say the least. Here’s what I’ve learned so far: Acetone smoothing is a slow burn (no pun intended?), but when you get the timing right, it’s absolutely worth it. YouTube tutorials are… not really tutorials. They’re more “this worked for me, but I won’t tell you all the things I’m leaving out.” ASA seems to take longer to soften than ABS (at least in my experience). ASA can either come out beautifully smoothed—or end up… like the photos above. Now with that said, I did have one "success" from this process: the new kidney plate. (Yes, the print failed a bit early, but this is all covered by the rear belt! *phew*) I probably left it in a touch too long, as it started to soften more than I’d like, and the stainless rack left a few small grooves—but those are easy fixes. The big win here is that while it still looks wavy, the surface is actually incredibly smooth. I’m genuinely confident that with some very light sanding, this might be one of my cleanest prints yet. The biggest takeaway, though, is just how strong this piece feels now. With some of my other parts, I’ve been able to flex them just enough to hear the infill starting to separate—but this process essentially fused all of the layers and infill together. That’s exactly what I want, especially for a part like this. But, because I enjoy documenting my own mistakes almost as much as making them, I also managed to melt the outermost ammo boxes. All of that to say: I’m now reprinting the posterior armor for the third time… and I’ll be keeping a much closer eye on anything sitting in a sealed tote full of acetone from here on out. I have spoken.

@Trooper1972 I uploaded new versions of the photos with Flickr. Let me know if that works for you now

Cool no worries. I’m out trooping tomorrow so will try to get a set of new photos done. Also cheers for that VPN thing. Not very technically minded [emoji1787][emoji1787]

@Trooper1972 Hi Graeme, we were worried that you would have issues seeing the images. You could try using a VPN like https://protonvpn.com/?ref=pme_lp_b2c_proton_submenu It is free and apparently works well. With respect to the forearm positioning, yes, we would like a new photo in full kit.

My mentality was definitely “go big or go home” with the print bed, but I also hit a point where I was getting tired of fusing together parts that just want to snap at the seams (the posterior plate being the main offender). This felt like the long-term fix. Really appreciate the feedback on the TD too—that was exactly the goal with this one. After working through Greg’s helmet files, I’ve been paying a lot more attention to how other parts/files are broken down and assembled, so this was kind of my test run in that direction. And I’m with you on ASA so far. Aside from the heat requirements, it’s been noticeably cleaner than PETG (could be the new printer helping too), and I’m curious to see how it sands once I get some time with it this weekend. I’ve also got a metal rack on the way so I can safely try acetone smoothing without accidentally turning everything into a puddle. I’ve started to notice that too—namely the red buttons(?). You’ve got some really solid screen grabs from R1 that I’ve been referencing as well, and a lot of those seem to confirm that the control panel really should sit closer to that ~¾ wrap around the detonator tube (especially around that second red circle from the left, which I was originally trying to avoid). I’ll likely go back and model that out as well—if nothing else, it’s good practice. The costume accuracy rabbit hole is… bad. Really bad. So much so that I went ahead and picked up a set of files from CGTrader this afternoon after noticing their back armor incorporates that same recessed channel along the raised section (not sure what that area is actually called?). It’s similar to Jimmiroquai's fiberglass kits, which caught my attention right away. Some of the other pieces aren’t entirely accurate—but the back plate (minus the II's being "inverted"), thighs, and a few others definitely stood out when compared against references from Andor and Rogue One. EDIT: Okay, it was bugging me. I made the larger cuff variation. Honestly, I eyeballed as best as I could from the reference photos available, but I think this looks really good (obvious bias).

I did managed to study it and I did make it IDIOT PROOF because I’m not that tech savvy…. Here is the hook up I BELIEVE I had because I marked them accordingly SO I THINK…. ( I won’t know until the battery comes in this Saturday)….. PLEASE LOOK AT THE HOOK UP AND SEE IF ITS ON CORRECTLY…notice how I marked them… Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk