May the Fourth be with you!
It’s not often I get to say that in my day-to-day life, so it feels fitting to drop it here today. Anyway… this is a bit of a little-big-ish update.
I’ve officially hit a wall with this build.
Shocking, I know.
After chasing what feels like every “most accurate TK file” out there, I’ve reached a point where I’m just… tired of spending money on files that claim accuracy, but miss the mark on the exact pieces I need.
So instead of continuing down that path, I made a decision: I’m just going to design my own.
I’m building these using the gallery references (Celebration photos/R1 photos), a ton of 4K screen grabs (thanks @fernferro for the help here!), and a Sideshow Artillery Trooper as a physical reference. In their current state… I think they’re getting close.
But I’ll be the first to admit—I’m very much learning as I go. My only real “formal” experience was a three-week crash course in Fusion360 when I reworked my thermal detonator. Blender? This is very much trial by fire.
Is this overly ambitious? Yes.
Am I probably risking my Halloween deadline? Also yes.
Have I gotten much sleep leading up to this update? Absolutely not.
Let’s move away from the wall of text (I’m starting to sound like Jason) and into what actually matters. The chest plate:
And the back plate:
These aren’t finished yet—but I think they’re getting close.
Still left to tackle:
back greebles (cog + “II”)
shoulder slots (currently the bane of my existence)
general refinement and cleanup
Like others have done, the back piece will be designed as an insert to make printing more manageable. That’s really the core goal with all of this: Make it accurate—but also make it easily printable.
(First attempt (of 8), you can see some inconsistencies in the diamond recess that I’ve since corrected.)
I’m choosing to look at this as a minor setback for a much bigger payoff.
This is probably the second biggest undertaking in this entire build (first being to start). I have zero formal experience in this space—but honestly, it’s been a blast figuring it out along the way. That said, updates may slow down a bit while I go deeper into this rabbit hole. I’m definitely chasing perfection more than I was before… and I’m not entirely sure how far that’s going to take me.
As always, feedback is more than welcome (and greatly appreciated).