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BONUS: electroprod - good for troops where blasters aren't allowed, but big sticks are acceptable :) All 3D-printed parts over a PVC pipe core. I debuted the electroprod after flying to MegaCon: packed all of the pieces into a checked bag, then made a trip to Home Depot after we landed to buy a piece of PVC. Just take a pipe cutter tool with you on the trip, and voila!

CRL (2025): https://crls.501st.com/fisd/captain-cardinal CRL thread (2025): https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/57907-captain-cardinal-crl-2025 First step: lots of research and note-taking! Part 1: What did *not* work This project was a labor of love. I started with a used Jim Trippon V1 kit that was made of a flexible fiberglass cast. It had been painted up like Cardinal by heartstopper85, but he also bought it used from someone else, so it had years of use and plenty of wear and tear. After many, many hours of sanding off the many, many layers of paint, I started building it back up with lots of primer and bondo. But as I was progressing through my layers of sandable primer, red primer, and then red gloss, the new paint was frequently cracking. I spent some time trying to stiffen the fiberglass pieces by reinforcing with Epsilon Pro. This was not successful. After a few rounds and attempts, I decided to give up on those pieces with cracking paint and replace them with 3D-printed parts. …this evolved into replacing almost the entire Jim fiberglass kit with a new 3D printed kit. Sanding the original parts: Repair attempts: It became a TON of work, but it was the best choice for longevity and shininess of the armor, plus better sizing for my proportions (these armor kits are just not intended for 5’3” female stormtroopers). Part 2: What *did* work Files printed: FOTK files from https://www.etsy.com/shop/Die3DSchmiede Printed in black PETG New hotness: Paints and clear coat used: Upol Expert Sandable Filler Primer (AutoZone) Transtar 2in1 Primer: Red Oxide 4623 (JB Tools) Dupli-Color Perfect Match Cardinal Red (AutoZone) USC SprayMax 2K Glamour High Gloss (Amazon) The chest and back were printed in multiple pieces (due to print volume size), so I needed to first weld them together. The process I used: Clean printed surfaces with IPA so that the tape will stick Tape the two pieces together (painter’s tape is fine) Weld with stapler: heat, insert, and then twist Clip off the leads after everything has cooled Reinforce the back of the armor with Epsilon Pro Sand the front to knock down the edges at the seam Use poly filler to fill in the front seam Reused parts from the previous kit: Abdomen section Spats - two sets: KB (the lighter ones) and Dino (the heavier ones) Boots: Gio boots (KeepTrooping also sells them) Cape from Geeky Pink: https://www.facebook.com/GeekyPinksPhantasticGaskets/ Gaskets from Geeky Pink: https://www.facebook.com/GeekyPinksPhantasticGaskets/ Gloves from: ? (originally white and had been painted as red before I got them) New things: Newly printed and painted: helmet, chest plate, back/yoke, thermal detonator, shoulder bells, biceps, forearms, handplates, codpiece, posterior armor, thighs, knee plates, shins, Neck seal handmade by @royal.blue.retta 1 year later of printing, sanding, and painting... and ta-da - a new CRL! Next on my list: Printing and resizing a few armor pieces (you learn a lot from the first 5 troops) My friend Megan combined the 3D Schmiede front and back thigh files into a single STL for printing. This made it SO much easier to finish the parts cleanly, because I didn’t have to deal with heat-shaping the front and back edges for perfect alignment, which introduced bubbling that was difficult to smooth out. The front and back edges are also not a perfect match, so it took hours of finangling to get the seam even. With the combined file, it was a piece of cake! Adding an F11D Heavy blaster to the CRL

Nice work trooper

Seems the Etsy is dead, but found their Cults. Thank you!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NDVCKG4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1 Ordered this neck trim and it fit PERFECTLY (thank you for showing me that gmrhodes). Gonna start working on the chest and back soon. Additionally, I ordered a Rogue One style orange pauldron (I love pauldrons) so I will update with photos when it arrives.

BONUS: hidden beetle

Looking good.

Very nice work

Helmet Update After careful observations I was able to just see several inaccuracies after the other that I could not just fix with sculpting tools proportional editing tools and boolean modifiers I have just determined it was best to ditch Nico's helmet and just create my own. I need that control of topology at its most privative form so that i am able to control how sharp or smooth an edge is also be able to control the tangent of a curved surface without affecting any straight lines. After all that I have landed on something like this... I am still not done, I still have to add some thickness to it and I'm hoping to make it a little thicker to make it a little more durable just slightly. I really wanted all the organic curves especially on the chin caved in holes where the mics go, it is what I find aesthetically pleasing and its organic/hand sculpted nature is paramount to giving slight asymmetric shape to the chin piece. The biggest thing going into this that I wanted to fix was the cheek, on nico's it was to far inset inward.

Have been knocking off items from my TODO list. First I decided to add straps and buckles to the gaskets to keep the biceps in place: They work well to keep the biceps up and not hitting the forearms: It did remind me, though, that when my biceps are in place, I can't put my arms fully down because they hit the sides of the chest. I think if I cut the inside of the biceps lower I could make it slightly better, but it's hard to say unless I actually do it, and then if I change my mind it would certainly be a pain to fix. Since the biceps now pull a bit at the shoulders of the gaskets, I added a higher chest strap to keep things in place: The next project was to add elastic to the bottoms of my knee gaskets, attached to (cut up) ankle sleeves in order to keep the knee gaskets from riding up. It actually works decently well, so I was happy my idea worked out. I don't think I'll be able to 100% keep the knee gaskets from bunching up but it's a lot better. As a reminder, this is necessary in my build because my calves are glued shut, and I need to slip my feet into the calf armor/boots. You'll also noticed that I decided to rotate the knee gaskets by 90 degrees so the seam is on the inside of my knee. I found that having it on the back of my knees really made the bunching worse. This means I had to remove and reposition the knee armor velcro as well.