Midnyt17

Links please!

Ok, I guess I'll be the one to call out the elephant in the room. Isn't the 1st pic not screen-accurate? Black bubble lenses,stripes, and teeth on the Tantive? But seriously, all great and amazing pics. It's kinda hard to choose which one to put on my desktop

Is there an Option D? I'd say C is more "accurate" while B is more convenient to produce since you only need 1 rivet instead of 2. I know it only takes a few seconds to pop in that 2nd rivet but...

"These suits probably won't get you into the 501st, but they'll get you high-fives and photo ops." OMG! High-fives?! This is definitely a sure buy! I haven't had a high-five in awhile.

Yeah. Hmm.. Could we use pinstripe tape for the ranking so we could change it whenever we "rank up"?

Thanks Daniel. I'm pretty happy with it. Even with all mistakes I've made; Like the gaps on the ears, rough paint job, etc. It's an experience. I would've loved to have gone to Celebration and hopefully someday I will with the other troopers from Philippine Outpost. Alright, will get on the mic tips as soon as I get back from my retreat. Is the outpost trooping at the Metro ComicCon this Saturday? I'm going on Saturday to sit in on the panels.

I bow down to the greatness that is Daetrin Where did you get that info? That's just amazing

Thanks Luis! How long should I wait before I work on the mic tips? Should I also wait a week or 2 before I try and remove the excess paint? or ASAP? The helmet is getting shinier by the day. Still uneven but less rough. I'm getting more confident that a few rounds with polishing clothes would even out the sheen.

Any have any reference pictures or a list of the possible ranking configurations available? Or are they just random?

Took a look at my bucket today and some of the roughness has smoothed out. The bucket is looking pretty good. Although I'm going to have to even up the shine with some polishing clothes. As for the mic tips, they've dried up pretty well.

Scratch that last post. I read around and I'm waiting at least a week before I do anything with the bucket again. I'm pretty happy with how it came out. I'm just grateful I didn't get any orange peel although the whole bucket didn't come out glossy. I have parts where the paint is shiny but not smooth and glossy; it just has a bit of texture or roughness to it. Anyone have any tips on how to smooth/shine those parts up and even out the look of the bucket? I also painted the mic tips. Does anyone have any tips on how to remove bits of paint? Because some paint seeped through under the mic tips which I wanted white. Here are some pics: Here are the paints I used. I decided to go with one brand all the way to make sure everything would work well together. The mic tips. I taped up the back area, the screws and the front then held them up wearing gloves while spraying and rotating. A bit of paint seeped under the tape on the front side of one of the mics. Anyone have any advise on how to clean it up? A picture of the bucket before painting A before picture of the lens material that Alex requested. After dry and wet sanding and washing with detergent. I wiped it down and let it dry up more for 30 minutes before I painted it. After 3 coats of primer which was apparently clear colored. After 6 coats of paint. See how the left side is glossy and the right side is a bit flat. Close-up of the left. Now the right. I just got off the phone with LUIS TK-2155 (Luis) and he advised me to get some polishing cloths to get rid of the roughness and to help gloss it up more. Will probably buy them + some Tamiya enamels on Tuesday. Will wait for at least a week or 2 before I work on it again.

I just finished putting the 6th coat of paint on my bucket. Can or should I put on another coat even after it's been more than an hour or would I need to sand/prime it again?

Hahaha thanks Luis. I should've consulted with you extensively first before buying my Tamiya paints. I forgot you were a pro modeler. I now remember seeing your X-wing and Falcon at ToyCon. I guess I'll just purchase Tamiya enamels next week. I still have to wait for my bucket to cure before I can paint it further anyway. I'll find some other use for the acrylics I'm painting my bucket today. I'm actually in the middle of doing it now. I'm on my third coat of primer and I'm spraying my first coat of glossy white in 5 minutes. I'm following instructions on the can to the letter. I'm taking pictures of the whole thing and will post it after lunch. I also took a picture of the lens installed before I took it out. Will post that later as well. I'll give you a call this afternoon to let you know how it went.

Really? Alright, that kinda sucks. I was set on buying enamels at first since the Humbrol paints were enamel but after reading this article and other threads on the net regarding "acrylics vs enamels", then having the saleslady at Lil's Hobby Center in Park Square 1 tell me that the acrylics were easier to use since they were water-based plus seeing the acrylic bottles were bigger compared to the tiny enamel bottles so looked more "sulit" I ended up buying acrylics. The kicker is that Lil's has a sign in their store stating that they don't allow exchanges on their paints.

I ended up buying acrylics after researching on them on the net. I just feel like I'll do a better job with them. Will try them out on spare plastic first before I use them on the bucket. If the acrylics don't work well then I can switch to enamels before I paint the bucket. For now, I only bought the gloss black (X-1) for the vocoder, light grey (XF-66) and clear (X-22) to mix to make it glossy for the teeth and ears. Will buy the blue for the ab buttons when I have my armor. Thanks for all the advice Luis. Are you back in town?

I would love to use Rustoleum Epoxy but unfortunately we don't have that here in the Philippines. The only brands our hardware stores carry are Bosny, RJ London, Pylox, and ACE. There are a couple of cheap brand paints as well but I wouldn't even consider using those. As for the putty, the only one I've found is Tamiya Basic putty. Is that good enough to use as a filler for the gaps? I'm sorry but could you explain to me how to wet sand? I have no idea how to do that. Is that just sanding while the surface and sandpaper are wet? or is there a certain kind of "wet" sand paper? I actually bought a couple of sachets of dishwashing soap yesterday for cleaning my bucket before painting. I made sure that they didn't have any weird add-ons to them. Thanks for all the suggestions. I really appreciate it.

Thanks for all the suggestions and advice. Will probably do 3 coats of primer and 3 or more coats of paint. As for the inside, I'm still deciding whether the black color + the chemicals in the paint will make it more humid in there. But I will definitely look for that UV-protect wax you used and put it on my bucket. You did a wonderful job on your build and I'm actually going to take a lot of pointers from it when start painting my bucket and sometime soon building my armor. I'm going to take a look at helmet again tonight and decide whether I'll keep the gaps or not. The front gap on the left ear doesn't bother me as much as the gap at the rear of the right ear. If I do decide to fill it in I'll probably use some Tamiya putty unless someone suggests something better. What did you use to fill in your gaps? I'm probably painting my bucket this Sunday or Monday so I have a couple of days to work on final sanding and filling the gaps. As for the lenses, I followed TK-4510's tutorial here to attach them. I'll take a picture a little later and post it. Again, thanks for all the advice. I appreciate it.

You're welcome! Hope you start getting good sleep. Let us know if your sleeping habits improve.

Do some intensive exercise about an hour before you go to sleep then stop all activity like TV, etc. around 30 mins. before you want to go to sleep. My GF has terrible insomnia. She ends up just having to exhaust herself with exercise or walking or working just to get herself to sleep.

Can anyone tell me the size/type of brass(?) screw that comes with the ATA kit? I need to get some extra washers and nuts to secure the lens material to the screws.

I'm going to try and get some Tamiya paints tomorrow. Should I strictly get ENAMEL or will ACRYLICS work as well as I read that they're easier to work with for beginners. I'm a complete newbie when it comes to paints and painting. I'm planning to order a set of decals from TK-4510 (Mike) this week when I get my paycheck. If they don't go through customs and go straight to my doorstep then I'm definitely getting a set. I've actually had a change of heart about my whole armor project. I needed to make a compromise. Will explain more when you get back in town. Will give you a call.

Great pics! Would love to do something like that when I get my armor. Sort of like a random solo troop. What armor is that by the way if you don't my asking?

When you say "HIPS is not" what do you mean specifically? Do you mean that it isn't durable at all? That it'll break with little to no force? How much force would be needed to crack HIPS? Is it even good enough for wearing or just displaying?

Oh, and can anyone link me to a helmet painting guide? I'm going to paint the helmet this week (probably on the weekend) and I honestly have no idea how to do it.

I actually wanted to ask about that. Since we don't have Humbrol nor Testors in the Phil, I wanted to know what kind of paint would I need to use for the chin and the other details so I can look for alternatives. Do I use glossy or matte paint for the chin? How about the tears? Teeth? All glossy?