Elumusic

More toys. A ROTJ Blaster from Mark at CFO.

Bicep armor next. Started with the right side. This was the first piece I did that required fitting. I read a bunch of threads about bicep armor and did what I could. I messed up and made it a little to small at first and had to go back and add a shim and widen it. I don't have the biggest guns in the world, but I do frequent the gym. The issue I see is that if they are too loose they will look to big so I opted for a little tighter fit. Also the AM armor biceps are shaped opposite an actual arm shape. I went back and used a heat gun to make the shape a little more round to fit around my muscle. I used a 10 MM strip. I know 8 MM is correct, but I wanted a little more depth so it was comfortable. Glued in the shims and let it dry an hour or so. This is the side that I had to go back and make a little larger. The cover strip is about 2 or 3 MM wider than it should be. Here is the rounded shape after the heat gun. Needs a little more trimming to get rid of the rough spots that dig into my arm. The only issue I had was the heat gun got a little hot and warped the inside piece just a little. I'm just going to go with it for now. It's not bad and the paint stripe will cover most of it. I will also add a blast mark to give it some justification. If all else fails I'll make a new one. You can see the warping below. Here's how it fits. Keep in mind I'll have a suit on underneath. The piece fits just loose enough to fit over the suit, especially after the additional trimming around the inside lip. Here's the other side which fit's great the first go around. Live and learn.

Did the back plate and butt plate. I rough cut both pieces and then glued the back to the butt using this Acrylics glue. Works very well but it's permanent. No pulling pieces apart with this stuff. The two pieces are now "fused"

OMG. That was totally helpfull. Looks like I will end up trimming the heck out of my back plate. And as far as the recast thing, I'm not worried. I did this fair and square. And I will not be selling armor. This is for my own endeavor and art work. But reference wise I think you are correct. I can see the boxyness you mentioned. So I have started a suite of armor with my molds and thanks to you Derrek, lol, I fully expect to have to cut them down a little more even though I tried to make the dimensions smaller. A have already reserved myself to a heat gun to flare the edges near the arm pits. UGH!!! At this point I'm not unhappy with the progress but because you posted those images my OCD may kick in. Here is my first trim to make a TK - Commander. I will cut the sides down and the bottom below the square to shorten it up to match the screen used armor. Shape wise for my TKC I get to cut off all the edges and use edging material. So reshaping is not a problem for this particular set of armor.

Chest plate was done similarly. This was my second pull. I had to add a vacuum hole in the triangle between the pecks to get a clean pull. The molds weigh in at about 40 lbs. By the end of the day my back was done. 8 hours to pull this set of armor. Trimmed and ready. I may need to use a heat gun to pull the sides in a little more. But then again, I have no idea how any of this will turn out. I'm in the dark because it didn't come in a brown box and I can only hope my re-dimensioned pieces will come together in the end.

Part of my build included new molds. Here is the middle phase of the plaster cast I did for the back. I got as much of the detail I could with the plaster and then made a pull and recast it with Ultracal 30. Added some bondo to the mold and detailed the OII with a dremel. The new back piece is much closer to the screen used armor than the AM armor. I'm pretty happy with it. plaster mold in progress. a little more clean up. off the vacuum table ready for recast. pouring Ultracal 30 and adding a void for vacuum holes After releasing the new mold and bondo sculpt we have a completed mold. second pull. The first didn't pull correctly. I had to add some additional vacuum holes. Trimmed and ready for paint and assembly.

So my own BX Helmet - Version 3 for those who are counting. I had some input from Steve regarding it's ability to receive Centurion Status. The consensus before this last round of changes was that it would get EIB status no problem. With this round I am hoping for Centurion. We shall see. So here is the first pull from the new molds. Tears have been reshaped, mouth widened and the 5th tooth made more apparent. The mold was also made a little deeper to get the earbud a little farther from the tear per Steve's request. So here we are trimmed and ready for paint. Ear buds have been re-worked to make the stripe bar shorter.

Ok...Here we go. My TK Commander build. I have been consumed by this process and I have finally reached phase 1. The original goal is two fold. Building a TKC full set of armor for myself and TK armor for my sons. I have also been working on Dia De Los Muertos helmets and I want to do some matching armor. However that will be a thread for a different day. My first post here: Albuquerque Stormtrooper started it all. The armor molds are from plaster molds and then re-cast to Ultracal 30 and bondo to get the detail I needed. Based from a set of AM armor I acquired from someone who didn't have time to assemble it, for a physical reference and screen shots and direction from some of the veterans here, I re-made most of the pieces. I know from all the info on this site that AM armor tends to be on the large size so I took that into consideration while re-doing the pieces that were not usable. Trimmed and ready for assembly:

Hey Walt. My machine is 24"x24" clear. So the Cod Piece fit perfectly diagonally with a little room to spare. I've completed the few original molds I needed which includes a chest plate, cod plate, butt plate, back plate, button plates, ammo belt, belt, etc. And for the record. The UIltracal molds are so freaking heavy it becomes a labor to hike them onto the table. and the sharp corners of the molds need to be knocked down a little because they tend to chip. And the plastic for the smaller pieces at .093 is a little thick to get the fine detail. So I heated the plastic a little more and got ribbing over and over again. So lots of waste while trying to get a nice pull.

Started cutting out the armor this week. I need to create a belt and amo power pack mold based on the requirements of the 501st. The belt mold is going to have an insert that is removable in order to get rid of the center rivet. More images to come.

I did the same for the chest piece. Below is a completely revised chest plate that is much closer to the screen images. From left to right. Looks like NE armor but since it's the go to and closely resembles the screen armor used I used it as a reference. You can see the differences in the chest angle, the area in front of the arm cut outs. Second image is my new chest armor mold. I reduced the size of the bottom flange toward the waist. I added a wider flare just under the arm pits. The only issue here is I forgot to shorten the mold. I took the dimensions right off the AM armor except for the width. I didn't realize it was taller than it was supposed to be. Third image below Pandatrooper's cut out shortening the AM armor. I will do a similar cut when I cut the armor out of the HIPS and assemble my armor.

So this is how you do it without the cardboard box. I am going to use a few pieces from an AM armor kit that I got from a guy who decided he did not have the time to assemble it. I ordered the edging to go around the chest, back, butt and cod piece from Mark at CFO. It should arrive in a week or so. I also ordered one of his ROTJ Blasters. But my first order of business is to fix the back plate. As everyone knows who frequents this site, the AM back plate is completely incorrect. So I need to create something that looks closer to the original screen used armor. So with the AM armor in hand and a few screen references I set out to create my own back plate. Step one is to pile a bunch of plaster mixed thick enough to make into a mound that roughly resembles the shape I want. Because this was the dirtiest process there was no way I was going to touch my phone to take pictures. My hands were literally covered in thick goo for about 4 hours while I tweaked the new back plate. The back patio was a huge mess. And after about the 4 hour mark I took a break and washed my hands and had some lunch. Here is my first image. The image below reflects about 20 iterations of chiseling and rasping the plaster mound into shape. Plaster is so soft but dense. I used a rasp, a wood chisel and some course sand paper until things started taking shape. I used the AM armor as a rough guide since it is the only physical piece in my possession. I know the dimensions are a little large so I reduced the width of the back plate about an inch and a half and it is a little shorter in height. After my mold was close to what looked good I need to change the medium I am using. Plaster is too soft to get fine detail so I am going to use Ultracal 30. A concrete based plaster that gets super hard. So step two is to pull a plastic mold of my temporary back plate. You can see my vacuum holes in the square. They are really big because of the air pockets that were in the plaster. Stacking globs of plaster leaves voids in the mix so as I drilled in the voids they collapsed a little creating larger holes than intended. No big deal. The flat portion of the square is also very rough. Not smooth like it needs to be. So I'll fix it with bondo. Pouring the new mold. Ultracal 30. A concrete based plaster that can be sanded and bondo'ed. It's super heavy though. So my mold will weigh about 40 lbs or so. The image below shows the container I am using to create an air void so I can add my drill holes for the vacuum table. After the mold cures I pop it out and add some bondo and do the fine detail with a dremel tool to get the final mold. I molded the O II with a few piles of bondo in the rough shape and used the dremel and some 100 grit sand paper. I also used the orbital sander and a grind wheel to get this to work. It's now super smooth and level. And here is the finished piece off the vacuum table.

Photos are awesome. Excellent idea.

That is all kinds of awesome.

Seantrooper: A great build here. Also shows the revisions to the belt and rivets.

Thank you Steve...I will continue down this path until it's acceptable.

And then I have this back mold I did. Again. The goal is to achieve Centurion Status starting with the molds. I have approximately 20 hours in the back plate. Image 1: Create a plaster mold by piling up plaster and shaping with carving tools. I have another thread on this back piece but for discussion of Centurion I am posting it here. Plaster is not a great media to work with. Too soft so it is near impossible to do dremel work and get it to hold up. I stopped with the square and basic shape and then pulled a new negative with HIPS. create a HIPS pull of the basic shape to create a new structural mold and finish the detail. Make a new positive. Ultracal 30 and a void in the back to make the vacuum holes. Refine the shape with bondo and a dremel tool. I also have a chest piece I am working on, posterior armor and a few other pieces that the AM armor is lacking. All of this to go with the AM pieces I already have on hand to make a Centurion Level TKC. My secondary goal is to make my own armor eventually. Or sell components to those who need them to obtain the same goal. And eventually to make a few "day of the dead" suits. But I see no reason not to make a centurion able mold in the process.

Great point on the photo distance. All of mine are within 12" to 24".

Can someone pm me Steve's contact info?? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have curved the front edge more. For the most part I am happy with the way this looks. Now how to know if it will achieve Centurion? I can keep pulling molds for the next year and never get to where I want to be so I'd really like to get this mold thing down sooner than later. Keep the input coming please.

Yes. I did notice that and I added a photo above. I understand I need to extend the frown paint now. I do however have the 5 teeth. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Pictures now posted.

So in my attempt to sell one of my BX helmets to someone going for Centurion Status I ran into a snag. Which i intend on correcting. The purchaser ran the helmet past Steve for Centurion Status consideration. It appears I have a few issues with the helmet. Here is what Steve had to say: Overall it's not a bad attempt.It's a nice helmet that I'd pass all day for EIB. Centurion, though might be another story. I saw your thread on the main boards that shows you have other helmets currently accepted for Centurion. I'd stick with those. A couple things that stick out to me on this particular helmet are the HUGE rank bar areas on the ears, the mis-shapen tear under the left eye(as you are looking at the helmet) but the frown is the big one for me. The Stunt frown always had 5 tooth indents though all 5 were rarely seen and the 5th one was subtle but there. This frown is right in the middle between stunt and hero. Another proportional issue is the helmet depth front to back. The ears are darn near touching the tear under the eye. This is not how this should be. There should be some room between the ear cover. I take issue with one or more comments from Steve. So here is the helmet in question. The first if that the frown only has 4 indents for teeth. That is incorrect it has all 5 on each side. I believe the issue is really that the paint needs to go bast the 5th tooth indent. Can someone verify? Maybe Steve himself could weigh in on this. I have seen a few screen captures and I am on the fence about this one. My photo below as follows. From left to right. Screen helmet used in ANH showing 5 teeth. the last uncut. next is my helmet. 5 teeth and the final is my mold also 5 teeth. So the issue should be that the paint for the frown should continue past the uncut tooth. The rank bars on the ears I agree with. but as far as the spacing between the tear and the ear it seems that it's more about pushing the ear bud back a little farther so there is more room between the bud and the tear. Again, can someone give me their opinion? Image below from left to right. Screen used ANH helmet. look at the location of the ear bud vs the tear. Mine is the second image. They are very close to being similar. I added an inch to the bottom of my face mold to give some extra depth to the helmet. But I'm not 100% convinced that the depth of the helmet is the issue. The third image are the new earbud molds. Notice the screen image stripe bar vs my stripe bar. Mine is too tall. I trimmed them down on the mold. The helmet depth from front to back is another issue I take with Steve's comment. The proportion from front to back appears to be correct based on simple overlay with screen helmets. Someone?? Image below from left to right. original screen used ANH helmet. Mine is the second one. I am having an issue seeing the depth problem that Steve mentioned. Lastly is the tear shape. I can easily modify the shape of the tears. No issue with this. Image below from left to right: Original helmet ANH. Second is my original tear shape. Third image is my revised tear shape. Anyone see any issues here?? Bottom line is I want to be able to get centurion status of my own here in the near future. Any help would be great.

Has anyone built a TKC to Centurion Requirements? I'm wanting to go for the level 3 standards right of the bat. There are a lot of special requirements about no rivets in the croch, brads for the amo belt on the knee, rivets on the belts, chest plates, etc. I'd love to see some build pictures of someone who has a Centurion Status.

I pulled a mold of the back plate this weekend. Here is the reference photo. Next up is filling this mold with Ultracal 30 and smoothing it out and getting the detail in with bondo and a dremel tool. If you haven't worked with it, it's kinda like soft concrete. You can sand it and dremel it and you can make bondo stick to it and you can't scratch it with your finger nail. It's super durable but also extremely heavy. This piece will weigh in at about 40 pounds. This image shows a little bit of webbing. Bottom left side of the square. The plastic got a little too hot and I wasn't watching. No big deal as I will be able to sand off any imperfections. I will use my rotary sander to smooth out the flat part of my square shaped bed. I will be using bondo to fill the large holes that happened when I made the suction holes for the square shape. The reason the holes are so big is because of the way I made this mold from plaster. Simply adding globs and globs of plaster into a pile to make the shape created air pockets. So underneath my mold were a few air pockets that caved in when I started drilling through. And this is why plaster molds are not the best. Ultracal 30 on the other hand is not soft enough to make a mold from scratch. It's about as hard as sand stone. So small easy fixes will be no problem but actually trying to sculpt with this medium would be like chiseling stone.