camprandall

The next step was to figure out the barrel. Like I said, 3" ABS was the best available option for the main barrel and then I cut about 3/4 inch slices off of an adapter part to make the two rings near the trigger area of the barrel. I cut the little indents in the rings by rolling it over the table saw blade.

I started with the barrel because that middle and back section scared the heck out of me. I tracked down some electrical conduit adapters at 2 1/2" to go with some 3" ABS for the main barrel. I used a caliper on repeated photos to get roughly close to the difference between the end of the barrel and the body. This seems pretty close. It took about one and a half adapters to get a good length. For the end cap of the barrel, I used a touch lamp and with a compass, traced out the circumference and then cut with plastic scissors. Lastly, I bondo'd the seam and evened out the adapters to be more smooth.

First off, here is essentially my key reference for this thing. There are a few other angles, but not too many.

Hello friends! So I've been working on this for a few weeks, but wanted to feel out how likely I would be to finish before posting a build thread. Things are going well so why not?! This build requires a disclaimer: This is not going to be screen accurate! Why? Because I've been able to track down ONE useful movie promotional shot that uses the gun - everything else is based off of the Sideshow toy photos, which are not as helpful as I'd like but enough to get an accurate looking gun. Basically, consider this an interesting project and not a guide for an accurate Heavy Gunner cannon. I'll try my best to catch this up to where I'm at today.

Those look great! I can't say whether they pass, but they look to me like about as good as you can get for a fabric solution.

Looks good Mike!

Excellent!

Thanks Ty!

Nothing major here, but thought I'd post a little about my First Order pistol that I whipped up from the Nerf one. Only very minor mods and painting, but still took some time. The one mod that would help that I didn't do is replace the nozzle with a longer and thinner one, but I don't really have the right tools for that and it would have added a lot of hours to this. Remove the Star Wars logo and all caution areas (there were a lot!) Cut back the rail since it looks weird jetting forward when the real pistol has a much shorter rail that angles back. I had to do some tiny ABS pieces to help fill the holes since it ends up leaving a big opening after doing that. This would allow the bondo to fill it out without seeping deep into the gun. Cut the trigger a bit to look much closer to a real trigger. Before After Bondo and sanding time! Paint with semi-gloss black that was used on the armor. I later smoothed out a few areas that rippled from this crappy Rustoleum paint. I was keeping it on a budget, which meant using paint that I had. Rough up areas to be white and then paint the white areas with the paint used for the armor. I let it sit for 20 minutes, then matte clear coated the whole thing. Make holes for cut off framing nails to act as mounting posts. Used JBWeld to glue them in. I used nails to keep the dremel cut out of the holster a bit thinner so I could keep the resin thick. None of this will matter when I receive my metal holster next week. Dremel holster slots with a cut off tool. Pic here is from ukwrath's build thread since I forgot to take a pic of this step. Mount and enjoy! (that could be taken the wrong way)

Excellent documentation Tony!

Nice work! I'll be curious to see the extended bicep when its all done.

Looking good!

Yeah JJ, that was my impression too. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

Oh, now I really want it to be FN. That would FN rock! Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

Awesome Tony!

I'd be cool with FN. I suspect that is the designation because both Phasma and Finn use it. Either way, we need to make sure so waiting is good.

You make me think of another point Darth. If we see other troopers with helmets off, we might see that they are of different ethnicities and then a Finn costume might then need to incorporate costume specifics (ex: bloody fingers on helmet) to properly differentiate. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

Hmm, that's a good question. I would think that would be it, but we don't actually know if Finn has a "hero" suit with any significant differences. I don't know the answer JJ.<br><br> Maybe if you're doing constant panting, heavy breathing and sweating then you'd be in good shape because that's what he's doing in every clip.

What's difficult with the whole "sharper edge" thing is that the entire suit is softer than the screen-used. We can sharpen random boxes and pieces, but all of the details are softer so if you want to be thorough, the return edges and everything need to be sharpened and all details sharpened. Seems like a lot of work to turn a vacu-formed suit into something that looks like it wasn't.

They fit me just fine. I'm a 10.5 with slightly wide feet and these are quite comfortable. The sole is not quite accurate as my understanding is that it should be vertical lines instead of the pattern it has and it's only on the front of the boot. The pic looks like it's vertical, but that's an illusion. It's like the ones posted on their ordering thread.

It's worth mentioning here that this is the way the project has gone from the very start. A lot of figuring out, a lot of NDAs, a lot of hopes for details that just didn't become available and a lot of people trying to meet deadlines with a lot of red tape involved. I know when we built ours, Bender was trying to build his and at the same time answer a ton of questions from a bunch of us and there just wasn't time for all that so we just plowed ahead with what we knew. The first months of this project were clearly focused on getting Disney suits done and our suits were naturally secondary in priority to all of that. It's understandable because succeeding with making Disney/LFL/JJ happy was much more important than tending to our costume build. All that being said, ours are still pretty dang accurate and are far better than the first versions of a lot of the costumes in the 501st. Just part of the process in getting these things so early and under such circumstances. It's also the risk we take getting on board so early and so anxiously building because you take a chance when you're the pioneers. It's worth it to me.

That's pretty weird. Probably much more economical and speedy though. Strange.

Bummer! Hope they sort it out quickly. The quality is certainly good and they package things well so they seem pretty professional.

I received my boots and gloves from Imperial Boots today. They look great! I'm breaking the boots in at work (and occasionally giving the gloves a wear or two).

That's funny! Hey we wouldn't be the 501st if everyone didn't have to stand up to the standards. No free rides!