camprandall

3/29/2015 12:04 AM Ok, so I've finish the detonator (with the exception of fixing a few tiny pock marks) and I have to say I'm RELIEVED! It feels like a weight off my shoulders because I spent 4 hours today and 2 yesterday just on that part. I also decided to primer it to see just how good the bondo work was because I don't want to find out during painting that it's not as good as I thought. Sweet! Before the photos, here are a couple things I learned along the way that made this go better (and I wish I had thought of before I did most of it). 1) Don't apply bondo in the angular or curved spots with an applicator - use your finger. You can get just enough in the crack with very little overage and have way less sanding to do. It works great for just filling little cracks. 2) Wet sand bondo to take it down faster. This helped sand quicker and more evenly. And another big shout out to my Dune Sea Garrison crew - now 50 hours into the project with 25 coming from them, 18 on the first day. Now, on to the pictures... My feelings about the detonator as I was trying to build it. My tribute to JJ Abrams. Sanded bondo work. Primered!

And now for some random shots of my build crew! Christopher Glib Matthew Shaw Paul Greene Trent Ainsworth Chris Henning Jeff Breckon The Team!

3/28/2015 2:27 PM For the angled insides, I held it together gently and rolled a drip of zap a gap and immediately sprayed it with accelerant to give it some strength. I did this about three times to create a nice strong bond since you can't really put a backing strip there. Once I got the bondo on there, I felt better because all the mistakes are hidden and it can be sanded smooth. One technique I just thought of that I used for the end caps and wish I had done everywhere on this was to use my finger to apply the bondo so I could fill the cracks without all the extra mess. Oh well!

3/28/2015 2:27 PM Ok, here's some more stuff. I've got the ab boxes glued to the torso. I tried to get the edges to match as much as possible and then I used a thin line of zap-a-gap, wiping it with a cloth before the accelerant, to fill some gaps. I think it will work good. I also got the thermal detonator assembled, glued and bondo'd. My assembly was probably the hardest part of this whole thing and I wasn't thrilled with it, but the bondo will cure all ailments! Oh, and my buddy reminded me that since I'm taking the pictures, I'm not in any of the build photos, so we fixed that problem too. For the assembly, I had a large gap in the back because I took too much off. I decided to use a backing strip to make it strong and allow for more bondo there.

Thanks! I'm happy to have something to offer since I depended so much on others' threads and assistance for my first couple builds.

3/28/2015 2:10 AM Made more progress today. Got the bondo work done on the forearms and biceps, with some minor tweaks left to make. It's best to cut very straight lines and level with a belt sander to make the seam hiding much easier. These will be bondo'd. Forearm boxes. There is a small box that sits inside the outer box for reinforcement, but it doesn't really show. Bondo! For inside cover strips, I started with just vertical strips but then modded it after trooping and realizing it's not enough resistance to keep the bondo from cracking. ORIGINALLY. (3/28/2015) NOW. (4/26/2015)

3/26/2015 11:26 PM And back to the back piece... I got the bondo done on the back, and I have to say I'm very happy with it! (or as happy as you can be without knowing 100% what you're doing). Also assembled and laid the bondo on the biceps. Too little time and too much to do to hope for a walkthrough of this stuff! I say build blind and have a beer later. And a beer now. But especially a beer later. Sanded bondo. Glued biceps. Bondo'd biceps. I should have used a bit less for easier sanding, but this is one of the first time's I've used bondo.

3/26/2015 9:53 AM So I'll be the first guy to post a misstep. You can now all feel good about yourselves. I don't know if it was my bad pencil line or a build crew cut mistake, but I noticed I was completely missing my glue tab on one of the calf pieces! Fortunately, I told everyone not to throw a single scrap away in case we messed up, and sure enough I found the part! Repair commenced and now I'm back in business. This piece should have had a glue tab along the edge. I fortunately saved all my ABS scraps so I recovered it. Gluing it back on with backing ABS strip. And done!

3/25/2015 11:05 PM Did the work assembling the back and "wings." Cut out holes to make it sit more flush inside the back piece. Glue inside piece to back and "wings". Bondo edge to hide the seam. Going for a sharp edge look.

3/25/2015 8:31 am Man, can I just harp a little on the awesomeness of my DSG build team? Got a box yesterday afternoon and then 10 hours later we had 54 out of 68 armor pieces cut and sanded! I'm very grateful to finally be able to feel some sense of excitement again that I might actually finish this thing!

Wow, I just realized this was here. Nice! Something I'd like to add is that it's clear now that the days of mimicking the construction and fabrication process for new Star Wars costumes are nearly over. Talking around, including what ANOVOS has publicly said, the screen suits are far too expensive to make and used cutting edge technology. For example, if we say rubber gaskets - well the ones ANOVOS provided aren't exactly right anyways. We should go for the screen "look", as many have said, and where the materials are flexible, leave it flexible. Otherwise we can't even use vacu-formed ABS for this thing, since they used some kind of alternate material with 3D printing, which would eliminate all existing and future suits not built by Disney for movie use. Just my two cents.

I'll start with finished pics so that you don't lose hope part way through when you realize what a pile of work this project is. Thanks again to my build crew of Chris Henning, Trent Ainsworth, Jeff Breckon, Matthew Shaw, Paul Greene and Christopher Glib! We logged about 120 hours combined on this - maybe partially due to the unknown nature of it - but it really was a ton of work. Totally fun though! Feel free to ask any questions as this build thread was done in haste during the project. I went from shipment arrival to completed suit in about 16 or 17 days so this is more of a "Hey, we should kinda document this!" than a formal build thread. Enjoy!

I think this looks great! I'm also getting that "crap, no seams - which means bondo, sanding and paint" feeling. ;o)

Having just gone through my first build I would recommend a few things: 1) Watch all the Trooperbay videos. They aren't necessarily exactly what you will do, but they get you familiar with the process. 2) Read a lot of the sticky build threads on here. It's much more doable once you start to have a comfort level with all the parts. 3) Talk to your local garrison. Our guy Mike, TK-1636, was a huge help with some of the trickier confusing parts like where exactly a snap should go and things like that. Good luck and have fun with it!

Thanks!

TK-61281 requesting 501st access. http://www.501st.com/members/displaymemberdetails.php?userID=17315 Thanks!