drlostdude
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Posts posted by drlostdude
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many thanks and I hope to troop with you guys soon
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*copied from 501st Spec Ops Detachment*
Hello Friends TX 3729 reporting for duty
I got my TX ID last night and I am very excited. My first troop as a member should be the Raleigh NC Christmas Parade Nov 22nd so I'll let everyone know how that turns out.
I also have a report for halloween as that is the first time I was out in public in my costume. For those who are familiar with the Chapel Hill, NC Homegrown Halloween they'll know that this was a big event. 80,000 people strong last year and I wouldn't doubt the same count this year. Franklin Street was packed.
Unfortunatly, I'm embarrased to say that I left my shoulder bells and bicepts at my dorm room. So I wore my shoulder pauldron on my left shoulder and kept the other shoulder out of sight in any pictures. But no one could tell and everyone loved the "vader costume" Only one person guessed right that I was a Shadow Trooper and I was very proud of him.
I lost my group on Franklin so I walked around for two hours wishing everyone a safe and happy halloween. I lost count of the pictures I was asked to be in at 22 pictures. I even got to use some of my spanish in conversing about my costume with the hispanic population watching the festivities. In summary, my first public troop was an amazing sucess and I hope that it is an inspiration to any and all reading and interested in joining the 501st.
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So... I'm sitting here looking at my sheet metal and after seeing this....
I don't know whether I'm going to cry or not
Great job man. Top notch! I shall attempt to turn this sheet metal into some form of weapon also
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Thank you very much for the kind words. It was a lot of fun to do, its really shiny and I still have to polish it!!!
There are many flaws which I know about but no one else will probably notice. Some words of advice are to mask anything when you are going to use ABS glue... It drys white and is very noticable. Small smudges of ABS glue take a little bit of looking to see but they're there. I will try wet sanding one and polishing to see how that turns out.
I know that people with white armor do that and it looks nice but I own a black 1979 Camaro which I helped do the body work on and sent to paint. With a black paint job every little imperfection sticks out like a sore thumb. Luckily those two or three weren't too noticeable
Unfortunatly it has suffered a collision which I may or may not bother fixing.kiyotei: It came like that, three pieces. Front, the back, and the cap. I have just recently started costuming so I can only guess as to what it may be. From what I gather it is probably called and FX style. It is not a "cap'n'back" two piece which is what I believe is the TE2. Any clarification on that would be helpful vets.
Murray1134: I'm assuming you mean the strap being held on in the pic with the clamps? I have that strap but it is velcro and a pain. I have snaps which may be too hard to fix right. I see yours may be attachet permanently which might work well and I haven't thought of that.
I also believe that the stealth trooper will make an appearance in Force Unleashed so everyone can enjoy! I'll post if I can find verification on that. Thanks for watching and I'll post more as I mod the suit to be comfortable. Everyone gets a good laugh when I try to bend down to pick something up.....
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Well, we're almost there. One problem, I have no weapon! I'll be making that sometime....
I still wanted to get some pics in anyways.
And I had a little fun
Its a lot of hard work though
There are still some adjustments to be made. Any criticism, good or bad is welcome. Thanks for watching and I'll post my blaster once I finish it... Its really hard to focus the energy just right, so far its just set for stun
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Its been a while but quite a bit is done. I've cut the vents, painted them, and added screen.
I messed up big time, see if you can guess where! (hint: I'll need to order another decal)
And the messy interior
Cheers! I just need to suit up and take pics for approval I suppose.
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Excellent.... MOST excellent
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Here we go. Bottoms of ears are screwed on. Those screws will be painted flat black like the rest of the stuff that needs painting. Added the trim along the bottom and I fixed an earcap.
And a profile
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Heres another update. I got my paint today and I couldn't wait to paint it.... Actually I did wait, then I couldn't stand it anymore.
I'm also getting closer to taking a decent picture. The first is with flash, the second without.
Heres two pics of the Foam padding system I developed friday.
Its sponge, covered with underarmor type material, and velcroed into place for easy removal and adjustments. It fits great! My neck is just too short for a full range of motion.
Here is a neckseal I've been making as well as the glove I will use for the final. I went to a LAN party saturday and wore the suit as a test run to see what needs adjusted. I'll post pics once my friend sends them to me.
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Looking good Kory! I'll come clean and be frank that I have an aversion to the FX helmet, but I can at least gush appreciatively over how the rest is doing. Thumbs up!
Thanks man, and at least now I know what kind of helmet it is
as it wasn't advertised where I bought it. My only complaint with it so far is that the plastic is a little thin where the aerators go but it only needs to be so strong. Its also a little unwieldy to put together all by your lonesome but thats a problem with the assembler.I have to put a brake booster on my camaro so I can drive it to a collision repair place but I hope to make the neck seal and figure out the legs very soon. Also start thinking about padding the helmet. I'll be using stiff sponges and covering them with underarmor type material, same as I'm using for the neck seal.
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Looking good, I'm starting to assemble my helmet.
Robert
make sure you take your time and I recommend masking the glue area with blue painters tape as others suggested. The only reason I didn't was when I tried I couldn't get it right. Next helmet I assemble I'll have an extra set of hands.
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Here is the progress on my helmet, so far there is only the painting, mirror lenses in the mail, and screwing the bottom of the earcaps. I'll use two screws, one for each side.
Here is my armor which I worked on some, I really like the way I found to hang it
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I must say, I made a worthy attempt to glue my helmet together yet it was merely an attempt. I thought disaster had struck. I applied the glue both the top and the bottom, then I set the helm but it was really hard to adjust because the glue was already setting. So I was able to get it aligned properly but some of the glue was pushed a smidge too high on the dome. Heres a pic with my clamps in place.
I thought, Well Crap...... but I remembered I had the trim so I put it up for reference and I think it will be fine.
So perhaps it was crisis averted. Anywho, I've kept going back with a cool rag to make sure that it didn't get too hot. I don't think it will be a problem thought.
Hopefully someone will come along and tell me I was being too anal and that the glue problem is normal. Also, how did I do cutting out my teeth? I'm going to med school but perhaps I should be a dentist?
(These posts are pretty much copies from the Spec Ops site but I figure, why change it if it isn't broken?)
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Frown is cut out but the flash on the camera makes it look dull and pics up dust. No flash is a little blurry too. I'll figure something out.
I used two small chainsaw files, one round and the other triangle shaped. Then an exacto to shave off whatever was hanging.... Then the files again to fix my mistakes. It was a really long process but I think files are the way to go, ultimate control and this plastic is awfully thick to cut with an exacto knife alone.
I'm trying to fit the helmet and I'll have to use a lot of clamps because it is a tight fit and there are a few bulges. I may put it in the refrigerator when I use the clamps and ABS glue so that way I avoid the melting problem. I may also be thinking along the wrong lines since I've never used the stuff, I'll test two pieces tonight and see what happens.
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Nix on that order, I found some. These look great though!
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Heres a little more of what I've done. The ears are on, I found after testing again that I wouldn't need to trim the top. I sanded down the sides of the back to get it to fit a little better and then rounded the ears. The back of the ear on the right side of the helmet (your left) is really sanded because the ridge is higher than in the front so I did the best I could there.
I took the Dave's Garage washer idea and ran with it as you can see.
I also dremeled the front and tomarrow I will get a small file to finish it up. Using the dremel was scary and I almost had a heart attack a couple of times. I don't like how the ABS mounds up and gets in the way. This is really really thick ABS too as far as I say.
The bottom of the ear pieces are going to either be glued or screwed and that will draw the helmet up very snug. I was planning on using two screws for each half so can someone answer if thats approved, its not that I'm anal its just the people who say yeah or nay may be.
I'm also scared about the ABS glue due to the warping horror stories I've heard. I may glue it, clamp it, and then throw it in the refrigerator to keep it from getting too hot. We shall find out tomorrow!
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I started my sith journey at the Sith Training Temple as a Vader in May which has no tuitorials but plenty of "How I Did It" guides. I think those are immensely more useful to learn from because it reminds you that there are many ways to do something. So I have one of these threads on the Spec Ops site and another on the STT and now one here which I don't mind at all, I enjoy the feedback and sharing my triumphs and mistakes.
Here we go!
Test fitting the sides
I had to put lots of tape on the inside to keep the back from hinging under the front piece when I put the dome on. Its a very very snug fit.
today I will sand the middle edges of the back half so it site more flush with the front. As you can see in the first two pics, there is not a straight line across the top so I will trim that to be flush. I am using the crease between the bottom tube and the vertical face to line the sides up. I'll show more of my progress laters.
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I was always gonna cut the teeth out. What I'm referring to are the other decals on the cheek and back of the helmet. There are black lines which I assume simulate a grill. I was going to paint that and then cut out the lines for a functional grill backed the same way as the front. I may be started a trend here
If that won't be approved I won't do it and I'll save that for a display piece. I'll start another thread showing progress but here's a teaser of the test fit using tape.
LAMPSHADE!
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I've been trying to figure out whether I'm going to paint my TX or just use the vinyl... if I paint the helmet then I will also cut out the "grill" type pieces, black screen the back and add fans to provide a functional vent.
If anyone thinks that mod will keep it from being 501st ready please let me know. I think it would look really crisp, neat, and of course very functional. I want a suit that looks like it could actually be used.
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I just got my TX armor yesterday and will begin assembly soon, I'll show off those pics once they're up.... now I just need to find someplace that sells underarmor leggings (my patience has now past waiting on shipping
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Then consider the idea gone. Should I feel the need for another set of armor I'll make my own molds, it would be a good experience and I'll be able to put some TLC into it. Thanks for the help and guidance. This will be my one noob mistake. That puts a lot of pressure on me when assembing my TX armor though lol
Seriously, thank you and I hope to be trooping with you guys soon. I should be getting my TX armor tomorrow and I'll post some pics somewhere here. I've also been working on my vader and you can find info there at the 501st sith lords site or at the Sith Training Temple.
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Is recasting for self and self repair frowned upon. I think that shouldn't be a problem but I've been wrong many times before. I agree now that recasting for friends and family should be frowned upon.
And that is unfortunate about websense. For anyone willing to risk it, Firefox, and use a proxy add-in. I used PhProxy-InBasic.
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So I found and read the recasting policy and I understand and promise to abide by it, sticking to personal use only. I was afraid that I might my stepping on some toes or lighting some fires under people so I wanted to rectify that. I assume that personal use is ok and please correct me if I'm wrong.
(BTW: whitearmor.net is blocked by websense here at work because its under the "games" category. I used a proxy to get in but maybe an admin knows how to change that since this is no game, its a lifestyle!)
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I may duplicate on down the road but currently its for backup. If I were to recast armor I would sharpen and modify the molds first. Depends on how much of a pain it would be. I would also like to mention the recasting would me for myself and not profit. This is only intended to make trooping fun and not a paranoia-fest/
How heavy is a fiberglass set of armor? I would prefer that for strength but the weight may be ridiculous. Also the idea of having armor that may also have a function just makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.
TX 3729 Reporting for Duty and summary
in New Member Introductions Archive
Posted · Edited by gmrhodes13
photo updated
At your request,
I know that the right (your left) shoulder bell was wonky in this pic and the background sucks. Once I get some good pictures I'll post those too. Black glossy armor is nearly impossible to get a decent photo of.