justjoseph63

As someone who had made more than a few 3D weapons/props, I can add that how much time you spend smoothing it out depends on the material you use to actually print the parts. My first build years ago was a DLT-19 made from PLA. Over 25 hours or so of sanding/filling.. and LOTS of those tiny "threads" that can be a pain to get rid of. Resin prints are pricier (but VERY smooth) so I normally have them done in PETG as I find it much easier to sand/fill. There are many items available to help get rid of print lines, but after initial sanding my "go-to" items are Bondo Glazing and Spot putty for the deeper lines and Rust-oleum Filler Primer before final sanding . Both are available at any auto parts store. If you want a durable "glass like" finish you can use XTC-3D epoxy filler (it takes some practice, though). One thing that is important to do is smooth all the pieces before gluing them. Once assembled, it can be next to impossible to get into all the tiny crevices. Trust me. I have a thread on smoothing out lines using these products (link here) which can help. It was for an ESB E-11 (seen below) but shows the basics and can be applied to any 3D weapon or prop.

I am WELL impressed with that bucket, Gerald. One of the best I've seen in a long time! Lots of great attention to detail, and something you will be proud to wear.

Welcome, to the home of shiny white armor, Mark! As a few have mentioned, the 2 snap system is the way to go to ensure nothing comes apart. Once you get your kit (or even before) I suggest starting a build thread in this section. You are always encouraged to ask as many questions as you like, but keeping those (and posting LOTS of photos) in one place will help get you answers a lot faster. Speaking of photos, I can't stress enough how important it is to include them with your questions, especially if you have an issue. Just take... your... time, hit us up for anything you need, and I look forward to watching your build! I have a few tutorials under my signature at the bottom that may help.

I'll echo what Andrew said about CFO. Mark is a great guy to deal with, and since his kits are literally cast from an original set of ROTJ armor it doesn't get more screen accurate. He's on here often, and you can PM him here. If he doesn't get back to you in a few days let me know and I can email him.

Thanks for your submission Matt! One (or more) of us will be with ya' as quickly as we can!

Getting close to having your 501st TK # soon, Jonathan! Your GML will determine if the boots are good to go, but fingers are crossed for ya'. Even if you choose not to aim for higher levels of approval (but we hope you will ) I would consider getting a pair of Imperial boots (link here). At around 90 bucks they are not cheap, but in this case you really do get what you pay for. They are comfortable, will last a long, long time and are a great company to deal with. Despite what it says on their website meets at least L1 clearance requirements they are approvable all the way to Centurion level! Note that they make them in "waves".. about once a month. The current wave ends in 5 days (June 17th), but if you need to hold off they do these waves about once a month. One word of advice is to order a half or full size larger than you normally wear. Trust me.

Sorry to hear that, brother, and I agree.. that really does look terrible. Especially for the price.

GREAT to hear that they are shipping, but I don't think DN is even offering footwear and gloves any longer as they are presently not listed on their site. In looking at the various grain and textures of the boots I am thinking those are made from pigskin. Although pigskin stays pliable, doesn't stiffen up after getting wet and is pretty resilient, it has that bumpy surface and being thinner than cow leather is prone to fine wrinkles (like crepe paper) as seen in the first pic. I realize that most of the boot is covered with the spats and armor and nothing at all against DN, but when I start on my FO armor later this year I will be going with IB. DN IB

I have these in stock (link here). $27.00 including shipping.

Although it takes extra time and costs a bit more, as Glen mentioned many find one snap at each connection sufficient, I would go with the "double snap" method. I built my first set of armor using only one snap at each end of the nylon, but 5 minutes into my very first troop my left shoulder bell and bicep connection came apart. I ended up removing ALL the strapping and replaced every single connection with 2 snaps at each end. That may have been overkill, but I now do that on all my armor, and to this day I have never had a connection fail. Even if you don't use two snaps on the individual limb pieces, I highly recommend using 2 in the areas seen below. The pic shows the original method, but note that the straps were glued on one side. I don't suggest this. Elastic will lose it's stretching properties over time and at some point you may need to replace one or both. Hint: Note how the elastic is doubled over on the snap end below. I do 3 folds for added strength, glue the folds together and then set my snaps. The reason being is that those connections get a lot of wear and tear when suiting up/down, so better to be safe than sorry.

For the gaps, The front one is not too bad, but the one in the rear will definitely need to be filled for Centurion, Nick, and it's actually pretty easy to do! It should take you all of 15-20 minutes, and will make a world of difference in the look. I see you already added the ABS shim in the back of the front gap, so you are almost halfway there! By the way, the front one would pass at Level 3, but since you will already have the product on hand for the rear I would go ahead and fill that small gap. Luca provided a link to my tutorial here, and even though Sugru is owned by a German company (Tesa) I'm not sure if it's available there. A good alternative is Kintsuglue (available on Amazon Germany here).

When you get to ab button painting, Paul, I would suggest not taking it too low. The reason I say this is that with the quality and attention to detail you have shown if (make that when) you apply for Centurion it needs to have a small gap between the paint and the bottom of the raised part. This applies to the small 4 button panel as well . NICE job on trimming those plates!

The TD turned out great, Paul! Quick question: In the previous photos the ab button plates look as if they were attached, and yet in the recent one they look like they are missing. ? If you have in fact not attached them yet, I would recommend painting them before gluing them on, The reason being is that it's much easier to spin them around and such when they are not a permanent part of the larger ab plate.

Paul has a pair of mine already so it would be a matter of him sending them to you.

Coming along great, Paul! Excellent job on aligning the thigh/calf cover strips, and the shoulder bell/strap gaps are spot-on. I know you had some concern about the calves, but it looks like you conquered them in grand style! It may be the angle of the photo, but in looking at the rear it appears that the outside half of the left one may be a bit long. Note below how the outside top sits higher and the bottom sits lower. If this is the case, I would suggest lining up the tops and then trimming the bottom as seen in the second pic. SUPER easy fix! One other quick thing is that you could raise the ABS belt a bit: You have done an awesome job on this armor, sir, and I genuinely hope to see you apply for Expert Infantry (and then Centurion) once you get Basic approval. Keep up the great work, and keep those photos rolling in! P.S., if you need bail money for the chain code charge we could do a whip-round.

Welcome to the FISD, Jake! As I'm sure you know, you are in the right place for all things TK. You have the advantage of knowing about builds and probably have all the supplies you need so you are way ahead of the game! As you also aware, starting a build thread here will be super helpful. ALWAYS feel free to ask lots of questions and be sure to post lots of pics. We are here to assist you at every step (even before your kit arrives) so never be shy about hitting us up for any info., and I look forward to seeing your progress!

I include those (strap and name in Aurebesh) on every order.

Holy cats, Caleb! I had no idea this was you that made these.. it took me a second, but then when I saw the Virginia Beach location it finally dawned on me, lol. You know yourself that real metal U-channels are next to impossible to find, so I would suggest starting a sales thread here. Thanks again for an awesome product and especially for helping me finish up this puppy!

Holy crow, Adam.. looking fantastic! Always great to see a fellow detail freak, and I'm looking forward to watching this build! I still have those "forgotten" greebs if you need them, btw. One thing I noticed was that I'm not overly sure that the pic below is showing scraggly wires. It may be me, but it looks like a flat strip of plastic (like a zip-tie). Apparently they used those to re-attach some of the various pieces on that fell off during production. I also wonder if the missing paint on the front of the power cylinders (as well as the scope greeb missing in a lot of pics) was due to holstering it repeatedly. Hmmmm. I gotta' say that the pic I got the most excited about was this one: FINALLY another pic of that "mystery piece"! Fantastic sleuthing!

Welcome to the FISD, Adam! Finding someone to build your armor may be a tall order, but you are truly in the right place should you choose to build it yourself. Many (if not most, myself included) of us had never attempted to take on something like this, but know that you have an entire Detachment that is more than willing to help you every step of the way! As Glen suggested, contacting your local Garrison or Squad can be really helpful, but in the absence of that you are more than welcome (and encouraged) to ask all the questions you want to. There are some fantastic build threads here on every costume we have, but if there are any particular queries you have never be shy about asking.. it's what we do best! If you go the D.I.Y. route, one thing I would suggest is to start your own build thread here. Posting photos of your build is important. Doing this allows you to show off your progress, but is most important when you have an issue. I have a thread here which will help. Whichever route you choose, we are here for ya'!

Hi Kevin... that is one fantastic looking pack, sir! Always great to see another HWT in the making! Most of us use a grayish blue paint for the areas seen below. Don't forget to do some light weathering as well!

FINALLY! As some of you may know I moved into my new house (at last) and I hope you understand that I am not bragging, but I am chuffed to have my own little Fortress of solitude, as it were. I still have to build mannequins for one of my TKs and my Tusken raider, but I'm getting close to having my ideal SW room. Side note: Has anyone who collects TK figurines of any size noticed that they (with rare exceptions) have no holster?

Thanks, gents! I have 2 mannequins to build for my new man-cave, but after that I start on an F-11D. This really is a sickness, lol, but living in the middle of nowhere I have to keep myself occupied.

WOW, Adam! And I thought I put a lot of work into building these, lol. You really took the ball and ran with it, sir, and I'm envious as all heck!

Finished! Again, please keep in mind that this 3D E-11 kit was apparently designed from the "Battlefront" videogame version so there are some significant differences. Most I could overcome, but a big one was the holes in the shroud. They simply do not correspond to the screen used (MGC) ones. I got as close as I could, so bear that in mind. Once I got ready to mount the U channels I found that my rivet gun was too wide to fit down into the channels themselves (pic 1). After a few choice curse words muttered under my breath I knew had to figure out how to attach them. I briefly considered screws, but it just wouldn't be the same. SO, I separated the rivets (14 of them), separated the mandrels (center parts), cut down the length and epoxied them back into the rivet pins as seen in the second 2 pics below. I should have mentioned before that when building the main body that I installed a thin metal tube inside the shroud to give the appearance of an actual barrel. Oops. My plan ended up as seen below (pic 1). Drill out the holes on the channels and shroud/barrel (just as one normally would) but I epoxied each modified rivet in. I was afraid this may make it sort of fragile, but after the epoxy set they are actually very sturdy. WHEW! HINT: Drill all holes in the channels and shroud BEFORE attaching them. The holes for the rivets were integrated into the print, but they did not line up correctly (mainly due to the barrel mods) so I drilled new ones. Hint: Make sure the holes for the rivets are between the holes in the shroud (pic 2). The channel that sits on the left side will have to have the bottom bent down on the front to accommodate the front "D" ring. HINT: Attach the D-ring/mount AFTER attaching the channels. The stock that came with the kit was too long after cutting down the length of the of the shroud earlier , and to add some "heft" I used a real vintage Sterling folding stock for this build, which differs slightly from the original- especially in the area seen with the red arrow (first pic). Not too noticeable, but I hope it doesn't keep me up at night thinking about it.** I did add the rivet on the side, which as I mentioned before will prevent the stock from extending. **It will. After touching up the paint and letting that dry overnight, I added some light weathering. Had these made for all my display pieces. And that's it. Finished, and finally added to my "wall-o'-weapons". To anyone who has followed this, thanks for looking! U-Channels- After spending more time that I care to admit to searching for these, I finally found a seller (George) on the RPF. Once he got them made shipping was fast and I honestly could not be more pleased with the quality. A little pricey, but well worth every cent in my opinion. Link to his sales thread on the RPF here. UPDATE: I did not realize that the seller was actually Caleb @TKCaleb who has been a member here since 2008. SO- it looks like you can contact him here as well!