themaninthesuitcase

Hi, The archives are not a public forum, only admins have access. @Dark CMF put it brilliantly "Yeah, archives are/have always kind of been like the areas behind the scenes in a museum. There is probably some cool stuff there, but it isn't meant for public viewing. That's why the stuff gets archived." If you can point me to specific thread links we can look at those specifically and see if they should be moved somewhere publicly available. Chris FISD DOCG.

Seems I'm overdue an update. I've spent some time working on my blasters in the last week as I had some time off work. Since my last update I reprinted a number of parts on my Elegoo Mars resin printer which gives a far cleaner finish. Some of these are just better versions of the previously FDM printed parts, others have been modified to better suit my specific build. I still have a few bits to print, mainly the detailed hand grips, but they failed on previous attempts and I have yet to re-try now I am better at setting up resin prints. So first up is the Hengstler box. This was modded to make it fully hollow, as I did intend to put the battery here, and a hole was added for the wiring between the screws. I also had to modify the mounting bracket as well. Next up the other side of the rifle for the magazine. This has been modified to add a slide switch. This will be the on off switch for the lighting. It's subtle easy to access and I believe reasonably accurately placed. This was a bit of a pain to mod, and I was only able to get 1 screw in. I have also finished up the basic wiring for the torch at the front, this also has a resin printed ring. To get the torch to fit I had to hollow out a lot of the mount and add some reinforcement on what was left. The wiring is a basic connection commonly used in RC I think. It clips in nicely and will mean I can remove/replace the torch if needed with out having to cut things. As the bore is larger I also had to Dremel out some meat in the main blaster section too. End result should look pretty nice I hope As I now believe I have all the needed holes for the wiring in place I have started sub assembly so I can start looking towards final paint. Basically all parts that need to be glued in place have been. So the hengsteler connector, front hand grip mount, side mount, barrel rails, flash suppressors etc. It was also time to check the fit of the barrel tip. I have 2 of these, one FDM one resin. I drilled the holes to 1/4" as I don't have a 6mm and a little clearance isn't a bad thing. I like to have through holes be clearance holes where I can as then there's no mucking about trying to line up threads later which can cause them to get stripped, which I did on my 3D printer. Finally I have started figuring out the power situation for the blaster. Based on a design from the BlastFX community I came up with my own version. I am using a 650mAh LiPo battery as they are small and powerful. To charge it I am using a TP4056 board. This gives USB micro charging with over charging protection. This updated version has separate connections for the battery and the output which I believe means it protects against over discharge. You hook the battery to the B+/B- connections and the circuit to the OUT connections go out to the circuit. The original idea was to put the battery in the hengstler where it would be easy to remove. I didn't like the long power lines from the charger this would mean though. So based on the other design I have created a mount that fits in the end of the barrel. This has a slot for the board to slide into, which is then secured by an M3 screw which keeps things simple. A small hole next to the USB socket lets me see the status LED of the charging board. Still a bit loose. I need to adjust the design in a few places, this was a first test. Above the USB socket is a 2nd DPDT slide switch. This will allow me to completely disconnect the battery from the charging board for storage and transport. It does mean I'll have to remember to turn it on to charge the battery. The extra length is intended to be a place to mount the LiPo battery. I am not exactly sure how I will do this yet, maybe cable ties or some adhesive foam tape? I need it to have a small amount of movement as I don't want to crush the battery with a clamp. The 2 holes top and bottom are for neodymium magnets, 4x2mm at the moment. There will be a matching plate in the end cap that will have magnets in too to allow it to clip in place but still allow access to the charger and main power. I am yet to work out how I'll attach the inner section as I would like to avoid glue to allow access to the battery when needed. Grub screws may be an option if they can be hidden but I'm not sure the wall is thick enough. Other than the last few parts I am almost ready for paint. I'm hoping to try go to Halfords and get some matt black and Appliance white soon now that shops are opening up again. All parts are sanded to 320 which should be good enough for the colour coat. My primer is quite coarse so if I've missed any spots I'll need to go back after the first coats and fix those.

I've split this post into it's own rather than posting on a thread from 2015.

One of the admins can do it for you, probably best you PM one of us and we can sort it out for you.

Request complete.

Springs came. They were quite a bit over the length I asked for so needed to be trimmed. Not overly easy to do accurately but when trimmed to ~13mm these were perfect. So final specs 3.18mm dia 13mmlong . I ordered 2 and I used the softer of the 2, not sure which one that is but I think it's the stainless 0.41mm wire Edit: it is the 0.41mm Stainless Steel Been a busy week so not much happened but I did manage to get the last part printed so yeah "just paint" to go.

Progress? Twice in a week? Outrageous. I assembled the sight assembly similar to I did before, but actually glued it. So used a drill bit to align the top to the riser, line it all up and then use a 3mm drill to add a locating hole to the top through the riser. This allowed me to use the 2 drill bits to align the parts whilst I super glued them together. Today a bunch of odds and ends came in so I was able to finish the pre-paint work. First the axle pin for the pulley: The drill bit I used was about 1.8mm diameter. An easy and cheap option for this is pin nails, which are 1.6mm so close enough for imperial work. As I was ordering some other fixings to finish off this blaster I ordered some brass ones to make cutting and smoothing easier. The brass can be easily cut with a pair of pliers and sands/files smooth quickly and easily. As there was holes in the riser and base plate I wanted to screw them together for extra strength. There is hardly any clearance under the plate so I opted to use counter sunk screws. The holes in the riser are 3mm so M3 wasn't an option, so I ordered a 3.3mm drill bit so I could tap them M4. I also used a counter sync on the base for the heads. Protip: when counter syncing slower is better or they go hexagonal, apparently. The riser is only just wide enough for M4 if you look below you can see the thread through the resin. The resin is slightly transparent so it's not as bad as it seems. The end result seems nice and solid. I'll prime with black this in parts and then assemble the pulley section so I can fix any glue residue. This will all then get final colour. I also got some long M4 grub screws to mount the trigger. I've gone for one 20mm long to act as the axle, and then 2 shorter 4mm ones to plug the ends and look tidy. Really I should have used a 3mm shaft and just used the 4mm screws to hold it in. Hind sight is lovely isn't it! The trigger was actually a failed print. The under side lifted and I realised this make it more ergonomically shaped so I ended up filing the other side to match and rounding it off. This makes it look better vs the solid block look it had before. I've not fitted the short grub screws here as I am just testing the fit. The TLJ PDF (I don't have one for the TFA files and I can't find anything on here) specs a 14mm long 4.5mm diameter spring. This can be made from a pen spring so I did that, but unfortunately this did not fit. So using Fusion 360 I measured the holes in the parts which came out at about 3.8mm +- a snifter. This means I don't have anything I can use to hand. Fortunately my loving wife found a supplier that sells springs to order, in a huge range of sizes and rates. https://springsandthings.me.uk These are cut from a length so mm accuracy isn't guaranteed so I've ordered over and I can cut down if needed, and in 2 different strengths. This also means they are "unfinished" and they won't have the flat ends, so may wear into the parts. This isn't a huge deal though as I can't imagine me using it a lot and worst case I'll glue it in place.

Ugh you're all so demanding! I had the air brush out for something else so I ended up starting some colour! This is the cocking handle, that apparently needed sanding^, and the red thingy that goes on the side. Hot glued to a cocktail stick for something to hold but is easy to remove. The handle is just in a matt black primer, I need to decide on matt black or satin black for the blaster. Any input would be appreciated. The "red thingy*" is white primer (both primers are Vallejo if you care) and then some gloss Tamiya Red. I will probably also use some gloss clear too to help reduce scratching. I also had a bit of a shuffle in the work room so that the air brush is less effort to get out hopefully helping with momentum. I am also tempted to get the Ryobi Battery glue gun as well as I do use it a reasonable amount and means it wouldn't need to live in a drawer due to a wire. ^ good luck seeing it at more than 20cm though. * only the finest technical terms here.

Found some mojo just before the new year and started working on things that have sat idle for months. Part of the problem that broke me was rushing things and making silly mistakes and wasting lots of effort/materials/money. This time I am taking it slower. Starting with my blasters, and specifically the smallest this SE-44C first printed before TLJ even came out I've printed all the small parts again in resin, though I apparently forgot the trigger so that is to follow. I had primed the main parts in the summer but a 400grit sanding has gone through in a few areas so I'll need to re-prime before colour. I also made some new side plate for both the SE-44C and F-11D. I printed them as 2 layers to make sanding easier and added holes where the mounting bolts will (hopefully) go. I will make these but only glue them once I am confident that they will fit the thigh plate as I will need to drill into the blaster with some reasonably large bits. Essentially I am now at paint and assembly stage on this one, so should be finished by 2043.

I used these on my build: https://amzn.to/355YdSu I am confident I could do 5 perfectly in the same time it takes to do 1 with a hammer. I've not tested them with non prym snaps though, but I would expect them to work with any snap so long as it's not larger than 15mm.

Nice one Dan, decent amount raised. I wanted to do one but we don't really have the space out the front here.

Welcome to the FISD and the UKG. Hope to see you at a troop once we can get out again!

Account deleted as requested.

Well done Dan. Lets hope we can catch up at the Excel next year, even it that means in October!

As far as I am aware only 2 vendors are selling suits cast from screen used, one ANH stunt and one ROTJ. The above vender is not one of them. The history of most armour available gets murky fast and there are places you can find this out if it interests you. But you don't need to. The best best is generally to have a look at the recommended list, speak to your GML and see what people you will be trooping with have. You'll probably get good recommendations for vendors that serve where you live and those recommendations would be better than me in the UK recommending anything. Just be sure to mention if you wish to got to EIB or Centurion as that can be easier with some armours than others, but for the most part most common armour will have no problems there if you build it with that in mind.

No we still have to do that, but we have costume management built into our forum too.

Darren maybe post in your WIP thread on UKG And ask what’s up. Our GML is normally pretty hot on stuff so clearly something is up. If you have applied on both UKG and the 501 sites it should be sorted by now.

I went back to work mid July so time went away again. I am working at home so I could carry on printing but I ran out of room to store parts. Once I get some time to assemble what I have I'll get back to printing more. It will also give me some time to lose the lockdown weight and check stuff I have done actually fits before making more.

Welcome to the FISD! If your a midlands lad I'll see you in Birmingham once the world reopens enough for conventions to not be a terrible idea. Would have been great to build a suit whilst shielding!

Helmet is progressing well. Before assembly I tested the new modified vocoder hole. It's a good fit but a little fiddly to get in and out due to the shape. I think the fit is good and will work great. I need to back up the hole with some sheet at some point but I'll do that later in the process. The bottom of the helmet was built up in subsections. Essentially halves, working from the front backwards. As I went I welded each seam whilst I had easy access. Before final assembly I sanded these down to remove any sharp points and roughness. Once the two halves were built, then I used the flat join to the top as a reference to tape the rear into position. I wicked in some superglue to fuse the two parts together. Due to compound error in the other seams there was a minor twist to the helmet. Fortunately I was able to force it out slowly gluing the chin section in 3 sections. The bottom first, then the top before finally wicking in some glue in the middle. Again these seams were welded with a soldering iron and some spare filament. I've refined how I do this now. With the iron set to 400ºC I run the tip down the seam. This starts to fuse the parts and also creates a small groove. I then use the iron to press the filament into that groove and smooth it. This gives a good strong seam that also doesn't stand too proud of the part. Attaching the top half was a scary job. As with the lower half, there was a small missalignement due to compound error over dozens of seams. I started by holding the parts together as well as I could and used masking tape inside and out to hold it as best as I could. I started by gluing the out side most seams, one side as a time. I had to pull the parts into place a bit but the end result was good. This done I started in the middle at the back and works outwards wicking in glue and pressing the parts together as best I could. As much as this is an important seam it's not the best one, bit too much glue gap filling rather than joining. The weld will hopefully make up for this. The welding on this seam was a real nightmare. Access was terrible and just trying to get the iron in was a striggle never mind a 2nd hand to feed in filament. I have now started on filling the seams, with P38 and acryl, and sanding the whole helmet. It's messy work as I keep over applying the filer. I have now run out of 120 paper so I need to get some more. The face plate is also printed now. This was a worrying 13 hour print. It's quite thin and I was worried it would be too weak, which fortunately does not seem to be the case. Also the STL had a lot of issues with it and so had been through a lot of repair phases. This has left lots of scaring on the surface as well. Fortunately this will all be hidden under the nose piece (which is also printed). Only about 20% of this will be visible but I want to smooth it out as best as I can. I am also toying with moulding it to make a version in impact resistant resin but I'm not sure this is needed anymore. Just to see how it looks I taped the face plate in. I want to do the finishing work before I glue it in permamently. I also tried it on, because you have to don't you. It's a shade on the large side maybe, but better than too small. I may even be able to wear my glasses. With some pads in I am sure it will look a little less bobble head when sat properly. I also got a lens for the helmet from an Esty seller. At the moment I am not overly impressed. It was €42 and the shape and edge finishing isn't what I was expecting. The optics are okay not great, there is a small amount of ripple when you look around. Size semms okay but hard to tell until things are held in place, so I've wrapped it in cling film for now to protect it and will try it again later. As I mentioned I'm out of sandpaper so I'm working on a few other things as well for now for a change of pace. Next job for the armour will be progressing with the left arm.

I'm not sure if I can share that, I'll take some more photos though when I remember.

Their comms is awful, its a bit like throwing your money down a hole and hoping that something comes up in the bucket. I've yet to hear of a no-show, but I have heard of some very long waits.

Where did you get the E6000? There's a lot of fake stuff about! Snaps I used Prym Camping 15mm. You can get them in small 10 packs or a 100 pack. I got the 100 but used around half of them. I liked having far more than needed as it means you don't start cheaping out or cut corners to save 1 snap. I got them from rebel workshop but have a shop around for them. Also get the proper Prym pliers for them, the best £8 I spent on my build.

It’s all available in the UK. Armour, snaps, single cap rivets the works. Only tricky thing is e6000 glue as it’s not legal here anymore. I believe some are using one of the gorilla glues, not sure which, or you’ll need someone in the US to source some. If your looking to troop the armour as well head over to the UK Garrison as well https://www.ukgarrison.co.uk/join-us.html

My Imperial boots are US13. I wear a UK11 normally which is a US12. If you are in the 11-12US ballpark their 13 will be fine I would expect.