themaninthesuitcase

He replied quickly to me, need to get a test print knocked out so I can get some measurements to him.

For the visors, has anyone used Ople before? https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/682238330/ople-props-first-order-stormtrooper?ref=hp_rf-1&cns=1 Reviews look good and images seem to look right as well.

Steve, this really isn’t the venue. If you want to take this issue further please feel free to do so, just not on this thread as I would like it to remain about the recasting issue not how any particular unit is dealing with it.

Back plate is coming along nicely. There is 1 issue I need to fix however. As I scaled in only 2 planes, the O in OII is oval. I have a plan to fix this but I'll come to that another time. Also one thing I would do differently next time. As it is I cut things neatly into a grid essentially: Next time I will cut more like "a brick wall". Not only should this make things stronger as there are less long straight cracks, it will also make lining stuff up easier as you can use the overlap part as a reference. I would still use fibreglass to reinforce things but it wouldn't need to work as hard. Also one back part (top row above) had some big over hangs using a lot of support, almost as much as the part. So I have split one into 2 to allow me to re position it reducing the support need but adding 1 more seam to glue and weld.

I am going to agree, this thread is not about any specific Garrisons or groups. Please keep the discussion to the subject at hand please.

Welcome to the FISD!

Welcome to the FISD!

And we're back in acton! Rebuilt with a Titanium heat break to help prevent future mishaps. Not surprised the old one broke, it took a lot of ignorance to get the old nozzle out of the heat block. The other half of the heat sink is very stuck in the heat sink, not sure how I'll get that out but it's not a big deal if I can't. For reference E3D are good people, and were very helpful with my screw ups. First print was meant to be the end of one of the yoke arms but the supports just were not sticking. Turns out the bed seems to have developed a bit of a warp, but nothing a couple of hours calibrating couldn't fix but blew out the available print time for the day. Back on with the back/yoke tomorrow. My Mk2.5S comes Monday so I'll probably swap to getting the upgrade parts for that once I get the back parts cranked out and swap out the warped bed.

Parts arrived from E3D today, complete new hot end kit and a titanium heat break. Will be rebuilding tomorrow with a 0.4 nozzle as my Prusa 2.5S upgrade kit is arriving Monday and I'll need to print the parts for that which need a 0.4. Once those are done I will reattempt to swap to the 0.6 I also received some shiny faux leather cycle shorts for the under suit, £8 after a discount though post was about £3. Hoping these are OKd by my GML, and I hope they will be fine for Lvl2+

Sounds awesome

I wonder if I could fit a normally closed Microswitch in the hinge block or something.

Okay some more progress on the torch which is totally worth all this effort I am sure..... At least it's a distraction from breaking the 3D printer. So I ordered 2 of these torches from ebay that looked small enough. In practice they are too long and only just about fit down the available space, after a big mod to Germain's file to make it. First job was to cut one open and see what I had to work with. I measured down the inside of the barrel to see where I could cut. Once inside I could pull the inner section out of the outer metal barrel and found it's just a 5mm LED in a holder that runs off 3 1.5 LR44 batteries. Sadly the leads on the LED are too short to solder to with out melting the holder but a standard 5mm LED fits the holes just fine. The first torch I destroyed modified I cut very short, and a bit sloppy. These have a zoom function where pushed in is wide angle and pulled out is focused. The location of the cut was perfect for the LED mount but left no options for the focus. With that in mind I cut the second a fair amount longer, about 25mm from the chromed ring. This seems to be about perfect. I cut the inner down to the minimum for easy access when soldering. I also sourced some VERY bright LEDs, so bright that to run off a 9V I should be using a 1 watt resistor (I didn't but it was short bursts) and it projected a spot on the wall across the room. The cool thing about them is they are 3.2-4.5V so I can run one right off the 3.7V LiPo without any resistors. They also are projecting LEDs as I think they are meant to make torches with. I have a stash of JST RCY connectors that are nice and easy to connect. They may be a bit big for some of the other connections but here I think it will be perfect, Though I have some smaller ones too if that doesn't work. The plan is to solder a short connector direct to the LED with heat shrink to prevent shorts. This will then connect to another wire in the under barrel which will run down the length, through a hole into the main barrel and then through to the core of the blaster where I can wire in the switch and the power as required. I'll probably wait until I get the soldering iron out to weld the next armour sections before I do this work.

I’ve ordered a whole new hot end to speed things up. Also picked up a replacement heat break to repair the original hot end in case this happens in future. E3D are only about 30ish miles away and normally I’d just go and pick it up as I’m in a hurry but the Rona means no customer collections.

Printer down I was swapping to a 0.6 nozzle to speed the printing up (looks like about a 30% saving time wise) and broke the heat break. Ordering parts but who knows when they will arrive. And it was going so well.

So today I took this: And turned it into this: This was mostly just a case of sanding all the seams with 120 to get them flat. Then super gluing as carefully as I could, 1 or 2 could be better but even then noting serious. Some Superglue accelerator really helped on the first few sections, it speeds up the set so you can let go but it does mean you need to be accurate lining stuff up. At this point I couldn't resist a fit test. Not in an under suit but I am really happy with the size, it just about perfect. Once that was done I went along and "welded" all the seams on the back. This involves using a soldering iron to melt in some additional PLA+ to weld the parts together. The tip is a pretty chunky 4mm ish one. My iron takes standard 900M tips so I bough a cheap pack on eBay with some big tips in. Just make sure you remove the pre-tinning solder first. Fortunately I practised on some scrap sections first as one is covered in solder. The jist is melt some extra filament into the seam and then sort of press it in. It's a bit fiddly but like anything gets easier and neater as you go. It's not perfect but I'm getting better at it. I was running my iron at 400C which seemed to work well. Before: After: I used some of my sizing test parts as a practice so I went and stress tested one. Flexing "out" as it trying to get it on the part flexes quite a long way, far further than I'll need. No cracks or nasty sounds heard. Flex it "in" towards you and it fails catastrophically very quickly. However the welds hold, the breaks shot off down a filament line and de-laminated. Pretty happy with this result. I'll sand the seam with some 120 to remove the sharp edges too. I am still thinking I'll run some fibre glass along them as well. The Last think I want is the ab plate to split into 2 or more bits trying to get into it. I also assembled the rear TD plate and did the same to that. There's a small lip at the bottom. I assume to hold the plate on but I suspect I'll end up removing it, leaving the top hook, and just use velcro or something along those lines.

@The5thHorseman generously designed some SE-44Cs for 3D printing and provided them to us for personal use. Make sure you pick the right one for you build.

@The5thHorseman generously designed some F-11D for 3D printing and provided them to us for personal use. Make sure you pick the right one for you build. TLJ/TROS F-11Ds will require an additional Picatinny rail on the front as shown here: This will need to be sourced separately.

So yesterday the good people of Federal Express brought me some stuff, after I paid the taxes of course. A nice pair of Trooper boots in size clown. I also got the gloves from them. I was exactly half way between L and XL so went XL so I can wear a liner to wick away the sweat and not have to put on wet gloves after lunch. Which is the worst. They are a tiny bit large but worst case I'll get a L pair later. Also used some masking tape to check the hand plates for size. Seems good, though I think the position is off.

To be fair sounds like E6000 classic. You really need to clamp it for the full 24 hours or it will just pull apart while the glue dries. Once dry it is pretty solid though.

I think there are export issues due to some of the chemicals in them. I believe that there is an alternative formula that is probably still known by the state of California to cause cancer but doesn’t have what ever that chemical is. Probably the one that makes it good. Suppliers wise I know RWA stock it so might be worth approaching them.

What do people think of these as far as hole postioning? I printed a test "hole" and 1" + 2mm works for the width and 3mm works height wise. Allows for a 1" tab of 1.5 Aluminium and also some 25mm elastic with some Velcro on (I dug through my left overs and tested it would fit)

He's updated CGTrader so if you want the file it's on there now.

The new torch holder worked much better. Filled up as much space as I could with part and it seems far more solid. Also added a notch for the wiring. Also ran a quick test of the picatinny rail and it looks like it should be great.

I sent the two images above to the files designer and about 90 minutes later had an updated file with some really nice triangles! Image for those who don't want videos, just I was struggling to show them well in an image. Just need to reapply my resizing now and add the side holes.

And lo there was much sanding. I found the 120 I was using was actually too much and blunting too fast. I swapped to a 3M Sandblaster 150 paper and it was both faster and gave a better finish for less hard work. It actually managed to save a few parts I was going to reprint Next step is to get all the modified parts printed out so I can test for wire routing before I start messing about with any primer. Doing a quick holding things together I found 1 or 2 more parts I need to modify before reprinting. For some parts I'm just going to take a drill to them. I also printed my modified torch ring and mounts. Pro: they fitted perfectly. Con: the torch is too long (but I'll saw it off anyway to get to the wiring) and well, there wasn't much meat left: So it broke into many pieces as I wasn't very careful removing it from the bed. I've redesigned the part adding in as much meat as I can, I don't need access to the torch now so I no longer need to leave space for access. Finally I was digging through the reference and discovered the TLJ F-11Ds all have a pica tinny rail on them. I couldn't find an accurate enough one on amazon/eBay and so modelled one up from the specs on Wikipedia and the reference images. I might tweak the end angles but looks close enough for government work to me. I'm going to print this in resin and possibly try add a light texture to it to break up a solid mass of satin black. Maybe use a different brand of paint too to give a slightly different hue and again break up a solid mass.