themaninthesuitcase

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.

I have the answer from a TFA screen grab and @ukswrath sent me this nice clear one of just the armour.

Thanks @gmrhodes13. I found 1 maybe 2 that showed a shadow but nothing definitive. A few reasons really. Part I have used meshmixer far more and so know what to do to achieve things. Part is Armorsmith pegs my GPU and isn't as nice to use because of it. Maybe I need a new GPU but funds are going into build materials right now. Also I am not sure I want to go down that rabbit hole. Though my GT-720 is well past due! It's a bit frustrating as it's paid software but there you go. I'm going to approach the designer and see if I can get them added, just need to grab a few source images. The side holes I will still do my self so I can control the size as I want them right after scaling not before.

Hero!

A penny dropped earlier: On the TFA suits there were some triangles on the back of the back plate behind the neck. I can't prove either way on the TLJ suits as there just isn't a frame i can use, but I also can't really imagine them removing them. So I may have an issue.

Seeing as the Abdomen section is coming along nicely, part 4/8 is printing today, I started prepping the next section. I figured the back plate will be a logical follow on and allow me to slowly build up the armour as you would want to put it on. I went to look at @ukswrath build TFA build thread for some detail on the shoulder support tabs. I've decided to add these before printing to make life easier later and reduce the need to cut things out later. (see: https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/31877-ukswraths-fotk-build-thread/page/11/?tab=comments#comment-442849 and https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/31877-ukswraths-fotk-build-thread/page/15/?tab=comments#comment-447251) I think these look about right, but some feed back would be nice. Each hole is 30mm x 2.5mm which is more or less what Tony used but metric because I can't deal with Imperial units. I may fine tune the positions some more though as they could be a shade more evenly placed.

Here are yesterday's batch of resin parts, less the scope mount which was a complete disaster. I reprinted the scope mount and a number of other parts and they came out well for the most part. Slowly getting the hang of the resin printing. Requires a fair amount of thought at the slicing stage. You can also get unlucky and stuff will warp: I also got a few deliveries. I now have a full set of hardware (should be enough for 2 blasters, more for most screws) and what I hope will work for the torch. They are a fair bit bigger than the spec item but they are pretty bright and I think I can make something work. I've cored out the middle of the mount to accommodate it but the biggest issue is length. It's too long, but as I plan on making it work using the trigger I'll be gutting it anyway and possibly sawing it down. If I can saw one down I'll be able to solder on some wires and run it off the core battery. Also these have a focus zoom, I can choose from a spot to reasonably wide. I'm tempted to go for the spot option so if I am ever in the dark I can really use it to nice effect. I'll probably run off a new mount and ring and see how they fit tomorrow evening after the days armour print run.

Welcome to the FISD. RWA will get you off to a great start. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around once the world reopens.

If it fits correctly then it will be great, a lot is down to putting it on right. However if it doesn't fit right it can be a pain to resolve as they will use a permanent adhesive.

I printed a full F-11D kit using @The5thHorseman files probably around when TLJ came out. I'm finally beginning to do something with it. I started with a full inventory and assessment of what I have. I have come a fair way in printing and also now have a resin printer which changes things a bit also. I am going to be reprinting most of the smaller parts again on the resin printer to give better detail for less prep work. I did start this 2 days ago but a silly mistake ruined a full plate of parts, so that's currently back on the printer. I'll post pictures once I have some. I also want to add some basic electronics to the weapon. I want to have the red LEDs in the magazine and Hengstler, and also the front torch. I am struggling to source the one listed in the build guide PDF. Instead I have found the smallest one I could on eBay and will see if I can make it work, modifying the parts as needed. The rough plan is to run all of this off a single battery and 2 switches. I have modified the magazine file to add a place for a switch and hollowed out the Hengstler as a possible battery location. I have also added some wire paths to some files, but on others I will drill the prints out and then fill the exposed infill. The modified magazine file. Once I prove these work, and any other modded files, I'll make them available to anyone who wants them. For the front torch I want to be able to choose when it's on or not for photos/effect in darker rooms. I am hoping I'll be able to gut it and run some wires down the barrel to the battery and switches. I have bought some 12mm tactile switches which as luck would have it are almost perfect for the blaster trigger. They are meant to be PCB mount so I have modded one slightly to fit in and still have somewhere for the wires to go. Mine are 6mm height, so a 7mm would probably be even better. I'll solder on some wires and then glue the switch to the trigger, and a thin EVA sheet to the other side as a bit of filler/padding. I will be reprinting the handle for better quality so will run some tests on the old parts to check it works. Biggest issue with this project is fitting it around the armour build so I can get parts sanded and primed for paint once the world reopens.

First ab section is done (bottom row, rear to my right side). I printed it with 2 perimeters and 5% infill to keep it light and as flexible as possible. This means it's currently a little translucent when held to the light. Looks pretty cool.

Took a day or so off to organise. There's a lot to deal with in this project: about 17-18 armour pieces (made up who knows how many sub components), 2 blasters and a helmet that all need more planning than "that bit looks like a good one to do next". I went through all the blaster parts I have and decided what needs a reprint in resin. Modified some to make it easier to add electronics to them. Things like adding a switch on the mag holder, went for a bigger one to make it easier to use but in the correct place, and hollowing out the Hengstler to make more room. I now have a plan for all those and will slowly work through the list. Some parts will be grey as shown above and I picked up some black for bits that will be black to help with con damage. The first plate came out prefect but was ruined when I washed them. There was a build up of old resin in the cleaning tub that stuck to the new parts. This has now been filtered and so should prevent future mishaps. It was a bit cold today due to rain so will re-run that plate again another day. Picture for interest: on the resin front here is my UV curing "bucket". It's a Rogue One Popcorn bucket lined with almost 5m of 405nm UV LEDs. Don't look in there, it's bad for your eyes. I take care to ensure its not on when not covered. I also scaled all of the upper body armour to what I think should fit me. It's up at 105% in the horizontal planes, and no change to height. The scaling was done part using armorsmith, partly in meshmixer. Armorsmith I'm using for a "does this look about right all together", this is so that nothing ends up out of proportion with the whole. Whilst 5% doesn't sound like a lot it's better to be able to see it before you spend days and money printing. The actual scaling was all in meshmixer. I won't go into to much detail as the plan is to make some videos on this process but I need to figure it out for my self first. This shows all parts after import into mesh mixer, combining, scaling, separating and then finally renaming. I also did was a couple of sizing tests. I was a bit worried about if certain parts would fit me after my scaling. Rather than print 4 full sections at about 11-13 hours each and over half a roll of filament, I cut out a ring from the model in the area I was most concerned about. I have child bearing hips my mother used to say... This was then cut up to fit onto my printer and printed as fast as I could get it to. We don't need quality here, it's only a test. This hopefully shows what I mean, I've move the parts to exaggerate what I am doing. Once this was printed out, which took about 4 hours for all of it, I was able to super glue it together. You need to let the glue truly set, so leave it for a few hours or you'll just break the glue when you flex it. I also did a slice from the chest plate as a check for further up the body You can then use the slice as a real test of size on your actual body. Tomorrow I will start printing part 1 of 8 abdomen parts. I'm able to print about 1 a day as I only print during the day and only have a single printer. I've taken a short screen capture as an experiment to see how I will make the videos so you might as well get to see it. It's rough as I didn't plan on actually making it until I was checking my work at the end.

Welcome to the FISD.