CptCasey

Bucket is finished. There are couple of scratches and a hole I need to fill with ABS paste. I'm pretty happy how it turned out.

Thigh garter system done. Used extra 2 inch nylon webbing and some 2 inch clips. Was really simple and easy to make. I ran out of heavy duty black thread and had to switch to white for the back. The only thing left to do is do a test fitting on my thighs so I know where to put on the snaps on the 3 inch elastic. Sorry about the lighting.

Thighs are finished, garter system is almost done, and helmet is almost assembled. Then it's time to make some tweaks on fitting and I should be done. The end is in sight guys. Here are the thighs.

I tend to get glue all over the place, so e6000 is great for easy clean up. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Finish my shins yesterday. Used low profile white industrial strength velcro for the closure. I think my shins turned out really good. I want to add some moleskin to the bottom edges to keep the armor from rubbing my boots. Might also make some foot straps to keep the shins from rotating if that becomes a problem. Thighs are almost done. Should have them finished up this weekend. Also working on a garder system with suspenders with my extra 2" nylon webbing. I keep putting off the ear on the bucket. Maybe I'll tackle that this weekend too.

Full speed ahead. Finished up the the torso. Only the legs left to go. Getting so close. Also got an extra set of hand guards from justjoseph63. Glued them onto a pair of nomex gloves for trooping. Let me know what you think.

Well the solution the gray spots was easier than I thought. I used a little 400 grit sand paper and with a little work all the gray is gone. I think I must had some glue or mineral spirits on my hands and transfered some of it to the TD. Anyway, TD now looks great. Also finished up straps for the arms. Arms are all done except final fitment adjustments. Closer and closer to being done.

Alex you are a genius for that abs paste idea! I think I might try to get a really thin layer on and sand it nice and smooth. I know it won't affect my approval, but I know it's there. I want to fix it, if I can.

Well mineral spirits didn't remove the gray spots on the TD. I might try sanding, but I doubt that will work. Maybe a thin coat of paint. On another note, I'm mostly finished with my belt(tkittle). I just need to remove the excess e600 and give it a good polish. It seems that glue gets everywhere. Lucky it's easy to remove.

I need help with my TD. There seems to be gray spots on it. Not sure where this came from. I spray painted the the tube with ModelMasters Gunship Gray and masked off the area where the front plate would go. I put on three coats and let completely dry for about a week. Used e6000 to glue the plate on. The next day I screwed on the TD clips I got from ukswrath, painted the screw black and sat it aside and kinda forgot about it. Now I'm figuring out all I have left to do and there are gray spots on it. The TD was laying on the clips and nothing was touching the front plate. I know there was no paint on it when I finished it up. I tried rubbing with a microfiber towel and then lightly used a magic eraser. Doesn't seem to be coming up at all. Tonight I might take some mineral spirits to it. It kinda wonder if it might be some capillary effect in the plastic. Has anyone ever heard of this or know how to maybe fix it? The gray spot is on the left side (middle left edge). The spots are faint, but I notice them. The second spot is on the bottom left side. (Just underneath the first ridge) Again it's faint, but I know it's there and it's not suppose to be. Also last night I worked on my thighs and shins. Shins were difficult to figure out which was left and right and inner and outer. I couldn't figure it out until I noticed the the curvature on the inside of the pieces. Then it all clicked. I'm excited to almost have all the plastic glued together, but this TD is really worrying me. It should be easy enough to get another plate and glue it on, but I'd rather not do that.

So it's been 3 months since I posted. I had an emergency appendectomy that took me out of action for a while. I had a longer than expected recovery time. When I finally got to feeling better I got swallowed by the chaos that is the holidays in my family. Now that things have calmed down, I'm going to finally finished up my kit. Got my helmet back from "the painters". It looks really good. She did an amazing job painting it. I'll post pictures of my progress in the next day or two.

Congrats Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A little update on progress. Fitment of the torso is taking long than i thought it would. I think I'm almost there. Just need to tighten up the shoulder straps. Once I'm done with that, I'll take pictures to get your guy's suggestions. Looks like finishing up by Halloween is not going to happen unless the legs come together really easily. I'm dreading doing the shins and ears. Hopefully all the horror stories I read won't apply to me. On a side note, I bought TKittle's belt. Arrived super quick. This being my first belt, it seems like it's high quality.

I used the spray and used modeling clay in the teeth and painters tape everywhere else Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks Christian! That makes total sense.

Question about shoulder snaps. I'm almost finished with strapping of the torso, but thinking ahead. As far as the snap that connects the bicep to the should strap, I usually see this as a sew on snap. Is there any reason why this can't be a standard tandy snap? I have the sew on snap, but would rather not have to sew it on. Pros and cons? Thanks for any input!

Bucket and buttons are off to the "paint shop". Wish me luck.

So this past weekend I worked on a few things. One is continued work on strapping. I really want to get the torso finished soon. It's just taking a while to make all these snaps. Plus my wife things it's really loud when I'm making snaps using the anvil. So while she was home this weekend I wanted to finish up my bucket. So here the progress on my bucket. 1. Painted the teeth with Testors 1138. I think I did a good job. Painting isn't so bad. I then glued the mesh behind the frown using e6000. Frown is looking good. 2. Put on the decals using some decal application fluid. Went really smoothly. I really like the blue tube stripes. The other decals I'm not a big fan of. Maybe I'll paint those by hand. 3. Had some spare stand-off screws for a computer motherboard. Used the dremel to cut off the male end, so I just had a flat female end. E6000 them next to eyes. Then cut the dark green lens material into 5 inch stips. Alternated between a heat gun and a cold water bath to shape the lenses to get the curve I needed. Then trimmed them out so they wouldn't touch my nose or anything. Eyes are looking good. 4. This is where things went south. I needed to paint the vocoder. I found a reference picture and started painting. I can't paint. It looked horrible. Cleaned up the paint with mineral spirits and tried again. Nope. Still really bad. Third time and I decide this isn't my talent. Luckily I know someone who paints motorcycles professionally. Told her what I wanted and she would paint it for me. Great! So since I can paint teeth but not vocoder, what else can I not paint. Tried painting the ears. Nope. Looked horrible. Surely I can paint the buttons on the torso. They are just circles. Not even close. I'm just going to have her paint everything. So I take the bucket to her tomorrow. I'm really happy with how my bucket is coming along. Paint and then shaping the ears. I'm a not looking forward to shaping the ears. That's what I've prolly read the most about. I think I know what I'm doing with the ears, but we will see. Here is the face so far.

I just finished doing the lenses on mine. I cut my lenses in 5 inch sections (To fit my mounting posts). I then used a heat gun on low setting while bending them further than i wanted them to be. Got them fairly warm, then ran them over cold water while still holding them with an exaggerated bend. Repeat a couple of time until you get the curve you need. It doesn't take much of a curve to make them fit. I then trimmed them up so I didn't have a lot of excess material to possible rub my nose or something. The lenses supplied are nice and thick but take a little work to get a curve in them.

Really enjoying these videos! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I found the Dritz 24p pliers worked really well for the male half of the Tandy snaps. I couldn't get it to work with the female half. So it at least makes half the work easier. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So I got some much appreciated advise on the helmet. I squared up the corners of the teeth and brought the brown down a little more. Next weekend I think I'll paint and work on the ears. Also, when looking at the photo, the teeth look concave, but it's just the angle and they are actually straight if you look at them straight on. Also this weekend I work on the torso. Everything is all nice and smooth. Put two snaps on the butt. One about 5/8 in from the tip of the cod and the other about 1 1/8 in. Used a center punch to start the hole. Highly recommend using one before drilling. Helps to prevent the bit from walking. Tried connecting everything with nylon and didn't like the way it looked. Couldn't get the nylon length right. So I decided to use elastic instead. So far so good. I still need to finish a few snap plates and make sure I can fit without shimming before I work on the side split rivets. With the anterior half I glued on snap plates, put in cod split rivet about an inch in from the tip of the cod, the right side snap at 20 mm in and 20 mm down from the top right corner, and drilled holes for the left side split rivets. First hole 10 mm in and 20 mm down from the top left. The second was 10 mm in and 10mm up from the line where the ab and cod pieces meet. . The middle rivet was half the distance of the previous two and 10 mm in. That's all I got done this weekend, but I'm at the point where I feel like this suit is finally coming together into something tangible. My goal is to be mostly done by halloween, but as long as I'm done before Rogue One I'll be happy.

Thanks guys. Really appreciate the advice. Plan on fixing it this weekend and posting an update. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Since my build thread isn't getting much love, I thought I'd post a new topic to get some help on a question about my helmet. This is my first build (of any kind really). Haven't been too nervous about anything except this helmet. So can I get some feedback on how my helmet looks before I drill holes and screw it together. I think I'm happy with the look and have been coming photos from ANH. How is the alignment? Brow and teeth? Am I good to go or should I adjust something. End goal is centurion. I'd also love help or critiques of the rest of my build. Thanks alot!

Congrats! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk