EmlanThane

It's good to know I'm not the only one with this question. This helps A LOT! Thank you so much!

I have another question: When I trim the fronts of the shims to 11 mm, I should cut a straight line. But the place I am measuring away from (the rounded portion of the shin before the return edge) is curvy and not straight, so if I measure 11 mm away at multiple points along the shin half and connect the dots, I don't get a straight line. Does that make sense? Should 11 mm be the maximum length or the minimum length of return edge (given the unstraight nature of the part of the shin I use to determine where to trim). If I'm not making sense I can try with a picture.

I have a very helpful picture! I have been in contact with Walt to figure out which shin halves are which. Below is a picture of all of the halves I have labeled (digitally- don't worry, I didn't write on them with red marker). This might be useful for anyone else with a WTF kit or molds of similar derivation. Here it is! From left to right, left inner, right inner, right outer, left outer.

That's a good idea to use a clamp! And Those gloves were also the smallest one I can find That's too funny!

*I am having trouble resizing and reorienting tonight's pictures so they are going to be extra large, and some will be tilted. I apologize if they are harder to look at! Photobucket is being weird * Ok! Shin time! Woohoo! So, I started by trimming the bottoms of the shins, freehand with my lexan scissors because I know that I will 100% have to trim them again later down the line to fit me better height-wise, so it would be good practice using those scissors! I used a pencil to trace the return edge on the tops of the shins. There's some indents between the actual mold and the excess plastic-- I let my pencil follow along that line naturally. Frustratingly, it's not 100% even (the lines I drew and cut on). I'm not sure how even it is supposed to be. I can always even out the return edge once I put the pieces together... but right now it's not consistent. It's really hard to maneuver those sharp corners with scissors, or make sure the line you are cutting is still straight (so you won't cut on a slant and decrease the return edge as you move along). I'll let you be the judge of my return-edge cutting abilities. Here are the bottoms that really don't matter anyway since i am going to cut more off and they shouldn't have any return edge to begin with, but it's the rough, rough trim so that's okay- I might as well post the picture! This was done just so I can size them on my legs if I want to. And here are the tops, the most important picture of the night. I suggest zooming in to see the details. How uneven does it look? Another thing- the return edge gets really scratched up from the scissors turning and snipping. I'm not sure if polish can completely erase some of them. Blargh. I have yet to trim the sides because I want to have some practice cutting long straight lines first, so.... I also practiced making a cover strip! Here's my procedure- I will not show how I make every cover strip but this is how I think I should keep doing it. I use a ruler to mark (here 20 mm) away from the edge, a few times along the strip (The WTF kit comes with several extra long planks of thin ABS for this purpose). I connect the dots with a straight edge (my flexible metal ruler) and score several times along the line, against the ruler with an exacto knife. It is still going to take some more practice! I snap off the piece with pliers. Heads up: don't use pliers with teeth. I accidentally did this time and left little dents in the plastic. That's why this was a practice! Ah hah! So, next, I should practice making more cover strips and then cut the fronts of the shins, each 11 mm. But for now, I am looking for feedback. This is much different than the other stuff I worked on before, so I am a total newbie!

Alright, I finally got around to trimming that side, but I still would feel better getting a thumbs-up before I actually rivet things together. Does anyone know of a good video source of how to back a rivet with a washer? I would like to do that but can't figure it out! Here's the left side: My biggest concern is if the face looks to flat and isn't pulled out enough. The brow already sits pretty low. Should I bring it up so it looks more like a stunt and not a hero? And the right. Is it a little better? A little? Maybe? Again, still looks slightly flat. Could there be even less overlap? Did I cut the curve to steep and it should be even straighter? So many questions Please let me know what you all think Thank you!

That's what I meant haha. I guess inflection doesn't come through via writing.

I am preparing to trim the shins (I tested the waters a little bit last night and am ready to go through will the whole thing today) and I checked your thread and saw you trimmed the top return edges off the shins.... oh... You made a great recovery from it though haha. Your thread is awesome

So here's the plan: I'll trim the shins! BUT something else awesome came in. FINALLY MY NEW RUBBER BROW IS HERE! I carefulllllyyyyy trimmed a little bit away at a time. I also angled the backs of the trim so that the rubber could extend farther past the sharp corner junction between the sides and top. The edges are straight (ish...) this time. How does THIS look? The ends kind of sag a little bit. Do you think I should eventually add a dab of glue or something? I'll get to assembling everything on the bucket soon as well. Excellent...

So... how DO you know to always cut less? But seriously thank you. This information is extremely helpful. The WTF armor already comes with very little excess return edge so I will have to be careful cutting that- but the finger and pencil method is something I should try. And your shins look great! Is it a given that I will have to do a hot water bath to mold them together? And because the fronts of the shins are set in stone should I glue those together first and then test fit to see how much to trim away on the back? I'll go check out your thread again right now

Wow! Awesome advice! Thank you! Because my shins are not super skinny I'll leave most of the back untrimmed at first anyway. And I won't trim the bottom until I get the boots. I will need some courage to score-and-snap-- on another project a few days ago I sliced my finger with a hobby blade! This time I'll be sure to wear gloves (I did not have access to them at the time of cutting my finger) and I'll get an actual cutting mat. I might even make my cover strips FIRST to practice cutting and snapping straight lines (since there is plenty of extra cover strip material).

Alright, it's time to move on to the next step. I am thinking about trimming the shins! My question: How does one keep a return edge consistent around a curve? As in when I cut the pieces how do I make sure it's even? What is the return edge typically? I have seen the "ideal length" vary. When it comes to trimming the sides of each shin half, should I leave some of the flat edge (pictures will come soon) that could eventually glue onto the cover strips in the front or back or cut all flat parts off right up to the curvy side part? Does that make sense? It might help when I can get a picture up. I am thinking of installing my eye lenses with the putty-socket method. I think I'll have to head to the hardware store again. My rubber trim should be coming SOOOOON. Every time I pass my TD I smile and think "I did that!" ...I can only imagine how I'll feel when the whole thing is finished

DRUM ROLL PLEASE! ................................. TADA! Here is the COMPLETED Thermal Detonator! WEEEEEEEE! Not perfectly straight, as you can see, but.. oh well. It's the best I can do right now! I might polish up the plastic bits and somehow remove all the scratches on the metal clips eventually. I've seen people add felt to the backs of the clips to prevent the metal from marking up the plastic too- is that recommended? I'll probably do that eventually. I hope this bit of gap is okay. I couldn't really fix it. Myeh. That being said, here's the TD "in action." Please enjoy this picture of me in my pajamas (You can't tell, but I'm wearing a Yoda shirt) and the gloriousness that is my first completed piece of the build (Ah yes, the awkward butt shot to capture the thermal detonator in-use). This is an exciting day *Happy squeals into the distance*

Yay... exciting things are happening! First of all, I went to Hartford Comic Con this weekend, and represented The Connecticut branch of Saber Guild (a smaller Lucasfilm-recognized group that focuses on Jedi, Sith, and Lightsaber Choreography). However, I also got to meet the 501st Connecticut Garrison. If any of you who saw me this weekend are reading this, thank you for being so friendly! It was awesome to meet the people I'll eventually be spending more time with. Also a huge thanks to Andy, who gave me a set of helmet fans, and Ray, who let me use the special Dh-17 for blast-a-trooper. Meeting you all was one of the if not the most memorable part of the weekend. Back to actual building, I finally found time to take my final steps toward completing the Thermal Detonator. The final reveal is tomorrow, but today is the progress. Using math (gasp!) I measured and marked the center of the TD plate and the gray space between the end caps on the tube. I lined both up to where I liked, marked the corners of the plate, removed the plate and finally sanded in between those corners to make gluing a lot better. I hope I sanded enough.. Next I used a popsicle stick to apply E6000 to the back side of the plate. In the future, how thick should the layer of glue be? Did I spread mine out too much? It's hard to find pictures of E6000 in-action, so this was my best guess. Lastly, I re-lined up the TD plate, pressed it down and applied my Trusty Blue Tape to hold it for the next 24 hours. The suspense is killing me! Soon... Soon...

Ok, today I installed the TD clips. YAY Progress! Here are some details of my process: First, I used my Trusty Blue Tape to hold the clips in place as evenly as possible, and used a thin sharpee to mark more clearly where I needed to drill. I made sure the clips were up as tight as possible against the end caps without being crooked. It's not perfect, but it doesn't have to be...? I then drilled all four holes without removing the clips. I used a 5/64 drill bit (tested on extra plastic before actual use) to make a pilot hole that the screws could then "cut into." I took my screws and hand-twisted them into the pilot holes until they stood on their own. I then used another drill bit (that barely fit the tiny slots in the screw heads, I don't remember the size, sorry) to drill the screws most of the way in. Once all four of the screws were mostly in, I used a Q tip to dab some E6000 under each one. Lastly, I tightened the screws all the way with the drill, making sure the clips were as lined up with the end caps as they could be. Here's the finished product: As you can see, I need to pick away some E6000 once it dries as well as touch up the paint. Then I can add the plate and then... I'm done! Well, with that piece. But it will be good to have one thing completely finished (I am still waiting on my helmet brow trim to arrive!). How does it look? I'm kind of surprised and happy with it

It's ridiculous (in a good way) how helpful you are. So, change of plans. I will test this on scrap PVC first. Drill a small pilot hole, then actually screw the screw in through the clips and PVC with some glue on the underside. No nuts or cap removal needed. Thank you for teaching me about screws

Ok... so the nuts don't fit. I am going to go to the hardware store to find the right ones. The hardware store calls me a "regular" now lol. If they don't have them or I can't get the end caps off, I'll ask more about the gluing method. I can't find anyone else who's done it that way except for one who could make his own threads. I can't do that so.... hmm. How did you know the nuts didn't fit? Just for the future since this is a good learning opportunity.

That's a good idea! If the end cap removal fails epicly or I have, in fact, gotten the wrong nuts (whoops!) then that seems like the way to go.

Thank you all for your help. I will use a hot water bath to take off the end caps, and drill holes to relieve pressure. BUT, I played around with the end caps before trying to take them off again and managed to make the TD just about 7.5' long. See? Is this ok? Is it worth taking everything apart and sanding or does this fit the error margin of "approximately"? It's pretty close. I think I will keep it but I need a thumb's up. Another thing I noticed: My end caps are over 2 cm, but the size of the end caps is never specified in the CRL. I want to keep them as is because they need to be thicker to compensate for my shorter TD plate. That way, the gap between them isn't as awkward, and there isn't too much gray showing. this looks ok now to me (nothing is actually glued yet, don't worry). I don't need to shorten anything do I? Lastly, I repainted the screws after sticking them in some foam (Thanks MoSc0ut!). Now I won't have any weird unpainted splotches. Today I have a C3P0 bandaid on my finger. Hooray for Star Wars bandaids! Please let me know if I am good to go ahead and drill the holes for the TD Clip screws and then use a hot water bath to take the end caps on, assemble everything else and put them back on again the way they were. Then I can make some real progress!

Ok, good news and bad news. Progress and problems... the usual Bad news and important questions first. I got the end caps of the TDet stuck on the PVC pipe. They got pushed on too tightly while I was trying to mark the final position of them and possibly the clips and plate, and now I cannot get them off. I tried, but, I was silly and ended up doing the same thing I did last time- I took a big chunk out of my finger trying to pry them off. Picture for humor I still have to shorten the PVC pipe, unless the TD at slightly OVER 7.5 inches is ok. But I still need to get the end caps off to refit and drill holes, glue, etc. So, how do I do that? Do I do a water bath and use tongs to slide the heated caps off the pipe? Or will I wreck the pipe? Brute strength doesn't work. This is a frustrating set back. I want to finish this though before I move onto another task. Good news though! YAAAAY! My screws came in. for future reference, here they are with their corresponding washers and nuts from Bolt Depot. they fit the predrilled holes on my metal clips perfectly. I painted each one black. Picture for visual appeal I always get an extra in case I lose it or one does something weird. Hey, I'm wearing a lightsaber bandaid now. That's the only plus about it. Please let me know how I can get the end caps off safely. Thank you! Hopefully more progress can be made ASAP.

Great idea! I did not think to use toothpicks, only Qtips which are way less precise. I might do that once everything is all together to clean it up (I already use mineral spirits because, yes, it is abs). Is there a proper way to wash the neck seal (as I am sure it will get sweaty )? And thank you! This project can be stressful sometimes, but it makes me very happy

Ok, good news and bad new. Not so good news first. The hardware store didn't have the screws I was looking for (These are not the screw you're looking for... ) However I got to see which size fits the predrilled holes in my TD clips (#4) so I will order the right ones online (pan head slotted sheet metal screws). The good news? My neck seal and holster from Darman's Props came in and they are AWESOME! Here is my beautiful holster. One day I will fill it with a blaster. It comes with the snaps to attach it to the belt. And here's a neck seal selfie! I got the one with velcro, not the zipper, so I could make it more adjustable. I feel like my neck is so short though... I can barely move my head side to side and up and down. I know the ribbed collar is supposed to be stiff, I guess I'll just have to get used to it! It's still super cool. As soon as the new rubber brow and the screws come in, it's back to work. However, I am thinking of starting another part. I might do the preliminary trimming on the shins (I say preliminary because I will need to make them shorter). I might also cut the shoulder bells. What do you think is a good next step?

I am prepping to assemble the TD. Planning on picking up the screws today. Thank you for your help! As I mentioned before, the paint on the PVC pipe gives it a now slightly bumpy texture. There are like little pieces of dust trapped under it- I cannot sand them off and they were there even though I washed the PVC pipe before painting and after sanding. Will I be ok to use it or does it have to be perfectly smooth?

No you're not sidetracking lol, you are *enhancing* this thread haha. I will have to check it out! It looks challenging but I am sure that it is worth it!

THAT IS AMAZING! DEFINITELY much more important than answering my screw question. That's really incredible of you to do something like that.