shashachu

Today was a rare windless day so I took the opportunity to paint several pieces. Biceps: Ab: Chest: Back: Just as I was finishing up the ab, it started sprinkling! In July! Fortunately just a handful of drops got on it, but it was while the paint was quite wet, so I'll need to sand and recoat. Now that I have been more patient with my painting (several light coats), I've definitely had better results. I also finally primed and sanded the helmet: My plan for painting the helmet is as follows: - Mask off everything but the black satin areas (brow, stripe at bottom, lower trapezoids) and paint them black satin - Once dry, cover the black satin areas with tape - Paint white gloss - Once dry, mask off everything but area around eyes and trapezoids at temples - Paint black gloss - Remove masking on all gloss areas - Spray the entire helmet with 2k - Remove masking on black satin The frown is a separate printed piece and is already sprayed satin black. The snout is also separate, so I can paint it white and spray the clear separately. It's risky to rely on masking and spray paint, but I don't think I'll be able to hand paint the black satin areas and be satisfied with the results. Not pictured, but after they dry, I have also been wet sanding every painted piece with 1000 and then 2000 grit in preparation for spraying the 2k clear.

I would say the gap at the tops of your thighs is fine, both in the back and in the front. If it's much smaller, it will really impact your mobility. It's a little hard to tell where things are sitting when you haven't closed the strapping, but if you think you the neck is too high you could just cut it down.

501st: - ANH TK - Biker scout - Jawa RL: - Chewbacca - Jawa In the works: - FOTK - Blue Squadron X-Wing Pilot I'd love to have an ISB costume someday as well. Love the white uniforms.

Unfortunately I didn't take any photos during the process so I'm not sure it'd be a very effective how-to.

If it matters, this is PETG but I believe the package says it should work with acrylic as well.

I haven't been taking as many photos because it's all just prime/paint/sand etc, but I've painted the calves, spats, thighs, and shoulders: I'm also fixing the last few imperfections in the chest and back: As well as priming the ab, biceps, and finally the helmet/snout: In non-painting news, I dyed the lens and it worked amazingly! I used one packet of iDye Poly, did the first dunk for 5 mins, then a second dunk for 2 mins. One of the lenses got slightly deformed because the water was a bit too hot, but it's thin enough that it can still be installed in the proper shape. (I'm sending one to @zediyeti because we are fellow tiny-TKs and our helmets are printed at 92% and 93% respectively). My grill has a burner so I was able to do it all outside and not risk getting dye all over our very white kitchen. I used these videos as guidance:

Yeah before I got the toaster oven I tried to use a heat gun. It was difficult to heat it evenly but worked surprisingly well to just heat the plastic then stretch it over the mold with my hands.

I am slowly making progress on painting and priming. I might have to let go of perfection and decide what is 'good enough' or I may never finish the build. :) Besides the painting, though, I learned a new skill today - vacuum forming! I could definitely have just pasted a curved face shield piece inside of the helmet for lenses but I thought it'd be fun to try my hand at vacuum forming. I considered making my own, but I found this one from Etsy that was very inexpensive, even with shipping from Spain. https://www.etsy.com/listing/4452485131/vacuum-forming-machine-a4-vacuum-former The files I have come with a flat lens stencil as well as a 3D vacuum forming shape. However, it's not really designed for vacuumforming since it's the exact shape of the lens. So I first copied and pasted the lens shape a bunch of times in tinkercad and cut the bottom flat to fill out the inside of the lens, and printed it. I printed the lens itself upright for better quality: It still wasn't exactly what I wanted for vacuum forming, though, because there wasn't really going to be a way to attach the lens to the helmet itself since there's no flashing. So I used some EVA foam to build out the buck and made it slightly shorter than the lens so that when I pulled it, I'd have an edge that was inset that I could use to attach the lens to the helmet. I went to Goodwill this morning and found a cheap toaster oven which thankfully still worked, and coincidentally exactly fit the frame for the plastic that came with the vacuum former. The plastic itself I ordered from McMaster-Carr. Here is the video from my first ever pull, which worked surprisingly well: https://photos.app.goo.gl/BhXqtgQBVicZDv7eA However, the protective plastic melted against the EVA foam, so I pulled it again. The second time I removed the bottom plastic so it didn't stick to the buck, but the wrinkle pattern from the top layer of protected plastic caused defects on the lens, so I pulled it a third time, this time with both sides of the protective plastic removed. Third time's a charm! I am planning on dying the lens to darken it.

Had some nice weather today (usually my city is really windy and therefore dusty) so I took the opportunity to spray some more pieces. I did some belt and ab boxes, the TD plate, the portion of the butt plate that I wiped with IPA, a part of the TD which I had to sand down to fix a seam, one shoulder bell (not pictured) and the forearms. I got some pretty bad runs on the forearms which I'll need to sand out (was trying to spray closer to avoid orange peel and probably got too close) but I'm really happy with how seamless they look. Doing the second pass with milliput/filler primer really paid off. If you're curious what kind of stand the forearms are on, someone on my local buy nothing group was giving away a double guitar stand which I realized I could use for painting. :) No photos, but I also sprayed the calves and one of the thighs with filler primer to prep them for paint. It's slow going and I'm honestly dreading painting the helmet and also spraying the 2k, but I am inching towards the finish line. It is also good to know that even with paint, almost no problem is un-fixable.

Thanks. I don't think I can get Prepsol but looks like there may be some other wax and grease removers I can try. I'm actually pretty curious about why I got that haze on my paint - I can't quite get good info about whether isopropyl alcohol should affect enamel paint like Behr; it seems like it shouldn't? it had been a day or so since I sprayed but I also wondering if maybe my paint wasn't quite cured? Otherwise I think I may just do soap and water to be totally safe.

And to answer my other question, IPA does not appear to be safe on the paint. I used 70% on a portion of the butt plate and it seems to have caused a haze or perhaps eaten away slightly at the paint. I'll respray that portion.

Assuming this is accurate, looks like the screws should be unpainted? The CRL images have them painted so I was unsure. https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/gallery/image/3488-dsc00579jpg~original/?context=new

A couple random questions for those with expertise: 1) Should I wipe the paint with something (eg IPA) before spraying clear? Since I'm using plastic polish, I'm wondering if it's leaving any residue. Should 91% IPA be safe? 2) Are the screws on the holster also supposed to be painted white or are they left silver?

Just a quick update. It's been going well to paint over the ABS that has been sprayed with filler primer. No more scratch marks. I'm still not great with spraying gloss so some orange peel, eg on this knee armor. However, after wet sanding with 1500, 2000, then polishing with a plastic polish + microfiber sponge, I'm getting a nice smooth gloss that should be ready for clear: The forearm seam is much smoother after the milliput: One small setback is that many of the seams on my 3D printed parts have been splitting. I did not plastic weld all of them, and every one I didn't weld has split eventually. I actually think it may be because I'm using acetone-thinned Bondo spot putty to smooth the surface, and I think it's eating the CA glue. So I sanded the chest and back seams and welded them, then filled and sanded with milliput: I'll spray them with filler primer today to check out how the seams look. One other thing I can't remember if I'd mentioned before was that a while back when I was heat shaping one of the calf pieces, I put quite a large dent in it. I was able to push it back a little, but decided not to try to use heat to fix it given the high chance of making it worse. Instead I filled it with milliput and sanded it flat. I'm fairly certain it won't be noticeable once it's primed and painted: I've also started prepping the helmet for paint:

Posting a quick update. Things are moving along, albeit slowly. Overall it's been going well to paint the ABS parts after they've been sprayed with filler primer. I'm still not great with spraying so getting some orange peel, eg here on the knee armor: