shashachu

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:

I also have my shoulder bell, bicep, and forearm attached with 1 inch elastic. I use snaps so that I can disassemble them to pack them in my bin. When dressing I slide the whole thing on like a sleeve (and I can actually snap the shoulder snap myself but it's certainly easier if someone helps me). Re the crotch snap, have you tried snapping it before you put the torso section on? That's what I do and kind of put it on like pants. Otherwise, I might try setting a new snap to see if it's easier to snap. And for your shins, I can see they're a bit on the short side. Mine rest on my boots so there's nowhere for them to fall. I know some people put Velcro on the top of their boots and then on the inside of the shins, so you could try that, although that's generally to prevent rotation, not falling. You could also try to add some foam to the inside of your shins so they fit a bit more snugly.

IIRC the 850 kit tends to have pretty distinct trim lines.

Good point. The shape of the thigh changes a bit depending on how it's rotated but I'll take a look and try to match them a little better. I always forget the FO suits are not all wonky and asymmetric like OT :)

Although I ended up sanding it off, I am pleased that I was able to get a nice gloss on the knee armor yesterday. Unfortunately I don't recall what I did differently haha!

Since everything was set with the strapping and fit, I moved on to painting. The plan is Behr gloss paint for color, then 2k clear coat. Historically, I am _terrible_ at painting, but also when I was painting the SE-44C, I got really good and sanding out and polishing orange peel, so I'm pretty sure I can end up at something that looks reasonable. I started with the butt and cod, then moved on to the knees and shoulders. As expected, it was orange peel galore (I think I'm spraying too far away?) but as the paint dried, I realized that not only was there orange peel, there were very visible scratches from when I sanded off the gloss from the ABS. I'd used 120 followed by 220 which I guess was too aggressive, but I even sanded to 400 on the shoulders before painting and could still see some scratches. I decided my best path forward was to sand off the paint, then use filler primer on all the ABS pieces. Certainly not what I wanted to do, but not a disaster. Here is the cod with the paint sanded off: Here is the butt, cod, knees, and chest (which is 3D printed so would need filler primer anyway) all with several coats of filler primer: I'm happy with the nice smooth surface (this is pre-sanding) I also saw that I will need to do a better job filling the seam on the outside of the forearms. The plan is to fill it with milliput. Tomorrow I am planning on wet sanding all the pieces with filler primer with 600 and 800, then assessing to see if any additional filling is necessary. I definitely have my work cut out for me!

thank you, Tony! I know I have a long way to go with the painting and then of course submission but I honestly never thought I'd get this far. I thought it was just one of those costumes that wasn't meant for someone my size. I appreciate all your cheerleading and advice over the past 8 years!

One other misc quality of life change. This whole time I've kept the ab piece whole because I can actually slip in and out of it. However, for ease of putting it on and off, I did finally decide to split it, and just add some elastic across the split. This way it should hold together, but as I'm taking it on and off, it will give me a little bit of extra room. Tonight I also starting painted the chest piece with acetone-thinned Bondo spot filler in preparation of final surface prep: I am using the method shown in this excellent video from my garrison mate, Colin:

After readjusting the bicep strapping and trimming the knee armor, I decided to do a final full suit up before moving on to painting. I didn't put a balaclava on so my hair is sticking out of my helmet, and for some reason my butt plate was sticking out (I think just a dressing issue because it's never happened before) but overall I'm really happy with where everything's at, and I can actually dress myself, although not that easily. You can't really tell in the photos, but I am wearing the shiny shorts as well. Afterwards, I tackled a few miscellanous tasks like sanding down the seam in the back armor (I plastic-welded it after it broke) and added milliput to fill the divots and I shortened the thumb and first finger on my gloves. I also decided to start tackling some painting, starting off with priming the cod and butt: Where I live is always very windy in the afternoons, so to be honest it wasn't the best time to paint, but I was getting excited. You can see I painted in a small tent, but it was so windy the tent kept whipping around. After letting the primer dry for 30 mins, I sanded with 800 grit to get a smoother surface, then I plan to hit it with the Behr paint tomorrow. I am also planning on spraying the entire armor with 2k clear, although I haven't purchased it yet.

Thanks! Looks to me around the eyes and both traps (raised and flat) are glossy, and the rest is satin?

(nevermind)

Thanks! I was looking in the gallery but it's hard for me to tell. If you have good screenshots or references, I'd appreciate it. And re: the thigh clearance, I agree! I have been looking at a lot of builds and have seen anything from huge overlaps to large gaps. I'm glad you think mine looks ok.