wook1138

Oh, the novus is for the ABS when not painting. This was more for smoothing out/finishing ABS paste. Never tried it on paint. Sorry for the confusion. Layers of primer depends on how rough the surface is and how smooth it needs to be. I've never done less than 3 coats of filler primer. I go until the surface (filler primer) feels smooth to the touch - I usually finish up with at least a 600 grit polish and move on to painting . Are you planning on a clear coat to finish? A quality clear coat might save you some polishing/sanding and also protect the armor. I have no experience with that (at least not on a full set of armor). I've read of people taking their armor to automotive shops to have it clear coated - although, I'm sure that doesn't happen cheaply. Hopefully someone with more experience with that will chime in.

LOL. That was exactly the pic I was thinking of!

Light sanding should do it - "let the sandpaper do the work", as they say. I start with coarser paper on my first coat or two of primer (I use filler primer) - like 100 or 150 grit, to do your heavy lifting if needed. Then work up to about 300. By my second or third coat, I'm sanding up to at least 600 grit paper. Depending on the finish I'm going for, I'll sand and polish up to 2000 or 3000 grit paper/polishing sheets. Most of my experience has been sanding 3D prints - I usually stop at 600 grit for blasters. ABS sanding I will go to much finer grits and eventually Novus polish and cleaner. Not much help when it comes to fiberglass specifically. I always try to use circular patterns when sanding - whenever I can. You don't want to gouge out putty or filler that is along seams or, in my case, print lines - so sanding perpendicular to these sorts of features is a good idea. The best advice I can give is do lots of sanding and polishing with the primer layers. Take your time. By the way, FO snowy - Nice! That is awesome armor!

Hey Daniel. Looks very nice as usual. Looking at this, I started to wonder... are there any reference pics for these shins? I was going to start with the arms and legs too, but seeing this made me realize that I will need to start with the chest (well referenced and distinctive) and then make the less seen parts match it.

So... Tapatalk? Will it work again? I bought the program for the sole purpose of uploading pics to this forum.

I think Dan covered everything. All very doable adjustments. Let us know how that leg fix works out. Good luck!

Awesome news! Contact your Garrison and see what events they have coming up.

Mic tips should be good.

Less is more. I like what you ended up with. So, you’re finally getting dirty.

Congratulations!! Have a great time at your troop!

Very nice! Congrats!

Semi gloss would be the closest to satin.

Looking good. Yes, cut your back cover strips the same width as the raised return edge. The cover strip should cover all the flat part of the return edge. Like you mentioned, the top of the vocoder needs some definition, but otherwise things are looking great. Keep it up! Also, if you did use a slightly wider cover strip on the back of your forearms, you are going to want to do the same for the back of your biceps - just so they look uniform from the back.

Just like Dan said, the ear looks great. The gap is even screen accurate.

Yep, no return edge at the wrist of the forearm (screen used example shown below). You can remove the return edge at the elbow too, but it is not a requirement for approval. The build is coming along very nicely!

The torso looks good to me. you should be able to get at least two fingers in there. I find the AP kidney a little wide for me. I plan to reshape (hot water bath) on my next build to make it fit the shape of my torso better. Anyway, you don't want to short change yourself for romm in the kidney-ab area. The AP green lens is actually pretty close to screen accurate, but, it is thin. And this may have been ok on the movie set, but a darker lens is usually needed to keep people from seeing our eyes when in person. I bought a thicker and darker lens from Trooperbay. I just attached it with the screws that are already installed by the ears. Painting the inside or using Plasti-dip looks pretty nice but may cause some minor issues when you go to add adhesives for electronics. On the plus side, it darkens the inside so it is harder for people to see your face. Just a personal preference for the most part. The helmet will be tight. You don't want to trim any more off the bottom than you absolutely have to. I have to do the 90° turn trick to get mine on - and it is snug even with that. But if you want to trim it, I would trim only a couple of mm off at a time to see how it fits. I opened mine up a bit from Mark's original trimming - but just a couple of mm. Oh yeah, and the cod piece... whatever is comfortable. You don't want it too low or else it will rub on your thighs (more) when you walk. I think it is the graphics on this site - a lot of us seem to have that grey tinge in our hair. Great work so far!

Hey John. My understanding is that the kidney notch isn't required for approval - if that makes things easier. If it is present, the only requirement is that it is 22mm high. But yeah, your plan to trim looks ok to me. If you are worried about taking too much off the butt plate, it looks like you could take a bit more off the ab - but it is hard for me to tell from the pics (and I'm not experienced with ATA). The build is looking good!

That's gotta be a record. Congrats!

Congrats! Luc said it, that WAS fast!! Centurion by Monday?

The belt will make a difference here - it might hold things together for you. If not, you could make a tab and slot connection to join the ab to the kidney. Or a hot water bath to shape the pieces a bit. I had to make a tab and slot connection for my right side ab to kidney and hot bath my butt plate so it didn't flare out (which is a common issue with many trooper's armor). Here is what I did for the tab and slot connection https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/43437-wooks-first-build-anh-stunt-tk-ap/?do=findComment&comment=594738 I lost weight during and after my build. I've had to go back and add foam padding everywhere. It worked pretty well. Good luck with your build. Looking good so far.

Hey Patrick. It looks like you may have trimmed that bicep a little small. You might be able to buy yourself some room by removing the upper and lower return edges. They are not needed for approval anyways. If that doesn't work - did you trim to have 15mm coverstrips? if so, you might have to go with slightly wider ones. you could go as much as 18mm or so (15mm is cannon but not required). You could also make the coverstrip along the back a bit wider too (they don't have to match perfectly front to back). I would do this by adding a wide inner coverstrip and gluing the two haves together so that you will have a space between the butt edges (this will give the seam more strength). Then you would glue on the outer coverstrip (which will be a bit wider than what you have). I can send you a pic if this doesn't make sense. I hope this helps.

Thanks. Interesting approach for the helmet. I'll be following that for sure. Yeah, the RS was meant for this kind of build. The ABS went on so well, I almost did a complete "paint" job of the helmet to get more random brush strokes and runs. That original helmet really is a mess... a beautiful mess.

Looking awesome, David! Very nice job on the armour.

brow looks good. You want just enough clearance from the eyes so it doesn't look "hero". Those gaps will vanish when you add the screws. Also, sometimes when you screw in the sides and therefore compress the back part of the helmet, the brow curves up a little. Try clamping the sides together before drilling the holes.

Yep, I screwed up my tube stripes too. It is almost a rite of passage to be a TK.