TheRascalKing

Anyone have thoughts on the accent colors/gloss? Correct me if I'm wrong! For the helmet: Traps, tears, and ears - satin medium grey with satin black outlines? Brow trim and neck seal - flat, rubbery black Vocoder - satin black? Frown - satin medium grey Mic tips - all satin black (including insides)? Under arm connectors - gloss black For the barrel: Ab buttons - gloss medium blue and gloss medium gray? Vertical side stripes - gloss black? Thermal detonator details - satin medium grey Sound correct?

Never look directly into Kathleen Kennedy's eyes. But in all seriousness, scenes were shot in Southern California, so... location, location, location. I honestly doubt if it will ever happen again though...

It's rainy again here in SoCal, so just wet sanding away but no fresh paint. I'm going to try to find plastic sheeting (and maybe a Husky crate!) at Home Depot some time this week so I can finally lay final gloss white soon. Feeling okay, just not motivated... Got my mic tips in from Tony/@ukswrath - I appreciated him reaching out to confirm that they were for R1 builds, so he left the interiors painted black for me. Sweet. The ones from Jim are fine, but the tip and mesh are cast in one piece, like the BS ones, so I chose to upgrade them on this fiberglass helmet and my BS conversion. Inspection of the new crate has also begun... Also kinda cool - was watching this week's episode of Disney Gallery - The Mandalorian, the behind the scenes documentary about the making of the show, and hey look - there I am on set without my helmet on! Neat. Still unsure what made Matt laugh so hard, but Kevin looks guilty as hell... Haha More updates this weekend hopefully!

Update time! Been putting time in on the arms and the helmet lately - both are just about ready for final gloss, along with the rest of the kit. I may try to hang plastic and actually rig up some kind of makeshift paint booth on my patio for final gloss and clear... I'm tired of sanding tiny flies and dust out of my coats. Took several shots of the helmet in matte white: Forgot to take photos but I did a little more filling and sanding between matte and gloss coats. This thing is gonna be smooooooth, guys. I want to do a teeeeeny bit more cleanup after this first gloss cost, mostly around the teeth, traps, and ear bars. Switching from matte to clear can also illuminate flaws in the paint and while wet sanding, so I usually do that extra step when I want a really nice finish. Here it is in gloss: Here's the interior too. Debating a helmet liner from WhiteShadow (pics 2&3 as an example) but I'm unsure I'll have enough room for electronics... We'll see. The forearms are just about done as well. I'll probably actually start fitting the suit this week, while I let the paint offgass fully, then mask everything off for clear. While spraying an extra coat helped fill some of them, I did notice a pretty large number of pretty small pinholes in the barrel (I believe Jeff had the same issue)... After asking myself just how many tiny pinholes were acceptable and deciding LITTLE TO NONE - wouldn't you know it, my barrel broke out on some type of red chicken-pox-like rash... Seemed like the only cure for the itch was a little 1000grit scratch. I hate pinholes. You can see em better with the leftover filler... But not for long. The kids I high five in this thing one day will never know the depths of my madness... Anywho, I'm all done with radiation treatment now, so that's awesome! Apparently the next two weeks will be the worst of the side effects but it hasn't been tootoo bad. Then nothing exciting until I get a PET scan in 2-3 months to make sure this all did the trick. I really wanna get this suit done soon, and I know I'm in the home stretch, but that last 5-10% always feel like it's as hard as the first 90% of the project haha I'll get there.

I just used lexan sheers and my sanding drum to smooth things out on the lens. Oh and if you're gonna spray the interior, do that before cutting the vents - less masking. Otherwise sounds good and have fun!

Little update! It's been warmer here in SoCal (actually TOO warm some days haha), so I've been able to lay more paint. Everything (save the helmet) is FULLY WHITE now! All the interiors are resin-ed, decently smoothed, and painted flat white. All the exteriors are fully primed and have had at least 1-2 coats of flat white base, then at least one of gloss white on top. Just need to sand them back to 1500 or so, then let them sit for a week to completely offgas, mask everything, then I'll spray clear, hopefully in the next week or two. Tried to do a front and back shot so you can see a few of the interiors that aren't masked yet. At this point, the helmet is the furthest behind and is sitting in its last coat of primer, sanded and waiting for a coat of flat white - just need to finish filing out the tube vents and teeth. What a pain. I caved and used my dremel to connect holes I drilled at the edges, and nicked a couple spots, so I'll need to fill them back in a bit. I wanted to make sure these were cut out before spraying white though, so that's my project for the next couple of days. Oh, and in other fun news, got my Heavy Weapons Trooper EIB-approved finally, so that's cool! Centurion next once I find more energy to make a couple changes... I'm now halfway done with radiation treatment (10 out of 20 down!), and have been SUPER tired and achy, so it's been hard getting motivated to finish, but I'll get there. Thanks for stopping by!

Definitely. Jeff's build was very helpful to me, though I did deviate on a few things, so definitely check it out when you have a chance (if you haven't already) - his suit is AWESOME and he did an amazing job documenting his build. Until Tony gets ahold of one of these (lol), his is pretty much the go-to guide for R1. He's also a nice guy (and sells urethane shoulder bridges!), so don't be afraid to reach out - there aren't a ton of resources available for R1, so take advantage of all you can!

Heck yea, thank you all! I really appreciate it Big ups to @justjoseph63 for helping me look good!

Yeabuddy. Been fighting Hodgkin's Lymphoma this year (sucky 30th birthday present haha) but I'm done with pretty agressive chemo and on to radiation treatment to finish off some tumors in my neck and chest. 1/4 of the way done and getting nuked every day, Mon-Fri for a month. Gnarly stuff and it's been kicking my butt, but I'm responding well and am in the home stretch. Been working remote from home, but thank goodness still working, and have had a little more spare time. The work helps take my mind off things but progress has admittedly been slow. I got both of these things in the bag forsure. Just gotta stay positive and put in the work.

Congrats!

I know Matt used Spies Hecker 7715 and I used Dynatron 650, both worked well. I went with the Dynatron because it advertised a finish with some flex, but I'm not gonna lie... it looks and behaves just like Bondo glazing putty so far hahaha The key (same with auto body work) is just to use it in as thin a layer as possible. There are a LOT of very minor imperfections in the kit, so depends on how hardcore you wanna go. Yea the FibreGlast was not cheap, I definitely feel ya. It was a bit more palatable just because I bought a full quart and did the whole suit with it. Vinylester resin in general is expensive, but again, it advertises maintaining a firm flex, and improving impact resistance. I am VERY new to the fiberglass world, so I can only endorse what I've used and know works, but give that Bondo stuff a try and let us know how it goes! Just make sure you research if you're not familiar with fiberglassing. Little tips like supergluing your chip brush bristles in and "double cupping" when thoroughly mixing resin help LOTS and making sure you use the right type of cups and whatnot (they can melt!). Also gauging how much to mix within your working time can be a challenge - I would probably do like 2 coats of 100ml or less. Remember to get the lip at the bottom of the helmet, near the neckline, and by the mic tips well. The 2-part epoxy CAN be used an adhesive as well, but each (between E6000, CA, and like a flexible bumper filler like I also used) behaves a little differently and works better in certain applications. Good to have options. I'll probably CA glue the vocoder and mic tips on - I'd actually probably rather have the glue fail than epoxy them on and have the helmet crack, you know? The GEL version of CA is a huge improvement over traditional too if you haven't used it. Gives you much better control when applying it, and an extra couple seconds before it cures usually. My only other advice off the top of my head is to make sure you really PLAN your build steps out - with these suits as opposed to ABS, a lot of things HAVE to happen IN ORDER for best results. Always happy to answer what questions I can though. Good luck!

Me, notices gum line: "I wonder if Joseph is gonna kick it back..." Me anyways: "Nawwwww...." - Goes to find non-acetone paint remover... finds acetone... no paint remover. - USES NOVUS TO POLISH OFF THE PAINT - Goes to find my Testors gray paint jar... no gray paint - Sprays can of gray spray paint onto a piece of cardboard to touch up uneven lines - Obviously doesn't match, paints entire frown So yea, that was fun. Also, a tiny part of me died inside modifying a "screen used" helmet @justjoseph63 I appreciate you.

Original post updated with blaster-less front and back photos! Legitimately almost passed out in my suit so if that doesn't do it, I'll try again when I'm done with radiation treatment. Suiting up again kicked my butt and I overdid it. *le sigh* Thanks for all your kind words tho! Weathering is literally just black eye shadow applied with a blush brush into all the ACTUAL weathering on the kit from almost 50 or so troops and events. This kit is pretty neat up and will retired after Centurion most likely.

Ruined the formatting but, some thoughts on some things. Hope they help

Nice dude! I think you're like literally just a few days ahead of me or near on my pace! I plan on doing my strapping very similar as well. How'd you attach the sniper knee, Velcro as well? Looking good!

OH NOOOOOO... dang, I know that people take photos with the blaster across the front of their body and block important details, so I intentionally tried to hold it to the side, but okayyyyy... might be a couple days before I feel like donning it all again, it's an ordeal haha Thanks tho! My R1 suit has been taking up all my time and energy...

Mandatory Information Name = Justin R. TK ID = 61490 Legion Profile = https://www.501st.com/members/displaymemberdetails.php?userID=26076 Base ANH-S Suit Centurion Link = Garrison/Squad = Southern California Garrison, Orange County Squad Forum Name = TheRascalKing Armor = Anovos Helmet = Anovos V1 Blaster= Hyperfirm DLT-19 Optional Height = 6ft 0in, or 183cm Weight = 170lbs, or 77kg Neck Seal = Darman's Props Under Suit = Nike Pro 2-piece compression suit Pauldron = katarra8 on eBay Hand Plates = latex, justjoseph63 on FISD Gloves = latex, Double One chemical gloves Ammo Pouches = leather, 牛翠芬 on eBay Backpack = self built, some parts from CrookKnight on FISD Ammo Belt = Anovos Canvas Belt = Imperial Issue Boots = Imperial Boots Electronics = generic Chinabrand wireless mic into TK Talkie V3 (not shown) into Aker amp, UKswrath 5V fan system Armor Photos Full Body Front Front (Helmet Off) Full Body Back Full Right Full Left Helmet Detail Photos Front Side Back Interior S-trim Detail Hovi tip detail Lens color (Backlit if necessary) Accessory Photos Neckseal Pauldron Ammo Belt Backpack Boots Blaster Action Shot Optional Interior Strapping Abdomen Detail Cod Details Handguard Flex Sniper Knee Attachment (glue) Thigh Ammo Pack Attachment (rivets) Wrist Return Edge Detail (none present) Left Side (rivets) and Kidney Notch Detail Thanks for looking @shashachu and @justjoseph63! I definitely appreciate you guys!

***Update, not what I used.....*** Allow me to answer in the form of a photo haha Rust-oleum Satin black for the underarm connectors and barrel side stripes, Gloss Brilliant Blue for the ab buttons and tube vents, Gloss Smoke Grey for the ab buttons, frown and traps, and PlastiDip matte rubbery black for the vocoder, brow trim, and neck seal trim. I also have a fine tipped black paint pen for the trap and tear vent vertical lines and outlines - I don't plan on cutting them out. I plan to paint the whole helmet gloss white after primer, then mask and spray the grey and black, then hit the whole thing with 2K clear, then finally the Plastidip last. Unsure quite how I'm gonna do the tube vents, but I'll probably just spray a thin piece of plastic blue, then tape it in from underneath. Are those colors "correct"? I don't know! But that's what I'm using, so I hope that helps! Get ready for lots of sanding haha Hit me up with any questions!

Alright, time for another update. It's been pretty rainy here in Southern California for the last couple weeks, and being immuno-compromised with all this COVID stuff, I've been stuck at home almost 100% of the time. So wanting to work on armor, but weather not permitting and not having some supplies has made for a frustrating few weeks! Nonetheless, I have made a bit of progress. The barrel has finally been sanded and moved to its second coat of primer (it has more ridged details than any other panel so I've admittedly been avoiding it...) Got the helmet on its second coat as well - it wasn't rough enough to need filler primer, so I did a coat of 2x flat white primer first, then gray Sandable, then it'll get flat white again. With Covid lockdown, I can't have my paint guy do it after all, so it's on me. It'll be a challenge! More on this in my next post. The helmet is really a beautiful casting and didn't need tootoo much cleanup. I'm glad I added resin to it tho - it is light, but I worried about its strength. I also lowered the brow trim with a file a bit, if you notice. Debating doing more... Speaking of which... if you haven't caught on to my perfectionist yet rattle-can paint technique yet, I'll explain it a bit more below. Work left-to-right, as needed, for each panel: Step 1: Every panel gets a rub down on both sides with some wet/dry 100grit just to literally clean them up and remove any mold release/wax/residue/loose glass strands whatever. Step 2: Rough panels get a coat of light grey filler primer - this stuff sprays pretty chunky but does a great job of filling any pinholes and is pretty high-build to give an idea of any larger low/high areas on the panels (ie, the inside of the thighs were real bad, same as Jeff's), but sucks to sand. Step 3: Sand with like a 200grit block. Step 4: Mark with a pencil any pinholes/chips/whatever and fill with body filler, then sand with a 400block. Step 5: Spray with dark grey Filler primer - it also will fill any leftover pinholes. The alternating light/dark primer colors reallyreally helps you see when you've sanded through one layer and into the next, as well as makes any small imperfections "pop" and be much more visible, and easier to fix. Step 6: Sand with like 4-600grit. Step 7: Spray with medium grey primer - most panels only needed two colored primer coats before white, but I used a 3rd on any rough ones. More body filler as needed after it dries. Step 8: Sand with 4-600grit. Step 9: Spray entire panel, front and back, with flat white primer - by now, any pinholes or imperfections should be filled - if not, you'll really see them with the contrast of the white and can fix them. Step 10: Wet sand Step 11: Mask flat backsides of panels and spray with Gloss White. Step 12: Wet sand to level any orange peel. Be careful not to actually remove any of the white, exposing darker bottom layers, just level it. Step 13: Spray with 2K Gloss Clear (as many coats as you can afford haha) Step 14: Wet sand/polish as needed. Yea it's not fun. My arm hurts from sanding, but damn is it gonna look good (I hope!) haha As for the helmet, I always like spraying my interiors black, so I did - using Rust-oleum truck bedliner. It has a nice texture and I'd like to think it gives the helmet like 0.01% extra impact strength. The helmet also received two additional layers of resin, so it's MUCH stronger than previously, especially in the dome, and I feel a thousand times better about it. It was pretty thin in a few spots before... I masked the eyes with tape and neck trim area with a garbage bag and sprayed a coat of sandable primer just for good measure after scuffing the interior resin with 100grit. I then put a bit of Bondo on a few low spots and sanded the filler once with 200 to even it out a bit and help the bed liner stick. The interior doesn't need to be anywhere near smooth, but I figured it couldn't hurt and would level some of the glaring imperfections. The photo doesn't do it justice, but it looks great with the black interior. I'll paint in around the eyes after I cut the tube stripe vents out, which I also started. Holy heck is this gonna be a pain with just a drill and jeweler's files, unless I find a better bit that fits for my Dremel... Not doing the cheek or rear traps forsure. As for the rest of the armor, it all finally got a coat of resin on the backside, so it's ready for more painting and sanding. I made decent progress on the thighs, biceps, and accessories (which are now in flat white primer), but the forearms and shins are still on their first coat of filler and are the furthest behind. I'll be working on them this week, weather permitting. The remainder of the armor is near the end though - I began masking the backsides of any of the panels that were ready for final gloss and clear. I'd like to keep the backside of the panels flat white. My goal is to get EVERYTHING done in white gloss, wet sanded, and masked before I spray the clear all at once. 2K is excellent and will hopefully give me a strong, durable, automotive-quality finish, but being 2-part in nature, I will have 48 hours MAX to use an entire activated can. And at about $20USD a can, I don't want to waste any. I've been working in stages on most of this stuff, but it will all get clear at once! I'll probably try to do all the armor with my first can, then the helmet and an additional coat on everything else with the second can. From there, strapping and fitting should come together pretty quick, I hope - I have most of it together already. I'll be using Velcro on most of the suit to allow it to be easily adjustable, then I'll likely switch to snaps down the line (it's a specialty of mine haha), once I know I have the suit fitting well. On the health front, I had great PET scan results come back and my cancer is no longer showing as "active" on the scans. I got cleared to do 4 weeks of radiation treatment starting next week, and then should be done with this cancer nonsense by summer if all goes well. Fatigue is the major side-effect of radiation, as opposed to the nausea of chemo, so we'll see how it plays out and affects my progress on the armor. Priorities tho. That's it for now! Thanks for reading.

Thanks man! Yea it's infuriating if you're a perfectionist. Shame, I'll eventually weather everything and no one will even be able to tell, but it'll make it easier to repaint down the line. Yea, I mostly used my Dremel with a cutoff wheel. The sheers were only good in a straight line and made me worry it would crack. Hard to get in corners with the Dremel, but it went okay. Smoothing things out with a sanding drum is actually where things got wave-y and bad. Cutting the barrel top took forever. Hopefully! I'll know more early next month.

Not a lot happening this past... month? Jeez, where does the time go... Between chemo, COVID, and just a particularly rainy last few weekends, things have been moving slowly, but I try to put time in each day into some aspect of the suit. Many of my updates either don't photograph well, or I just forget to take photos in my fervor. Apologies! Also, the convention (WonderCon) that I wanted to debut this suit at ended up being postponed/cancelled, so... oh well... Hopefully Celebration still? Anyways, I went back and filled any pinholes that materialized from my last round of primer (particularly around the edges of panels), then resprayed primer on top. Most of the main body panels are now FULLY prepared for final paint - the insides are reinforced with resin and sprayed flat white with all noticeable pinholes filled, and the outsides have been primered and wet-block-sanded to 1000 grit to level any dust nibs, small insects (ha), etc. that would prevent a (hopefully) excellent final spray of gloss white once the rain stops (this weekend?). I also was able to finally psych myself up, bite the bullet, and trim several of the panels. I'm about 6ft, 160lbs, so on the slightly tall and slightly slim side - I got Jim's regular height kit, (not the Tall version) and ended up taking 1" off the top of the cod, 1" off the top of the barrel and added the underarm cutouts, and 3" or so off the black side connectors. This kit really would fit a pretty big range of people! Arms and legs are also still in their first coat of primer and will probably get their second soon. I know it's not exciting, but I can't tell you how much time I've spent in paint prep on this suit, sanding and priming - really hoping it pays off! (I totally should have paid someone to do it, but I guess I get the pride of knowing it was my work when all is said and done!). Attempted my first round of glossy white on my first (easy) panel, but got a weird paint reaction already. Unsure what caused it, but I'll sand it out with like 1500 and try again. Everything will likely get at least two coats anyways. My rear zipper closure, ultra thin velcro, and flexible shoulder straps also all arrived, here's some photos IRL! Doing more sanding and priming, spraying final gloss on some panels, and figuring out strapping/test fitting things in the next go around! Belt assembly soon and also gonna try to get my HWT submitted for EIB. On the health front, had my (hopefully) LAST chemo infusion last week and am nearly fully recovered from it. The hospital keeps trying to push out my next PET scan, but my doctor and I have been pushing back to get me in next week - the scan will let me know where I stand, and where to go from here (even if I delay radiation while the world settles down). Fingers continue to be crossed for good results!

White is almost impossible to match exactly... It depends on what ABS they used, sometimes down to what batch. Unfortunately there's no one right answer - likely just trial and error. If you want it to match perfect, you're going to have to paint the whole suit. An auto shop or paint store may be able to scan or and mix something, but it may be pricey and not exact even then... Also, in your test fit, make sure the rear belt sits on TOP of the trauma plate. Looking good tho, great progress!

I have no idea what brand mine are, but having a pair or straight and a pair of curved-blade lexan scissors definitely helps get in all the tight spots. Plus maybe a large pair of like tin-snips for the straight-aways/long cuts. A plastic cutting wheel in your Dremel works wonders too. I usually rough cut with the cutoff wheel or tin snips, tighten my cuts on the belt sander if it's available (or Dremel sanding wheel/lexan scissors if not), then final shape using an aggressive sandpaper (or sanding block/sponge - they work GREAT for ensuring straight, smooth lines - like a 80 grit for actually removing material and a 200 or so for smoothing out gauge lines). Brand isn't important and you can get way cheaper sandpaper/blocks off Amazon than the 3M brand... they're essentially disposable after a while anyways. Magnets are your best friend, just be SUPER careful with them. You want the extremely high-pull neodymium ones, in about the 18mmx3mm size - just right for coverstrips. They can JUMP almost 18" to clatter together and explode, as well as pinch and give you gnarly blood blisters. Be careful. Slide them apart and clean any excess E6000 off before stacking them again. The more you have though, the more you can build at once! I usually use spring clamps on the ends, and magnets every 2" or so (try to alternate the polarities as you place them so they aren't tempted to jump together. Lay them out spaced apart and add them slowly). Use blue tape or additional stacked magnets for areas that don't want to stay. I also recommend an 18" metal ruler - you can lay it against the cut line you want to make, then use magnets on the backside of the armor to hold it in place! This will give you super straight cuts to shoot for, and will make all your pieces line up better during assembly. Darman is top notch stuff, I'm sure you'll be happy with them! Hope some of those thoughts help!

Tricky - there is still some debate about whether or not they will be counting SE-14R-wielding "Remnant Stormtroopers" as part of regular ANH TKs, Anthology TK's (optional weathering), or a new CRL (possibly even over at MEPD?). Now that the rest of the world has access to D+, maybe we'll find out? @Daetrin @justjoseph63 @shashachu

None of us had experience with any of this at one point! Research, trial and error, and just a gung-ho attitude goes a long way. I'm particular about my paint finish, but you could probably spend a lot less prep time and still get a decent finish (or have an auto body shop paint it, as many others have). My biggest beef with 850AW is that despite the lower price, it is less accurate to the screen used materials and since you can't pull the details needed with vacuforming, they 3D print things like the back panel O II, which you then have to color match to the ABS and paint. I haven't seen anyone get it 100% spot on, so some guys end up painting the whole suit. At that point, just get a Jimmi. Shipping is the worst thing about buying from him, but if you can find anyone else interested in a kit and split the cost, that helps. Group buys, ftw. Hope that info helps tho, always around for questions. Do all the research and make whatever choice is best for you. And I appreciate your kind words, just resting up this weekend after my LAST chemo, so not a lot of work happening over on my thread for now.