ChrisThePropGuy

JUUUUUUUUUST as I thought I could live with how it was for now, Dan had told me the ears were wrong. As much as I tried to figt the sleepless nights with nightmares of the ears, I sucumbed to redoing them. I also remade the faceplate mould as it was just a little too thin vertically. My solution for this was to recast the mould in bondo and while its still warm and soft push the sides out. This worked ok but it cracked from the force, no big deal, just needed a little more reshaping. As you can see below the finished result looks much more full. And for the ears. I totaly forgot to add the concavity on the sides, I remade the 4 bars and also shortened the length. I might play around with how the scoop transitions into the circle but these are much better already. Sorry for chrome pics, working on a sandy that Ill show off but this at least gives you an idea for the new shapes. What you think?

Partially correct. I designed them to be vac formed hence the sharpness in some details, then modified them to be wearable by removing the excess and smoothing them. Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk

Well boyos, its time. What better way to spend your second bout of covid than to sit infront of a computer 8h a day and work on new TK files! Many uni assignments have been set aside and neglected to bring you these haha. Also thought id add a little prefece. When I did my original Files they were poorly optimised and were among some of my early work. Im still very proud of what I achived with it, I still think theyre some of the best TK 3D files you can get atm, however they werent perfect. since then Ive studies the TK and learned MUCH more. I now feel more comfortable to do it PROPERLY, as I not only have better knowledge on TKs but also the 3d software. My original models were poorly optimised as I just smoothed vac forming files, they were ok but the file sizes were huge and also some of the softness was incorrect. I am working dilligently to updatethese with a MK2 fileset thats been made from scratch again. The MK1 will be grandfathered and available as a free resource. That being said, onto the show! The torso parts are complete. Ive included side by side comparisons with the original files to see how far theyve come. Please note, some details may look small/thin, these are vac forming models and the plastic has thickness and also needs space to pull into for channels. I learned a lot with making the helmet you cant "trace" the details on the outside and expect them to work on a buck. I dont doubt some of these will need some slight mods but for now they are modeled with manufacturing in mind. I will go back and fix the sizing for the consumer file set. Defos keen to hear critisisms as always. The chest was completely redone as I didnt achieve the correct form the first time around. I think this was due to perspective of some reference I was using but Im pretty confident this is looking good. I used a modified version of my TIE torso. Back again was completely redone. I was missing some details like the subtle bump in the lower back. Also the rectangle is not flat and symetrical whereas the old one was. Abs were my favourite section to work on, almost as fluid and ununiform as the helmet. My lower section was decent however the vertical bar was not offset. I did my best to make the surface as ununiform as possible after doing a few hours of form study on the abs. Finally the rear. Not much changed here, I slimmed down the vertical raised section and made the sides more straight and inline with each other. Also made the parts asymetrical.

Ok so I think Im at the point where Im comfortable to send these out to production now, Im still not the greatest at asembling these (or paitning em) but given a few more Ill get better. Here are the final production pics: These should be for sale soon. Again, keen for anymore feedback, I know its not 100% perfect but I feel its a pretty damn good effort. Was certainly a challenge to sculpt a mould to match a cast rather sculpting to match a cast. Very keen to finally start on the armour now. Thanks for everyone who has read along so far!

Hyeaaaahboehhhh, big thanks to Daniel for the pointers! I managed to fix up the moulds with the following fixes: - Left and RIght Tear point made higher (LHS peak was too high in pc, has since been fixed) - Left eye made thinner vertically - Made under eyes more shallow - Made front tooth thinner - Changed spacing of outer most teeth - Reshaped eye contours - Made all tooth holes deeper - made rear neck curve more pronounced on LHS - Thinned ears (I still need to make the tops convex rather than flat) - Raised vocoder 2 and 6 I also took onboard the faceplate positioning. The results do speak for themselves: Now to finish it off!

Defos need it up to crl spec, I can get some more pics tomorrow. Also FYI, this is vac formed and not printed for those playing along at home. Just thought I'd clarify. Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk

Just when you thought you got rid of him, the tantalising and tenacious twenty two year old is back (That sounded cooler in my head, Im not that narcisistic I swear haha). Behold the latest version of the whatever this is. I had run out of Rubber trim and it took me ages to track down a local supplier (spoiler alert, I didnt) so I got these from where Im pretty sure everyone else gets em. I also designed my own sticker set for them, the ones I used on the last prototype were for another makers helmet and were a set I just had lying around. The new ones looks much nicer as they fit better IMO. And yes I know, grey lenses eww. I couldnt find my green acrylic so just used grey for now. I also polished the mold a bit more, still a few small tweaks I wanna do, also need to do some small mods to the dome shape BUT, looking for critiques to see how I can improve it. I kinda dig the "Crap" look now, so wanted to retain all the "lumps and bumps". I hear the HDPE material itself is where the actual spots and striations come from, always thought it was paint lines on the mould, anyone got more info on that? Getting pretty close to happy with this but I feel like its still a little bit off so looking to see what you guys think.

More than welcome, dms always open. Look forward to hearing from you. Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk

I'll change it to crl spec maybe? I see where youre coming from though. I know I can't state it is 501st approved but just not sure how to say it CAN be as it follows what's stated in the crl. Just a thought. Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk

Nowhere on the ad does it say 501st approved just a heads up. It reads as "made to follow 501st spec" so long as you can finish it correctly. Made it very clear on the ad that it's not guaranteed. Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk

The vac forming moulds just mea. They're a bit sharper, considering you will fill and sand it you can go over edges to smooth it. V2 will be free for those who bought v1. Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk

Not sure why I had added the raised edge on the biceps or why I'd missed that. I probably assumed it off the forearms and legs and was going off my kit I had on hand. You can use some bondo to blend it flush and it shouldn't be an issue. Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk

Hey guys, thanks for tagging me. No hard feeling so far. I've gone over it in another thread but I'll reiterate to get everyone up to speed. When I designed these I was by no means a tk expert, I worked with Andrew franke our dl to get it as good as it could be but with all things it's easy to overlook some details especially when you're trying to replicate something uneven. Also these were designed to be for vac forming. I had lost the source files and only applied a smooth modifier to the saved stls to get some "roundness". I'm currently working on some v2 files but I'm always looking for feedback on these things. Sent from my SM-G991B using Tapatalk

I think the pursuit of perfection has come to a close on this. Honestly I cbf doing much more on it at the moment, however that being said I absolutely will keep working on it at some point hahaha. Im very happy with the V3, got those fixes in and thinned the ears and i rekkon it looks a million bucks. I aint no expert on ear trimming I will admit, its an art for sure. I threw this one together in an couple hours and Im very happy with it. Mould was still a little unrefined so did a HDPE to "hide" the imperfections. Keen to hear feedback on this one! please keep in mind, I wasnt making this accurate to any specific TK bucket, just a rough idea. Im sure assembly can be improoved.

Chalk and cheese boys. Just need to get some new 1.5mm plastic and I'll start a couple. Will transplant he new face on the new dome for a mock up. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Thanks for the feedback guys. Big moves on reshaping atm. I'm hoping switching to 1.5mm material will get everything nice and sharp. Stay tuned. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Unfortunately I can't flex the best face mould since the originals [emoji23] looks like a crappy fx at the moment but I've diagnosed the issues on the mould. Blue is fill and green is remove. Eyes are my main concern at the moment and the area in front of the tears are too flat but other than that it's not bad. Dome mould is fixed and comes off OK now. Hopefully I can show off something real nice soon, I think it's well on the right track at least. Keen to hear critiques. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Well in true Rotj style I managed to crush the dome and face moulds however I managed to salvage it. The ears are [emoji8][emoji108] chefs kiss good. Very happy with them. The face you can see the V2 on the left and V1 on the right. It was a weak pull as I had to stop the vac early due to the face crushing but it's not too bad. Very very happy with the vocoder and how that looks. Needs a few tweaks to sharpen it up. Dome I cannot for the life of me pull off the mould without completely destroying it due to undercuts so if anyone has any ideas I'm all ears. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Been out of it for a bit and not really working on much but my workmate Andrew has finished the v2 moulds. Excited to try these out on the former and see how they go together. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Yeah I'm seeing what you mean, I can drop the teeth back maybe another Mil as there's already a distance there. Maybe the chamfer is making it look a lot smaller too, will play around with that. Yeah I agree, the brow does make a big difference! I forgot to add the shell modifier so thats why the teeth look so thin, it's currently got 0 thickness. Will post up some pics tomorrow. Sleep time I thinks. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Close up of the eyes, I realised they looked off as I didnt include any flashing at the tops of the lens, rather having it at a 90 degree angle. I drafted it down a bit and I think it looks a lot better.

I was gonna leave this for a few days but a nasty comment on FB huwt my feewings really motivated me to get it done now haha. Ok so here are the new changes: - Teeth Fixed, first and foremost I concede I was wrong here, didnt check ym reference properly, I think it fits much better. - Brow raised at the front (The brow in the file was only a place holder for real rubber however Ive gone and tweaked it anyway. - Tears curved - Front Traps rounded, left one angled forward at the top - Fixed tube flow and curve - Nose bump widened and offset left more - Ears rotated, this fixed the spacing issue on front tubes - Made ears thinner, only did this by a small amount, the renders made them look way wider then they actually were - Left Ear curve fixed - Ear bars softened at base - Made left eye perimeter slightly narrower - Fixed right brow flow, this one occured due to a verex that was moved on accident No fancy renders this time around, took me a couple hours to UV unfold, texture ect. plain ones will have to do for now. Hopefully this fixed it up. Also did a hero face for my TIE which Ive been told is basically spot on, very proud. If anyone wants the files to take a closer look Im happy to send em.

Thanks mate, really appreciate the in depth review. No idea how I missed that trap swoop tbh. I've filled in the grey on the teeth heaps so that's probably why it looks fuller, I could pribably drop it a Mil or 2 to even it out. The brow rubber is just a place holder part, I made these with the intention for there to be a proper strip there. I actually watched your video on anh helmets last night. Decided to leave the brow up to the makers preference but keen to see some more pics to make it better. Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Ive decided to start over basically, wasnt 100% happy with the first set. I redid the helmet and I must say I think its almost bang on. All the asymetries are there and it is proportionate to the original stunt parts. Keen to hear your thoughts. This set was made for straight printing but Ill be converting them to moulds again soon.

I've been made aware that some of these parts were not what they were said to be and I have subsequently been accused of recasting. I was unaware of this and now that it has been bought to my attention I will not be progressing with these parts and instead redoing them. I do not wish to make this issue any complicated as I've done my best to avoid issues like this so I would like the time to apologise for this matter. If any one would like to discuss further don't hesitate to reach out.