Doomsdale

Concerns over ovality aside, on to the shoulder bells! From my understanding, they are interchangeable so let's get down to business. I noticed from the pull there were were some a hole that moved went like 1/8'' from the extra and decided to trim there. I'm not broad, so I figured I could cut a little bit farther from the pull. I used some tape to get a straight enough line around the bell: And cut: Just a little bump still left on, but no big issue I think. I know it's recommended to cut off the return edge here, but I left some in for the moment, because why not? Was pretty fast and easy, so went ahead and did the second shoulder bell:

Thank god. It was cracked anyway during the trimming. I didn't realize that post had more about the biceps when I read it. I went on to the left biceps: Reading some other users' concerns over the ovular shape to the biceps, and doing hot water baths, is it really a problem if you can comfortably fit in it?

That is actually brilliant. I can't believe I didn't think of that. I foraged up a sandpaper belt I can use for that purpose. I started trimming the right biceps and feel pretty happy with that. I decided to leave some return edge on the bottom of it while trimming off the top to prevent biting. There's a little bit extra that comes off at the top of the bicep that I can't find on anyone else's builds really and I think I need to trim it off. But it doesn't seem like the two pieces will really come together evenly if I do that. Should that extra at the top be cut off? In the mean time, I've preassembled with tape. Next, the left bicep!

I went back to sand down some of the edges on both the forearms, and around the butt joints so they fit together better. I'm having the worst time with that! But I suppose it doesn't have to be perfect because the cover strip will hide it. Anyway, I pre-assembled the right forearm. Back: Front: Fits!

Ah! Okay I understand better now. I made the cut and taped together the left forearm. Left Wrist: Left elbow: How it carries: I'm have fairly skinny arms, so I'm afraid of cutting shorter. I'll probably end up putting some foam padding beneath it when the time comes.

My first real question is following where to trim the forearms. I took advice from many other threads about return edges, and think I've got that down just fine. But I'm having trouble discerning where to trim down the right side of these forearm pieces to attach the cover strip.

For my references: Trooperbay's Build Series on Youtube StrmTRPR85's Build Thread ANOVOS Build Thread Helmet Build Thread and the many other fellow builder's currently building (as well as CRL/images)!

Hello! Total newbie here to costuming and handiwork, and I'm diving headfirst into this. I'm looking for as much guidance possible while I build my kit, and I had a good feeling this place would help. I've poured over many other build threads and feel ready to start mine. Truthfully, I had my BBB day a while ago, but have been putting off the actual build until now. As mentioned in the title, I sourced my kit from Walt's Trooper Factory. I've heard a lot of good things about this suit! My goal is to have a Centurion level TK by the end of this. Obligatory big brown box photos!

Weathering success! I used some metallic silver (the same as I used before) to drybrush some erosion on it and I'm pretty happy. This time, I was very conservative with the sanding on the scope. A fine grit, one wipe at a time deal. I got a decent result this time. I'm pretty happy with this now. Aside from a few small paint touch ups, I'm going to table this for now to start on the actual suit. I'll probably come back to it at some point for better details. I'll square away the Hengstler counter, get some coils, and then maybe spiffy up the scope with plastic lenses? It all depends on where I get with my actual suit. Thanks a lot gmrhodes13, you've been a voice of wisdom along the way!

I'm excited! I've placed the last pieces finally into the gun, and can see it as it's complete self. After peeling some painter's tape, I found some bleeding on the silver parts. I'll just have to fill those places in with black later. Pretty easy fix. I also recoated the scope to (hopefully) weather it down to the brass without it being garish. Some of the tape I put on to avoid losing detail created an odd pattern in the face of the scope. It's odd, but of like it? A little rusty looking. Either way, I'm going to try again to use a light grit sand paper and remove edges back down to the brass layer. After I do these things, I'll do some drybrush weathering to add wear around various places on the gun.

Aaah too much weathering haha I vastly underestimated how thin the black coat was, I think I scraped away back down to the primer. It looked decent to the left. Welp, there are other problem areas over the entire gun. Back to the spray box with me.

Looking back at the photos and under some harsh light, the body paint that is supposedly a matte black looks...grey. Especially compared to the semi-gloss black. Is this that big a deal? It looks fine under most other lights.

Okay, so after some drying time, here's how it looks. I placed some of the T-tracks on to visualize them in their place. I seemed to have a few extra. I just now realized I only needed 6 T-tracks, when the kit came with 8. Yay extra! I painted these with the same spray at the body...but I didn't seem to be as even as I thought. Probably will have to spray these again before I glue them in. The scope feels good. Gonna add some weathering after to reveal some of that copper brass look. Need some work here. I missed a small spot on the left on the pistol grip. Seems a little bubbly as well around the bolt. I bought some metallic silver Testors to paint the Bolt and Charging Handle (I think this should be silver. I struggled to find good reference photos other than the stickied thread.) This is after several coats. It will probably need a few more before it looks decent. Also, will have to fix the splotches I got on the body itself.

Spray paint time! I referenced some of the paints mentioned in the sticky'd reference thread. Here was my plan: Copper: For the first coat on the scope Matte Black: For the second coat on the scope, and the rest of the body/parts. Semi-Gloss Black: For the pistol grip. I was so hasty in seeing the final piece I didn't realize I probably should leave some parts separated to paint. So plastic wraps it was. I did the scope first. Then wrapped off the pistol grip to do the main body of the gun (going back over the scope). After all that, and a pause for rainstorms, I came back to do the pistol grip in the glossy black. Now the wait begins! I'm excited to get a good look at it all painted.

I went ham with bondo on all those places that gaps were bothering me. I like the stuff. Good recommendation gmrhodes13! I got into those cracks, then smoothed it out, waiting for it to harden before going back over with sandpaper. Spray paint time! First, I've kept several pieces separate at the moment to make it easier to coat (in hindsight, I probably would have left off the grip and scope too so I could paint that separately). I then went over with a single coat of primer. After drying all afternoon and while running errands, I decided to give the parts a once over before finally spray painting parts black. I could see some bubbles and places the bondo wasn't entirely smooth. So I'm sanding some more. I think in places, I might have to go back to XTC-3D coat because maybe I missed them or it didn't coat well. I know 3D printed guns need some extra work with all the print lines, but I don't know how acceptable of imperfections the CRL is with the gun.

That's a good tip. I'm going to pick up some bondo for those tough parts. I think once I fill those gaps, I'll be about ready to spray paint. ------------------ When I went to attach the D-Ring, the holes at the back of the end cap I think the print goofed and left some plastic on the inside of the hole. So I needed to drill out a bit so I could fit the D-Ring in. No sweat! Good news is, I was able to fit the ring in afterwards! Bad news, it's now as big as a Death Star exhaust port. I guess when the ring is on, it kinda hides this up? Perhaps this is something bondo could solve when I get my hands on some.

Yeah so way back when I was over confident with the XTC-3D I also tried doing both sides of the pistol grip at once and so the side laying down started pooling the resin. It ruined the edges of the grip texture Oopsie. Best I could do was sand it back down to blend in with sides of the grip. Make it look like weathering I guess? On a better note, I'm having fun gluing the thing together. Right now I'm just puzzling the best ways to glue and future spray paint. Because I still want to properly coat some smaller pieces. Things like the front sight I needed to practice place them and then coat with the ole XTC-3D before I glue them. Since I have the chemicals mixed, I used some extra to coat the seams, as seen below. The above gap is pretty spacious. Might have to use wood filler to fill the gap? Looking onward, I'm getting ready to spray paint it. First with a base coat. I'm waiting to glue on the T-tracks last after spray painting so I can coat the barrel better.

Hello! I didn't make any proper introductions in the new members forum. I hope that's okay to just start posting. I'm very much a newbie with anything costuming or props, and while I was waiting on my BBB day, I ordered a kit to start an E-11. Thought I'd just break through my trepidations with working on it the thing and start with this. That said, I've got a lot of gorilla glue and no idea what I'm doing haha. Anyway into the meat. --------------------- I ordered a 3D Printed kit from PremierProps. I didn't have many build threads to find on the internet with this kit, so I thought I'd document my trials and tribulations for anyone in the future. Again, I have no idea what I'm doing! So if you see something you want to comment on, please do so and help anyone future PremierProps builders. Based off what I could gather from others that have worked with 3D Printing, this was my general idea going into it: Figure out where pieces fit -> Lightly coat with XTC-3D -> Sand -> Glue -> Paint primer -> More sanding -> Final Paint -> Details -------------------- So here were the pieces out of the box, not too hard to puzzle out with reference images where things fit. I used some XTC-3D to lightly coat the pieces making sure not to get any in places where the pieces fit together. This was to fill in the bumpy striations in the print. Great care was taken attempted to not accidently fill in fine details an textures (like the grip or Hengstler counter). This had a pretty good outcome overall. There were a few places where I definitely oopsied and got the resin in places it should NOT have been. Probably got too cocky and laid it on too thick. imighthavegonetoofarinafewplaces-georgelucas.gif Sanding down helped in those places, but I need to go through with a fine filing and add some detail back in places. So anyway, after doing a general sanding, I've started gluing pieces together, using a 5/16 dowel rod as a central guide. I think I'll have to go back with some more XTC-3D to fill in some gaps between the receiver and grip. That's where I'm at now. I'll keep posting here for posterity.