Scout_Troop3R

Yeah that was just a rough slap it together kind of thing to show it off to the people at home.

That is perfect, and definitely helped me today. I started by removing the mesh magnets, and marking out where I wanted to trim from the faceplate ear edges, I opted for 10mm from the rivet/screw guides that AM put in, and did a dry fit which was so much better than before, and it comfortably sits inside the rear bucket piece now. Everything has gone quite smoothly today. I would have started with the visor today too, but I needed to add slightly more layers to the anchor which now sits flush, and I also found some nice little screws from the depths which (with slight trimming) will work perfectly. Right now it's lunch time so I'm gonna take a small break and get back to it after.

I was looking over my helmet pieces and just wondering, "how the heck do these go together?" so I figured I'd get some answers. As you can see these don't go together very well yet, enough so that I wasn't able to get it with tape, I'd have needed to be general grievous to hold everything in place. So I'm wondering, I know the ear pieces go over the overlapping pieces and that the bottom trims of the two pieces are at different angles, but I'm also wondering which side to trim, I know the back of the faceplate needs trimming, but I'm not sure about the sides on the back of the helmet. AM has also pointed out very helpfully where the rivets (I think?? it might be screws there) go on both pieces. That's the big thing that I don't know about making this bucket.

Yeah I figured I'd need to trim some screws, and even with the anchor the gaps at the corners of the eyes, as small as they are, are unavoidable with this method, but I don't think it'll matter much because it still looks great. I've made sure to get me some of Henry's Helmet Fans too, those little things are push a lot of air.

Started working on the visor today and as much as I would like lenses, I don't have a bandsaw or anything to cut it as clean as I'd like, and something would probably go wrong so I'm just gonna stick with the full strip visor. I did however cut a ridge for the ol' sniffer in the middle of the visor, just a nice small cut, and I'll probably leave everything else the way it is. I also glued the mesh with some E-6000, once that's done gluing I'm going to put the visor in, and I'm also going to fill in the gap between the eyes with some scrap ABS so the visor has an anchor in the middle so it can sit (mostly) flush for sure. I want to have a screw for the middle but I'm not sure about whether the ears should be screwed or glued, depends how far they are from the ears.

you know, I was thinking all day "Man, I wish I had something to help clean up those edges" and I never thought of a toothpick, it's perfect I'll definitely go back and do some touch-ups later... once I get some toothpicks (because somehow we're all out)

After that earlier post and a little more research I painted most of the frown successfully before I had to go to work, just missing two "teeth", overall it took me about two and a half hours, although after I got back from work the last two only took me like 10 minutes so I'm not quite sure how that happened lol. Anyway, here they are, and for someone who hasn't painted in years I'd say that's pretty good! Tomorrow I'll probably wind up attempting some lenses, but for now, my hot tub calls to me.

Back again and this time working on more of the face stuff. I cut out a simple mesh frown and did a simple fit with some tape which looks good, I'll hold it down with E6000 once the frown is painted. Speaking of paint, while I wait for the rest of mine to come in the mail (mainly black) I figure I'll paint with what I do have right now and get the frown done with some good ol' Humbrol No. 5. Also I've been looking at ways to do lenses, and ideally I would like to have them as two separate pieces rather than one big strip, but I'm not sure how I would do them and I'm a little worried about drilling mounts in. AJ Hamler used a mound of JB weld with drywall anchors (+ screws) and I saw someone make a stack of ABS plates glued together for mounts with a simple screw (the latter doesn't seem too tricky, that might be what I end up doing) with a simple screw, I won't do anything until I'm 100% sure about which way I'm gonna do it though. Anyway, painting time.

Gotcha, thanks for the tips! I'll probably paint after I'm done fitting/adjusted everything, and while I like to think I have a steady hand I'll see about getting some stencils.

Well there we go, that's done for now. I don't have any more time to work on it today but I'll see what I can get done tomorrow.

Well after another while here I am again, not too much work has been done but ComicCon 2024 is coming up on the 6th and I really want to get something important done to show off. Therefore, it's bucket time! Hopefully that's enough time to actually get it done (or mostly done) since the only thing I'm missing are two paints in the mail (I think) and they may not be there by ComicCon but if I can wear it then that's alright, so let's see if I can get this done. I'll be sticking to the way that AJ Hamler built it and Centurion requirements because his helmet and mine are both AM, though I do wonder if it's easier to paint as you go or after it's done, for today I'm just going to hollow out the frown from the back with a Dremel tool and clean it up, and maybe some other stuff if I have time.

Handy thing that with the nylon plates, and yeah that one was a little rounder than I would've liked, so I'll be sure to mark them out for later ones. Speaking of cover strips are the strips for the legs thicker or are they the same width as the arm strips?

Today I'm not gonna have too much time to work on but I'm happy with what I did get done. Yesterday I took the clamps & magnets off the bicep and forearm, both turned out well and I started gluing another cover strip on the bicep, and cleaned up the forearm with a rag. The right forearm is all glued now so woo. As for today I managed to trim all of the right leg, so very woo. Although I do now have a bunch of leftover ABS chunks that I'm not entirely sure what to do with, I may just use my dremel to grind them all down into bits for paste/slurry. Anyway that's all for today, I'm gonna have some lunch.

Oh that thing looks sick, very nice lol.

It seems today was productive enough to earn a double update!! After I got home from my wing night I set back to work, finished the trimming for the left shin, and started on the right leg. In order to get the measurements I probably did a weird and just used calipers and a pencil to mark out where I wanted to trim with an Exacto knife. Perhaps a strange way to do it but it made sense in my head. I also used tin-snips to cut in the return edge a little bit to divide it into sections and make it easier, rather than just cutting one big thing. End result after going back and cleaning back up with the Exacto knife is pretty darn good, very happy with how the ends turned out. (I'd have taken more pictures but my phone was about to die :/) Anyway, have a good night, I'm off to sleep.

I got to spend the majority of the day working uninterrupted Anyway I took the clamps and magnets off the forearm and it looked good so I stuck the final cover strip on and hung it up, along with one of the interior cover strips on the right bicep. After I hung those up I discovered a simple but excellent way to catch ABS waste, that being a tupperware. I also got to work on the legs, and trimmed pretty much the entire left leg, only thing I didn't get done was the top of one of the shin halves. I trimmed the top of the thighs and bottoms of the shins completely, I left the bottom of the thighs at at 5mm and the tops of the shins at 10mm, tomorrow I'll work on the right leg, and fitting. Today was quite productive. (Pictures have been added!)

Cool beans, thanks a bunch! I'll try out the 4-5mm edge with the thighs, it'll probably be fine. I figured for the shins/greaves I'd have to leave some so I'll again go with your recommendation of 10mm, the one spot I was sure about was the bottoms of the thighs and greaves, those are definitely getting sanded down lol.

Quick question by the way: While all the arm stuff is gluing/waiting to be glued I figured I'd start on the legs. My first question for them is do the tops of the thighs and greaves/shins need the return edges for centurion? Personally I'd rather remove them for comfort's sake and not get armour bite but I wanted to ask before I did anything. Also does anyone have any good methods of catching scrap ABS aside from just picking them up bit by bit?

I can't do too much today because my garage is freakin' cold despite it being sunny but for now I managed to get the right bicep correctly fit and cut so I'm very happy about that. Much better than the left one, which still needs fixing but I need a good way of collecting scrap for my paste. I'd glue it but I need to buy MOAR MAGNETS!!

After a long, annoying, and frankly wasteful day of work I figured I'd try and make some good of today by cutting and gluing the cover strips on the right forearm, I got 2/3 (I already had one done prior) glued so there's only one left after this, did some trimming as well and got more scrap bits for the paste/slurry (which I am keeping free from contamination) also set up a radio for some tunes while I'm working, so woo Not too much for today but hey, progress is progress.

I have a way to just remove most of the dust so I'll do that, after that I might put them through a sieve or something, they're not large bits but they should be big enough to not fall through.

Thanks for the welcome. As for the sawdust, I'm afraid it's wood sawdust (a small amount) because it's not just my workbench and over the break my father needed to cut some wood for some repairs. I'm just wondering if it's okay to leave it because while I can get most of it out but there will always be some left because it's sawdust and naturally gets everywhere.

Guess who's back? This procrastinating guy! Now that winter is over I'm gonna start working and pick up where I left off, yesterday I replaced all the burnt out lights in my garage and it feels like brand new, (It's so bright now!!) and I've started on making the ABS Paste for the left bicep and future mistakes (If they're made that is, I'll be sure to be careful.). I'm also gonna go to home depot later to pick up a few things, main one though being a nice fluorescent light right over the workbench so it's truly and properly lit. One question about the paste though, is it okay if it has any small amount sawdust in it? I've never made it before and just want to make sure I don't mess it up. Thanks!

Thanks a bunch! I think for now I'll work on making some ABS paste. Happy new year by the way!

Hello there once again! I know it's been a few months since I've posted anything here, I'm getting tired of not working on it and I want to start again but I have a question first. Is it okay to work in the cold? Up here in Canada it's been a really warm winter only going down to maybe -15⁰C at the most on one night, so it's just cool enough to be uncomfortable, the ABS should be fine but is it OK to use E-6000 in an average of -6 - 7⁰C? Also, guess who gets to learn how to make ABS paste? This guy! Turns out the left snd right biceps are different with only the left one having the spoon/thumb imprint, got plenty of excess ABS though so I'm covered for materials. If I can't work on my armour I'll at least try and get started making this.