Platinum Lex

That looks great, and I'm loving how those resin pieces are coming out. For the pieces you didn't redo, I'm guessing that the abdomen is from Paul's files as they look just like the ones in the workshop/behind the scenes photos, and I think the arms are too. However, you might have mentioned this earlier but I can't recall it, are you using Akira's files for the shins or someone else's? Anyhow, keep it up, can't wait for the next update after your sanding trip.

Thanks, since the was a half-scale helmet the tube stripes didn't come out as good, but for the full scale helmet they came out much better to the point that I don't even think I'll need to add that much putty. I printed out a buck for the lenses, and I looked at the tutorial you mentioned in the thread, but at the moment I don't have that much space in my workstation so I think I'll stick with my makeshift mold for now. I'll work on the connector pins, or just take a couple off as I did with the face and back to make it easier and only keep the main ones. For the mesh, I think yours is very similar to the one I use, and it looks alright for half-scale, but much better when I tried it for a full aerator, same with the teeth. Speaking of the teeth, for this helmet I painted them the same satin grey, as they can be either dark grey or black, and I'm wondering which is more accurate. I have some charcoal grey, which is the grey that the clones use, as a darker option but if there isn't a more accurate choice I think I'll just stick with black for next time. I know I said I'm going to do a clone next, but at this point I really don't know. I need to first get past some health complications because they're making other people mad, but once or while I get through that, I'll work on whatever I feel like.

First, to answer Tony's question, the way I did my abdomen the first time was by using an acrylic paint (which wasn't even close to the right color looking back at it now), and for Akira's armor the abdomen details that hold the circles are separated from the main body. If I were to design the abdomen, I would do what he did by separating the abdomen details, but I would have the circle details separated and be able to be painted and glued behind the circle openings, similar to how the tube stripes for the helmet work for the updated helmet, which I will circle back to later in this post. I finished a prototype of the helmet, and I say prototype because the helmet sadly doesn't fit, but it also isn't as good as I want it to be, and I'll give it about a 7/10 for what I could have done with my skills and materials. I'm decently happy with the helmet, but there are three main issues that I'm going to point out on this post that I want to improve for my next helmet attempt. #1: The lenses I used the flat lenses from my second lens option I mentioned earlier, but the main issue I encountered with these is that I could not get them to stick to the inside of the helmet at all. I printed a visor buck and am going to try to see if a visor conformed to the helmet will work better, and if not that I might be having some more issues to worry about in the future. Since there was almost nothing for the visor to hold to, I tried super glue originally but then decided that hot glue might be the way to go, but I made one noticeable mistake. As you can see in the photo, some of the hot glue seeped underneath the visor and is visible on the outside of the helmet at most angles, and while it isn't that bad as long as you don't look at it, but it still bothers me to look at. #2: The tube stripes The way I printed the helmet resulted in some jagged edges on the tube stripes that gave me some difficulty sanding down, so while they do look fine from about 5 feet away, if you look at them up close or from the side, they become very noticeable and it's something I want to work on for my next helmet, which did come out with better lines this time. The blue backer underneath the cutouts came out completely fine and I'm pretty happy with the color choice as it's not too light. #3: The gaps The gaps between the dome and the base, along with some slight gaps between the ears and the sides (which I don't know the right distance) are a detail that I noticed after assembling my helmet. I painted all the parts individually and put them all together afterwards, but some gaps were just too big and I want to be able to align these better, especially the ears. Since I paint over the connection pieces on the ears, I think it makes some not fully push in which causes that gap because it didn't have the problem when test-fitting after I printed them, but at least I know now how to solve this. I added some more things that were required, such as a grey mesh backing behind the teeth, mesh in the aerators which was difficult and I don't think it's the right mesh, and in certain lights the helmet really does have an orange peel texture as didn't wet sand the clear coat as to not risk accidentally sanding the white paint as I'm not weathering this and want as little marks as I could. Here's another photo of the helmet with scale to my hand (maybe it'll fit without my glasses?). I'm going to take a small break from the stormtrooper project in order to practice on a different helmet, but hopefully I should be done with it rather quickly and I can get to working on the main helmet, as I'm starting to create a checklist of what I need to get done and how hard it should be, which really helped manage my time during my last build.

Thanks for that, I might try resin printing the lenses, but the link you sent for the welding visor is actually the second option I was talking about. I use that to form easy OT lenses every now and again for casual cosplayers. I want to set a small challenge for myself to aim for a level 3 helmet (I know I’m getting ahead of myself a bit) because it’s what people are going to be looking at the most. For the spray paints, I’m using Rust-Oleum gloss white, and Brilliant Blue and Satin Granite for the other colors.

I'm finishing up my first helmet at the moment and am realizing that at this rate, I won't be able to finish an entire set of armor by Halloween once school starts up, so it will either put a lot of pressure on me, or just take it all off, who knows? For the lenses of my helmet, I've heard about Paul's lenses, although I haven't checked the price and they might be too expensive. I can mold my own lenses as I have a visor buck with the files, but I need to think about the lens material, from which I have two options. Option one is a darker, more green welding visor that looks good and the color is great, but it has close to zero visibility and it turns the world completely greyscale but with a green tint (greenscale would be the word then?). Option two, however, can be formed with my makeshift lens molder thingamabobber, it's easy to view through, and I almost always have some on hand, BUT, it's a little less green. Here are some photos of the second option that I think I might go for to show how green the lens it, but when light doesn't shine though one side, they look the same. If anyone has any advice or know what material they used for the lenses in the helmet, I would appreciate it, and I'm slowly chipping away the helmet and I haven't even started printing the armor yet sadly. Now that I have more orders, including one from a trooper here on the FISD, the unfavorable weather, and a little less motivation than when I started, my work is going to dwindle a little until I can get a solid hold on my plan and start working it out without interference.

I was looking for a good undersuit for my stormtrooper and messaged all the vendors I saw on the list. I messaged Sheev's Emporium prior to reading that he was not a reliable seller and what he messaged me was INSANE. I asked him for the undersuit and the price just to get a reference, and he then sends me a FULLY AI response that barely responds to my question, then has the AUDACITY to ask for $3,800 for just the undersuit? Absolute show. I'm most likely going to order an undersuit from KeepTrooping or DarkSideCloset if they respond so if anyone knows how long it normally takes for an undersuit from one of these two to arrive I would appreciate it, thanks.

Hey Tony, thanks for the warning, I know scratching is probably going to be inevitable and 2K is just too expensive for me right now when it comes to paint, so I think I'll be sticking with just gloss white and gloss clear coat right now, paired with a whole lot of foam on the inside. I really like TPU (It's so satisfying) and I took some shoulder straps from here on the forums, modified it a bit, and I print at a very low layer height so I'm really hoping that I can slide by with minimal sanding and painting. I'm going to see how others attached their chest and back together, and I know some have some strapping connecting the chest and back underneath the shoulder straps so that the weight isn't entirely on them, but I'll figure that out later. In this photo, you can see how I eyeballed the thigh measurements, or the chest in this example, where I imported a photo of myself, scaled it, and tried to get the proportions right. I then went and measured my thighs again in order to make sure nothing would be too tight or too loose. I am willing to accept some reprints but I hope I won't have to. You know what they say, print twice, measure once. I haven't even gotten to the calves yet when it comes to printing, and I noticed some issues right off the bat. First off, the two calves are different, with one being two parts and another being three with that front bevel being detached like you said. I plan on installing some Velcro or elastic to the inside of the calves, with the elastic being tighter in the front than the back. Also, the sniper knee plate just doesn't have a great connection point so it's just going to be slapped on there with some glue. I'm interested in seeing if and how Sayless will tackle this if he's going to add a notch or connection too.

That's what I saw others recommending, but it's just way too expensive as it's 4-5 times more expensive than a regular can of Rust-Oleum. I think I'll layer on more light coats and try my best not to have any drips. I also have some adhesive foam and I think I'll just put more of it to prevent as much chipping as possible. I printed out a shoulder strap out of TPU, and I really like it, the only issue being that the TPU I ordered seems to be just a tad translucent and reflective, and there was some stringing near the end, but other than that I really like how it turned out. I'm going to order some more TPU and probably print a bunch of miniature flexible gifts if I can't return this, but until then I'm going to start printing my armor.

Thank you for the photos, I did notice the trimmed belts on some stormtroopers while watching Rogue One earlier today, but I'm just sticking with Akira's non-trimmed files for now. Something very important that I wanted to ask which connects to the reason why I don't want super restricting armor is on how to prevent the armor from scratching. On my last build, I put some velvet-like padding or some soft material to my armor so that it wouldn't scrape on some parts, but I just don't know what else I can do to protect the paint or make it more durable. I'm not very experienced with clear coat, but would more layers help protect the armor? I'm still thinking and looking at other armors, but if anyone could help me with this ongoing issue I would appreciate it.

I decided to scale the armor slightly more with some modifications until I got a look that I was happy with, which brought me to a couple more steps that I need to do. I moved the armor into an action pose in order to see what I would need to do for a good realism to comfortability ratio. With thighs this long, I don't think I'll be able to comfortably move up any tall stairs as seen with my left leg, so even though I can probably move up normal stairs like seen in my right leg, as I look at more photos I think I'll leave more of a gap between the belt and the top of the thighs. By scaling the thighs down even more, I created another problem which is that the ammo belt on the right thigh starts to look more compressed and squished down. Sayless kindly offered to help me with the adjustment as I still struggle with modeling. The calves and arms are still look good to me, and something I tried to do was scale the abdomen to fit on my printer, but no matter what I do I just can't get it to fit without completely changing its scale now. I'm not sure if I'll continue with the updated ab greeblies as Akira's work just fine and some of them don't even fit, so I'll revert back to the original ones during printing. However, Sayless showed me that the ab greeblies have a sort of taper which I'm trying to recreate by modifying some files on my own. Here are some photos of the armor in a mobile pose, and you can see that the main parts that I need to adjust are the thighs, and then I'll be ready to start printing. In case anyone was wondering as well, I did not scale the helmet, the only modifications were those made by TKModder421. I'm going to take some more measurements and will update once I finish as my PETG and TPU filament should arrive today. If anyone has any recommendations then please feel welcome to point anything out as I might not catch everything. I've been receiving help when it comes to fitting parts together and strapping the pieces together, so I'll continue looking at other build threads to see what others did and if anyone has any good recommendations for good materials or connection rivets, I'd be happy to hear them.

Excited to see the next update, and trust me, a lot of us have had the "I'm just gonna get this done by Halloween" mentality (Spoiler: you will most likely keep working on this for two more years because you'll find more rabbit holes to go down).

Here's an update on how I scaled my armor, including my trial and error. I might make minor modifications in the future and if you believe that I should make any changes at all, PLEASE do not be afraid to say them. For my original design, I was using a smoothed out articulated dummy to represent myself, then printed out a cosplay caliper to measure different parts of my body. I took the dummy pieces, the chest in this example, and used the caliper to measure parts of my body in diameter instead of circumference. The chest came out okay, and I think I might make some modifications in the future, but when I inserted photos of myself in order to align the dummy pieces, I figured that I could just use the photos as the way to scale the pieces because it would most likely be more convenient as the pieces were right there and I wouldn't have to try to make every dummy piece align to my body. Here is a link to the dummy in case you want to try the method for yourself: https://www.printables.com/model/1072658-dummy-smooth-v2/files I imported a human body I got from Thingiverse or something, and scaled the dummy guy to my height in my slicer before importing him into Blender. After that, I imported photos og myself from two sides and lined them up to set myself to closely the same height as the dummy. Something I must advise with this is to be careful with perspective. I tried 3D scanning myself with every app I could but I just couldn't get one to work. With the photos, the perspective might disform you and slightly alter your proportions. Double check the measurements of the armor to make sure they are correct and that they fit before printing. I finally resized all of my armor to fit my body, although I'm not sure if these measurements will be final. I made the thighs, calves, forearms, posterior & cod plates slimmer and shorter, and I'm not finalized on the abdomen and chest. These photos do not include any more adjustments I made the the chest and abdomen because I'm not entirely sure on how or what to do for them. Looking at reference photos, the two vertical rectangular indents above the center abdomen details are visible below the chestplate, so I'm not sure if I should make adjustments to have the chestplate shorter or if it's just something that won't be visible on mine due to my body. Here are some more quick renders of the regular armor compared to the armor scaled to my body: I went ahead and adjusted the abdomen and chest to be a bit slimmer in order to not give the silhouette such a blocky look as the stormtroopers in Rogue One all have taller, more slender and athletic looks. Something I was thinking about doing which I did in my last build in order to counter my shorter torso was to make the abdomen just slightly taller. In this photo, I slimmed the abdomen and chest, turning it from looking less square-ish to a bit more vertical rectangular-ish. It worked just slightly, but I think I'll need to make more modifications for a better look. After slimming the chest and abdomen, I made the chestplate shorter, but I don't think it helped. As a matter of fact, I think I made it worse by shortening it this much. I will most likely make the chestplate just slightly shorter, but I learned my lesson from my last chestplate when it didn't even overlap. My next step in this will most likely be to find a good scale to have the chestplate and abdomen, by just slightly shortening the chest and enlarging the abdomen to have the cod piece sit just slightly lower without modifying the proportions I've already given it. Since I don't want to take out of proportion too much of the armor, I think I might adjust the belt when messing with the width and depth but leave it alone when it comes to its height. Edit: I went ahead and tried what I said about shortening the chestplate by 5% and increasing the abdomen by 10% to see how it would fit, and my opinion is very iffy. 5% just feels like too much so I might tone it down to 2.5% next time. Making the abdomen 10% taller isn't great, and I think making it only 5% longer is going to be the way to go, if I choose to make the abdomen longer that is. Additionally, I don't really like the cod piece sitting too close to the thighs, and as I look at more reference photos, I think I might make the cod piece either shorter or trim some off of the top because even after scaling it down, it doesn't look that long in the photos. If anyone has any suggestions or anything to point out, please feel more than welcome to as I'm willing to accept any feedback. I'll continue to make modifications and will take some more measurements when I get the chance, so I will update the armor if I get any recommendations and when I figure out what to do for the abdomen.

Hey Pete, since I'm redoing part of my armor and now using Akira's files I'm actually in a very similar spot as you right now. I hope you got a chance to get TKModder421's upgraded ROTK bucket too. I posted on my thread all the updated files I'm using for my build, so I hope that can help before you fully commit to printing if you are interested in more accurate files. When it comes to scaling, I'm in the exact same boat as you. I normally take measurements and eyeball it from there, and I tried to do a 3D scan of my body with a free app (not the best) to give it a try and it slightly worked, but until FormFitter comes out, it's not going to be too easy.

I have finally created a layout of the armor that I want to eventually print in the future until I finally get approval. I've received a lot of help from others and have a collection of armor files from various different people and really appreciate all the help I've been given. ROTK Armor File List Base Armor: Akira's ROTK armor files Helmet: Nico Henderson's ROTK helmet Modifications made to the helmet by TKModder421 Backplate: Akira's original backplate with modifications made by Sayless "O I I" details upgraded by 11b30b4 Shoulder Straps: Jason Glisson's TPU shoulder straps Abdomen: Akira's Abdomen with 11b30b4's modified upgrades Kidney Plate: BigJasoni's upgraded kidney plate Belt: Akira's belt with BigJasoni's upgraded belt boxes Thermal Detonator: Sayless' thermal detonator Thighs: Akira's thigh pieces with Sayless' modified Akira ammo belt Hand Plates: Ox Props' ROTK hand plates (I'm unsure whether his or Akira's are better) Here are some quick renders of what my armor should look like with all of the modifications included, but these were very quick and don't contain every updated piece. If anyone would like help rendering their armor or is following a similar path and would like to see a full updated armor set with all the modern modifications, I'd be more than happy to help.

Three small updates for today: 1. I ordered a pauldron from Katarra8 on eBay and it's really good, it does feel just a tad large but it's alright. It's decently comfy with the white underside so it should be approvable if I choose to troop with it in the future as just a pauldron is considered an approvable accessory, even though I don't think I've seen it being worn alone aside from a Hot Toys or Black Series figure. 2. I talked with Sayless and BigJasoni about the lip that's seen in the backplate that isn't present on Akira's files. Sayless very kindly gave me the files for his modified Akira backplate while I'm waiting to see if BigJasoni would happen to still have his, although it was around 6 years ago and I wouldn't be surprised or upset if he didn't have it on hand anymore. 3. I kinda forgot, there was something I wanted to write but I got a bad review for no reason and I got really sad so I'll update this when I remember.