Punkers Posted June 29, 2015 Report Share Posted June 29, 2015 Hi all, I am excited to say that last week I received my TFA (First Order Stormtrooper) kit, and this weekend I began trimming pieces and getting things moving along (pun intended ). Over two days this weekend, I rough trimmed everything except for the ammo boxes, pouch covers, etc. because my hand simply couldn't stand another minute of trimming with shears after an all day effort Friday. Saturday I went back and completed trimming with a barrel sander on my shiny new dremel on the yoke pieces, back plate, kidney plate, shoulder bells, biceps, thighs, and calves. So that leaves me with just a few more of the main pieces and all of the little stuff left to trim up. I should be able to complete that stuff throughout the week nights or the weekend after the holiday. In going through everything, I found that the AB plate, chest plate, and some of the calf or thigh pieces had an "orange peel" on them from the pull which I wasn't too thrilled about since they will have to be sanded or filled with bondo and sanded to repair, but it's likely I would have to do that on everything anyway since I plan to have an auto body shop do the paint job on my kit for me to match the bucket. More to come soon! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dday[501st] Posted June 29, 2015 Report Share Posted June 29, 2015 Hi all, I am excited to say that last week I received my TFA (First Order Stormtrooper) kit, and this weekend I began trimming pieces and getting things moving along (pun intended ). Over two days this weekend, I rough trimmed everything except for the ammo boxes, pouch covers, etc. because my hand simply couldn't stand another minute of trimming with shears after an all day effort Friday. Saturday I went back and completed trimming with a barrel sander on my shiny new dremel on the yoke pieces, back plate, kidney plate, shoulder bells, biceps, thighs, and calves. So that leaves me with just a few more of the main pieces and all of the little stuff left to trim up. I should be able to complete that stuff throughout the week nights or the weekend after the holiday In going through everything, I found that the AB plate, chest plate, and some of the calf or thigh pieces had an "orange peel" on them from the pull which I wasn't too thrilled about since they will have to be sanded or filled with bondo and sanded to repair, but it's likely I would have to do that on everything anyway since I plan to have an auto body shop do the paint job on my kit for me to match the bucket. More to come soon! Ouch, orange peeling is just poor quality control and I wouldn't be happy either. You might consider contacting them and lodging a complaint. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmrhodes13[Staff] Posted June 29, 2015 Report Share Posted June 29, 2015 Looks like too much heat on those pieces, I'd be sending a complaint too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barcoder[TK] Posted June 29, 2015 Report Share Posted June 29, 2015 Welcome to the TFA club Tyler! Awesome to have another build thread. (I had a bit of "orange peel" on my thighs as well.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punkers Posted July 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2015 Week two progress so far.... I completed trimming up to the buck lines on these parts and have them ready to be assembled, sanded, and painted with the other parts I completed trimming on last week. And here is ALL that remains to be trimmed. The AB, Chest, end caps for the TD, and these boxes.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punkers Posted July 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2015 Well, after dodging two rain storms and the heat of the morning sun, I finally finished all trimming today ! Feels good to be one step closer to finishing the build ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punkers Posted July 18, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2015 Week 3 so far.... Today I put together the yoke & back assembly, AB & kidney plate, shoulder bells w/ inserts, thighs & calves (glued on the greeblie sides only), biceps (glued on one side only), and pieced the tops & sides together with glue tabs on the forearms. I feel like we got a lot done in just one day, but could have accomplished so much more, so I am hoping to spend a good part of tomorrow continuing the process Tomorrow I hope to finish sizing the biceps, thighs, and then remove the inside pieces of the sides of the forearms to attach the proper tops, and attach the "railroad track" & boxes. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barcoder[TK] Posted July 22, 2015 Report Share Posted July 22, 2015 Looking good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punkers Posted July 26, 2015 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2015 End of week 3 and all of week 4 progress ... This week it was time to really focus on assembly and... wait for it... bondo & sanding. I completed the bondo & sanding on the back & yoke, both forearms, the left calf, both biceps, and AB plate. I also began assembling the TD today and got the end caps installed, just time to glue the "BCD assembly" to the TD back plate and then begin applying bondo. I feel like I got a lot done this week, but I still have so much more to do! lol 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmrhodes13[Staff] Posted July 26, 2015 Report Share Posted July 26, 2015 Nice work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkrestonva[TK] Posted July 26, 2015 Report Share Posted July 26, 2015 I love seeing the new TFA kits come together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ontel Posted July 26, 2015 Report Share Posted July 26, 2015 Wow looking good! Where did you order it from? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punkers Posted August 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 TD assembly is done and bondo'd ! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkTrooper[TK] Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 week 3 . . . week 4? Must be nice to have a relaxed pace on building, not like myself and the Alpha 75 with two weeks before Celebration. Your progress looks good. I was very disappointed to have orange peel on various parts of my armor too. Its a shame that that is still part of production. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmrhodes13[Staff] Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 Looking good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punkers Posted August 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 11, 2015 week 3 . . . week 4? Must be nice to have a relaxed pace on building, not like myself and the Alpha 75 with two weeks before Celebration. Your progress looks good. I was very disappointed to have orange peel on various parts of my armor too. Its a shame that that is still part of production. Ya, I haven't worked on it for a literal 4 or 5 weeks now, but more like 4 or 5 weekends with a few hours here and there on the weeknights when I get home from work. The orange peel was almost all on my AB plate and sides of the Chest. I have gone through and sanded it down with 80 grit sandpaper and then progressed it up to 220 to get rid of it. I am fairly happy with how it looks now, but still makes me a bit frustrated that the pull had the "orange peel". I will post up some pictures once I get some more work done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punkers Posted August 11, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 11, 2015 (edited) I am finding issues with the usage of bondo on the AB plate, and I'm debating whether I need to completely sand off the bondo and then do ABS slurry or something else to permanently fuse the two pieces together better. The ABS cement I used on the seams is allowing for the two pieces to lift a bit and create a crease where the bondo cracks or would certainly cause the paint to crack and peel, which I will not settle for. I haven't decided what to do yet, but it was suggested to glue some ABS tabs inside the seams and reinforce it, but I'm not even certain that would help. I don't have the AB boxes ready to put on yet, but perhaps the boxes nearest the seams would help create a nice seal if I were to use the "bolt on" methods I've seen some others use... I just don't know what to do at this point, and open to suggestions from the veterans. Edited August 11, 2015 by Punkers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmrhodes13[Staff] Posted August 11, 2015 Report Share Posted August 11, 2015 Either strips of ABS glued on the inside or fibreglass matting and resin, both are used on a lot of clone builds with the same type of but join system and stops the joins from flexing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punkers Posted August 14, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 14, 2015 Either strips of ABS glued on the inside or fibreglass matting and resin, both are used on a lot of clone builds with the same type of but join system and stops the joins from flexing. Thank you! I decided to go ahead and put 2" strips of ABS on the sides beneath the seams, and it seems to help a lot. I think once I sand down the bondo I reapplied and affix the boxes on the sides it should be good... but before I glue down boxes or anything I'm going to triple check it to see if there is any flex left in it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punkers Posted August 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 15, 2015 So for week 5 of working on the kit (not really having a second helping hand for two weekends in a row), I worked on things I could primarily do myself. I was nervous about the kidney plate having too much flex at the AB joint seams (using bondo), so with some previous recommendations, I decided to go ahead and add 2" ABS strips to both sides of the kidney plate to reinforce the seam and keep it from flexing too much, lifting the bondo and cracking. Then I sanded and cleaned up the spats, and closed them up on one side so that I could prep for adding the greeblies and doing the snap mod that Clint and Barcoder have done so far (thanks guys for the tips in your build threads!) Also, this week I found out that I had missed some spots on the end caps that needed to be bondo'd to make the appearance of them being seamless, so I ran a bead of bondo across both end caps and let them sit. Still need to get back to them later next week when I have some time after work, and sand them down nice and clean. Then today (8/14) I started on the gaskets. I had trimmed them up ready for assembly previously, but today was bath day for them and then glue. I marked up the glue locations with a silver sharpie to make it easier to know about where the glue needed to be applied to keep them as clean as possible. Then it was time to glue... glue.... wait... glue... glue... wait... you get the idea. lol. Then it was time to weigh the shoulder gaskets down as I created the armpit connection.... and well I didn't bring anything with me to do so... so we got creative with some stuff laying around the house at my friend's place But they turned out quite nicely as you'll see.... And then it was time for some invention... this may very well help to revolutionize the way that the gaskets are held in place inside the forearms, biceps, and yoke... That's right... SNAPS! My friend ("build crew" of one other) came up with the idea that instead of taking the time to sew in velcro (which could pull away or tear the parts if they became brittle / crack over time), why not just put the snaps directly into the parts or use left over gasket materials from the extra glue tabs to put them on.... then got a bit ahead of myself and put the snaps directly on the extra tabs, rather than the original plan which included gluing down the tabs and then pushing the snap through both pieces after the tab was glued down to the gasket tabs. In the end, I like what I ended up with, because if I change my mind or it doesn't work out as well as I hope, I can simply sew down some velcro and go the route everyone else is going. So here is how I did it, and how they turned out so far... If you come up with other ways of doing the snaps, or have varying degrees of success, feel free to chime in for future build thread ideas etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmrhodes13[Staff] Posted August 15, 2015 Report Share Posted August 15, 2015 Nice work, I had thought of using snaps and was waiting to see if anyone else was going to Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punkers Posted August 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2015 Week 6 of working on the armor has begun.... and this week i'm hoping to get a lot of the finishing touches done on the main armor pieces prepping everything to be primed and putting in snaps plates etc. Today I was able to get my forearm boxes done and attached the greeblies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukswrath[Staff] Posted August 20, 2015 Report Share Posted August 20, 2015 Lookin good Tyler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punkers Posted August 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2015 (edited) Today I worked the majority of the day with sanding... sanding... sanding... sanding... But I was able to get my TD end caps all sanded up at the seams that I had applied bondo, and got all of the AB boxes mostly flush fit (except two that i'm not so happy with so far). I will continue pulling my hair out during the day tomorrow when I have daylight again lol. Then after much deliberation, some freakouts, and some conversation with the pros.... I decided I would bite the bullet and go for the new chest detail upgrade. I was extremely hesitant because I didn't want to A ) mess it up , B ) add the extra weight to the chest plate , C ) have to pull out the bondo again lol , and D ) have it fall off or cracking and then have to deal with new paint jobs etc. But after discussion, I went for it... head first... that's right, I thought it through and decided I wanted a template for the cutout before I tore into anything. I found what I consider to be a very creative way of going about it though. Since we aren't supplied a template, I decided to take a white envelope (something a bit more rigid than standard paper, but thinner than cardstock), two clamps, and a pencil... and hold it over a light bulb illuminating the outline of the resin detail. I then traced the inside edge of the resin piece onto the envelope. The parts I could not see, I then moved one of the clamps and drew the remaining bit on one side. This left the other side incomplete, but the brain went into gear to solve this quickly... I then took a pair of scissors and cut out one side of the newly traced template. When I was finished (making sure I cut as straight as possible), I then folded the paper in half over itself and then traced the remaining bit I was missing on the other edge of the paper. The end result was I had a perfect sized template to trace over the chest plate (and not surprisingly, the size of it was nearly identical to the original detail, just slightly steeper angle and a tiny bit larger). I then took the template and traced it over the chest and pulled out the dremel with a cutting wheel. I cut the top and bottom lines carefully, and then from the back side I slowly lowered the wheel over the remaining angle pieces until I had a rough cut that resembled this. Then I pulled out an Exacto knife and some sandpaper and got the finished cutout to look like this. I am a bit at ease now, but the remaining part is to get the finish sizing correct as my template turned out to be a little too small for the detail to fit through, so I would make it just slightly larger than the actual size of the resin detail for those following this in the future Then as the daylight left me in the dust, I went inside and finished putting snap plates / tabs into my shoulder bells and thighs That's it for tonight.... more to come tomorrow. Edited August 21, 2015 by Punkers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukswrath[Staff] Posted August 21, 2015 Report Share Posted August 21, 2015 Tyler, Very nice, very nice. Regarding the chest place I hacked out a rectangular hole same size as the replacement. Someone else had done the same, gee I hope it doesn't matter too much because it came out excellent and I would hate to have to redo it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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