First Build - Going For TKC - Looking for Centurion Builds

[Elumusic[TK]]

Has anyone built a TKC to Centurion Requirements?  I'm wanting to go for the level 3 standards right of the bat.  There are a lot of special requirements about no rivets in the croch, brads for the amo belt on the knee, rivets on the belts, chest plates, etc.  I'd love to see some build pictures of someone who has a Centurion Status.

[Elumusic[TK]]

Seantrooper:  A great build here.  Also shows the revisions to the belt and rivets.

[Elumusic[TK]]

So this is how you do it without the cardboard box.  I am going to use a few pieces from an AM armor kit that I got from a guy who decided he did not have the time to assemble it.  I ordered the edging to go around the chest, back, butt and cod piece from Mark at CFO.  It should arrive in a week or so.  I also ordered one of his ROTJ Blasters.  But my first order of business is to fix the back plate.  As everyone knows who frequents this site, the AM back plate is completely incorrect.  So I need to create something that looks closer to the original screen used armor.  So with the AM armor in hand and a few screen references I set out to create my own back plate.

 

Step one is to pile a bunch of plaster mixed thick enough to make into a mound that roughly resembles the shape I want.  Because this was the dirtiest process there was no way I was going to touch my phone to take pictures.  My hands were literally covered in thick goo for about 4 hours while I tweaked the new back plate.  The back patio was a huge mess.  And after about the 4 hour mark I took a break and washed my hands and had some lunch.  Here is my first image.  The image below reflects about 20 iterations of chiseling and rasping the plaster mound into shape.  Plaster is so soft but dense.  I used a rasp, a wood chisel and some course sand paper until things started taking shape.  I used the AM armor as a rough guide since it is the only physical piece in my possession.  I know the dimensions are a little large so I reduced the width of the back plate about an inch and a half and it is a little shorter in height.   

 

 

 

After my mold was close to what looked good I need to change the medium I am using.  Plaster is too soft to get fine detail so I am going to use Ultracal 30.  A concrete based plaster that gets super hard.  So step two is to pull a plastic mold of my temporary back plate.  You can see my vacuum holes in the square.  They are really big because of the air pockets that were in the plaster.  Stacking globs of plaster leaves voids in the mix so as I drilled in the voids they collapsed a little creating larger holes than intended.  No big deal.  The flat portion of the square is also very rough.  Not smooth like it needs to be.  So I'll fix it with bondo. 

 

 

Pouring the new mold.  Ultracal 30.  A concrete based plaster that can be sanded and bondo'ed.  It's super heavy though.  So my mold will weigh about 40 lbs or so.  The image below shows the container I am using to create an air void so I can add my drill holes for the vacuum table.

 

 

After the mold cures I pop it out and add some bondo and do the fine detail with a dremel tool to get the final mold.  I molded the O II with a few piles of bondo in the rough shape and used the dremel and some 100 grit sand paper.  I also used the orbital sander and a grind wheel to get this to work.  It's now super smooth and level.

 

 

And here is the finished piece off the vacuum table.

 

 

[Elumusic[TK]]

I did the same for the chest piece.  Below is a completely revised chest plate that is much closer to the screen images.  From left to right.  Looks like NE armor but since it's the go to and closely resembles the screen armor used I used it as a reference.  You can see the differences in the chest angle, the area in front of the arm cut outs.  Second image is my new chest armor mold. I reduced the size of the bottom flange toward the waist.  I added a wider flare just under the arm pits.   The only issue here is I forgot to shorten the mold.  I took the dimensions right off the AM armor except for the width.  I didn't realize it was taller than it was supposed to be.  Third image below Pandatrooper's cut out shortening the AM armor.  I will do a similar cut when I cut the armor out of the HIPS and assemble my armor.

 

[Elumusic[TK]]

Started cutting out the armor this week.  I need to create a belt and amo power pack mold based on the requirements of the 501st.  The belt mold is going to have an insert that is removable in order to get rid of the center rivet.  More images to come.