Adder's ANH TK Build Thread [TM]

[Addertime[TK]]

I happened upon an interesting score a few days ago. 

I was looking through one of our craft drawers and came across a several bottles of old model paint, most notably a bottle of Testors 1138 Gray. My wife claimed ownership and said it was hers from one of her first model kits as a child from around 1980. 

So here it is, a half bottle of vintage paint in the right color for my ANH TK.

 

I wondered if it had maybe gone off so I stirred it really well

 

 

and gave it a test paint:

 

It covered well, applied smoothly and dried to the touch in only a few minutes. I remembered how good model paints used to be.

In the old days, we didn't care about being green, we used paint (and glue) that was flammable, filled with fumes and toxic as all get out... and they worked great!
I miss my old Pactra paints and the orange tube Testor's model glue. Those were the days... 
 

 

But I digress... I doubt I have enough of this vintage paint to cover all the areas of my TK helmet but I plan to use some just to tie it to the past.

 

Edited June 18, 2016 by Addertime

[Addertime[TK]]

The helmet... it's been a lot of work... at least 10 hours so far... but you know, it's been an awesome roller coaster and I like where it's going! 
So, onto the painting!

 

I laid down the black for the outlines first. I masked the straight lines and did the curves freehand for the most part.

 

 

After curing overnight, I touched up a few spots by lightly scratching off the paint with a blade.

 

 

The next step was to mask the black outline and paint the gray interior with my vintage 40 year old Testors 1138.

 

 

I'll go back and touch up the corners with black when the gray dries.

 

[Sentry71[TK]]

Great work with the paint - a lot of folks worry about doing free hand. It just makes the helmet more accurate that way.

 

I love that the Testors is still good to go, even after all this time.

[Addertime[TK]]

Great work with the paint - a lot of folks worry about doing free hand. It just makes the helmet more accurate that way.

 

I love that the Testors is still good to go, even after all this time.

The Testors paint worked really well. It was very smooth and luxurious looking compared to the thinner Humbrol and Revell paints I have which is kind of funny because back in my younger days when I built models often, I pretty much wrote off Testors as "consumer grade".  

 

I need to post more pics. The helmet has come a long way.

[Troopacoola[TK]]

The Testors paint worked really well. It was very smooth and luxurious looking compared to the thinner Humbrol and Revell paints I have which is kind of funny because back in my younger days when I built models often, I pretty much wrote off Testors as "consumer grade".

 

I need to post more pics. The helmet has come a long way.

I think the key when hand painting is to thin it out and apply many coats. Takes longer but reduces the brush marks.

[Addertime[TK]]

Ok... let's do this... more cowbell! Er... bucket!

I painstakingly mask the traps and painted them but I'm not sure what happened to the photos.. they might be on my phone. Anyhow, here's the rest...

The tears masked and hand painted:

 

  

 

    

Ear finishing work:



And the infamous stripes. I was worried about painting these and hand cut stencils but was unhappy with the way they turned out so I bought a small vinyl cutter and some low tack stencil vinyl and viola! I was pretty happy with the result. 

   

Coat one:

  

Coat two:

 

Coat three. I gave it a nice thick coat and tilted the helmet so the paint would settle evenly:



And the reveal...

 

And there we go... one step closer.  
I'll add the eye film soon. Still working on how I want that to happen. I've seen some pretty tricked out buckets and I want mine to have a little "wow" factor to it too. 

 

 

[Addertime[TK]]

And now for the Boots...

I hate waiting for things to ship. I'm more than willing to pay more to have it right now. I considered TK Boots and the other options but the pay now, ship laip whenever business model is not how I roll. So I started looking at the more authentic method of buying regular boots and painting them. That's what they did for the screen used boots and having built fir theatre, it was really an easy leap for me to go that rout. I found some great, black Busse brand jodhpur equestrian boots on close-out priced at a mere $20 USD, Normally priced at about 4x that, I was pretty happy. 

 

Although I'm quite sure the screen-used boots were spray painted with white enamel from the hardware store, I wanted a little more durability so I opted for Angelus acrylic leather paint. It's great stuff. The trick is to build up thin coats. This paint cost about $6 with the finisher coat.

 

 

Following the Angelus directions, I used acetone (well, actually faux-acetone which works just as well) and wiped the finish and much of the black dye from the boots.

 

 

Then I masked the soles.

 

Then I laid down several light coats, allowing each to dry overnight. The shots below show coats two and four. I gave the boots six coats in total.

 

 

Before removing the tape, I scored around the tape line with a blade.

 

And here we have the finished product:



I'm really happy with the way they turned out. I've worn them a few times to try out the paint and they still look great with no cracking or peeling. Even the paint on the elastic looks great. It's flexible and resilient.

Edited August 1, 2016 by Addertime

[Cricket[TK]]

Amazing paint job there!    

[Addertime[TK]]

Thanks Christine! I like 'em! I keep threatening to wear them to work.

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

That's awesome! For only $26 how can you go wrong!! Does the place you bought them from still have any left?? Lol!

 

 

Jim - TK50899

Edited August 1, 2016 by MoSc0ut

[Addertime[TK]]

That's awesome! For only $26 how can you go wrong!! Does the place you bought them from still have any left?? Lol!

 

 

Jim - TK50899

Not that brand but they others for just a bit more. Really, I just wanted them NOW and it was an easy option.

[Addertime[TK]]

Ok, let's get back to this...

Setting up to add the split rivets.
Marking, punching the holes and finished holes!

  

And here's a shot of the rivets installed

[Addertime[TK]]

Oh snap.

 

I considered long and hard whether to go with the original strapping. It has a certain elegance to it and if my suit had the hardware included, I would've used it but being as I had options, snaps seemed the way to go for portability and ease of dressing myself.

 

Now... let's make some snaps! 

 

Shoulders first

 

 

I found that a little countersink action helps the Tandy Line 24 snaps sit flatter against the plate.

 

 

 

Edited August 15, 2016 by Addertime

[Troopacoola[TK]]

Looking good Michael!

 

Sent from my SM-T210 using Tapatalk

[Addertime[TK]]

Snap. snap, snap.

 

Here's the rear plate with level 3 snapage:

 

 

I bought this punch many years ago when I was really into SCA fighting and it built a lot of steel armor. I love how easy it punches any hard surface. I use a spring-loaded center punch to help locate the punch die. It makes quick clean holes. I love it. And, as before, a few turns with the countersink helps to better seat the snaps.

 

And done.

 

 

Edited August 15, 2016 by Addertime

[Addertime[TK]]

You might notice that the work surfaces change in various shots. I have two different workspaces... the attic is where I work on quieter aspects late at night and the basement is where the hammering, painting and beer drinking while admiring my handiwork (and sometimes drowning the misery of my mistakes) happens.  You can tell where I am in any given photo by the grid on the cutting mat... tight grid on old mat = basement, big grid on new mat or floor = attic.  

[Addertime[TK]]

And back to the snaps...

Line 24 snaps on nylon webbing

 

 

 

 

Making the elastic connecting bits and a shot of the whole mess, me included.

 

[Addertime[TK]]

Hands

 

Or, really, I should say, temporary hands. Latex to come.

 

  

 

Done. 

 

[Addertime[TK]]

**Note - I'm actually finished with my build. I fell behind with the updates here on the forum for a couple of reasons but I plan to get it all up here for posterity. There are a few epic, "go to" build threads here and I don't think my build or documentation brings much to the table and only a few people followed my build. I valued their support but I spent a lot of time on the build and didn't have a lot of time to post. I documented it all though and will get it all up here eventually. I'm pretty happy with the finished product and though it needs some tinkering, it's done.

 

Thermal Detonator

 

The end caps were a bear to get on the tube. I used boiling water and it took about 4 tries before I finally got them both seated correctly. I followed the caliper dimensions from the RS suit pics in the reference galleries and the rest was easy.

Here's the making of the brackets:

 

 

 

And squaring off the control plate:
 

 

 

Drilling the holes and adding the screws. Finding #4 slotted pan head screws has proved difficult here in Frankfurt so I had a friend in the States mail some to me. I should have them soon.
 

Edited September 2, 2016 by Addertime

[troopermaster]

Was there no directions on the end caps to heat them before fitting or to bevel the tube? I usually write that on every kit.

[Addertime[TK]]

Was there no directions on the end caps to heat them before fitting or to bevel the tube? I usually write that on every kit.

No, there was no info wtth the caps but I had seen a post you made here on FISD on the topic so I knew to do that. Still, it took a few tries as the caps were really tight and the ABS doesn't stay malleable for more than a few secs after being removed from the boiling water. I was happy with the end result. I just expected the process to be easier.

[Addertime[TK]]

Shoulder Bells

 

The shoulders were the easiest pieces in the whole kit but you kinda have to have the torso and arms ready before you can see how they'll work out.

 

 

 

Shoulder / Bicep Hook

Having seen these hooks several times, I figured that must be a good idea and as soon as I slipped the bicep into the shoulder elastic I was sure of it.

 

I began by marking out the bend lines on a piece of cover-strip fall


Then I used the iron on "wool" setting and heated the lines,alternating sides to make the heat even
 

 

As I made the bends, I used another piece of scrap to make sure the gap was correct
 

And the first bend is done
 

 

The rest of the bends happen the same way.

 

 

 

It looks complicated but it was very easy and only took about 15 minutes to make both pieces. They're a little lighter duty than I wanted but I wasn't sure how much material I was going to have left over to make them. Now the I see I have enough, I'll make another set in case these break.

 

And here is the finished product:

 

Edited September 3, 2016 by Addertime