Tox's RS build thread

[toxication[501st]]

Update time!

This weekend made a lot of progress.

First and foremost, thanks to @VulpX for the help, support, guidance and steady hands with making my bucket awesome!
 

 

 

Vocoder is nice and black as well now:

Still need to install the mesh behind the teeth and in the hovi-tips.

Next up:

I finally prepped the dropboxes. Got the elastic band attached:

 

They are all pretty and closed, although not glued closed yet, since I ran out of e-6000 this weekend.

 

Drilled some holes and installed the rivets in the stomach plate:

 

Nice authentic split rivets from trooperbay

 

Removed the last bit of edge from the ammo pouch for the belt.

Cut the corners, without cutting corners

The ammo pouch is connected with chicago screws to the canvas belt. Next up, get the cover buttons a bit smaller and put them over it. But again, need some e-6000 first

 

Placed the shoulder straps on the chest plate.

 

Fixed the strapping for chest and back plate, added all strapping from shoulders down to the lower arms. Added the snaps in the chest plate for connecting to the ab-plate. Added the first snap on the left side of the ab plate and again, ran out of glue to awaiting more glue to finish placing all snaps.

 

Also fixed the belt for my upper legs, attached the strapping to the upperlegs and belt so I now have wearable upperlegs.

 

Todo this week: finish closing the calves with velcro, add more snaps all over the place so I can finish the strapping. Get a bit more help from our Attache to get the ammo pouch properly on the upperleg.

Hopefully we will have a chance this week or next week to finish the stripes on the bucket as well, so that one is just checked off.

 

[toxication[501st]]

Belt is done now.:

 

Since I put chicago screws through the canvas so it is adjustable if needed. The screw side is on the canvas side.

 

finally put the ammo pouches on the thigh as well:

Put it lined out on the coverstrip in the end.

Still need to paint the rivets, but first need to fully close the split rivets.

 

For the rest spent the evening putting in the majority of the snaps, still have 3 to go now. Also prepped all elastic to be able to do a full fitting later on this week, hopefully this weekend.

And of course, not to foget, the rivets in the kidney plate are in place as well

And yes, these also get painted last

Just to show, they really are the split rivets:

 

So happy to be almost done!!

[toxication[501st]]

Lots of progress today. Had a very productive evening. Finished 99% of the strapping today:

 

 

Going to tighten the shoulder bells a bit more, then I will add the straps around the biceps,

Still need to fix the buttons to the stomach and attach the dropboxes.

Once that is all done I have some minor paint work to do on the costume, the rivets all need a drop of white. The rivets for the ammo pouch need to be closed properly still.

I also need to extend the canvas belt a bit to make it a better fit.

\

 

I want to shorten the coverstrip on the right upper leg a bit so it looks better.
Next time I put the full costume on I will also pay a bit more attention to the alignment of my calves closing, doesn't look nice like this. Fortunately I am using velcro there so that is really easy to do right.

Also considering shortening the elastic on the left elbow a little bit to pull the lower arm in a bit more.

 

Another tiny detail to be added: elastic bands on the shoulder straps.

This Sunday going to finish the helmet as well.

 

For completeness sake:

 

 

Edited August 8, 2018 by toxication

[CableGuy[Admin]]

That’s coming on nicely. :-)

[toxication[501st]]

Just now, CableGuy said:

That’s coming on nicely. :-)

really pleased with the progress I made today indeed. First time I had the full armor on without any blue tape, feels like such an amazing achievement!

[CableGuy[Admin]]

Yeah, it’s a wonderful feeling when it all starts falling into place. :-)

[TheSwede[TK]]

Well look at that - a Stormtrooper 

 

Sound like you got a good plan for making it even better and I just have a small addition and that is to round the lower corners on the knee ammo pack but really great job 

[toxication[501st]]

On 8/8/2018 at 9:58 PM, CableGuy said:

 

really pleased with the progress I made today indeed. First time I had the full armor on without any bl

[toxication[501st]]

So, pulled in the shoulders and shortened the strapping at the back.

Looking a lot tighter already, although haven't tried it with the belt yet.

 

 

Need to first fix the belt a bit so it easier fits

but this is what the back looks like now:

[toxication[501st]]

Tomorrow I will try to fix the butt place, bend it in a bit more. Hopefully it will work with boiling water, not certain yet how to apply it to the butt plate, haven't tried to bend such a big piece in one go before.

[TheSwede[TK]]

Shoulders look great RS armor is very flexible so for the butt plate you could try to move the strapping to the ends and also make them thighter before you go the hot water route. 

[ukswrath[Staff]]

22 minutes ago, toxication said:

Tomorrow I will try to fix the butt place, bend it in a bit more. Hopefully it will work with boiling water, not certain yet how to apply it to the butt plate, haven't tried to bend such a big piece in one go before.

Looking good though I'm lot entirely convinced boiling is the best or safest solution. Like Swede mentioned adding connecting straps in the corners would achieve the same result. 

Another note, you may need to drop the right bicep, the left side appears to be hanging lower. 

Also, I believe you mentioned connecting the forearms to the biceps, doing that would definately help the gap between in that area.

[toxication[501st]]

9 minutes ago, ukswrath said:

Looking good though I'm lot entirely convinced boiling is the best or safest solution. Like Swede mentioned adding connecting straps in the corners would achieve the same result. 

Another note, you may need to drop the right bicep, the left side appears to be hanging lower. 

Also, I believe you mentioned connecting the forearms to the biceps, doing that would definately help the gap between in that area.

I still need to do the strap within the shoulder bell, around the bicep. the strapping between bicep and forearm is in place and I am actually planning to shorten the one on the left a little bit to pull my forearm up a tiny bit more.

 

The idea of the strapping more to the tips of the butt plate sound like a very very much more attractive idea than changing the full shape indeed If I don't have to screw around with boiling water I'd rather not. going to investigate that right now!

 

as for the height of the biceps, the right one is a bit more tight around my arm than the left, so might also be that when dressing I shoved one higher than the other.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

1 hour ago, toxication said:

The idea of the strapping more to the tips of the butt plate sound like a very very much more attractive idea than changing the full shape indeed If I don't have to screw around with boiling water I'd rather not. going to investigate that right now!

Boiling is common but usually for smaller more rigid components where it's much easier to control vs trying to find a large enough container for the entire or even half of the butt plate. These are merely suggestions with you and your armor in mind 

[toxication[501st]]

3 minutes ago, ukswrath said:

Boiling is common but usually for smaller more rigid components where it's much easier to control vs trying to find a large enough container for the entire or even half of the butt plate. These are merely suggestions with you and your armor in mind 

I have indeed used the boiling method for small parts, also for my 2 tie costumes. No idea how to apply it to the butt plate indeed. So trying the snaps more to the edge first. it feels flexible enough indeed.

[toxication[501st]]

tried the butt plate with snaps more in the corner, but that doesn't achieve the goal, Well in all fairness it sort off achieves it but not in the right way. the corners are now pulled in, but the bottom part still stands out, resulting in really oddly shaped hips.

So, going to try the watermethod after all.

 

Fixed the elastic in the shoulder bells to go across the biceps, Finally closed the split rivets on the thigh ammo pouch belt. Now fixing the drop boxes to the canvas belt.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

1 hour ago, toxication said:

tried the butt plate with snaps more in the corner, but that doesn't achieve the goal, Well in all fairness it sort off achieves it but not in the right way. the corners are now pulled in, but the bottom part still stands out, resulting in really oddly shaped hips.

So, going to try the watermethod after all.

That's a first, got a photo

[toxication[501st]]

11 hours ago, ukswrath said:

That's a first, got a photo

No, didn't do photos, but the bottom part was still wide while the top part was looking good. So mainly using a bit of hot water to close the bottom in a bit. I am using the watermethod as little as possible. Not really fond of bending the ABS. I have bad experiences with that on my ANH Tie bucket

[toxication[501st]]

stripes and lines on the bucket:

 

Still some cleaning up to do in there, but over all quite happy with these.

The blue lines really did drip quite a bit unfortunately, but nothing a tootpick cannot fix

The lines on the dome are also nice:

 

I had these gaps on the back of my thighs, which I didn't like at all. So was looking around and made a pre-emptive modification to my legs, took a half moon out so I can walk easier and the gap is a lot less visible.

Still need to clean them up a bit more but the raw image now is something like this:

 

 

Didn't get around to a trial fit today, instead I painted all the split rivets that need painting. Hopefully tomorrow and otherwise definitely tuesday a trial fit again.

 

Need to order some tactical helmet padding for my bucket, since that foam that comes with it does not make the helmet comfortable at all.

 

 

[TheSwede[TK]]

42 minutes ago, toxication said:

I had these gaps on the back of my thighs, which I didn't like at all

Some scrap ABS glued on the inside and then some abs-paste from the outside will make that gap invisible from a few feet

[ukswrath[Staff]]

3 hours ago, TheSwede said:

Some scrap ABS glued on the inside and then some abs-paste from the outside will make that gap invisible from a few feet

Or just finish trimming up to the cover strip and be done with it lol 

[TheSwede[TK]]

3 hours ago, ukswrath said:

Or just finish trimming up to the cover strip and be done with it lol 

Yeah that works too

[toxication[501st]]

13 hours ago, TheSwede said:

Some scrap ABS glued on the inside and then some abs-paste from the outside will make that gap invisible from a few feet

I did do that on a small split I had on the left knee. The back gaps however were really hardly fixable.
The little bit that is still there now is potentially fixable.

Otherwise I might still go for what @ukswrath proposed. I do like the look like this more than with the back fully trimmed away though.

[toxication[501st]]

Mesh installed in the hovi tips

 

Cleaned up the blue stripes and put the ears back on:

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Looking good Martijn, you might want to set the tip screen material back just a bit. Here's some reference photos.