Tilheyra's FEM7 Build

[Tilheyra[TK]]

12 hours ago, TKSpartan said:

 

 

it's a preferences matter, to me it looks nice, other people would like more shiny. Nice work. 

 

I really like it the way it is now, but it also helps to have someone more experienced provide similar feedback! I appreciate that!

[Tilheyra[TK]]

I have to say, I haven't been this excited about any sort of lore since I was fascinated by Mass Effect years ago! Right now is a time in my life where I am able to focus on my interests once again, so this has been so much fun working on this armor build and reading up on Star Wars lore! I think it is a really good sign that I am just as fascinated with Star Wars as I was with Mass Effect.

 

I have to take things one step at a time, because I still have this armor to complete, but I have already found myself scheming on another build! Perhaps something that is canon and would be 501st approvable. The Imperial Shock Troopers really interest me...but I shouldn't get ahead of myself. Plenty of time to scheme as I bring my current beloved build to completion! I've been waiting years to bring my FEM7 trooper to life after all! 

Edited July 18, 2023 by Tilheyra

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

46 minutes ago, Tilheyra said:

I have to say, I haven't been this excited about any sort of lore since I was fascinated by Mass Effect years ago! Right now is a time in my life where I am able to focus on my interests once again, so this has been so much fun working on this armor build and reading up on Star Wars lore! I think it is a really good sign that I am just as fascinated with Star Wars as I was with Mass Effect.

 

I have to take things one step at a time, because I still have this armor to complete, but I have already found myself scheming on another build! Perhaps something that is canon and would be 501st approvable. The Imperial Shock Troopers really interest me...but I shouldn't get ahead of myself. Plenty of time to scheme as I bring my current beloved build to completion! I've been waiting years to bring my FEM7 trooper to life after all! 

 

It's always refreshing to read such enthusiastic you are.    As you rightly say " one step at a time"  once you finish your armor , as many of us have done, another costume comes to mind !  It's a never ending story.  

 

Keep up the enthusiasm and great work ! 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

"Bitten by the bug" happens to many of us, not uncommon to be waiting for shipping of parts for 1, 2 or even 3 costumes, albeit my recent activity was more props for convention displays so waiting for a lot of electronics, but I still have 2 BBB sitting in the wings for when things get quiet  

 

10th year anniversary in the legion last December and still my interest has not diminished, "thank the maker"

 

 

 

 

[Tilheyra[TK]]

I am happy to report that all armor pieces survived my move! I packed everything diligently and carefully, but there was always that tiny bit of ever-present anxiety, so it was certainly nice to take everything out of the box again!

 

I will begin work on the leg armor this week!

[Tilheyra[TK]]

I finally cleared the space and sort of set up my crafting table! I was able to do a little bit of work on the leg armor pieces by straightening the edges. I used by 18-inch rule as a straight edge and clamped everything down before using an Exacto knife to do the cutting. The edges are much straighter now, so I can move on to measuring and fitting these pieces!

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

If you do get any wobble you can use a long piece of wood with sandpaper wrapped around to sand the sides straight (I use a plastic sanding block).

 

 

 

[Tilheyra[TK]]

14 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

If you do get any wobble you can use a long piece of wood with sandpaper wrapped around to sand the sides straight (I use a plastic sanding block).

I didn't think about that big of a sanding block! I have been doing just a slight amount of spot sanding, but the large block makes a lot more sense.

[Tilheyra[TK]]

I was working with the thigh armor last night, but I couldn't resist the temptation to do a full test fit of the leg armor. I hadn't settled on where exactly to position to the knee armor, so what is in the photo is not final, and I still need to work on the final positioning of the thigh armor. Nevertheless, this did show the areas that still need trimming in consideration of what will be overlapped when glued together. Much of this excess is in the knee area, as can probably be seen in the photo with the top of the lower leg armor and the bottom of the thigh armor. 

 

At this point, the lower leg armor is ready to have the final bit of trimming and then gluing! One side of the lower leg armor will be glued (the outer side), whereas the other side (interior side) will have velcro to bring that part together. My legs are a bit too big to fit into the lower leg armor without this arrangement.

 

I am going to go out and buy the rare earth magnets today to facilitate the gluing process. I'll also buy some sort of putty to hide the seams created in gluing the pieces together (recommendations welcome).

 

[Tilheyra[TK]]

Last night and this evening have been my time to glue together the different pieces of the leg armor. I still had some adjusting to do with the thigh pieces, so I glued the lower leg armor last night. Not surprisingly, my lower legs are a bit bigger than the armor anticipates, so I had to modify the procedure a little. I retained a small amount of the excess material from the molding process and allowed the front part of the lower legs to overlap the respective rear portion. This was glued and held in place with clamps and rare earth magnets. This means each side of the lower leg armor will have 2 seams (the seam where the parts join together and the built-in seam showing where to cut off excess material), rather than just 1 seam, but I can address that with whatever putty I settle on to smooth this out. The big thing for me is to be consistent when I deviate (but only deviate when needed) to keep appearances similar.

 

 

I think this is the case for most of the femtrooper kits, be they Legacy Fem or FEM7, but I did need to allow the lower leg armor to open slightly to allow my foot and leg to go through, so the seams between my lower legs were not glued. These will utilize velcro to secure the armor pieces around my legs (with the strapping holding them up, of course). I assume that is what the indentations in this part of the lower leg armor is for. I still need to glue the velcro into place.

 

 

I am now gluing the thigh pieces together. I had to measure, mark, remeasure, and remark a number of times to get this properly measured. I still have some pencil marks that need to be erased... I had to maintain some of the excess material in this are as well, but that was mainly to keep a consistent 2-seam appearance across all leg armor pieces.

 

 

The other seams of the thigh armor will be glued once the seams shown in the photo set. It looks like this is my weekend project. I am moving quicker than I thought I would!

Edited July 29, 2023 by Tilheyra

[Tilheyra[TK]]

UPDATE: I found something that works! More info at the bottom.

 

Question for folks: What epoxy is best for covering and smoothing the overlapping joints in the leg and arm armor?

 

I know I mention the 2-seam appearance in my previous post, but my intention has always been to cover and smooth over the actual seam created by bringing the pieces together. I have referred to the photos of the Movie Realistic Armor tutorial on the Imperial Surplus website, and it shows Perma Poxy stick being used. I can't seem to find that exact product online or in stores near me (but I found other Perma Poxy products meant for other materials than plastic). I want to be absolutely certain what I get will work before I apply anything. 

 

My local hardware stores and big box stores have the JB-Weld WaterWeld stick. Does that work? Unfortunately, the packaging makes no mention of ABS plastic. Does that work, or are there other recommended products?

 

I did use JB-Weld PlasticWeld to (attempt to) smooth out the edges of where the thermal detonator holder attaches to the rear torso armor, but I have discussed how much of a headache that turned out to be, so I don't want to repeat that. The liquid nature of PlasticWeld made it very difficult to smoothly apply before it dried.

 

UPDATED INFO: I realized I did not look at the auto parts stores in my area. I went to one and found the stick/putty version of JB-Weld PlasticWeld. The packaging specifically mentions ABS plastic as one of the types of plastic it is meant for! Once cured, PlasticWeld can be sanded and painted. As this is a very similar product to what is shown in the Imperial Surplus photo tutorial I will go ahead and use the PlasticWeld stick/putty.

Edited July 30, 2023 by Tilheyra

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

On 7/30/2023 at 8:53 AM, Tilheyra said:

UPDATE: I found something that works! More info at the bottom.

 

Question for folks: What epoxy is best for covering and smoothing the overlapping joints in the leg and arm armor?

 

I know I mention the 2-seam appearance in my previous post, but my intention has always been to cover and smooth over the actual seam created by bringing the pieces together. I have referred to the photos of the Movie Realistic Armor tutorial on the Imperial Surplus website, and it shows Perma Poxy stick being used. I can't seem to find that exact product online or in stores near me (but I found other Perma Poxy products meant for other materials than plastic). I want to be absolutely certain what I get will work before I apply anything. 

 

My local hardware stores and big box stores have the JB-Weld WaterWeld stick. Does that work? Unfortunately, the packaging makes no mention of ABS plastic. Does that work, or are there other recommended products?

 

I did use JB-Weld PlasticWeld to (attempt to) smooth out the edges of where the thermal detonator holder attaches to the rear torso armor, but I have discussed how much of a headache that turned out to be, so I don't want to repeat that. The liquid nature of PlasticWeld made it very difficult to smoothly apply before it dried.

 

UPDATED INFO: I realized I did not look at the auto parts stores in my area. I went to one and found the stick/putty version of JB-Weld PlasticWeld. The packaging specifically mentions ABS plastic as one of the types of plastic it is meant for! Once cured, PlasticWeld can be sanded and painted. As this is a very similar product to what is shown in the Imperial Surplus photo tutorial I will go ahead and use the PlasticWeld stick/putty.

 

 

Browsing the FO Armors section I found a couple of threads for you, take a read mainly in the first section where they explain the materials and tools needed. Both mention the Epoxy they used.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Tilheyra[TK]]

Alright, I have read through working with the epoxy putty and how others in those threads have worked with the putty. The final realization about limiting the epoxy putty came after seeing how far one tube of the putty went. Not far at all. Each tube costs $10, and I am not in the position to buy the required number of tubes, and it does not make sense to use the putty for every seam when many of them are sturdy enough after gluing with the E6000 glue. The big take away is that I should not cover every seam with that putty, and I should only use it where there is a benefit provided by the epoxy itself. Nevertheless, I ended up covering the seams of the thigh armor and part of the biceps prior to running out of the lone tube I purchased, so I went out and purchased a second tube to complete the biceps.

 

In reality, the biceps are the only place where I should be using the epoxy putty, and this is due to my need to make the bicep armor larger than originally designed. I enlarged the bicep pieces just enough for my arms by creating spacers out of extra ABS plastic, with the space on the outer seam being 0.75 inches in width, and the spacer on the inner seam (which will be under my armpit) is 0.25 inches in width. I did this for both biceps. 

 

As I mentioned in my most recent post, the epoxy putty I am using is JB-Weld PlasticWeld. After failing to find it at my local hardware stores and big box stores, I was able to find it at the auto parts store near me. Here is what it looks like in the packaging:

 

 

As seen on the packaging, ABS plastic is one of the materials it is meant for. Prep work required is cleaning the plastic and sanding the spot that will be covered with the putty. My God, the putty is awkward to work with!!! The epoxy putty is a 2-part formula, so it required kneading with one's fingers to fully mix the parts together to activate whatever agent is involved in the hardening process. The packaging indicates one is to knead the putty until it has a consistent color, and you don't only get the visual indication of color when the agent is activated, you also get a pronounced change in its level of stickiness! It will stick to your fingers (I wore disposable exam gloves, as recommended on the packaging) as soon as that occurs, and it is an annoyance the rest of the time you are working with it. Much of the putty did stick to the plastic, but an annoyingly sizable amount would remain stuck to my gloves.

 

The instructions indicate one is to firmly press the putty onto whatever needs to be connected or repaired. I did so, but it was very difficulty to create a smoothed surface on the putty when a sizable amount sticks to your gloves. As such, following "firmly pressing" the putty to the working surface, I would remove my fingers, and some of the putty would remain stuck to my gloves, lifting away from the rest of the putty. This produced a jagged texture I could largely not get rid of. As overworking the putty results in even worse outcomes, I had to just accept that the putty would have to be jagged as it dried, and I would have a much more difficult time sanding. As I worked, I brough it some popsicle sticks to try and make the work a little easier, but this was to not avail either. The biceps ended up looking like this:

 

 

Ultimately, the putty did its job of filling the seams and strengthening the biceps, but I am not pleased with the process. I also am not pleased with the amount that may need to be sanded off at this point, due to how jagged and rough the appearance is currently. 

 

For the remaining seams, I have decided to use caulk, due to my familiarity with the material. I may apply caulk on top of the sanded, dried putty to smooth out the appearance. Fortunately, there are many ways I can approach this to improve the appearance, and by no means have I made a mistake I cannot recover from. I don't think I will be using the epoxy putty again.

 

Alright, enough with the trials and tribulations. I'll make another post right after this to talk about my successes with the build this past week!

[Tilheyra[TK]]

Despite the turmoil today, I have made a lot of progress with my build over the last week, and the issues that presented themselves today are recoverable.

 

The big piece of news is that I completed constructing the leg armor, and I constructed the arm armor as well! I was so excited about having constructed the leg armor that I wanted to take another photo of me wearing it! This time I was very strategic with the placement of the masking tape and hid it all from view!

 

 

Here's the completed armor for my left leg (minus the kneecap armor), showing the velcro on the lower leg armor. This view shows what is the inner seam that will be between my legs when wearing the armor:

 

 

I also constructed the arm armor. The first photo shows one of the two pieces of the forearm armor as it was being glued. The second photo shows the glued forearm and bicep armor on my right arm:

 

 

 

I mentioned the modifications needed to enlarge the bicep armor in my previous post. Here's a photo of the bicep armor with the spacers created:

 

 

I have made a lot of progress this last week, and even with the troubles today, I am still on course to complete this build within the next couple of weeks! I have decided that I will debut my armor at a con coming up at the end of the month. I live in Indiana, so I will be attending Indianapolis PopCon during the last full weekend of this month!

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Adding a piece of plastic behind the join with help with the strength of the joint. FYI you can get larger tubes of JB weld although not the needing type, I find works out a lot better price wise. Try not to heap it on, a few thinner coats will dry quicker and should give extra strength.

 

Like anything it's all a learning curve and just adds to your future experience  

[Tilheyra[TK]]

And this has been quite the learning experience! 

 

I have applied some caulk over the dried putty on the thigh armor and this has successfully blurred the roughness. I sanded and sanded the dried putty prior to doing this, so it has been a multi-step process. I will probably apply another layer or so of caulk before I consider it good. The biceps will get the same treatment. I still have to apply the paint to all leg and arm armor pieces, so that should help as well.

 

EDIT: My lack of familiarity with the PlasticWeld material meant I did not recognize the level of sanding required to get everything off, and not to mention I put too much on the surface anyway. Unfortunately, although I can easily go out and get an electric sander, I do not want to run it in my apartment, and I have no access to an outdoor space where I can tackle the task (having just moved also means I do not know anyone local who can help...yet...). This is all to say I will be at a decision point eventually where I may want to affect a more thorough fix to this situation, but I am satisfied with my "fix" for now. Fortunately, I have much more familiarity with caulk (thanks to the many summers of house remodeling jobs with my grandpa), including removal from plastics, so a change to this arrangement may be in my future. I really don't want to use PlasticWeld again without more guidance from someone more familiar. As such, let these couple of posts stand as a cautionary tale.

 

Here's what the thigh armor looks like right now:

 

Edited August 7, 2023 by Tilheyra

[Tilheyra[TK]]

The forearms and lower legs did not get any treatment from PlasticWeld before I switched gears to bring caulk into the picture. These parts have (or will) have caulk used to cover the seams, and as I bough caulk that can be painted over, the white paint will go over everything.

 

The caulk is working quite well to hide seams between the parts of the forearm armor!

 

 

[Tilheyra[TK]]

I have made pretty good progress the last 2 days. Most of the leg and arm armor pieces are ready to be painted, so I have made a special spot for those parts to have a visual indication of how much progress I have made in 2 days! The last couple of armor parts will be completed tomorrow evening, so I will be able to start painting the day after that! The painting will be a bit less complicated given that the chest, back, torso, and bottom pieces have already been painted.

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Great work, just make sure you clean up any sharp edges before painting, mainly around rims/ends of the armor

 

 

[Tilheyra[TK]]

Great catch! Thank you!!!

[Tilheyra[TK]]

Painting day has arrived! Unlike my previous paint session, I do not have a friend's yard to work in, nor do I have a good space at home, so this session will be at a not-so-busy public park!

 

I've made a very rudimentary painting rack from the shipping box the armor came in to contain the overspray (I got the rest of the packing peanut bits out after I had taken the photo). The box flaps will be taped vertical when painting. I have punched holes in different areas of the box for different length dowels to support different size pieces as I work. The holes not being used will be covered with painter's tape.

 

It should be a good conversation starter if anyone at the park wanders over to see what I am doing. I hope folks in my town like stormtroopers!

 

With the number of pieces to be painted, and not having a really long stretch of time to do everything at once, the painting will actually take multiple days. I have a space in my apartment set up (next to a window and with a fan) to put things to complete the drying process, but the pieces won't be moved from where I paint them until the paint has dried enough to handle (the Krylon Fusion can notes to wait at least 1 hour).

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Just watch out for gusts of wind or flying insects  

[Tilheyra[TK]]

Done for the day! No big issues, and my very rudimentary painting rack did its job quite well!

 

I completed the painting and clear coat for the thigh and lower leg armor. The pieces turned out great!

 

 

 

 

I also did some touch-ups to the belt pieces, thermal detonator (did not get a photo), and my pistol. I have been so focused on my armor that I did not think about a weapon, so the painted-over Nerf gun is a stopgap until I buy a proper prop weapon. The Nerf gun will just be in a holster on my belt.

 

 

 

My next paint session (ideally tomorrow) will consist of painting the arm armor (forearm, bicep, and shoulder), kneecap armor, and many smaller pieces (shoulder straps, hand armor, etc.). I may paint my boots tomorrow as well, but that may be put off to a third session as the other parts seem like a lot as it is.

[FN1313[TK]]

Just watch out for gusts of wind or flying insects  

Yeah…that’s when I gave up painting armor for the mandalorian. I didn’t want to build a full paint studio just for one armor.


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[Tilheyra[TK]]

Bugs were a big problem when I was painting the chest armor! I shouldn't have been surprised as I was in Oklahoma at the time, and the heat, humidity, and bugs really, really annoyed me. There's an imperfection in the paint on the shoulder strap of my chest armor, and it was because a bug decided to land on that part as the paint was drying. Removing the bug removed some paint...ugh...

 

I'll be wearing a wig that is long enough that it should cover that imperfection, however!