Frank Imperial commando build thread - armor completed

[Sithtrooper02[501st]]

So the journey started back in December, now completed this week. Below are the images of the final build along with individual parts in high definition so you can capture the details. In the next threads below, I will explain how I did end up with this final result. I will also try to share the tips and tricks for you guys to make your life easier. I based all the design and parts on the reference document I have put together (you can find it in the reference section in my post).

 

Here's the build:

Boots from Crowprops

Leather gloves from Crowprops

Abs section made out of urethane foam rubber molded, per screen reference

Suit from Keeptrooping

a good portion of the 3D models are from Big Fred Customs who did an amazing job already (I did modify almost all of them for screen accuracy and trooping) 

Several parts modeled by me (single piece Shin/spat, abs mold, dart launcher and greeblies on gauntlets, top box on chest plate, jetpack, jetpack attachment to the back plate, cod piece, etc)

Soft goods made by my girlfriend (MW11271)- belt and holster, velcros, harness,...!)

 

I will post the build process of these parts in the following threads. I will show how everything was printed/ prepared, painted, assembled. I will make the models available when possible (only the parts 100% designed by me, for the modified parts, I will sync with Big Fred to see how they could be shared.  Goal is to provide you info on how to build a suit that is designed by a guy who knows the pain of wearing the armor (my Sithtrooper is a tuff one to troop...  

 

 

 

Front top to bottom:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 16 by Sithtrooper02

[Sly11[Admin]]

Thank you for all your hard work on this project.

Your costume looks amazing, and now we can get the CRL built  and hopefully green lit in the very near future.

[Sithtrooper02[501st]]

Thanks for the feedback!

 

Ok, so after doing a SithTrooper build from scratch ( completed and approved for the 501^st) I was excited to diveo into the Imperial Commando. Did a LOT of research since there is no CRL and the resources/info even back in December were very minimal. I gathered the online reference and added a lot more for my own benefit, as I intend to be 501st approved once it's completed. I the absence of a CRL, I wanted to be screen accurate. Yu can find the whole screen capture reference I have made in the reference section of the imperial commando ( external document link).

 

So first was clearing out the toughest parts of the build, the parts that are outside of my skill set  . So I ordered the soft parts as follow, based on the research I have made to be as close as possible to screen reference:

- Boots from Crowprops. The imperial commando as basically FOTK boots with added sewing. (Keeptrooping has them as well). I did ask Giovanni to add more foam to the top sections, which he did a fantastic job

- Gloves from Crowprops ( only shop that has them, but from picture reference, these are easy to procure, as they are leather gloves with long sleeve, like some of the mando). Long sleeves are crucial so that they do not come out when trooping (from experience).

- Suit from Keeptrooping. The suit is generic, not tailored like Sheev’s but I wanted to have one readily available. I did order one from Sheev’s... it will take longer to arrive but with better fit. My girlfriend did have to make adjustments to make it fit properly, along with moving/adding velcros at the right place to fit my buddy. Up to you, a bit cheaper and quicker with Keeptrooping, but expect to go to the tailor to get it right.

- Belt and holster by me (my girlfriend). Belt is made out of white cotton with low density filler inside. The screen accurate material is thick white leather for holster/holster straps. The belt is cotton stitched with 5 rows. I found both the cotton and filler at a local fabric store, nothing fancy.

- ABS are made out of urethane foam rubber, as it is visible that the part is flexible in the screen reference and it was later confirmed on the build FB page that this is indeed the material they now used. I used Smooth-on TUFF STUFF 15, as it is very robust and made for cosplay/props.

- 3D printed parts are made out of PLA+ material and printed on either of my 3 Anycubic printers (2 are Kobra Max 2, 1 is a viper). I would highly recommend a large printer to do the big parts in one step, otherwise you will spend way too much time trying to cut parts and bond them afterward. For trooping, you will need to reinforce them substantially. Anycubic Kobra 2 Max is cheap and does a perfect job for all the parts. My general setting were 20% grid inflill, 3 layers, 0.2mm layers (0.1 for detailed tinny parts)

 

Paints and coatings

- Paints, I used mostly rustoleum paints, you can see them on the picture. Use ONLY flat paint when possible, NEVER use gloss paint when planning on having a gloss finish over it…you're running into trouble. So flat white and white primer under it (not shown). Grey primer for most of the parts, charcoal grey for the helmet front and one of the square on the chest plate. I used airbrush Vallejo game color 72.012 scarlet red for the red parts. Flat black for all black parts.

 

 

-Airbrush paints. For metallic parts, I used Vallejo aluminum (silver like parts) and dark aluminum (steel like parts- gun base coat). For gun top paint and weathering, I used the Vallejo model air black. I took a picture of the other stuff required to airbrush easily.

 

 

- Clear coats. I used rustoleum satin finish for grey/black/red parts (finish is good enough for these. For the gloss white, I used high end SprayMax 2K clear glamor, more expensive but you get car finish quality. This is one area you don’t want to cheap on… so easy to ruin a part with runout and orange peel finish. This one does a perfect gloss with some practice. I used 3 cans for the armor.

 

Finishing

My technique for finishing the 3D print is the one most people will use (everyone has his own recipe, but this one I found is the most efficient and bringing you perfect finish, so are my other teammates… after doing a Sith trooper gloss armor from top to bottom, I have several hundred hours of finishing :). So Sand the raw print with 60 grit/200grit to remove all protruding plastic and bringing to only depressions on the surface. Then Bondo+acetone (3:1 ratio) with paint brush. Then sand down with 200 grit almost to plastic, then the depressions are all filled.

Then Rustoleum filler primer, sand down with 400 grit. A second pass is normally needed for gloss sections. Then paint . For gloss sections, a quick 1000 grit+water to remove paint build ups , then clear coat.

 

 

3D modeling

For the armor, I reviewed several sources and ended up procuring both Galactic armory and Big Fred's custom designs. I started with galactic armory without too much attention to details, but after printing the helmet, I realized it was not as accurate as I would like to (see side by side pictures of the two printed helmets) I decided to switch to Big Fred's (grey one). I printed all the parts  in all the pieces separately when required  for screen accuracy and ease of printing with details.

 

 

 

I chatted with Zach from Big Fred's and he knows his models are not perfect, but at this time he has not been able to find time to adjust them. So I decided to do it on my own. Honestly, the helmet is perfect, no change there. For the other parts, I will note when I made tweaks. So, I used ArmorSmith, 3Dbuilder, Blender, Solidworks to scale/ edit / create modified parts based on Big Fred's files. Scaling is of course necessary, not only to be comfortable, but also to maintain the screen relative reference Armorsmith is a must, I did my first build without it and ended up redoing the armor more than 2x… worth the 30$ believe me. Below a snapshot of the parts on my avatar (not that chubby, it’s the sizing with the suit on me 😊 )

 

 

 

 

 

Jetpack design and adjustment/ fitting to the back armor

The biggest one I have seen is the jetpack, the details are all there, but proportions were not screen accurate ( to my interpretation of it). Most of it is just scaling the jetpack components to make the details thicker and increasing the central portion to protrude from the side components.

Below is one of the 3D model available on the market fitted on the armor. The current 3D models do not hide the attachment mechanism, due to the curved armor back and the flat jetpack rear.

 

 

Typical Mandalorian jetpack have a curve or staggering of the jetpack in some instances. In the screen reference, the jetpack has a visible recessed to hide/  embed the attachment points and bring the jetpack in close contact with the armor.

A recessed area must be present to have the general screen accuracy. With this recess, this enables the back to be in close proximity as per the movie reference. Below is a modified version and better fit to armor. So to do this, I had to redo large portions of the jetpack 3D model, to include a recess portion, while maintaining the internal cavity for lighting. It was a long iterative process on solidworks/3Dbuilder, but result was much nicer and screen accurate.

 

 

 

The jetpack should also be scaled so that the reactors do not exceed the bottom of the chest armor per reference and the top of the jetpack does not exceed the wearer’s top of collar armor.

The width of the jetpack should be approximately the same size as the width of the chest armor, although it is seen sometimes larger in the screen reference. So I scaled it properly to fit correctly, but this screws up with attachment points on the back, So I had to redo all of these, downloading files from JJ industries to correct. I made new 3D models to be able to 3D print, as the jj industries are designed to be metal. I used 70% fill PETG for these attachments.

As for the jetpack itself, the details on it need to be to scaled and adjusted. For Big Fred, I had to do several modifications on it to be correctly proportional. The central reactor had to be increased in size (originally the same thickness as the side reactors). Also, all the features on the main side were not thick enough. Same for the wing tip, they are way too thin and fragile to be used for trooping. I made them thicker and re-enforced them with a 90deg plate from the inside.

To make sure that the jetpack will fit to the main chest armor, I also made another part, on the internal side that can be customized for proper spacing of the anchoring points ( otherwise the jetpack need to be scaled with the chest armor and nothing will fit anymore, not even the JJ industries anchoring.

Talking of JJ industries, they have very good material. On my side, I didn’t to pay a 100$ for the anchoring, so I made some custom ones, that are size compatible with the JJ, because the chest armor is designed for them, so you’re kind of stuck with them. I painted those with dark aluminum finish.

I printed the jetpack in one piece (except for all the grey and black parts that are separate components from screen reference (also way easier to paint).

 

 

I added magnets on bottom reactor to be able to access easily the electronics. Top reactor is snug fit enough not requiring additional fixturing.

 

 

For the top red light, I used transparent PETG. I redesigned it as it was too thick to be able to 3D print with clarity with 3-4 layers 100% density. Needed a lot of sanding down to a 1000, then a clearcoat over the top surface. I left the interior raw printed and clearcoat to have the diffusion effect on the LEDs.

 

Will continue later with other parts!

Edited April 12 by Sithtrooper02

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

Some fantastic work here, really good to see one of these closing in on the finishing line.

 

We've been spoilt with kits and vac forms, so seeing the amount of effort going into this is amazing.

[Sly11[Admin]]

Hard, soft, and cloth components in an FISD costume!

Sounds pretty standard when you consider what we have in our stable, but Gauntlets, jumpsuit and jetpack all together for the first time in our detachments' history, not to forget new blasters, need I go on! Pretty darn cool.

 

We also need to consider the variants with the red sections of helmets, red gauntlets and the blasters etc.

This CRL will also require a gallery for more detailed sections, like Enoch does.

[Moff976[501st]]

Man, this is FANTASTIC! Well done!  Still working on my helmets (v1.0 is GA and v2.0 is 850/Big Fred’s). V2.0 will be the final and the first will be the fun one.

 

thanks for putting together surcharge a great resource!!!

[Sithtrooper02[501st]]

A bit of delay as I was completing the lights for the jetpack, chest and gauntlets (will post some nice pics later, but very satisfied with low cost solution to get screen accurate lighting  ). Here is one nasty part that gave me a lot of trouble... the ABS

 

Abs section

 

Probably the most challenging part is going to be the ABS section. The canon pictures are showing flexible armor With only one seam on the right side.

On top of being accurate,  I really did not want a hard armor, since either will be too large of a fit, or will be very uncomfortable (I can relate with my sith trooper). So I decided early on I would cast the ABS.

I designed a mold out of 3D print (+bondo+ filler+ clearcoat to get perfect smooth finish) based on many pictures. 3D models online are not perfectly accurate and of course cannot be made flat. I will have the 3D model available on my Etsy soon for everyone.

 

It had to be printed in 4 sections on my large printer to be approx. 330mm x 1000mm, as I am 5’8’’ /165lbs but I want the ABS mold to be fitting a bit larger/taller troopers if needed.

 

casting material

So I did a LOT of research on best suited material (I didn’t want to go to silicone, unless last resort as it cannot be painted ( except with costly stuff) and with the size, would be also costly. I went with Smooth-on Tuff Stuff 15, which is supposed to be designed for cosplay. Ok, that was a learning experience which cost me 4 full bottles, chat with Smooth-on tech guys, frustrations,…

I colored it with so-strong pigment white and black to end up with a grey. Just black is not accurate or enough qty.

Lessons learned:

-          Works great if :

-          You cast it with a room that is 20-23C. Don’t do it in hot or cold environment. The foam WILL collapse

-          You have to use the proper mold release and don’t be cheap on it, urethane is very sticky

-          Don’t remove it out of the mold before 24h, even if they say 3h,… it WILL collapse in some areas

-          Mix it with color in part B only. Mix it with mechanical mixer ( I used Allway HMQHelix paint mixer drll attachment on Amazon) in a high container (from 1$ store- you will throw it away) so that your mixer on your power drill will not inject air into it. Mix it for 1min at full throttle, after the first 30s, poor in new container, otherwise you will have some areas that will not cure.

-          Once mixed…you have 1min to poor it and level. You’ve got to be fast and accurate as it will expand 4x, not to have thin and way too thick

-          You have to put a plate with stoppers over it to control thickness uniformity (aim 8-9mm) and have a nice surface finish.

-          Even with all this, you will end up with marble finish (after several chat with smooth-on staff) , but surface finish will nice and even, so when you apply the paint it will be smooth and nice.

 

I used Tulip grey fabric spray paint ( you can get it at Michael’s if your in US or Canada). Fabric spray paint is the best for this flexible material. It’s scary when you apply it, but when dried it is very uniform.

Below are images of the mold open and closed with the cover (showing white stoppers to have 8-9mm thick ABS ( I tried several thickness and this is the optimal for this product).

Here is the ABS as demolded.

Painted

 

The ideal is to use straps on the ABS to support weight of the belt, cod and holster. I used velcros from brand 'Velcro' heavy duty, white from Amazon) inside and outside to secure the parts to the ABS

Edited April 21 by Sithtrooper02

[Sly11[Admin]]

Francois, you have gone all out on this built, this is seriously good stuff.

To say I'm impressed would be an understatement.

Fantastic work and great details in this build thread, I'm sure this is going to make it easier for other potential builders.

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

That foam casting sounds like a real adventure.  Looks like you did a great job after a few goes!

[Sithtrooper02[501st]]

1 hour ago, themaninthesuitcase said:

That foam casting sounds like a real adventure.  Looks like you did a great job after a few goes!

Yes, I wished I had these tips before going through with the trials! I thought I had it under control after going through it with a few silicone parts I had casted with my other armor...
Once you get it right, it's very comfortable and you can move (and bend!), I would say it's worth the time spent so that I will be able to troop easily. I will assist others who would like to go that path for sure!

[Sithtrooper02[501st]]

Lighting of the Armor

 

There are 4 parts that need lighting to be screen accurate:

- The jetpack grill

- The two gauntlets (2x red lights)

- The chest armor (1 red light on right side)

 

The jetpack grill was straight forward as I already had done the red transparent part (see thread above) inside the top grill. I simply put a white light you can find at any hardware store that has a remote and works on 3xAAA batteries. I will last several 10’s of hours before replacement, as with a remote no issue opening the top cover each time to power it or shutdown.

 

 

 

For the other parts, I went with easiest way forward for me, which was to use discrete LED. The ones I picked are rectangular 2x5x7mm red LEDs that work with 15-20mA/1.9-2.2V from Amazon. I have put the link belowand hope it will stay there, but these are pretty standard and can be easily replaced by Digikey/Mouser equivalents.

https://a.co/d/a1I6r5v

 

I used a small 3xAAA battery pack with rechargeable batteries that generates 4.4V and will also last 10s of hours in the Gauntlet (around 8-10h on the chest), which is perfect for using with the LED (I put 2 diodes in series). I simply added a small resistor adjusted to number of diodes to limit current. (ex: 4ohms for 2 x 2 diodes). For the 4  squares in the gauntlets, I used 4 LEDs (2 x 2 in series), for the larger rectangle, I used 6. As for the large rectangle in the chest, I used 20 (10 sets of 2 diodes in series). I glued them on an aluminum sheet (from dollar store), it helps reflect back the light in the right direction. The reason for the aluminum is to dissipate the heat from the LEDs, you don't want those to heat up and melt the PLA.

 

As those are still discrete LEDs, you have to diffuse their light to have a uniform red glow. I used 2x 0.3mm layers on white PLA sheets I printed, cut and glued in front of the transparent red plastic of the gauntlet/ chest armor.

I soldered them, then added a layer of insulating tape between the leads and the aluminum sheet to avoid shorts. I also potted the lead in clear silicone to further insultate and prevent leads from moving around. and attached them to the gauntlet with white duct tape (so that they can be removed if broken). Took me around 3h to get it done for all the parts, pretty straight forward stuff. Could be nicer looking, but nobody sees it…!

N.B. I added aluminum foil on top of the duct tape and secured it with yet another layer of duct tape to block the light... otherwise the armor was glowing from the inside 😊

 

 

 

Below is a schematic of the assembly and basic concept of LED assembly. You should do your own circuit and validate with someone familiar with these kind of circuits prior to assembling the lighting system

 

 

Below is the LED arrays prior to soldering and insultating. Unfortunately, I forgot to take picture after final assembly...

 

 

The inside of the gauntlets after assembly

 

Very difficult to take pictures of the light with a phone without over exposing the light/ under exposing the armor (phones hate LEDs), but here is a first pic that show the functional light. The most realistic view is actually from reflection on the floor…!

For nicer images, I did use my reflex on the chest with two light settings and take some longer exposure to get the color right, gives a pretty good idea.

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 02:49 AM by Sithtrooper02

[themaninthesuitcase[Admin]]

On 4/22/2024 at 2:49 AM, Sithtrooper02 said:

I would be careful when using a metal backing like this, I am sort of amazed thats working as it looks like a dead short to me.  Whilst the voltages are low here, a short will happily dump as much current as the batteries can send.  Best case, you drain the batteries quickly, less best case it melts something, burns you or worse.

 

 

A custom PCB here is an option, but a tad on the extra side for most.  A layer of clear plastic or tape is probably all you need, though some Vero board painted white would probably be almost as good reflective wise.

[Sithtrooper02[501st]]

4 hours ago, themaninthesuitcase said:

I would be careful when using a metal backing like this, I am sort of amazed thats working as it looks like a dead short to me.  Whilst the voltages are low here, a short will happily dump as much current as the batteries can send.  Best case, you drain the batteries quickly, less best case it melts something, burns you or worse.

 

 

A custom PCB here is an option, but a tad on the extra side for most.  A layer of clear plastic or tape is probably al you need, though some Vero board painted white would probably be almost as good reflective wise.

Thanks for the feedback, I will add more color/ schematics to the post above for newbies in electronics. This picture was just to show the quick test I made to verify the circuit as described ( final circuit doesn’t look like this, I will remove and place a schematic instead). There is/needs to be a current limiting resistor in the circuit just after the batteries, as I mentioned. There should never be a short directly if there is a bad contact, as it always should be with diodes. The aluminum sheet is there for a good reason, LEDs need to have a heatsink in confined spaces like this. Especially thru for the large array on the chest plate, otherwise the heat generated could locally melt the plastic so just plastic backing directly on LED probably won't do if you want to have  the proper lighting level. Alternate is to have a powerboard with heavy copper layers and large ground planes.
One should also place an isolating tape between conductor and ground i.e. to isolate the leads from the aluminum. I also potted the leads in silicone to make sure they don’t short while moving around. I will add schematics to clarify

Edited Wednesday at 02:26 AM by Sithtrooper02

[Sithtrooper02[501st]]

Other Armor parts

I did a first pass at how I made the rest of the armor below (high definition pictures of each part are in the first post of the build thread). I designed/built them to be as screen accurate as possible to the best of my knowledge and easy to troop with. Other than printing, coloring and finish already described, I will try to list the specifics of each part. I will also to make all the parts from my own creation available eventually on Etsy, but in the meantime, if you need them, just PM me.

 

Clear coats

For the clear coat, I used the Glamor 2K for the white and Rustoleum satin for all other colors.

N.B. screen accuracy can’t tell the exact finish, but obviously the white is either semi-gloss or gloss as it has specular reflections. The other colors are visibly lower reflectivity as they do not have specular reflection, but diffuse ones, so some kind of satin finish.

 

Fasteners disclaimer 😊

As a disclaimer, I don't like velcros! they are a quick fix though. I started with those on this armor for several reasons: initial adjustment, fitting for screen accuracy, difficulty to attach fasterners on soft armor. My 2 cents on this:

- The preference should always be snap buttons and straps, but sometimes they lack the rigidity to maintain uniform flexible joints between attached armor parts (like chest and back armor for example).

- Velcros keep the suit and armor pieces in close contact on the periphery of the armor, so this can be required for screen accuracy (like in this case for belt, knee, thigh, bicep). I will add snap button to the velcros for sturdy attachment on knee plates, holsters thigh plates once I have the final fitting.

- When possible, try to stich the velcros instead of gluing (never glue velcros on fabrics, it will fail). If using the adhesive backed velcros, only rely on high quality brand (3M or Velcro), not cheap stuff on Amazon. Otherwise, you’re way better off using plain Velcro that you will secure with E6000 or Silicone adhesive (for gluing to silicone parts or very flexible parts)

 

Helmet

The helmet is from Big Fred’s custom (no changes, except for the clips which I made thicker for screen accuracy). I printed and built all the parts separate for accuracy and ease of finishing. A lot of different colors and finish, so a lot of masking…!

Some tricks for clean paint lines is to use good quality masking tape. I would recommend Frog tape, you won’t get overspill if applied correctly (you can find it on Amazon, use narrow one or cut it)

The lens is a cut faceshield from amazon (see picture below) that a lot of people are using for their helmets (Hobart 770580 Face Shield replacement lens shaded). Pretty cheap and you can do multiple helmets with one shield. I secure it with duct tape so if it scratches it can be replaced and it’s very sturdy. Glue is not an option for this lens as there is not large overlaps with the helmet body.

For padding, I used tactical helmet padding you can find on Amazon for less that 15$. This helmet is designed to be tightly fitted to your head, so not a lot of room for padding.

You WILL need fans in this helmet, as the seal is almost making it airtight 😊, no way to wear without those. No wonder why you see the guys without their helmet while waiting for shooting…

You will need low profile fans and very small battery pack. I suggest you 3D print a couple of fans form factors before purchasing and try to fit them first. Standard Stormtrooper fan kit or voice changing kit WILL MOST LIKELY NOT fit in this helmet if you maintain the proportional ratio of the helmet to screen reference (i.e. you should check carefully the space left before ordering standard kits).

I will include a picture once all the pieces are in place, still WIP

 

 

 

 

Chest armor

The chest armor needed some mods to be wearable and screen accuracy. First, the overlap between the bottom and top portion is just a lip on Big Fred design, So I basically redraw the chest and added clamps so that both parts are rigidly attached while still showing that they are two separate parts. I wouldn’t count of glue to secure these critical parts together with original design (in my humble opinion) as the gluing surface is not very large vs the length of the parts. If not using this design, I recommend you secure the two parts with additional brackets/ reinforcements.

The ranking box also needed some tweaking to have the right size of button and thickness per screen reference. I suggest you print the parts individually and scale them to have better screen accuracy and ease of painting.

I glued the chest armor large parts together with E6000, just like all the small parts. I like E6000, as it remains flexible, but there are for sure other options (everyone has his own preference for gluing PLA/PETG).

I attached the chest armor to back armor with large black heavy duty 2in velcros on the shoulder (I like the ‘VELCRO Brand Extreme Outdoor Mounting Tape’ from Amazon). this is what holds the back +jetpack so it needs to be strong, while keeping joints together closely).

The sides can be secured with lighter velcros. You may need to add some plastic guides to prevent the sides from offsetting laterally while moving around. I forgot to add those on mine, but may add it to the model later.

Grey is Rustoleum grey primer. The red is airbrush Vallejo game color 72.012

Lighting of the chest is discussed in another post in this thread

Below are the two pieces from internal side showing the attachment clamps prior to assembly

 

 

 

Back armor

The back armor main body is Big Fred’s design without modifications.

The jetpack anchorings are completely custom, but fully compatible with Big Fred’s original JJ industries bolting pattern (as described in jetpack section). I designed those to be 3D print robust.

I added M4 threaded inserts in the back armor bottom anchor (you can see them in the picture below). For the upper T-shape Anchor, I used same principle as JJ industries and have an independent plate that I 3D printed and added M2.5 Threaded inserts. (you can see those in the picture below).

To attach to chest armor, I used heavy duty black velcros for the shoulder and lighter white velcros for the sides.

 

 

 

Bicep boxes

I ended up redoing the bicep box from Big Fred’s as the sides were not accurate. I kept the same design, but added the central notch to be screen accurate. I secured them to the suit with velcros doing the full size of the rear notched portion to end up with the same fit as the screen reference.

Grey is Rustoleum grey primer. The red is airbrush Vallejo game color 72.012

 

Gauntlets

Both Gauntlets from Big Fred’s needed corrections to be perfectly screen accurate/trooping (IMHO). Here is the list of mods on Big Fred’s original model:

- Rescaling of the gauntlets to have the right proportion to screen accuracy

- Redrawing all boxes so that they are thicker (they protrude quite a lot on screen reference)

- Redrawing the whipcord and the dart launcher (missing the cone)

- Adding internal guides to clamp the gauntlet with ease and no visible attachments (you really DON’T want to put velcros there as you need a minimal and uniform joint). Guide pins are 4mm dowels you can buy on Amazon (left overs from my Pit Droid antennas).

- Printed all parts separately for screen accuracy

https://a.co/d/a3muoaW

Painting for metallic parts is airbrush Vallejo 77.701 aluminum. Medium grey is Rustoleum grey primer. For the red squares/rectangles, I used 3mm dark red transparent plexiglass on amazon. I cut them with a Dremel saw and polished the sides. At 3mm it protrudes enough to be screen accurate.
https://a.co/d/7DojMLk

 

Lighting of the gauntlets are discussed in another post in this build thread. Below are pictures of the internal of the gauntlets.

 

 

 

Belt

I tried to scale the size and features of the belt strap against references. My best estimate is that it is approx. 2in wide. The material is some sort of cotton with quilted horizontal ribs (3 even large in the center and 2 small on each top and bottom edge).

For that, my girlfriend used simple cotton from the local fabric store with the closest white matching and some very light filler in between layers. Once sewed, you end up with a study belt ( I was surprised how nice this end up fairly straight forward). Below if a picture of the filling material used in the belt, pretty cheap at the fabric store.

 

 

 

For the belt boxes, I used Big Fred’s initial design for starting point with the following mods:

- redrawn the circular boxes to have the proper angled fin and proportions

- Modified all the boxes and clips to have proper scale and still maintain the 2in wide belt. Added 3 holes at the rear of the boxes to secure properly the boxes onto the belt.

- Modified the belt clips to add 20mmx3mm magnets holes to keep them secure.

I used M5x8mm setscrews to secure the belt boxes. You can find them at reasonable pricing at any store. In the US, the equivalent would be 10-32 setscrews.

I added white velcros at the rear of the boxes to secure them against the abdomen armor.

I painted the male front clip with 3 colors for screen accuracy (one can see on reference pictures that the belt male clip has a metallic finish connecting part that is followed by a black section). For these two sections, I used Vallejo Aluminum 77.701 and Rustoleum Matte black, followed by satin finish Rustoleum clear coat.

 

 

 

Holster

For the holster, I made it out of two parts (the holster straps and pistol holder). I used synthetic leather with 2.5mm thickness (bought on Amazon).

for the main straps section I measured the length to attach under proper boxes to fit screen accuracy (first and 4^th boxes on right side). I attached velcros to secure under the Abdomen section. There is no clear answer whether it is secured under the abdomen or under the belt. I choose under abdomen because it keeps the belt with even gap against the abdomen armor (otherwise you will see two boxes protruding from the other boxes.

For the pistol holder section, I used a 3D print frame to give it a nice rectangular shape on which I glued a thinner 1mm synthetic leather (with spray gorilla glue).

I added a pistol strap with standard snap buttons for thick material to secure the pistol per screen reference.

 

Cod

I modified the Big Fred cod to add the trapezoidal section and rescaled it (X-Y-Z) to have proper shape for screen accuracy. The cod is secured under the abdomen armor section with Velcro band so that it’s flexible and can move back and forth but not sideways.

 

Knee plates

No change to Big Fred, except scaling. Secured to suit with velcros on the whole back face so that there is no gap visible while moving around.

 

Thigh plates

No change to Big Fred, except scaling. Secured to suit with velcros on the whole back face so that there is no gap visible while moving around.

 

Shins & spat

Both Big Fred and Galactic Armory have a two-piece split design and were not fully screen accurate. Having had a split design on my current Sith Trooper, it’s a NIGHTMARE to put together and very difficult to have them stay perfectly closed with just velcros. So, I decided to design a single piece flexible 3D print (you can print it with any rigid plastic, but by design it is flexible). I designed them with the opening at the rear along the internal side of the flat portion as per screen reference. It opens up just like molded ABS would do, it clips and stay closed with magnets.

I have placed them on Etsy if you want to have more details and a small video on how flexible it is:

https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1704251352/imperial-armored-commando-shin-files?click_key=98d055ce0aceca6cb2e49b78066827e614e8b8e8%3A1704251352&click_sum=37b14591&external=1&rec_type=ss&ref=landingpage_similar_listing_top-2

 

Blaster Pistol

I used Big Fred’s pistol as is, no mods required. I painted according to what is available on the screen reference.  The painting on the blaster pistol (and for the blaster rifle) is as follow:

- Standard finishing (200grit sanding/bondo+acetone/400grit sanding/filler primer/ 400-1000grit sanding) until very smooth. Metallic surfaces need 1000grit finish before appliyingpaint and graphite.

- Rustoleum black spray paint for hard base color coat (matte / semi-gloss, doesn’t matter). Thin film just to evenly color before mettalic finish. Let dry overnight**.

- **For fully exposed metallic parts, I applied graphite powder while the black rustoleum paint was just an hour dry so that it sticks into the paint.

- Vallejo Dark aluminum 77.703 airbrush all over the pistol, except for parts that are already graphite coated. Let dry for an hour at least.

- Vallejo black 71.057, thinnest coat possible, just to hide the aluminum paint. When the paint dries and just stops being shinny, you can rub it with your finger to expose some of the aluminum underneath. I makes the easiest weathering 😊

 

Blaster Rifle

I have a post in the weapon’s thread section on this rifle. There was no existing model, So I did it to be as screen accurate as possible. There is only one good picture of it, rest give ideas, butt blury. Black series/Hot toys are not available, so this is my best interpretation. The gun is a mix of E-11 (scope, parts of the receiver, folded stock) and some other mixed parts (the ejector is not the E-11). It has a modern M4 butt stock on top of it! I will update the design when more info becomes available.

I wanted it to be trooping grade, so there is a metal rod going through it. You can find it on Esty with more info as well (3D model or printed if you don’t have a printer).  Finishing and weathering is identical to the blaster pistol described above.

https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1667406690/imperial-commando-rifle-blaster-stl?click_key=25ecdbab2cfbfaa3d409f4d598185ec222a74f17%3A1667406690&click_sum=885df68a&external=1&rec_type=ss&ref=landingpage_similar_listing_top-1