camprandall

This looks great! I think I will likely either back my material with cloth or else redo it similar to this. It works great, but I suspect yours will hold up better over the long haul. Nice job!

I used Loctite plastic weld (Home Depot), but I still had to use glazing putty to give it a nice finish so cracking is still possible. I think the key is putting a nice thick band of ABS underneath it so that flex is very minimal, at least on the parts where it's possible.

Ok, now that I've gotten through 98% of this, I'm taking another pass at some clarifications in some areas. I'll make my notes in orange and my suggested changes in green. I don't pretend to know the proper semantics to use so it's more of a suggestion as I expect it needs to be adjusted. I also don't know exactly where first level approval should be so it's possible some of this shouldn't be required. Helmet For 501st approval: The helmet is gloss white with black trim The lens is smoky gray in color and must be sufficiently dark enough to obscure the costumer's eyes A pair of silver aerator/mic tip are present on either side of the chin. There is a black groove above the brow. There are two thin, thin black grooves near the frown that circumnavigate the helmet. The lower groove contains a black parallelogram on either side of the helmet. A thicker black groove circumnavigates the lower part of the helmet from the outer edge of each aerator. Neckseal For 501st approval: Black with horizontal ribs, fitted to the wearer, and extending from the base of the neck to conceal the entire neck. No hair or skin should be visible around the neck area Chest Plate For 501st approval: The chest plate overlaps the abdominal plate The center-top of the chest plate contains a recessed, black groove. There is a right-angle indentation on either side of the groove. There are two wings that attach beneath the lower section of the chest plate on either side. Back This maybe should be re-worded since they don't actually look like rivets or Chicago screws and it probably shouldn't matter if they are actual hardware. Most of us are using resin pieces that look almost identical to the prop but aren't functional. Here's my recommendation (or something like it that is maybe less wordy). For 501st approval: There must be visible seams where the back plate attaches to the front plate behind the shoulder with two screw-like heads on each side on the back-plate side of the seam. Shoulder Bells For 501st approval: One on each shoulder. The shoulders are considered effectively symmetrical. They may be worn interchangeably on the left and right shoulders. Shoulders have small round extension at the top under the bell itself that butts up against the chest plate. Biceps For 501st approval: Biceps have visible seams on the front and rear. Black material may be present between the seams. Elbow Gaskets For 501st approval: Gaskets shall be rubber or a shiny black material with ridges The elbow gaskets must cover all exposed areas between the bicep and forearm Forearms I might tweak it/rearrange it this way so that it doesn't sound like there are two boxes on each forearm. I also think we should mention the seam and gap since the FO TK doesn't have them. For 501st approval: Forearms shall have a box on the bottom the wrist end. Each box shall have a single black square in the lower inside corner. Forearms shall have have ridged rail, similar to a picatinny, embedded on the inside of the forearm, roughly covered 1/3rd by the box. Detail box includes a black rectangle on small edge perpendicular and closest to wrist. Forearms must have a visible seam along the outside of the forearm, with roughly a 1 cm recessed gap. Forearms must have a visible seam along the inside of the forearm. Gloves/Hand Plates I'm just recommending we use the exact same wording as the FO TK since I believe they are identical and this would be more consistent. For 501st approval: Are black with white palm, thumb and forefinger. Extend underneath the forearm. White area is made from leather or leather-like material. Handplates are rigid square boxes and the hand plates are mounted securely over the back of the glove. The black oval detail is aligned with the index finger of each hand. Abdomen Section I'm recommending combining these two sections because based on the text, it's not clear that the belt goes over the abdomen. For 501st approval: The abdomen section must wrap around the wearer's body. The abdomen consists of two separate sections: the upper plate, and the lower plate which rests beneath the belt. The upper section has a half-moon downward curved opening at the bottom-middle of the plate , a half moon upward curved recessed area at the top of the plate, and two vertical grooves on either side. The belt is ribbed and made from a rubber or a rubber like material. There are 2 horizontal boxes on the front, on each side of the center. They are painted white on the outside half and black on the inside half. There is a large vertical white pouch with a cover behind the left side of the wearer. Codpiece For 501st approval: The codpiece sits below the abdomen and under the belt and has a recessed rectangular areas on either side. Posterior Armor For 501st approval: The posterior armor sits below the abdomen and under the belt and has a rectangular recessed area along the top center. Undersuit I expanded this because there are actually a number of areas, such as the torso, where the undersuit shows quite a bit. For 501st approval: An undergarment must be worn such that all areas not covered by gaskets or armor shows a black material. The black material may be shiny or matte. Thighs For 501st approval: Two flaps rest independently on the back of the thigh below the posterior and above the thigh armor. There are seams on the inside and outside of the thighs. The right thigh (to the wearer) includes a band of black elastic, approximately 1 1/2 inches wide, that contains 3 black capsules. The right thigh contains a horizontal series of seamless boxes above the knee. The right thigh has a small knee plate attached with a small gap of black material approximately 1 cm in width. The left thigh has a larger knee plate attached with two black angled rectangular notches above it. Knee Gaskets For 501st approval: Gaskets shall be rubber or a shiny black material with ridges. The knee gaskets must cover all exposed areas between the thigh and shin. Shins For 501st approval: There are seams on the inside and outside of the shins. The wearer's left outside shin includes two vertical thin boxes that are seamless. QUESTION: Do we know for sure it's seamless? That seems unnecessary to me and might even be inaccurate. Spats For 501st approval: The spats are in two pieces that wrap around the front and back of the ankle with a small gap between them. The spats are attached to a black material that covers the top portion of the boots. Boots Again here, largely for consistency and precedent, I feel like we should just use the same text as the existing FO TK CRL. For 501st approval: ANH/ESB TK boots are allowed. If other boots are used: The boots are above ankle height and made of white leather or leather-like material. There is a seam down both sides of the front that swoops out to the side of the foot. There is a vertical zipper on the inside that spans the height of the boot. There is a black flat sole with no heel. No buckles or laces. Fuel Pack For 501st approval: The pack consists of a rectangular rounded frame, two large tanks, and one smaller tank in between the larger tanks. There is a smaller thinner tank behind the three main tanks that connects to the regulator at the top and the bottom of 4 white hoses that also connect at the top. The large right tank and the smaller middle tank both contain red, circular recessed areas in the top and bottom domed sections. NOTE: I changed this to not say LEDs because I can't think of other times where we actually require using real electronics for this sort of thing. The top dome of the middle tank is painted black. All three tanks are contained in a black horizontal harness. To the right of the middle tank is a small rectangle box that contains “OII†on its face. The top of the box has a black antenna. At the top of the frame is a fuel gauge and four white tubes that extend from the left and right of the regulator down to the bottom of the unit, behind the middle tank. NOTE: I'm not sure if we actually know where exactly these tubes connect yet or not, but you can't see the connection anyways. Optional Accessories Items below are optional costume accessories. These items are not required for approval, but if present appear as described below. First Order Flamethrower For 501st approval: Details to be painted black and white per reference photos. The flamethrower connects to the bottom of the fuel pack with a black mesh hose using a silver colored connector.

If it helps any, I used chicago screws for the front boxes. Rivets tend to want to pull through that belt (I learned that when I first built the FO TK). I then put sticky velcro in various spots around the waist armor and glued velcro to the webbing. Lastly, I have my belt closure behind the white pouch. The whole waist assembly goes on very quick and easy and I don't have to adjust anything so I'm very happy with it. It also doesn't matter much every time that belt buckle loosens itself up because it's attached all the way around. I'd take pics, but I'm out of town for 5 more days. Getting close man!

It's funny because I did almost the same thing. I used abs strips painted black to join the two sections and had to cut both waist armor pieces down to get things to sit more where I wanted. Kind of a pain.

Yeah, I really wish I had taken good pics of the under harness before heading out of town, but it was a little crazy. Here is a side view in progress. Ignore the rare earth magnets on the back. I basically riveted the harness to a piece of abs, added three chicago screws to the back plate, and then heavily glued the harness plate to the back plate which holds everything together and keeps the chicago screws solidly in place. Here are the reinforced notches for the chicago screws. I'm using a heavy work belt for the thighs and will also have two adjustable straps from the front of the harness to the belt so that will keep the chest down nicely without putting any pressure on the chest.

Thanks! And that pic is great! Thanks man!

For reference, here's what's left to do. Nothing significant at all. Attach thigh strap and capsules (this is done, but I forgot to put it on) Attach 4 white tubes to the back of the tank (also done) Add two vertical straps between the harness and belt in front to pull the armor forward a little bit Shorten the shoulder bells a bit more Paint little connector black that joins to the smaller tank

Ok gang, I'm about done with this and out on vacation. I thought I post a few pics. All that's missing is the thigh/capsule strap (which is done but I forgot to put it on), and the 4 white tubes on the back of the tank (which are also done). I then have a half dozen tweaks I'd like to make, a small part to repaint, etc. I'm looking forward to a week and a half away from this thing. In the meantime, is there anything here Todd that you think I need to adjust for approval purposes? I know the CRL is not quite done, but there's a lot of ambiguity in some of the tank details we know so it's a little tough.

Backplate looks good! I think I'm going to notch my bracket out along the top edge at some point to make it look a little more like this, where it looks like a separate piece. The toy is the only source so it's probably pretty close.

Almost there! I'll be done either tomorrow or Tuesday night and then I head out of town for vacation for two weeks. The tank paint job came out much better the third try, but not as clean as I'd ideally like. It's workable though. Eventually I might do LEDs for the red areas, but not this go around. I also attached the butt flaps. I decided to attach them with a couple thin painted strips of abs, the same I used to attach the ab armor to the belt armor. If I feel it's too rigid or I get enough armor bite, I might change to elastic. I didn't want to go velcro because that seemed to hard to control placement. Lastly, I finally found some parts that reasonably replicates the feel of the hose attachment. I'm going with it for now.

I used JB Weld. It feels pretty strong, but I'm not going to carry it by the bottom. The problem is that to put the dowels in, I had to chip out the glue holding the fiberglass together so it's hard to clear a path very deep without destroying the bars. It should be fine though for just helping a little bit vertically. Trooping will show for sure though.

Thanks Jim! Can't wait to finish this thing.

Ok, I see what you're saying. Yeah, I agree that the hot toys stuff is pretty close. It's more than adequate if there are literally no other sources. Some of this I think I'm going to be a little forgiving on because I think it's ok if some aspects of the prop are a little off. I want the proportions and key details to look good and then I'm ok with future enhancements to accuracy. One thing I also found, which I'm curious to know if you agree, is that the curved surrounding bar is significantly too short. It either forces the tanks to sit way to low or to have huge brackets on the bar to sit on that rod near the waist. As you can see in my thread, I added a good 2 1/2 inches with dowels because the bar only reached from the bottom of my neck to about 2 or 3 inches above the brace. It should sit nicely now.

Ok, I said "screw it" and decided to cut and extend the thing. I haven't racked up countless hours and a lot of money on this thing to be disappointed with the frame.

Ok, so here at the end I have a bit of a dilemma. I think I know how I want to hang the tanks and it should work great, but I think the tank's surrounding pipe is several inches shorter than the screen prop. On the screen suit, the curved pipe pops up a good inch or two above the neck armor and also meets the bracket on the belt. On mine, I've got it level with the neck armor and it's still a good two inches higher than the bracket. This is considering that I'm 5' 10" and the screen flametroopers were taller so this frame is obviously a bit too short. So now I have to figure out what to do. Do I have really tall bracket mounts on the pipe or do I lower the entire tank unit? The former probably won't look great and the latter will likely hide the tanks more than is desirable. The last option, which I don't like at all, is to try to cut and extend the bar with 3/4" dowels, but that will be really tough to match the circumference of the bracket and have it look seamless and also be strong. Ugh... Top of the pipe. Bottom of the pipe.

Sorry, what do you mean that the inner tank isn't the full length. Are you talking about the middle shorter tank with the lights? It looks like it's pretty close to the screen one.

That looks pretty cool. This gun is definitely complex, but the barrel looks great so far.

It's actually steel sheeting. It's about 5 or 6 lbs, which is awesome. At that weight, I'm going to try to have the harness hold most all of it and the waist just be backup.

So despite being very discouraged at the grey powder spray that happened yet again tonight on one of the big tanks, I did at least get a good paint job on the middle tank and the brace so that means when it cures I can finish all the mounting work since the big tanks just slide in. I also did what I was dreading - build the waist bracket. I think it turned out great! I can't really try the whole thing out until the tanks are ready, but I think it will work great and it's super strong. Here's what I did. STEP 1: Figure out the shape as best as I could and then cut two pieces of styrene to make it thicker. Glue together with zap-a-gap. STEP 2: Figure out the rod mount shapes and cut 5 layers per side, giving a full half inch of thickness. Drill half inch holes and insert a dowel to the proper length. I forgot to take a picture of this step, but here's the general idea. STEP 3: Cut a piece of heavy sheet metal to give the whole thing much better support, so it won't bend when there's downward pressure. Drill holes and screw sheet metal and base to rod supports. STEP 4: Heat bend the sides for attachment to the ab armor. This was also easier due to the sheet metal attached in step 3. STEP 5: Paint!

Thanks Todd. Yeah, I will be sanding one of the big tanks again after tonight I had a repeat performance of a nearly new can giving me a couple off sprays. So annoying. Yeah, I used this stuff because it would match my other armor, but I should have switched. I'm nearly there and didn't have problems earlier, but it's now happened twice on the same part so - another 4 days of waiting and then retrying. It's the last friggin piece that needs painting! The forearms and biceps are velcro'd to the gasket and the biceps are snapped to the webbing that goes across the back.

Oh, one more thing. I painted most of the white of the tanks too! One very frustrating element was that halfway through my second and final coat, one of the Rustoleum cans did what they occasionally do which is to spew a grey dust out. Needless to say, I'll be resanding and repainting the two big tanks in 2 or 3 days. Annoying because the paint job was coming out nicely. Eew....

Ok, so I'm about done with the adjustments needed after fitting everything. One area I'm particularly happy with is the the way my arms are mounted. Mounting them to the shoulder bells proved to be a bad idea so instead I made an adjustable strap that goes across the back and connects the arms to each other. It's not very taut when I stand there but if I pull my arms forward, I can use the strap to cinch them up a bit if they slide. It works great! The added bonus is that I can put both arms on by myself easily by just putting my arms in over my head and using the strap against my back for leverage to pull them up. Awesome! Another thing I did was setup the elastic band for the right thigh capsules. Pretty simple. I also made little pads for the knees to keep them straighter. I wrapped them in speaker cloth with velcro because gluing foam to the armor that will eventually get nasty isn't too fun. These are washable! And lastly, I taped off the white gun areas and clear coated the black areas with several coats of flat Krylon. Carrying it for 15 minutes left black marks all over the arms so I'm hoping this cuts it down a bit. White paint just scuffs no matter what, but black exposed paint is probably it's worst enemy.

I just saw this myself a month ago. Launch Bay was awesome! Oh, and the tanks arrived today. They're light!

Thanks Jim! Currently my backpack is in customs in San Francisco so probably a week or so. In the meantime, I have a short laundry list of things still to do before I even get the pack. BEFORE THE TANK ARRIVES... Create across-the-back shoulder bridge for biceps, with snaps Permanently attach chest flaps Add a snap strap inside each shin for extra support Add outside padding to the thighs to straighten them a bit Clear coat gun Sew elastic strap for capsules Cut more curve into the bottom of the biceps for mobility Attach butt flaps to thighs Attach back to harness