rogerwyatt

... and I got approved. I am now TX 71607 (my son's birthday). Proud to join the Legion!

Submitted today!!! Still going to make adjustments and some tweaks. VERY happy with Jimi's kit. I want to get the undercut shirt altered to fit tighter.

Test for the belt location and the thigh straps. I got the final piece out of paint today. I need to attach the boxes to the belt and put on some velcro to hold the belt up.

I did a first test fitting. One shin was still drying. I was checking on the length needed for the side straps and to figure out mounting positions for the thigh straps (which is why one thigh was falling down). Happy with how it is turning out.

Progress update. I have most of the upper strapping completed. Attached the rockets to the forearm.

Worked out how I'm going to strap everything. I'm using all velcro and elastic. I'm making these tabs that will triple lock the straps. It will allow me to completely disassemble the kit and individually wrap each piece so they don't get banged up, avoid failing snaps, and will hold up to movement.

So, here is the work so far all laid out (except the belt stuff)

I clam-shelled them. Good idea on screwing them from the inside. I'll look at doing that. Would be much more durable.

I fixed the light leak. It look a lot of masking and then I got my airbrush and tried to get in there but it wasn't really working. So, I ended up taking paint and pouring a drop on the gap and then using a toothpick to let the air bubbles out. The paint flowed down to the big offending leak and took care of it. Lesson learned. On Jimi's kit mask ONLY the front of the light and the back of the square mounting peg. Paint everything else. I made the mistake of leaving the sides of the square mounting peg unpainted. Had I painted the sides, I wouldn't have had the problem. Shins are assembled. I have some Apoxie Putty coming in today and going to finish filling the seams. I have 1 little hole in a box to fill. With that, I'll be painting them and then I start strapping it up. I'm also planning to use it for attaching the rockets to the forearm. I may change my mind because I'll need to touch up paint them. I just think it would give the rockets more durability than just using 5min epoxy.

Tonight I'm going to be working on getting the visor installed. Backpack is painted and clear coated and it is now perfect.

I was able to make a quick modification and now I've got the lovely green color I wanted. Still have to deal with he light leak, but that's going to be easy with a little bit of model paint.

Well, it looks like part of it is the white LEDs I used were just blowing through the resin. I'm going to put on a piece of green plastic between the LED and the resin to make sure it gets to the proper green.

It's just picking up the blue painters tape that I used temporarily. In Jimi's kit, the tusk lights are green resin already.

I got the wiring harness built and did a test fit in the helmet. I have a light leak on one light that I'll be fixing with a little black paint and fine brush. Everything is 5v so I can use a USB recharging pack. One circuit is for the fans and one for the lights. I have an extra circuit on the connector for the mic when I get ready to add it for the voice changer. On the paint front, I'm now down to: Clear Coat: forearms, one thigh Color: shins, one thigh, and repainting backpack (it had too much orange peel so I remanded it)

Last night I got the tusk lights glued in place and soldered the lights to the harness. I'm going to build a little mounting/reflector part for the LED that I will connect using gaffer tape and will use gaffer tape for the harness wiring to the helmet. Fans, and marine plugs are arriving today so I will be wiring all that up tonight. My goal is to have the helmet wired for everything but the voice before the weekend. Going to use temporary switches until I do the upgrade to micro switches in my left glove. On the paint side of the house, I'm now down to 2 pieces that need full paint, 2 that need color sanding and then finish coat and clear, and I'm polish sanding the clear coat on the backpack. Strapping will start soon, maybe next week and hope to be finished by next weekend and ready to submit for approval!

So I decided to resend to get rid of the orange peel and ended up hitting some color. I repainted and re cleared it and then finish sanded and buffed with the DA polisher. Here is what I got now. Much better now.

I polished the bucket really good in prep for adding the semi-gloss and flat. This is how a bucket shines! to get all of this done. I built a polishing stand. The foam wedges the helmet in place so I can take my DA Polisher and go to town on it. Thought I would share the complicated design. Color sanding the back plate and I have rebuilt the busted tusk light. They are heading back to paint tonight. Going to mask off the areas for the semi-gloss black. I know there has been lots of back and forth on the question. I think the side pieces of the snout would be semi-gloss. The hose would be flat. I saw a post where an actor said the whole kit was gloss except for one part, but I think that gloss snout would cause glare and semi-gloss will tone it down without making it blend with the hoses. JMHO ...

So now I've got chest plate, back plate, hand plates, belt pouch covers, ab plate, biceps pieces, and one shoulder bell clear coated. Still have polishing to complete, but it's getting there. I had to basically redo the ab plate because there were too many pinholes. So I hit it with bondo and sanded it out. I'm sanding the thighs now. I have to bondo the greeblies on the shin. Before doing the shins, I'm need to sand and fit the front joint. Leaving the back joint open for velcro. One of the shin pieces has a thin spot that I need to put a small dab of fiberglass on the backside and then fill the crack before priming and painting. The forearms need some fitting and will glue them up before painting. I picked up 5V USB fans to go with my USB power pack. I also have 5V LEDs that I will be wiring up for the helmet. I'm experimenting with a remote fan and piping to deliver the air throughout the bucket. We'll see how it goes. progress is being made....

Got the clear coat on the bucket. This last one was just for me to compare the chest piece to the helmet. Both need polishing, but I'm pleased with them.

The humidity is just crazy (89-90%) and obviously not good for paint curing. So, I'm going to turn a steel frame I've been working on into a temporary, mini, paint booth. Then I'll just bring the parts inside to cure. Otherwise, its going to be September before I can start color painting. So, it's going to be hanging plastic on the inside of the frame. Tape in a house air filter and connect a fan to exhaust the air. It should cause the overspray to catch on the filter and not fill up the garage with paint.

I'm back and getting moving on the build. Tonight I got 6 parts primed, 4 sanded. I'm using DupliColor Filler primer to take care of the minor scratches. Once I'm done, I'm going to do a skim coat of bondo to fill the pinholes. Hoping to start color painting by the weekend.

Sorry for not posting updates in a couple of weeks. Having a family crisis. Hope to be back to the build in another couple weeks and then I'm going to put the pedal to the metal and complete it.

I primered the bucket yesterday. I used high-fill primer and only have a couple of scratches to fill/sand out.

Got some work done on the bucket and put the lace covers on the boots.