mjt82

Hey @Chaos - Can you describe your method for weathering your armor? It looks great!!

What type of leather are you using for this one @nanotek? I haven't seen anything at my local craft stores that seems to be as thick as what you have there.

You will have to put that part on first, then put on the shin pieces. I probably will attach that part to the shins with velcro for security.

I'm not exactly sure how I will join them together. I have seen a method using strong rare earth magnets in the front and back, which is attractive to me. I will probably attempt that first! Velcro is a popular option, as well. Cheers, and happy building!

I gave watered down wood filler (a la Nathan Ritchey on the Facebook group) on my remaining shin pieces. It's much easier to apply, that's for sure, and will likely be much easier to sand down. On the right you can the shin that I covered in spot putty. I think the spot putty I got was old - It had separated somewhat in the tube, and was very "pasty" and not easy to spread. I've got alot of sanding ahead of me on that shin.

Well I haven't been very good at updating this thread, but I have taken a few pics of my progress, and I can describe what I've done so far during my build. I have nearly all of my parts printed - I've learned a lot about 3D printing in this process, and have had to work through quite a few print imperfections as I have assembled my parts. Using the smaller print bed means I have to cut most everything into smaller pieces, then assemble them. I had a few problems with "elephant foot" deformities, but eventually got those under control for smoother assembly. The TDK Props files are super detailed, though... I'm very pleased so far with what I've printed. On my back armor piece, I ended up having a severe print fail after about 20 hours on one of my prints. In an effort to avoid scrapping the whole print, I estimated the spot where the print failed, cut the model in my slicer at approximately that spot, printed it, then sanded the parts down to fit. I think it turned out OK. It's the right lower blue panel that I had to fix: I coated my parts with fiberglass resin to take care of the print lines. I learned a lot about resin during this process as well - Some of the applications needed to be out in the sun to fully dry. I'm not sure if it is the UV from the sun or the heat, but a few hours in the sun seems to full "set" the resin on the parts. In the pic here there are a few of my son's Scout Trooper parts that I was coating with resin at the same time. I tried to coat one of the sections of my shins with spot putty like I see done often, but this was a huge mess, and I think from here on I'll use a light coat of resin to fill print lines. I reenforced the chest, back, ab, lower back, shoulders, thighs (front and back), cod, butt - basically any part with a seam - with fiberglass for strength, and I really like how this feels. I've read where some people are worried about the weight of the parts with fiberglass reenforcement and resin coating, but I don't think it will be too much of an issue. Here is a shot of my chest piece with the fiberglass backing. It really does create a more robust piece of armor. As you can see, there are a lot of air pockets under the fiberglass - This was my first attempt at applying fiberglass, and I definitely got better on subsequent attempts. I'll paint the inside, but I'm considering adding some adhesive-backed thin neoprene to the inside of the larger pieces. Current status: Armor parts are in various states of completion. I've gone through several cycles of spot putty, sanding, primer to reveal the spots that need more putty, apply putty, sand, repeat as needed. It's definitely coming along! I even went ahead and applied some black paint (just some older paint that I had in the garage) just to see what it looks like in black, and I'm excited to see how it looks! I have a couple of days off next week, and I hope to spend the majority of both of them working toward getting the parts ready for paint. I'd really love to have it done by June, if possible, for the return of the Mississippi Comicon and our "Blast-a-Trooper" fundraiser event. Thanks for following!

I can try to get you one. I’m currently in the process of 3D printing a new suit because I was so unsatisfied with my KB kit. When I purchased it, however, I didn’t know what I was doing, and there weren’t but 2-3 making the kit at that time, so I did the best I knew to do.

I have a KB kit, and my brother has an 850 kit. I wish I would have gone with the 850. In fact, I purchased a set of shins from 850 to replace my KB ones, because the KB shins were incredibly bulky looking.

Looks great, Paul!! Well done!

Having finished printing both of them now, upside down would save some support material!

Well, the bed thermistor has been replaced! Time to resume some printing!!!

@DHKnecht - I’ve done something similar to what you have there in my slicer. I don’t see any way around having to use a ton of supports (and waste a lot of material) to get them printed right. For the time being, I have had a bit of an unplanned pause in my printing. I am having some issue with the bed thermistor wire on my printer - I think it’s just something I’ll have to re-solder when I get a few minutes to tear into it. Kindof a bummer because I was about 1/3 of the way printing the ab parts during my camping trip this weekend when my wife sent me a message that I had an error and the print stopped. But! I’ll get it fixed and press on! My goal is to have all of the parts printed, puttied, and sanded by the time the weather is warm enough to paint, so I have a little time!

Regarding the fans, I have found that pointing one fan downward as an exhaust will help keep my bucket cooler.. The St. Paddy’s parade two years ago resulted in our Fett being hauled off in an ambulance due to heat exhaustion, but I wasn’t too terribly hot with my fans running!

I am about to tackle printing the ab, which I’ve actually cut into six pieces so that the joints will be in easier to finish areas, as in, areas with less detail. I’m going to see if I can print all six pieces at the same time - I usually like to keep my print times down to around 12 hours or so, just for my own comfort, but I have faith in the Prusa! Question for you @DHKnecht, if you don’t mind, how did you go about printing the top portions of the shins? Those parts are such odd designs that if you print them flat, you end up with tons of supports, and thus wasted filament!

I need to look, but I think my MK3 is a large... I wonder if the MK4 would look less "bobbly"...