wook1138

So, I just wanted to add a little update. My helmet is a Mk3 from Denis at Armoryshop. Although it is a fine helmet, it was really big on me. I have a big head, so that part was fine, but the helmet looked too big on my frame. So I decided to get a Mk4 regular size helmet from Denis. Wow, what a difference. My head is nearly at the recommend limit for the medium (my head is 59 cm in circumference) but there seems to be ample room for padding and electronics still. I picked up the finished bucket and my first impressions are very good. Here are some picks. The Mk3 (self finished) is on the left and Denis's Mk4 is on the right. the Mk4 My Mk3 on my mannequin. Head looks a bit big. Mk4 on the mannequin. Lens still has protective backing on it. I find this size suits the size of my armor much better.

Good luck on your build. I have recently built an 850 kit (with an Armoryshop bucket) - my build is here on this forum. There are some challenges and concessions on the way to the finish line.

First full kitting up. Still need to add helmet fans and my voice system. There will be some required adjustments for a better fit (may need to trim a bit off the bottom of the shins... and maybe lower the biceps, tweak shoulder bells). Anyway, approval pics sent to GML and... approved!

Working on the E-11D. I modified the sling swivels - I cut away the 3D printed swivel and drilled holes for an actual swivel mount. I also added a mount for a real flashlight. I cut out some ABS to match the shape of the barrel vents and attached to the back of the mount for extra stability and just glued the piece on - it seems pretty sturdy but time will tell. Then I broke out the air brush to do the "burnt metal" weathering. Oh, I should mention that I painted the blaster with tamiya TS spray paints and the weathering was done with vallejo acrylics. For the main part of the blaster I paint a thick layer of gloss black and let it dry. Then I paint a few thin layers of gloss aluminum and a dusting of gun metal followed by a gloss clear finish (TS-13). I let it cure for a few days then I painted on a mixture of semi gloss black and matte black (I didn't have enough of one kind so I used both). within about a half hour, I take a soft rag with paint thinner and carefully wipe away the black in areas where one might expect weathering. Every now and then I go through the aluminum and expose the underlying primer, but a bit of dry brushing later can fix that. Anyway - I airbrushed the burnt metal with vallejo Air metal colours. My airbrush crapped out on me - the the effect was not exactly what I wanted - but I managed to get it looking ok anyways. I'll wait a few more days for all the paint to cure really well, then I can add the decals.

So, while adding padding and a hard liner to my bucket I realized that one should wait to attach the lights to the very end. While handling the helmet one of the lights made a cracking noise and became loose. I tried to add a bunch of E6000 to the backside next to the tube - hopefully that helps.

Thanks! I didn't notice the clicks.

Finishing the helmet. Well, it started with the helmet and it's going to end with the helmet. I bailed on this a while ago because I had an issue with the resin bubbling. I've shown this before, but here was my dilemma. I used bondo to fill the cavity and touched it up with some filler primer. I was able to paint the top black again and clear coat. Then I masked and added the metallic black and then the metallic/silver parts to the tube stripes area. While painting the aluminum colour, the tape let go in a spot and I got aluminum overspray over part of my helmet. Boo. So I had to repaint a few parts glossy black and clear coat again. Then I was ready to mask for the matte black. I masked the front of the helmet but decided to free hand the back details. Because of my recent issue with tape coming loose, I really taped this guy up for painting to avoid the possibility of overspray again. Well, it worked - no over spray. But I ended up with marks in the paint from the tape. I tried to use rubbing alcohol to clean it up, but it appeared I was making more of a mess. I left it alone for a few days - when I came back the "damage" was much less noticeable and I was able to buff it out with Tamiya polishing compound (fine and finishing). By the way, I am using tamiya synthetic lacquers (TS spray paint) for all my painting needs - love the stuff and the polishing compound works wonders. Then I brush painted the rest of the matte black recesses. Glued in the bits with a combination of CA glue and E6000 Forgot to paint behind the right hand snout piece - will have to do that later. Then it was time for the tusks and lights. I'm using EL panels instead of the LEDs that I got from ArmoryShop. The first set I got were white in colour but the shape of them made it difficult to fit into the tusk. So I ordered some green ones that had a different shape to them. The white ones look pink in the picture. I picked up a driver that is powered by two AA batteries. And cut the panels to shape using a template. I sanded the back of the green lenses with 1000 grit sandpaper to diffuse the light a bit. The one on the left is not sanded, the one of the right is. Glued on the lights with CA glue and E6000. Kind of a precarious connection with these - I don't know how durable they will be in the long run. Not a lot of contact for glued surfaces. Done except for the visor and mesh for the tube stripes. I have Ukswrath's voice system and I also have fans on order from trooperbay.

Lol. I already have your decals for both blasters. Just need to finish the paint on the E-11D and then they are going on. ?

Thanks man! I’m fixing what I can and ignoring my OCD on the rest. Lol. All I have left is the matte black details on the helmet and the electronics - which reminds me, I need to pick up more fans (this costume is much warmer than my TK). Almost there. Test fitting a couple weeks ago. no greeblies yet and the helmet isn’t done. And this is done save a decal

So I'll try imgur again and skip my laments to tapatalk. Anyway, I think I'm done the legs with the exception of a bit of Velco to keep the shins from rotating and riding up on the boot - and padding. Lots of padding. Shins were pretty straight forward - the front and back overlap. I e6000 the front and added velcro to the back. I had to trim quite a lot from the back to make the shins fit and they are still a bit big at the knee. I did taper the cut because there wasn't much room at the ankle - I've got skinny knees apparently. added some glue to the adhesive velcro just to be sure it sticks. Always point the rough side of the velcro away from your body and undersuit/soft parts. Front - one side has very faint detail that is supposed to replicate the coverstrip detail - very hard to see. I think I will add actual coverstips at some point. The outside piece overlaps the inside piece. Reference - you can see the difference in the coverstrip. Yikes. For thighs I attached nylon to the rubber matting with glue and rivets and then glues the nylon to the inside of the thighs. I just didn't trust the rubber to glue very well to the ABS. you can see the details I glued to the bottom of the thighs - turns out these are very off and I had to mod them to get a little closer to reference images. And add a snap for the garter system. I placed the snap right at the front ridge - I did see a reference pick that suggest there was strapping more to the side. The problem with the details on the thighs is that the top should line up with the top of the ridge on the front of the thigh, and the bottom should not be so low. This is the inside. Reference The left thigh is not actually done up here. The right thigh has extra details on the inside and outside of the thigh. I re-positioned the tabs and added some pieces of ABS to mimic the look of the reference. Oh, this is why I use E6000 for my builds, I had to take of the tabs - easy with E6000 Greeblies were a lot of work to clean up. had to putty, flller primer, and sand many times. Oh, and the little detail the goes on the back lower part of the shins - I cut it down to meet up with the ridge on the other side of the shin. see ref Done I added some flat black to the grooves. The knee plate in this pic almost looks flat black too. Hummm

So, I've given up posting updates. I can't log in via tapatalk and I find imgur inconvenient to use (plus the images don't always display). I came across some minor modification for the thighs and a revelation that the thighs were actually closed with velcro (back, inside connection where the ribbed rubber matting connects to the back thigh piece). This was then secured with black zip ties for filming. I glued all my matting to the thighs so they are now one piece. And I had to reposition the larger tab (inside bottom of thigh, below the matting) and reshape it... and, add a piece of ABS for a detail that is missing from the kit.

Chest to back connection. This turned out to be trickier than I thought it would be. To get the position of the buckle in the right spot and to create the same detail as the reference images, I had to cut a bit off the chest piece and then attach the buckle to the connecting piece (using those two pieces of extra ABS 850 includes in there kit and nobody seems to know what they are for ) Reference Cutting the chest piece - I'm not a big guy so I could get away with this very easily. I used the angle of the buckle to draw the line (etched line). once the chest piece was cut, I glued some scrap pieces of ABS together to fill in the recess part on the inside so I had a level area to glue in the connector piece. I shaped the scrapes to give the appearance of an angled edge. I also added some ABS paste to smooth it out (not image of that). Connector pieces. There was a lot of test fitting and adjusting to get the shape of these right. The rough sanded part will get glued to the chest. the back part will be either velcro or a snap - I have not decided yet. Gluing in the connectors Paint and attache the buckle - they are molded with bolts in the back. One more little thing done.

This is what I did. front overlaps the back along the collar and the ends butt up to each other. I did re-shape the neck opening a little to make it more symmetrical. Hope that helps.

So, long time and no posts. What can I say - life is a gong show. Still picking away at little things. I managed to get my belt done. I backed the rubber with abs to make it more rigid. I hot bathed the abs and attached them to the rubber with E6000 and rivets. The abs boxes got screwed on to the belt. You can never use too many clamps. Boxes screwed onto belt I don't have a picture, but the ABS is riveted near the front behind the front pouches. there are rivets at the back on end of the belt (right side) that is over lapped by by the other end of the belt. The picture is from a Maker's Faire where I got a chance to sit and work on my armour all day. Test fitting belt - the belt is rotated a bit to the right in the pictures. Belt box appears too far back because belt is rotated. I think both boxes (front edge) were measured about 12.25" from the front center of belt - so they are symmetrically placed on belt.

Jim's kit looks pretty good. I spoken with him in the past, very nice guy. Another option for a fiberglass kit is Plastic Arms Dealer (website, etsy, or Andrew McClary on FB). Armory Shop has a 3D printed kit that they will print to a custom size (facebook or Etsy). KB Props (facebook) has a ABS kit as does 850 Armor Works (etsy, website, and FB). I'm sure there are others, I just can't think of them right now. I went with an ABS kit - and after working with it, I think I would recommend a fiberglass kit - the ABS kits just look too soft for the sharp lines seen on the deathtrooper armor, IMO. Good luck!

Thanks! I do have some extra ABS for under the arms (chest to back connection). I think I might cut the chest piece so it looks like the reference pic (just in front of where the buckle would go) and add the buckle to the joining piece (which will be glued to the chest and Velcro or snaps connection to the back - might be harder to get on though ?). Yeah, I did finally manage to find an image of how the strap for the SE-14r is supposed to work. I had it wrong. Yes, the magazine looks pretty long compared to the reference images. I think the receiving bracket for the magazine is the culprit - it doesn't look like the reference images. I'll post some images later. I do have a 3D printed mount for the 3D printed light that came with the kit - I didn't even consider trying to use it. I'll have to check tonight to see if it might work. I know FieldMarshal (Chris at War Machine) used to sell some kind of a bracket for the flashlight. I figured I could rig something up with spare plastic that I have kicking around.

Anybody know how to attach the flashlight mount? Pretty sure it goes here but how do you all attach it to the barrel? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Since it is too cold to paint still, I moved on to the E-11D. A bit more confusing. The kit is from Jerry Budde and I have a "extras" package from 3DpropsNL which includes a sling and light. I had to look up some pictures online, but I think I figured out where most of the pieces go. As i was trimming away left over support pieces and fitting parts I noticed something. First, many of the parts did not fit very well - all the receiving slots on the main barrel pieces were small in the vertical direction (if barrel was standing on end). So I had to so a lot of sanding and cutting to make things fit. when I went to fit the two barrel pieces together I noticed that they didn't fit very well together. the gun was crooked. You know, I expect this sort of thing with regular stormtroopers - but a DT needs to shoot straight. The angle formed when the pieces are fitted together. I decided to shim up the connection with some toothpicks. I added some modelling putting and lots of glue and pressed the pieces together. The shims stayed in there. Once the putty had dried, I then added more CA glue to the gaps and rubbed in plastic "dust" from sanding (not shown). I purposely left some gaps so that I could inject some more glue to help hold things together - the paste was just there to help fill in most of the gap. I wasn't sure if the paste has much adhesive strength - I assumed it doesn't. The blaster is now straight and the seem is sealed up and strong (as far as I know). Now back to making the cut-outs larger so the other parts can be attached. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Moving on to some blaster building. first the SE-14R. The kit (from Roman at Maz3D) is very nicely printed and easy to figure out. The only piece that threw me off was the sight. I almost sanded the little edge off the bottom. Turns out you are not supposed to. The little edge fits into a groove on the barrel. I used a mixture of putty and acetone to fill in any larger gaps. Then I rough sanded everything to about 300 grit. The larger pieces are glued together with E-6000. Little pieces are glues with CA glue. The scope came with the kit. I will remove the scope and filler prime the whole blaster - sand - repeat as required. Once it is nice and smooth, it will be ready for painting. I hung it on the belt. Not totally sure how the speed strap works - I found this config in a photograph someplace, so I attached as so. Then realized that this is probably wrong. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yep, armory shop does different sizes. Their Mk3 is large and they have a large version of their Mk4 version as well.

I’m pretty much down to the leg pieces. The thighs are all ready for sizing - which I’ll wait until the end because thighs can be tricky to size correctly, at least that is what building TKs has taught me. I still need to fix and finish my helmet. So, in the meantime I will work on cleaning 3D printed parts. I have the TD and a couple blasters. The TD had some really rough print lines so my usual method of using filler primer probably wouldn’t work. I used squadron white putty thinned with acetone. First time trying this. Worked pretty well. Just be careful of the a leaky acetone can. Oops Anyway, here is where I am. Need to sort out the chest to back side connections. The 850 chest piece is missing a detail near the side buckles so I’m debating how to remedy this. Reference Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just a few things I’ve been working on when I can (busy few weeks). I resized my right fore arm in the same way I did the left, but didn’t have to worry about the missing cover strip. Here is a close up. I don’t think I’ll need any abs paste. I might add some thin strips of abs to the ridge to look more like the reference. Better detail of coverstrip as seen on shin. I attached the buckle to the belt. It has Velcro and a barrel bolt holding it on. And some strapping. I have adjustable straps for the front and back. Creating the buckles for the chest. Adding Velcro to the pouch covers. And... another tube vanished. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't have one of his kits, but I have ordered accessories from him and the products and service have been good. I have an ABS kit from another vendor (850) that I'm working on. I picked ABS because it is what I know and I don't have the room to be sanding down and painting fiberglass. In retrospect, I think I would go with fiberglass if I had to do it again. The details of the deathtrooper armour are not done justice with a ABS pull. Good luck with your build.

Just a few odds and ends. I ordered side buckles from Plastic Arms Dealer. I actually like the look of 850’s more, but the resin seems like it might be fragile (the raw light grey one in the pic). The PAD ones are resin cast as well but seem a bit more heavy duty. I also decided to beef up the attachment method for the aluminum belt buckle from PAD. I marked the center of the belt. I removed the Velcro backing. I trimmed down some barrel bolts with a dremel. Punched a hole in the Velcro I took off and inserted the barrel bolt. I glued the whole thing back on. The buckle will be attached with Velcro and the barrel bolt to the rubber belt. I also trimmed, sanded, and attached the little pieces that go on the back thigh pieces. Problem is, when you follow the shape of the tabs, it ends up with one side up too high. Left thigh inside tab too high. Left one is on top. This is a pic from the back. You can see the wonky return edge. Also added straps to bicep to connect to shoulder bell. Had to glue elastic to conform to thin groove. I still need to trim the biceps since the hot water bath to make them fit better. Connection at shoulder bell end. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Finishing the left forearm resize and coverstrip mod. There is no going back now. Before I started gluing, I had to reshape the forearms mainly because of the now missing material. Cutting away part of the forearm change the shape. After a quick hot water bath. Outside half with pieces glued back on. The inside half waiting for the E6000 to dry. Two halves glued together. I also added inner cover strips for the seam close to the wrist. Need to clean up some E6000 and perhaps a little abs paste here and there. Also need to attach the rockets/stabilizers - they are just sitting there. The rockets and rubber straps are from Plastic Arms Dealer. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk