Blue Hatter

It's just a small thing but I got the thrusters for the jetpack completed. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out. I added some heat warping onto the inside of the thrusters and blast scorching around the edges. Naturally these thrusters would get very hot so I thought that they should look it, nice and toasty.

So... I think I'll just make the sides touch, then. Or maybe just overlap slightly. Or something. I'll play around with it and see what looks best and what seems to work best.

Before I finish the last bit of trimming on my armor I need some opinions because I can't decide on what I should do. I had to extend the sides of the abdomen armor (front and back) as they were a bit too small for me, but I can't decide how short that I want to cut them. The video game model has the abdomen armor completely wrapping around the body as one piece with no seams or split, though this was probably more due to lazy drawing than anything else (especially because, if I remember right, the standard stormtroopers in Pandemic's Battlefront also had the same wrap-around abdomen armor). Of course, regular stormtrooper armor does have a split between the front and back abdomen pieces... Originally I was going to have the sides of my dark trooper abdomen armor be long enough that the front half could layer over the back half, giving it the look of one piece, but the more that I think about it the more that I'm wondering if I should cut them shorter and leave a small gap-- or maybe just have the edges touching. So, on one hand, the overlapping armor would be more accurate to the video game model, but having a split or having the edges touch would be more accurate to real stormtrooper armor. Overlapping would take a little more work, as I would need to bend in part of the back extensions so that they don't stick straight out, which is doable; having the split would make it look different from the game. I can't decide what I should do... Should I have the abdomen pieces overlap to look like they're one piece (like in the video game) or should I have a small separation between them (more like real stormtrooper armor), or just do a bit of both and have the edges touch? What do you all think? Here's my abdomen armor with the extensions added... Here's sort of what they would look like overlayed... And here's the game model...

Here are some of my observations from my research... Lenses of the helmet are red, possibly mirrored. Thermal detonator end caps and plate are silver (though they could also be white, it's really hard to tell in the texture images, perhaps both should be acceptable?). The shoes are Chelsea boots painted to match the color of the armor. The soles are gray, not black. There is armor over the top of the shoes. The ear greeblies on the sides of the helmet aren't standard stormtrooper ones. There are three raised rectangles, an indented rectangle painted black, and one more raised rectangle. The decals on the helmet (the vents under the eyes and on the back, and the solid decal above the brow) aren't decals at all, they're separate raised pieces, like the stormtrooper helmets in Rogue One and Solo. The black line "vents" on the tubes(?) are still decals or paint. The belt is either gray or a paler blue-gray color than the rest of the armor. The six boxes on the belt are a blue-gray that's a shade lighter than the base armor color. The lower chest has two horizontal stripes that are a shade darker than the base color of the armor. There are six intended black dots in these stripes. There are no buttons on the belt, though I might suggesting allowing them, it just makes it easier to attach the cloth belt when you can rivet it on and the buttons don't detract from the look. There's a bunch of other stuff but but that is what's off the top of my head.

I was hoping to have an update with my armor test fitting but unfortunately that didn't happen and noticed something that I needed to correct first, so I'm hoping that I can suit up this weekend. Hopefully. I was set back a few weeks after I sliced open my left index finger with a box cutter and had to go to the hospital. I'm still not able to fully use that finger but it is a bit better. But just to show that I am still working on this, I thought I'd post up a couple pictures. The armor is all trimmed, though I need to finish sanding a bit of Bondo, and I'm nearly finished with the chest and knee bolts (or chest "nipples" if you prefer ), the arc caster is slowly coming along, and I'm working on the risers to make the shoulder armor "float". So here's a purdy box of armor...? And here's my shoe armor so far with the shoes I'll be using. I haven't added the strip up the center of the shoes yet or, obviously, painted them. Much to my delight the color of the soles ended up being a near perfect match to the game model texture.

Here are all of my Phase Zero Dark Trooper references. If any others are needed let me know, I have the game model and I can load it up and snap some more screen shots. https://ibb.co/album/ij9cwF

Just thought I'd mention that, from what I've seen through my research, there are different versions of the phase three dark trooper. There's the Glory-class, elite and Inquisitorium, which all seem to be based on the phase three trooper. There are also phase three dark troopers with gold stripes on the armor, like the novatrooper, called the dark novatrooper. There's also the Oppressor-7 class, Oppressor-9 class, and Triumphant-class, but those three actually look to be based on the phase two dark trooper, and another type of dark novatrooper that's a phase two in solid black armor-- this one also has a variation with phase two armor that's solid black with blue stripes called the black hole dark trooper.

Sure thing. Give me a few days to get them all together. Also, on a small side note, I see that you're in Florida. I'll be moving up to there probably next year.

A small update... I have all of the armor cut out (need to finish trimming and smoothing, though), I printed out the "bolts" for the chest and knees, and I've started printing the parts for my arc caster. I've tracked down the boots, found a body suit, and I've ordered a balaclava. So things are slowly moving along. Though in the process my rivet gun broke (I know better than to buy tools at Harbor Freight) but I saw a a rivet gun attachment for an electric screwdriver that looks like it would make life a lot easier, so I think I'm going to order one on payday.

It's definitely a unique looking blaster, the arc caster. It should be an interesting build. I bought a toy taser gun that I'm going to rip apart and use the electronics from so it'll make zapping sounds and have lights that flash. ? Unfortunately I can't even work in the garage, it's so full of... crap. Heh. I can really only do things on the front porch, or in the front yard of back yard, so I have to catch the good days. Which so far have been few and far between... On Tuesday it was snowing even. But Summer's coming up so hopefully the weather will start to get better and I can start to get more serious on things. I'm hoping to get the armor finished by September but we'll see, I'm not going to rush on it and risk making mistakes. I did pick up a spray painting tent so I have a place to spray paint so hopefully that will make things a bit easier. I think I can cut down the tops (and maybe the bottoms) of the thigh armor for a better fit. I think, anyway. Hopefully it wont make them look too wonky, but I can probably do a bit of molding with a heat gun if I have to. But I'm usually pretty good at figuring out how to fix something, even if it does take me a while sometimes.

I'll definitely be posting some pictures up when I have more to show. I haven't made much progress on the armor yet, it's been so cold outside that I haven't been able to work. But I did, finally, found the right combination of paint... so there's that at least. The armor itself is already made, it's a kit that I bought and I just have to trim it and put it together. The thigh armor I think that I'll start by trimming from the top, and maybe a little from the bottom, and see how that goes. Fingers crossed that it'll work. I did finish the arc caster model, though. I'm pretty pleased with it. I haven't tried printing it yet, though. Again, ignore the white model as it's just a rough E-11 mockup for dimensions. And the purple corkscrew on the front wont be printed, it's just to give an idea of what it might look like. The corkscrew will be cut out of a piece of plastic with a spiral pattern I have. I also decided to remove the entire scope from the Rubies blaster and just print a whole new one, which should make it look much more accurate.

That's looking great so far! Nice job. I recently bought my first 3D printer (I'm still waiting for it to arrive, actually). Maybe a stupid thing to ask, but would you mind if I messaged you if I have any questions about the printing process that I can't find answers to?

Thanks. I have a fair amount of reference pictures, as well as the texture image from Battlefront and the CG model so I can get a 360 degree look at it. So that definitely helps. I've been slowly working on this but haven't gotten too far yet. I"m nearly finished with my Resistance X-wing pilot costume and once I'm done I can focus more on the dark trooper. Hopefully the weather will get a bit warmer soon, too, so I can start spray painting. I did find a color of paint that I think I'll use for the base color, it seems like a pretty close match, and I found the colors for the belt and the indented center part of the torso armor. I haven't found the dark navy paint yet for the rest of the accents but I haven't really looked too hard, either, but I don't think it'll be too hard to find something. I did find the material for the belt so there's that at least. I finished my model for the arc caster as well, which I need to post some pictures of. I completely remade the scope, for one, and added some details for "realism". I'm just waiting for my 3D printer to arrive and then I can (hopefully) start printing the parts. I'm still trying to figure out what the best way would be to shorten the thigh and calf armor. I'm worried that if I cut from the top and/or bottom of the armor that it might become too wide or too narrow but cutting it through the center might alter the shape. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to pull that off. Like I mentioned, I've never done full armor before so I'm not exactly sure how to do some things...

Hello. I'm working on my first ever suit of trooper armor (which is a set of phase zero dark trooper armor) so I have a few questions about the process, but right now I primarily have one. The thigh armor is too long for me, I can't bend my legs when I put it around my thighs, and the leg armor could probably be shortened a little bit as well. How would I go about trying to shorten the armor while still keeping its look? The armor, of course, tapers in toward the bottom so I can't simply trim a bunch off the top or bottom or either the top will become too narrow or the bottom will become too wide... so I probably need to take something from the middle, leaving the two ends as they are... But how should I do that? How is shortening armor usually done?

Thanks. I'm pretty hardcore about accuracy so I'm going to try to make this as accurate as possible, though I've been thinking of adding a couple small things to increase realism, like a little bit of chipping along the edges and some burn marks on the thrusters of the jetpack. Nothing too major. I've also been debating with the idea of putting just one of the square stormtrooper belt "rivet covers" on the front of the belt, just so I can rivet a cloth belt onto the plastic box belt very securely and then cover the rivet head, but I'm not sure yet, I'll figure out more about it when I get there. Though I suppose a few rivets showing here and there might just add to the look of making the trooper look like it's fitted with heavy armor. But yeah, I'll definitely post up pictures! I think I've found some paint for the base color and I've been experimenting with it, seeing what I can do to adjust the tint of it with a white primer or a black primer, and using black primer with a coat of silver over it and then the blue-grey spray paint I found. So far the black primer, silver paint and blue-grey paint combo seems to look best to me but it's not perfect. I haven't had much luck finding the "perfect" color of spray paint but this one is fairly close, and I'm going to buy a can of transparent medium gray paint and see what it looks like if I hit the blue-gray with that. It's been hard to tell exactly what color the armor should be, anyway, as every reference shows the armor in a slightly different color... Some pictures have it looking more grey, others it's more blue, others have it a darker blue-grey, others a lighter blue-grey. Ugh. ? I have a number of references for the armor, too. I also have the extracted 3D model and the texture image for it.

Hello all! I'm completely new here (to this forum, anyway, but not to Star Wars costuming... I've been in the Rebel Legion for around eleven years now) and I have finally started my first 501st costume build! I've finally found the perfect armor for a bigger guy like me and for my first attempt at full armor, well, I'm really diving in hard. I'll be doing a phase zero dark trooper from the older Star Wars Battlefront games. I already have the armor (but I still need to trim it) and the helmet is built, all of which is from Oota Goota Workshop (and he was kind enough to put the helmet together for me), I've ordered some of the paint and I've been sourcing some of the other parts for it. I'll be making some models and 3D printing them for the chest, elbow and knee "bolts" and I'm also working on an ARC caster build. This should be fun! But seeing as this is my first ever full armor costume build I'll definitely have some questions as to the best way to put it all together, and especially with how to trim down the armor... The thigh armor is a bit too long for me and I can't bend my legs well, so I need to shorten it but I have no clue how to do it and still keep the shape of it. Any tips would be appreciated. Anyhow, here are a few pictures... Here's the helmet so far (again, thanks go to Oota Goota for putting it together)... I took a picture of the armor a while ago but I can't remember what I did with it... And this is the model I've been working on for the ARC caster. It's not finished yet, I still have a bit of clean-up to do and I'm going to be changing a couple things that I don't really like the look of how I did them. I'm planning to mod a Rubies "Stormtrooper Blaster" simply because it'll be the easiest one to mod; I figured it wouldn't do me much good to buy a blaster kit because I couldn't use most of the greeblies and the Hasbro blaster has too much that would need to be removed or changed compared to the Rubies blaster. Ignore the white model in the images, that's just a rough mock-up of an E-11 so I could get the dimensions of the greeblies correct, and I didn't bother to make a model for the ammo magazine because I'll just be using the one on the Rubies blaster. The ARC caster seems to essentially be a ROTJ E-11 with the greeblies flipped to the right side of the blaster (and, of course, the spiral and plate on the front end), and a slightly different end on the scope. I did take a bit of creative freedom with it on the left side just because I didn't like how bare it looked with the greeblies flipped to the right... So I added a few greeblies there to balance it out a little (keep in mind that the ammo magazine isn't shown and the position of the greeblies isn't final). The ARC caster doesn't seem to have a visible ammo counter, or at least not one like most E-11s have, but I figured that, logically, you would need to know just how much ammunition (or in the case of an electric weapon, battery power) you have left so I made a small horizontal ammo counter that will sit behind the ammo mag. I made a small dial on the top of the ammo counter to look like you could adjust the strength of the electrical discharge but after rethinking it I might change that to a slide switch instead so it takes up less room and the weapon should look a little sleeker overall. I'm working in adding lighting and sound effects to make the ARC caster really come to life. And that's about it for now...