kishdr

I threw my wallet at the screen... ...then I picked it back up, defeated, knowing that its not coming for another year

https://imgur.com/a/OM8JmYq full album link

I compiled dozens and dozens of reference images if you wanted to take a look at the gallary for comparison.

"The dead speak!" Hello all, its been a while in a half. Since I've last visited, I have created a completed model of the Darktrooper Droid that shows up in StarWars Rebels: As well as a few other things, but that's not what I'm here to show. After all, you cant costume as this thing! Behold! Originally my plans was to wait until the HotToy's replica figure came out, but that doesn't come for another year! https://www.sideshow.com/collectibles/star-wars-dark-trooper-hot-toys-907625 I don't want to wait that long, so I decided to tackle the project myself. As well, I maaaaybe got some possible behind the scene model stuff that I'll be using to help with the references. Yesterday, I spent all day compiling almost every picture and frame I could find of them. Concept art, screenshots from Mando, HotToys promo pics, etc. Hope you enjoy! Feel free to voice your opinion is something looks off, and I'll be down to see if I can fix it. Previous Darktrooper thread:

Right. Of course, sorry.

Here's what the hand plates looked like on my model if it helps. Would these be clam shell?

I'm unsure what you are referencing. The model has been completed since March 12, 2020. Are you confusing me for the creator of the Darktrooper you posted? That's Degginal Nox, whom I was talking about earlier. That guy has an inflated ego.

I'm trying to find someone who will print it out for me. So far, all of my contacts have fallen through. They'll pick up the project and drop out because of the sheer size of everything that's gonna go into it. Intimidation. Of course, I'm paying for such a thing, so it's not like its free work. I'd go with Shapeways Printing, but I've seen some pretty bad models that have came out of their store. Aswell, they charge a 100 dollar fee just for them to tell you if your model can be printed. Sorry for my lack of activity here, my mind gets distracted easily, as well I had a family medical emergency that prevented me from getting back sooner. COVID kinda crushed 501st activity, I haven't had the drive to even finish up my R1 TK. Ideally, I'd like to get the suit printed, and make it into kits. Its funny to see the BF2 fan made interpretation of the BF Classic Darktrooper PH0 get posted here. I and that mod developer had some very strong words between eachother on who's is more accurate. He marketed his model being that it is THE representation of what Phase 0s looked like. We don't talk anymore. I see there's been many talks about finishing up the CRL. Could my model be of any assistance, considering during the creation you all gave much needed input to be more accurate? Such examples of the major changes I made to match the accuracy better being the helmet, straps, Vocoder, aswell as the chestplate and arms.

This looks really amazing, cant wait to see it in a troop

I only have 3 years of experience with Blender. Started in late 2018, though I started learning it for importing models into VR games. The Darktrooper I ported not to long after I made the armor, aswell. I started creating my own assets towards mid 2018, such as props. From props moved on to weapons, then mechanical objects, clothing, hair, characters.... fast forward and we're here. I do this all as a hobby. My jobs have never included 3d, as they were retail worker types, the most recent being a factory worker. Ideally, I'd like to have a career out of 3d, something is very satisfying about creating these models from nothing. I'd be more than willing to supply you the model if you wanted to print it. The only thing is, I don't know what's needed on the technical side of things to make that work. Does it have to be higher poly than it is, should backfaces be merged, how do I work with merged armor plates that don't have backfaces, ect. Perhaps printing it as a mini would be a good first step? 6 inches and below.

Glad to see you received your product in the end! Even though it may have been a bumpy road, you got what you wanted in the end. Do you have schematics for the backpack or are you going to use your figureine as reference with the CRL?

I'd say we're at the final day for now! I finished painting everything. I don't have a 3d printer, so I don't know the fixes I'd have to make to make it 3d print ready. Some people have been asking for me to mod this into Battlefront 2 2017, so I may do that. But not now! This was an entire month long grind to get here today, and I'm very appreciative of the tips and fixes you all left. Finally, I can relax in my chair, instead of hunching over like a shrimp working on tiny detail things. If you use twitter, you can see here. I wouldn't want to post future renders of this model, in non-showcase wise here, as this is for building real models, not posing fake ones :).

Oh boy, time to crash the forums somehow by posting images! Basic helmet uncolored, then helmet color / ID map created. (Think paint masking) Then, which you've seen before, is the Blender placeholder visual materials, which, are inaccurate actually! Which is why the final paintjob looks much different! All work completed in Blender! Imported to Substance Painter. Early image of the painting process. Having my dual monitors finally set up really helps. Image dated at 11PM Viewport of Substance Painter, in the painting workflow scene. Final image renders dated at 7AM so, I spent 9 hours in Substance Painter, including the time it took to reboot it when it crashed on me 3 times. I shouldn't have stayed up so late, as I have things to do but..... Guilty pleasure! Hope you enjoy the eye candy! (None of this would really ever effect the model if it was printed, as you can't print textures). I feel the weathering is a bit heavy, when compared to the shiny, spotless 2004 model / costumes you all have. It just fits the trooper so well though! These clones aren't fresh from Kamino, they've been through years of warfare, slowly losing what makes them physically human. The Grand Republic that they fought for, no longer in existance, only the Imperial, Galactic Empire. An Empire that dragged these veteran clones back from their medical bays and barracks, only to press them back into service. No, was not an option. Peak performance was the only thing accepted, and that meant at any means necessary. Organs, bones and limbs replaced with Cybernetics, the same technology used on Lord Vader. New weapons, equipment, and a body the new Darktrooper's themselves, couldn't recognize. They were forced into becoming something they would have battled against under the banner of the Confederacy of Independent systems and the Droid Armies... This is why I feel the heavy weathering fits. These clone troopers, in the ex-canon, were forcibly transformed into cyborg enforcers of the Galactic Empire. Elite Tactical units who are more metal than man, fighting against the Rebel Alliances. Clones Troopers, who in some cases, the last parts left of their old body, was their mind. There was no honor, there was no Patriotism. Why polish armor for parades you won't be in, there's no order to anyways, only kill. There was only service of war, a constant cycle enough to break a man's mind. The Phase 0 Darktrooper's warped, twisted sanity of an existence being either taken from this world on the battlefield, or by the Trooper himself, with his own blaster.

its quite the difference isn't it! Proportions aren't 1 to 1 to the original BF Pandemic model, but that's due to changes like the armor layering and armor fitting to a proportional person, ect. ?

Armor is successfully fitted and Retopologized. The fix list from before has been applied. The model has seen a 81% reduction in poly count. Going from 400,000 poly for just the armor, to 90,000, including the body underneath. The model is sharper, cleaner, and looks much more spiffy. Seams, edges and creases have been applied. The model is rigged, the last thing to do would be texturing it in Substance Painter. The E-11 may be a bit big, I think i got my scaling wrong.

I can't say I've ever seen the Yokes on FOTKs, or know that much about the Imperial Combat Assault Tank Drivers. The foam inserts I take it, are to push up the plate so it stays out? With the chest section looking huge, ill be doing some slimming down on the profile of it, so it wont be "That huge" haha. It only makes sense to suit up like clones, as darktroopers are clones!

There's a few reasons as to why the armor plates aren't joined to the base plate. Layered armor, instead of illusion Removable pieces allow me to show the baseplate, and how that looks. If the pieces were all joined I'd have more difficulty showing it off Allows me to make any edits to the base plate in the future Avoiding the one piece mold chestplate intentionally. Gives options for those who eventually end up with the model. If its seamed to the base plate, there is no options. Ideally, in function, the top layers of armor would be E6000 glue'd to the grey base plate, so they wouldn't fall off or whatnot. Those parts being hollow on the inside. The entire chest section is huuuge though, possibly there could be benefit to having actual detachable pieces of armor. Storage, molding, and seam lines. The cons... you'd need help to wear the armor, and possibly have to worry about the top layers falling off or whatnot.

This is what I mean as the 'base chest plate'. The Chest / spine armor is three parts. The 'Base' plate, which is Layer 1, then the Backplate, and Chestplate, which sit ontop of the base plate. The Part over the stomach with the vertical lines is the Liver guard. Perhaps I have my names wrong though.

Oooh! Good eye!!! I'll modify the vents to match this (which also matches all the stormtrooper helmets) though, the 'incorrect' vents I had are quite common to find, even in the game, like with this screenshot. Maybe one of the versions of Battlefront had this UV problem, and it was fixed later on / before? Aswell as these vent fixes, I've done.... *Everything is fitted to the Jango clone body for accurate proportions... well, as comical as 'accurate' is, since the armor is so bulky as is. * Smoothened out the back of the helmet. I misinterpretted the flatness of the low poly model as intentional design, when the textures imply smoothing. *Edited the nose of the visor. Prior, it was actually impossible to see out of. *Added Helmet seal *Added neck gasket *Reade the Chestplate and backplate *Added a visual separation between the darker and lighter plating, due to there being 2 layers of plating. *Now the straps match Clone Phase 2 armor *Chestplate lines are cleaner and more accurate looking to source material *Chestplate armor and Chestplate base layer fit over the liver armor, so theres no clipping / accurate bending *Remade the Shoulders *Remade the Upper Arm *Remade the Lower arm *Fixed the indents on the Lower Arm, to match reference more. No curve, straight path the indents follow. *Remade Wrist guard *Remade liver guard *Liver guard lines are cleaner, recessions go all the way up and down to match Clone phase 2 kit armors *Liver guard back details are cleaner *Remade belt *Belt pouches are symmetrical, unlike before where one edge was wider than the other *Remade thermal detonator *Remade Pelvis armor *Pelvis armor backpiece is now flush, before it was separate. Backpiece aswell smoothed out and made smaller to fit silhouette more. *Remade Thigh armor *Thigh armor indents are cleaner, flat piece is flat There is some movement to this armor, though not much interms of lowering your arms past this, as the armor already rubs against the Inner / base chest plate. A possible solution would be making the 'base' chest piece 'soft' armor. Perhaps industrial grade foam, with the outercoating of rubber or plastic. You can bend forward "theoretically" front and front side angled, as the base and upper chest plates are over the liver guard. You'd be able to squeeze a few degrees of movement into the elbows, but not that much. On the base model from Battlefront it looks like a lot more, but thats because the model is T-posed. The armor modelled to the same proportions to that armor afterall, and surprisingly fits a human body... with a few adjustments.

Hows this look for the vents on the cheeks and tears, Blue Hatter ?

I've had this happen too. I think its something with the site itself. Refreshing the page 1-2 times fixed the issue. Interestingly I have to refresh the page to even see new messages / notifications. The bell notification stopped working. Weird, considering threads are live updating. In other news, excitement excitement! I have begun the retopology phase. This is the part where I basically take my Inaccurate higher poly sculpt, and make it more clean. Lines are sharper, prettier to look at. Its also easier for the computer to handle, and, with the model being clean, it makes it easier to work with, which means more details! In my research, I was looking around about the Rivet caps / circular bulges on the 'ear' pieces. Regular stormtroopers have these, Clone troopers do not. On the Battlefront model, Darktrooper's don't have them either.... until.... I looked at the Battlefront Stormtrooper model. They don't have them either! I'm going to assume this was on Pandemic Studio's choice. Technical limitations / cluttering of the textures as to why they may have not added the texture of these rivet/screws. Obviously Stormtrooper's have these, which leads me to say... The Phase 0 Darktrooper has them as well, and they really look nice. So far my progress, I have the entire Helmet retopologized. The details I need to add are the Visor, Cheek vents, Tear vents, Neck seal and possibly make the Hovi-tip wiremesh a bit thicker. I'll probably make the inside look nice and clean too. Right now it looks straight out of a assembled kit. I threw together some stuff and made a older looking Jango-fett (head modified from Battlefront 2 EA) clone to use as my real-life base for armor fitting.

Allllrighty. This armor set will be called Mock-Up 1. Since, that's what it is. All the fixes listed above will be applied to a complete new set of armor, called Mock-Up 2. With that being said, Mock- Up 1 should be about complete. I took a bit of a break to work on some other projects inbetween last post and now, but the last pieces have been completed. Knee / Lower Leg armor, Boots and Wrist guards. The boots I was a bit iffy on, just because there's so little detail on the in-game boots. I took a bit of creative liberty, and used the boot "base" to look like the TK Boots from Imperial Boots, then up armored with the fancy looking plating above it, like in the game. I'm unsure if the 2005 BF models are proportionate, and my Mock-Up 1 may not be. Mock-Up 2 will solve this issue, as I will have a generic male base underneath the armor to fit it to. I'm still interested as to how those "bulbs" on the sides of the knees are to be attached. Asking other fans, the speculation is the arms and legs were entirely Cybernetic on the DarkTrooper Phase 0, and the "bulbs" (Silver nipple caps) are the joint covers or something. Can't really apply that to reality, as.... most fans have organic legs, and like having them. Perhaps there would be a black strap that goes around the knee. Or buttons that snap from the bulbs, to the undersuit.

Hmmmm.... Why are my images showing up so small? I'd perfer they show up large like my original posts. Or maybe this is just a me - issue. You can see my little list now. A fix I did compared to before was flattening / angling out the thighs. While I would like this to have look better, I already applied my destructive - modifiers. Another slight adjustment I did was indent the black / grey stripe on the pelvis / hip armor plating. All in all, this model will serve as a perfect template for me to do my re-topology over, pretty or not. The depth, curves and edges are there, which exactly what I need. How much should I indent the "2nd layering"? The issue I've ran into, is if I space out the layers too much, some things may need to be resized. Like the Chestplate, it may come out to being larger / wider in certain places, which would make it different to the Phase 2 Clonetroopers. Perhaps this comes down to user preference / committee agreement? Would the "2nd" grey layering be more like the "Base layer" that the metallic layer sits ontop of, instead of a one piece armor that has recessed bits? I could try to get this "First layer" to match the proportions / silhouette of the Clone Trooper Phase 2 chesplate, so no changing of the upper / over layer clone armor would be needed. (Two images) Two part Armor vs ..................... what I have currently, which is the one part, with implied (to be fixed) recession / layering. Glad to hear! Hope in the end from a 3d standpoint, this could turn into something CRL Approvable with your help, and the rest of the helpful members here ?

Oh yeah yeah yeah. I didn't mean it in a serious sense, just a nerd lore sense. In The Mandalorian, theres OT Tks and R1 Tks anyways. Be it costume shortage, or another reason. Going back to the chestplate and straps. I did some digging around. I always knew that Phase 0 Darktroopers were re-serviced clones, and I knew they used some clone armor. I just never looked to see what exactly was clone, and didn't include clone armor in my references (How smart I am!). The chestplate (and pelvis) looks to be a Phase 2 clonetrooper's, modified. If this is 100% correct, then Strap covers are completely unnecessary entirely and would mirror Phase 2 armor. (Don't be fooled by the BF clone's flatness / hunch. The Stormtroopers do it too.)