HRivera7322

Sounds good! Once I go through the next round of changes to the kit, I'll take clearer pictures to spot any other issues before I move on towards approval.

Ok! Lots of progress was done on the kit this past week so lets get started! 1. Finished the paint job on the resin printed chest buckles. Went with Satin Black for the buckles and Gloss Black topped with Alclad chrome for the D-rings. Attached the rubber shoulder straps to the buckle via JB Weld and secured onto both the chest/back plate with velcro: https://imgur.com/gallery/sf3NlPi 2. With the buckles finished, I finally moved on towards wearing the full kit for the first time: https://imgur.com/gallery/edCSaEA Almost immediately, I noted several issues: Butt plate is too large and needs to be trimmed to avoid colliding with thighs and kidney plate. Abdomen armor hung way too low and needed to be brought up a little higher. Right calf armor does not close all the way. To correct several issues I had with the way the backplate and abdomen armor were sitting on my body, I decided to bring the armor up with a few cutouts of EVA foam, however, this resulted in the armor being brought up so high that I could not rotate my head since the rubber gasket was colliding with the neck cover. As such, I undid those changes. Instead, I opted to shorten the strapping between the chest and abdomen. I didn't want to do this to avoid covering most of the abdomen armor's details, but it is what it is. Other slight alterations were made and I was able to make my deadline of Thursday night. 3. With all of the alterations I could think of addressed by Thursday night last week, I was prepared to debut my Death Trooper at Terrificon 2023 at the Mohegan Sun Casino in CT. I rushed to finish most of the major alterations that needed to be done to get the kit to a wearable state and am happy to say that the kit looks rather decent despite still needing a ton of fixes to improve the overall look, mobility and comfortability of the kit: https://imgur.com/gallery/in0Yz0M Several changes/observations were made over the weekend. Helmet did not sit flush with my face, so i had to bend A LOT to be able to see people. I tried my best to lower the chest and back plates in order to have my eyes level with the lenses and, thankfully, I did have a much better experience when I trooped on Sunday. Helmet is EXTREMELY heavy compared to the other DT in my garrison. Will try looking at alternatives (or maybe I'll say screw it and just get used to the weight). Mobility is VERY limited. Mostly due to this being my first time in kit, but I will look at altering the thighs to increase my mobility. Grenade slots are loose, resulting in my grenades falling out. Canvas vest is hanging too low, pushing my belt canvas pouches down. They aren't the best pictures, but I would appreciate some feedback on any other issues people can spot.

Agreed. Smaller set looks much better.

Finished the re-sizing of my thigh armor today. Took a page out of McClary Design's book for this. Tutorial video I followed linked here: The rubber material I purchased from Home Depot is secured onto the thigh armor via chicago screws. I glued the sockets onto the armor, spaced roughtly 1-1.5 in apart and later secured with JB weld. First time using this product and the popsicles sticks I used to apply the epoxy were sorta wonky, so application is a little messy, but it got the job done. I later marked where to make holes with a gold sharpie pen. Using a cutout tool and a hammer, I made the holes in the material and secured it by screwing it in place. Adjustments and trimming were made as I went along. Thigh armor pics: https://imgur.com/gallery/v21LEZw So far the thighs aren't perfect, but they suit my purposes for now. After owning this kit for two years and just never getting around to finishing it, the thigh amor (which has been the bane of my existence, finally fit me. That being said, the material bends in weird/awkward ways so I'll need to keep experimenting and see what works best. Perhaps I'll unsecure the final screw since it's pointed inwards and could be what's causing the weird bending. In addition to this, I also had a friend of mine in the Conencticut Garrison print me new chest buckles in resin. Not a fan of the rubber ones that came with my kit. I secured the D ring onto the buckle via CA glue and will go on to paint early tomorrow to avoid the hot sun haha. Pics: https://imgur.com/gallery/S69ZPSi

Specialist vest and covers arrived in the mail today, along with helmet fans. https://imgur.com/gallery/fKsbYmj

Finished re-sizing my belt: https://imgur.com/gallery/MwVyKMG I wanted to revisit my belt because I lost a lot of weight since I first got it. The belt currently was sagging everywhere, even with the velcro hook points. To fix this, I took the interior canvas belt and brought it in about 3 inches, then made a new hole in the belt with a soldering iron and secured in place with a Chicago screw. Then to make sure the clips of the canvas belt won't slide around while moving, I soldered the belt to itself to maintain the belt length. Finally, I removed about 4 inches of excess rubber belt material. Added velcro to hold the tail end of the belt in place and will cover up the overlap with the 3rd canvas pouch.

Yea, I was thinking the same thing too. I remember @Chaos mentioning, however, that PlastiDip without a promoter will scuff up in certain areas. It gets hot up here in New England, but I think I'll survive being cooked in felt. Plus, it'll be a more permanent solution. Hopefully, I line my suit with felt today, and I don't have to think about it for years

Focused on updating my calf pieces today: The calf armor pieces that I purchased off of the Facebook Death Trooper build group are a set of finished Jim Tripon fiberglass calves. Sturdy and beautifully painted, however, the exposed fiberglass makes wearing them very very itchy haha. Following @Chaos advice, I lined the inside of these armor pieces with black felt from thefeltstore.com secured with 3M 77 Spray Adhesive: https://imgur.com/gallery/MOuQAIh. I'll use the same method to line the backplate once I finish setting up snap points/rigging on the backplate. Was gonna do that today but I couldn't find my soldering iron 😅

Long time, no see (again lol). Quick update on my armor kit: So I ended up going with the plan I had set out for my thigh pieces. Because the original 3D printed ribbed portions of my ASP thighs were too tight to fit but too brittle to resize, I decided to take a cutter to them and completely remove this portion: https://imgur.com/gallery/WM1acnh. This, unfortunately, exposes the blue filament of the 3D print, but should be an easy fix to hide that. I took @Chaos advice and found an alternative rubber matting at Home Depot that closely resembles the ribbed pattern shown on the CRL: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rubber-Cal-Corrugated-Fine-Rib-3-ft-x-8-ft-Black-Rubber-Flooring-24-sq-ft-03-167-W-FR-08/302640302. Just waiting for this to arrive and I can work on cutting out enough material to give me the leg room I need and to properly hook it up. In addition to this, I was finally able to find my dremel to finish milling out the rest of the shoulder cutouts on the new backplate I ordered from Jim Tripon. Thanks @Lt. Dan for the suggestion! This week, I'll work on attaching snap points, velcro, and felt to the backplate before getting it painted.

Is it me or am I not seeing the cut outs for the barrel? Not required for approval, but that was just something that I noticed

I do have a 3D printer, but not easy access to it. I have a CR-10 Max, but it's disassembled at the moment and in a different apartment in another state haha. I've come across this Amazon link before, however, I wasn't sure if it differed enough from the belt material though. They kinda look similar from picutres I've seen. I can pass it along and see what they think, but I'm sure my GML would approve it.

Update 3.25.23: So a member of my garrison finished his Director Krennec suit so that's pushed me to hurry up and finish my DT, hopefully by July. There's not a lot of work left on my Death Trooper as I purchased a finished suit that fits me relatively well, surprisingly. The backplate did however break (think i mentioned that before) so I bought a replacement kit from @jimmiroquai. Currently hallowing out the shoulder slots so that I can use them for securing the shoulder straps, then I'll work on getting it painted and lined with felt on the inside. At the moment, I'm really struggling with the thigh pieces. They're 3D printed by ASP, however, the ribbed part of the thigh is shaped at a very narrow angle and is very thin. It's breaking and I don't want to risk re-shaping it and ruining the paint job on the other pieces. So! I'm thinking about purchasing ribbed material for this, cutting out the old and attaching new material to give myself more room as the thighs do not close all the way. I'm considering PAD's screen accurate sheets, however, I'm also looking for cheaper alternatives. Any advice would be helpful! For my chest piece, I want to secure the strapping buckles to the front of the chestplate, while using the shoulder slots to slide the rubber straps through and secure via magnets. I've seen people mentioning bolting the buckle to the chest plate, but I've never seen photos of how people did this. Does anyone have any good references?

@Chaos posted them a while back in Tiderion's WIP thread. Here are the links: https://www.dropbox.com/s/r5081olaqarzbyu/1 Updated Deathtrooper Voice Lines (Play %26 Pause track).mp3?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/vvkqlzdum8fv2ew/2 Deathtrooper Voice Lines with segments (Loop track).mp3?dl=0

ALRIGHT! Hey everyone, long time no see! Shooting a quick little update for this thread now that I've finally resumed work on my Death Trooper since dropping it for the winter (too cold to paint). I also got a new job/moved to a different state so working on my kit was pretty much impossible since I left it with my mother. Anyway! I'll write a more official update note over the weekend to show where everything is at right now and what needs to get finished (not much). @Chaos I'm working with an ArmoryShopProps thigh kit that is WAY too small for me. I'm thinking about cutting out the ribbed parts and replacing it with a sturdier material. I know PAD has screen accurate sheets for this but they're $170. Got any advice for alternatives?

Yea that's what I ended up deciding to do. I used a drill/cutter to outline what needed to be hollowed out. Now just gotta find my dremel to remove the rest. Thanks!