DoggyDoc

Any time.

Snaps finally arrived and I was able to do some more work on the strapping. Just waiting for the E6000 to set on the shoulder and biceps snaps and the torso will be done. Then onto the big job of resizing the thighs and calves.

Hi Mark. Congrats on your order. I am building one of Jim’s deathtroper kits as well and have been very happy with everything so far. There are different ways to strap the kit. I am using a similar way to the TK strapping with snaps glued into the armour plates and connected with elastic strapping. Others have created a corset with the abdominal pieces and keep them in -lace with suspenders while the Chest and back are floating free over top. Here are some photos of how I did it: Here is a link for the corset method https://imgur.com/a/xaRbyZg For sanding, I start with 80 grit and then go to 120 then 220 grit paper Not sure about the magazine cartridges. I plan on resin printing mine. Where are you in Canada? I am near Toronto.

Congratulations

I built a spray booth in my basement since it is too cold outside. I put an inline boost fan on the exhaust and have it running through an air purifier that has high VOC removal capabilities. In the box, there is. Filter and bright LED lights to help my old eyes see better.

One quick question. from what I have found, the SE-14R is painted matte black. My scope is gloss black, should that be in a matte finish as well? Also, is the grip gloss like on the E-11, or is it matte?

Made some progress over the past few days. Working on strapping the body pieces. I am using snaps and elastic / nylon straps. Had to order more snaps however as I ran out part way through. In the meantime, I made the elastic straps for the biceps and trimmed out the helmet vents. Biceps elastic straps. One side is 1” nylon that is glued in place to the biceps with plastic weld. The other side is hook side of Velcro sewn to the nylon strapping with the soft side glued into the biceps. Helmet vents. I drilled out each vent to open it up, then used needle files to open the holes up completely. Test fitting of the upper parts. I need to figure out how to bubble the lenses still biceps also need to be attached to shoulder bells just waiting on the snaps

Boots arrived from CrowProps today. Very happy with them. They look great and are very comfortable.

I have not glued the shins yet as I am waiting for my boots and I need to do some fibreglass work on them to make them bigger, since I have large calves. I have been told that the plastic weld will work but so far, it has not been great at gluing the ABS to the fibreglass in my initial attempt to enlarge the shins. For small gaps in the seams, Bondo putty should fill those.

Forearms are trimmed, seams filled with Bondo and all sanded. Ready for primer filler then paint. Thanks @Chaos for the tip on the rubber connector for the forearm straps. Picked one up today and cut out the strips. Please let me know if there are any areas of concern before I go to paint.

The mesh is under the vents on the inside, so you do have to open them up. The frame would attach on the underside of the vents inside the helmet. Think of something like a frame /riser for that holds the mesh on one side and the speaker on the other.

I have not thought about that yet. Likely , I will make a frame with my 3D printer that will sit outside of the mesh and glue it down with that. You could also use some abs sheets to do it. I will be mounting the icomm system speakers there as well, so likely will need some type of frame for the mesh.

Specialist strap and buckets for the ammo vest arrived today.

So the shims on the forearms failed. When I put them in a hot water bath to shape them, they came apart. I did a bit of tweaking on my under-suit to tighten up the arms by sewing a new seam down the arm to get the “wetsuit” type fit. With the reduced material, I was able to plastic weld the inner side of the piece and will then back the seam on the outer piece with ABS to close the forearm. Below is a test fit photo as well. Please let me know if there is anything that you see that raises any concerns before I close it up permanently. I also started extending the shin pieces along the back side inner half of the piece. I am going to just do this side to start and see how it looks when it closes before doing both sides and relocating the cover strip that is part of the outer half. This one will be plastic welded and then I will use Bondo to build up over the ABS. I think the forearms didn’t bond to the and because of the plastidip over the fibreglass and the abs being too smooth. I sanded all the plastidip off and picked up textured ABS so hopefully the Bondo and plastic weld hold better. Also received my magazine shoulder pouch and belt from trooperbay.

I started resizing the forearms. Figured that was the best place to begin, as I don’t have to cut anything off. When I did the test fit with the under suit on, the forearms were unable to overlap to close them. I ordered some 2mm black ABS sheets and made 2” and 1” strips using the score and snap technique. The idea was to use the 2” strip as the backing and have the 1” strip used as the extension to reduce the amount of Bondo I would need to use to even out the extension. Photo of too;s and armour pieces before starting Scorri g and snapping using a metal ruler clamped to the ABS sheet ‘Cut strips of ABS sanded to help with adhesion. 2” and 1” pieces glued together using zap a gap I wanted to have a slight curve to the extensions along the long axis to follow the curve of the forearm pieces. I did this by heating them with a heat gun and then forming them over paint cans. Extensions were then glued to the forearms to extend the portion that will sit under the cover strip using JB plastic weld. The plan was to then apply Bondo over the extension to make it seamless with the original piece, but when I did a test fit, everything lined up perfectly and fit amazing over the under suit, so I opted just to close them up using E6000.

Awesome, thanks again Chris

With respect to the patterned grooves on the shins, thighs and forearms, in some photos, they look to be grey, or metallic black, in others they look to be the same as the rest of the armour. Are they to be painted and if so, what colour, or is this just a weathering option or reflection? This is what I mean: this photo is a movie screen - it looks to be uniform with the gloss black This one looks like it is a different colour but could be reflection This one from the CRL is painted.

I spent some time today sizing up the arm and leg pieces over the undersuit (that suit is pretty thick compared to the TK spandex). It looks like I will need to shim the forearms, thighs and shins. Lots of work but I am looking forward to starting even though I have a bit of stress paralysis. I picked up JB plastic weld today (Devcon not available here in Canada I don’t think) , E-6000, Bondo, I ordered some 2mm black ABS sheets to do the shimming. Also ordered an airbrush (Iwata eclipse HP-CS) that is coming this weekend. Does anyone have any recommendations for paint and primer brands for airbrush painting the armour? Also, what have people used for the straps at the bottom of the left forearm?

Finished printing the parts for the SE-14R blaster. Printed in ABS like resin. This is a new printer and so nice not to have to sand out print lines.

I actually do have 1 question about the shin reconstruction that you recommended @Chaos. in the photo below, with respect the area circled in green. When I remove the cover strip and add the shim, the raised area will no longer come to the cover strip, so I will have to sculpt it back I . Is Bondo the best to do this as well, or is there a better method?

Thanks again @Chaos the photos make perfect sense.

So I played around with the forearms this afternoon and the clam shell technique that @Chaos suggested works very well. I do have a couple more questions however. 1. Is E6000 the best way to glue the pieces together? 2. I was trying to fit the shins and I assume you would do the same clamshell technique with the front portion glued. The issue I am having is that I have big calves and although the bottom part of the shin around my ankle closes, there is an opening in the back at the top that is about 1 inch wide. I figured that I would need to shim them some. Is it better to add length to the end of the piece where it meets with the other half ( the inner part below the cover strip), or am I better to cut down along the length of one piece and add a shim in the middle somewhere?

Thanks @Chaos, this helps a lot. I will definitely be asking for advice as I go along.

Seemed to go on easily but fumes were bad, even with the paint hut. It took 3 cans to do the whole kit with 2 coats. No itchies when putting the pieces on now but I may take Chaos’ advice and add the felt in afterwards. Arm impellers and belt buckle arrived today. Very happy with the quality.

Question about working with fibre glass kits: for the forearms, they don’t make an even circle when the 2 halves are put together, more of a peanut shape, so the halves need to be opened up a bit before attaching them. Is this best achieved by heating the pieces? If so, is a hot water bath sufficient, or do I need to use a heat gun carefully? Also, what is the best way to attach them together?