DoggyDoc

Getting the soft parts and accessories early on is a good idea so that you have everything ready as you need it for the build. Sometimes parts may be coming from overseas so can take a few weeks or more to arrive. If everything is printed, I would likely start at the top of the CRL and go piece by piece to see what may need to be changed. Since you will be painting the armour, you can either make modifications to pieces, or if not possible replace them with more accurate pieces. Any modifications or differences in colour will be covered by the paint. As you go along, post photos so others can help you along the way if you are not sure. You will also be creating a good reference for anyone that may be in your situation down the road.

Hi Matthew. Great to see you starting your build thread. Use this thread to post photos of your progress, and yes. Use imgur. It works great for photos as you are very limited on size and number of files you can directly upload to the forum. With respect to your thighs, the ribbing and the thigh need to be one piece. You can but rubber matting as mentioned above and use them to join the solid pieces together to make the full thigh. I suspect this was the plan for the files when they were created. Please ask lots of questions. We are here to help.

I can sit when I am dressing and just have my thighs and shins on when putting on my boots, but once my suspenders are on and the upper body armour is on, I ca’t sit. Sitting in full armour is generally tough.

Hi Matthew, Welcome to spec ops and congratulations on your choice of costume. The death trooper is a res;y fun one to wear and gets a very different reaction from fans. @J47555 and @Chaos have given you a great place to start. My advice is don’t be shy or feel a question is not worth asking. We are here to help and want you succeed in looking your best as a death trooper.

It’s nice finding deals that let you add to your costume workshop. I found a belt sander on sale early on and it is one of my favourite tools. Jim is a great choice for the undersuit.

Not sure if it is me or not but the images are not showing up

I believe they were actually ribbed rubber in the actual costumes. The CRL states: The ribbed infill shall be made of black rubber, or a semi-gloss black material, or if part of the thigh pieces, have the appearance of being rubber or rubber-like material. Mine were moulded into the fibreglass, so I finished them to look like rubber. For yours, You would likely put ribbed rubber in the gaps.

Hi Phillip. Welcome to Spec Ops. Great costume choice (nope I am not partial LOL) looking forward to following your build progress make sure to feel free to ask questions. Lots of very knowledgeable people here.

One of the DO staff should probably comment on this, but I think the second photo where it was pushed in and your wife stepped back looks the best. I have Velcro on the tabs for the chest piece that goes under my arms to hold it to the back piece. The only thing you need to watch is that the side buckle straps will have room. The blue area is where the Velcro is and the green line marks the back of the side strap, which is the farthest forward the back piece could come. I think it’s finding the balance of closing the gap between your body and the chest plate, while keeping the tusks at a lower profile.

Mine were gloss black

I found that resin will lift off of the fibreglass at times, so I wouldn’t use it to build up the shin closure as that is a high strain point. ‘’Big tip”. When your shin is glued , don’t open it too much because it will crack right down the front. I open mine enough to slide my foot through with my toes pointed. ‘Jim’s hand guards (glove attachments) are good and I did use them For that shoulder buckle, you can sand it or try to add a thin layer of UV resin if there are defects, then sand it smooth.

I think I just put a whole bunch of JB weld into the seam and it held

Looks great. The tabs just have to give the shoulder bell a ledge to rest on, so they should be fine as you want the bells as close to the shoulder bridge as possible.

The alignment of the shoulders looks really good in the clamped photo. I can’t tell if there is a metal tab sticking out to support the shoulder bell. Is it under the strap or is it u see the shoulder bridge?

With the thighs, I actually shortened them twice as they also were digging into my hips. I needed to cut back this area. You can see how much I had to trim mine down and how I curved the part I circled above. The groove in the bottom of the shin looks right. As far as location. Just need to make sure it is deep enough to show up when it’s all painted and clear coated. Tough to tell depth from the photo.

I cut a couple inches off my thighs. You need to be able to walk comfortably when they are on and consider that you will need to be able to get your boots on once the thighs and shins are in place, so you almost need to be able to get into a sitting position.

I sanded mine with a belt sander to get rid of print lines and then sprayed them with Plastidip

Yes. Jim’s thermal detonator has the level 2 requirements

Definitely a size bump on the new print. Not sure what that screw is for. Could it be for the lens for the eyes?

Personally I think position 1 looks better. The shoulder bridges line up and the fit looks good. With the back piece, I used Velcro on the side tabs of the chest piece to connect to the back, so it pulls everything in at the bottom of the plates

This is exactly the same as what I used for the forearms and shins and it worked very well.

Good plan. Always best to tape things up and check for fit and positioning before cutting.

I didn’t need to cut my back piece as I am fairly big in the chest and belly area. You want the armour to fit well against your body though. my thoughts would be that if you don’t cut it, then can you pull the lower parts of the front and back pieces in to bring the chest in and down some? If this doesn’t work, then you may need to trim the shoulder bridge, but you may need to reshape it to meet the chest shoulder bridge properly. The shoulder strap does hide the seam, but not completely. These adjustments seem appropriate, you need to be able to bend some in the arms. And this area will disrupt the details of the forearms the least.

Very strange. have you tried wiping it down with isopropyl alcohol? That is what needs to be used for the non water soluble resins. Maybe just try in the tacky areas?

Just thinking about the UV resin curing issue. When I did it, I did very thin coats in small areas and cured as I went. Typically, it only took a few seconds to fully cure an area. ‘Not sure if this helps.