DoggyDoc

Glad you were able to save some of the pieces.

Hope it is a bit better for you tomorrow

So sorry you had such a bad setback. can you not sand the Bondo down ? I tend to use the Bondo glazing and spot putty that comes in the tube. No mixing needed and sands easily.

I did my strapping similar to my stormtrooper costume with snap plates. I know @Chaos has his very differently strapped which seems to allow for more mobility. i have not printed a full set of armour, but some of the smaller parts such as buckles and D rings did snap and I reprinted with some flexible resin combined with normal resin. As far as filament goes, I would suspect the full armour pieces will be fairly strong. Hopefully someone with printed armour will comment as well .

I use the same primer on all parts resin, fibreglass and filament. It then will give the same base for the paint layer that way.

I like the Duplicolor Primer and Filler. It goes on well and fills small defects. I have used the trembles and rustoleum primer fillers and they were okay but not as good as the duplicolor one

I can get you the strap and buckle files I used, just pm me and I will send them. Maybe you can get someone that has a filament printer to print the straps in TPU for you. Woth respect to the boots, I also have a size 13 foot and have bought 4 pairs of boots from them and have been happy every time.

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