DoggyDoc

@TookBreaker just order 3 cm round EL panel buttons. Hopefully the 4th time is the charm.

I actually ordered the rectangular ones. Maybe I need to look at the round ones? I actually have a green Gel filter on there as well.

Working on the lighting in the tusks. I had planned to use EL panels, but the ones with the wire that can tuck into the tusk are too small, and the size up ones have a big port in the corner for the power wire that can not be hidden. I switched to an LED diode and did a test run on one of the trial tusks that I won’t be using. I diffused the bulb by wrapping it in white tissue paper (green LED) and filled the space between the green filter and the light source with opaque hot glue. The diffusion works well,but there is still a right spot in the centre. Is this ok, or is there a better way to do this?

First coat of black and the metallic black on the pieces that need it done on some parts, then I ran out of paint.

Started paint today. First primer and filler coat is on. Will touch up sand and fill then reprise before starting the black. Set up a tent outside to reduce mess and smell in the basement. Went with dupli-color primer and filler instead of the tremclad I have used before. Seems to work a bit better with less splatter. First coat done

I think you are correct but there are 3 different versions of the first order storm trooper with slight variations showing up from each of the final 3 movies. Someone with more experience on the sith trooper can direct you on which one it is hopefully.

I went ahead and printed a slightly smaller set of tusks, and I think these look closer to the screen used ones. Here are the 3 versions I have printed. The lower right is the one I think looks best.

I decided to redo the tusks on the helmet to allow for easier placement of the EL panel to light it up. The ones that came with the kit seem to be a different shape from the screen used ones and would be very hard to rig up with the EL panel. My first attempt was too squared off, so I redid them a bit smaller, angled down slightly and rounder. Do these look ok, or are they still just a bit too large?

Looking good. Nice job on the resizing. It was a real hanging point for me too

Got that to do as well. Thanks.

Managed to get a lot of stuff completed this weekend. I attached the shoulder straps using the female portion of 2 Chicago screws embedded into the underside of the buckle and a bolt to secure it to the chest piece. On the back portion I used Velcro similar to @TookBreaker. I now have all of the pieces finished and ready for paint. If you could please let me know if there is anything that you can spot that needs to be corrected before painting. In the photos, the belt still needs to be secured to the abdomen, the shins need to have closures put in place and the undersuit needs to be tweaked a bit for a better fit.

Mine are pretty wide at the bottom to fit everything in there. I did extend them however as they would not have even come close to fitting otherwise

Mine are pretty wide at the bottom to fit everything in there. I did extend them however as they would not have even come close to fitting otherwise

Quick question. For the sniper knee plate, there is a raised ridge at the bottom of the thigh where the front cover strip ends, and then a lower area below it. Does the top of the sniper plate sit on the raised area at all, or does it just butt up to the lower edge of it and stay below that area?

Thighs are resized with a few extra inches of fibreglass now. I used the same technique as I did with the shins to form fibreglass cast material on the inside of the thigh piece before cutting it, then secured it in place with plastic weld, then later down the fibreglass over top. I made the cut in a spot where the groove in the armor came straight across, so that it would be easy to recreate the groove in the armour Fibreglass cast backing secured in place Ready for fibrglass to be applied. Trimmed and sanded just need to do a bit of filling with UV resin.

Not sure where to purchase but they are fairly easy to make. @nanotek has a great guide.

Finished the modifications on the shin pieces. I had to extend the raised ridge on the outer aspect of the shin to meet up with the rear cover strip and modified the raised inner portion on the ankle area to line up with the strip on the other side to get it up to Level 2 standard. Just need to put the Level 2 groove in at the bottom of the ankle.

Thanks again @Chaos for the quick and thorough response.

Can someone show me a photo of what this is describing in the CRL for Level 2 shins; “There is an indented groove approximately 1/2" (12mm) wide that runs along the inside bottom of both shins from the rear center to the beginning of the front boot arc. This detail is partially covered by the triangular closure flap.”

Did a bit more work on the shin pieces. Cleaned up the raised area on the bottom of the one that was done in UV resin as it was a bit uneven. Replaced the cover strips and now all I need to do is bond the 2 halves together and put the greeblies and sniper knee plate on.

Magnets. I have not glued the ones in the helmet yet, until I am certain the placement is correct.

Quick Question. Does this placement for the neurosav look correct?

More progress over the past 2 days. I decided to tackle the shin pieces as they were the most daunting part of my build because I had to make them bigger. The challenge was working with fibreglass as it was new to me. All in all I think everything turned out well. Just a bit itchy from sanding fibreglass . LOL. I used plastic weld to attach the fibreglass cast moulds that I made a while back. the edges of the armour where the backing mould meets was sanded to a taper to allow for the fibreglass transition. I started with the outer half as it did not have the cover strip or the raised lower portion. Next I prepared the fibreglass cloth. I used 7 layers and made each layer slightly wider to run up onto the original armour piece. The first piece was the same width as the white backing portion. I used West epoxy resin. Easy to get the mix right with their pump system. The basic technique is lay down resin, then put the cloth on top, lay down resin to wet the cloth completely, repeat for all layers. The end result is show below. I may have used a bit too much resin and had lots of runs, but they sanded out easily. After letting the resin cure overnight, it was time to trim and sand. With a bit more confidence working with fibreglass, I next did the inner pieces. First I trimmed off the cover strip portion. For the raised ridge at the bottom,I laid down extra pieces of fibreglass to build it up. The first one didn’t turn out so well, so I built it up afterwards with UV Resin. All in all, I am happy with the results. All pieces sanded and a coat of UV resin used to smooth and fill. Did a test fit and everything lines up well. Just need to get the cover strips back on and they are good to go.

I finally have some time this week to get back to building my costume. worked on the belt today. I followed the Legion 42 guide for the basic build style First step was to glue the nylon belt to the rubber one using E6000. one clip is outside of the rubber edge and one is inside. The next step was to put the upper body armour on (with undersuit) and set the belt length. Once this was done, you can figure out how much overlap you will have with the rubber section and where the seam will be. This is where you want to put your canvas pouch that sits on the back right side. Also mark the front centre point and the 2 points between the hip and butt pieces where the square belt boxes will go. I marked the up side with an arrow on the back to make sure I always knew which way was up. This actually helped a fair bit Overlap of rubber belt shown when the buckle is done up. Inside of the belt marked to show where the rubber belt overlap seam is. I next placed 2 holes through the belt along that line to put Chicago screws in to hold the nylon and rubber pieces together to prevent them from pulling apart in the glued area. Next I covered the screws with the loop part of the velcro (I wanted to make sure that only the soft sides are facing the armour to prevent scratches) Now that this is done, I placed the first of the 3 canvas pouches with the middle of the pouch over where the seam of the rubber belt will sit, with the hook side of the Velcro attached on the inside of the strap on the back of the pouch. Next, 2 more Chicago screws were placed on the other side of the belt using the same process. On this side, the extra nylon strapping that folds back, covers up the screws. Next mount the buckle at the centre point of the belt. And put the 2 front canvas pouches, the leather pouch and the holster into their appropriate locations. Now mount the square boxes. A trick for figuring out where to put the holes for the screws for these boxes is to place the screws in the boxes and cover them with white paint. Then carefully press the box onto the belt where it needs to be mounted and the paint will mark the hole locations. Finally, I covered up any screws on the back with the soft Velcro to protect the armour. Completed belt

Martin Martinez has accurate files. You can find the link on the front of my build thread.