PolarMuffin83

Man it's been a good while since I've posted, I'm still working on the kit but I had to take a break on it but am back now. Doing some painting to match the color scheme and wanted to ask about the flat black areas, they are a different black than the gloss black correct? Like a subtle shade lighter difference?

Got to try on the undersuit for the first time today, it's nice! I am worried about the fit of the shins since the suit adds a bit of material around my calves, but gonna be going to get materials to do all the rigging tomorrow which is fun!

I've looked through the forums a couple of times and couldn't find it so I'm gonna ask here to try and get some help, does anyone have patterns for the soft belt boxes, the canvas and leather ones? I am also looking for the hard belt boxes and covers but I think I saw files for the boxes, just not the covers- my option on this is to have someone quickly do a model for it since its relatively simple geometry I am hoping for this to be cheap. Beyond that, about 1/3 of the kit is ready to paint, 1/3 needs bondo after my mistakes a few weeks ago, and 1/3 is still being sculpted to proper. My undersuit did come in from Jim Tripon, I haven't gotten the chance to try it on yet being at school but hopefully will next week when I go home for break. Between school and the issues with the kit itself this has definetly been more expensive and time intensive than I thought it would be but I have committed a lot so there is no going back!

Got it! Will bring those in, thank you.

Today went well, spend the day sanding the chest plate and working on the thighs and left shin. Adding this line was a huge pain; i used the soder ive been using to carve it in and not im going to fill it to be flat and then sand it to look nicer than it is. The thighs the plate looks added on right now so I am going to use some sculpting putty like milliput or similar to make it smooth and hopefully look better. The helmet, front chest plate, butt, ab, and cod pieces are close to being smooth I need to take some 300+ grit and finish it basically to be ready to paint. Aiming for May to be finished.

Okay, so the tool I used to melt it in was as I thought a bit too wide, almost double the width that I needed, this however seems like it will turn out pretty helpful; the crl says 20mm from the edge of the end cap for the first notch, and then 25mm-30mm apart. what this means for me, for the first notch I can fill in the half closest to the edge to bring it within a few mm of the requirement, for the second notch I can use whats there as a guide, and melt half the width of the tool on the far edge then clean everything else up. I would worry that they are too deep but again with a bit of miliput or paste I can more than likely sculpt it back into shape. Gonna take a few days off to work on school but will pick back up on saturday hopefully!

Looking at the up close it appears they are much smaller and shallower, i did use calipers to space them according to what was listed on CRL but will take a photo with those in it to show spacing since it may have been messed up upon melting them in. Thank you for these!

This is still a fairly raw print and i popped these in before doing any sanding or layer filling so idk, I'll keep working on it and at least in the very end if this stops level 2 it will be an easier fix 😁 gonna put my head down and get some work done over the next few days

not beautiful by any sense of the word but its in a state where the notches are there and spaced, Im going to clean things up sculpt the edges to be a little tighter and go for it. If yall think this would work, if not I can try to hop into a cad program and alter the file to have them to print on rather than how I did it here. Ik it probably means more in fit in finish how these look than rn but I figure its a risk so I should ask.

I think the idea of creating the groove through a tapered edge is probably what I'll try to do, work with the secondary model part and taper it off to be thinner the higher it goes to reduce the overall bulk of what I'm adding

so doing a quick mock up of what Ill try to do to get things fixed on the thighs, my plan is either 3d print a thin sheet- < 1/8th in. thick or place a plastic sheet ontop of what I have already on the thighs to create a valley instead of a ridge where there's an issue. On the note of the thermal det, I am going to go into the file itself and try to just use a cube to delete the spaces on it and just reprint it- or reach out to a modeler on the GA discord and see if they can alter the file for me to reprint. Thank you so much for pointing out these issues, as I work to get everything how it needs to be its been really interesting and a hell of a learning curve in multiple skills. Quick edit on this since i feel silly, i can just buy a 2 pack of 1/8th in. abs plastic on amazom and place it then cut into shape. Will have photos of this by Wednesday hopefully ☠️

I just sent him a message with the image from Chaos's DT Rigging where its free floating to clarify that I don't want straps attached to it, I'll see what he says if need be I'll have a friend tailor it since ik someone who does a lot of tailoring and all that. Thank you for showing me what he sent you!

got it, Ill start to work on the thighs to try to bring them into shape, looking now at the crl to see what you mean, in theory this shouldn't be too bad of fix but I'm going to reach out to GA to make sure he knows as well so if he updates the files later on for a future release he can fix it as well. Thank you!

So for close ups of everything I still have right now in its rough state, only having gone under 1 round of sanding and cleaning here is what I have so far: https://imgur.com/a/mgxdQQ0 Any fixes tweaks etc.. to reach tier 2 is greatly appreciated, ik the shins both the one I have and the one I don't are missing a line on them which I am going to dremel in. Also on the ab plate it looks like some of the bondo filled in small holes so i will dremel those back out as well. The last two photos show what I'll be using to cover the thigh gaps, it is just the belt material repurposed; my question here is to sit it in the interior of the thigh or on the edges to make it almost flush? Reason I ask for feedback rn is because I would rather know what I have to fix while its all still rough rather than later. https://galacticarmory.net/collections/armor-3d-files/products/death-trooper-armor-3d-print-files these are the files that I am using if someone wants to look at the parts not shown, shoulder bells, bicep guards, kidney plate, right shin, calf covers. The tusks for the helmet are going to be resin printed for better detail and fit, same with the wrist rocket type parts.

Yea I would love some photos to send Jim for a reference! I do have to reprint some stuff, its overall just a headache, but I have to comp my lab some PLA anyway for letting me do this so I am gonna get it printed once I get back to school Sunday The rest of sanding has been going well, If you guys have any recommendations of cheap sand paper for detail sanders would be awesome, right now its about $6/5 pads.

thank you I got the bands to go around the right gauntlet and the material for the belt today, Im going to use the same material as the belt to do the thighs, I think this will work.

So today I took another look at everything I had messed up yesterday, I am planning on reprinting the calf, calf tops, shoulder bells and bicep protectors. I was able to salvage the kidney plate and the thermal det plus the hand plates. So while its still a setback I can work it out. Stressful overall, but a good point in learning that I have to be more careful in mixing bondo. I did in fact put in my order for the undersuit from Jim Tripon last night, with the corset separate; I think he raised his prices a little bit but I can't really blame him for that. It does leave me in a good spot to order shoes and gloves over the course of the next month while I continue to sand and bring the parts I have to smooth.

I tried sanding it when it was the weird tacky texture and it just gunked up really bad and didnt wanna come off. Ill take a look at what is there tomorrow when I have fresh eyes and am in a better mood, right now I am more worried about the warping which happened to the parts. I have been using the spot putty as well to cover the connection lines where parts are glued together, defintely prefer it but for layer lines everything I could find was to use the 2 part mix.

welp tried the cardboard box and heat thing, and well messed up the parts that were in it. This sets me back by a huge amount and I don't know what I'm going to do. lost both biceps, both shoulder bells, both calf covers, the right calf, both handplates, and the kidney plate + thermal det. lesson learned I guess. Going to order my undersuit tonight hopefully and then when I get back to Uni I'll order some PLA for the lab plus an extra few rolls for myself. Dreadfully annoyed and hoping I don't wind up with anymore issues.

Today has not gone so well, was working on sanding parts and hit a huge problem of when I bondo'd the armor the mixture was wrong with too little activator, as of right now, this will mean having to give up on this project since I don't think I will be allowed to reprint the parts; I'm waiting on a few responses in the 3d printing group I'm in to see if these are salvageable. It looks like it was the second day I was applying bondo that It didn't work out so some parts are fine others aren't. Real stressed out by this but hoping to make the best of it. If need be as well I may reach out to a few guys who do custom prints and pay for these parts to be redone, preferably I won't have to do this. tldr; probably a major set back because of inexperience and learning.

Ill look for the buckles since I can print those in resin if I can find the files for them, sadly I don't have the means to print in TPU, hoping this will change for the coming classes at my university but since this is my last semester I'm not gonna push too hard to experiment on the printers.

Started Sanding today and printed out a SE-14r to go with the build. For sure is a process when it comes to sanding but I am hopefully going to get everything sanded and start to make the rigging work out so I can fit it. Going to also order the undersuit from Jim Tripon this week and after that if I have the money gonna look to get either the boots or gloves ordered. For the boots I'm thinking crowprops since I am a size 13 and Keeptrooping's only go up to 12.5, I think its just better safe than sorry despite the price point. as of right now I am looking for the Shoulder straps and side straps + Buckles for a good price, I think 850 has them so maybe after the undersuit I'll do the straps and gloves and order the boots last. My goal as of right now is to have this finished by May.

This is coming along really nicely, I wanted to ask about your Buckle from blasterfactory, would you say it would have been wearable even with the scuffs on it or was it just too far gone for comfort in your opinion. I'm looking to keep things as budgeted as possible so a scuffed up belt buckle isn't my biggest worry.

Today was a good day, found a detail sander half off and bought some more chipping brushes to bondo everything. Gonna follow some of the tutorials in the forums for rigging. For the undersuit I'm probably gonna reach out to Jim Tripon since it seems to be the hardest part to find and his price seems good!

Awesome, thank you so much! It looks like there are a few areas on my left shin guard that I'll have to fix up too looking at the line patterns which are supposed to be there and the file doesn't have them. but I'll do my best to fix everything up. My hopes of getting this approved aren't the highest since its a relatively harder costume choice and my first build but I'm still gonna do my best even if it winds up needing a hell of a fix afterwards.