planktonimore

Sure! I was a little confused figuring it out as well. Here’s the right thigh: The long side has a little detail and the short side sticks down. Left side: Long side is smooth with no detail, Short side is level at the bottom, and gets one of the little box greeblies on it. I glued all sides butting up against the front and overlapping the back based on what I could see in the CRL photos.

Okay, big suit up day! The costume is nearly complete and I put the whole thing on to take approval photos when I discovered there was more work to be done. For starters, I foolishly believed the shins would stay closed by themselves…yeah thats not gonna work. Second of all, this costume is unbearable to wear in 77° F which doesn’t bode well for trooping, don’t know how much there is to be done about that but yeah. My mobility is also far worse than in my TK. That, I believe I can fix. Suggestions on mobility cuts and/or (😉) improvements to mobility in other ways as well as any other suggestions are welcome please and thank you!

I am using rustoleum painters touch 2x cover gloss black paint+primer on everything. There are nicer options out there but I’m cheap and I was able to achieve a result I am pleased with. I have been told the rustoleum high performance cans deliver a much nicer finish. That being said, I have not used a clear coat and since I plan to weather my armor, I am not worried about a perfect finish anyway.

Getting groovy! I painted all the grooves and details and started strapping the armor. I got to test fit the upper body and the shins with the flaps now glued on. I still need to affix the shoulder buckles in the front. I’m not sure yet how I will close the shins in the back. But, heres some test fit pics! Please let me know your thoughts!

Update! I was able to repair my back plate using mold-able epoxy putty and even get back some of the lost details in the corners. It is definitely not perfect but I'm thinking it should hopefully be good enough at least for basic. Also, my assembly of the shins has seemed to work out pretty great and those are now almost done (aside from the bottom flaps). I also went and painted almost everything in gloss black, except for the thighs which I am still assembling. Almost all the bits are painted now and currently drying/curing. Then I can go in with the metallic black on the details. I will need to decant some into a bottle so I can brush on the fine details like the grooves and such. I have started getting things strapped as well. The chest plate goes together in four places with velcro at the armpits and shoulders by the collar, which I think is looking good, what do we think?

@ChaosIt is supposed to be flush but I did a bad job cutting it and I think I cut too much off so now it doesn't fit very well.

Update! Armor assembly is coming along, just about everything is cut out apart from minor on-the-spot trims as i get everything put together. As I suspected, the ABS parts are just like how I remembered when I built my TK. I started by gluing together the biceps, about as easy as it comes. This, I'm afraid, is where the easiness ended. The shins were/are quite tricky. The first thing I did was heat them up and bend them to be smaller to fit my skinny legs. The next problem I dealt with was the cover strips being kinda wonky from weak pulls or whatever. I ended up gluing them together and once the glue had dried, I went in with abs paste on the seam and globbed it up. When that dries, i will sand it down smooth and hopefully have a solid piece of plastic. Got a few other things waiting in line for the clamps to get glued. All fine so far.... Now for the biggest problem I am having. I HATE this resin back peice. Dremeling a big hole in a printed part is definitely outside my comfort zone and I really don't like how it came out. I am hoping I can fill in the gaps and make it look somewhat okay once the glue dries. Right now it looks not very good... Also painted some of the smaller greeblie bits such as belt boxes/plates/buckle, wrist rockets, and parachute buckles. Those all came out fine. The hand plates didn't come out very well so I sanded them a bit more and resprayed them. Now they are WORSE. 😞 I will let them cure all the way then sand them down and try again later. I must learn patience as yoda says. Anyway, that's all for now!

Essentially when it arrived all the armor pieces looked like this (photo from 850 AW website) After some trimming or cutting off the excess plastic from the forming process, they are looking like this (these are just some of the pieces I have trimmed). Here you can see the thighs, forearms, shoulder bells, and codplate. I will take some more pictures when I am home and finished trimming everything, and then I will start assembling the armor.

The day is here! My 850 AW kit arrived yesterday and i spent the whole afternoon trimming. Now my thumb really hurts so ai have to take a break but I will post progress when I start assembling and gluing. I suspect I will need to do some filling with abs paste in some spots.

I am a local DSG member currently working on a DT, also from 850. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you are looking for help! As for height, theres no height requirement for the DT, but if you are worried about getting called “a little short for a stormtrooper” the easiest thing you can do is wear lifts in your boots and/or pad your helmet so it sits a little higher. Then again, you should be fine either way.

What kind of paint should I use for weathering? The CRL lists four different options, and what I have currently is metallic silver and flat black acrylic paints, which I have already used on some of my helmet details. I want to make sure my helmet weathering matches my armor weathering so I will probably do it all at the same time. What was used on the costume model in the CRL photos?

Okay…so my bucket is…complete. Unfortunately the paint job didn’t turn out quite as good as I had hoped, and as I was finishing the final details and assembly, made a couple blemishes, but my hope is I can fix it in weathering. Anyway here are some shots of the “clean” bucket.

Face fully assembled and looking lovely! Filler primer on the dome is drying now.

Another small update on the face peices: Did some more weathering on the “weathered silver” parts to get them closer to references as they were still too shiny. Assembling the tusks, I used the same lens material as the visor, sanded the back side for some diffusion, and placed some aluminum foil behind them for a little extra reflectiveness, as I don't plan to install lights for now. Also glued in little mesh grills under the side vents.

I’m using this for the trim on my bucket. Use the longer side on the inside of the helmet and the shorter side sits perfectly around the edge.

Alright, some progress on my bucket! I had a lot of trouble with the aforementioned models so I went ahead and got the MCM Design files which have so far been much easier to work with. At 100 percent scale it fits my head so thats a relief. Finishing and painting the pieces is going well so far. I experimented with acetone vapor smoothing since I printed in ABS. Mixed results and ended up sanding anyway lol. Here are some progress pics on the face pieces while I’m connecting the dome together. Let me know how the paint job looks so far. I did a bit of weathering on the “metal” parts as a kind of happy accident while trying to file away some paint imperfections.

As I wait for my 850 kit to arrive, I have been working on my helmet. I bought these files and printed at 100% scale resulting in a spaceballs Dark Helmet. I then printed it at 80% which was much better on my head. But now...I am noticing details that are making me question the accuracy of the model vs the CRL images. Can anyone speak to the apparent accuracy of this design and if I am going to be able to approve this or if I need to spend more money on a new model.

I was able to put together one of the canvas pouches as well as the (stupid) holster using the great templates made by other members here. While I was at it, I made my own template for the leather pouch and put that together as well. Other two canvas pouches are in the works now. Leather pouch template for those interested:

Good to know, I did go ahead and order an 850 kit which should include the belt so I should be good, but if not I’ll keep that in mind.

Okay, so here are my boots. Upon closer examination, they are not an exact match to Talib boots, but to my eyes they seem to tick all the boxes. Are these going to be acceptable for basic? I went ahead and ran some bendy wire through the outer edge all the way around the lace covers and got them to sit right. They should sit even better with shin armor holding the tops in place. Here are some photos: I may source some more accurate boots down the line even if these are acceptable for basic, as I actually quite like these as a regular wear out lol

Hello spec ops troopers! Last time I posted in here I was but an aspiring member, but now that I am a proud member of the Dune Sea Garrison, and owner of both TK and officer costumes, my obsession has lead me to starting a Death Trooper build. Already got my hands on a couple things second hand: Jim Tripon Undersuit (may need taking in in a couple places) Talib boot reps with lace covers Gloves Currently sourcing armor and helmet, looking for second hand or new kits, but not finished sets as I want to build it myself where I can. My primary option is 850AW for a new kit as I have experience with vac formed armor and don't want fiberglass. Finally, I noticed no one here has mentioned the new black series death trooper helmet and I’m wondering if it could be used as a base in lieu of a helmet kit, assuming of course that it would need some minor filling and a new paint job. Please let me know your thoughts!

Thank you, that does clear it up.

I see that some costumes go for accuracy to screen above all else, imperfections and all, while other costumes lend more to an “idealized” design. I’m curious about the distinction and what constitutes idealized and whatnot. For example, could one construct a shadow stormtrooper costume using a rogue one stormtrooper kit as their base, or something similar? What about making a symmetrical bucket without the slight imperfections on the eye shapes and so on. Let me know your thoughts, as I am currently shopping for kits to start my armor and I want to know what the limits are with “idealization” which is a term I hear a lot and don’t know if I understand it.