Dark Trooper Project, redeux

[tubachris85x[501st]]

Ok first half of the mother mold put on! At Fridays waiting for it to cure so we can do the other side! I'm not going to sleep without a casting tonight!

 

[izzi[TX]]

More pics!

[tubachris85x[501st]]

In due time! Waiting for the second half of the mother mold to finish curing! I'm gonna have to dremel out a seperation though but it should be fine...I'll update as the night progresses

[tubachris85x[501st]]

Good news and bad news. The actual rubber portion came out perfect. The bad news, the mother mold did not. Needless to say, demolding sucks. I intended to have a two part mother mold, but it soon turned into a 4 piece. Because of this, I cannot properly reassemble the mold. I mean, I can still make a casting, but there will be warping. Idk right now, I'll deal with it in the morning

[izzi[TX]]

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TX-8728[TX]]

Man that really sucks, Hopefully you can salvage something, I would hate for all the hard work on mold to be a waste.

[tubachris85x[501st]]

Figured out a quick solution, making a casting now..

[tubachris85x[501st]]

Alright, well this was an almost near failure due to the mother mold breaking apart. Lesson for next time is to make it thicker (already pretty thick though) but it developed weak spots and snapped at them. Needless to say I wasn't very happy, despite the actual mold itself coming out perfectly.

 

So today, I was just fumbling around trying to figure how to hold it all together...a water bucket. It works perfectly and everything sits as it should. The only problem area being the back inside of the fin, but with the casting today, we made the shell shock cure everywhere but the fin, sat the entire thing vertically and finished the fin (which it's now curing). So there we have it, not letting it go to waste or giving up over a screw up.

 

Anyways, I've been holding out with pics, so here are a few

 

 

Heres the mold unassembled. The craptacular mother mold pieces along with it

 

 

Here's the sculpt after the excruciating demolding process

 

 

Here is the whole thing sitting in the water bucket earlier after starting the casting. Hey, it works....

 

 

 

 

So now we are just waiting for the entire thing to cure. Ill be back after we pull out the first cast. Until then, beer.

 

 

-TC

[tubachris85x[501st]]

Well here it is. It came out pretty decent but we severely underestimated just how thin the outer edges were, so we have to do some fiberglassing across the rim of the helmet. Some pieces broke off during the demold, but we CA glued them back together (not show in the pics though) but otherwise, for what it is, I'll settle. Needs ALOT of bondo work but like I said, needs to be fiberglassed before I can continue doing anything.

 

Really want to cut the eyes out to see how my vision will be...

 

 

 

Just to give you an idea of size, here's my buddy who's about 5'10"

 

 

-TC

[tubachris85x[501st]]

Alright, well I finally had the chance to sit down and take some quality pics. Surprised that it didn't just break the camera to be honest. Though, I don't think the gf would like if I broke her expensive Cannon....

 

Anyways, here are some better pics. Considering the entire process leading up to this POS cast was my first time, I guess it could have been a lot worse. As you can see, there was some warping in the back section, mainly the dome. I already foresee a large financial investment in bondo. So here is the ugly duckling....

 

Re-attached the broken pieces...

 

 

 

 

 

Only a face a mother could barely love..

 

 

Look at that sexy seam line...and those curves!

 

 

So yea. I have my work cut out for me....

 

-TC

[tubachris85x[501st]]

Well had an awesome time at Star Wars Weekends this past weekend. I randomly learned of one LFL author, Jason Fry, was to be doing a book signing. One of his latest books, "the essential guide to warfare" came out in April, and they had some for sale, which I promptly purchased. The reason being, is that because of his writing, the Phase 0 Darktrooper was retroconned, i.e., was NOT considered to be part of cannon, but was re-instated as cannon, therefore, making this project squared away for 501st approval.

 

So I did the only logical thing and had to meet this guy and thank him. He was a bit shocked considering how obscure it was for me to bring up. But he said that they wanted that little tid-bit to be short and very to the point, explaining that the clones that were turned into "more machine then man" was a major pshycological blow to the clones, having fought machines their whole lives, which drove them mad and even to suicide...

 

So I'm going to do the best I can to complete this project. I just aquired all my TK parts to fill out the base armor. I'll be posting up questions for assistence as well...thanks

 

-TC

[Darth Agnon[501st]]

like*

[tubachris85x[501st]]

I'm awaiting some measurements of existing OSCS clone armor, since the majority of my armor is already OSCS pieces, from the tall kit version. I'm going to *attempt* at matching the scaling of the chest armor with this.

 

I do have a question though-I have the TK style shins. While they match according to the game, I cannot decide if I should leave the angular detail (Where the knee plate would be attached) on or cut that off to give the piece a smoother look. While the detail is soft on the 3d model, I cannot decide if this is something I should do.

 

[Darth Emphatic[CMD-DWM]]

I thought there was a detail that went around the top of the shin anyway...

[tubachris85x[501st]]

I thought there was a detail that went around the top of the shin anyway...

 

I thought so too, but thats the problem with a low def type model I guess :/

I'll take another comparison to the TK model in the game, see how it looks.

[Darth Emphatic[CMD-DWM]]

How is the bucket looking? Last I think we saw it, it was the face only a mother could love

[tubachris85x[501st]]

Same as before unfortunately. I'm slowing fiberglass reinforcing it but I've slowed down a bit. I'm lookin to staring that back up shortly. I'm going to try and knock out the smaller armor parts today like the biceps and forearms

[tubachris85x[501st]]

Started to do some trimming today...however, got pretty rained out. I'm having to get another forarm set as I received two of the same side, and may have to return a bicep piece for some QA issues...

 

Anyways, just a mock up but cant wait to start cleaning these pieces up to get some paint on them...

 

 

-TC

[tubachris85x[501st]]

So I spent the better part of the day finishing up the trimming and sanding. I focused on cleaning up the (one) forarm that I'll use, a bicep and the shin armor. I've run into an issue with the calves, but as with my clone armor, I need to get some experienced members to help me with the construction, as they are a tight fit on me..

 

-TC

[izzi[TX]]

Glad to see you're still on this. Let me know if I can help you out in any way.

 

-iz

[tubachris85x[501st]]

Glad to see you're still on this. Let me know if I can help you out in any way.

 

-iz

 

Appreciate it! Doing what I can...kinda dealing with some personal issues at the moment though :/

[izzi[TX]]

Take your time, bro!

 

I'm always dealing with personal issues!

 

-iz

[tubachris85x[501st]]

Still on hold There's a good chance that I will be starting a fairly good job in January...trust me, I haven't forgotten about this!

[izzi[TX]]

Thanks for keeping us updated!

[tubachris85x[501st]]

Thanks for keeping us updated!

 

I'm sorry it's not much of an update. I'm hell bound to finish this. It sucks...I have a majority of my project stuff still in storage..all my tools, etc...Frustrating...