Camprandall's Flametrooper Build

[Griffin-X[501st]]

Cool updates Clint and hope the finger boo-boo is healing up. Keep it up, you're almost there!

[camprandall[501st]]

Hey Clint, good work again, just a question - have you thought that when you add straps to hold the back plate and tanks together this may alter how the suit sits on your back.

 

I'm going to start make the reinforcing back plate tonight and mock up the tank holding bar that sits on the ab plate. Of all the things I think this may be the key to it all. The rest is reasonably straight forward.

 

Did you do anything about the neck scoop ? did you extend / reshape the should bridges at all. I still think I'm going to need to do this.

 

Yeah, my plan is to get the harness fitting just how I like and then attach the back plate to fit on it where I want. It will likely pull the chest plate back just a touch, but the harness isn't very thick. I'm thinking the belt brace is significant to help there from being too much weight pulling on the harness too, but that is a bit of a mystery until the tanks arrive.

 

Excellent work Clint. Currently doing similar with my chest and back to hook together, just making them thicker and longer thinking it will reduce any stress at that point.

 

Cool. I didn't attempt that - partly because the chest feels a little too long already for me, but we'll see how it comes out. The fitting of this costume has been half the work and has required a ton of tweaking so who knows.

 

This is a complicated build in some ways, and you are doing it justice Clint. These are some solid mods, and I'm excited to see how things work once you get your pack. I'm falling behind while helping my son work on his droid build, but I sure am enjoying watching you work.

 

Thanks Todd! I'm excited to wear this thing soon, but you can't go wrong building a droid with your kid either. I look forward to those days as my boys are 5 months, 3 years and 4 years.

[camprandall[501st]]

Cool updates Clint and hope the finger boo-boo is healing up. Keep it up, you're almost there!

 

It's a little frustrating, but it's doing good! I'm still too hesitant to cram my left hand through that forearm though.

[camprandall[501st]]

Test fitting everything but the tanks tonight!

 

[camprandall[501st]]

The fitting tonight went well! I definitely have to adjust a few things strapping wise, but I was very happy that all the armor met up where I hoped so no more armor changes. Whew!

 

[Griffin-X[501st]]

Wow Clint, you look AMAZING! That armor is rapidly becoming a favorite of mine. It took me a while to come around, but seeing you all setup really make me dig that costume more and more. Nicely done sir. When do you think you'll have the backpack? Again, so awesome!

[camprandall[501st]]

Wow Clint, you look AMAZING! That armor is rapidly becoming a favorite of mine. It took me a while to come around, but seeing you all setup really make me dig that costume more and more. Nicely done sir. When do you think you'll have the backpack? Again, so awesome!

 

Thanks Jim! Currently my backpack is in customs in San Francisco so probably a week or so. In the meantime, I have a short laundry list of things still to do before I even get the pack.

 

BEFORE THE TANK ARRIVES...

• Create across-the-back shoulder bridge for biceps, with snaps
  
• Permanently attach chest flaps
  
• Add a snap strap inside each shin for extra support
  
• Add outside padding to the thighs to straighten them a bit
  
• Clear coat gun
  
• Sew elastic strap for capsules
  
• Cut more curve into the bottom of the biceps for mobility
  
• Attach butt flaps to thighs
  
• Attach back to harness
  

[Griffin-X[501st]]

Btw, my nephews had a chance to see a real onscreen version of this trooper. They loved it!

 

[camprandall[501st]]

I just saw this myself a month ago. Launch Bay was awesome!

 

Oh, and the tanks arrived today. They're light!

 

[camprandall[501st]]

Ok, so I'm about done with the adjustments needed after fitting everything. One area I'm particularly happy with is the the way my arms are mounted. Mounting them to the shoulder bells proved to be a bad idea so instead I made an adjustable strap that goes across the back and connects the arms to each other. It's not very taut when I stand there but if I pull my arms forward, I can use the strap to cinch them up a bit if they slide. It works great! The added bonus is that I can put both arms on by myself easily by just putting my arms in over my head and using the strap against my back for leverage to pull them up. Awesome!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another thing I did was setup the elastic band for the right thigh capsules. Pretty simple.

 

 

 

 

I also made little pads for the knees to keep them straighter. I wrapped them in speaker cloth with velcro because gluing foam to the armor that will eventually get nasty isn't too fun. These are washable!

 

 

 

 

 

And lastly, I taped off the white gun areas and clear coated the black areas with several coats of flat Krylon. Carrying it for 15 minutes left black marks all over the arms so I'm hoping this cuts it down a bit. White paint just scuffs no matter what, but black exposed paint is probably it's worst enemy.

 

[camprandall[501st]]

Oh, one more thing. I painted most of the white of the tanks too! One very frustrating element was that halfway through my second and final coat, one of the Rustoleum cans did what they occasionally do which is to spew a grey dust out. Needless to say, I'll be resanding and repainting the two big tanks in 2 or 3 days. Annoying because the paint job was coming out nicely.

 

 

 

Eew....

 

[toddo[TX]]

Great idea on the speaker cloth foam Clint. You're such a smarty. Anyway, I'm intrigued by your arm rigging and might have to give that a try as well. As for the tanks, it's amazing how light Mardon is able to make those. I found there were some thin spots on mine that allowed light the shine through when illuminated, but that was easily remedied with some internal duct tape. Sorry to hear about the paint issue. I had my chest and back nearly perfect, decided to put one more shiny coat on it to really do the trick, and sprayed the gray powder all over the place. After I cleaned it and resprayed, it was orange peel city. I eventually had to use a bunch of oven cleaner to remove everything down to the plastic before starting over. In other words, I feel your pain.

[Griffin-X[501st]]

Ugh, the dreaded Rustoleum. I hate that stuff personally, and for that very reason. I'm a Krylon guy all the way. But, I'm sure you'll get it all taken care of Clint. You are so very close to the finish line now!

[DeadMan]

Ugh painting... I must say I enjoy the building & detailing much more than this painting part

 

Love the arm setup. Are all the pieces just velcro'd together?

[camprandall[501st]]

Great idea on the speaker cloth foam Clint. You're such a smarty. Anyway, I'm intrigued by your arm rigging and might have to give that a try as well. As for the tanks, it's amazing how light Mardon is able to make those. I found there were some thin spots on mine that allowed light the shine through when illuminated, but that was easily remedied with some internal duct tape. Sorry to hear about the paint issue. I had my chest and back nearly perfect, decided to put one more shiny coat on it to really do the trick, and sprayed the gray powder all over the place. After I cleaned it and resprayed, it was orange peel city. I eventually had to use a bunch of oven cleaner to remove everything down to the plastic before starting over. In other words, I feel your pain.

 

Thanks Todd. Yeah, I will be sanding one of the big tanks again after tonight I had a repeat performance of a nearly new can giving me a couple off sprays. So annoying.

 

Ugh, the dreaded Rustoleum. I hate that stuff personally, and for that very reason. I'm a Krylon guy all the way. But, I'm sure you'll get it all taken care of Clint. You are so very close to the finish line now!

 

Yeah, I used this stuff because it would match my other armor, but I should have switched. I'm nearly there and didn't have problems earlier, but it's now happened twice on the same part so - another 4 days of waiting and then retrying. It's the last friggin piece that needs painting!

 

Ugh painting... I must say I enjoy the building & detailing much more than this painting part

 

Love the arm setup. Are all the pieces just velcro'd together?

 

The forearms and biceps are velcro'd to the gasket and the biceps are snapped to the webbing that goes across the back.

[camprandall[501st]]

So despite being very discouraged at the grey powder spray that happened yet again tonight on one of the big tanks, I did at least get a good paint job on the middle tank and the brace so that means when it cures I can finish all the mounting work since the big tanks just slide in.

 

I also did what I was dreading - build the waist bracket. I think it turned out great! I can't really try the whole thing out until the tanks are ready, but I think it will work great and it's super strong. Here's what I did.

 

 

STEP 1: Figure out the shape as best as I could and then cut two pieces of styrene to make it thicker. Glue together with zap-a-gap.

 

 

 

STEP 2: Figure out the rod mount shapes and cut 5 layers per side, giving a full half inch of thickness. Drill half inch holes and insert a dowel to the proper length. I forgot to take a picture of this step, but here's the general idea.

 

 

 

 

STEP 3: Cut a piece of heavy sheet metal to give the whole thing much better support, so it won't bend when there's downward pressure. Drill holes and screw sheet metal and base to rod supports.

 

 

 

 

STEP 4: Heat bend the sides for attachment to the ab armor. This was also easier due to the sheet metal attached in step 3.

 

 

 

STEP 5: Paint!

 

[toddo[TX]]

Nice idea adding the aluminum. I've been toying with a similar idea.

[Griffin-X[501st]]

Wow, very cool Clint! What is the overall weight of the backpack?

[camprandall[501st]]

Nice idea adding the aluminum. I've been toying with a similar idea.

 

It's actually steel sheeting.

 

Wow, very cool Clint! What is the overall weight of the backpack?

 

It's about 5 or 6 lbs, which is awesome. At that weight, I'm going to try to have the harness hold most all of it and the waist just be backup.

[camprandall[501st]]

Ok, so here at the end I have a bit of a dilemma. I think I know how I want to hang the tanks and it should work great, but I think the tank's surrounding pipe is several inches shorter than the screen prop. On the screen suit, the curved pipe pops up a good inch or two above the neck armor and also meets the bracket on the belt. On mine, I've got it level with the neck armor and it's still a good two inches higher than the bracket. This is considering that I'm 5' 10" and the screen flametroopers were taller so this frame is obviously a bit too short. So now I have to figure out what to do. Do I have really tall bracket mounts on the pipe or do I lower the entire tank unit? The former probably won't look great and the latter will likely hide the tanks more than is desirable. The last option, which I don't like at all, is to try to cut and extend the bar with 3/4" dowels, but that will be really tough to match the circumference of the bracket and have it look seamless and also be strong. Ugh...

 

Top of the pipe.

 

 

 

Bottom of the pipe.

 

[camprandall[501st]]

Ok, I said "screw it" and decided to cut and extend the thing. I haven't racked up countless hours and a lot of money on this thing to be disappointed with the frame.

 

 

 

 

 

[Griffin-X[501st]]

Cool idea and I think it looks pretty good Clint.

[camprandall[501st]]

Thanks Jim! Can't wait to finish this thing.

[DeadMan]

What did you use to glue the dowels in place? Going to have to do something to mine as well.

[camprandall[501st]]

I used JB Weld. It feels pretty strong, but I'm not going to carry it by the bottom. The problem is that to put the dowels in, I had to chip out the glue holding the fiberglass together so it's hard to clear a path very deep without destroying the bars. It should be fine though for just helping a little bit vertically. Trooping will show for sure though.