DM's Flame Trooper build

[DeadMan]

Here is how I did my spat gaskets.

 

It's a 6 inch elastic and glued into place.

Measured the circumference around the top of the boot to get the length of the elastic - 14.5 inches long in my case.

• I also sized the spats to fit this circumference, then trimmed off enough to give a 15mm gap after it is put into place on the boot.
  
• Trim the spats so the top-inside circumference is the same as the measurement taken for the elastic.
  
• Then cut back the edges of the spats 12mm in total for each side. When you slide the finished rig onto the boot it will stretch out to about 15mm.
  

Once I had made my elastic into a tube, I glued the spats into place. I didn't glue right to the edges, but left about a 1/2 inch space from the edges to give some room for extra stretching.

I only glued the edges on each side and made sure it fit snuggly along the edge at the tops of the spats.

 

 

 

After the edges dried, I flipped it over and cut slits that just about reach the inside edge of the spat.

 

 

 

Then glued those down to the inside. Only pit a line along the bottom edge of each one and didn't run glue over the whole split piece.

 

 

 

Then slid it onto the boot. Fits nice and snug.

I don't think I will need to attach this to the shin with Velcro, it doesn't move at all as is, but I haven't walked around to much with it on yet.

[toddo[TX]]

This makes really good sense to me. This way there is ease getting the foot through there, and the slits solve the flare problem that I've been trying to get my head around. Simple solution. Thanks.

[camprandall[501st]]

This looks great! I think I will likely either back my material with cloth or else redo it similar to this. It works great, but I suspect yours will hold up better over the long haul. Nice job!

[toddo[TX]]

I think the craft foam looks perfect, but it seems that elastic has what it takes to last through the rigors of trooping.

[DeadMan]

The Bullet Belt:

 

The 3D printed ones that come with the kit are 2 5/8" long, so I went with a 1.5" elastic.

 

The creases are 1" apart. I sized the loop around my thumb which is not as big as the bullets, so will make a nice snug fit.

Pinched it together with those handy clamps we all have now and ran glue down the length of each crease.

 

 

 

Glued on the support behind the loops.

 

 

 

Added the slider for the photo. Still need to trim down the elastic strip. Had to repaint the leg, and it's drying right now, so will fit it properly tomorrow.

 

Tops of the bullets are gloss black, and they will be flat black in between; will finish the paint on those tomorrow.

 

 

 

The reference photos from the Anaheim suit.

[DeadMan]

Finally done the repaint on my helmet. And did the trim tonight.

Looking at the ref pics, I was certain they didn't paint the thick line on the bottom since it's nice and straight, where-as the rest of the painted lines are messy. So I found some awesome tape for the thick line, and used 1/32" correction: 1/16" pin striping for the small lines.

Also used the thick tape for the brow line.

 

Sorry, my model isn't wearing anything under the suit... (This is totally what I thought the original Stormtroopers were when I watched in the theatre as a kid.)

Not happy with the lens I have, so need to find something else quick in the next couple days to put there. Tinted plastic from the print shop I think.

 

 

Holes in the ends of the "things" for my speakers. Won't have those working by this weekend though

 

 

My trimming is not very good, but this stuff is easy enough to peel off and redo. Took about 10 minutes to complete the large stripe.

Foam chunks in the ears for my hearing devices.

 

 

The tape I used. Very flexible and easy to use. Can leave a gooey black residue when trimming, but I used solvent on a paper towel to rub it all off.

[Darth Emphatic[CMD-DWM]]

Issues with the lenses? Hard to tell in that pic with the reflection.

[DeadMan]

I'll be flooding the forum with posts the next 3 days in order to finish up the suit since I need to have it on Saturday morning Took these 3 days off work to get it all done.

Suit just needs to be all stuck together and wearable, but lots of work to do on my thrower, and that will take most of the time up.

 

 

Added a 1/16 inch think piece of craft foam to the inside of the hand armour so it sits a little better once stuck onto the glove.

[DeadMan]

Helmet padding.

Really have no idea how this should go. Just adding pieces until it doesn't wobble on the melon anymore.

So far it is lightly snug and does not move around at all. Still might add a chin strap just to make it 100% snug.

Should add that I used a 1" foam.

 

Peripheral vision is really good, except for the inferior-peripheral. I have about a 6-7 foot gap directly in front of me where I can't see directly down if looking straight ahead. Walking with head down a bit, this lowers to about 5 feet.

[DeadMan]

Having a problem deciding on what colour the connectors should be.

The Disney ones are a much lighter silver; where-as the Anaheim ones are more gun metal looking - the colour I originally chose for mine, and I think looks better than the lighter silver. Mine is still a little darker than the Anaheim one though.

 

Since I haven't attached them yet completely, what do you all think? I like the used look of the Anaheim one as well, think I will try to do something like that too.

[DeadMan]

The belt. Next step is to join it with the ab plate with strapping.

 

It's basically one piece. Only put the Velcro on incase I loose weight and need to tighten it up

Once I have the belt, ab plate and harness joined together, I can easily slip them on and off like a pair of overalls.

 

 

 

 

Ran out of the rubber belt stuff since I used that bit on my backplate. Just have a strip of Velcro there to hold the belt at the back..

One set of my rivets that hold the boxes has washers, the other doesn't. After putting the first side on, the rivets cut a little to deep for my liking, so put washers on the other side. There is also a black piece of craft foam in there, under strips of thin ABS, to give it some play.

 

[Darth Emphatic[CMD-DWM]]

I think silver is the safe bet. It also lines up with TFA TK aerator.

[DeadMan]

My first troop - if I can call it that without being a 501st member Didn't know we can't get a number until the CRL is done But that's OK, I had a great time.

 

Getting there was fine, got all suited up. Was only ten minutes later after all the bumping and jostling getting to the Badlands 501st kiosk, the gun was broken already - the hoses were grabbed and tore the handle off, and bumping the front broke the seam on the lower handle. Easy fixes at least - and the barrel isn't correct as it's to long (but awesomely long!)

And I just realised that we did not get any pictures of the tanks on!

 

Here's a link to see the rest of the photos taken today with the folks if you like...

SaskExpo 2016, Saskatoon, SK Canada.

 

 

At the Badlands booth.

[toddo[TX]]

Was there an issue with keeping the shins down/spats in place?

[DeadMan]

Was there an issue with keeping the shins down/spats in place?

 

The right one I never had a problem with; the left popped out twice for some reason. I fixed it after the first photo, then by the time I was inside and at the booth it was out again. I was thinking maybe because it's my leading leg for going up stairs and always twisting it for poses.

[DeadMan]

Some thoughts on my setup:

• Cod piece needs to be more narrow - oi the chafing!
  
• Some other parts seem a little to big - the fore-arms could probably fit just a little tighter and the biceps maybe shorter in length. I couldn't touch my head after everything was on.
  
• Using Velcro to hold the under-arm/side flaps in place was a good thing as they take a heck of a beating putting the suit on and getting ready
  
• The chest/back could probably use an edge trim - I had an inch of padding over the shoulders, just enough so the edges were not digging in. The whole time the helmet kinda rests on the armour. Possibly a slightly smaller helmet too, although it looks proportional to the rest of the suit. I don't want to add anymore padding to the inside since I can see pretty good as is.
  
• Need to get better inserts for the boots - gel ones or something
  
• Harness and strapping worked great - this was my biggest fear starting the day as I had never put the whole thing on before
  
• Glad I used fabric elastic to join the ab piece to the belt, and butt and cod piece to the belt.
  
• Trim my strapping so it's not popping out!!
  

And the gun does get heavy after 2 hours of holding it like this - had the arm shakes and sore hands for about 30 mins after. Could have easily walked around longer, but I just couldn't hang onto the gun anymore. Think I will use a neck strap to help hold it next time.

The tanks also start to take their toll. Only in the shoulders though. Reminded me what it was like delivering papers when I was a kid.

[DeadMan]

My back pack setup.

 

This is all one large piece. Works great, except I had the tanks bolted onto the back since I was out of time.

 

The shoulder straps start at the ab plate in the back, then are attached to the back plate...

 

The chest straps are the ones sticking out of each side.

 

 

The belt is attached to the ab plate with large 6" elastic on each side

 

 

.. the shoulder straps then attach to the front of the ab plate with some homemade buckles.

 

 

 

I ended up not using the top 2 buckles. They would have been part of the chest strap setup, but found I didn't need them at all.

The bottom 2 were glued to the front of the ab plate to wind the shoulder straps too. Not seen on these 2 are reinforcement strips that are on each side to help with the flexing. The lowest hole was not needed in the end for the strapping held perfectly when wound through the upper 2 slots.

[DeadMan]

Whats left of my thrower.

Since I plan on making a new one, I left this one very basic - no nice screws or LED's or anything else added.

 

46" long!

 

 

My best idea - putting the dual cable holder into the end of the handle. Enough room to hold the 2 hoses and tuck the sleeve into it.

These held well enough for someone to snag it and tear the entire grip off But I still plan on changing the out to the barbed style, or find some low profile quick connect ends to put onto the hoses - which is probably a better idea now that I'm thinking about it again.

[DeadMan]

Decided to make a new set of tanks since the set I have is just to small, and I'm not happy with just extending the pipes since the whole thing needs to be wider and taller. Cutting out 1/32, 1/16 and 1/8 inch ABS plastic and assembling the parts. The caps I will have to do a vacuform or something.

Just upgraded my design from last year, and printed out templates.

 

 

 

 

 

[camprandall[501st]]

Wow, ambitious! I might eventually enlarge mine, although it fits pretty well on my body. I kinda want to see how trooping this thing goes before dumping a bunch more work into it.

 

Best of luck!

[DeadMan]

Wow, ambitious! I might eventually enlarge mine, although it fits pretty well on my body. I kinda want to see how trooping this thing goes before dumping a bunch more work into it.

 

For the time that I wore mine, the whole suit fit pretty good, except for the cod piece chaffing (still sore!) :/ I found there were enough open areas on the suit that it didn't get hot and uncomfortable at all. Even the helmet didn't get as bad as I expected without fans - and I'm a real sweat monster. Ideal temp for me is 15c (56f)

Didn't notice the tank weight at all while walking around - and I've had a wrecked back for 25 years now, and it didn't make it sore one bit. Shoulders were a little sore later on, but that was minor. Overall the hardest part was carrying the gun for that amount of time.

 

I

[DeadMan]

Made a couple of these little double connectors today. Not quite the same, but pretty close.

 

 

 

 

Rolled a length of craft foam around the screw and stuffed it inside to give it some spring.

[DeadMan]

Todays side project: make the hose/tank clamps.

 

Want them to look like these.

 

 

Glue some ABS pieces together to make it 1/2 inch thick.

Large clamps are 2 1/8 inches. The smaller one is 1 1/2 inch.

Rough trace around the hole saw bits.

Dashed lines are where the screw holes will be drilled.

The small holes will be 1/8 inch, the larger holes will be 1/4 inch.

 

There is probably an easier way to make these, but it only took a few minutes. Took much longer waiting for the glue to dry.

 

 

Leaving them like this for now until I decide what size pipes I will be using - they will be 1" or 1 1/4" in the end.

The small one has a 5/8" hole since that's the size of my hoses running to the gun.

[DeadMan]

It's been a while, but I'm home for a week then I'm off again. Can't really do much since it's too cold out now to do anything in the garage... so I will just continue to chip away at the little things on my new set of tanks and hope that I remember how it's supposed to go together once I start sanding and painting again.

 

 

[DeadMan]

Hi everyone, it's been a while. To much travel, not enough energy to play when I'm home

 

Updating and fixing image links. Read somewhere a while back that Photobucket is messing with things, and I see that now.

Moving everything to imgBB, unless someone knows a better place.

Is there a way to use images saved to OneDrive? They show up in the editor, then it says something like "this board does not use that extension" - probably because the image links don't have jpg or something at the end I am guessing.