Mark's R1 Death Trooper build

[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

Looking good, Jims kit is a bit heavier, and well, I'm pretty active.. so I have broken a few snaps...(strapping was a bit of guess work for DT, trial and error).. stick with it, and be a boss in no time!

 

Yeah. Strapping will be another challenge. I was planning on following some of the regular TK strapping for some areas. I plan on being reasonably active and am hoping that all of the reinforcing I am doing will be enough to cope.

 

Thanks for the encouragement. I am sure I will get through it all. Your outfit looks great! I hope I can get mine to the same standard as everyone else's.

[hutt-trooper]

Your build is looking awesome. I cant wait to see it complete. You mentioned you had the "real" swivels for the E-11D sling? I cant seem to find the details on what the correct swivels are anywhere? If you know what they are could you please let me know? And/or could you post a close up and some measurements? Thanks heaps

[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

Your build is looking awesome. I cant wait to see it complete. You mentioned you had the "real" swivels for the E-11D sling? I cant seem to find the details on what the correct swivels are anywhere? If you know what they are could you please let me know? And/or could you post a close up and some measurements? Thanks heaps

 

Here's the torch for the E-11D

http://s.aliexpress.com/6jYFzmuY

 

Here's the swivel

http://s.aliexpress.com/mumYruEv

[Woodo007[TX]]

Another link for the swivels. Takes a while for delivery https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/253105586071

 

 

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[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

I should mention that ordering anything through AliExpress the shipping time varies (esp if it's free) generally 2-4 weeks. One item I got within 5 days.

[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

Here is a pictorial update with some mildly boring narration:

 

Thermal Detonator is coming along nicely, this is just after a coat of resin, so will need to be sanded etc

 

 

Here is the Back plate with my extension. Due to the resizing of the armour, the bolt holes for the TD do not align

 

 

So here I have fibreglassed over the holes so that they can be filled and drilled to match the TD. I decided to put a bit of glass here because the holes are only out by a little bit and I may be almost re-drilling over them. Also paranoia about the strength of the print! Do not want TD malfunctions!

 

 

A boring pic of a freshly resin'd Shin. I have coated the inside as well as I do not want any sharp bits or print lines rubbing/catching on an expensive undersuit

 

 

I finally felt like it was time to install the neck piece on to the back armour. This was a little tricky as it has two ledges that need to align correctly with the back piece. I basically laid the back armour in my lap, put some CA glue on both areas of contact, and started placing. The medium CA glue is a little forgiving so I could muck around with the placement before holding. I then got some fibreglass and placed on the inside for extra hold. I will be doing another run on this to fully secure

 

 

 

I have been reinforcing some other areas where the print is a bit too flimsy for my tastes so here the back armour with inner reinforcing at the bottom

 

 

I also reinforced the butt plate for obvious reasons but here is the progress on the outside of it

 

 

Chest plate reinforcing you can hardly see but it's there

 

 

I have not been able to do much work on the thigh pieces as they have both been broken and held together by some CA glue. Yesterday I decided to strengthen them up so I can continue to work on them. The reason I have not put in the ribbed inserts is because I am working on those separately to keep the detailing. I will glue them in and reinforce further with fibreglass when I am ready

 

 

[calvinscosmos]

This looks both amazing and intimidating! I have my helmet and weapons done. Armor done by Armory Shop. Its shipped.. hoping it arrives by the end of this week!

 

Question: It looks like the first thing you are doing to the armor is "resin coating". Can you explain what this is exactly? What product do you use to do the resin coating? Is this just something you spray on both sides of each piece before the sanding begins? Can you explain the process?

 

I'm new to this whole thing.. never really been a "crafty" person, so most of this is totally foreign to me, but looking forward to learn from everyone! Thanks!

[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

This looks both amazing and intimidating! I have my helmet and weapons done. Armor done by Armory Shop. Its shipped.. hoping it arrives by the end of this week!

 

Question: It looks like the first thing you are doing to the armor is "resin coating". Can you explain what this is exactly? What product do you use to do the resin coating? Is this just something you spray on both sides of each piece before the sanding begins? Can you explain the process?

 

I'm new to this whole thing.. never really been a "crafty" person, so most of this is totally foreign to me, but looking forward to learn from everyone! Thanks!

 

Using fibreglass resin. My learnings?

 

I probably should have given all of the armour a rough sanding at the beginning using 80grit.

 

I have chosen to use resin to retain flexibility and used fibreglass matting to strengthen where obvious and where I feel it needs it.

 

I'm not sure whether I am doing this the right way or the wrong way, just doing what I think will work well at the end.

 

I am open to advice and learnings from others as well

[Woodo007[TX]]

Think u are doing a good job mate. Working with 3d printed armour is proving to be more of a challenge than I expected. U have prob seen my build where I have reinforced problem areas with plasticard on the back. Seems to work very well. I cut it to size and superglue it on. Then resin/fibre matting over that. Keep doing what u are doing. We are Gona get there ðŸ˜

 

 

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[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

Think u are doing a good job mate. Working with 3d printed armour is proving to be more of a challenge than I expected. U have prob seen my build where I have reinforced problem areas with plasticard on the back. Seems to work very well. I cut it to size and superglue it on. Then resin/fibre matting over that. Keep doing what u are doing. We are Gona get there 😁

 

 

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Thanks mate. I appreciate the kind words. I am following your build as well for ideas. Your kit is looking great!

[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

My E-11D is nearing completion

 

 

 

 

[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

Progress update! It's been a very busy weekend 😀

 

Finally assembled the shins:

 

 

I had to Dremel and file the ab plate due to resin seepage. It's looking pretty good now apart from some detailing that needs fixing due to the poor quality print.

 

 

 

I also FINALLY managed to assemble my thighs. After having to repair all the weaknesses I could finally finish the sanding and could glue the ribbed inserts in

 

 

 

Here's a shoulder bell:

 

Cod:

 

Butt:

 

 

Hand plates:

 

Thermal Detonator and back plate:

 

 

Back armour with bits to glue on:

[Woodo007[TX]]

Great progress mate. It's coming together nicely

 

 

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[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

Thanks team. Some more pics

 

Some bits and bobs:

 

 

Right forearm:

 

 

Left forearm:

 

 

Thighs: I have fibreglassed the ribbed inserts in and spread some resin around to smooth out the print lines

 

 

 

Biceps

 

 

Filling in the gaps between the neck and back armour

 

 

Inside:

 

 

Also (but not pictured ) I have done the belt boxes and ammo pouch covers. One of them has malfunctioned by warping in the heat today so I'll figure out a strategy for it next week. I'll try and fix it using a hair dryer and patience 😀

 

I feel like I am coming over the hill now that things are moving along. There's still a ton to do but I think the worst is done now.

 

I have gone through two sets of leather safety gloves now!

 

 

[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

Some more mods have arrived. These will be mounted on the chest plate along with my aluminium d-rings.

 

[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

So remember how I said I had an equipment malfunction with one of the ammo pouch covers?

 

Armed with a hairdryer and a flat surface I managed to straighten things out.

 

Method:

1. apply heat (pays to wear protective gloves)

2. Use flat surface (like floor) to mold

3. Repeat process for each side, allowing it to cool as you go

 

Results: (before and after)

 

 

[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

I did a small stress test on the chest piece today to check the fibreglass had reinforced and fixed the crack. Well it appeared again!

 

To fix this I used a method I found useful for repairing similar issues with other 3D printed items. Basically file/Dremel into the crack and then fill that with CA glue.

 

Here's some pics to illustrate:

 

1. Sand back the surrounding area around the crack

 

 

2. Dremel or file the crack. This ensures that enough glue gets into the area to create a stronger bond

 

 

3. Full the gap with CA glue

 

Another angle:

 

Once this cures properly I will sand it then fill and sand again.

[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

More progress this weekend. But also the odd setback. Must. Keep. Grinding.

 

Here is the thermal detonator. Pretty much ready for some priming I reckon:

 

 

Chest plate with pesky crack gone for good

 

 

Abdominal section assembled and ready for priming:

 

 

Left thigh almost ready to go:

 

 

 

 

Right thigh: this is something I stuffed up a little. I angled the sniper plate too far the first time so I pulled it off and had to redo. CA glue made a little bit of a mess but only took an hour to redo and am happy with it now

 

 

 

 

Back plate assembled (mostly)

 

 

I also spent A LOT of time with a round file redoing some details on my forearms. It took me roughly an hour and a half for each forearm to get the detail I wanted. Because the armour had been scaled down and because of the resin they were lost so. Yaaaay for repetitive strain injury! But it looks clean and crisp now.

 

I sanded my butt plate, cod and shoulder bells as well. Also ammo covers and belt boxes are ready for painting.

 

I also spent time doing some leather work for others and developed a new speed strap holster.

 

I wanted to do a test fitting this weekend but ran out of time. Maybe next weekend 😀

 

Getting close to the strapping part I reckon then on with the painting 😀

[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

Last night in the wee hours of obsessing over this build I noticed some thing wrong! Either it is missing or it broke off, but there is a little piece that extends out of the bottom edge of the thigh.

 

Either I will have to find the missing piece OR make myself. Simple enough to do, but a little disappointing to find at this stage. Better now than even further down the track I guess!

 

[Woodo007[TX]]

Great progress mate. Yea, that bit was a separate part in my kit that was included

 

 

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[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

Thanks and yep found the extra bit

 

Fixed the missing piece issue highlighted earlier. Went digging through the bag of small miscellaneous parts and found the missing bit.

 

After some sanding, I used some CA glue to attach it. I then got a piece of 4mm ABS, shaped it and smoothed out the edges before gluing to the inside to reinforce the new bit.

 

It was important to shape and smooth the reinforcing bit so that it does not catch on the undersuit.

 

 

 

[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

Made a new speedstrap holster prototype to match reference pic:

 

[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

I didn't grab any photos this weekend, but will update soon! So grab your reading glasses and a big drink because this is a text heavy update

 

So this last weekend was all about prep & paint. After what felt like forever I finally got to the end of the sanding phase.

 

The basic process was:

1. Coat with Spray putty

2. Use 240 grit to remove runs if any

3. Light sand with 400 grit

4. Bump up to 1200 grit

5. Spray putty again if significant scratches or bumps

 

I also had to file out and sand some details as they had been lost in coats of resin. This was a lot of effort as there is a lot of detail in this armour. One forearm took about an hour and a half to get through! So a key learning from this is to be careful when using resin as it can kind of pool up in the finer details!

 

Prior to attempting to paint I sought some advice from Tom about how many coats he used and the technique he used. I then watched about 5 YouTube vids on how to get an even coat and avoid runs. I also watched a couple of videos on how to remove runs which was fairly interesting.

 

 

I had a slight paint malfunction on my chest armour. Something caused the paint to wrinkle up so I immediately applied turps and some elbow grease to remove it all. Allowed it to dry and then repainted without incident...

 

I have put a first coat of high gloss black over all pieces of the armour except for the back piece as I am still working on it. Everything is looking shiny, sexy and Vader:D

 

No major dramas during, apart from the chest piece and a couple of runs on a couple of pieces. Nothing that cannot be fixed quite easily.

 

All in all it was a fairly productive weekend, even managed to get all my household chores done! Have to keep the boss happy

[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

Here is a preview of the paint work.

 

 

Still a lot of work to do as my painting skills are not quite up there. It's been a huge learning process and not something I am able to articulate at the moment.

 

Still need to work on the overall finish, but also there is the alternate colour scheme with the Metallic black and also weathering.

 

I am thinking I will be able to do a test fitting this weekend so I can start the strapping process next.

 

I am going through bouts of what I would call “build lethargy” right now. It kind of started a couple of weeks ago and as exciting as it is to see the armour all black now, I am still a bit anxious(?) about the amount of work required to finish this kit. I know it won't take long to finish now compared to when I started, but brother oh brother!

 

Over the last three to four weeks I have been putting in a minimum of 10 hours on my days off and at least 2 -3 hours on working days. I am useless at math, but you'll get an idea of the effort required to work with this particular kit. I don't even know how I managed to fit in a social life and chores around this too!

 

 

[Woodo007[TX]]

Here is a preview of the paint work.

 

 

I am going through bouts of what I would call “build lethargy†right now. It kind of started a couple of weeks ago and as exciting as it is to see the armour all black now, I am still a bit anxious(?) about the amount of work required to finish this kit. I know it won't take long to finish now compared to when I started, but brother oh brother!

 

Over the last three to four weeks I have been putting in a minimum of 10 hours on my days off and at least 2 -3 hours on working days. I am useless at math, but you'll get an idea of the effort required to work with this particular kit. I don't even know how I managed to fit in a social life and chores around this too!

 

Dude this sums up my build 110% also. Every night once kids in bed and as much as I can cram in at the weekends whilst balancing family time and chores. U are making such great progress though so keep it up mate. The finish line is nearing. That back plate looks amazing, especially as I know full well how it began