Craig's Texas Build

[synsei[501st]]

*Edit 2/26/18 - Will be using Tom Campbell's armor files

 

Full disclosure- It's been a while since I've done a build thread or been an active member on a forum. I'm usually able to lurk and glean the knowledge I need for my projects. I might've been able do that with my Death Trooper build as well, but from what I can tell from the atmosphere here, the build is a rite of passage to be shared. It'd also be foolish of me to not have as many knowing eyes as possible on such a detail oriented project. The goal is to be approved by May 25th.

 

That said, I'll give a bit of background about myself.

 

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Costume building experience: None. As a matter of fact, my last Star Wars costuming experience was a disaster. I was 7 years old and told my mom I wanted to be Chewbacca for Halloween. She came back with a Wicket costume. I was horrified.

 

3D printing experience: None

Relative experience: Avid DIY'er, paint/ auto body (fiberglass, body fillers, plastic welding, etc), simple fabrication, wood work, minor welding. I'm not an expert in any of these things but have a working understanding of it. Enough to work on my own stuff. Enough to be dangerous.

Strengths: Never afraid to attempt a DIY first.

Weaknesses: Same as above.

 

Recent projects-

Replaced a blown motor in my Lexus GS300 with it's Japanese twin turbo counterpart

Molded on ABS flares onto the rear to accommodate the rebuilt 11" rear wheels

Mobile workbench w/ table saw and router

 

Tools/ Equipment - A bunch

 

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Progress to date (not much):

 

Armor (DIY) - After doing a lot of research, I got a great deal on my CR10s 3D printer and it should be delivered soon. I'll be using Tom Campbell's files. If I were to purchase armor, I would have bought Andrew'skit. I think he's on the right track in terms of materials.

 

Undersuit - Measurements sent and order placed with The DarkSide Closet (ETA 3-6 weeks)

 

 

Stand by...

[RAIDER[COTG]]

ROFL at your story lol. Doesn't sound like this experience will even come close to resembling your Wicket/Chewbacca trauma . I don't know much regarding DTs...but it seems like you have your stuff sourced out pretty well. Andrew is a garrison-mate of mine here in Florida...have only heard (and seen) good things regarding his work. I know there are other makers out there as well that others can name drop as well if you decide to go the purchase route instead at some point though it seems you've done your research well. LEGGO!!!

[synsei[501st]]

Thanks, sir. I can laugh about that story now, but at the time, it seemed like a matter of life and death. I had already told everybody I was going to be Chewbacca. LOL.

 

In terms of the armor portion, my goal is to get the pieces as close to flawless as possible during the post processing stage. I want all surface defects to be intentionally placed there by me or due to natural wear and tear (the Phasma book mentions how Captain Cardinal polished his armor every night). So, I'm going for armor that looks used yet well maintained. Pretty much how my gear looked when I was in the Army.

 

Below is the treatment I'm thinking about for the armor. All subject to change once I have actual pieces in hand.

 

Rough sanding

Rage light weight filler

320 or 400 grit (DA sander)

400 or 600, 800 (hand block)

High build primer

Wetsand

Primer

Color coat

Clear coat

Wetsand 600, 800, 1200, 2000, trizact 3000 if I'm feeling froggy

DA Polish (Porter Cable 7424)- various foam cutting pads

 

Ugh, I'm so ready to stop writing about it and getting to work!

[Darth Emphatic[CMD-DWM]]

Great history! The death trooper can be a bit of a beast. Funny enough, CR10S arrived only a few days so . Assembly was straight forward. Now on to calibrating...

[synsei[501st]]

Oh nice! What's the next project? Are you part of the CR10 group on FB?

[Darth Emphatic[CMD-DWM]]

Not yet. Need to join. I've got too many projects once I get it leveled and good to go. Armor pieces for sure, though. That's a definite.

[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

Welcome to Special Ops! Looking forward to seeing your build progress. You are most definitely right, this is a rite of passage and can be very challenging! Good luck and sing out if you need any help.

[synsei[501st]]

Thanks Mark. Your build was very inspirational to me. I actually had a link to your thread (and a shout out) in in my original post but forgot to add it back after I reorganized my thoughts. Thanks for the support!

[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

Thanks mate. I'm planning on making a more comprehensive build thread covering off the build process in a little more logical way. Plus I'll add what modifications I've made since I have been trooping. There's quite a lot more to share, just been busy with a lot of other projects outside of 501st.

[Woodo007[TX]]

Hey synsei. Good luck with your build. Lots of detailed build threads and helpful people here.

The CR-10 is a work horse! You have chosen wisely there ðŸ‘

Here's a few my cr-10 has churned out 😉

Would recommend double checking with your gml u are good with the files u have before u start. I believe geoffro made some updates to his, as the originals were not accurate.

I personally recommend to anybody to reach out to Tom Campbell and use his files. Best decision I made on my build. The amount of time and effort you will put into this, it's worth spending that bit more to get the best out there. The pics above are prints using Toms files.

Anyways. Best of luck

 

 

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[DeathMOS30[501st]]

Welcome and good luck with your build! I think by far that was the best about me post ever lol.

I think it will all work out and looks like you are off to a good start

[synsei[501st]]

Hey synsei. Good luck with your build. Lots of detailed build threads and helpful people here.

The CR-10 is a work horse! You have chosen wisely there 👊
Here's a few my cr-10 has churned out 😉

 

 

Would recommend double checking with your gml u are good with the files u have before u start. I believe geoffro made some updates to his, as the originals were not accurate.

I personally recommend to anybody to reach out to Tom Campbell and use his files. Best decision I made on my build. The amount of time and effort you will put into this, it's worth spending that bit more to get the best out there. The pics above are prints using Toms files.

Anyways. Best of luck

 

 

 

Heyyy, I recognized your backyard. I enjoyed your thread as well. You are correct about the accuracy of the files. I actually reached out to Tom a few days ago since I'd seen his name everywhere. I had already bought the Geoffro files but wanted to buy Tom's as well for comparison. I didn't realize he was the DT CRL (and all around DT armor subject matter expert) at the time, so in hindsight I probably offended him a little bit. Tom did send me the 3D renderings for his armor and needless to say I'll be going with his files.

[synsei[501st]]

Welcome and good luck with your build! I think by far that was the best about me post ever lol.

I think it will all work out and looks like you are off to a good start

 

Thanks! I was telling my wife last night how supportive everybody is on this forum. No jerks, no trolls. Coming from car forums to here is like night and day.

[synsei[501st]]

I'm going crazy literally waiting for Tom to wake up and give me his Paypal address (currently 5:15am in Melbourne). LOL. My ADD/ hyperfocus is kicking in hard. My money has managed to burn a hole in my pocket and is slowly leaving a trail of ash down the back of my leg.

[izzi[TX]]

I can't wait to see this happen from start to finish. Glad you decided to share it with us. So much can be learned.

[synsei[501st]]

Preciate it, Izzi.

 

So after a month of waiting, my CR10S arrived yesterday. I familiarized myself with it by printing some minor doodads and new adjustment knobs, then went straight into my helmet parts. Should have some pics to share soon.

[synsei[501st]]

Made some progress on my helmet this week. The mask is almost complete and the main helmet moulding is on the printer now at 50% of a 13 hour print. Not too many details on it, so I swapped in a 1 mm nozzle for this part and its printing a lot faster. I'm getting a ton of stringing, though. Need to dial in my retraction settings. I've only been 3D printing for all of 5 days so there's still a bit of a learning curve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Woodo007[TX]]

Very good mate. Some of those faceplate bits are quite hard to get to print right but you look to have got the hang of it quick. What brand of filament are you using? I found some string worse than others

 

 

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[synsei[501st]]

The white parts were made with the filament that came with the printer. The black parts were printed with Hatchbox. I've heard good things about Zyltech and saw Amazon had some of it in orange for around $13.99 USD, so I bought a roll. I also used both Cura and Ideamaker for slicing but not sure which I like better yet.

[Woodo007[TX]]

U sliced the rear main part in half? I have done it both ways. Takes a bit more work with reinforcing and then filling and finishing but easier to get a print to work

 

 

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[synsei[501st]]

Yes sir. I sliced the dome piece about 1/8" below where the band goes around the top of the helmet. The reason was because I wanted to use my 1mm nozzle for the main rear (for print speed) but revert back to .4mm for the top (dome) portion. There are definitely some rough parts that will need some TLC.

 

I'm a member of Star Garrison's recruit page on FB, so I've been hosting my images there. Hopefully this mitigates the issue of the missing thread images issue. Thank you, Mr. Zuckerberg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I went back to .4mm for the dome to ensure I captured the band indents cleanly but forgot to add a brim to the print. So now I'll have some work to do when mating the 2 pieces together. I've also just run out of filament at 85% completion on the dome, so I'll have to pick up tomorrow and it'll have an orange top.

 

[synsei[501st]]

I went to my first armor party over the weekend and had a blast. Everybody was cool and inviting. I felt like I already knew everybody. I learned sooo much from the group and got to ask a ton of questions about trooping and whatnot. I didnt bring anything to build but I brought a box of tools/ supplies I thought would be helpful to someone else; turned out they had it covered. All in all it was probably the best non-cinematic experience I've had as a Star Wars fan.

 

I even got some medical work done.

[Woodo007[TX]]

That's great mate. Armour party will be good to help with fitting the armour to you when u reach that stage.

 

 

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[synsei[501st]]

A little more progress on the helmet. Here it is mocked up with tape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some post work on the mask. Half of this piece will be covered but the only way to get the visible portion completely straight is to sand the whole thing. I did some sanded and primed half for the obligatory comparison photo. I'll still need to go back with some spot putty though.

 

 

 

 

 

And since I was feeling froggy, I went ahead and got started on a forearm.

 

 

 

That's all for now.

[synsei[501st]]

Retroactive update from 3/17-

 

I was pretty bummed that UPS didn't show up with my filament (especially after running out on the left bicep), but they showed up at 11pm. #clutch. Had to do some math to figure out where to start the new print for the 2nd half of the bicep. Normally I could just resume but this was a weird issue. Anyways, it worked out and the 2 halves align perfectly. It's finally starting to look like something. Hand guards are on the bed now. The helmet is still a work in progress. I had to bust out a wood working chisel to properly articulate the line between the dome cap and the ear recesses. Thanks for looking