Phase Zero Dark Trooper Build

[Blue Hatter]

3 hours ago, Raider said:

It looks good!

Thanks!

[IcyTrooper[CMD-DL]]

Looks great!!

[Blue Hatter]

17 hours ago, IcyTrooper said:

Looks great!!

Thanks!

I finished the "bolts" as well, even after remaking one of them a third time after accidentally gluing the two halves of it together and being unable to get them apart again. Heh, the light in that one is still on, the light slowly dying, I can't get it apart to get the batteries out... Oops. >>;;

[Blue Hatter]

I have finally completed the arc caster. It took me almost a year to do it but it's finally done, and I definitely learned some stuff from it. Because I couldn't find any pictures that showed the arc caster very clearly I did have to take a few creative liberties and I also tried to imagine what it might look like if it were a real prop in a Star Wars movie... So using my imagination and the best references that I could find (which I could only find two) I came up with what you see below. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

It began life as a white and orange Rubies Stormtrooper Blaster that I cut up and modified, and I made all of the greeblies and various other details for it-- I even made the sound effect for it. The game model showed that it as essentially a ROTJ E-11 blaster with the greeblies mirrored to the right side so that's what I went with, while also trying to add some extra detail and make it look more "real", so to speak. As real as a blaster with a corkscrew on the end that shoots out lightning can be. Because I had to do some of my own interpretations and take some liberties I understand that my arc caster may not be something that can be accepted in the 501st but that's okay, it's just something that I wanted to have fun with and be creative.

 

 

[Blue Hatter]

Aside from needing to sew the loops on the thigh armor straps that slip onto the belt I think I've got everything done for this costume. Gonna try to get some pictures up shortly.

[RAIDER[COTG]]

Eeek!  Lol.  Great news!  I will admit much sooner than expected.

We are stretched thin on CRL work at the moment...lets see those pics though!  If he is up to it, @IcyTrooper can take lead on helping you revise the (very old) proposal.

[IcyTrooper[CMD-DL]]

7 hours ago, Raider said:

Eeek!  Lol.  Great news!  I will admit much sooner than expected.

We are stretched thin on CRL work at the moment...lets see those pics though!  If he is up to it, @IcyTrooper can take lead on helping you revise the (very old) proposal.

I can most certainly do that! The following thread will have the talk in it with the instructions I have in it: 

 

[Blue Hatter]

18 hours ago, Raider said:

Eeek!  Lol.  Great news!  I will admit much sooner than expected.

We are stretched thin on CRL work at the moment...lets see those pics though!  If he is up to it, @IcyTrooper can take lead on helping you revise the (very old) proposal.

For this being my first ever armor build I chugged through it faster than I thought that I would as well, though I'm sure that there might still be a bit of tweaking I'll end up doing here and there.

It's been raining over here the last few days so I probably wont get a chance to suit up this weekend but at least I can get pictures of the armor parts themselves.

11 hours ago, IcyTrooper said:

I can most certainly do that! The following thread will have the talk in it with the instructions I have in it: 

 

I can definitely help out with that! I've written a few costume standards for the Rebel Legion in the past so I understand the gist of what is likely to be needed, more or less. I've been keeping some notes along my build journey as well. I also kept all of the cans of spray paint that I used in case the color names are needed for anything.

 

[Blue Hatter]

Finally, here's a picture of the finished suit! I'm pleased with how it turned out and, considering this was my first ever armor build, I learned a lot from it. I'm hoping to get some pictures of me wearing the armor this weekend if the weather is good.

And here are a few closer pictures. I'm planning to take pictures of each individual piece against a green screen soon, I just have to make some room for the screen stand. Packing boxes to move has made space a bit tight (as you can probably see in some of the pictures, heh).

And I am officially dubbing this the "Nipple Trooper"! Better change the CRL name now!

[RAIDER[COTG]]

haha. hey if ur the first u can dub it what u want lol

the corrosive weathering effect is really well done by the way.

now to see it on you. i will be shooting u a pm as well

[Blue Hatter]

2 hours ago, Raider said:

haha. hey if ur the first u can dub it what u want lol

the corrosive weathering effect is really well done by the way.

now to see it on you. i will be shooting u a pm as well

Nipple Trooper it is! The kinky side of the Empire! XD

And thanks! I’ve never tried doing rust like that before and had to do some experimenting but I like how it turned out. The back armor had a bit more “rust” than the other parts because it was sort of my test piece, I figured that it would mostly be hidden by the jetpack so it was a good piece to try techniques on. And I wanted the back to look like it had gotten a little scorched from the thrusters, as it naturally would. 

The rust was a combination of black acrylic paint sprinkled with sand on top, dabs of various colors of acrylic over it, some air brushing and a dusting of ground cinnamon. 
 

I’m hoping to get some pictures wearing the armor this weekend. The weather just has to hold out.

[IcyTrooper[CMD-DL]]

For first set of armor that is excellent! It looks so real!

[Blue Hatter]

7 hours ago, IcyTrooper said:

For first set of armor that is excellent! It looks so real!

Thank you! I’ve wanted to try doing rust effects for a while. This armor gave me a reason to try it out. I used a bunch of guides online and then tweaked a bit to get a look I wanted.

[kishdr]

This looks really amazing, cant wait to see it in a troop 

[Blue Hatter]

7 hours ago, kishdr said:

This looks really amazing, cant wait to see it in a troop 

Thanks! I can't wait to, either. Hmm... I wonder when we'll ever be able to safely troop again... x.x

[Blackwatch[CMD-DCA]]

your corrosion is like how I do mine on models, I apply dark grey or dark brown paint and sprinkle baking soda on that, go over with a thinned down lighter color, then drybrush and apply a wash.    Good effect overall.

 

[Blue Hatter]

On 7/18/2020 at 5:27 PM, Blackwatch said:

your corrosion is like how I do mine on models, I apply dark grey or dark brown paint and sprinkle baking soda on that, go over with a thinned down lighter color, then drybrush and apply a wash.    Good effect overall.

 

Ah, neat! Does the baking soda give it a texture or does it interacting with the paint somehow? I'll have to try that sometime... I'm not completely thrilled with the texture on mine, it's a bit rougher and coarser than I wanted but I couldn't find any thin sand at craft stores, all I could find was the thicker, heavier sand that I used. Michaels had a container of somewhat finer sand than what I used but it was a small container of it, and the heavier sand was the same price but the container was almost three times bigger, so I went with that. I guess it's just very thick rust...

[IcyTrooper[CMD-DL]]

Any chance that we can get you fully suited up for some pics?

[Blue Hatter]

On 8/3/2020 at 7:56 PM, IcyTrooper said:

Any chance that we can get you fully suited up for some pics?

I still need to take them. I've been hoping that it would cool down a little bit so I don't melt away but I don't think that's going to be happening any time soon. I'm going to get the pictures done this weekend, no ifs, ands or buts. I've also been hoping for a bit of an overcast sky so that the lights can be seen better but I'm just going to take the pictures and hope for the best.

[IcyTrooper[CMD-DL]]

8 hours ago, Blue Hatter said:

I still need to take them. I've been hoping that it would cool down a little bit so I don't melt away but I don't think that's going to be happening any time soon. I'm going to get the pictures done this weekend, no ifs, ands or buts. I've also been hoping for a bit of an overcast sky so that the lights can be seen better but I'm just going to take the pictures and hope for the best.

Okay no worries! Just when you can  

[Blue Hatter]

So I’m still fighting with the dang rigging. The chest keeps wanting to float up and I can not figure out why. The shoulders of the chest then overlap the shoulders of the back and it looks like it’s sitting too high. I think I might have to go back to how I had it before where the chest was attached to the back by webbing and just hung from it. Right now I have it where the straps on the back armor are kind of like a backpack that attaches to the vest, and the chest attaches to straps from the back that go over my shoulders... But that ain’t working. 

I’m also going to have to get rid of the shoulder buckles, they’re making the chest and back armor float up even more because of the thickness of the buckles... I’m not sure yet how I’m going to get the shoulder bells attached but still make them detachable for storage without buckles, because the snaps from before didn’t work either. Bleh. But I guess one problem at a time...

The more I work with the armor I noticed that the plastic shoulder straps are starting to come unglued from being knocked around as I try different ways of attaching the armor and then dressing in it... I was wondering, would it be a big issue if I put a rivet in them to keep them down well (and I’d paint the rivet head to match the shoulder straps, of course) and then maybe just Photoshop them out for the CRL pictures?

[IcyTrooper[CMD-DL]]

3 hours ago, Blue Hatter said:

So I’m still fighting with the dang rigging. The chest keeps wanting to float up and I can not figure out why. The shoulders of the chest then overlap the shoulders of the back and it looks like it’s sitting too high. I think I might have to go back to how I had it before where the chest was attached to the back by webbing and just hung from it. Right now I have it where the straps on the back armor are kind of like a backpack that attaches to the vest, and the chest attaches to straps from the back that go over my shoulders... But that ain’t working. 

I’m also going to have to get rid of the shoulder buckles, they’re making the chest and back armor float up even more because of the thickness of the buckles... I’m not sure yet how I’m going to get the shoulder bells attached but still make them detachable for storage without buckles, because the snaps from before didn’t work either. Bleh. But I guess one problem at a time...

The more I work with the armor I noticed that the plastic shoulder straps are starting to come unglued from being knocked around as I try different ways of attaching the armor and then dressing in it... I was wondering, would it be a big issue if I put a rivet in them to keep them down well (and I’d paint the rivet head to match the shoulder straps, of course) and then maybe just Photoshop them out for the CRL pictures?

We want to keep true to the reference images as we can so the rivet is probably going to be a no go. Have you thought about low-profile Velcro or something that would allow them to be able to be moved or hold a bit better?

I know that @Blackwatch made mention of the shoulders following something similar to that of the scouts from the shoulder straps. For example, with the the shadow stormtrooper a lot of troopers use a nylon/Velcro "T" strapping way to hold the shoulder bells to the shoulder armor as well as keeping the chest and back plate together.

[Blue Hatter]

2 hours ago, IcyTrooper said:

 

I know that @Blackwatch made mention of the shoulders following something similar to that of the scouts from the shoulder straps. For example, with the the shadow stormtrooper a lot of troopers use a nylon/Velcro "T" strapping way to hold the shoulder bells to the shoulder armor as well as keeping the chest and back plate together.

Would that be something like webbing going from the front armor to the back armor, and webbing with Velcro going onto the shoulder bells, with the Velcro then fastening to somewhere around the middle between the front and back armor?

[IcyTrooper[CMD-DL]]

8 hours ago, Blue Hatter said:

Would that be something like webbing going from the front armor to the back armor, and webbing with Velcro going onto the shoulder bells, with the Velcro then fastening to somewhere around the middle between the front and back armor?

It would be webbing from the top of the chest/back and has a piece that goes out from the shoulders to hold the bicep on. On the shadows we also have either webbing or elastic on both sides of the ab plate and kidney plate to keep them together too.

[Blue Hatter]

Believe it or not, I am still working on this. I had a few repairs to do from the move, and I’ve been sick which has slowed down my getting everything unpacked (which includes my crafting stuff). So I’m still here, still trying to get this completed…