85421 Sithtrooper Build

[gmrhodes13[501st]]

So I've built a few costumes to date and this wasn't an actual planed one, I kinda fell into a build after helping out with searching for Sithtrooper references, I had a bit of free time, I've got a few medical issues and had a couple of surgeries this year so spending more time on the computer than actually building. Anyway as a thank you for helping source info and reference material Jim (Jimmiroquai) contacted me and wanted to send me a Sith Trooper helmet as a thank you, that blew me away and it was really unexpected, as I told Jim I did it as I'm from FISD and our motto is "troopers helping troopers" so it was to help everyone, not for any particular gain, well Jim insisted, which then got me on to a conversation about the armor and within 5 minutes I was on his pre order list (here we go again). As I said I'd had some issues so really hadn't been doing much building this year so I was a little unsure if I'd have it ready in time but I went for it anyway and all being well I can actually add a TX to my costume list  

 

PARTS
Helmet: Jim

Armor: Jim

Undersuit, neckseal: Jim

Boots: Imperial Boots

Gloves: Imperial Boots

Blaster: Project 842 files, printed, sanded, filled, painted and lights/sound added.

Amp: Aker 1506

Paint: SCA Acrylic paint, gloss red, satin black and gloss clear

 

So 29th November the kit landed, luckily I'd already sourced pretty much all I would need for building, snaps, nylon, elastic, E6000, JB weld, foam padding, helmet fan, aker amp and a few other bits and pieces.

First up give everything a bath to get rid of any release agent. When going through the parts and comparing to one of Jim's posts I noticed the TD plate was missing so got in touch with Jim and he found that 1 had missed packing, he quickly organised to have it sent but that wouldn't stop the build.

Next up work out how I was going to strap everything together and size everything, I decided to do most the same as my FOTK build as I gathered they would be similar. Double snaps everywhere just in case of a failure, using nylon so it conforms to curves and held with E6000. Luckily over the years I've collected A LOT of clamps and magnets so was able to get pretty much everything glued on the first day.

 

Worked on the spats and shoe covers, decided to use a combination of magnets and Velcro for this, was worried magnets by themselves wouldn't be enough.

 

[gmrhodes13[501st]]

On to the interior strapping, a back brace is really good for this and my back, had 2 crushed disks and carry some screws and rods but extra support is always great for the muscles. Again a similar design to what I use with my FOTK.

 

Adding some more interior strapping and magnets where possible to keeps things aligned.

Some of you may have noticed the white tabs, these are added to the FOTK's to keep the shoulders in line with the yoke, easily made with strips of ABS, heated and bent, then glued in place with E6000, can be removed if not screen accurate  

 

Also adding a little padding in places, I have really skinny arms and legs

 

Attaching the belt seemed easy to use snaps, the belt is in two piece and I tossed around with the idea of a one piece with side closure or keep it two pieced, I may change this later but for now it works. Also added some elastic to the belt boxes, this allows them to move when knocked by thighs or other people. Also added some foam pieces behind on some as you can see some are spaced outward on references.

[gmrhodes13[501st]]

Trial fit and everything starting to look ok so time to strip down and get sanding. I notice a few small bumps and dips so decided to do a major sand, fill and another sand to try get everything as smooth as I could.

 

Everything sanded and air blown time to add tape to the snaps and Velcro so it doesn't get covered in paint

 

Then on to spray putty

 

[gmrhodes13[501st]]

Added a light guide coat of black, this is so when you sand an area it will show high and low spots as black will either be visible or rubbed off.

Now the part I hate, wet sanding all the spray putty, I wet sand so the paper doesn't clog as quickly, it also helps the sandpaper glide as well as you can wash off an area to see how much more sanding you need to do. This was a full days work, sitting on a drum, hands in soapy water sanding, sanding, sanding, boring. Also had a few scratches and pin holes so added some blade putty (fine wet filler) so this also needed wet sanding after it was dry.

Not doing any wet sanding for some times I didn't realise how soft my finger tips had become, it's from folding the sandpaper over so it doesn't slip while you are sanding.

No more procrastinating, got a 40 deg C couple of days coming up soon so need to get paint on before it gets too hot, 32 C will do.

Lets get some primer on and see how this red looks.

4 coats of red and 3 coats of clear and I'm quite chuffed.

 

 

 

[gmrhodes13[501st]]

Happy with the colour time to give everything a coat in primer, then a quick light sand then on to colour and clear

Want to keep as much dust off as I can so enclosing the back area with tarps and old sheets, luckily I did as a huge blast of wind came through halfway during applying clear coats.

Forgive the lack of photos, the paint process took @ 6 hours and I hardly stopped.

Getting hot outside so time to transfer everything inside, use what ever you can to hang everything while it dries  

 

 

[gmrhodes13[501st]]

That's it for a couple of days for paint, needs some time to dry completely.

Once I was confident everything was dry enough it was time to tape up the helmet for the black inserts, 3 hours of taping for 2 minutes of paint.

Also taped and added black to the TD and shoulder sensor

 

Lens, padding and helmet fan added to the inside of the helmet 

 

Happy days the TD plate arrived so time to trial fit, add some Velcro and off to paint

 

Added thin black plastic sheet behind all of the cut out areas with E6000 and run through if I've missed anything.

 

And like for my FOTK being painted I wanted to protect the paint as much as possible so made soft fleece pouches for everything and added labels so it's easy to tell what goes where.

 

 

 

[gmrhodes13[501st]]

So it's Sunday and I finally have another pair of free hands here who can help me kit up and take some photos

I still have a few teaks to do with strapping and reduce the size of the gaskets around the knees but overall I'm pretty happy. If one thing I'd wished I had more time to of documented the build but it was a case of build, build, build. 

A big thanks to Jim once again, great to have such talented armor makers who can supply kits to those of us before an event.

This rounds up the trilogy with me having a new armor kit from each of the 3 movies and we never have any big events down here it's still nice to have something from the movie that people are going to watch.

Next on to opening night and a few armor updates afterwards, looking forward to seeking approval sometime in 2020 and hopefully adding TX to my profile  

 

Note I notice after posting a few images don't show but when you click on the links they will open, not sure if it's the forum software but I've tried saving the images as Jpeg and PNG but doesn't seem to matter, I may try a different online photo host too.

 

[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

Nice work Glenn. Looks great! 

The image issue is related to how long an image takes to load. I find that if I refresh the page it loads all the images on the 2nd try. I have tried tweaking some settings but it seems to persist. I’ll try again. 

[Chaos[CMD-DCA]]

Holy Bovine Glenn!!!!! You did an amazing job!

[Thumpy[501st]]

Beautiful!  Thanks for sharing!

[IcyTrooper[CMD-DL]]

Excellent! Well done!

[ukswrath[TX]]

Fantastic job on this Glen

[RAIDER[COTG]]

Great work @gmrhodes13!!!  I will be pinning your thread if thats alright with you.  Thank you for sharing!

[Allan1313[MBO-CMD]]

Amazing work on such a short time frame. Looking good!

[gmrhodes13[501st]]

2 minutes ago, Raider said:

Great work @gmrhodes13!!!  I will be pinning your thread if thats alright with you.  Thank you for sharing!

Happy to have it pinned @Raider 

 

Thanks everyone for the kind words 

[gmrhodes13[501st]]

Had an awesome time at our local cinema last night, patrons loved the "look at the red guy",  beats hearing "hey there's a Star Wars"  ?, caught a few out playing mannequin again, positioned myself next to statue BB8 perfect pouncing spot.

Chills

 

Inducted our local cinema rep as a honorary garrison member

 

My wrangler took Baby Yoda with her, bad move, she got slammed for photos and poor little guy got handed around so much I'm surprised he didn't' get whiplash  

D printed head, hands and feet on a baby body.

 

Brothers in arms

 

Pleasure to meet up with Mark Raats again, a very talented artist, received a signed copy of his poster 

 

A great night even for little old Perth, one of the remotest cities in the world.

No spoilers but I'd give the movie 7/10 needed a bit more "bad guy" action for my liking  

 

[gmrhodes13[501st]]

A few more pics

[RAIDER[COTG]]

Love it!

[Lee_C_77[TX]]

This is awesome. May I just ask a couple of questions. 
 

forearms, thighs and biceps. Did you close them with glue or Velcro. I’m tempted to glue them with e6000. 
 

also, how did you make the back piece that connects at the shoulders stay down? Not at the shoulders but where it sits on your back  

 

thanks. 

[gmrhodes13[501st]]

10 hours ago, Lee_C_77 said:

This is awesome. May I just ask a couple of questions. 
 

forearms, thighs and biceps. Did you close them with glue or Velcro. I’m tempted to glue them with e6000. 
 

also, how did you make the back piece that connects at the shoulders stay down? Not at the shoulders but where it sits on your back  

 

thanks. 

Hi Lee yes I used E6000 to close the thighs and biceps, forearms come completely closed. 

The back section is pulled down when attached to the back wings, I use a strip of ABS with vecro on the ends then snaps in the middle of that which attaches to the back section, holds it down and central, I'll try take some more images in the next few days. 

[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

Hey Glen, one of the things I noticed about Jim's kit is this join at the back, is Jim going to provide an updated piece that doesn't have this?

[gmrhodes13[501st]]

11 minutes ago, nanotek said:

Hey Glen, one of the things I noticed about Jim's kit is this join at the back, is Jim going to provide an updated piece that doesn't have this?

I spoke to Jim about that some time ago and his kit needs an opening to be able to get the piece on, I did suggest to have the cut on the side so it was less noticeable but Jim thinks as we are normally seen from the front a rear opening would be fine and a side opening would be more noticeable.

I suppose it depends on what happens with the CRL for basic requirements but with the flexible fibreglass it does need to have an opening. 

[nanotek[CMD-DWM]]

11 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

I spoke to Jim about that some time ago and his kit needs an opening to be able to get the piece on, I did suggest to have the cut on the side so it was less noticeable but Jim thinks as we are normally seen from the front a rear opening would be fine and a side opening would be more noticeable.

I suppose it depends on what happens with the CRL for basic requirements but with the flexible fibreglass it does need to have an opening. 

My personal perspective is that there is no visible gap/opening on that part and we would need to observe that in the CRL. @Raider may have a different view on this.

If it's closed can you still fit your head through the hole? Has Jim considered moulding that part as PU rubber like other makers?

You have done a remarkable job with the costume so far, everything looks fantastic! 

[gmrhodes13[501st]]

9 minutes ago, nanotek said:

My personal perspective is that there is no visible gap/opening on that part and we would need to observe that in the CRL. @Raider may have a different view on this.

If it's closed can you still fit your head through the hole? Has Jim considered moulding that part as PU rubber like other makers?

You have done a remarkable job with the costume so far, everything looks fantastic! 

No the head will not fit through the opening it's not big enough. I don't think Jim delves in PU rubber, not sure what his plans are or if he will even change it. 

Cheers, Jim has made a few changes to his molds as references had shown a few more details so I'll be swapping out a few pieces very soon.

 

[RAIDER[COTG]]

@nanotek Im open to ideas. My opinion is just one...a visible gap where one is not present seems like something to address.  We could make it a Level 2 requirement BUT this would seem to be something a bit more significant.

@gmrhodes13 I may be having pic loading issues... but do you have a pic of the back fully suited?