J47555[CMD-DWM] Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 Hello everyone! I realized that in my lovely time here I never actually started a build thread and just kind of lurked until I had my build completed. My amazing father helped me a metric ton getting through this build and is a machinist by trade which influenced the creation of some of these parts. I unfortunately haven't actually gotten to a troop since October for personal/health reasons but I've been planning in the back of my head for level 2 among some other fixes I want to complete just for comfort. I'm absolutely in love with this armor/character so some of this might be a little ranty, sorry about that. 😅 My Current Build: Bucket My current bucket is (or was when I got this one) an unfinished 850 resin bucket that was sanded and painted. The greeblies on the bucket are just the standard ones included with 850 but the center one has an incorrect ridge count so that'll need to be replaced. The resin in the back where the cutouts are were cast a little too thin for my liking. In some spots you can see the light through my paint and it's blown through completely in others. I do actually have a fiberglass helmet I bought off of @Church113 🙂that I'm waiting to finish because I don't want to shoot little fiberglass shards all over my shop more than I already did giving it a preliminary sanding. As for the interior, I have a set of generic amazon tactical padding that I seem to adjust after every troop. There's a little piece of generic EVA foam where my nose sits for comfort. I'm sure you all know how nice and toasty it gets wearing several layers of clothes and black armor so a solid fan setup in my bucket for cooling and defogging my visor was a must. The current setup is dual 5V brushless fans with 2 aimed at my visor and 2 aimed at my face. The intakes for them are actually the side vents underneath the backing required by the crl. The fans and lights for the NSM/Tusks are wired into a 3d printed switch board that sits under my chin. All of this is power by a USB power bank with a modified Micro USB cord that started it's life as a cheap phone cord off amazon It's a little messy but she works: Inside Of Bucket Undersuit/Neckseal/Apron/Poncho/Elbows/Abdomen Gaskets All of the gaskets were completely hand sewn. I did consider buying a Jim Tripon Kit but this build started when I first got into college so I was away from home and sewing was the only option really given time and money constraints. All of the ribs are completely hand sewn on a standard sewing machine with a presser foot and a lot of time, patience, and episodes of the American Office. I did learn how to sew by hand and by machine to complete this which I feel could be a useful skill and I'm happy to help others do the same 😄 The shirt (Under suit) is actually built to Level 2 already. It started it's life as a template of a shirt from Walmart and my dad found the right material at a local JOANNS (A Fabric store) and we got to sewing. The ribs in all the gaskets throughout the armor are all two layers of backing fabric and a layer of the required semi gloss top sewn together in whatever shape they needed to be. After sewing all the lines in the fabric, we took some rope from a hardware store and threaded it through each rib and closed it off. The elbows and abdomen are sewn onto the shirt while the poncho and neck seal are a separate clothing item that Velcros behind my neck and gets hidden by the armor. Armor It seems to be a common choice here and now after wearing it I do share a lot of the criticisms most have. My armor was an unfinished 850 armorworks kit. Some of the pieces included came thin and/or lacked detail which were not game braking but took some extra work. Mainly the thighs, yoke, and all of the rubber components were my main issues. Nothing yet has had to have been completely replaced so I'm not really looking into a different material at the moment and as it's ABS, it's not hard to polish with some turtle wax and a drill wheel. I haven't gotten around to it yet but for now just the straps I believe I'm going to print out of TPU. There's a thread on here somewhere I'll have to find but it's worth trying. The ones that came in the kit or mine at least were incredibly pitted and are falling apart already. There isn't a spot to fit this in now looking back as I'm editing this but I forgot to mention my impellers. They're machined from aluminum and attached via a 3d printed mount and Chicago screws. It's heavy enough that it weighs down my arm and it's probably why you see my left arm grabbing my armor occasionally to turn it back in line. Gloves In preparation for Level 2 I bought a pair of Trooper gloves from KeepTrooping. I ran a pair of gloves that you can buy off Amazon that's slipping my name that a few of the TK's use until the KT ones went on sale a couple drops ago. Belt The belt base itself is the standard belt piece that comes included in the soft goods kit when you a buy a set of 850 Armor. The belt itself is mostly kept the same with a few layers of tactical nylon E6000'd on the back for my attachment system to my armor. On top of that webbing used to be a 4-3 system of snaps that used to sit on the lower part of my abdomen armor. It worked for a couple troops until the weight of my brick of an SE-14R combined with heat slowly tore it off. It's since been replaced with a strand of this Velcro I found for mountain climbers that holds it good that runs the length of my belt and around my armor which hides underneath when attached. The holster for the SE hides the seam in the belt where I put it on. The buckle is a piece of aluminum that was made on a CNC mill. The three big pouches are all 3 printed boxes covered in a layer of black canvas that has a couple layers of Flexseal (Rubber based sealer that dries black) to cover it. The canvas itself was cut out of a blank painting canvas I found at a craft store. You can technically open them if you want but it messes up the appearance. I'm debating about buying this set I found on etsy when I get to that point that are actual pouches. The smaller pouch is the same thing as above really except done with leather. The nifty thing though is that the inside was hallowed out to fit cards into while still maintaining appearances. The square boxes are the ones included in the 850 kit. The holster was actually made following this thread here: Thank you Mark 🙂 Shorts/Knees As mentioned earlier my under suit is three pieces that combine into one to maintain the appearance. The shorts are entirely hand sewn from scratch. There was actually a pair of gym shorts that ribs were going to be sewn onto but found it easier to just start from scratch. The shorts extend long enough to cover the gap for my shins as they can be the same rib as shown in the CRL. The main thing here is that the shorts are actually connected to a pair of suspenders that are used to help hold up my thighs via a little piece of nylon with a snap in it that gets hidden. Boots Like I feel a lot of people do, I actually started with the boots. I wanted to find a pair of Jered's but I wear a size 14 shoe so finding Jered's let alone one's that one fit was a pain. I ended up finding a pair of Dr.Marten Mayer's that were modified to the meet the CRL off of Poshmark. I spent a solid two months looking for shoes I will be honest and if you're going this route, consider the investment in a pair of replicas rather than a pair of falling apart boots like mine. In preparation for Level 2 (Along with for my own comfort) I eventually bought a pair of Killer's from ImperialBoots (Which is now KeepTrooping in case anyone didn't know that) Although the highest size I could buy was a 12.5 and to that I say I still kind of regret that purchase but they're comfortable at least and with lifts my foot doesn't go in anyway so it's not totally cramped. As for the rib coverings, following the same process as my gaskets, made a little square and attached it via Velcro to holders that were laced into the eyelets of the boots. I put in a pair of draw pull laces because I wasn't able to tie my shoes in my armor so they make it easy to yank and just tuck underneath First Pair As you can see these poor things are falling apart but with the heat and pressure I put on them it's not surprising The Killer's I wear now have built in Velcro that attaches the ribs to the boot Voice/Sound system My voice system is a little all over the place right now but generally speaking it's a raspberry pi that sits on my wrist with a small button board that sits in my left palm that snakes under my clothes into my glove. Each button on my palm plays between 2-5 prerecorded lines with there being 5 buttons in total. One of them however plays the sound of an E-11D charging/firing while another just says "Rogue One" in DT. The rest are a mix of angry/commands that I generally use to have conversations or scare people with. It's powered by a large battery bank that sits in my tights underneath all my armor and is broadcast by an aux cable that snakes its way underneath everything to an amp which sits in my chest connected via some of the climber Velcro I mentioned earlier. This whole setup is a mess and I have bought upgrades since but as mentioned haven't made it to a troop for health reasons so I have no idea if this will actually work. The planned upgrades are: Soldering a new button board as I can't hit the buttons through the KT gloves. Upgrade from an Aux cord to a wireless transmitter/receiver for guitars that I picked up off amazon that runs into my amp Installing a wireless mic into my bucket so I can actually speak English and to people. (Mainly with handlers but it's cannon that a DT can speak English 😉) I haven't found a power solution fix as the board that runs this actually pulls so little power that, every power bank I've put it on doesn't output enough to actually keep itself on which results in my voice not being usable usually for the rest of a troop or until I can have someone smack the outside of my thigh and hopefully get the power button on the bank. SE-14R Completely 3d printed from bought files off of Cults. It has a moving trigger via a pen spring that sits behind it but I froze it purposely with paint as my local comic cons have issues with prop weapons that have moving triggers. (Among other moveable parts but dependent on venue) E-11D My first one started as a 3d printed model that I bought from Cults like my SE. I kid you not however when I say I spent weeks continually breaking the support guard that had to run from the trigger and connect up under the barrel. Instead of a 3d printed barrel I did have an aluminum pipe that I torched as a fun project to get the burn marks. However that support guard I couldn't just get right and broke I don't know how many of them to the point where I considered having it made out of something stronger. After a month or two of debacle and finally broke down and bought myself a present. Christmas was coming early and in early August I bought a premium steel rod E-11D from ImperialArms. I however have yet to receive it and it's been almost 7 months. Their customer service has been taking a while to respond and hasn't responded to some of my inquires at all which has been a little concerning. I got an email last week however telling me that it's getting ready to be shipped and that their shop has been dealing with lingering hurricane damage so we will see what shows up and hopefully I can give an honest review to y'all. DLT-19D As a side project waiting for my E-11 I started trying to build a DLT with a kit I bought off of Etsy from Aaron at PremierProps as it is the best looking kit in my opinion for that price range and I didn't mind the building and finishing. I actually had the kit built with a few upgrades. The sensor lines are pretty flimsy so I replaced them with copper piping found from an overseas plumbing company. I also shoved a PVC pipe down the center so it wasn't a noodle. However, I'm sure y'all who own a DLT can see how big and cumbersome they are and thus it took up a pretty big portion of the shop it was being made it. It unfortunately got knocked off the table it was sitting on into a nice concrete floor a couple of times that broke pretty much everything on it. The shell of it right now is being held together by hopes and dreams so I'm debating reprinting the entire receiver or buying another kit from Aaron or seeing if he'll let me buy half of one of his kits. MISC (Anything I forgot about or will go back to add that doesn't fit into a main branch) Despite being 6'0, I do actually also wear lifts in my boots. They're just a pair of cheap amazon lifts in the biggest size you can buy. It's really just a personal choice and thought it would add to the aesthetic. 🙂 My base layer is a pair of compression pants and shorts, almost like a body suit that helps stay cool (Not really) and won't snag on any of the other clothes I wear on top. I wear a full face balaclava/neck gaiter combo for containing sweat and hair and also adding some cushion in my bucket As for transport, my bucket sits in a fleece lined motorcycle helmet bag inside of a kids DT bedding set. Everything else sits in a 50 gallon rolling tool chest as recommenced by you all actually which you can find my original forum here. The tool chest is lined with a felt furniture moving blanket and some spray adhesive. I also have a set of Assassin Graphics plates on top because they look nice. 🙂 - Moving on from the current, let's look into the future! As I complete these, pictures will be added hopefully culminating into my application! - Level 2 To-Do Helmet Outward Lenses Bridge vent fixing Rubber Seal Undersuit Sewn to Level 2 Specifications. Neckseal and Apron Sewn to Level 2 Specifications. Poncho Sewn to Level 2 Specifications. Chest Plate and Shoulder Straps Shoulder Strap Curve Back I can't actually look at my armor at this moment so this gets a ? until I can confirm, else it will be added. Lower Back I can't actually look at my armor at this moment so this gets a ? until I can confirm, else it will be added. Shoulder Armor Recess Painting Biceps Recess Painting Elbow Gaskets Sewn to Level 2 Specifications. Gloves/Hand Plates Cutout is present Abdomen Armor Painted Abdominal/Kidney Gasket Sewn to Level 2 Specifications. Shorts Sewn to Level 2 Specifications. Thighs Recess Painting Knee Gaskets Sewn to Level 2 Specifications. Shins I can't actually look at my armor at this moment so this gets a ? until I can confirm, else it will be added. Boots Level 2 Replicas obtained SE-14R Circuit Paint E-11D Should be present, will update when it arrives. - Just a quick little author's note here to get sappy: A quick thank you to everybody who's contributed to this build and welcomed me into SpecOps as a whole. This project started as something fun to do with my father and has now transformed into something I genuinely look forward to doing every time I suit up. At the end of the day, the people we do this for and with are what matter most and spreading the love of Star Wars and costuming as a whole. This post got a little rambly (A lot, it clocks in at around 3k words...) but it's because it's something I truly enjoy doing with now my family and lifelong friends I've made here. I just wanted to take a moment and give appreciation for all of you, each and every member with everything that you do that helps continue and contribute to the coolest hobby turned passion I've had the fortune to join with my loved ones and now all of you. Thank you 😄 3 Link to comment
Chaos[CMD-DCA] Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 Well done on your build. I can't wait to see the finished project. When you are ready for your L2 look hit me up. We can take a look pre post application and I can tell you beforehand what I see (if any) as L2 issues. Several of our last DTs to apply for their "Specialist" badge did just that. I should clarify that "Specialist" refers to your Level 2 status and not the V2 which has the chest rigs etc. Best of luck. 1 Link to comment
J47555[CMD-DWM] Posted March 25 Author Share Posted March 25 On 2/29/2024 at 2:22 AM, Chaos said: Well done on your build. I can't wait to see the finished project. When you are ready for your L2 look hit me up. We can take a look pre post application and I can tell you beforehand what I see (if any) as L2 issues. Several of our last DTs to apply for their "Specialist" badge did just that. I should clarify that "Specialist" refers to your Level 2 status and not the V2 which has the chest rigs etc. Best of luck. Will do, I appreciate it! I was gone sadly for about a month but ready to get back into it. I'll definitely be sending some messages your way when I get around to painting and some weathering! 1 Link to comment
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