TKModder421

Yeah, I definitely learned some good lessons back then. I did end up wet sanding this down and learned to be aware of temperature and humidity. I like the idea of using automotive acrylic paint, but I don't have the equipment for that unfortunately. I have gotten better at my rattle can technique but I agree with the unevenness and inconsistent coverage, especially when dealing with round objects like helmets and overspray. I actually finished this build over a year ago, and was so busy with life that I forgot to finish this build post, so I'm finally getting around to it in my spare time for completeness

So after painting the interior and endless amounts of sanding, I finally felt ready to give paint a try... Well... a few lessons were learned. Granted this was really my first attempt at trying to paint anything like this, it definitely turned out to be a good learning experience. First problem was that when I attempted to paint it was far too hot, it was around 95º F in the middle of summer and I was painting in my garage. This caused the paint to dry too quickly, leaving a slightly dusty look, which then caused me to over compensate on the thickness of layers that I was laying down. So after 3 coats I had lots of textured spots as well as sagging paint where I layed it on too heavy. So this round of painting was a no go. Back to endless sanding lol

I decided to paint the inside of the bucket before I moved on to attempt the outside to prevent any possible bleed ruining my outer paint work. Note: unfortunately that proved to have been fruitless anyway as you'll see in the next few posts. I didn't document the black painting, but I got a few shots of it masked up and the primer

Next I painted the ears because they were small and easy to get to a high enough grit (2000).

I ended up getting all the traps, tears and ear greeblies all filled and sanded, up to about 600 grit I believe, and painted them with the Testors Dark Admiral Gray Gloss, which is the same color used for OT TKs. After this pic I hit them with a matte clear coat. Edit: the ear greeblies are the modded files by David Os. They can be found here along with a few other accuracy mods that he's done for this helmet. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4227844

Here are some of the back traps. I printed them all using FDM printers, so it took some sanding and filler primer and more sanding to get rid of the layer lines. I was working on these at the same time I was working on the full helmet. At this point I had the chin, face, back and dome all attached and had filled all the gaps and was working on smoothing it all out

So I apologize for abandoning this thread. I did end up finishing my build and I've got some documentation on it, so I plan to finish documenting my build that I ended up finishing back in October of 2020. I'll be catching it up in chronological order. Please feel free to ask questions and such

Thanks man! Oh sweet, I also grabbed the file on his initial offering, and I also have his Shoretrooper files! lol I just barely started printing those! I currently have Anovos ANH TK armor and would love to get a set of RO armor but it’s gonna have to wait until I can afford it unfortunately

Any suggestions for lenses?

Ok cool I printed it face up with supports and a brim Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’ve got it pretty free of any texture I can see. Actually went up to 2000. Just wondering if I’m going to have paint adhesion problems on the spots I’ve wet sanded down to the plastic, or if it needs to be free of those color differences before I paint? I had the same problem my first go round, one of my supports failed under the left mic tip depression and it left a gap in the bottom. So I increased the supports under those areas and added a brim (for the supports to hold on to better) and the second one worked great

Ok, good to know! Looking at my most recent pics I’ve burned through some spots (mostly on sharp edges) on the primer getting it up to such a high grit, do you think it’s ok to just go ahead and apply paint (since I’ll be using a paint with primer) or do you think I should lay another layer of primer first? I had to print a second chin myself. What problems are you having?

Yeah, that’s the direction I’m leaning. Do you think I’ll need to add a clear coat after the gloss white?

I've read over the label on the appliance epoxy and it recommends not using a primer. It says it self levels, but I'm a little concerned that if I screw it up it will be difficult, if not impossible to sand off. Anyone have experience with it? I'm kind of leaning away from that idea at the moment.

Also, is there a color guide for ROTKs or is it the same as OTTKs? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've been slowly working on a 3D print build of Nico Henderson's R1TK helmet. Nico is well known for his accuracy on his Shoretrooper helmet design, so when I saw him post on Facebook that he was going to be releasing a 3D printable model of the R1TK I knew I had to give it a try. It's a beautiful design and I believe it to be the most accurate I've seen. I didn't know how far I was going to get with this build tbh so I hadn't started a build thread, but now that I'm getting close to painting I figured now would be a good time to post my progress. I'll probably need some advice on paint here soon as well, so any advice on paint and/or threads to read would be appreciated!! Here are some pics of the freshly printed pieces: And here's a few of the mockup of the raw printed pieces (except for the chin and ears which I had already started to sand): So after I had sanded things down a bit, I wasn't sure which method I wanted to use to fill the print lines I couldn't get with sandpaper. I had heard some people talking about using XTC3D so I decided to give that a try. My opinion is that it's good if you don't want to process it too much further than the initial polish, but I ended up with bubbles in the dried resin and found it difficult to sand, I think I could've gotten the same results easier just using filler primer, which is WAY easier to sand and get smooth. After endless hours of sanding I was finally ready to attach some of the pieces together. I started with the face and the back, then attached the dome. I wanted to fill the seam line between the back of the helmet and the dome. I wasn't ready to attach the chin yet as I wanted to get the face/back/dome piece as well as the chin up to paint ready smoothness with wet sanding before I attached the rest of the face together. Mostly so I wouldn't have to try and sand the seam between where the chin and cheek tubes meet, as well as the surfaces leading into the frown. So finally, I'm caught up to my current progress. I've got everything wet sanded up to 2000 grit and I have attached the chin to the rest of the helmet. I've mocked up the ears, brow trim and vocoder for looks, everything else you see is attached. Now I need to know how to proceed with painting. I've been trying to research rattle can options and the steps I should follow. I've never attempted to spray paint a project that needed to achieve the level of gloss and smoothness that this requires, so I want to get all the input I can before I proceed. I'm not sure if I should be laying down a particular type of primer first (should I use white primer?) and then what type of paint is best and how I should be going about getting all the angles without missing spots or pooling problems. Also, I've seen people talking about just using gloss white, but then I saw someone mention appliance epoxy, which I think might be a good idea due to the fact that it resists chipping? I found some at my local Home Depot but wasn't sure so I haven't gotten anything yet. This is what I found: Alright, well I'd love to get some feedback on the painting process as well as how to proceed with painting the greeblies (tears and traps) as well!

Following, hoping the files will be made available again

Oh gotcha. Bummer!

Hi Collin you're blaster turned out amazing! I have a question, so what was the graphic that you ended up using? It doesn't look like either of the 2 that Glen posted

Awesome post Joseph!! I also would've loved having this during my build, but you answered most of my return edges and trimming questions anyway, so all great advice from the same source. Thank you for being such a great resource of knowledge and help!!

Oh that's a bummer! I must've gotten lucky maybe with minimal glue? Idk. Well at least you got it worked out in the end

fixed my strapping so my cover strips line up pulled the belt up to the bottom of the buttons If anybody sees anything else that needs adjustment to get EIB let me know

Very carefully! Lol So basically I took an exacto blade and carefully ran it along the inside between the mesh and the plastic to try to break up the glue a bit. Slightly wiggly it towards the center to help separate it from the plastic and continued that until they came loose, pretty intact. They're a tiny bit bent, but nothing noticable once I got them back in

Ok. I think that's good advice. I'll look it over and start small and make minor adjustments as I go. I'm so glad I asked first before just moving forward!

Thanks Joseph! Good to know. That's exactly why I'm asking before I make cuts. In the references I've seen it looked like they were cutting all the way down to the cover strip leaving no lip, so I'm glad I asked. As of now I can walk ok, but the backs of the shins push into the backs of my knees, so I wanted to make some comfort cuts. I'm wondering if I should I wait to get approved for higher levels before I start trooping then make comfort fixes after that?