Teach-

Back to work! I've used the Bondo glazing and spot putty to apply a few coats and sanded in between. Initial sanding is with a 220 and then I use a 1500 and 2000 grit. I'll forgo the 220 for the sanding in what I hope to be my last coat.

I'm not planning to do that at this time. Looking for basic approval so I can finally get out trooping...it's been a long build!

I continued with the chin extension work. I first filled the thin gap with Bondo putty. I filled a cleaned out icing tube so I could use the narrow end to get the Bondo into the crack. I've since sanded and reapplied the putty about four times. I found that smoothing the Bondo with a (gloved) finger caused less air gaps and made it easier to get a smoother sanded finish. Still needs a final sanding or two. I also dry fitted the black neck seal (car door edge trim). The chin extension met the original helmet at 90 degrees and the trim was going to have a hard time staying in place. I added a backing piece and then a curved piece of scrap to round the edge a bit and hopefully help the edging adhere to the curve better. That will get the same Bondo treatment as the rest. I also removed the aerators/hovi mix tips earlier in the process. They wouldn't snap out so I cut one of the tabs from the inside of the helmet. They both came out easily after that.

Chin extensions attached:

I continued modifying the Black Series helmet. I used a dremel and sandpaper to smooth out the top half of the inside of the back piece, I plan to cover the lower half entirely to hide the old internal speaker area. On the outside, I started filling the battery compartment and speaker with Bondo glazing and spot putty. I still have some more to do. I've done three coats and sanding in between so far. On the front half, I removed the black trim along the bottom edge. It came off pretty cleanly but the residual glue and bits of rubber I dremeled off. I then removed the vocoder by drilling holes all around the edge and then using the drill bit to "cut" between the holes. I sanded the opening of the vocoder space and made a template of the opening. I made a backing piece a little bigger than the template and cemented that to the inside of the opening. I used the template again to make a piece that fit into the gap of the vocoder. I left a tail on it which I heated and bent. That will be a part of the extension of the bottom of the chin. To make the chin extension, I added a small edge to the existing chin so I could glue the extensions on to them. I also added extensions to the tail of the vocoder piece. I then made templates of the chin extensions, cut them from some extra pieces I had, heated them, and bent them to shape. I also took a minute to dremel a new edge on the chin since I removed the edging. I then sanded the surface with 220, 400, and 1500 grit sandpaper.

Thank you for the feedback on the pre-approval forum. I made adjustments to the back of the lower legs. I cut the raised detail as suggested. The cut revealed the glue and support pieces I had used and they were an off-color. I used ABS paste (with a bit more acetone this time) and covered the edges. I then sanded them smooth with 220, 400, 1500, and 2000 grit sandpaper.

Working on these adjustments. Thank you gmrhodes13!

While my work continues, I posted the body armor on the pre-approval feedback forum. I'm looking forward to what I learn.

Bob Jozokos New England Garrison Granite Squad (in the future) 850 Armor Works Black Series helmet (still under construction) DarmansProps neck seal Keep Trooping gloves Keep Trooping boots 5’10”, 162 lbs Rogue One TK Help and encouragement from gmrhodes13, TerribleBen, Twelveravens, FN1313, Sly11, revlimiter, and DarthSaiyan8697 While I work on the Black Series helmet, I’m looking for feedback on the body. My build is here: Bob's ROTK 850 Armor Works Build Thread. Pictures below. Feedback welcome!

I finished attaching the edging I had to remove. First I reinforced them on the inside to strengthen them. As those dried, I found kman's HOW TO: Make ABS Paste. I cut a bunch of small pieces of the ABS I had left over and added acetone slowly as suggested. I applied the paste with a toothpick and then used a rubber spatula head to push it into the seam. Looking back after using it, I should have added a bit more acetone. It seemed to be the right consistency, but it was a little too thick and seemed to dry quickly. It worked for me, but I would have liked it looser so I could have gotten it into the seam better. The dried paste was pretty rough and not smooth at all. I used a 220 and then a 400 grit sandpaper to smooth the finish. It's what I had on hand. If I had a finer grit, I would have done one more round with that. Once I got the smooth finish, I used the XTC-3D to give it a glossier finish. Below are some close up pictures. You can see that it's not perfect. There are two pictures from a distance also and in those, the attachments and ABS paste look pretty good. Not perfect, but pretty good.

Thank you gmrhodes13 for motivating me to figure out those lower legs. I was so happy to be through the bulk of the build that I rested too soon! I had saved the edging I cut off because I knew it was likely that I'd have to re-attach them. I trimmed them down and then cut the loose pieces and the edging on the lower legs to match and create the correct angle to reset them. I then added tabs behind the edging on the leg so that the new pieces had something to attach to. I then cemented them on. The next step will be making some abs paste and filling in the thin gaps that remain.

Yes., you are correct. It was a compromise I needed to make. The lower legs were too big for me. I took some length off from the bottom, but at a certain point I was losing the thinness at the ankle. They were also too large at the top so I had to cut them so that they could wrap around my legs. That meant losing some of the upper edging. I have been trying to figure out how to get the same look on the part that I had to cut...but haven't figured that out yet.

I finished the lower leg and thigh cover strips. Those were the last parts of the build for the body armor. It feels good to have gotten that done! I'll post full body pictures next.

I bought a Black Series Artillery Stormtrooper helmet. I'm going to hold on to the BS Stormtrooper helmet as is. The Artillery helmet comes in two parts which meant I had to disassemble the two halves. In order to get to all the screws, I cut away some of the internal plastic wall on the back half. I also had to cut the top tabs that hold the two halves together. The bottom ones released easily after that. Once the halves were separated, I removed the lenses and the front brow that holds the lenses in place. I'm holding on to both of those for now. One of the rank bars is loose because it is the button for the voice activation in the original helmet. I'll hold on to that and attach it later. I cut and roughly sanded any of the plastic that could be removed in the face section and the back section. I'll eventually do more. Lastly, I sanded the edge of the yellow paint where there was a small ridge. I also sanded the seam under the tears.

Pascal, I shared the files with you. I also uploaded them to the 3D File Depository.

Hi Pascal. I've been working with a friend on the 3D printing and learning as I go. Let me see what to do, and I'll share what I have. Stay tuned and I'll get back to you.

I've been printing, sanding, applying XTC-3D, and cementing the cover strips lately. Everything is printed now which feels good to complete. Everything is also sanded. I did a very rough sanding with a belt but then did everything else by hand. Most cover strips have been coated with the XTC-3D sealant by now. I discovered the craft brushes below that I wish I knew about before! They made the application of the sealant and cement so much easier and more precise. I highly recommend them when using the XTC and J-B Weld. So far, the upper arms and forearms have the cover strips cemented on. The thighs and lower legs are next. I also printed, sanded, coated, and cemented the vertical strip of the abdomen center detail.

As I await the printing of the cover strips (I hope to get those done this weekend) and completing the 850 build, I'm starting to think about a helmet. I own a Black Series helmet and I'm wondering what I need to alter in order to meet Basic approval and get closer to trooping. I've read the HOWTO: Make Black Series R1 bucket more accurate thread and the CRL. Here are the three things I think I need to do for Basic approval. #1: fill in, smooth, and paint the speaker and battery pack seams. #2: change the lenses so they are sufficiently dark enough to obscure my eyes (you can see the inside of the helmet in the image below) #3: back the teeth hollows with black or dark gray wire screen mesh I think everything else meets the CRL, although I recognize that more can be done to make the helmet more accurate. Let me know your thoughts about Basic approval. Thanks.

I worked on the rear belt. I read the small update to the Rogue One TK CRL just as I was getting started. I stayed with my original plan and the original CRL to overlap the rear belt over the front belt since that's what I planned for and the front belt was designed that way. I didn't change the bottom edge of the front belt either. I kept it with one edge and no trimming. Both are optional in the updated CRL and staying with the original plan still works within the CRL. I curved the rear belt after a hot water bath. I wrapped it around the abdomen armor while I wore it. I then trimmed the length. In hindsight, I wish I hadn't trimmed the length until I had fully fitted the rear belt with snaps and test fitted it. In the end, I left enough length, but there was a point during the build that I thought I had taken too much off. I added snaps to the rear belt and abdomen and then did a test fit. At first, none of it was working or fitting that well. I realized that the top piece of the posterior armor that I left to fill the gap under the rectangular plate wasn't allowing the posterior armor to sit naturally. It was causing the posterior piece to sit too tight to my body and was interfering with attaching the belt with the snaps. Once I removed that piece, the rear belt fit nicely and the posterior armor followed the contour of my body. I then worked on attaching the thermal detonator to the rear belt. Before assembling the detonator, I cemented two stainless steel, threaded nuts on the inside and drilled two holes that gave access to the nuts. For the 3D printed piece that I made to connect the detonator to the rear belt, I drilled two holes slightly bigger than the size of the bolts to allow for a little error when I cemented the piece to the belt. That piece also needed a slightly concave back to match the curve of the rear belt. I did that with the spindle sander. I then drilled holes in the rear belt and cemented the thermal detonator holder to the belt.

I experimented with some color on my cover strips. The white of the 3D prints are more white than the 850 armor. I mixed a little (and I mean a little) yellow acrylic paint in with the XTC-3D to make the cover strips a bit off-white to match the armor. It's difficult to see in the pictures below, but I used too much yellow and will try again with a little less. The cover strips are not attached; just resting on the armor. Original 3D print: XTC-3D mixed with the yellow acrylic paint:

Thank you. Slow going but I'm enjoying the build.

I resized the forearms with a hot water dip and clamping them to the right size. I removed the old velcro because I needed to realign them once I sized the forearms down. Two of them came off easily. Two needed some Goo Gone and elbow grease. Afterwards I had to recut some of the arm opening. I also cut down the length by about 3/4 of an inch. I did that trimming off the back edge on the elbow side. I added a little bit of open cell foam to the cuff areas to help them stabilize on my arms.

Thanks for letting me know! I'll check it out.

Long ago, I built the majority of the thermal detonator. I sanded and painted the original control panel. The paint was a Rust-Oleum gloss white and there were two things I didn't like about the finished piece: I didn't sand it well enough and the white was not a good match. I printed a new one when I printed some of the cover strips. After the control panel was printed, I sanded the back to get a concave surface to match the detonator itself. For that I used a spindle sander. I then applied a coat of the XTC-3D to get a glossier finish. The gray on the end caps and body of the detonator is Rust-Oleum gloss smoke gray. I neglected to take some pictures during the first part of the build so there's a jump in the images from first to last steps. I also attached the"O II" design that I had printed a while ago. The Rogue One pauldron from Katarra8 worked nicely and looks great. I blackened the edges of the black fabric on the side where it snaps together. The fabric along the cut seam showed a little white. A sharpie took care of that. I'll probably tighten the elastic strap too. I think that will help keep it from riding forward as it did when I wore it last week. In the above image you can see a little white along the cut seam. It was more pronounced on the neck. This other part isn't noticeable when worn.

On the day before Winter Break, Santa always visits every classroom. I put on the armor, added a Black Series helmet and accompanied Santa on his two-hour tour. Everything held up well. My forearms are definitely too loose and too long, but I suspected that; they were the first thing I built. Everything else seemed good. The Rogue 1 pauldron is from Katarra8 on Etsy.