Diana's RS Props Build- ANH Stunt

[AsBlondeAsLuke[TK]]

So, the next area we worked on was the thighs.

 

We tried removing the cover strip on these once before and it did not go well.  It was us versus the Zap-A-Gap and the glue definitely won.  I even cleaned out room in the freezer and tried subjecting the pieces to Hoth-like temperatures.  

 

This does not work with Zap-A-Gap.

 

My engineer felt that if he put enough force behind it he could get that strip off.  But, his force powers are limited and the strip cracked.  But, better the strip than the entire thigh piece.  It is a scary noise, though, when you hear your armor go: "Kkkkkeeeeerrrrrkkkkk!"  Almost like when you break a bone and you have that huge "Uh oh" feeling of dread.

 

It wasn't a huge crack.  More like a wee little one.  And, I repaired it easily enough with ABS paste.  You can see where I fixed it if you look really hard in the picture below.  Do you see it?  No, it's not easy to find.  We cracked the strip right at the bridge.  Move your eye an inch up from the ammo pack and you can see a slight line in the cover strip that shouldn't be there.  In extreme close-up shots, you can see the line. 

 

 

Having heard that "kreeeeek!" sound once, I wasn't looking forward to attempting this project again.

 

It was the only part of the Centurion updates, I thought we couldn't do.  Actually, I was convinced it would be a disaster on the scale of deciding to invest in Alderaan during the age of the Empire.

 

I'd already composed the email to RS in my head requesting new thigh pieces.  Yes, I was that sure this was going to go very, very badly.

 

My engineer was confident he was not going to destroy the armor.

 

All I could think of was the cracking noise I'd heard the last time we had attempted this...

 

But, he said he wasn't going to peel off the strip this time, he was going to dremel it off.

 

Eh... husband has done good things with the Dremel.  And, sometimes things have not gone well with the Dremel.

 

"Trust me."

 

Sigh.  The pieces can be replaced.  It will take time.  But, we can order new ones...  Good bye lovely thigh armor.  It was nice trooping with you.

 

The dremeling begins... I had to walk away.  I couldn't watch.

My engineer calls me back when he has finished working on both thigh pieces.  He was right.  I was wrong.  The armor survived.

 

It needs some finishing work, but the cover strips are off and the armor is in one piece.

 

We study the detail on the archive reference picture to get an idea for what we need to do next. 

 

 

OK, lots of sanding, of course.  That's always a required step.  A shim would probably be a good idea.  But, maybe some ABS paste, too.  Almost looks like it has a white gooey look sealing it up.  It wouldn't need much.  The edges on this piece are already tightly aligned.

 

 

Here it is after a good sanding.

 

 

Here's the left side after sanding, (not sure why PhotoBucket insists on sticking this picture sideways), and with the shim being glued in place.

 

Uh oh.  

 

Didn't notice until I took this picture that there are two cracks on the left side.

 

Bet those happened at the same time as the other crack which was when we were first trying to peel back those cover strips.  Yep.  There is no winning against Zap-A-Gap.

 

Time to mix up some ABS paste.  It will fix the cracks and add just a wee bit of white to fill in the gooey bits in front of the shim to give it the same look as the reference pictures.

 

Here is the tutorial. How to make your own ABS Paste.

 

Basically, you cut some spare ABS into little pieces of roughly equal size and then add acetone a little bit at a time until you have the right consistency for "the paste."  It takes a long time for the plastic pieces to dissolve.  I didn't time it today, but I would estimate it took an hour.  Remember to never get acetone on your armor.  After all, the whole purpose of it is to dissolve plastic.  So, you do not want to get this on your skin either.  And, you cannot mix it up in a plastic container, either.  Right.  It all makes sense when you put it that way, right?   (Wear gloves.  Be careful.  Respect the armor.)

The start of making the ABS paste.  A spare metal bucket.  Container of acetone from the paint section of the hardware store.  

 

 

 

Came back a while later and several of the bits still aren't dissolved.  I added a little more acetone, stirred some more and waited again, stirring from time to time.  It gets a "skin" on top of it sometimes, like a pudding, so I keep stirring it.

 

After an hour, all my pieces aren't dissolved, but I decide to use it as is.  There is plenty in there for me to use.  The mixture actually starts to thicken up too much as I'm using it and I end up thinning it out a bit with the acetone.  I don't need much anyway.  Just enough to add some white goo to fill out the tiny space in the thigh pieces.  It's getting cold and windy outside and I need to head indoors to make dinner.  I'm glad for the wind, though.  The ventilation keeps the bad fumes from the acetone away.

 

OK, remember those cracks we had before on the left thigh piece?  Here is an extreme close-up.  Gah.  Wow.  That is almost nauseatingly close.

R

 

Here is the area once it was covered with the paste and before sanding.  I used only a very thin coat of paste.  (OK, at first, I had put on a thicker coat and then decided that was too much.  It is easy to scrape off when it is still wet. I apply the stuff using one of the popsicle sticks my son uses for crafts.  Actually, I think I ended up using about two dozen of his popsicle sticks.  Shhhh... don't tell him.)   

 

 

 

 

 

And, some more sanding.... the cracks are gone.  The ABS is smoothed out.  The cover strip is gone.  The only thing is... there is now a bit of yellow smear from the sandpaper which was yellow.  Seriously?  So, I need to figure out how to get that off of there.  So, be warned that some sandpaper will tint your lovely white armor.  Stupid sandpaper.  Oh.  Maybe where that is the name "sand" comes from in sandpaper.  Anyway, I'll figure it out.

 

 

 

 

This is my reference picture, (very helpfully provided by Steve on my EIB thread), so I am trying to match this piece in terms of screen accuracy.  Hey, it's all yellow, too. Perfect.  Bonus points for being totally screen accurate.

 

 

 

Edited June 17, 2014 by AsBlondeAsLuke

[AsBlondeAsLuke[TK]]

Another work-in-progress this month is my RS helmet.  I have been wanting to get to this project for many months.  

When my RS armor first arrived in November, I opened the helmet box first.  It's so exciting when that armor first arrives!  Eh... seriously?  Where's the rest of it? I was scared I was going to break the helmet by simply holding it.  I tucked it back into the box and put it away.  Save that eggshell of a thing for later. 

 

Eight months later, the helmet is back out of the box.  We're a lot more confident handling ABS, and know we won't break anything by simply touching it.  (OK, we did manage to crack something, but that took a lot of brute force.)  Having built one helmet already, putting this one together doesn't seem so daunting.

 

Assembly went quickly until we got to... the ears.  Gah.  The ears.

 

Why do stormtroopers have ears anyway?  Not like we can hear anything once we have the helmets on.

 

Anyway, I am posting pics here so I can call upon the collective wisdom to ask about the dreaded gap.  Trying to figure out exactly how much "gap" there should be and whether the gap we have now is from the natural "wonkiness" of the helmet.

 

From a straight on front view, there is very little gap.  Thinking it looks good.

Not much gap from the back view either.

 

But, if you look close-up on the side, you can see a gap here.

Here's the other side.  Much less gap, but still a wee little gap.

 

Thoughts on the gap here?  

 

And... I posted this once before eons ago, but I thought I'd include it again.  When Rob sent the ears for my helmet, (they arrived a few months late), he included instructions.  I found these instructions to be very helpful so I thought I would share:

 

The trim lines will give you a good start, from there you will need to try them out and trim a little more to get the exact fit you want, I tend to trim them very thin, but others like to leave them thicker so they are sent like that for flexibility, but you will have the general shape to allow you to get in on the helmet. The ears should touch the helmet with no pressure to bend them, so look where they touch and trim that spot, one at a time till you get it. Also, the left ear (when worn) tilts back at the bottom to get the best fit and the right sit quite far forward into the "crush" area on the face, you will see, it wants to sit there naturally. Lastly, trim the bottom of the right ear very close, you can see the mark of the original, I would follow that, if you leave too much plastic there it will throw the whole thing off and you will be wondering whats wrong, its from the bottom. The left does not have the same effect. 

[AsBlondeAsLuke[TK]]

Ah, happiness is coming home to find a brown box by the door.

 

Today there was a box waiting for me from the Motorcycle Superstore.  This is good for my reputation.  Makes my neighbors think I am all gangsta' and ride a Harley.

Inside are the two helmet liners I ordered last week for my RS bucket.  OK, granted I only needed one helmet liner, but they had them on clearance for only $6.99, (down from $54.99), and I wasn't sure what size to get.  At that price, why bother guessing on the size?  I bought a small and a medium and figured one would fit and I could always give the other away to a fellow trooper.

The padding is lovely.  It feels so nice and snug on my head.  And, as it turns out, I didn't need to worry about size.  There is no actual difference between the small and the medium when you hold up the pads side-by-side.  The difference is in the webbing which stretches the padding apart and I cut the webbing to make it fit the contours of the helmet.  With the webbing released, it was easy to press the pads to the perfect shape.  Aaaaahhhh... so comfortable.

 

 

This is the exact name of the liner in case you are looking to get one.  It even comes in 501st blue.  Sweet.

 

Ah, here, this is probably more useful, an exact search link to it.  And, look, you can now get it for $4.99 in certain sizes.  http://www.motorcycle-superstore.com/47872/i/suomy-nomad-helmet-liner?WT.ac=SLIsearch  There's free shipping until the end of June.  FS-THX-142.  Happiness is a comfy helmet.

Edited June 18, 2014 by AsBlondeAsLuke

[Holnave (evan_loh)[TK]]

As usual I love reading your cheerfulness in your posts

 

Thanks for sharing what Rob has to say about the ears. I've met Rob in person twice and I still haven't asked him about how he does the ears.

 

Anyways I think the gaps look fine; unless you want that seem-less look. I can grab screen shots that show plenty gap space on the ears. So if you want to leave it the way it is, you can take comfort in the fact that you are screen accurate LOL!

 

All the best on your RS helmet build. I for one love the wonkiness on the RS lid.

[illusionz_09[TK]]

Great Thread. Even better build. Nice job!

[AsBlondeAsLuke[TK]]

As usual I love reading your cheerfulness in your posts

 

Thanks for sharing what Rob has to say about the ears. I've met Rob in person twice and I still haven't asked him about how he does the ears.

 

Anyways I think the gaps look fine; unless you want that seem-less look. I can grab screen shots that show plenty gap space on the ears. So if you want to leave it the way it is, you can take comfort in the fact that you are screen accurate LOL!

 

All the best on your RS helmet build. I for one love the wonkiness on the RS lid.

Thanks so much for the feedback, Evan.

 

Yes, Rob was very kind in sending the instructions with the ears.  I was very grateful.  If you have time to send the screen shot or two, I'd love to see them.  But, yes, I am comforted in knowing I am screen accurate and we will move on.  We worked on it for a long time and couldn't reduce the gap anymore. 

 

The wonkiness, yes.  My husband was teasing me last night because I was just sitting on the couch last night with the helmet on my lap.  He said: "You are staring at that thing with loving adoration."  But, it is so freakin' perfect with all the wonky detail.  How can you not love it?

[AsBlondeAsLuke[TK]]

Great Thread. Even better build. Nice job!

 

Thanks, David.  This has been an insane amount of fun. 

[Holnave (evan_loh)[TK]]

Thanks so much for the feedback, Evan.

 

Yes, Rob was very kind in sending the instructions with the ears.  I was very grateful.  If you have time to send the screen shot or two, I'd love to see them.  But, yes, I am comforted in knowing I am screen accurate and we will move on.  We worked on it for a long time and couldn't reduce the gap anymore. 

 

The wonkiness, yes.  My husband was teasing me last night because I was just sitting on the couch last night with the helmet on my lap.  He said: "You are staring at that thing with loving adoration."  But, it is so freakin' perfect with all the wonky detail.  How can you not love it?

 

Haha Diana....you asked for it!

 

 

 

 

There are more but I can't be bothered to post them all! XD Also look out for the "move-along" trooper. You can see the sun shining through the right ear gap! This is not an incentive to be careless when trimming the ears. Always aim for the best you can, and if there are still gaps, take comfort that it's scree accurate! Almost makes you want gaps now right? LOL

[Squeaky[TK]]

without making the ears too thin I would reduce the gap as much as possible (the original design was a sealed helmet).

just trim and fit, trim and fit, using the top screws as your anchor point. once the gap is gone then drill the hole in the bottom of the ear.

 

[AsBlondeAsLuke[TK]]

Haha Diana....you asked for it!

 

There are more but I can't be bothered to post them all! XD Also look out for the "move-along" trooper. You can see the sun shining through the right ear gap! This is not an incentive to be careless when trimming the ears. Always aim for the best you can, and if there are still gaps, take comfort that it's scree accurate! Almost makes you want gaps now right? LOL

 

Loving these screenshots.  Thank you.  Very informative.  Wow.  Great to see these gaps in the original helmets.  Ha ha.  The sun shining through.  OK, I am going to have to go take a look now.

[AsBlondeAsLuke[TK]]

without making the ears too thin I would reduce the gap as much as possible (the original design was a sealed helmet).

just trim and fit, trim and fit, using the top screws as your anchor point. once the gap is gone then drill the hole in the bottom of the ear.

 

Hi Steve- Thanks for the tips.  What is a "sealed" helmet?

[Dday[501st]]

He means the helmet and armor idea is to be an environmentally sealed unit. The helmet is supposed to be able to draw air, filter/clean it like a gas mask, and the whole armor/helmet combo to act as a type of hazmat suit for all environments.

[AsBlondeAsLuke[TK]]

He means the helmet and armor idea is to be an environmentally sealed unit. The helmet is supposed to be able to draw air, filter/clean it like a gas mask, and the whole armor/helmet combo to act as a type of hazmat suit for all environments.

I always did wonder about that one.  Clones were constantly being ejected out in the vacuum of space on the TV show, yelling: "Aaaaahhhh!" and they were in their suits, (which is odd since there is no sound in space.)  So, why didn't they just pluck them back in again if there is twenty minutes of air in the suits?  Ah, but anyway, thank you, that makes sense.

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Great stuff, as always, Diana!!  Loving the updates and I promise you that as I get ready to move in to the cutting/trimming of the thighs of my own build, I'll be referencing yours - among others - to make sure I get it right!!

[AsBlondeAsLuke[TK]]

Aw, Tim, I'll bet you are going to have the sweetest, trimmest thighs. You have done such a thorough job on your research that you are going to have an awesome build. Can't wait to follow along.

[Dday[501st]]

I always did wonder about that one.  Clones were constantly being ejected out in the vacuum of space on the TV show, yelling: "Aaaaahhhh!" and they were in their suits, (which is odd since there is no sound in space.)  So, why didn't they just pluck them back in again if there is twenty minutes of air in the suits?  Ah, but anyway, thank you, that makes sense.

 

I remember hearing something about the suits not being setup for survival in deep space, only environmentally sealed with the backpack being an air-processing unit (guess) but no oxygen supply.

[dkmwong]

Great post. I read the whole thing from the start. I can't wait till my armor arrives and my journey begins.

[AsBlondeAsLuke[TK]]

Great post. I read the whole thing from the start. I can't wait till my armor arrives and my journey begins.

Good luck, Dana.  Glad you are doing your research.  The waiting is the hardest part.

[AsBlondeAsLuke[TK]]

I remember hearing something about the suits not being setup for survival in deep space, only environmentally sealed with the backpack being an air-processing unit (guess) but no oxygen supply.

It is as good a theory as any, and explains why they leave those poor troopers out there.  Poor fellows. Right, I will avoid that at all costs, then.

Edited June 21, 2014 by AsBlondeAsLuke

[AsBlondeAsLuke[TK]]

My cod.  

So big.

So wondrous.

Such a delight.

Topic of much discussion.

But, alas, time to tame you down to size.

Ode to my cod.

 

From my EIB approval thread:

You cod rivet is huge. (here we go talking about your cod again) This should be the same 8MM split rivet as the left side rivets. Changing this out will give you a chance to shorten your strap that connects the cod and butt. This may tighten things up pulling the parts closer together. 

 

Here are the "before" pictures of my aforementioned impressive cod.

 

Note: We used a snap here and not a 8 MM split rivet.  There is a difference in size.  My engineer wanted me to emphasize this for others so they don't make the same mistake.  

 

 

It was actually very easy to get the snap out.  As always, we kept a reference picture handy while working on this section.

 

This is the split rivet happily in place, as viewed from the inside.  Couldn't include any shots of the actual installation because it took two people to do the job.  There were no extra hands for taking pictures.

 

 

New rivet in place.

 

Almost forgot this picture.  It's an important one.  We also shortened the strap which should pull the cod in considerably.  Now, the one thing we did not do but discussed at great length last night was trim the cod.   We spent a great deal of time studying it and decided that if the cod were trimmed you would lose the beautiful detail.  Can't see anyplace you can trim, unless I am missing something?

 

(This is my original, untamed cod just as a reference shot from my approval pics back in April.)

However, pulling it in, should tame it down to size.  I will suit up this week when I have a chance and take a cod selfie so we have a point of comparison.

Edited December 4, 2014 by AsBlondeAsLuke

[Dday[501st]]

Yes, tuck it under, just like "The Crying Game" and you're good.

Edited June 21, 2014 by Dday

[AsBlondeAsLuke[TK]]

Yes, tuck it under, just like "The Crying Game" and you're good.

Will be tucking it under, then.  Of course, now I need to watch "The Crying Game" so I know I've done it right.  (Never saw it.)

[Dday[501st]]

Yes, go watch the movie

[maxsteele[TK]]

Thanks Diana for the link to the helmet liner!  I am looking for padding to go in my ATA helmet, and these look like they'll do the trick!  I ordered the medium one and should get it by the end of the week.

[Artshot]

Wow!, just spent a few hours reading through your build, I am stunned by how great your armour came out, all of the work in reducing the size from out of the box was well worth it.

 

Now i just need to get myself sorted and order myself a set of armour, I was initially going to go with RS armour, as there in the same country as me, but after doing research and reading and research, I think I will be opting for the RT Mod armour as it's more accommodating for the well upholstered person

 

Your build has definitely inspired me, Thank you.

 

Art