Please help me ! AP Armor Build

[Spycee[TK]]

After the trooping, I saw that my side rivets all lost their paint !!! It was dry for at least 2 weeks, I don't understand why... Is there a way to strengthen the paint ?

[Khazid[TK]]

Modeling paints don't stick too well to metal surfaces some times. Try cleaning the surface with simple green. Once dry, buff with a 600+ grit sand paper. Clean with rubbing alcohol. Once dry, prime with a white primer, then paint away.

[Spycee[TK]]

Ohhh thanks, I'll try that. I should have thought about that !

[Khazid[TK]]

No problem, I hope it helps.

[Spycee[TK]]

I just realized that the only thing stopping me from getting to Expert Infantry is the gun ...  I was waiting to do my "electronic gun" but since it seems it will take me a lot of time (getting missing pieces from China) I think I'll just get a "normal gun" for the approbation and when my other gun is ready I'll switch it (and give the old one to my son).

 

And for Centurion, what is needed :

- Inner drop boxes : shipped 

- Handguards : it seems it's not the best season for them, so I'll wait a bit

- Painted helmet : I think I'll simply get another helmet to do that.  I HATE painted helmets, I prefer the look of the "clean" stickers, sorry guys   This way I'll be able to switch between helmets.

- And of course the gun, but that will be covered by EIB 

[Spycee[TK]]

Blaster ordered from DDay.

 

Inner drop boxes in the mail.

 

Already got an AP Helmet from Mark.

 

Just need the handguards ...  Still not decided what I want.

[Brando Calrissian]

Awesome build man, great job ! This thread is going to help me a lot with my build.

[Spycee[TK]]

Thanks ! Don't hesitate to ask questions during your build :-)

[Spycee[TK]]

Inner drop boxes received and adjusted.  I didn't glue them in the drop boxes because I want to get them "openable" with magnets.

 

Blaster shipped today, woo hoo 

 

Still undecided for the handguards 

 

And for the helmet ...  I decided to go black 

 

 

 

 

 

I also began to paint the helmet, since this helmet will serve for Centurion status :

 

 

 

The back ones must not be rounded at the bottom, I'm doing that this evening.

 

The problem I have is : are the "cheek" ones big enough ?  I tried to go with the same size as the stickers but it seems a bit small ...  And on other helmets it seems bigger ...  What do you think ?

 

 

 

 

[Jancelot[TK]]

Hey.  No, that's too small.  Take your black paint all the way to the  bottom of the downward curve.  You can even bleed on to it just a bit.  You want to make them big enough to be able to comfortably fit the stripes.  If you click on my AP build link below, mine are a bit too small as well.  I since have redone them larger.

Edited February 14, 2015 by Jancelot

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Indeed, too small. 

You might be interested in reading this, it's about a guy who did the same thing :

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/24746-my-ata-helmet-build/page-7

[Spycee[TK]]

Thanks !

 

I enlarged them a bit.  I'm not sure it's enough, I'll check later, after it dries up.

 

 

 

 

And I began painting the ears :

 

 

[Spycee[TK]]

I think it's not THAT bad ...  I was afraid it would be a complete mess.  Still a couple of corrections to do on the black outline, but nothing serious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gazmosis[501st]]

Brilliant!!! Nice recovery on the tears. For the future, the paint outlines within areas like tears and teeth are, for the most part, self guiding. You just need to get the pencil settled into the valley between the "walls" and the bottom.

AAAAND, you used a minimal amount of gloss black as the base for your outlines!!! I bet it was pretty easy to fill the gray in without all that black infusing into it!!

[Spycee[TK]]

Thanks !  The error I did was to try to do the same as the stickers.

[Spycee[TK]]

Some progress :

 

 

 

 

Yeah, the lines are not straight ...  But that's the goal, isn't it ?    I need to clean up a bit between lines (and the lines themselves), but I was too tired to do that without messing up.

[Tusken RTT]

Awesome!  Great job- very jealous.  Mine came out like I was finger painting;  had to get the Dave trooperbay stickers!

[Spycee[TK]]

Thanks ! But it is better in the picture... When I have it in my hands it looks like a mess... I completed all the black lines this evening, I'll post the pictures tomorrow. It's really really hard to do a straight line ! Now all the hard parts are done on it, the rest should be easy :-)

[Rezori[TK]]

Nice work!!!

Edited February 20, 2015 by Rezori

[Spycee[TK]]

Thanks !

 

New pictures :

 

This side is good, but I may have to "square" the bottom ends of the lines a bit :

 

 

 

This one is ... meh.  The left line is clearly not correct, it annoys me :

 

 

 

The ears !  Theay are a bit thick at the base but I think I will let them like that, too hard to get them better !  

 

 

 

 

I will just adjust some places on the back to try to flatten the upper part :

 

 

 

 

[Sly11[Admin]]

Nothing wrong with how it sit now, screen accurate

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Looks good. Gaps like that are common at the back of the ears, don't be too obsessed.

[Spycee[TK]]

Thanks !

 

I made some progress on the inside, I really like it.  I should have cleaned the ABS dust, it looks very dirty ...

 

[Spycee[TK]]

While I'm building my blaster (it can take some time since I want to add electronics), I ordered another one from a contact of Mark from AP.  It will eventually go to one of my children, for their armors.  It's a resin one with a PVC tube.  It looks great to me, but I'm not an expert for blaster 

 

 

 

 

 

Does it look ok enough to be approved ?  With that blaster, I think I'm ready for my Expert Infantryman submission 

Edited March 26, 2015 by Spycee

[Tusken RTT]

Nice job- I think it's time to get an application in order!