JC's ROTJ Build

[JohnnyChaos]

thanks for the links.. I've ordered one which will arrive tomorrow.

[sskunky]

Just lie the shins on the edge of a table and iron the edges flat. Should give you a little more to play with.

When I made the moulds it was all new to me. As soon as I finish the house and workshop I'll redo a lot of the moulds to make this easier.

[JohnnyChaos]

Quick check if they're going to fit.. phew... now to get the edging on.

 

 

my first arm part didn't glue well. I figured there was a bit too much stress on the joint for the E6000 so decided to heat bend the edges for a better fit.

I've got a heat sealing iron now. it's going to be good to help finish off some edges & corners, but don't think it's going to work at all for flattening out any large edge sections while keeping it looking nice.

But a strip of wood held under two heavy chopping boards worked well while I hairdryered the edge

 

 

now things are coming together better.

I've heat bent the finished bicep to make it more round.. it fits nicely now.
the first forearm is nearly set.
so should get the other forearm glued tonight and then on to the legs   
 

 

[JohnnyChaos]

Just been checking this build thread out.
http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/17228-another-cfo-rotj-build/
I've not seen thigh shims like that before.
https://prophetsblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/back.jpg
Can someone tell me is it better to cut this armour down to the original overlaps and then shim like this if needed. Or leave extra material and maybe have larger over lap sections?

the ROTJ CRL just says overlap construction must be used for centurion level, but doesn't say if shims are allowed, or specify the size of overlap sections?

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

I'd say, avoid shims if you can, hence leave the extra material if you need it to close the thighs at the back.

[JohnnyChaos]

lots more clamping and heat bending tonight. 
Calf fronts glued.. left the back material uncut like people suggested, just flattened it out so I've got plenty to play with, will masking tape them up once the front has set and see what's what.
I think they come up too high actually so might need to trim some more off the bottoms.

Shoulder straps secured at the front.

Main body strapping halfway done (ran out of clamps and magnets).

One more night and I should be able to put all but the thighs on to test

 

 

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Nice progress. You're moving fast, that's good to see.

 

How did you secured the shoulder bridges at the front? This thread has an interesting picture showing they actually used snaps to secured them:

[JohnnyChaos]

just the trusty old E6000.. so can pull them off if they change the CRL. 

[JohnnyChaos]

First test fits
 

getting there
yeah I know I need to sort the blaster and sharpie out some logos
the upper body sections aren't strapped to the lower sections.
That should straighten things out a little.

and need to adjust some other bits. but not bad so far.

 

 

the calves will close ok. I've not velcroed them yet. need to tape them up first and see what more I can trim off them

 

 

bit of photoshop fun

[JohnnyChaos]

secured the rest of the body strapping linking the top and bottom sections together.. it feels much better on now.
i might need to redo the back straps to give it a bit of a gap, but will see

 

also tested putting it on with the shoulder bells already attached to the straps and it was much easier like that. 

[Vader Rocks]

Making some good progress there trooper. You don't see many ROTJ TK's around. Looking forward to seeing this armor together.

[JohnnyChaos]

Painted my buttons and cut out my TD/O2 canister today while waiting for my thigh bits to glue.

 

[sskunky]

That's looking great mate!

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Indeed, it's coming along nicely.

[JohnnyChaos]

quick test fit. pleased with how it's looking. 

Need to get my DSLR setup next time.

 

Going to pull my left thigh apart and trim the seam smaller.. I have a bit of room and for some reason it's bigger than the other side. I'll blame it on my man-flu.

 

Not sure if I need to drop the lower back panel down an inch or two.

 

 

 

Edited February 15, 2015 by JohnnyChaos

[sskunky]

If you can get the back llate a bit lower. I set the elastic straps to pull the back down a bit.

[JohnnyChaos]

the back is as low as it'll go. the shoulder straps are only attached about an inch and a half on the front and back to give me as much as possible. and I heat bend the top section of the back so it sat as flat to me as pos.

maybe I need to tighten the crotch strap a bit as well.

[sskunky]

What about the straps that connect the back plate to the butt plate?

[JohnnyChaos]

if I tighten them they lift the butt plate higher

[JohnnyChaos]

Not much progress.. still waiting for a couple of things to arrive inc my boots (which just arrived apparently). 

The TD clips were bugging me. they looked simple to make, but was struggling to find some strips of metal.

Thankfully tonight I managed to find some aluminium strips in my local wickes and made some.

 

The ROTJ CRL says

The total length should be approximately 7.50" (190.5mm).

The thermal detonator is attached via metal or metallic-appearing clips approximately 1/2" (12.7mm) to 3/4" (19mm) wide.

 

I seem to have more pipe showing than some, but it's pretty much the right length as you can see… give or take a few mm.

The clips also seem quite narrow compared to some, but I chose 15mm which is within the requirements. There was 19.5, but I figured as I was bending these by hand a bit narrower would be better.

 

The end caps aren't glued, but are a very tight fit.
 

 

[JohnnyChaos]

Right... this is the armour finished (plastic parts anyway) and my first full test fit.

 

I think my thighs could do to come up a bit, but to do that I'd need to shim them. I don't think they look awful, but think they would look better and give me more manoeuvrability if I did. 

What do you guys think...  would it be preferable to leave them or shim them?? (not that I have any shims).

 

I've also got an indent on the under edge of my inner knees from the calves. I was only in it for about 15min so could see that would get very painful on a troop..

Going to try and trim the edges on those.

Anything else?

 

 

 

[Tolo[TK]]

Beautiful armor and build!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk

[Tusken RTT]

Looking good!  Nice job on the TD clips!  On the thighs, are they free floating?  If you are using some type of garter suspension can you bring them up some more?  

[JohnnyChaos]

thanks guys. Im using some straps and a belt but they're as high as they'll go given how thick my thighs are. They're also glued with minimal overlap at the top edge to give me as much room as possible..

[Colin1138[TK]]

Looking sharp! i had similar concerns with my thighs. I have skinny legs,but a 'generous' rear, so couldn't get my thighs to go as high as I'd have liked, but yours look OK to me. Plenty of the onscreen guys had more black showing above the thigh pieces.

 

The 'cover strip' on your left(as worn) leg looks a bit wide.I think you could trim the thighs a bit more,get them looking a little more tapered.

The elastic strap on your shoulderbell looks a bit too wide too. ROTJ TKs had a much skinnier strap than their predecessors.