This may take a while ;)

[Natalie]

Hi,

My name is Natalie, I'm a professional prop maker and have spent the last few years modelling and manufacturing  hard surface components of costumes, like guns and armour etc, for various films. I raided your lovely gallery of images for reference of the new stormtrooper in the new star wars film with the aim to create machine files for some armour. While my immediate goal is to simply noodle about and print myself a stormtrooper paper weight, I also plan on machining full size armour components for fun. This wont be a fast project by any means as, I work silly hours and sneaking in time between jobs on machines is sometimes tricky.. anyway, I thought I'd start a thread here in the hopes some of you guys might find the process interesting  

 

without further rambling...

 

Post 1

when the first trailer came out, I spent an hour sketching some quick forms based on what little reference there was available (hint, there was not enough).. 

So, in the grand tradition of "pics or gtfo" I present meaningless sketches that aren't good for anyone or anything.... (yet)

 

 

 

[Natalie]

another hour doodling.. the rear mounted tube detail.. (90% "place holder" forms as its difficult to properly replicate angle and proportion without adjacent geometry to work with .. more soon)

Edited April 24, 2015 by Natalie

[Novak Dimon[TK]]

Interesting project! I'm looking forward to see your progress.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work

[MortisSin]

I know a lot of people are salivating over the new Ep Vll armour.  To see some cad drawings is encouraging.  Stick with it.  I know I am interested in what you come up with.  Good Luck

[Nicky]

I think the chest piece isn't what goes over the shoulders like on the older stormtroopers. You'd have a ribbed shoulder/bicep tube on which 3 white parts are attached and separate from eachother, the shoulder, the shoulder bell, the bicep. Only the shoulders are extension of the back plate, like two rings around the arms. Then the chest piece is shaped like the Atari logo and attached over the shoulder ends of the back plate. That's what I think is going on here: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/gallery/image/3519-star-wars-celebration-the-force-awakens-props-costumes-exhibit-characters-models-050/

Edited April 24, 2015 by Nicky

[Crocoboxer]

Correct. The back piece has a yolk that goes over the top of the shoulders. It sort of looks like ram horns. The chest fits over it.

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Edited May 20, 2022 by gmrhodes13
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[Natalie]

Thanks for the encouraging posts also, thanks heaps for the pictures of the cuirass, that's very helpful

(Nicky, yes I'm aware the chest (and none of the other forms) is nothing like what I had sketched in the first quick drawing, modelling forms like these armour components, requires a lot of intermediary steps, the first of which is essentially large forms that are used to derive more and more refined shapes. I liken it to subractive sculpture. In this case it's harder than making a costume from concept art because I'm starting from a finished product and trying to reverse engineer it. So, it will never be perfect, and I'm aware that very soon a company will probably make collectable statues and costumes produced using the original film data. I'm simply doing this because I enjoy the process, not because I want to own or wear the final product

Edited April 24, 2015 by Natalie

[Nicky]

That is a smart approach! 

[Natalie]

more noodling... again, nothing approaching final geometry here, its all just quick scribbles I work from as a base to figure out correct proportions etc then start extracting some more finalised parts....  

Edited April 26, 2015 by Natalie

[Natalie]

derp de doooooo

 

[Natalie]

oodles of noodles

Edited April 27, 2015 by Natalie

[Natalie]

Vambrace still needs looots of work.. The overall shape is too boxy,  detail proportion and shapes are miles off, as is the curvature on the outer part.. I could probably get away with some of this stuff being off on a printed figure, being so small but, its miles out for a full size part... lots to do...

Edited April 27, 2015 by Natalie

[Natalie]

slowly plodding away... playing with rough shapes and proportion..

 

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Edited May 20, 2022 by gmrhodes13
link removed no longer working

[svache[501st]]

On 4/28/2015 at 9:46 AM, Natalie said:

slowly plodding away... playing with rough shapes and proportion..

 

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There's a seamline in the forearm where there shouldn't be one (well, in reality, there is one, but it is filled with a filler like bondo or something similar)

Edited May 20, 2022 by gmrhodes13
link removed no longer working

[camprandall]

This looks really hard to pull off, but it's very cool!

[Natalie]

Thanks guys my aim is that the forearm part only have a seam where the flat inner section sits, so it would be two parts, with the sunken centre trak detail and clasp details added after. I'm trying to make this in a more similar fashion to the cast production armour than the vacuum formed ANOVOS suits. Ideally the bicep will be cast as one part also (with clasps added after)

(Edit, the seam line on the model is just where the surface was trimmed, it wouldn't show up on a milled part... The models aren't anywhere near ready to mill yet, still loooooots of modelling to be done on even the most basic parts)

Edited April 28, 2015 by Natalie

[svache[501st]]

Nice to hear! And yeah, to be honest, some of the decisions how things were pulled were a bit surprising to us when we were building the armor, we saw room to things a bit different and making it slightly easier on us. But oh well, it was what it was

[Natalie]

I'm sure they did it the way they did for good reason My personal opinion is vacuum forming isn't really suitable for some things. Just an opinion though Perhaps by vacuum forming they felt they could produce parts that could be more modifiable to fit a range of body types whereas on films it's easy, you just choose extras that fit the suits

Edited April 28, 2015 by Natalie