Question to the Alpha 75

[Punkers]

Hey all,

 

I have a question to pose to all of you Alpha 75 who had their kits built for celebration and since....

 

Have you had problems with the yolk / shoulders cracking under stress from the design of the pieces that are bondo'd or slurried together ?

 

A few troopers supposedly had problems with this because of the design of these pieces, but I have yet to be able to identify more than two of these individuals.

 

The reason I'm asking this is to work with Dean and ANOVOS to hopefully resolve these concerns for future kits and hopefully in time for wave 2 / 3.

 

Thanks in advance for your input.

[Daetrin[Admin]]

Not yet, but I've only suited up a few times. I am OTOH *very* gentle with that part.

[kme1682[TK]]

Hi Tyler,

I am happy to chat in reference to helping all builders (fan sculpt and licensed builders) with that part of the back. On my TFA TK, we are addressing some slight cracking where there is a seamless bond on the back. Right now, the crack is only on one side and is hairline thin. Although being a point of stress is certainly a factor, I think the greater causative factor is the bondo we used. My understanding is that plastic weld and ABS slurry would have provided better flexing, and we may not have had an issue at all. With a different timeline we would have used a longer curing bonding agent.

Additionally, the part of the armor that extends over the shoulders onto the chest provides more stress to twist outward or inward toward the center of the chest depending on the frame of the wearer. I've noted this in the thread about TFA TK issues and solutions. The stress of the torque could contribute to cracks of the weaker points in the assembly. It is possible that a proper fit to the shoulder/chest width of the wearer would eliminate torque of that part and ensuing cracks. 

Best wishes, Krista 

[Daetrin[Admin]]

Yeah, you shouldn't use bondo at all on this thing. Else you'll get a lot of cracks. I forgot what TK4205 used on my suit, but it sure wasn't bondo.

[Punkers]

Thank you for the info Krista!

 

Keep these coming for anyone else who had issues please. The more detailed info we can get, the better off everyone will be.

[DarthMel[TK]]

Yes, thank you for this information. I want to make sure my kit doesn't crack, so would the ABS slurry be the top choice to use with this armor? Or is there something that would work even better?

[Punkers]

Although it sounds as though those that used ABS paste / slurry had better luck, the point of this thread is actually to harvest the information from multiple members of the Alpha 75 so that we can determine whether there is an inherent flaw in the design of the armor that needs to be repaired in the subsequent waves of armor being sold (and for public release).

 

If we could keep this thread on target and await replies from the Alpha 75 specific to the question in the first post, it would be greatly appreciated.

[Berbs42[TK]]

I have a tiny crack on my right shoulder from my test fit the day before we arrived in Anaheim. (Will get a photo to add here later).

This was not at a CA-Glued point.

We didn't use Bondo.

Rather, I believe it was stress from flexing the shoulders open to get them over my Gasket-Covered Shoulders.  (And being a Big Boy, that meant quite a bit of flexing... Big as in Chubs... NOT Muscle!! LOL!)

I've since reinforced the crack with CA and some Spare ABS, and have had no issues since.

 

 - Berbs

[TK6682[TK]]

Yeah, you shouldn't use bondo at all on this thing. Else you'll get a lot of cracks. I forgot what TK4205 used on my suit, but it sure wasn't bondo.

 

I used Bondo, been in/out of it over 15 times, no cracks.

It comes down to how skilled you are with a particular medium and how well you take care of it while getting dressed and undressed. 

 

Stress locations should be addressed with glues, bondo just makes it pretty. <--- KW taught me that!

Edited May 13, 2015 by TK6682

[tkrestonva[TK]]

I haven't officially trooped in my TFA yet, so far I've just done some test fittings. Even without the shoulder gaskets, I have hairline cracking in the bondo where the yoke meets the backplate. I have broad shoulders, so I really have to contort myself to get into the back assembly - and it still requires a good bit of flexing on the back assembly to get in/out of.

 

On my to-do list for repairs - fill the crack with something more flexible (thinking some sort of flexible glue or ABS slurry) and touch-up paint.

[sylverbard[TK]]

All I could suggest is a mid seam piece of plastic to increase the rigidity of the area slightly. One thing to consider is the type of bondo. I can't by the flexible general purpose stuff in Canada. Just the rest cap bullet proof stuff that seems to crack. I'm going to use plastic surgery flexible epoxy filler and semy rigid. Seems to want to work better. I'm not big so the chest yokes fit OK. Anyone larger I can see having fit and flex issues.

[v7sg[TK]]

Mine cracked and I just went and made this cut (as seen in John Boyega's trooper in the first trailer)

[v7sg[TK]]

I might add that other part where the bondo is cracking for a lot of us is at the ab boxes

[TK6682[TK]]

I might add that other part where the bondo is cracking for a lot of us is at the ab boxes

 

The boxes on the screen used armor were NOT seamless. There is a distinct split from the ab to the boxes.

It is personal preference to use bondo there but I would not recommend it due to the amount of movement that is necessary on the ab as well as it not being accurate. 

[v7sg[TK]]

The boxes on the screen used armor were NOT seamless. There is a distinct split from the ab to the boxes.

It is personal preference to use bondo there but I would not recommend it due to the amount of movement that is necessary on the ab as well as it not being accurate.

 

Most of us "alphas" understood that they required bondo, honest mistake I guess

[svache[501st]]

Interesting to see there's so many people with issues around the shoulders, personally I feel that part to be one of the more sturdy parts of my costume. 

 

The part where I am having problems, is more with the torso part, since I have to flex that more to get in and out to, and is a lot more flexible to begin with. It is currently bondo'd as per the instructions (or how we believed them to be anyways (many of us never had to work with bondo or plastic weld before, so we didn't know about those parts better not to be bondo'ed)) but when I get cracks, I will see about plastic weld of some sort. Still trying to figure out which one would be the best for me to get

[Pancho[TK]]

The boxes on the screen used armor were NOT seamless. There is a distinct split from the ab to the boxes.

It is personal preference to use bondo there but I would not recommend it due to the amount of movement that is necessary on the ab as well as it not being accurate. 

I'd love to see some referece pics if possible.

[tkrestonva[TK]]

I'd love to see some referece pics if possible.

http://www.originalprop.com/blog/2015/04/18/star-wars-celebration-anaheim-2015-photos-of-movie-props-costumes-and-models-from-star-wars-the-force-awakens/

[sylverbard[TK]]

OK. So. What's the deal with the inner thighs....total not seamless...

[Pancho[TK]]

http://www.originalprop.com/blog/2015/04/18/star-wars-celebration-anaheim-2015-photos-of-movie-props-costumes-and-models-from-star-wars-the-force-awakens/

'awesome. Thanks!

[svache[501st]]

Mine cracked and I just went and made this cut (as seen in John Boyega's trooper in the first trailer)

Actually, that one is supposed to be a slid, not a gap from what I understand. But they say that with the ABS, you need a lot of reinforcement to do it the movie accurate way or you went up like in your picture

[Daetrin[Admin]]

Most of us "alphas" understood that they required bondo, honest mistake I guess

 

Yeah, I think we were all understood these to be seamless.  

[Daetrin[Admin]]

Double post - I forgot to ask - does anyone have a good screen cap showing them not being seamless?

[kme1682[TK]]

On 5/16/2015 at 9:45 AM, Daetrin said:

Double post - I forgot to ask - does anyone have a good screen cap showing them not being seamless?

As far as the alpha build, we're putting together some info threads about various body pieces. We'll have the ab boxes included in the photo/info thread, but I don't have an exact date when the info is released. (I've submitted compiled info chart, but we need to put the pictures in proper threads.)

 

I would imagine though it would be better to have pictures of the TFA exhibit, in the spirit of "primary" resource material. I'm hopeful others will have more detail shots for their visit:

 

[EDIT] After a cordial and collegial PM conversation, Paul and I agreed it would be good to give a historical note on the ab boxes. As I seem to recall, the notes to appear as "attached to" instead of "seamless" came later into the build, after some of the more nimble of us already had passed that build point. It shouldn't be minimized how fast information came in on dozens of different threads. It was possible to miss or lose track of valuable information over the extremely condensed timeline. This is why we're trying to consolidate info and pictures for the next set of trailblazers. Thanks Paul for being kind enough not to mind a clarification. 

 

I found that scoring the bondo made for a cleaner line of the contoured ab plate, and provided additional support to the attachment to the ab plate. However, there are builders that excel at trimming and sanding the ab box contour to match the ab plate contour. This latter group would likely have the more accurate method, plus no sanding of the bondo! Bonus! As I mentioned in a separate thread, vacuform may not give sufficient angle of edges, and the screen-used suits had injection-molding as their build method. Various methods will require various solutions in order to make the costume look like the picture. I would also love to see some detailed shots of the screen-used suits if anyone can post them. Thanks in advance!

Warm regards, -Krista

Edited March 11, 2021 by gmrhodes13
photos updated gmrhodes13 2021

[v7sg[TK]]

Actually, that one is supposed to be a slid, not a gap from what I understand. But they say that with the ABS, you need a lot of reinforcement to do it the movie accurate way or you went up like in your picture

Ahhhh!, so that's another fix I have to make, Oh well comes with being one of the first builders I guess...

 

Anovos should give us replacement pieces free of charge... or at least at cost

Edited May 17, 2015 by v7sg