Cody42's TFA build thread (TI-4172)

[Cody42[TK]]

Yesterday I got started on my First Order Stormtrooper, after my Boxes arrived on Thursday.
 
Day 1:
Unpack, count, check and marveling at every piece. There where over a hundred armorparts in the two boxes, although some of them were not separated yet.
Because it was already very late in the evening I sadly forgot to take pictures. But I couldn't help to start trimming the first parts, which happend to be the right leg.
 
Day 2:

Today I spent the whole day cutting out and trimming plastic parts. Now my fingers hurt a litte... cutting through the plastic with my scissors takes a lot of force. In return all of the larger parts are trimmed. The only slips are on the TD, but a little extra bondo should fix everything. Also I cleaned the gaskets and cut them out.

 
All larger parts trimmed. Sanding the edges and precise fitting still to go.

 
The tools I used: Tin snips, lexan scissors (straigth and curved) and a knife. Next to the tools are the parts I still have to cut out.

 
I collected all plastic scraps. Some parts will serve as tabs for butt joints others will be used to make ABS slurry.

 
The gaskets and their glue tabs cut out. I'm still trying to figure out why there are three for each shoulder gasket. To glue them together two small or one large each should be enough...

[Barcoder[TK]]

Yay! Welcome to the club David!

(Not too worry about the slip up on the TD. I cut waaaaaaay too much off mine and everything turned out great.)

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looking forward to the progress

[Cody42[TK]]

Day 3:

Everything laid out to glue the shoulder gaskets: The gaskets and glue tabs, the provided glue, safety gloves, wood tabs to mix and apply the glue.


The wooden tabs are labled "A" and "B" to get the respective component out of the canisters and "M" for mixing and applying the mixed glue.


First gluing session...


...and I messed up. Two of the glue tabs should go on the other joint.


So I had to cut them off again. At least this way I could assure myself that the glue works great.   


Now that all glue tabs went where they should be I applied the glue, set it sit in shortly...


...and aligned and fixed the joint.


While the various joints cured I trimmed the abdomen boxes.


And prepared reinforcement tabs for the yoke. That part looks like a weaker spot of the armor and Clint already reported cracks in his armor. Better safe than sorry, so I'm going to include reinforcements right away.


Eventually also the second part of the seam got glued.


Shoulder gaskets done!


To conclude the day a first try-on.


I'll continue to work on the armor next weekend.

Edited June 28, 2015 by Cody42

[camprandall]

And prepared reinforcement tabs for the yoke. That part looks like a weaker spot of the armor and Clint already reported cracks in his armor. Better safe than sorry, so I'm going to include reinforcements right away.

 

Yeah, I would do it just like that if I was doing it again. Nice!

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Welcome to the club David, you're blazing right along.

[Cody42[TK]]

Day 4 and 5: 

 

I started sanding everything and fusing the parts together. Shoulders, arm and legs are almost done. Befor I fully close the arms I'll let everything cure a few days, the legs will stay open on the inside.

I fused all parts together using acetone. If you put the parts together when both sides are partially dissolved on the surface if forms a very strong bond.

Additionally I continued to work on the gaskets, where I glued on the gluetabs.

Shoulder and shins/calves
 

Thighs and gluetab on the biceps
 

Gluetabs for the forearms
 

I noted that my shoulder gaskets don't fit very well inside the upper arm armor. I'm almost able to fit the upper arm armor inside the gasket. Do others also have that problem or have I messed up something?

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Coming along nicely

[Cody42[TK]]

Day 6:

Actually just an evening and not a whole day. I used the time to close the arm parts I prepared last week.

Day 7:
 

First day of filling, more gluing and some work on the gaskets. I use ABS slurry instead of bondo, at least for a rough first pass. As after curing everything ist just one material it should be able to withstand the flexing much better. However presumably I have to do a second pass with normal filler.

Fusing back and yoke:


Prepared ABS slurry. I had to experiment a little with the ideal consistency for the various parts. Fortunately it can be easily adjusted by adding some ABS or Acetone.


Filled the arms.


While some parts cured I started sewing the gaskets together. Although the provided glue works well, I like sewing them more. I used some very strong thread, normaly used for leather parts.


A finished arm gasket. I feel like the seam fits quite well, maybe even better than gluing.


More fusing and filling.


Even more filling.


And in closing the first steps on the detonator.


 

[camprandall]

Looks great! You definitely seem to have a handle with the slurry. The acetone method is... brave!

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Interested to see how the slurry pans out. Nice job David

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work, I don't envy sanding the slurry

[Cody42[TK]]

Day 8:

ABS Slurry takes forever to dry... Most of it could be sanded after 24 hours. It still takes some more time until it completely dries. This afternoon I started sanding some parts I filled yesterday. The surface quality is not the best, especially where much slurry was applied. So I'll have to smooth the surface with some filler.

Additionally I started to line the gaskets and sew on velcro. The lining makes it a lot easier to put them on, as the rubber tends to stick to cloth.

Sanded Back. You can easily see that it needs some filler.


Arms, also need filler.


Gaskets with velcro sewn on, left already has lining


Testing some plastic filler on scrap parts. As you can see it withstands a lot of flexing. I repeated bending tests through out the day. I'm very confident this stuff won't crack or chip of.

[TriumphTrooper8[501st]]

So any info on the "Plastic Filler"? It looks like a suitable seam filler.

[Barcoder[TK]]

Excellent progress!

[Cody42[TK]]

So any info on the "Plastic Filler"? It looks like a suitable seam filler.

It's flexible polyester putty for repairs on plastic parts of cars. By the descriptions it is similar to some products suggested "bondo replacement" thread. The product called "Kunststoffspachtel" (translates as plastic filler or plastic putty) by a brand "presto". I found it in a lokal hardwarestore.

[Vertex[TK]]

I wonder if your product is similar to the tamiya one I'm using in my thread.