Pencap510's TFA Build Thread

[Darth Aloha[Admin]]

Should " Complete Plastic Carnage" be our new FISD catch phrase?

 

-Eric

 

 

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[Mayday73]

In a day ? you are a machine!!!!

[Pencap510]

Yep- it was a whirlwind- and only one casualty lol. I caught my knuckle pretty good on the belt sander, but other than that perfectly executed. I'll lay out the pieces for assembly bundling tonight and post pics as I go. I'm sure I'll see some of the stuff that needs a little touching up.

[Daetrin[Admin]]

In a day ? you are a machine!!!!

 

Agreed.  I think that ties for the fastest every (1 person, 1 suit, 1 day to trim it all out).

 

Great job!

[ukswrath[Staff]]

ANIMAL! 

[Pencap510]

So I dug back in a little tonight. Mainly to check for "misses" in trimming and sanding, and am glad to report that we did a pretty clean job. I won't put up detailed pics of any one piece, unless you'd like to see something specific- but here is what I ended up with:

 

 

To get a little something done tonight I cut my cover strips and started assembly on my forearms. Knowing after the glue cures, gap filling with abs paste and bondo there would be lots of interim sanding- I wasn't to concerned about a little excess glue here and there. Cleaned up as much as I could, but was ultimately more concerned about positioning.

 

 

I do have one question- with these side pieces applied it seems the gap for the flat panel is to wide. Is this just a flex until it fits thing- or are my curves on the sides not correct? There seems to be a lot of flexibility- but I'm not applying the top panel till tomorrow after these have sat over night

 

[Barcoder[TK]]

I had the same wide gaps with my forearms. I am sure it would be fine, once you glue the top section on....but I chose to use a heat gun to reshape the sides a bit & decrease the gap. I found that it helped relieve a bit of stress on the sides & the little tab to sit more parallel. (Heat guns & ABS give me anxiety...it was stressful. Lol)

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Yea all the forearms are like that 

Edited September 11, 2015 by ukswrath

[Pencap510]

Progress -

 

Edited September 11, 2015 by Pencap510

[TB750[501st]]

If you don't want to risk the heat gun you can dip them in hot water and re-form them that way.  Worked like a charm on mine.

[Pencap510]

So learning lesson at hand. I tried a generic harbor freight plastic epoxy for my forearms and E6000 for the top panel. I knew the panel would need to have a little extra flexibility leaving a portion of the non-tab side unglued half way down.

 

After more than enough time for it to cure- when I started toying with it I heard cracking. It was very clear that it cured very brittle and wouldn't hold. So I separated them.

 

 

I've not only ordered devcon- which I should have done from the start, but I re secured the forearms with E 6000 for the time being. I'm still curious as to why it was so brittle.. Cheap epoxy? Maybe I did t mix it enough ? Who knows. Though progress was slowed a little I'm back on track.

 

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Sorry to hear that Ty. What you're experiencing is exactly why I went with devcon with mixing tip. It's rumored to be a 99% pure blend when leaving the tip. I haven't had a single issue with the stuff. It may be expensive but well worth the sanity. 

 

Keep up the great work soldier 

[Pencap510]

Slow but steady, covers strips made for biceps. Side 1 curing.

 

[Pencap510]

Well, with all the amazing threads out there- I don't think my build will be the documented tutorial that I thought it might. But I'm still trucking along. Been a slow few weeks between family birthdays, football season kicking off, traveling for work, and scratch building an ABS baymax costume for my sons Halloween get up.

 

Biceps IMO are pretty decent, ready for filler and sanding:

 

 

Tonight I assembled a few more simple things to keep progress moving. (Haven't gathered the courage yet to tackle TD or yolk/back plate)

 

Shins:

 

 

Shoulders:

Someone said CLAMPS? Lol

 

More to come

[camprandall]

Looking good!

[Pencap510]

So again, with this thread not being perfectly documented, my hope is that someone building this kit will pick up an idea or two that truly helps them along.. or maybe sees a picture from a different angle that helps out. Today I accomplished a TON on my build. Having a tag team partner has been awesome as we go through this build - and were really seeing progress.

 

List of things done today:

 

Finished assembly of most all pieces

Poured Resin into ab boxes, forearm boxes and belt boxes for easier attachment (will explain in a minute)

Filled all gaps with plastic welder and sanded.. sanded .. SANDED.. did i mention that we SANDED stuff today?!?

built TD ..

 

Here is some pics.

 

So the thought behind using the resin in the ab boxes (forgive me if this is repetition of every other build) is to give stability and security to the box attachment to the ab. By pouring the resin in, I can now secure the boxes to the ab section with small screws to ensure they don't come unglued during a troop and pop off. 

 

Mixing the resin

 

 

Poured and just starting to flower:

 

Here is the forearm boxes after pour.. this will be a much nicer area to glue versus the plastic box provided.

 

Now ready for some next steps~

 

The thermal detonator is a pain in the butt, and don't let anyone else convince you other wise. Essentially.. rough tape it together. Super glue small points to hold it then go back with plastic welder to ensure proper bond. We then filled the inside with a light layer of resin for some added reinforcement and mass. Sanding this was a true PAIN

       

 

Now for some random pics of plastic welding.. and sanding... sanding.. SANDING

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up.. securing ab boxes.. Pics to come

 

 

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Fantastic job Ty. Very creative with the ab boxes. 

 

If you don't mind me asking where did you buy the resin kit?

[Pencap510]

Can't take credit on the idea, but it does seem to be working VERY WELL so far. Torment brought the idea to me and we rolled with it. I asked him, and he got the resin kit at a local supplier in Orlando called Reynolds Advanced Materials. Here is a sample of how it works.. We superglue the poured resin filler into the plastic part..(pictured above) then once happy with the way the plastic part fits the armor-

Drill holes in armor- superglue outside of resin so it can adhere to the armor part - and drill in 1/2 inch screws in from the back for the extra security.

 

 

Edited October 5, 2015 by Pencap510

[Torment[TK]]

Ill take pics of the final product when I get home.  I still have a little clean up to do, but I'm close to being done with the calves. 

[ukswrath[Staff]]

ANOVOS should take some tips off our build threads. Those boxes are very clean and crisp looking.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Ill take pics of the final product when I get home.  I still have a little clean up to do, but I'm close to being done with the calves. 

 

Can we get the resin info as well, I'd like to try this.

[Pencap510]

Pics of the finished shins-

 

 

 

[Dark PWF[Staff]]

Looking great, Ty!  

 

Keep at it, brother.  By the time I get around to building mine, all of these cool solutions will be common place.  

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Great work

[Pencap510]

Not a ton to report, but had a little time today as the kids played outside. so here are a few slight progress pics as I worked to complete assembly:

 

After some sanding I still have some work to do in the back plate- there are several holes that need be filled from my devcon gap filling. Not happy with that, but very fixable. Just more work

 

 

Forearms look pretty darn solid, like the resin castes wrist boxes:

 

TD assembly went pretty smooth. You may ask why I cut out the hole in the back play, this makes it very easy to get inside the TD for extra gluing on a piece that has very few contact points.

 

 

After a little superglue just to hold the positioning

 

 

Look at all this glorious room!

 

After some epoxy putty your left with this-

 

 

Same for the shin box:

 

Good part of the putty- it's strong as nails, downside... It takes a while to set so you can sand, which is where I'm at