ukswrath[Staff] Posted September 21, 2016 Report Posted September 21, 2016 Very nice Justin, looking great. Quote
CptCasey[TK] Posted September 27, 2016 Author Report Posted September 27, 2016 (edited) So this past weekend I worked on a few things. One is continued work on strapping. I really want to get the torso finished soon. It's just taking a while to make all these snaps. Plus my wife things it's really loud when I'm making snaps using the anvil. So while she was home this weekend I wanted to finish up my bucket. So here the progress on my bucket. 1. Painted the teeth with Testors 1138. I think I did a good job. Painting isn't so bad. I then glued the mesh behind the frown using e6000. Frown is looking good. 2. Put on the decals using some decal application fluid. Went really smoothly. I really like the blue tube stripes. The other decals I'm not a big fan of. Maybe I'll paint those by hand. 3. Had some spare stand-off screws for a computer motherboard. Used the dremel to cut off the male end, so I just had a flat female end. E6000 them next to eyes. Then cut the dark green lens material into 5 inch stips. Alternated between a heat gun and a cold water bath to shape the lenses to get the curve I needed. Then trimmed them out so they wouldn't touch my nose or anything. Eyes are looking good. 4. This is where things went south. I needed to paint the vocoder. I found a reference picture and started painting. I can't paint. It looked horrible. Cleaned up the paint with mineral spirits and tried again. Nope. Still really bad. Third time and I decide this isn't my talent. Luckily I know someone who paints motorcycles professionally. Told her what I wanted and she would paint it for me. Great! So since I can paint teeth but not vocoder, what else can I not paint. Tried painting the ears. Nope. Looked horrible. Surely I can paint the buttons on the torso. They are just circles. Not even close. I'm just going to have her paint everything. So I take the bucket to her tomorrow. I'm really happy with how my bucket is coming along. Paint and then shaping the ears. I'm a not looking forward to shaping the ears. That's what I've prolly read the most about. I think I know what I'm doing with the ears, but we will see. Here is the face so far. Edited January 15, 2022 by CptCasey photobucket edits Quote
CptCasey[TK] Posted September 28, 2016 Author Report Posted September 28, 2016 Bucket and buttons are off to the "paint shop". Wish me luck. Quote
CptCasey[TK] Posted September 29, 2016 Author Report Posted September 29, 2016 Question about shoulder snaps. I'm almost finished with strapping of the torso, but thinking ahead. As far as the snap that connects the bicep to the should strap, I usually see this as a sew on snap. Is there any reason why this can't be a standard tandy snap? I have the sew on snap, but would rather not have to sew it on. Pros and cons? Thanks for any input! Quote
Novak Dimon[TK] Posted October 1, 2016 Report Posted October 1, 2016 I think it's because the sew on snap is nearly invisible if you look onto the elastic strap. The tandy snap may be spotted under the shoulder stripes. Quote
CptCasey[TK] Posted October 1, 2016 Author Report Posted October 1, 2016 Thanks Christian! That makes total sense. Quote
Trogdor[TK] Posted October 2, 2016 Report Posted October 2, 2016 Another reason, at least for me, is the sew on snap is easier for me to do without assistance. Quote
CptCasey[TK] Posted October 5, 2016 Author Report Posted October 5, 2016 A little update on progress. Fitment of the torso is taking long than i thought it would. I think I'm almost there. Just need to tighten up the shoulder straps. Once I'm done with that, I'll take pictures to get your guy's suggestions. Looks like finishing up by Halloween is not going to happen unless the legs come together really easily. I'm dreading doing the shins and ears. Hopefully all the horror stories I read won't apply to me. On a side note, I bought TKittle's belt. Arrived super quick. This being my first belt, it seems like it's high quality. Quote
CptCasey[TK] Posted January 10, 2017 Author Report Posted January 10, 2017 So it's been 3 months since I posted. I had an emergency appendectomy that took me out of action for a while. I had a longer than expected recovery time. When I finally got to feeling better I got swallowed by the chaos that is the holidays in my family. Now that things have calmed down, I'm going to finally finished up my kit. Got my helmet back from "the painters". It looks really good. She did an amazing job painting it. I'll post pictures of my progress in the next day or two. 1 Quote
CptCasey[TK] Posted January 11, 2017 Author Report Posted January 11, 2017 (edited) I need help with my TD. There seems to be gray spots on it. Not sure where this came from. I spray painted the the tube with ModelMasters Gunship Gray and masked off the area where the front plate would go. I put on three coats and let completely dry for about a week. Used e6000 to glue the plate on. The next day I screwed on the TD clips I got from ukswrath, painted the screw black and sat it aside and kinda forgot about it. Now I'm figuring out all I have left to do and there are gray spots on it. The TD was laying on the clips and nothing was touching the front plate. I know there was no paint on it when I finished it up. I tried rubbing with a microfiber towel and then lightly used a magic eraser. Doesn't seem to be coming up at all. Tonight I might take some mineral spirits to it. It kinda wonder if it might be some capillary effect in the plastic. Has anyone ever heard of this or know how to maybe fix it? The gray spot is on the left side (middle left edge). The spots are faint, but I notice them. The second spot is on the bottom left side. (Just underneath the first ridge) Again it's faint, but I know it's there and it's not suppose to be. Also last night I worked on my thighs and shins. Shins were difficult to figure out which was left and right and inner and outer. I couldn't figure it out until I noticed the the curvature on the inside of the pieces. Then it all clicked. I'm excited to almost have all the plastic glued together, but this TD is really worrying me. It should be easy enough to get another plate and glue it on, but I'd rather not do that. Edited January 15, 2022 by CptCasey photobucket edits Quote
CptCasey[TK] Posted January 12, 2017 Author Report Posted January 12, 2017 (edited) Well mineral spirits didn't remove the gray spots on the TD. I might try sanding, but I doubt that will work. Maybe a thin coat of paint. On another note, I'm mostly finished with my belt(tkittle). I just need to remove the excess e600 and give it a good polish. It seems that glue gets everywhere. Lucky it's easy to remove. Edited January 15, 2022 by CptCasey photobucket edits Quote
alexcaliburrito[TK] Posted January 12, 2017 Report Posted January 12, 2017 Took me a while to find your build thread, after looking, this is either a thin section of the plastic or a stain. My first thing to try is sanding, painting wont help because it will wear off over time. if that sanding doesnt work, then there is an extreme way to fix it, collect some leftover scraps from your build(never throw away your scraps) you can always melt them to fix anything. So get a jar, and cut the plastic abs into small little pieces in a jam jar. Make sure it has a lid. Poor enough acetone to barely cover the pile. Then after 4 hours you will have a toothpaste thickness for paste. Take a brush and dip in the jar and paint a thin layer over spot. It hardens within seconds. Then sand it flat and too higher grits to make it shiny again. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote
alexcaliburrito[TK] Posted January 12, 2017 Report Posted January 12, 2017 Those little gray spots will not keep you from getting approved, trust me you will get lots of armor scratches over time. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote
CptCasey[TK] Posted January 12, 2017 Author Report Posted January 12, 2017 Alex you are a genius for that abs paste idea! I think I might try to get a really thin layer on and sand it nice and smooth. I know it won't affect my approval, but I know it's there. I want to fix it, if I can. 1 Quote
alexcaliburrito[TK] Posted January 12, 2017 Report Posted January 12, 2017 There are so many pieces on the first order TK that I had to make seamless, it was a learning curve, but when you master melting, any ABS is fixable. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote
CptCasey[TK] Posted January 13, 2017 Author Report Posted January 13, 2017 (edited) Well the solution the gray spots was easier than I thought. I used a little 400 grit sand paper and with a little work all the gray is gone. I think I must had some glue or mineral spirits on my hands and transfered some of it to the TD. Anyway, TD now looks great. Also finished up straps for the arms. Arms are all done except final fitment adjustments. Closer and closer to being done. Edited January 15, 2022 by CptCasey Quote
alexcaliburrito[TK] Posted January 13, 2017 Report Posted January 13, 2017 Nice work!!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote
CptCasey[TK] Posted January 15, 2017 Author Report Posted January 15, 2017 (edited) Full speed ahead. Finished up the the torso. Only the legs left to go. Getting so close. Also got an extra set of hand guards from justjoseph63. Glued them onto a pair of nomex gloves for trooping. Let me know what you think. Edited January 15, 2022 by CptCasey photobucket edits 1 Quote
CptCasey[TK] Posted January 26, 2017 Author Report Posted January 26, 2017 (edited) Finish my shins yesterday. Used low profile white industrial strength velcro for the closure. I think my shins turned out really good. I want to add some moleskin to the bottom edges to keep the armor from rubbing my boots. Might also make some foot straps to keep the shins from rotating if that becomes a problem. Thighs are almost done. Should have them finished up this weekend. Also working on a garder system with suspenders with my extra 2" nylon webbing. I keep putting off the ear on the bucket. Maybe I'll tackle that this weekend too. Edited January 15, 2022 by CptCasey photobucket edits Quote
CptCasey[TK] Posted January 28, 2017 Author Report Posted January 28, 2017 (edited) Thighs are finished, garter system is almost done, and helmet is almost assembled. Then it's time to make some tweaks on fitting and I should be done. The end is in sight guys. Here are the thighs. Edited January 15, 2022 by CptCasey photobucket edits Quote
CptCasey[TK] Posted January 28, 2017 Author Report Posted January 28, 2017 (edited) Thigh garter system done. Used extra 2 inch nylon webbing and some 2 inch clips. Was really simple and easy to make. I ran out of heavy duty black thread and had to switch to white for the back. The only thing left to do is do a test fitting on my thighs so I know where to put on the snaps on the 3 inch elastic. Sorry about the lighting. Edited January 15, 2022 by CptCasey photobucket edits Quote
CptCasey[TK] Posted January 29, 2017 Author Report Posted January 29, 2017 (edited) Bucket is finished. There are couple of scratches and a hole I need to fill with ABS paste. I'm pretty happy how it turned out. Edited January 15, 2022 by CptCasey photobucket edits Quote
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