Cricket's RS Stunt Build (for the Vertically Challenged)

[Alay[TK]]

You're crazy!  I'd have a heart attack doing that!!

 

Bet it's going to look awesome too with a bit of sanding!

[Cricket[TK]]

Big boo-boos need big BandAids. I think the paste is going in the right direction.

 

 

Yep, Big Boo-Boo pretty much sums things up here.  I feel like I'm in a lot more control with using the ABS paste over the heat iron.  It definitely feels more like I'm headed in the right direction now.  I felt like I was flailing before.

 

Lots of time and sanding will make those pieces look their best. If not, replacement parts are easily available. ABS artwork is a great skill to have for repairs, so you are well ahead of the game.

Thanks!  When I was building my ATA bucket, I ended up learning a lot about using ABS paste.  Filling in the teeth to make my Stunt a Hero was one lesson.  I learned the most about it when I built out new edges to areas where I had removed too much plastic.  You can't even tell where I created new areas now.

 

I have some new pieces lined up, but I'm still going to finish this repair.  If only for the challenge to make it look good.  

[Cricket[TK]]

You're crazy!  I'd have a heart attack doing that!!

 

Bet it's going to look awesome too with a bit of sanding!

Yes, this all seems crazy to me, too.  But you know what they say...  when you've got nothing left to lose, you only have everything to gain, right?    

 

Or maybe I've been spending too much time around the acetone lately....

 

 

[zv288bot[TK]]

You freaking rock lady. Your ideas always amaze me.

 

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[Cricket[TK]]

I've received a lot of messages about how either crazy or brave I am about sludging up my armor to repair the edges.   And since y'all are interested, I'll post some in-progress pics for you to judge.  

 

Aaaaannd in our last episode, my butt plate looked like this disaster:

 

So I said F*** it.  Sludge it.

 

I waited for two days for the sludging to dry, and then I got to work sanding it.  I highly recommend using an orbital sander for this kind of modification, because it's a huge time-saver.  I already own an orbital sander, so I picked up a foam pad and some fine and micro mesh discs for sanding the armor.  After about 15 minutes of wet-sanding the left side of the butt plate with an 800 grit disc, here's what I ended up with:

 

Progress, right?  But there were still uneven areas of the ABS that I didn't like.  Just like frosting a cake, I added another thin layer of ABS to the areas I was unhappy with and waited a day for that to dry.  Again, I'm just focusing on the left side for now.

Once dry, I went to work sanding.  I am now here:

 

Do you still think this approach is crazy or... brave?  I'd like to think I'm a bit of a crazy warrior myself.  hee hee...

Some things I'll share about ABS paste:  

• Acetone can be your friend in small doses on ABS.  When I dipped my finger in acetone, and rubbed it gently on the ABS paste, it is kind of like wet-sanding drywall.  In small spots, you'll end up with a nice, smooth surface to work with, and usually, it will dry quickly and very glossy.  (With smoothing out buttercream on a cake, you do the same kind of thing with water instead of acetone.)  
• If you apply ABS paste thickly, you will end up with lots of tiny bubbles dried inside.  Which is a PITA when sanding because your smooth sanded surface will be porous.  Gah!
• For mods like what I'm doing, be prepared to apply several layers of ABS paste and have the patience to sand each layer down smooth before applying a new layer.
• The last layer should be very thin and smoothed with the acetone method as described above.  This should make the final sanding process fairly bubble-free.

I still wasn't 100% happy with the edges in the pics above, so I added yet another thin layer of ABS paste to the edges.  I'm waiting on that to dry this evening.  If all goes well, I should be sanding and polishing the final layer on the left side tomorrow.  As always, any additional tips are always appreciated!    Thanks for watching, and stay tuned!

Edited September 19, 2016 by Cricket

[lucnak[TK]]

Well I, for one, am impressed! Great work!

 

 

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[zv288bot[TK]]

I mean seriously... Open up an auto body shop already... Freaking amazing! You go! You have mad skills woman!

 

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[sylverbard[TK]]

You had me at buttercream.

[fragarock[TK]]

Way to persevere. Gives all of us hope...perhaps a new hope...that almost anything can be fixed with patience and creativity. Can you show a pic of that top of the return edge too? Does the ABS paste build up seem like it's gonna stick forever?

 

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[Addertime[TK]]

Brilliant work!

It looked pretty scary but you made it look easy.

 

Nicely done.

[Cricket[TK]]

Whee!  I'm covered in a fine powder of ABS dust right now, but taking a much needed break from all the sanding fun to share my progress...

Pics incoming!

Let's review the horror show I began with...

 

No need to see the other side of that mess.   It's identical, believe me.

Then I slopped ABS paste all over the edges and let it dry for a few days.  I began rough sanding some of it off with my belt sander once it was fully dry.  There was just too much of it to sand it all off by hand.  Ain't nobody got time fo' that!

 

Then I got to work sanding with a small block and 120 grit sandpaper...

 

As I sanded down, I realized that I still needed to add more to the corners of the edges.

 

 

 Can you show a pic of that top of the return edge too? Does the ABS paste build up seem like it's gonna stick forever?

 

 

Here ya go, Frank!  Yep, that paste build up isn't going anywhere.  It bonds permanently with the original substrate.  One benefit of this repair is that my return edges will need no reinforcement for my brackets after this.  They are approximately 4mm thick under the edge right now all the way across.    The pics below look messy, but I assure you, they do end up looking better... keep reading...

 

 

Keep in mind that this was with the first layer only, so all the bubbles were expected.  I added another layer of ABS after this initial sanding, both on the sides as well as the return edges.  This was done to build up the edges where I wanted more corner edge as well as fill in the bubbles on the top of the return.

The next day, I began sanding again with my block and 120 grit paper...

 

 

I've made the edges more crisp and clean, and the return edges don't have as many of the holes as were present just after the initial sanding...

 

And I'm not done yet, but I'm very much on my way.

 

I still have to finish sanding, as you can see.  I may still add another thin layer of ABS and re-sand again if I'm not absolutely happy when I'm done.  Not sure yet.  No polishing until I'm 100% good with it.  It's taking longer than I expected, but that's because I'm being really picky when it comes to making sure that the surface is totally smooth and even after sanding.

 

Edited September 21, 2016 by Cricket

[Pretzel]

keep at it Christine! You are doing great.

[illusionz_09[TK]]

wow, great recovery

[68Brick[TK]]

Wow. I can't imagine the amount of white dust.

 

Amazing work though! It's a testament to show that you can save parts that were thought to be unfixable.

[Cricket[TK]]

Alrighty then.  I am sick of sanding.  Sick, I tell you!  I won't be rebuilding returns any time soon.  No, thank you.

So.  It all started looking like this on the left.... And now after what feels like an eternity of pasting and sanding, pasting and sanding (but it's just a little over a week...), here's the result on the right:



 

 

Before on the left, after on the right:

 

And after:

 

 

 

 

I'm just going to hold off on polishing until I get this thing fitted correctly.  No need to polish stuff that I may need to cut off anyhow.  So glad to be done with fixing this!  Which leads me to the next part of my journey...

I'm stuck trying to figure out how to fit the width to me. I'm more than a little gun shy about pulling out a heat gun to bend my ABS, and these pieces are too large for easy hot water bathing.  Or are they?  I took the advice of my GML and made a duct tape dummy (which resulted in slashed clothing and blood spilled, but it's a story for another time), but I just don't know where to begin trimming the armor parts.  

 

Would be awesome to find an armor party!  Gonna start asking around here.  Until then, I may start on my jawa until I find some hands-on help.  

Edited September 23, 2016 by Cricket

[68Brick[TK]]

The side strapping should pull in the sides slightly which might help the width sizing. You can definitely hot water bath the kidney and butt plates. The ab plate might not like it due to the complex curves in the piece ... and you want to keep those. Do your back and chest pieces fit ok for width?

 

The fit looks soo much better btw!

Edited September 23, 2016 by 68Brick

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Instead of fitting the armor to you I'd suggest the opposite, fitting yourself to the armor. I'm not saying you should start putting on a lot of weight, but instead fill the inside of the armor with foam until it gets snug. Or at least a combination of both: foam & reshaping. I'm saying that because in my opinion, too thin stormtroopers look sorta wrong.

 

Also keep in mind that some overlapping on the sides happened for some of the extras in the stomtrooper armors during ANH (thought I had a better picture but that's the best I found):

Flexy chest plate by the way, huh?

[Alay[TK]]

That movie chestpiece looks like it's snapped.  Some of the costumes got very damaged during shooting because the stuff doesn't take falling down hard too well.

 

Cricket, you're doing amazing!  The pieces aren't too large to hot water bath... What I did was tie them how I wanted them using string to "squeeze" the sides in, put it in my sink, then slowly pour a pot of boiling water of them.  Rather than a "direct" bath.  You just need to be careful of spot-warping.

[TKZombie[TK]]

I have to wear a block of foam in my lower back as my waist is too thin and causes the kidney and ab to overlap without it. So I'd try adding inner padding first to try fitting it.

[Cricket[TK]]

Do your back and chest pieces fit ok for width?

 

The fit looks soo much better btw!

 

Thanks!  

 

The back looks like it fits fine width-wise, but the chest seems too large across still. 

 

I was able to dress up my dressform with my DTD.

 

 

It looks like she's saying, "Taaaahhh- dahhhhh!"

 

And with the torso added:

 

 

Then for fun, added the arms:

 

 

The kidney/ab/butt areas look ridiculously large in proportion to my arms.  I think I've got the vertical parts trimmed down fairly decently for my height.  But they definitely need to be sized in on the width quite a bit, even with padding.  See CRL pic below:

 

 

The kidney and ab taper in slightly.  I'll be needing to give it more of a curve than I can with just with the belt.  Even if I can get just a little more curve, I'll then need to remove some more material from the kidney and ab so I don't have an overlap going on at the sides.  My goal is Centurion, so I want to get this correct on the first go-round.   I think that the consensus of reshaping and padding will be the way to go on this.  Thanks for the input, everyone!

 

Another question:  At the shoulders where the chest and back pieces meet, are they supposed to touch?   In order for my chest and back to sit properly for my frame, these pieces connect.  Just checking if that's something that should be going on up there.  Thanks, troopers!

Edited January 25, 2017 by Cricket

[illusionz_09[TK]]

Christine,

i see what you mean about the shoulders touching. Since there will be an elastic strap and the ABS shoulder straps, there is no need to keep a lot of the current excess plastic.

Cut some off so that you can create the correct look.

 

I marked where you can cut off so that it will not be touching. That way the shoulder straps will be that actual connection points.

 

Hope that helps.

[Cricket[TK]]

Thanks for that info, David! I can't see the image you posted, but I think I understand what you're talking about. ☺

[Cricket[TK]]

Taking the advice of the wise troopers in the FISD, I reshaped my kidney and butt plates by pouring boiling water on the areas that needed to be changed.  Here’s the kit before shaping on the left, after on the right.  

 

 

 The kidney and butt plates have a bit of a tapered-in appearance now, they’re proportional to the arms, and I’m happy with them at this point.  

 

Next area to tackle was my chest piece.  I trimmed off about an inch off the bottom of my chest plate because it needed to be gone due to my height (or lack of height).  I really want to use brackets on my pieces, but now the lack of a return on my chest made that impossible.  I figured that it would look more like a Luke suit, but I didn’t like that this kit wasn’t going to be a full Hero suit.

 

No return! Sad!

 

 

I spent 4 hours waiting at the Honda dealership for my car’s airbags to be replaced today, which gave me loads of time to think about this.  I re-read over Diana’s build thread because she and her hubby had created a return on her chest plate after taking some off the bottom.  It would involve a heat gun (noooo!), and a jig (more stuff to build…), but it looked do-able.

 

Once home, I got to work.  I traced my chest plate’s bottom edge onto a piece of spare plywood.  I cut it out using my jigsaw, then attached some extra wood pieces to keep it all upright.  I traced about 5/8” around the bottom of the chest as a guide where the fold of the return should go.  

 

 

 

I had to psych myself up for the next part.  I figured that if I mucked up the returns like I did with the kidney, I could always fix it with ABS paste.  Here goes…

 

 

The beginning of the return...  Using my heat gun on LOW, I slowly heated up the edges beginning in the center, and working outwards toward the edges.  Taking one section at a time, I pressed the new return gently into the wood. 

 

Moving along...

 

 And whaddya know… it was working!

 

 

It took me less than an hour, but I soon had a nice new return edge all along my chest plate.

 

 

It's not perfect, but it's good enough that most people won't even notice that I recreated it.  

 

 

 I will be able to use my brackets now.  Heck yeah!  

Edited September 26, 2016 by Cricket

[Alexx_G]

Wow, looking good Christine! I think i have to cut my chest too.. but now i'm not afraid to do so because i know how i can fix it.  

[TKZombie[TK]]

Incredible what you are doing to modify that armour to your size. I could never do that. Keep going can't wait to see it finished!