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

[lucnak[TK]]

Yes the hot water bath will definitely help with the shape! I wouldn't worry about getting biceps down very exactly since they hang from the shoulder bells anyway so some looseness is fine. Perhaps work on shoulder bells and forearms simultaneously to get an idea of how it all looks together.

 

Will you be reforming the ridge for the cover strips?

 

 

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[Cricket[TK]]

Will you be reforming the ridge for the cover strips?

 

 

 

 

My biceps didn't have ridges along the sides before trimming them, so no ridges to reform.  Woo!  

Edited August 22, 2016 by Cricket

[illusionz_09[TK]]

that is scary lol.. but it will look much better now.

[Cricket[TK]]

Progress.

Here's my reference list for cover strip sizes.  I found this here in the FISD, but I don't remember exactly where I saw it posted.  I'm putting this here for my own reference... I keep misplacing the printed page where I've got this info, and I keep forgetting what file I put this in on my computer.  Not feeling very organized lately!

Cover Strip Sizes

• Thighs (front and back)- 20mm
• Shins- 20mm
• Calves- 25mm
• Arms- 15mm

I've decided to install inner cover strips on my kit, so that's where I'm starting with the strips.  I purchased a pack of white ABS on Amazon to use for this purpose.  The white doesn't match exactly, but I don't care because it's not visible outside of the kit.  I managed to glue one strip to my right bicep, and it felt like a small victory.  It's one thing to cut and sand down the pieces, but it feels very different to actually get something assembled together.  Or maybe I was a little loopy because of the e6000.  Either way, it's all good, right?   

Got some elastic glued to the shoulder bells, too.  

And trimmed down the left bicep.  Both of my biceps are in need of some serious reshaping to fit properly.  I'll tackle this after they're completely glued together.  Here's a group photo of yesterday's progress.  I didn't skimp on the magnets- I've got thirty sets-  but I feel like I need more.  I would have made more progress if I had more magnets!  It's probably best for me to have taken a break while I was ahead anyhow.



Today I will be assembling the forearms.  Feeling a bit more confident now that I've had some success in getting the biceps to fit my size.  

[Alay[501st]]

If you're gonna be pulling them apart a few times to work out sizing you might want to hold off on inner covers until you've got it about where you want each piece.  E6000 is great for flexibility of use, but it takes bloody long to dry

 

Can never have too many magnets.  Just watch your fingers!

[Cricket[TK]]

 

 

Can never have too many magnets.  Just watch your fingers!

Not just fingers!  I had one on my lap (I was wearing shorts), and the one that was in my hand dropped onto my thigh.  The dang things found each other rather quickly, and a chunk of my skin was smashed between them.  I now have a dime-sized blood blister on my leg.  

So, here's a pic of today's progress:  

 

 

Lovely mess o' magnets and clamps.

 

Just adding my inner cover strips first before starting with the outer ones.  I felt like adding the outer cover strip to my right bicep today, even though the other side isn't secured yet.  Couldn't be helped.  I was just too excited to see a tiny part of my armor look 'proper', even if it's covered with clamps and magnets for now.  

 

And I painted these:

 

 

I still have to do some clean up around the edges, but it's coming along.  I really like the painting part of this kit.

[Alay[501st]]

Nice job on the buttons!  I'm actually most nervous about that part of Chris's kit... we're both pretty inept when it comes to any sort of painting, even with masking :s

[Cricket[TK]]

Nice job on the buttons!  I'm actually most nervous about that part of Chris's kit... we're both pretty inept when it comes to any sort of painting, even with masking :s

Thanks, Sarah!  The nice thing about working with the Testor's paint is that it's really forgiving.  It allows for lots of time to undo mistakes with some thinner.  I even made a mistake of painting one of the buttons gray that was supposed to be blue.  I easily wiped it all off with an old towel and some thinner.  

 

For me, the best brush to use for the buttons is a small thin curved brush.  Painting on the buttons is kind of like painting nail polish on your nails.  With nail polish, you put a dab of polish in the middle of your nail, and push it down toward the cuticle.  For the buttons, I put some in the middle, and pushed it gently outward to the edges.  Any mistakes can be cleaned up after with a tiny bit of thinner on a very small brush.  Besides, the button circles aren't supposed to be perfectly round if you're going for the screen authentic look.  

 

Here's my setup for painting (and cleaned up buttons).  These plastic palettes are awesome!

 

 

Do my buttons look like they're painted as the correct size?  Not sure if I need to make them any larger at this point.

[illusionz_09[TK]]

the buttons look perfect. Nice Job!

[lucnak[TK]]

I think that the flashing that still needs to be removed is messing with my perception of correct button size for teh small button plate. I drew a circle (1/2"? Can't remember right now) using a template to ensure that size and alignment was good. I also found spinning the plate as you're painting helps keep things smooth and steady as you're approaching the edge.

[lucnak[TK]]

I think that the flashing that still needs to be removed is messing with my perception of correct button size for teh small button plate. I drew a circle (1/2"? Can't remember right now) using a template to ensure that size and alignment was good. I also found spinning the plate as you're painting helps keep things smooth and steady as you're approaching the edge.

[Cricket[TK]]

Thanks, David and Luc!  

Luc, I will get to removing that flashing soon.  

[zv288bot[TK]]

Thanks, Sarah! The nice thing about working with the Testor's paint is that it's really forgiving. It allows for lots of time to undo mistakes with some thinner. I even made a mistake of painting one of the buttons gray that was supposed to be blue. I easily wiped it all off with an old towel and some thinner.

 

For me, the best brush to use for the buttons is a small thin curved brush. Painting on the buttons is kind of like painting nail polish on your nails. With nail polish, you put a dab of polish in the middle of your nail, and push it down toward the cuticle. For the buttons, I put some in the middle, and pushed it gently outward to the edges. Any mistakes can be cleaned up after with a tiny bit of thinner on a very small brush. Besides, the button circles aren't supposed to be perfectly round if you're going for the screen authentic look.

 

Here's my setup for painting (and cleaned up buttons). These plastic palettes are awesome!

 

 

Do my buttons look like they're painted as the correct size? Not sure if I need to make them any larger at this point.

When is the next armor party? I'm gonna need you to paint my buttons as well. I'm holding off on applying for centurion cause they are not painted, and losing 25 lbs.

Edited August 27, 2016 by zv288bot

[fragarock[TK]]

Hi Cricket,

 

Thanks for starting this thread, I can't wait to see how it turns out. I'm also short and looking at RS armor so being able to follow your progress will be a great help.

[Cricket[TK]]

When is the next armor party? I'm gonna need you to paint my buttons as well. I'm holding off on applying for centurion cause they are not painted, and losing 25 lbs.

I can help you with painting the buttons, but with the 25lbs, you're on your own.  

 

Hi Cricket,

 

Thanks for starting this thread, I can't wait to see how it turns out. I'm also short and looking at RS armor so being able to follow your progress will be a great help.

Hey Frank!  I hope it turns out okay...    My progress is slow and steady, so I'm hoping that I don't make too many mistakes to discourage you!    And speaking of progress, I've got some to share!

 

 

My left forearm fits!  Well, it fits width-wise.  (I'm bending my wrist a bit in this pic, so the forearm looks a little looser than it really is)  I'm holding off on trimming the length down too much until everything is glued up.  I've taken off one notch off the forearms at this point, and I still need to take off a bit more.  I don't want to rush the fine-tuning of the fit just yet.

 

I feel like I've got the messiest build EVAH.  Watching the Youtube build videos, they make it all look so easy and clean to attach cover strips.  Me?  I glue things down, and it's a complete mess of e6000, and I mean everywhere.  Stuck to my fingers, on my arms, my shirt, in spots and areas all over the armor... I've even managed to get it in my hair.  I know it will all come off with enough elbow grease, but still.  Can't wait for the Gluing phase of this build to be done.

 

 

See in the pic above?  Ugh.  It looks so dirty at this point.  I'll clean up everything once all my cover strips are on.  I keep telling myself that Novus will come to my rescue at the end of the build and make it all okay!

Edited August 29, 2016 by Cricket

[illusionz_09[TK]]

i understand your pain. Keep in mind that online they also do not use E6000 so the curing takes seconds.

[Cricket[TK]]

Ugh.  Hit a bump on my left forearm.  Need some feedback on my options here...

The top of the forearm has ridges that can't be altered due to my 15mm cover strips.  Nothing was cut there.  In fitting to my skinny arm, I was able to only adjust the pieces on the bottom of the forearm.  

Regarding length of the forearm, I only trimmed one notch at the wrist, and there is still more that needs to be removed.  I'm waiting to trim all of it until later.  The only part of the top of the forearm that was removed was the flashing.  (I did not overtrim any of it.)   I could have avoided this problem by trimming from the top.  But I didn't want to lose any of the detail at the top of the forearm, so top trimming for me was not an option.

 

Upon making the cuts and fitting the forearm, I have discovered that there is a big difference between the forearm pieces where they meet at the butt joint.  This only occurs on my left arm, not my right.

 

 

I could abs paste a piece of scrap to the arm (imagine a piece of ABS filling in on the arm to the dotted line), clean it up and refinish the edge.  The repaired area wouldn't even be visible, and the arm would look more even.  What do you think?

 

Here is a comparison between my left (on the left) forearm and the right.  Please ignore the glue catastrophe (I've since cleaned it up, I swear!).  This is as viewed from the bottom of the forearms at the butt joint.

 

Or should I leave this joint as-is since it's not completely visible when wearing it?
Or should I make more of an angled cut at the joint?  

Or is this something that I really messed up on and start over? 

 

Gah.  The pitfalls of being small in a big trooper world.  Help!

Edited August 31, 2016 by Cricket

[Alay[501st]]

Are the RS arms different for Right and Left?  I know the AP arms are both the same.

 

I don't think that's too big an issue, you want some of that "swoop" so you can bend at the elbow.  It's probably fine.

[Cricket[TK]]

Are the RS arms different for Right and Left?  I know the AP arms are both the same.

 

I don't think that's too big an issue, you want some of that "swoop" so you can bend at the elbow.  It's probably fine.

Yep, the RS arms are different.  Very different, actually!  

 

I know that there should be some "swoop" (haha, I'll always think of my swooping forearms when I wear my TK now, thanks..."Swoop!  Swoop!"), but the difference on the left seems so jarring between pieces.  I wish that there was more of a gradual transition between them, rather than it looking like a piece was sliced out by Kylo Ren.  But if it doesn't matter, then I'll live with it.  I worry that something like this might affect EIB or Centurion.

[Alay[501st]]

It is a bit far back, but if they're different sculpt molds it might make sense that there's a difference between the arms.   You almost definitely won't notice them because of where they sit when you have the whole kit on

I wish I was more familiar with the RS kit to give a better answer.

 

I'd suggest asking ukswrath about EIB/Centurion approvability on them

[lucnak[TK]]

Yeah, ideally you should have tried to trim the sides of the pieces evenly to avoid that issue (maybe you did and I missed that). I would say use a piece of scrap and try and rebuild it a bit and fill in the seams with ABS paste, sand, and polish. You're going to want that curve to go back up. Even if most people won't notice it, it will probably bug you.

 

Regarding EIB and Centurion, it's funny, I was really concerned about it when I was doing my build and after starting to troop, I've started to feel less strongly about getting that approval. What's important in the end is making the kids happy, and it's not the end of the world if you don't get those higher levels of approval. In my case, I just need to add a D-Ring to my E-11 and I can apply for EIB and I haven't done it since I was approved in April. That's my perspective on it! Don't mean to discourage you from going for EIB/Centurion, just that not getting there isn't a disaster.

[zv288bot[TK]]

You are gonna get some pretty nasty armor bites filling that in. Agreed with Sarah, you want some swoop in there that top piece needs some kind of reforming so it's not so sharp. Can you cut the top to be a mirror image of the other one?

 

sent from my phone

[zv288bot[TK]]

You are gonna get some pretty nasty armor bites filling that in. Agreed with Sarah, you want some swoop in there that top piece needs some kind of reforming so it's not so sharp. Can you cut the top to be a mirror image of the other one?

 

sent from my phone

Man going back and looking at it again, It does look like you may need to add a piece just maybe not as severe as the pic with the dotted line.

 

sent from my phone

Edited August 31, 2016 by zv288bot

[Cricket[TK]]

Yeah, ideally you should have tried to trim the sides of the pieces evenly to avoid that issue (maybe you did and I missed that). I would say use a piece of scrap and try and rebuild it a bit and fill in the seams with ABS paste, sand, and polish. You're going to want that curve to go back up. Even if most people won't notice it, it will probably bug you.

 

 

 

I was limited on how to trim the forearm, unfortunately.  The pieces on top have a ridge for the cover strip, so those couldn't be altered.  I suppose I could have done it, but I really didn't want to deal with recreating those ridges!  All I was left with were the opposite edges, and I had to make a choice:  

1. keep the outer forearm piece (the piece with all the divots) symmetrical and even as viewed when in a neutral position

or

2. keep the inside forearm piece symmetrical and even

 

If I had trimmed the inner forearm to align more straight at the elbow, then the divoted outer piece would have ended up misaligned with the bicep/bell ridges.  As it is right now, on the outer forearm piece there is approximately 1.5 inches at the top on each side between the edge of the cover strip and the edge of the raised outer detail.  Does that make sense?  

And you're right, Luc, this kind of thing will probably bug me, and continue to bug me, even if no one else really notices.  I'm not sure if I have the energy to rebuild it right now, but it may end up as my only option.  

[lucnak[TK]]

Not sure that I understand 100%, but here's a suggestion: leave this as is, work on some other stuff, and then come back to this. Investing more time into something that's frustrating you now may not be as productive!