Wook's First Build - ANH Stunt TK (AP)

[TheSwede[TK]]

So far so good - another Centurion in the making

[Rocket]

On 11/25/2017 at 6:59 AM, wook1138 said:

So like any rational, grown man who has had several months to research this process, I panicked and sent Mark a rambling and  incoherent email asking how to start this process.

You're a funny man, and you echo much of what I've been feeling lately.  Gonna follow your build, too.

[wook1138[TK]]

10 minutes ago, Rocket said:

You're a funny man, and you echo much of what I've been feeling lately.  Gonna follow your build, too.

Lol, thanks.  You pretty much need a sense of humor to do this... that and a stocked beer fridge.

[wook1138[TK]]

So I'm continuing (slowly) with the arms.  After getting one set of cover strips on and the mandatory 24 hour wait, I removed excess E-6000.  Then glued one seam to the inside piece.  I didn't glue both sides because I didn't think the clamps would hold everything into place.  I'm taking it slow and steady.

 

 

bicep

 

I also cleaned up little cut lines with a round file.  I'm not sure, but I was worried that cracks might propagate from the corners so I round them off a little.

 

blurry pic of cut in corner.

 

rounding out inside corner of inside bicep.

 

The next day I glued the remaining edge.  First piece together.  How many more to go?

 

Making progress.

Edited November 29, 2017 by wook1138
typo

[Harbinger[IPM]]

Looking good trooper. I'd trim your coverstrips down to the height of the lower bicep piece - it's more accurate and less likely to dig into your skin.

[wook1138[TK]]

8 hours ago, Harbinger said:

Looking good trooper. I'd trim your coverstrips down to the height of the lower bicep piece - it's more accurate and less likely to dig into your skin.

Noted.  Thanks! 

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

Great build thread so far Greg. I'm just starting my AP build. I didn't get the trimmed kit. Lots of work but lots of fun. I rough trimmed my arms yesterday. I see what you mean about things being kinda twisted. I'm 5'10" but 200Lbs solid. The forearms are kind of small for me. Should be an interesting challenge.

[wook1138[TK]]

1 hour ago, Sean said:

Great build thread so far Greg. I'm just starting my AP build. I didn't get the trimmed kit. Lots of work but lots of fun. I rough trimmed my arms yesterday. I see what you mean about things being kinda twisted. I'm 5'10" but 200Lbs solid. The forearms are kind of small for me. Should be an interesting challenge.

Thanks Sean.  And, holy cow!  Yeah, it is a good thing you didn't go with the trimmed kit - the only way they would fit is to glue them directly on to your arms.

  The twisted parts turned into a non-issue once I started gluing the parts together (or even taping them together for the fitting) as they have enough flex.  You could go with wider cover strips.  Ask around, but maybe you can cheat on the back cover strip and make it a little wider than the front if the front is looking too wide.  Good luck!!

[wook1138[TK]]

The assembly of the arms slowly continues.  I should mention that I don't get a lot of time to work on this.  There is a 45 minute window of time between getting the kids put to bed and me collapsing from exhaustion.  Anyway...

 

the forearms took a little persuasion to get together.  I was considering a hot water bath, but the clamps and magnets seemed to do the trick (I guess I'll find out when they blow apart on my first troop).  I end up gluing the wrong halves together - it still looks okay from what I can tell, but I spent a bunch of time getting the joining edges perfect... all for nothing.  By they way, you can not have too many clamps or REE magnets.

 

Oh yeah, I'm not sure how much E-6000 other people put on these joints.  This is what I have been using - this would be on the light side of what I typically do.

 

Anyway, by tomorrow night I will have one last joint to glue and a little trimming and the arms will be done. (well, then there is the tab for the bicep, snaps, shoulder bells...)

[wook1138[TK]]

Thermal frickin' detonator.

As I read through other people's builds, I've noticed that there are always part of the builds that caused the person some grief.  If not grief, they tend to go over somethings in detail while other things, well, not so much.  Most of the builds I've read there is like one post that shows up saying something like "while I was waiting for the E-6000 to dry I put together my thermal detonator".  The text is then followed by one or two pics of a beautiful, finished thermal detonator.  Easy.

 

That was not the case for me.  Well, it wasn't that bad - I just like to complain.

 

Anyway...

 

One of the reference pics I used.  The other one (which I dont' have handy) had very similar measurements. 

 

So the gong show started with the painting - the provided tube is black.  It needs to be grey.  So... I grabbed a can of Testor's gloss grey spray.  I always use a filler primer and sand smooth.

 

sand paper I use - habit from the 3D print kits I've put together.

 

 

Since I am spraying enamel I decided I would do it in the garage - where it is winter.  I assume the cold weather messed with how the paint went on because I had all sorts of issues - I had to strip the paint and redo... twice.  I got bubbles the first time around.  And then the paint ran the second time (for various reasons).  Anyway, I finally figured out the best approach for spray painting in a room at freezing temperatures.  But then I decided to mask off the ends so that the caps would slip on easier.  I  masked way too much - the caps were not going on far enough.

 

The provided caps and plate (the white part that gets glued to the tube - does it have a name?) were a bit too big according to the reference pic. The caps were about 5mm too wide and the plate was about 10 mm too long.

 

So I trimmed.  Turns out that my marker sits exactly 5mm off the table when laying horizontal.  Perfect.  I put masking tape on so I wasn't marking up the ABS.

 

Hold the pen still and spin the cap.

 

I just used curved lexan scissors to cut.

 

Sanding and perfectly sized

 

So, the issue now was that I couldn't get the caps on far enough to get the right overall length (7.25 to 7.5 inches).  The tube was too long.  So what do I do... I insist that I'm going to get the caps to fit on all the way (why, because I'm a stubborn idiot).  I hot bathed the caps - no go (I felt like I was going to bend them out of shape).  I carved down the edges of the tube by hand - useless.  I then took out the Dremel and tried to resize the tube thickness - just made a mess with no results. 

 

So, plan B... just cut the damn thing. 

Doh

 

Anyway...

7-3/8"

 

Then I managed to put the plate on lopsided.  Pulled it off to adjust.  Managed to bugger up the paint job AND cut my hand somehow.  I was going to leave the blood on the TD - I didn't - but I'm sure I'll have another chance to bleed before I'm done this kit.  So, spot painting , a band-aid, and rum later...

 

I'll deal with the clips tomorrow.

[TheSwede[TK]]

8 hours ago, wook1138 said:

the white part that gets glued to the tube - does it have a name?

 Controlpanel 

 

Keep powering through Trooper

Edited December 2, 2017 by TheSwede

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

I'm guilty of not posting myTD build. It was a little challenging for sure. I used the same reference pic for building mine. I found out quickly that the provided pipe walls were too thick to push the end caps in more than 1/4"-3/8" after I trimmed their thickness down to 3/4". Now I'm going to trim the TD belt clips so the ends are around 1/4" from the screws, like the reference pic.

 

...I would have left the blood, probably even put a clear coat on to protect it.

[jethroskull[501st]]

1 hour ago, Sean said:

...I would have left the blood, probably even put a clear coat on to protect it.

I have a variant developing in the back of my mind that will require it...

[wook1138[TK]]

Thermal detonator done.  After reading Sean's thread, I decided to trim a bit off the clips as well - the screws are 1/4" on center from the edge.  And I rounded the corners of the clip where it rides up next to the armor.  The provided screws are actually small bolts with nuts.  I couldn't get the end caps off to attache the bolts, so I just drilled a hole a bit smaller than needed (reaming out the top part of the hole a little) and just threaded the bolt like a screw.  Hopefully it will hold.  If not, I guess i will glue it.

 

 

 

Done!!

 

 

[wook1138[TK]]

Question about painting the bucket.  Is the black detailing (outlines and lines within the traps) satin or gloss black?  The reference I found only mentions the satin black for the vocoder. thanks.

 

 

I plan to paint everything.  I picked up stencils from Trooperbay.  Between those the the decals from AP for refernece, I should be able to fake my way through this.  I also discovered that the tube stripes on the TrooperBay stencils have a right and left side - which is confusing when you look at the template (seems opposite to me).  I'll post a pic later.

[TheSwede[TK]]

I´ll copy what I just wrote Sean 

That looks great to Did you make these little bends at the ends? Helps sliding it on the belt.

[wook1138[TK]]

3 minutes ago, TheSwede said:

I´ll copy what I just wrote Sean 

That looks great to Did you make these little bends at the ends? Helps sliding it on the belt.

ha ha.  yeah, thanks!  I was just reading this on Sean's thread.

[TheSwede[TK]]

You guys work on the same bits, I´ll just copy and paste

[wook1138[TK]]

It doesn't look very bent in the pic - but it is flared out.

[wook1138[TK]]

2 minutes ago, TheSwede said:

You guys work on the same bits, I´ll just copy and paste

If I can keep up with Sean

 

[TheSwede[TK]]

3 minutes ago, wook1138 said:

It doesn't look very bent in the pic - but it is flared out.

Perfect match (the RS suit)

[TheSwede[TK]]

4 minutes ago, wook1138 said:

If I can keep up with Sean

 

 It`s not a race, but it`s kinda funny you both work on the same piece 

[TheSwede[TK]]

30 minutes ago, wook1138 said:

Question about painting the bucket.  Is the black detailing (outlines and lines within the traps) satin or gloss black?  The reference I found only mentions the satin black for the vocoder. thanks.

 

 

I plan to paint everything.  I picked up stencils from Trooperbay.  Between those the the decals from AP for refernece, I should be able to fake my way through this.  I also discovered that the tube stripes on the TrooperBay stencils have a right and left side - which is confusing when you look at the template (seems opposite to me).  I'll post a pic later.

 

Answer 

[Steaditrooper[TK]]

12 minutes ago, TheSwede said:

 It`s not a race, but it`s kinda funny you both work on the same piece 

What do you mean?

[TheSwede[TK]]

5 minutes ago, Sean said:

What do you mean?

 

 

 Hey! are you guys just the same person with two build-threads??!!