Cricket's 3D Print FOTK (TLJ)- ABS, Kid-sized- FINISHED!

[MaskedVengeance[Staff]]

Hold on to your butts.


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[Cricket[TK]]

Onward to strapping that butt on!     I used Tony's fantastic tutorial for attaching the butt plate to the back of the ab.  I don't think I could have cleared this hurdle without it!

First, I sewed together a bunch of lengths of 3" elastic together.  I had to overlap some areas because this kit is considerably shorter than an adult FOTK.


It's two halves, connected by some velcro in a flap.


Laying it over the butt plate, it will be attached something like this:


Another view to compare how things will lay out from the inside of the butt plate.  I marked the horizontal line where it will cover and connect with the butt plate with a silver sharpie.


Next, I drilled out holes in the horizontal band on the butt plate and installed male and female snaps.


I wanted to add some reinforcement to where the snaps will attach on the butt plate with some nylon webbing to overlap the elastic.  I don't want any butts failing here.   And like with all of the snaps that I build, I always add a small square or rectangle piece of ABS sandwiched in there.  This makes removing the snap extremely easy because all you do is pop it off, instead of pulling at the attachment.  This also increases the longevity of your snap connections (bonus!)


All together now!

 

Here's what it looks like when the ab is in the correct position relative to the butt plate.


Test placement before gluing the halves of the elastic inside the ab.


Once I had things adjusted, it was time to glue things down.  I've only glued down the outer halves for now.  This is just to make sure that everything looks good once I remove the magnets.  If it all is in good position, I'll proceed with gluing down the inner halves.


I'll be adding a little bit of foam and velcro to the lower area of the gap to help secure the thermal detonator plate from lateral movement.    Fingers crossed that it works!

[Cricket[TK]]

I didn't like how the paint ended up on the black circle on the back plate.  Even though it's semi-gloss, it's too shiny for me.  And I could see a massive amount of brush strokes in my work.  Ugh.  I bought a roll of matte black vinyl and cut myself a circle in the exact size (or at least as close as I could do with the circle stencils I have).


Then just stuck it over my paint mess.  It's not perfectly flat (I guess I could have sanded down some of the excess paint before applying the vinyl, but I am not up for it now), but it looks much better than before.


Next, I added little white ABS tabs to the shoulder bridge tabs.  Making a template with paper, I cut out the tab shape.


Stuck it on with E6000 and taped it on to cure.



Test fitting the upper half of the armor today!  Woo!  First we verified the ab, cod, and butt pieces all fit.  


Then I velcroed the chest plate to the back plate.  This had me a little nervous, because placing the velcro bits is not an exact science.  And I kept having to pull things apart to adjust- I was concerned that I would hear a "CRACK", but it never happened.  Thankfully, the ABS plastic has some flex to it.  The 2K Gloss also adds some flexibility to the parts, too.  I added the thermal detonator in there as well.  I'm still working on the belt, so that will not be making an appearance today.


Then we took things over to a room with a full-length mirror so Cameron could see himself easily.  This was the first time he's tried on so much of the armor, and he was really excited about it.  I added the arms as well... and discovered that I still need to make fitting adjustments to the gaskets and strapping tweaks for the arms.  But still, not a bad effort for the first big fitting, methinks!




My little trooper!!!!  <3

 

Taking the pose holding his air-blaster.


Any feedback on fitting adjustments would be appreciated.  Cameron reports that he feels comfortable in the suit at this stage, so for movement is good so far.  I don't know this suit as well as the OTTK, but I'm guessing I'm on the right track?

Now, it's time for me to get back to taking care of detail work and strapping those legs.

[Cricket[TK]]

And looking more critically, the cod shape isn't exactly the same as in TLJ.  I think Chris @themaninthesuitcase mentioned something about it as well.  I see the issue now that everything is coming together.  The TLJ cod is narrower and more of a "French cut" style than what I currently have.  I won't be cutting the cod on this suit to make it more narrow, nor will I be reprinting one.  I think I'll be able to simply bring the cod up a bit more (there is still room to move it up), which will make it look a little more narrow overall.

 

[LTM[TK]]

It looks great!

 

Friends don't let friends skip leg day!

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Yes cod for TLJ are a little more angled and straighter on the sides and longer curved neck.

 

[Cricket[TK]]

Thermal detonator: done.

I began with painting the smallish (and not exactly screen-accurate???) end cap black with some Testor's paint.  I masked off the end to help keep the line sharp.  I tried painting an initial layer of black Testor's on the large rectangle area, but even with a thin layer, it wasn't turning out like I was hoping.  So, with the knowledge that I don't entirely like the look of large painted areas using Testor's paint, I opted instead to put my template skillz to work and try creating matte black decals for the circle end and large middle rectangle bits.  I've got a large roll of the stuff, so might as well use it.  For my rectangle template, I simply placed a piece of paper over the area (and making sure the paper had full contact with the cylinder) and used my thumbnail to create grooves around the edges.  Using an Exacto knife and a ruler for a straight edge, I cut the paper piece out.  Then I traced the outline of the paper onto the black vinyl, and cut it out with the Exacto knife.  I did a similar procedure for the black circles on the ends, too.  Pretty easy I must say.

 

 

 

 

It's not Cricut perfect, but it's good enough (I've got one of those machines on my wishlist now)!  And certainly better than paint would look in these areas, too.  

Edited July 17, 2020 by Cricket

[Cricket[TK]]

Paging @gmrhodes13 and all others in the know about the TLJ FOTK cod!!!

I'm trying to work with the designer of the 3d files on revising his cod file to better emulate the TLJ cod.  He's telling me that there are ridges on the front left and right of the cod based on screen caps.

  

Those ridges don't look right to me at all.  Can anyone confirm this???

[ticopowell[TK]]

I found this in an old thread, might help

https://i.imgur.com/NUKrHzf.jpg

I think it has shape there, but not sharp ridges

[ticopowell[TK]]

I found this in an old thread, might help

https://i.imgur.com/NUKrHzf.jpg

I think it has shape there, but not sharp ridges

You could print it, and then sand them down to be less sharp.

[Cricket[TK]]

Yeah, that was the image I referred the designer to.  He said he saw ridges.  I thought they were more like light reflections.  TLJ is the single SW film I don't own, so I can't grab a Blu-Ray to confirm.  High def screen images of TLJ FOTKs are few and far between.

[ticopowell[TK]]

https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/gallery/image/4455-phasma_and_tkjpg/

This seems to show the cod well, I don't see hard ridges either.

[Cricket[TK]]

2 minutes ago, ticopowell said:

You could print it, and then sand them down to be less sharp.

I thought of that, too.  It's possible.

I put the file into Meshmixer and cut the edges off...


I guess could print this and sand off the sharp transition points at the edges.    It's nothing critical for now, but it's something I'd like to square away for future printing.

[Cricket[TK]]

Okay, ridges have been confirmed!  That said, ridges don't matter, just that it needs to be narrower (more like a V than a Y) than the TFA cod. 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

5 hours ago, Cricket said:

With the TD for TLJ they have an all black endcap not just a strip of black 

 

 

2 hours ago, Cricket said:

  
 

I think you will find that the ridges are softer the image above appear very sharp.

 

Here are a few more references 

 

[Shimo[TK]]

regarding the cod - The ridges are there - recently these pictures were posted in an Facebook group:

 

 

[Cricket[TK]]

22 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

With the TD for TLJ they have an all black endcap not just a strip of black 

 

 

Okay, now I'm really confused.  The pic on the CRL model of the TLJ trooper has a white stripe on his TD.  So I'm clear, the pic below is not correct, yes?

And neither of the TDs are painted black on that strip above the black rectangle "control panel", whereas the one you're showing me for the example has that narrow area painted black.  So do I paint the strip above it black or not?  I am seeing both versions, but will do whichever one is preferable.  Thanks for clarifying!   

[Cricket[TK]]

2 minutes ago, Shimo said:

regarding the cod - The ridges are there - recently these pictures were posted in an Facebook group:

 

 

And who knew I'd ever spend so much time staring at Stormtrooper crotches?

[Shimo[TK]]

@Cricket

The TD is also not really continuously the same in TLJ - here is a example from the movie, with the "short cap" (maybe it is because some trooperes were CGI? idk)

 

I like what the 3D Designer did with the cod

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

29 minutes ago, Cricket said:

Okay, now I'm really confused.  The pic on the CRL model of the TLJ trooper has a white stripe on his TD.  So I'm clear, the pic below is not correct, yes?

And neither of the TDs are painted black on that strip above the black rectangle "control panel", whereas the one you're showing me for the example has that narrow area painted black.  So do I paint the strip above it black or not?  I am seeing both versions, but will do whichever one is preferable.  Thanks for clarifying!   

The full trooper CRL image with TD is incorrect, something that should be changed with the upcoming TLJ review, the CRL had an update, if you check the actual TD image the cap is black and longer. It however does not have the black line at the top. It is believed that the whole inner section is a tube and the outer shell had been cut and is open where you see black, so the inner tube floats so to speak. Also the back section is in two pieces, the main ribbed plate and the TD mount as you can see in the bottom image.

 

 

[Cricket[TK]]

17 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

I think you will find that the ridges are softer the image above appear very sharp.

I thought about that as well.  However, once sanding, priming, and painting happen, those ridges will soften up significantly.  

Thank you so much for your help on this!!!

[Cricket[TK]]

Thermal detonator fixed with some additional paint.


Back to that cod...  closer examination of the relationship between the cod and the butt plates (as attached to the ab) showed that the cod was sitting too low, and could stand to be moved up.  I noticed this initially when Cameron stood sideways to me.  The bottom of the cod and the bottom of the butt plate should be roughly on the same plane, and they definitely were not.  I took some measurements, and then took the leap, installing new snaps into the cod to bring it up.  The snap placement looks a little wonky, but I can assure you, it will look fine once installed!   
 

Okay, so here is the cod installed with the original snaps.  


Then moved up with the new snaps.  Yeah, I guess that I was pretty confident that this would be a better position, just jumping in and installing those new snaps like that!  But, hey, it does look better!  And in the new position, it emulates the more narrow cod of the TLJ cod shape.


Butt plate and cod are in better alignment now as well.  

[Sly11[Admin]]

TFA TD are solid resin and over 1.4 Kg, TLJ is definitely an insert for the tube and much lighter. Yes CRL will be getting an overhaul once Tony is up and running again. New images and addendum for TroS as well.

 

Sorry Christine, back to you now.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Fantastic work as always Cricket 

[Cricket[TK]]

I really liked Tony's bicep strapping bracket system, so I crafted one based on how he detailed his build.  

I eyeballed his template and made a crude drawing similar to what's in his pics.  Smaller for Cameron's build, of course.  I have extra ABS cover strip material from various TK builds, so that's what I used as my material for these.


Traced mirrored halves onto the ABS.


Cut them out.


Hacked away at the holes with a Dremel.  Mine aren't nearly as pretty as Tony's, but they will do!


Stuck some self-adhesive 1/4" neoprene to the backs.  Again, Tony's always look so much better than mine!!!


I heat shaped them to Cameron's shoulder curves, then followed along with what Tony did to rig the brackets all up.  I made a few deviations for Cameron's setup, but it's all pretty much the same kind of result.

 

Top view from the back.


Can't wait to hook the bells to this!  Speaking of which, I've got shoulder bells and thighs waiting for their straps to cure on them.


Gonna try to get the belt finished today.