Tico's RS Props build

[ticopowell[TK]]

Thanks,  Ill just use the included one for now. 

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

coming along nicely mate!!  you're doing great .

 

For the belt, I use a leather one, why? in my case I started using the nylon one it didn't hold firm and it bent in half making more pressure on my hip ,

using a leather one asures a better fit and stay firm.

 

 

 

[ticopowell[TK]]

Alright, I did some more today with the wife's help. I'm not done yet either... I just started boiling a pot of water . I did set a timer so I don't burn the house down.

 

First question, On the back of the thighs, I feel like I can't bend my leg. I marked where I plan to cut, that isn't too much right?

 

 

 

I got partially suited up again to get things better situated before bathing my shoulder bells, I wanted to make sure I had them where they needed to go and that I was making them the correct shape. I also put the thighs on to see how high they needed to go and marked it. My wife helped mark some areas that will rub a little bit on the thighs... and they were all return edges that hadn't been fully removed hahaha. So I have now removed those and they fit better. We did realize that the thigh cover strips aren't vertical, they actually point to the shoulders. Makes sense, but not something you think about until you study the costumes really hard. 

 

Going to check on the water. BRB.  Back, it isn't boiling yet so Ill wait another 3-5 minutes.

 

Here are the front and back pictures, mainly of the thighs. 

 

 

 

Ok I'm back, one shoulder bell has taken it's bath, it looks a lot better! Ill post pics after I get both of them done. Reheating the water now, I turned off the stove when I pulled the first bell out because I only have one mold for both of them so why waste the energy and water

 

So... thinking about it. It might actually be easier in the long run to not aim directly for centurion. Mainly because if you just build it you will understand the little things faster vs worrying about so many tiny details. I feel like I've been focused on the details without actually looking at the project as a whole. Ill do what I can to get centurion, and I know I'm fairly close as it is (got a lot of helmet work first haha), but I'm going to just get it built at this point with as much easy things as I can do. I still am going to add the ab/kidney shim before finishing the rest, but the rest should consist of just tweaking what I have already built. 

 

Ok, back to the water. 

 

SUCCESS!!! They both look so much better. Here is the before picture

 

 

And the after picture!

 

 

Here is how I taped them, I used mainly tape, but also 4 magnets for the tips, I didn't want them to curl up. The first dip into the water had one tip curl a little bit, so I went and got the magnets and dipped it again. 

 

 

 

And it took the tallest pot we have. 

 

 

The only other question for tonight is about the but to kidney plate connections. The butt seems to be slightly off centered with the current screw setup. But is it worth changing? 

 

Here it is with the screws mostly lined up. The right side actually lines up with the notch at this point. 

 

 

When I center the butt plate this is how it looks.

 

 

 

So I can either leave it, it clearly aligns itself to be centered when wearing, as you can see from the misaligned screws on this picture. 

 

 

Or I can recenter it and drill and fill some holes. 

 

Or I can trim it so when it sits how it likes the left and right line up correctly. 

 

Or I can remove the notch (it's optional from what I've read) and just have a slightly larger shim, and have it shim the whole way to the ab plate.

 

I did notice that I need to give the butt plate (and possibly the kidney plate) a hot bath as well to better form to my body, I'm not skinny but I'm not near as fat as that posterior plate wants me to be hahaha.

 

Well, I think that's it for now, I hope yall have a good day/night/morning/whatever.

Edited May 15, 2020 by ticopowell

[ticopowell[TK]]

Ok, one more question. Do these shoulder strap female snaps look out of place? I feel like they should be more centered. They look simple to move, and I'm thinking I should remove them, and then once my elastic shoulder straps are installed I can reinstall these snaps in the correct location so the shoulder bell fits as nice as possible. 

 

 

Here is a pic of the right one as centered between the front and back plates as I could get. I guess I'm not sure where the snap goes, but if its on the front or back it doesn't make a difference, the female snap on the shoulder isn't centered or even close to it. 

 

 

Unless I'm wrong, which isn't unheard of, the bells should be centered between the front and back armor pieces, and if the snap is all the way back I don't think it will be centered very well. 

 

Well, it's late, I caught up on the RS youtube series, and now I'm going to bed. 

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

FANTASTIC work on those shoulder bell curves, Caleb!  WOW, what a difference!  As for the shoulder snaps, you are correct.  The center should sit direct in the middle of the top of your shoulders.  I would wait until you have the ends connected to the chest and back tabs to make sure the fit is right before repositioning them.

[ticopowell[TK]]

Thanks Joseph,

 

Yesterday I shortened the chicago screws, I think they hold the belt better now. I still need to cut the 45* angles on the abs, but that's easy enough. I saw someone did something like 12mm off each side, I think Ill make it easier and measure the distance between the belt and the plastic edge on all 4 corners, get an average, and cut that much off so it matches nicely. 

 

My shins are now sized, cut, and glued, so all that's left is the bra straps and holes. That won't be too difficult, Ill do what RS did and drill the holes first, then glue the elastic so it's pulling when hooked up, that should keep the backs closed enough. I did bathe the shins a little to get the wonky left vs right taken care of. it's almost perfect, once I get the bra straps installed I can see how well they line up, if they still need tweaking I can do it again then. 

 

Here they are before cover strips.

 

 

 

 

I decided I wanted snaps on both sides of the shoulder elastics, and Ill do snaps on the kidney/ab sections. That way I can have 2 armor halves, I think it would be easier for transport and storage. 

 

 

Speaking of snaps. Mine suck. The pin keeps bending while hammering instead of curling. Am I hitting it too hard? not hard enough? any tutorials on how to snap properly that I missed? 

I read this one, but it doesn't really address my issue. My thoughts are that my tandy snaps might have too long of shaft, so to speak, so either cutting that down, or snipping it vertically might help keep it straight. Mine look like double the length as the tutorial snaps, maybe more.

 

I did get the 2 snaps I needed set correctly, but I bent 3 sets in doing so haha. 

 

I have the snaps on the front chest plate, in ABS, and currently they are curing with e6000. 

 

I did measure my thighs for elastics, there is a 2" and a 2.5" gap between the belt and the top of the thigh, so once I get loops sewn in the belt I can get those straps glued on. 

 

If I have time today I am going to get the armor back on to measure the shoulder bells. Then you guys can let me know if they are too big and need more trimming, I did leave them big on purpose, but only by a half inch to an inch. I figured that would help close the gaps between the chest/back plates and the bells. They so seem to fit my arms better already, but I didn't have the torso on. 

 

I also glued the crotch strap on. I am test fitting it to size, once I like it I will install the split rivet, but i'd rather make sure it fits first :).

 

That's it for now, maybe more tonight. 

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

"The pin keeps bending while hammering instead of curling. Am I hitting it too hard? not hard enough? any tutorials on how to snap properly that I missed"? 

 

What I would try is this:  Before hitting it with the pin, hit it with the point of a a philips screwdriver tip instead.  This should split the shank into 4 strips, then hit it with the pin to flatten it..

[ticopowell[TK]]

8 hours ago, justjoseph63 said:

"The pin keeps bending while hammering instead of curling. Am I hitting it too hard? not hard enough? any tutorials on how to snap properly that I missed"? 

 

What I would try is this:  Before hitting it with the pin, hit it with the point of a a philips screwdriver tip instead.  This should split the shank into 4 strips, then hit it with the pin to flatten it..

That sounds like a great idea, Ill try that next time. 

[ticopowell[TK]]

I did some very rough trimming of the helmet, here is where it sits.

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for now.

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

That looks to be a pretty rough pull around the lower part of the ears (both sides).  If you look at the RS example next to it you will see what I mean. and you will probably need to do some trimming to get the ears to sit flush.  I would suggest doing a rough trim on them (the ears) to see how they will fit and posting up some pics of that.

 

    

[Rob .T .[TK]]

No, it's not a rough pull, you are looking at material outsid e the mould parameters that needs to be trimmed off . 

Simply put, more trimming is needed if those ears are ever going to fit . Nothing wrong with the plastic. 

[CableGuy[TK]]

Yes, I’d agree with Rob that that area is excess.

 

If you roughly follow the line of the trap as where the ears would align (green dashes), that rough area will be removed. You would then cut “approximately” where the blue dotted line is.

 

 

 

I agree with Joseph on rough trimming the ears ahead of fixing the helmet parts together. This is something I always do to assist with getting a good, ANH style, alignment. It’s something I run through in this video.

 

 

 

 

Btw, helmet alignment is looking really good so far. :-)

[ticopowell[TK]]

Thanks for all the help guys, I really didn't want to try and at nope material back so i trimmed as little as possible around the ear areas. I know that can be tricky and I only have one set of ears, and one helmet

I'll do a little more timing, getting closer to the line, and get some ear trimming done. The ears came with some flat checkerboard attached from the vacuum really, so I've removed that but nothing else.

[ticopowell[TK]]

Did some more rough cuts, Rob is right, there is a lot more material that I can cut off. Here are the helmet and ears with a little more trimming. I will definitely trim the top of the ears to be a lot thinner, the left ear is probably more than double what it will be when it's finished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ill keep tweaking the ears down, but they are close enough to get the helmet more trimmed and finished. I don't think it's quite ready to be screwed together, but it's getting there.

 

 

[ticopowell[TK]]

Forgot to mention that I have the holster now. 

 

 

 

I need to install the snap and attach it to the belt, but that should be easy enough. 

[Bulldog44[TK]]

This build is really coming along. Great work on this. Brave work on the shoulder bell hot bath dip. I know if i did that I would mess it up for sure with my luck. 

[ticopowell[TK]]

This build is really coming along. Great work on this. Brave work on the shoulder bell hot bath dip. I know if i did that I would mess it up for sure with my luck. 

Thanks!
I don't think I would have done it near as well without the mold I used. A can of paint or a thermos or something else like that could work for those that didn't have a few feet of roof flashing just sitting in their office.

[ticopowell[TK]]

So... I think I figured out the snap issue I'm having. I've killed probably 4-5 snaps because the pin bends... and I think it happens early on when I first hit it. 

I did have a successful snap placement, here it is. 

 

 

The left one I did first, after the first hit with the Phillips I noticed that it was slightly bent over, so I fixed it with pliers, then finished. The second one looked straight until I had it mostly down. I assume it was bent on the first hit and I didn't notice. So.... I guess I split the tips, then straighten them, then finish riveting them. 

[ticopowell[TK]]

Hey Look! It's a blind TK!

 

 

I was fitting the shoulder bells and I figured I might as well put the legs on too... and they helmet, why not?  I'm good to submit to the GML right? hahahahahaha

 

Here are a few more pictures, I think they are ready to mount, I will shave the edge by the elbow near the chest on both sides, it cuts in behind the chest plate and should be curved, it's currently straight. The pictures also have my left bell slightly under the shoulder bridge so I bet I could trim that extra half inch off and it would be fine. With tweaking I bet both could go without that half inch at the top, curve them a little front and back, and then I wouldn't have the corners poking into me as much. It should make the overlap less, and less noticable. 

 

 

and some closeups

 

 

 

 

 

I also have the shoulder elastics glueing, so those should be ready tomorrow. 

 

Now I get to research more! Helmet, shin straps, and bicep to shoulder bell connections are up next

[ticopowell[TK]]

I trimmed more of the helmet, I think it looks pretty good. I did draw a pencil line on it to show me about where the 2 shells line up.

 

Here it is before trimming, I like this positioning, but idk how close it is to how it should be.

 

 

 

 

Then I disassembled them.

 

 

 

 

Then I trimmed eyes and teeth. 

 

 

 

 

I think they still need a bit of trimming, any tips as to where? I plan on filing the teeth a bit to make them straighter, and the eyes seem ok, but not quite perfect. There really isn't much of a lip around the eyes, I'm used to a good half inch with Vader haha. 

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

I would keep going on the ear trimming, Caleb, especially in the front.

 

                          

 

 

[ticopowell[TK]]

What about the shoulder bells, do they need more removed?

@justjoseph63

Edited May 18, 2020 by ticopowell

[ticopowell[TK]]

I've never really noticed this wonkiness before... 

 

 

The facemask is warped, the right side as I'm wearing it sticks out more than the left. This could be my fault, but I expect that it's just the standard TK helmet shape. I don't really recall seeing a helmet from this angle before so maybe that's why I didn't notice it until now... well... that and I've now spend a month studying stormtroopers and hadn't paid much attention to them before.

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

24 minutes ago, ticopowell said:

The facemask is warped, the right side as I'm wearing it sticks out more than the left. This could be my fault, but I expect that it's just the standard TK helmet shape. I don't really recall seeing a helmet from this angle before so maybe that's why I didn't notice it until now... well... that and I've now spend a month studying stormtroopers and hadn't paid much attention to them before.

 

Yes, It's just the TK Helmets Asymmetry.  look at the following photo from www.starwarshelmets.com

 

 

 

 

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

6 hours ago, ticopowell said:

What about the shoulder bells, do they need more removed?

@justjoseph63

It may just be a strange camera angle, but are the bells the same length?  The tops are pretty close to being level, but the right one looks a bit longer (at least in the photo) even taking that into consideration.  I realize that this is just a temporary fit for now, but having the back plate level will really help determine this.  The tops are touching the shoulder bridges (perfect) and the gaps between the bells and chest/back plate are excellent!.  Nice work!!