Centurion from the Start/ The BigJasoni's Remnant Jimmiroquai Build Thread

[BigJasoni[TK]]

I had a busy weekend, but was still able to complete a few of those items that don't seem like much, but add up to a lot. Additionally, I finally decided that I needed to organize my mess a little which I can't emphasize enough as a good practice. Additionally, I know a lot of people out there don't exactly have access to a spray booth or dedicated paint area, so I'm going to go over a lot of these steps outside before I set up a make shift booth in my garage. Because of this, I expect to run into a bunch of common issues and hopefully can give a little insight into how I handle them. Let's get started with the organization part first:

I wanted to cover this because over the last week, I've had conversations with two different people who picked up unfinished TK armor at incredibly cheap prices. I'm talking about $400 for an untouched Anovos ANH Hero kit kind of cheap. When I asked these guys how in the world they found these kits, they both indicated that "the original owner was overwhelmed with the amount of work involved, so I was able to grab it for cheap." I have to admit that when you first open the BBB there's mixed emotions. First is excitement that it's arrived, but then it's like "where do I begin?" 

 

However, what I've come to understand is that these costumes are sort of a "how do you eat an elephant?" type scenario. In case you don't know, the answer is "one bite at a time."

 

So, anybody who's seen any of my builds has likely noticed that I typically have multiple costumes piled up in the background of my shots. Currently, I have 7 unfinished kits. Because of this I knew I'd have to set up a "staging area" in order to keep myself on track. The other thing I've found is that when you actually start setting your armor out where it's visible, the task doesn't seem quite as daunting as when it's sitting in the corner of the room in a BBB. Here's a couple shots to show how I'm tackling my unfinished costumes:

First, the tote on the far left is my TK tub; that's why it's open. My finished costumes are in the other two and one "off stage." I typically keep them in there, or on display in my Star Wars office, so that they don't get mixed with the WIPs. I picked up this folding 8' table to stage my work, plus I'm trying to get a few of these for future armor parties. Again, just having the stuff laid out off the ground helps. Additionally, when these tables are on sale at Lowes for $65, they're not a bad deal.

 

Next, I set up prep and finish tables. In this picture, both are being used as prep tables, but the way I have it set up is that I'll use the paper covered table for bondo, sanding, filling etc. then place stuff over on the card table when the part's ready for primer. I end up mixing this up a little later on, but that's primarily because I end up painting a little more than the card table could hold. From here, I move outside to spray the primer.

 

Finally, I used to keep all my paint in a stupid box on the floor which always kind of got kicked around and really just made a big mess. I grabbed a cabinet just to keep stuff organized. This is a huge help.

 

Ok, so with that all aside, let's get to some armor updates.

 

 

I grabbed my hand guards and just started "sharpening" the edges. I can't tell you why, but these are the smallest parts of the armor, but had the most pin holes and "boogers" on them. I had previously sprayed them with filler primer, but followed that up by filling everything with the Spot and glaze putty. I also finally found a good use for the angled edge of a sanding sponge.

 

Ultimately, they came out smooth and are ready for final primer.

 

The next thing I got to work on was the back armor/ shoulder strap trapezoids.
Over the weekend I said that I was going to cut these out in order to facilitate a pass-through for my flexible straps. This was a little unnerving to say the least.

After some "surgical precision" with the Dremel and a shop vac, I was finally able to punch through and get the straps passing through freely. 

 

 

 

I got a little crazy on that right side, but everything's pretty easy to smooth out. Here's the straps in place:

 

 

 

 

This actually works exactly as I wanted it. Once I get the trapezoids smoothed out a little bit, the back will be ready for primer.

 

So, on to the resin arm parts:

I wanted to post this so you can all see how I used the UV resin to "glue" the pieces together. Even though I have a fairly large resin printer, the forearms were just a little too tall. Basically, I brush resin on both halves, hold them together, then flash them with a UV light to tack the parts together. I then put the forearms in my wash and cure station to fully cure the new seam. After some bondo filling and sanding, those sea,s come out pretty smooth and are nearly nonexistent.

 

Here's a trick you can do to save some elbow grease.

It's dirty, but this is a maroon Scotch Brite pad. Get it wet, then wring it out. After about 15 minutes, you can lightly rub your primer just to get off the dusty grit. Here's a picture of that "Grit" so you know what I'm talking about:

Some times rattle cans just spray bad. Atmospheric conditions do this but the distance you hold the can away from the part also contributes to a dusty finish.

 

Here I am running the pad over the surface very lightly. Keep in mind that this was only about 15 minutes after spraying the part. Damp Scotch Brite and light touch.

 

It looks a little "scratchy," but that's actually really smooth.

 

 

 

I brought the parts outside and laid another layer of filler primer on them. Of course, this is when I ran into a couple issues. The first one, which is fairly common when you're painting like this, is I got a little Turd Fergeson who decided to land on my fresh paint. This is one of the "tips" I wanted to cover in the thread. When this happens, the absolute worst thing you can do is to try picking off the bug while the paint's still wet. Just let it flash for about 15 minutes, then you can brush it off.

 

 

He left a little guts streak behind, but that little dot will sand out easily.

 

By the end of the night, I was able to lay down the filler primer over the chest, forearms and shoulders. I would have done the biceps, but I need to reshape one of them first. Regardless, I have these totally smooth. Tomorrow night, I'll take care of the biceps, run some 600 grit over the surface, and get my sealer primer over these pieces. I'm also hoping to smooth out the back piece traps and get the back sprayed with filler primer. Once these tasks are done, I'll essentially have everything "north" of the belt ready for paint.
So, thanks again for viewing. More to come this week.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

A nice trick when you have applied spray putty or high build primer is to go over with a very light mist coat of black, then when you sand any low spots or scratches will still show some black, spray painters trick  

[BigJasoni[TK]]

9 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

A nice trick when you have applied spray putty or high build primer is to go over with a very light mist coat of black, then when you sand any low spots or scratches will still show some black, spray painters trick  

Glen,

You beat me to it.  I was planning on going over guide coats tonight. This is a technique typically used in auto paint which would be especially useful on a large piece with minimal contours like the chest. 
Awesome tip.

[BigJasoni[TK]]

So getting back to it:
The first thing I wanted to do is highlight @gmrhodes13's tip about using a black overspray to find low spots:

On 6/27/2022 at 10:36 PM, gmrhodes13 said:

A nice trick when you have applied spray putty or high build primer is to go over with a very light mist coat of black, then when you sand any low spots or scratches will still show some black, spray painters trick  

 

I touched on this briefly, but in the automotive paint world, this is referred to as a guide coat. If you look around the internet, you'll find a lot of products that are specifically formulated for these type applications, but for costumes, I really don't think we need to go so far as to buy these specific coats. As Glen indicated, a very light mist of black works just fine. However, when I use a guide coat, I like to use sandable primer for ease of removal. Rustoleum's black seems to do the trick just fine, but really any kind will get the job done. Also, if you choose to use a regular paint instead of the sandable primer, it does have a way to find even the smallest low lying areas including pinholes.

Since this is an automotive trick, you can imagine that it's generally used on larger semi-flat surfaces during the "blocking" phase. This is an excellent trick for gentle curving areas such as the chest, thighs, shoulder bells, helmet dome and things of that nature, but if you try it on items such as the back armor or objects that have more of an ornate design, there's just a few areas you're going to have difficulties getting into to sand out. Regardless, here's the steps I followed for the chest armor:

 

 

 

First the tools. I went to Amazon and picked up a 3M Hookit Soft Interface Pad and an assortment of sanding discs ranging from 80-2000 grit. The benefit of using the interface pad is it allows you to apply light even pressure to the surface without pressing in with your fingertips. These are typically used with an orbital sander, but also afford similar benefits of a sanding sponge, but to me it seems a lot more versatile. 

 

To get started, I lightly ran the 400 grit over the filler primer just to flatten out the surface. As you can see from my picture, even doing this lightly, you still have to be careful of the edges. However, since this is still at the filler primer stage, I'm not as concerned as I would be if this were my base coat. I then "dusted" it with the sandable primer which resulted in this:
 

 

Just looking at the first picture, it doesn't look like I did much more than just speckle the primer, but in reality, by holding the can back about 2.5 feet away from the surface, the entire chest "fogged" over with a light black film as seen in the second.
I stuck with the 400 grit and lightly sanded the surface, again paying attention to applying light even pressure over the entire part and not pressing with my fingertips.

 

In this picture of my first pass, you can see how I primarily stuck to the flat surfaces and avoided the edges which left the black resting in the low spots. However, after a few more passes, sanding in one direction, I was left with what appeared to be a very flat surface which was ready for primer sealer.
 

I also performed this step on my arm pieces which revealed a lot more low spots than this chest. Additionally, since I reformed the resin bicep the night prior, after spraying it with filler primer, a few crack appeared that I didn't notice previously.

 

 

I didn't take pictures of how I reformed the biceps, but since resin manipulation has come up in other posts this week, the process was pretty simple. Basically, I soaked the resin pieces in hot water for about two minutes, then held it in place until it cooled. Of course, this small open piece is easier than a helmet, but it's the same idea. Just take your time. Also, in the second picture, it looks like there's an enormous crack on the inside, but that's just how the bicep is shaped.

 

For the cracks, I debated what the best way to fill them would be. I thought about using more resin, or wood filler, but ultimately, since they were relatively small, I opted for Spot and Glaze putty. I filled the cracks, resprayed them with filler primer, gave them a light sanding and was left with this:
 

 

Here's a shot of the inside of the bicep. After taking this picture, it dawned on me that I forgot to fill those little cracks, so I'll take care of that tonight. Honestly it's not a big issue, but I know they're there.

 

 

 

--EDIT-- I just went out there, sanded down the large crack, and sprayed it with filler primer. Totally smooth now.

 

Ok. Sealer primer.
 

I've said those words a few times, and even posted a picture to the FISD Facebook group, but haven't really talked about it too much. Primer sealer is simply a thin primer coat that's formulated to fill in any remaining scratches and seal porous surfaces as a final prep for your base coat. I haven't used it on any of my costumes previously, but started entertaining the idea when I decided to use an automotive 2k paint for my Deathtrooper and 2k clear on this costume. Essentially, if I'm going to spend that kind of money on paint, I want the surface as perfect as I can get it prior to laying down my base. So, after a round of filler primer, light 400 sanding, guide coat, light 600 sanding, cleaning and tack rag, I started sealing my parts right as it was getting dark.

 

 

 

Don't forget to show some love to the inside of your armor.

 

 

 

 

And of course, I muffed up the chest a little bit. Not a big error, but I made one mistake when I was applying the sealer. As I stated, this stuff does apply much smoother than most primers, especially filler or sandable primer which you can pretty much glob on. So, if you use it, you have to keep moving in a smooth even motion until the part is covered. The best way I heard this described was on a Paint Society Youtube video where Brian (the host) said "robots don't stop, so neither should you." Keep in mind that he's speaking about painting car panels, but his tips are priceless when it comes to just laying down paint regardless of it's source. For what we do, he's got plenty of videos of getting professional results from rattle cans, which is essentially the guide I'm following with this build.

In this instance, I kind of stopped "mid stream" and my finger got in the way of the spray which kind of shot a "blob" right at the surface. It cleaned up perfectly fine with one pass of 600 grit.

For anyone interested in a professional car painter using rattle cans and 2k clear, this is an outstanding video. He doesn't cover sealer primer in this particular video, but does in most of his others:

 

 

So, since I'm not ready to hit my back and abdominal yet, I decided to go back to my bucket. So, quick note about this; I have called this a Remnant build, but I'm sensing a little uncertainty regarding the creation of a Remnant CRL. So, to cover all my bases and make the determination on Remnant vs. Anthology/ New Generation TK, I'm making multiple versions of the helmet.

 

So here's the helmet in it's Saturday state. Back in October, I sprayed it with some white primer and thought it was ready for paint. However, I've learned a lot since then and knew I wouldn't be doing it any justice if I just threw white on here and called it good. Additionally, as I showed a few days ago, it was still littered with pinholes and cracks, so it wasn't even close to ready. So, I grabbed my glaze and spot putty, filled the cracks, sanded it all out and flattened the surface with the interface pad and some 400grit paper.

Since I already sprayed the interior with truck bed liner, I didn't want to get overspray on the awesome surface it created. I masked off the inside of the helmet and realized how much I like the blue painter's tape inside the tube vents. I can see why they used this on set, but it's just not practical for extended use. Regardless, check this out:
 

 

 

YEAH BUDDY!
I posted this to the Facebook page a few nights ago and almost instantly had three people reach out asking what paint I used. This is the primer sealer almost immediately after I sprayed it. I think up to this point, I was liking what I was seeing with the sealer, but after I sprayed the helmet and found that I couldn't find any flaws in the surface, I was purely ecstatic. The other thing to note about the sealer is after spraying the arms, chest, a few accessories including the thermal detonator, and helmet, I'm only down one can, so I don't mind the slightly higher price tag of approximately $10 per can. 

 

Though it looked cool in that last picture, this is how it looks now that it's fully cured and ready for paint.

 

So that pretty much covers all the armor updates, but last night I FINALLY started another project I've been flirting around with for a few months now. Thanks to @JasonG for loaning me his airsoft gun a while back and @trooper96's awesome Rogue One files, I was able to start building the accessories I needed for the rubber/ resin E-11B I've talked to a few of you about previously. This isn't a resin/ rubber molding tutorial or anything like that, but does show you the direction I'm traveling for the time being as well as an example of the accuracy of Bryan's E-11 parts.

--Spoiler Alert-- His files are awesome.

 

Here's a few of the parts loosely held together next to the airsoft gun minus it's barrel.

 

Small Eagle Style

 

 

 

 

And finally, a comparison of the airsoft magazine (top) and Bryan's magazine.

I'll get back to work soon, but as always, thanks again for viewing.

Edited July 1, 2022 by BigJasoni
Sanded large bicep crack

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work and well explained, should help those that follow  

[trooper96[501st]]

 

Wow, I really need a resin printer now! Incredible details that FDM can’t resolve. Nicely done!

Edited July 1, 2022 by trooper96
*

[BigJasoni[TK]]

4 hours ago, trooper96 said:

Wow, I really need a resin printer now! Incredible details that FDM can’t resolve. Nicely done!

Bryan, all thanks to you. The resin printer was a pretty good investment, but it just makes me want an even bigger one. Lol.

[BigJasoni[TK]]

Is there a such thing as "costuming peer pressure?" If so, I'm highly susceptible. Thanks @TheRascalKing

 

So it's been over a month since my last update, but that's not due to a lack of work being performed on this kit, but rather it's been due to some "exploratory" processes/ work I'm doing. However, I blame this extra work entirely on the aforementioned peer pressure. Ok, to be fair, it wasn't really "peer-pressure" but more like someone else saying "I'm thinking about doing this..." The problem with me is that when these kind of ideas are brought up in conversation, it actually feels like this:

 

Lol. Here's my contribution to the FISD Memes.

 

I'll get back to this in a couple minutes. For now, let me catch you all up on the last month.

 

About a week ago I attended a squad armor party. While I didn't take too many pictures of all the different builds, I was able to snap a pic of this:

So, while this doesn't have anything to do with my build, it's nice to see another TK getting ready to join the ranks.

 

Knowing that I typically don't get much work done on my own kits during these events, I went in thinking that if I were only able to cut my thigh armor, then that would be enough progress for me to declare the armor party a success. I can't attest to this being an efficient method for cutting other kits, but for those prepping the Jimmiroquai armor, this seemed to be the easiest and safest way to finish the job.

 

I took a small file and initially was just going to score the surface in order to facilitate my Dremel tool's cutting disc. However, after I made one pass, I noticed that the file had essentially created a small channel which allowed the file to pass through cleanly, removing a small amount of material with each pass. Rather than going with the Dremel or another blade that I'd inevitably cut myself with, I continued making passes with the file until the thigh opened up completely. Once open, I was left with a cut line that fell precisely inline with the thigh cover strip.  

 

This line was pretty clean by fiberglass standards. My larger file took care of the rough edges flawlessly. The only remnant left behind after cutting was this piece, which also got filed off easily:

 

 

 

So, the first two pics are actually upside down, but when you compare it to the screen used reference found in the forum gallery (pictured below), it looks like Jimmy emulated the overlapping appearance in his design, while keeping the thigh in one piece. While this looks excellent, the thighs are a little big for me and had to be cut regardless. Also, it's just not the way it was done on film and is required per the CRL's EIB standards.

Of note, notice how the little protruding tab I circled above appears somewhat in the below picture. This was not part of the armor's design, but rather a byproduct of my cut. Also, the sloppiness in the TK display's appearance was likely due to someone quickly setting it up and the fact that they put the costume on a tiny mannequin form. However, this picture does highlight how the thighs open and close in the rear.

 

 

Additionally, we also have this picture that I posted back in 2020.

 

The next thing I started to do kind of got my gears turning a little bit and sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole. If you go back in this thread, you'll see that I initially came up with the idea to print my arms because of the cover strips. Originally, I was only going to print my forearms, but when I saw how different the cover strips were between Paul and Jim's designs, it made me want to do the entire arm. But, this also made me a little nit-picky of the overall appearance of the armor's cover strips. For the most part, the screen used kits appear to have very clean, strips with sharp lines and details. Some of this is softened with the layers of paint, but knowing this, I've started cleaning the grooves and "sharpening" the lines with a file. 

 

 

But this also made me a little concerned about the shins. Now, looking at the following photo, though the shin strips are slightly narrowed, you can clearly see how the thigh and shin cover strips match very closely, but are slightly different.

 

 

The most noticeable difference is how the center stripe detail in the shin is raised, while the same detail on the thigh is flush. This design element is screen accurate, but when viewed from the side, the shin's cover strip is incredibly bulky by comparison. Again, I believe this was an intentional design, which I applaud, but when I put on the shins, the overall appearance was off. I can't really explain it any better than that, but when you team up the thick cover strip, with the gap in the trim, the slightly misshapen "bell-bottoms," and my slightly larger calves, the overall appearance of the shins looked incredibly bulky on me. 

 

However, the Jimmiroquai shins fit around my legs perfectly, so I was tossed on the idea of changing anything. But the more I looked at the cover strip, the more I started questioning if there was a better way to finish them. Here's what I mean (please forgive me as I go all Shorey for a minute):

 

This is the leg from my Shoretrooper kit

 

And here they are side by side, and yes, those are Orca Bay Brecons. I bought a pair for my Shoretrooper and liked them so much, I bought another pair for everyday wear. Lol.

I was already considering 3D printing the shin armor from my Shoretrooper kit, but kind of scrapped the idea because I didn't want to make cover strips or fool around with what I perceived as a large sniper knee. Additionally, the shins from Jim's kit actually fit me pretty good which was one of the biggest issues I've had with other builds. However, when I was at an armor party last weekend, the gap in the top trim of the shin armor was really starting to bug me:

 

So I started considering the following options:

1. Live with the gap. This shouldn't be a concern for basic approval, due to the lack of guidance in the CRL for this particular part. However, this is "Centurion From the Start;" and the goal of this WIP is to show potential ROTKs how to build to that higher level starting on day one. Though there's no Centurion standards for the shin armor, that doesn't reflect what we've seen thus far.

2. Fill the gap. This would effectively close the entire front of the shin armor. Going back to my previous thought about Centurion level builds, I went directly to @11b30b4's thread since Jeff is still the lone Centurion ROTK, Considering that he closed his armor with PC-7, I decided that since our resident Centurion did, along with the gap being closed in the reference pics, then I should too. For example, here's two of the pics Justin shared with me from Celebration:

 

The second picture is not of the shin armor, but it shows you how the cover strips are handled on this costume; closed entirely on one side and open on the other.

 

3. Print accurate shin armor and try to figure out the cover strips and knee plate later. Ultimately, even if this doesn't work, I can always use extra leg armor for my son's AT-ACT driver costume. However, as I said before, I dismissed this idea because I didn't want the extra work.

Then, like clockwork, @TheRascalKing asks me about my 3D printed arms which led me to ask him what he did about the gap in his ROTK shin trim. This is where printed shins came back up. After we discussed a few of the things he saw at Celebration, we came to the conclusion that the knee armor in Paul's shoretrooper kit is accurate for the TK as well.

 

 

 

These are from Celebration

So again, the Shoretrooper has a very distinct strip on the front of their shins:

This is the CRL pic. Now, if you imagine it without the straps and large strip, these are TK shins. But in order to get the correct cover strip, I needed to start tinkering around with Fusion 360 and this was the result:

 

This turned into...

 

This. Which led to...

 

This. Which resulted in...

 

 

This. From the side, the cover strips look far less bulky and even have the chamfered top that sits perfectly inline with the top trim:

 

The big thing I tried to do was match the overall appearance of both makers, while also keeping the width close to Jim's thigh armor. Here's the shin with the thigh:
 

Notice that the overall width is close, but still it's own unique size, which emulates the screen used armor.

 

Additionally, when compared to Paul's cover strip, they're close enough in appearance that the differences won't be noticed.

 

So that about wraps up my update for now, but I was finally able to grab 3 more cans of primer sealer today, so I should be getting a lot of parts sealed this weekend and ready for paint. So, as I go, let me dump a few more pics so I can show you what I'm up against this weekend:

My hot end carriage was loose, which caused some insane layer shifts. Not good.

 

 

Butt, cod, abdominal and back filled and needing to be sanded.

 

 

As well as the kidney plate and belt boxes. Yes they're black... but I'll get to that later.

So, as always, thanks for viewing.

 

 

Edited August 13, 2022 by BigJasoni

[BigJasoni[TK]]

Also, the belt boxes are my updated files printed in the Siraya Tech Fast/ Tenacious mix resin. Please see this thread for the download link:

 

[Detaleader]

Great thread with a lot of interesting insights! 

 

This will be a great help to any R1TK builder