WTF TK ANH Stunt Build thread - newbie needs help

[revlimiter[Staff]]

I still have some extra cut vinyl on hand. Would you like them? I can pop them in an envelope.

 

Downsides: You will still have a bit of paint bleed and you'll also have to clean up vinyl adhesive left behind. It's kind of a pain, but it worked okay on mine. Not much cleaning was needed really. A toothpick with either rubbing alcohol or paint thinner worked fine for me (my blue was acrylic). And once cured the adhesive was easy to remove.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

2 hours ago, cnsf said:

 

Where did you get the correct size hole punch?  It looks to be a 15/32 circle that is needed from the stencil.

Kit from local hardware, you can also find them online/ebay 

[cnsf]

1 hour ago, revlimiter said:

I still have some extra cut vinyl on hand. Would you like them? I can pop them in an envelope.

 

Downsides: You will still have a bit of paint bleed and you'll also have to clean up vinyl adhesive left behind. It's kind of a pain, but it worked okay on mine. Not much cleaning was needed really. A toothpick with either rubbing alcohol or paint thinner worked fine for me (my blue was acrylic). And once cured the adhesive was easy to remove.

Thank you!! I tried one more time and think I'm finally OK with this version.  My only issue is these pieces came from a separate Walt batch and the abs seems much whiter than my TK armor.  Could it just be aging?

 

[cnsf]

Am I supposed to split the kidney piece from the posterior piece?  They came as one piece from Walt. The TK reference describes them as split.

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

Am I supposed to split the kidney piece from the posterior piece?  They came as one piece from Walt. The TK reference describes them as split.

Yes, for ANH and ESB TK's the butt and kidney are separated. Return of the Jedi is where those pieces are not separated. I was nervous slicing my WTF kit!


Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

[cnsf]

8 minutes ago, Lord_Potato said:

Yes, for ANH and ESB TK's the butt and kidney are separated. Return of the Jedi is where those pieces are not separated. I was nervous slicing my WTF kit!


Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk
 

Thank you!

[cnsf]

So, I positioned the ab buttons on the armor and the button white abs material looks noticeably whiter than the rest of the armor.  Would this be a problem?

 

[revlimiter[Staff]]

Wow, that's a large difference. I'm not an authority by any means, but I'd try to fix that personally.

 

What happened to the original panels?

[cnsf]

37 minutes ago, revlimiter said:

Wow, that's a large difference. I'm not an authority by any means, but I'd try to fix that personally.

 

What happened to the original panels?

I messed up the painting.  I have them, but mineral oil didn't do the trick.  Worried about paint thinner ruining the piece.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

3 hours ago, cnsf said:

I messed up the painting.  I have them, but mineral oil didn't do the trick.  Worried about paint thinner ruining the piece.

Paint thinner will melt the plastic, being an acetone it's what some use for making ABS paste. You could try an automotive buffing compound/polish 

[revlimiter[Staff]]

I scrubbed mine with paint thinner for quite a while and had no damage come to my button panels. The paint had only cured a week or so, but it was REALLY on there. Still, it wasn't too hard to remove. The blue acrylic on mine was far far worse to remove with rubbing alcohol.

 

If you take some paint thinner and scrub some scrap ABS from trimming your armor, you'll see how far you can go before the plastic gets gooey.  It's a LONG way. Thinner isn't anywhere near as aggressive as pure acetone, at least in my experience.

 

And that said, to echo Glen's suggestion - sand off the old paint.  I'd use a light sand paper. 400 grit would make quick work of it and not harm the ABS much at all. Rubbing compound would work too, but might take ages unless you have a power buffer on hand.

 

Once the panel is clean enough, you can shine it back up with an automotive polish or scratch remover. I like Meguiar's Ultimate Compound. The rubbing compound suggestion has the huge benefit of not needing to re-polish the surrounding white ABS.

 

If chemical stripping isn't working, mechanical stripping is the way to go.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Note paint thinners can be different depending on what type of paint, enamel, acrylic and 2pac and what type of plastic you have, I've seen some horror cases of melted armor plastic in my time just from wiping on ABS. Also there can be differences between countries. Down under I've tried 3 different automotive acetone's to try to make ABS paste but no luck, none of they where strong enough, even nail varnish remover wouldn't work, I ending up getting some industrial acetone which finally did the trick.

 

Definitely would be a good idea to do a test piece with some scrap ABS before using any acetone/thinners  

 

 

[revlimiter[Staff]]

I used Testors Model Paint thinner from the hobby store to redo my grey buttons and it worked very well. No damage to the surrounding plastic. It seems very gentle.

 

What kind of paint did you use to do the buttons Cory?  If you used acrylic, it won't ever come off with thinner. You'd need rubbing alcohol.

[cnsf]

So, I tried repainting the old pieces and I think they came out better. Thank you for all this great help! I had a bit of a knee injury after repainting, so once I can walk again, I’ll post pics. The blue acrylic was really hard to get off. I used some paint thinner and mineral oil.  No rubbing alcohol as yet. I have 91% lying around from my computer clean up work. 

[cnsf]

Repainted old buttons.  Are these good enough?  While I'm aiming for Centurion, I'll take the lowest to get me into the 501st anyway....

 

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

I don't see an issue for Basic approval or maybe even Expert Infantry with the paint, but we prefer them to be a bit more on the round side, especially for Centurion. 

 

I know it's not easy (especially without templates) but many times using a Filbert style brush with a rounded tip can help give you those nice curves.

 

The sides of the large plate are a bit uneven... not a huge deal, but the smaller plate could use some trimming as seen below.  To keep the edges straight, try placing the sandpaper on a hard flat surface and rub the plates on it until you get a nice straight line.

Side note:  Don't round off the corners of the plates!

 

                                                

 

                              

[revlimiter[Staff]]

58 minutes ago, justjoseph63 said:

I know it's not easy (especially without templates) but many times using a Filbert style brush with a rounded tip can help give you those nice curves.

 

I'm quoting this bit because the importance of a nice brush cannot be overstated for any craft project. Truly a poor brush can make even the most simple job into a multi-day pain-fest. A $5 brush from the painting aisle in the hobby store is so very worth it and hardly more expensive than the trash Testors white handle model brushes.

 

And that said, well done on the buttons. 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

I found a small rectangle brush gave me the best outcome, I found it easier to control on the outsides, but what ever works for you. If you wanted you could go around the outsides with a toothpick and scrape away any excess, using a flat piece of scrap ABS plastic works as well. 

 

 

 

[cnsf]

You guys rock. I will make the trims and will retry the one button. I still want to shoot for Centurion. 

[Sly11[Admin]]

The tooth pick and thinners or mineral turpentine trick generally works very well.

I have also used the Testors brand of thinners to do this with no issue.

Best recommendation I have for painting those Ab buttons neatly is, Don't drink coffee before you paint them lol, I didn't think Caffeine had an effect on me until I tried to paint some very fine details after my usual double shot

[cnsf]

OK, this is my final try.  I'm much happier with the results.  The photos give a little too much detail and they look better IRL.  https://imgur.com/3E9Qnnt

Edited January 17, 2022 by cnsf

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looks better but to me the paint appears very thick and a bit rough, normally it will go on quite thin and smooth, I normally have to apply a second coat, next time you use the paint perhaps add some thinners to it and see if you get a better result. 

 

Here's mine for comparison 

[cnsf]

1 hour ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Looks better but to me the paint appears very thick and a bit rough, normally it will go on quite thin and smooth, I normally have to apply a second coat, next time you use the paint perhaps add some thinners to it and see if you get a better result. 

 

Here's mine for comparison 

Thanks! Do I need to redo them again or is there a way to fix them? Should I sand them or use paint thinner to smooth them out? A second coat? Clearly, I’m not good at this. 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

9 minutes ago, cnsf said:

Thanks! Do I need to redo them again or is there a way to fix them? Should I sand them or use paint thinner to smooth them out? A second coat? Clearly, I’m not good at this. 

They do look a little rough to me but hopefully one of the @Deployment Officer Team will chime in. 

 

I would not build up the paint anymore it will just make it look worse. I wouldn't sand either as you will scratch the gloss finish of the plastic. I normally use rough automotive buffing compound to clean off any mistake paint or mineral turpentine which is a little more gentle than using thinners, which could also damage the plastic depending on what type of thinners you are using. 

[cnsf]

52 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

They do look a little rough to me but hopefully one of the @Deployment Officer Team will chime in. 

 

I would not build up the paint anymore it will just make it look worse. I wouldn't sand either as you will scratch the gloss finish of the plastic. I normally use rough automotive buffing compound to clean off any mistake paint or mineral turpentine which is a little more gentle than using thinners, which could also damage the plastic depending on what type of thinners you are using. 

I used mineral spirits for the gray paint to remove it and isopropyl alcohol for the blue paint.