TikiTechie TLJ First Order TK Build Thread

[TikiTechie[TK]]

It's almost one year to the day that I began building my ANH Stormtrooper kit.  I'm 20 troops in, having fun experiences, making good friends.

After so long without a project, it was time to expand my kit collection and join the First Order.  Sticking with the always recognizable, always popular clean storm trooper kit.
I love the Star Wars Resistance show and I have some fellow troopers with some FO kits, so I want to expand on that. I also enjoy the Galaxy's Edge troopers. Their banter is always entertaining.

 

Since I didn't really do a build thread of any sort for my first kit, I wanted to start out with one. Mostly because this kit seems like it might need some feedback on way to approval.

Some details about the build

 

First Order TK The Last Jedi

CRL: https://databank.501st.com/databank/Costuming:TK_TLJ

Kit: Imperial Surplus (I don't think they offer this kit any longer, so no link.)

 

Boots: KeepTrooping https://keeptrooping.com/product/trooper-white/

Gaskets: May be used from a fellow Mountain Garrison member. If not, likely Geeky Pink.

Helmet: Looking to get the Denuo Novo premier https://www.denuonovo.com/products/star-wars-the-last-jedi-stormtrooper-premier-helmet#description-flex

Blaster: 3d print from this site. I'll find the article link...

 

What am I forgetting? 

Edited September 21, 2023 by TikiTechie

[TikiTechie[TK]]

Day 0

The BBB day. A mixture of excitement and "what have I done"? 

 

 

I am not entirely sure if this kit

[TikiTechie[TK]]

Decided to start slow and watch some videos, namely Captain's Drydock & Equusvideo's youtube channels. 

 

Started a few cuts but mostly just doing a dry-run penciling where I will be cutting BEFORE I make any major cuts.  Novel, I know.

 

 

TLJ cod

 

There was one piece with a small broken corner that had been repaired by the previous owner.

 

Liberated the glove hand plates from the rear shins.

 

Shoulder bells waiting for the dremel to get a trim:

 

more pictures I'm sorting through.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looking forward to seeing the progress. In case you need it we do have a FOTK gallery area for referencing https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/gallery/category/14-tlj-tk-reference/

 

Good luck with the build

[TikiTechie[TK]]

On 9/11/2023 at 9:44 PM, gmrhodes13 said:

we do have a FOTK gallery area for refere

Yes that will help immensely. Thank you!

[TikiTechie[TK]]

Day 2

 

Progress, all large trimming complete. Sore wrists, blisters & cuts included.

 

First off, the trimmed lot. Actually, I have not trimmed the boxes & some of the smaller strips. But those aren't pictured anyway. 

 

A great way to measure success for a day. The trimmings pile.

 

For my own understanding, it helps to just lay the parts out and note where they will eventually be mounted.  Here are all the boxes. A fair number more than my Imperial TK!

 

It's been a long day, but I still have all my digits so I count it as a success. Another day, another step closer to completion.

[Sly11[Admin]]

I love the trimming part of an armour build, ha who am I kidding, I love the entire process!

With every cut comes confidence, with every examination of a reference image comes learning and knowledge, with every glued and assembled piece comes progress and excitement, what is there not to love.

Keep up the great work and updates Jim, you will be at the finish line before you know it.

 

 

 

[TikiTechie[TK]]

Getting more pieces trimmed & shaped. I'm trying to get the low hanging fruit done first to get me motivated. (Seeing the end in sight & progress keeps me moving forward more easily.)

 

This was a little bit of a set back.  Apparently the shipment was damaged so much it was undeliverable. Given the condition I've gotten things from Amazon, I'd like to have seen what they consider undeliverable.


Here are the hand guards. I'm thinking they need more shaping.  I'm not quite sure how much return edge the FOTK has. I removed a lot of it from my ANH kit, but it seems like I see more return on this kit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 15, 2023 by TikiTechie

[TikiTechie[TK]]

Here is my first big head scratching moment.  I can't seem to locate a good post on these forearms which shows the non-clip side.  

Does the trimming go to the shortest line?  I assume these butt-join and have a strip behind them?  Or are they supposed to overlap in some way?  I'm not sure if it got over-trimmed here or not.

The clip side is pretty clear where to trim and overlap, which makes it a lot easier.  I assume since the other side is on the "back" side it's not as big a deal since it's somewhat hidden, or at least in a less noticable spot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Same with the top panel.  Is this trim line correct?

 

Edited September 15, 2023 by TikiTechie

[TheRascalKing[TK]]

There are some pics in my thread that may help!

 

 

Edited September 15, 2023 by TheRascalKing

[TikiTechie[TK]]

4 hours ago, TheRascalKing said:

There are some pics in my thread that may help!

Yes this helps me immensely, thank you!  
 

[TikiTechie[TK]]

Lots of sanding today, mostly completed

 

1. Back plate

2. Chest plate

 

Started the gluing:

 

I'm using E6000. I don't have a steady enough hand for the unforgiving drips cyanoacrylate gives me.

 

1. Right leg outside (more on that later).  Once the glue sets overnight, the velcro goes on tomorrow.  The tabs are still WIP awaiting paint.

2. Left gauntlet, notched clips side. Gluing a shim tab to the smooth side that doesn't have any overlapping. (I guess?)

 

Kit kat troubles:

Due to bad lighting and not being careful I ended up with a stray cut into the side of the left bar. Looks like crap but I will end up doing some pasting on them so it will be ok

 

I've seen a comment about the thickness of the belt boxes and I'm not sure if my printed base is going to be a bit too thick. Got the files from Captains_Drydock which is a way nicer looking base than the hollow box base the kit came with and seems really difficult to attach.

 

 

I took a fair amount of trial and mostly error trying to get the shoulder yoke and supporter to mate up.  I can't tell if they just don't and glue will fill in the gaps (literally).

I cut away a lot based on some other comment I saw and I'm hoping I didn't go too far. Some photos of the progress.  It kind of pairs up and I'll probably just glue it tomorrow and if it doesn't fit up nicely with the back plate I'll hit it some more with the dremel.

 

 

 

 

I am looking to being done with sanding. 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

You just try to get the yoke/backplate to fit best you can, I used JB weld and it can be sanded but I still had to ass some bondo.

 

 

 

A place that flexes is the top of the yoke over the shoulders, it's a good idea to add some support behind the return edge

 

 

From Tony's build

 

@ukswrath came up with a metal support to help

 

 

I didn't cut a slot for my shoulder tabs I made them wrap around so you aren't creating a weak area

 

Belt box reference 

[TikiTechie[TK]]

2 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

I didn't cut a slot for my shoulder tabs I made them wrap around so you aren't creating a weak area

 

I like that idea. Ardeshir's video mentions that the lack of flex in the metal bracket might lead to cracks and that made sense to just use a plastic tab instead.  I like the bent tab if it's strong enough to last.  Where do you run your shoulder bell straps? Not through-hole like I see most others?  

 

I was trying to avoid painting if at all possible (probable?) so was considering abs pasting instead of the weld.  I haven't decided for sure.

Edited September 17, 2023 by TikiTechie

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

48 minutes ago, TikiTechie said:

I like that idea. Ardeshir's video mentions that the lack of flex in the metal bracket might lead to cracks and that made sense to just use a plastic tab instead.  I like the bent tab if it's strong enough to last.  Where do you run your shoulder bell straps? Not through-hole like I see most others?  

 

I was trying to avoid painting if at all possible (probable?) so was considering abs pasting instead of the weld.  I haven't decided for sure.

I run the elastic under the yoke, the tabs have been strong enough so far. Inside I've added 3 extra support pieces of plastic to help prevent cracks, you need some give to get your arms through (especially with rubber gaskets) and unfortunately cracks are just going to happen.

 

Also with the elastic straps I have the front ones slightly shorter, this helps pull the shoulders in at the front after moving your arms so the gaps look better.

 

You may be lucky just to use ABS paste as long as you can fill and sand to a nice appearance, it's a lot of elbow work but it can be done, and has been by a few members now. We had to deal with some modifications on the earlier kits hence why most had to paint.

 

 

 

[TikiTechie[TK]]

Day 6 

 

Overnight glue set for gauntlet. It's pretty much how I imagined with a fairly prominent seam. I think the glue shifted a tiny bit and made it more visible, but even with no gap there's going to be no way to seal that without showing something.  This is where I miss cover strips.

 

 

 

The right shin looks pretty good. The seam is pretty even so I'm reasonably happy with it.  I did a try on and this thing will definitely need some padding to keep from jangling.

 

 

 

 

I tried out white paint for the first time Behr Gloss White is the one I've heard of most recently.  I was thinking maybe that would blend with the ABS but doesn't seem to be.   
I think it's ok as-is for the clip pieces, but painting the kit is drawing ever nearer.  

 

 

 

Does this white look correct?

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Gaskets can take up some of the gap, I did however had to add foam inside my shins to keep them central to the leg, they had been a bit doglegged looking at first

[TikiTechie[TK]]

Oh Snap! Mistake time.  Looks like I fell into the same trap Captains_Drydock did when putting the gauntlet together. 

 

 

The difficult bit will be where I chopped out two slots for the clip indents.  Not as severe as it could have been. I can still shim the edges and get a good join, but I'll need to fill in the gaps.  That'll probably not look great. But, it's only on the one side, fortunately I ran out of time to work on the right gauntlet.  

 

Can I leave it as is?  (see below for someone elses version.) I think it might look a little off.  

 

 

One thing I noticed while holding this up is that the right and left gauntlet edge with the clips is quite a bit longer on one side.  I'm not sure why, but it's significant. 

 

 

It also makes me wonder how I should go about attaching these since I had trimmed the base piece to accomodate the overlap.  I'll probably trim the back edge of the fin part to align better with the base.  I think I've seen other cuts on there to accomodate the wearer.

 

 

 

 

I think I took inspiration from this picture, which I think also has it wrong. Did it get approved like this? Can I leave it as is?  I ripped the pieces apart (thank you E-6000!) and cleaned them up for the next step.

 

 

So, what's next?  I have a 

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

It's entirely up to the GML as far as basic approval so any issues check with them first.

 

That said here are some references, two main types of rears on the forearms for TFA, standard and Finn (or Hero/Stunt), with TLJ being a straighter cut.

 

 

 

That is incorrect, should be same widths both sides

 

TFA

 

 

I doubt your tab recesses would be noticed but if you have to fill you could match those as well just to be sure.

[TikiTechie[TK]]

The list of components to be built is getting smaller. Glad to see progress. Sometimes it feels like I'm not making any.

 

 

The big components today, got both kidney pieces affixed to the abdomen. 
Tonight, glued the back  to the yoke and will let that sit until tomorrow eve.  Some more trimming needs to happen but the join is a closer fit than I was worrying.

 

 

 

 

This is the "rescued" gauntlet.  Not as bad as I was thinking when I first realized I'd messed something up. (Thanks to @ukswrath for his build log to indicate where I screwed this one up. Could have gotten a lot farther with a bad pair of gauntlets.)

 

After looking at the top gauntlet plates for awhile, I did realize they are slightly different. (It took me a long while to see the difference.)

 

 

Which one goes to which arm? I hadn't noticed this difference addressed in any threads. Are there other differences in these pieces? 

[ukswrath[Staff]]

This is the position of my Anovos armor

 

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Another photo, after paint. 

Hope this helps

 

[TikiTechie[TK]]

7 hours ago, ukswrath said:

This is the position of my Anovos armor

 

Awesome, thank you. I guess if they are hidden it's not all that critical, but I guess they are shaped that way to connect better, so it's good to know the right way.

[TikiTechie[TK]]

Day 8

Lots of things adding up.  Got the torso, yoke and chest into a wearable state! Very gratifying to be able to put something on, even though it's pretty rough sized. Still grate.

 

 

 

 

 

Got the gauntlets repaired and getting them assembled one by one.

 

 

 

Given the shape of it, I am wondering if this pencil line would work for a TLJ gauntlet.  I think I've seen some trimmed back gauntlets.

 

 

The torso and back zipper.

 

The butt plate straps are in kind of an inconvenient location so I'm not sure if I need to make a change yet.

 

 

 

 

The zipper was the straightest lines I've ever sown, maybe owing to the shape of the zipper.

 

The back right now is not trimmed back, just split down the middle.  The velcro should give it some will "room to grow" but it seems like the torso needs to tighten quite a bit so I will probably revisit in the near future.

 

 

Test fitting of abs & butt/cod

 

 

 

 

Trying to show the join here on the yoke to back join. It actually is pretty narrow gap and will hopefully only require minimal filling.

 

 

 

Edited September 20, 2023 by TikiTechie

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Should be fine

 

Looking good so far