FarEast

So while the printer was chugging away I decided to get some paint down - Masking off the mask was a simple task and very therapeutic after the printer fiasco! Hmmmmm. Shoretrooper for Volcanic beaches? I had contacted Montana Gold directly and was sadly informed that they can't ship the paint to Japan due to the chemicals used in it and that its a low pressure canister. However they did put me in contact with a Japanese supplier of FLAME and gave me a paint code that they said should match. NOPE! To dark, way to dark - however I'm going to leave it as it is a very good base coat and will enable me to use it as preshading in the recessed areas and will add some nice contrast in the worn areas when I come to do weathering.

I'm having a lot of issues right now with the printer miss printing the thin wall sections of the Front armor. It's a real PITA! The top and bottom printed fine but the central middle section just doesn't want to play! I ended up laying it flat on the print bed rather than vertical, I will see how this pans out tonight when I get home. All of the parts for the replacement heater core came plus a few extras so I don't need to worry about down time! and with the whole of Saturday gone rebuilding the extruder assembly and calibration I was good to go! I also upgraded the nozzles to hardened steel! Our first catch of the day! Sadly the last attempt was on the central middle was going perfectly until I had a piece of filament snap off in the PTFE Hot-end tube and the print failed! I was so gutted! This also meant I had to completely take apart the extruder again and clean out the offending part. So back to the grind again!

Well I can tell you now its TOO dark! Looks like I'll be having custom paint mixed after all.

So I was put in direct contact with the great people at Montana Gold, sadly they confirm that shipping to Japan is impossible due to the nature of the chemicals used in the paint and that its a pressurised can - however they did put me in contact with a company call Zakai and specifically a colour from the FLAME range. FLAME / FB-704 beige brown So I've ordered the VERY last 2 cans of this to compare with the samples that Stefan has kindly posted out to me. But either way its a win as I will either have either enough paint to do the helmet or actual samples that can be used to mix an exact copy of the colour by Montana Gold

Guys also need some advice - I noticed on prop photos and some members builds that they are texturising the finish of their helmets with Rust-Oleum products - is this something I should also be doing as I can not see it mentioned on the CRL list for the Shoretrooper

So.....I finally finished sanding and priming the helmet and put down a coat of flat black Mr. Hobby 500 grade primer. I use this extensively for some of the professional work I do as its incredibly hard wearing. So this afternoon I will then spray a coat of flat black paint and let it cure and then apply a flat clear coat. Sadly there isn't a lot I can do now until I get the printer running again or the test samples for the paint arrive.

Thats great for you Wannabeuk but I can't get it in Japan as there is no importer for it here, Sure I can get it shipped but it has to be ground shipped from either Europe or the US and that's going to cost me over 300 USD - If I can find a supplier willing to actually ship it! Cheaper and faster to have a liter mixed up through a paint shop here.

Many thanks! I found it yesterday so once I get the printer Runner me again I’ll be back at it!!! Also I found a paint shop that can replicate the Montana Gold Sahara beige using spectrum analysis and pigment analysis - a little pricey but looking by at how much the paints go for it’s nto all that bad and I get it by the litre!!!

There’s a V2 Nooooooooo!!!! Is there a link to the V2 or is it in the Dropbox download with everything else?

Another busy weekend - both on the build and also making stuff for work and the kids! The first task was to give the helmet a coat of primer - this is more as an indicator for areas that need sanding or filler After a very dusty 2 hours I applied the filler and left to cure. The next morning I was back at it and happy with the results. Also another shipment of filament and some nice hardened steel nozzles arrived. The printer was also set to task on the chest plate. With the grey primer down again I decided to add some black - instantly some of the other imperfections and notable areas jumped out at me - I think I will buy black primer in future as it solves a lot of time! So again it was back to sanding and filling! With all this going on the Chest Plate completed its run and a small nightmare occurred. The wires to the heating element had come away! A Quick message session with Prusa sorted everything out and I also took the time to buy a few spare for future hardware failures.

Many thanks for that! I'll have another go at printing the parts to see what I get!

So far the job list is as follows. Respirator disk needs to have some of the holes cleaned up and drilled again. Major seam lines and defects in the print need filling and sanding back.

Morning all - Well fabrication of parts is complete and they are bonded together. What I would like is some peer review at this point to see where I need to work on the helmet to bring it up to spec for the 501st. Then I can make those changes and then paint. There are gaps and seem lines that need attention however those will be addressed once any changes that need doing are dealt with, All critique is welcome!

So I came home with some trepidation today knowing that there was a high possibility that the print had failed - so I went and walked the dog before checking on the print. Thankfully there wasn't a hot mess of PETG on the floor or a burning crater where the printer once lived but what looked like a part that could actually be used! With a bit of clean up using a sander, snips, and files I had a very usable part indeed! Time for some fun! So I had to get a bit creative with how to clamp the dome on to the lower section of the helmet.

So Wednesday night I get home to a print that I doubled up on, The eyebags and the brow - very clean print for the brow but the eye bags needed a little post work to get them nice and smooth. Maybe a little more work needs doing but I'll address that once the helmet is built. Now it was time to return to the front face plate that had been giving me some grief, more misprints than I can remember so I changed the print detail from ultra detail (0.05mm) to Optimal (0.15mm) layer height and a print speed of 30% This seemed to do the job and when I got home I was very pleased with the results. No misprints or problems so I decided to up the print speed to 50% - BAD MOVE you can actually see where it goes wrong, however it does not seem to have effected the overall build, yes there will be a lot more post production work required but if the nose and nose bridge are ok then I think the rest will be just a case of sanding smooth. I will see once I get home today! If not then it will be a long drag at 30% print speed. I'm hoping its usable as that will be the helmet complete and I can start bonding and preparing for paint this weekend!

Many thanks Sir! Just sent you a PM

Hey guys, I have a huge favor to ask my fellow troopers - It's pretty much impossible to get the Montana Gold and Halfords colours here in Japan and I was wondering if a kind soul could send me some test cards so that I can take them to a professional paint shop and have the colours mixed for me. Basically what I need is for someone to spray the colours used for the Armour on to individual pieces of card so that they can be then analysed and the colours matched. I will then post the results here so that other members can then use that data to have the colours professionally mixed.

o I came home from work to a completed left side so after cleaning off all of the supporting materials I first bonded them together and then once it had cured filled in the seam line. Again once this was done I used the electric sander to smooth down the weld and then switched to a sanding block. There was only one job left to do and which was to clean up the print bed and set the printer into motion again - During the early stages of the print the left corner of the brow started to peel off the bed, this was saved by pausing the print and then using some Pritt Stick glue under the print using a tooth pick and then rebonding it to the print bed. So this morning a quick tidy up of the new parts and then everything bonded. Time for a little dry fitting to make sure the build is properly aligned and no warping has taken place. Ohhhhhh yes! So with everything looking like it sits perfectly I've set the printer going on 2 of the last of 3 parts - Those should be ready when I get home tonight.

So with these fails I decided to clean and check the print nozzle as I was getting irregular filament flow and heavy stringing. With that done I went about printing the upper side walls. I started at a 30% print speed to lay the foundation and first few layers and then sped up the print by 10% increments after each 10% of the file was complete and checked on the progress for misprinting or other issues - Once It had reached 100% speed I decided to see if it could handle a bigger work load and increased it to 110% which it obliged happily although after the failures of the morning I brought it back to 100%. No printing problems so far! DONE! All of the supporting structure happily peeled away revealing the first of the upper side walls! A bit of dry fitting to see how it looks and if there is any warping of the materials - PETG is really good at retaining its shape and one of the reasons why its widely used by Cosplayers here in Japan. So my little Imperial Printer Droid seemed eager to get on so I fired up the opposite side and set it to work - again at a 30% print speed for the foundations and then once the first few layers of the main structure were down I brought the settings straight up to 100%

So while I was letting the putty cure I was back on the printer making the face plate and this is where things started to get tricky! This file my printer REALLY didn't like !After 5 attempts with different speeds- support material setups I decided to stop and see if it was the printer or the file. With standard pillar support With Sean's modified file Both resulting in either a misprint or the actual print snapping off due to a weak support frame! This is going to need more research and I'd be interested to know what settings others used to print this part.

So this weekend I had big plans on getting the build of the helmet finished - sadly the printer had other ideas! So first thing was to chemically weld the parts of the lower helmet together using PETG putty - using the support structure and the nasty chemical stuff I melted down the PETG in a glass Tamiya bottle - I know the plastic they use doesn't seem to react to anything nasty so I knew I was safe with them. This I painted all over the joins making sure that it went in between the cracks and that it had a pretty good coat height ready for it to be sanded down. I left it for a few hours outside to let the vapors vent off and then went at it with the electric sander. A few areas that will need filling are gloss black but with a few coats of primer and sanding back they won't be visible. I'm tempted to paint the chemical over the top of the sanded area to bring back the black gloss, however as this will be primed there is little point.

So the left and right cheek parts failed, due to my wife trying to move it for some reason. So I decided that it was best to print them separately as it would be faster and safer. I used the downtime to check the recalibration of the XYZ axis, unfortunately it seems that she twisted it when she picked up so and slightly twisted the axis - that was easily solved by loosening the Y-axis putting it on a perfect flat surface and retightening everything. so with all the recalibration done it was back to printing! Dry fitting - the tolerances are very So with it bonded it was time to see how it was looking!!

I emailed Sean and he kindly told me they are with the rest of the Shoretrooper files! I guess in my excitement I over looked them! www.dropbox.com/sh/imzv4ozzy2kp7nj/AAB10VAQLbe9F6Is2G0JV8N6a?dl=0

Many thanks - its seriously good mental rehabilitation after my accident although building the printer was rather amusing for my wife to watch. I've noted others have mentioned that Sean released the 3D print files for an E22 blaster but I've search for them but can't find them anywhere. Do you or anyone else know where they can be obtained??? Opps! I guess in my excitement I overlooked that folder!

I'm also interested in the files!