FarEast

So last night I got home from work to find the base side walls complete. Nice clean prints however they are going to need some post production work - so I’ll be making so PETG putty later this week to hide the join lines and a few of the gaps, nothing major and to be expected on a large curved surface that’s broken in to parts. As soon as the print bed was cleaned off and prepared I set the printer off again to build the left and right cheek parts. At 5:00am this morning it was at 30% complete so it might be finished tonight when i get home. From there it will be on to the mask which will test the Z-Axis to its limits I think.

So that brings us up to today. I'm currently printing both the left and right sidewalls - here it has just at 6% and laying the foundations and the supporting structure. when I left the house this morning they were 96% complete Once I get home I'll start the cheek pieces, i'm not sure if I should do these separately or double up again.

Next up was the Blast shield mount and the shield itself - I got my first misprint after my mother in-law decided to touch it while it was running! So I stopped the run, cleaned it all off tossed the PETG waste in the recycle bin and started again! I also got some chemical bond that welds PETG together - much stronger than a glue. Sunday 28th I had a marathon in Shonan City near Yokohama and just before I headed out the door I put another print on - this time the back section of the helmet and the back rim. This is another nice technical part that required some support structure. These again are dry fitted to see if they meet up correctly and then bonded.

The next run was on the central helmet dome - this was a pretty long print and so I set up the printer to start early Friday morning and finish Saturday at some point - I still hadn't found out there was a stealth mode (Silent) and the wife was getting a bit annoyed with its constant whirling and chirping - the vibration noise was the main issue though! Sean's files are something else and this printed without any support structures -however the next print which was the cap dome sides would need some support structures in place. Using the Prusa Control software it was just a simple button click away! I decided to print both sides at the same time as this would save time but risky if it misprinted! A very long wait later! As you can see the support structures were needed. These just tear off leaving a very clean finish. Some more dry fitting to make sure there was no warping.

So it's been a while since I've built anything - I got hit by a car while riding home from work and sadly my left hand was pretty badly broken, crushed little finger, 4 out of 5 metacarple broken! the hand was in a pretty bad way and I was sporting more metal in my left hand than a Skywalker! So i'm well on the mend now with 4 sessions a week of physiotherapy and to get my mojo back I bought a Prusa i3 MK2s kit with the full intention of putting it to good use! The original plan was to build either a 1st Order Stormtrooper or a Death Trooper but having seen Sean Feild's amazing 3D files I decided to build this. So first of all, Thank you Sean for these files, utterly utterly beautiful! So first the 3-D Printer - this is an official Prusa i3 Mk2s kit build, yes I know there are clones for cheaper but as I was new to this I wanted and needed any support from a dedicated community. Obviously I got the black edition - it's an imperial droid after all! So I decided that I would print off the small detail parts first to get a feel for the printer - after reading several forums and talking to a few people that 3D print for a profession I decided to use PETG for the build. The greeblie came out perfectly so I then decided to move on to the more complex snout. So far so good! (everything dry fitted nothing bonded)

Well it looks like I got scammed, put my order in for the all the soft parts and boots and paid up front - nice as could be and they gave me an 8 week window for it to be finished if nothing major came up and 14 weeks if something happened. I build models on commission for a major manufacturer so I know what its like to have a nagging customer so I just let them get on and do their stuff. after 8 weeks I sent a mail and they told me they were running behind so I thanked them knowing this might be the case and then after 12 weeks did the same.... I got a response back on September 7th basically "Hello this is actually Gabes wife. He's gonna be having surgery in 2 weeks and we have been busy doing preop stuff. We are sorry the wait has been long. We are backed up and kinda stressed with our current situation. I am almost done with your order. We have also stopped taking orders over a month ago to catch up. We are doing the best we can with our current state. Again we are sorry for the delay I'll get on top of it asap" So today I thought I would follow up - well the shops gone from the FB page and no way to contact them. Kiss goodbye to my money!

Many thanks for suggesting Gabe at Sci-Fi Creations - seems touch and go with time frames but he is prompt in replies and the likes. Many thanks.

Many thanks!

Leo, Many thanks for the warm welcome!

Many thanks Spike - will take a look later this morning!

Many thanks for the welcome!

Spike - the first link I couldn't access - but I'm guessing you are able to supply. If possible could you PM me information about the services you provide.

So after completing my TK ANH Stunt build last year and never getting round to having it approved with the 501 due to being far to busy riding my bike I decided to switch and go for approval with a Biker Scout build - I mean I ride, so it makes sense right! So right now I'm looking at two vendors for armor and helmets - SC and also KS. Both I'm happy to cut and build myself. Now I'm wondering if the veterans here have any positive input in this regards as I got slightly burnt on my last build - so far the two mentioned have positive reviews around the web. Help me get off traffic duty!