greenyone

Thanks Jaekputt. That's a great idea. I see them on Amazon for $7 dollars. By the reviews it seems this is a popular choice for costume helmets. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002VECKRO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Another observation with the MC bucket is symmetry. Not having much experience with costume helmets made from molds I can only assume this may be an issue with all of them to a certain degree. Cal's ABS parts are marked with trim lines which seem to be spot on for getting the parts to line up with the roto-cast bucket. (see photos in previous post where they are mocked up with tape). However... I'm noticing 2 issues thus far. The visor sits higher on the wearers left side and the eye hole is bias to the right. For you veteran Scout helmet builders/wearers, is this something you'd be concerned with or should I take an OCD pill? (disclaimer, I work in QA and engineering so these type of things really stand out to someone with my background)

So far this MC helmet is going together nicely. I'm far from finished but here are my initial thoughts. The kit comes with everything needed minus the finishing materials (paint, bondo) and padding. The inclusion of a thermoformed eye lens is nice, however I'm leaning toward trying to use something else. Maybe a trimmed to fit lens from a ski or motocross goggle. Reason being... I think the thermoforming process really does a job on the optical clarity of the transparent plastic. I mean BAD!!! It's like looking at a dirty fun-house mirror. If this were nothing but a shelf display helmet this would be more than fine, but for those who plan on trooping in it for hours on end this could quite literally cause headaches.

I'm getting 2.5 lbs on my scale (sans paint and bondo)

A little more work fitting the visor today. I used some metal snips to remove the bulk of the extra material, then followed up with a drum sander attached to my drill press to get things closer. All final sanding will be done by hand. I get nervous cutting into purchased parts that I can't reproduce myself. I hope I don't EFF this up.

Not much time to tinker today, but I did get a little time to remove some of the mold slag from the rotocast portion of the MC bucket. A metal file took care of most of it, followed up with some sandpaper to smooth things out. MonCal calls this a "Grade B" helmet kit due to the mold having some imperfections. He was kind enough to mark the areas that need some Bondo attention in marker.

My MC bucket showed up today. Got some work cut out for me.

Yes. I actually already took the plunge and cut that area of the boots out.

Has anyone cut out the ankle padding on this type of work boot? It seems on every pair I've seen (if you are looking for it) you can see that extra padding under the vinyl. I kinda think I could forego the ankle support for aesthetics in a pair of costume boots. Thoughts?

I think these are done.

One in the can. On to the left boot.

Since I don't have my armor kit yet, TB99920 was kind enough to loan me a spare knee pad to work up my boot height.

New logo idea.

Thanks Chopper. I'm not looking to set a world speed record on this build, so waiting for a run is not a big issue with me....but in that same vein, is there an average build time for one of these costumes?

Looking forward to working on it. I ordered the roto-cast resin bucket with ABS visor/face. Cal said the bucket may need some minor body work before paint, but I suppose that's true of all helmets. Can you comment on the MC armor kit? I have yet to order a kit, but it's quickly becoming apparent that I'm going to need armor parts to properly size up a lot of the soft parts.

I just used the regular ol' angle tipped blades. I must have bought a 300 of them in bulk years ago when I was skinning droids by hand in HIPS (styrene).

X-acto blades dull out very quick. I think the trick to nice cuts is to split the boot into 4 areas of attack and swap the blade out when you finish 1/4 of the boot. So 8 blades total for the boot pair.

Ha. That's from my lurker hound. He's always close by.

Here is a reference photo of a Navy coverall and a tag if anyone else wants to go this route. To the best of my knowledge the Navy has used this coverall from the 80's up until present time. I've seen them on Ebay...so they are out there for purchase if you look around. Just make sure you get one that is not marked up with a paint pen name tag. In my earlier years in the Navy we were issued a paint pen and a cardboard stencil of our last name. You literally used the stencil to paint your last name over one of the chest and butt pockets. The chest probably is less of a concern that the rear that could be visible on the Biker Scout costume. Later on they started to issue an embroidered name tags that were stitched on instead of painting directly to the coverall. (which would be easily removed unlike the paint pen). I should also note that the Navy must use several different contractors to manufacture these. Of the few pairs I have, the tags show different manufacturers. Not to worry, they are all exactly the same in construction/appearance.

While waiting for what seems like eons for E6000 to dry, I turned my attention to the under-suit. I ordered the popular RedKap coverall but was very disappointed in how heavy the material is. As I operate R2 at most indoor events in the cooler months (where he rolls safely) I really wanted something thinner and cooler to wear when I'm in full Biker Scout garb...which will most likely be the summer months. Having spent a number of years in the US Navy and a lot of that time wearing the standard blue thin weight GI issued utility coverall, I dug into my dusty old SeaBag and came out with a few pairs. One of which has never even been worn. All of the pockets are external which should make dumbing this thing down to a simple pocket-less jumper very simple. Only real issue is the dark navy blue color. Reading about the popular RIT brand fabric dyes, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they make a line of products for synthetics and synthetic blends. The Navy coverall is actually the same 65% 35% polyester/cotton blend as the RedKap suit...albeit a much thinner grade of fabric. (more like a high thread count bed sheet vs the RedKap which feels like a heavier canvas). I used two bottles in a 3 gallon stainless pot on the stove-top. FYI, the Dye More line must be done over heat. A tight squeeze in there with the water. If I had to do this again I'd find a larger pot as there was very little room to stir and flip the coverall around in the pot without spilling hot dyed water everywhere. The instructions say to leave the garment in there for at least 1/2 hour. I stood over the stove stirring and flipping the coverall over for a full hour to be safe. The next step was simply rising it with warm water, then cool water until the dye stops flowing out. I did this in the stainless kitchen sink to avoid staining other sinks in the house which are probably porcelain coated. Here is the end result. A much darker black than the brand new RedKap coverall. For those of you using the RedKap and want it to be a darker black, I would guess this product would do the trick....however you'd need to source a much larger pot than I used for the thinner weight Navy issued garment.

Looks like there is an attachment limit. I guess photos need to be a URL or other media. Anyway here is a photo of one of my toe strips.

Next was cutting out the 1/2 toe strip. I used a 24" strait edge and razor knife to cut these to size. Cutting a 24" piece in length gave me some extra to trim off later at mid foot. Cheesewhoopy uses CA to attach these in his turorial, but after test fitting my boots I was worried about the non flexible CA (super glue) causing issues where my foot bends. I chose a hybrid attachment method. I marked off the areas where my foot bends on the boot in pencil and used more E6000 in those areas. The tip area of the toe seems to be the area with the least amount of movement, so it's mostly CA up there. Also, noticing that the E6000 does not seem to create a good bond to smooth surfaces, I took some sand paper to the flexible areas of the boot where the strip will attach. Hopefully this rougher sanded area of the vinyl helps give the E6000 something to bite into. Time will tell I suppose.

Next was cutting a piece of the vinyl to begin covering the front portion of the boot. I found for my size boot (10), a piece of vinyl the same size as a sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper is just about the perfect amount of material to use for the front/toe area. I had a boot stretcher handy which made keeping the boot nice and stiff during the heat stretching phase a little easier. I own a cheapo Harbor Freight heat gun but was worried that it may be a little too aggressively hot for the vinyl. I turned to my wife's hair dryer (not nearly as hot) )to be safe but quickly ditched it for the extra power of the actual heat gun. It made very quick work in the heat stretching. I guess you just need to be careful in not letting too much heat build up in one spot or you risk melting things. After I was satisfied with the stretched vinyl and removed it and slathered on some E6000 as was suggested in the tutorial and waited about a day and a half for that to firm up. First attempt did not go well. The vinyl seemed to really penetrate into the rough surface of the KingShow boot like a sponge. Another heavy application of the E6000 and a good 24 hours of dry time and that issue was resolved. For boot #2 I pro-actively put a thinner primer coat of E6000 on the boot and let it tack up for a few hours, then went back and put on a generous coat right before pinning down the vinyl. This worked much better. Now the vinyl is very securely bonded with both boots. Another pleasant surprise with these particular boots is that the soles are made of some sort of gummy material that the E6000 will no bond to. Which meant any excess that squeezed out in that area can just simply be peeled off once dry.

Starting with the Cheeswhoopy boot tutorial, I picked up a yard of white marine vinyl, some E6000, the KingShow brand boots on Amazon and started hacking away with an X-acto knife.

I've been trooping for several years with the local RL (Ghost Base) and 501st (Starkiller Garrison) here in Western Pennsylvania. I use the term 'troop' very loosely because I'm in plain clothes trying to blend in as best I can while controlling/puppeteering an R2-D2. I've finally decided to suit up and chose the biker scout for my first ever costume build. I blown away from the breadth of knowledge here on this forum. I have an MC bucket on order but in the meantime I've started to gather some parts/materials to chip away at some of the 'low hanging fruit' in this build.

If you've had success with it then I'm probably going to use a CA myself. Like I mentioned. The E6000, although flexible, doesn't seem to create a very strong bond on smooth or semi smooth surfaces. I did come across a craft forum where people swear by 'Loctite 4901' CA glue. The claims are that it's truly the only flexible CA glue/solvent that is actually flexible as advertised. But it cost in excess of $50 for a measly 20 gram. bottle!!!