Scout472 Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 And so it begins, the brown box! So excited, but have no idea what to do next. This thread will be a fairly rambling affair, as due to my time constraints I will not be following any set sequence. There won’t really be anything new here that hasn’t been seen on this site before, but I am posting it in the hope that if I am heading off down a rabbit hole, that someone will give me a shout and steer me back on course. Great looking SC kit. Picked up the gloves which look good to me. Any issues with these? Decided that I would start with the boots. I have never worked with plastic before so I am just going to leave the armour at this point while I read lots so I don’t make a very costly mistake. So I picked these up from Big W for $30. Comfy, correct colour sole, cheap. Again, if I bugger it, it is only a cheap pair of shoes not hundreds of dollars of plastic. So decided to attempt to make the soles more screen accurate. Marked out the groove pattern and carved with a square end modelling blade. I think they have come up pretty well. Time for a break and some inspiration! So revitalised after a solid dose of ROTJ. Time to start some painting. When I ordered the boiler suit, it only mentioned a double zip, but when it arrived it had two nice shiny press studs at the top. So I masked them up and sprayed the two studs black and also did my snout and visor studs in a neutral grey. The tank topper I masked to spray the red stripe and hand painted the white dot. Not really happy with my skills at hand painting. May come back to that. Also broke out the sewing machine and hit the boiler suit. Pockets gone, legs taken in (way too baggy), neck seal attached. So finally decided to start work on the helmet. Decided to black the interior. Couple of reasons for this, but mainly I think it will provide better contrast and make it easier to see out. Also, as I am in the tropics I have invested in some micro fans to keep the air circulating. Still not sure whether these will be mounted front or rear. I will test it once I am able to put on the helmet. Today, was the day. Made my first cut into plastic! Took out the eyes from the helmet. I think I need to take a bit more off the top and deepen the bottom of each eye. Any feedback? (On advice I got from my local garrison forum I opened up the eyes a bit more.) Ok. So it has been a busy week with work but I managed to get a bit of time to keep chipping away at my TB build. It’s not much, but I did get the arms of my armour completed. I have rounded the shoulder bells (following the build thread by Pandatrooper). T-bits attached and all the Velcros and straps finished. I added some extra Velcro inside the arm pieces to hold them in position and will put the other half on the undersuit. I finished getting the thermal detonator together. Finished painting the helmet, blacking the inside and preparing the snout for attaching the greeblie. Once the inside was painted I was able to cut the ears Then I worked on installing the fans. Some knead-it to place the attachment bolts, confirmed the fit, touch up spray to complete the black lining, a bit of dodgy soldering and it was done. The cabling needs some work to neaten it up, but the overall effect is good. Still need to modify the left fan as it is a bit noisy but the right one works a treat. With the bolt holes rebored, the lens in place, foam inserts stuck on and the decals attached the helmet is complete. Well, I think it is. Any comments or advice from the crowd? Then I hit the sewing machine. I got kind of caught up and realised as I was finishing the ribbing that I hadn’t taken any photos. Anyway, about 45 minutes later and this was the result Had to try on the completed parts to see how it was looking I reckon one more weekend of solid work and it will be pretty close to complete. Any advice or changes would be greatly appreciated. As this is my first build I could really do with some help from the more experienced scouts. Cheers 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southscout Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 What do you need us for? Seems like you got everything spot on Well, except the TD. The rank badge greeblie, the left one, should have the pointy things upwards. I think that's the norm these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scout472 Posted October 23, 2013 Author Share Posted October 23, 2013 Thanks Southscout. I debated over the TD. I have been following the Pandatrooper build and also there are Bluray screenshots from ROTJ that show it with the notch facing down. Will this be an issue? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 There is argument for both when you go through the screen grabs. Most people nowadays tend to have it the other way up as Patrik mentions. I doubt it will be a clearance issue. Everything looks to be coming on nicely. The ribbing on your bund looks a bit wide, ideally you want to be able to see all the ribs between your pouches when they are in place. And the pouches don't want to sit under your armpits. The ribs want to be about 1" wide each, or less depending on your body size. Again, probably won't be a clearance issue (depending on your GML), but something to be aware of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scout472 Posted October 23, 2013 Author Share Posted October 23, 2013 Thanks Chef. The ribbing was spaced to match the width of the codpiece. Each rib is about 1 1/4". I can unpick it and resew them narrower, especially as i am a light build that will make my pouches sit better. Thanks for the tip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmrhodes13 Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 Looking good, nice work keep it up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinxx44 Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 Looking good. I've been trying to find how to mount the faceplate with the dome. Did you use the bolts the SC lid came with? And if so, how did you get it to sit flush? I just don't know how to get around that damn square Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scout472 Posted October 24, 2013 Author Share Posted October 24, 2013 Quinexx, yeah I used the bolts that came with the kit. I first put it together with a little tiny bolt and found that the predone holes were in slightly the wrong spot. I marked up with texta and drilled a small guide hole that the tiny bolt would fit in. Now I had confirmed the correct alignment I used my Dremel to cut the holes on the face plate and visor as squares. On the helmet I made it a round hole so the bolt could rotate to raise the helmet. I will take some photos when I get home to illustrate. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crikk Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 Looks pretty darn good sir! Nice job on the boots (cutting the soles) looks like you've got it handled pretty well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pleasum Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 This is really a great build man! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quinxx44 Posted October 24, 2013 Share Posted October 24, 2013 That does help! Thanks for the info! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scout472 Posted October 25, 2013 Author Share Posted October 25, 2013 Hey Chef, I spent last night unpicking and resewing the ribbing on the cummerbund. Given my small frame the narrower ribs looks heaps better. I also finished my first pouch and with the new ribbing it's sits much better than it would have with the original stitching. I also had an idea when I was out buying fabric to make my flak vest. I have decided to make some bits that bare no relevance to getting my outfit approved but will add a macabre and humorous element. I bought some different coloured fur and faux leather and I am making some trophy Ewok paws to hang from my belt. Those pesky little critters! Photos to follow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scout472 Posted October 30, 2013 Author Share Posted October 30, 2013 I had a reasonably productive weekend. Finally sourced some white vinyl and made a start on my boots. Only got the toes stretched and glued, but they are on their way. Another first for this build was I installed my first rivet! I reinforced the inside of the knee armour by gluing an offcut of ABS then drilled and attached the top knee strap. Test fitting was tricky but got them done and the confirmatory fit was good. Then it was time to hit the sewing machine. On advice from Chef I redid the ribbing on the front of the cummerbund, making each rib narrower, then I knocked up a couple of pouches pretty quick. Had to scale them down a bit coz of my smaller frame, but the proportions were retained so I hope this will pass when it comes to approval. I was able to source some good, cotton, off-white webbing at Spotlight so I but couldn’t find any decent off white fabric that I thought would work for the pouches. So I started making tea. Lots of test strips later I had a match. (top = original pouch fabric, middle is the cotton webbing I will use on my drop boxes, bottom is the pouch fabric after soaking in tea and drying in the sun) So with great trepidation I threw my shiny new white pouches into a pot of hot tea. So here is the end result with the off white pouches on the white cummerbund with an example of the drop box webbing. Over the course of the weekend, while waiting for glue to dry, tea to boil, pouches to dry etc, I decided to add a bit of macabre humour to the build. Maybe it is the Halloween spirit getting to me. So, I built some Battle of Endor trophy Ewok paws! I guess I was a bit ambitious with my comment last weekend that one more weekend would do it. Hit a bit of a snag with building my own flak vest as well, but got some great advice from my local 501st Garrison mambers. I won’t have a chance to do any more for a couple of weeks as I will be away with work next weekend. Thanks again to everyone who has chimed in with advice. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chef Posted October 30, 2013 Share Posted October 30, 2013 That bund looks much better. Top job. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kosejonas Posted June 30, 2017 Share Posted June 30, 2017 Iknow this is an old thread. BUT... I like you build and would love to see the final result! Got pics? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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