CoryBoom's - Squad Leader Shoretrooper Build (Pic Heavy)

[CoryBoom]

Build Log for Shoretrooper Squad Leader based out of North Atlanta Metro Area - Georgia Garrison

Kit Info - Jim Tripon V1 ShoreTrooper

Bucket - Jim Tripron V1 ShoreTrooper Bucket (Old/Backup) and Anovos (Replacement)

Soft Parts - Under suite and Jophers Jim Tripon

Kama - The Darkside Closet

Belt - Imperial Boots

Rubber Straps - 850 Armor Works

Paint - Montana Gold Sierra Beige, Dupli-Color Toyota Super Red II 3e5, Ford FIESTA Light Blue TO/XSC-1401A (Fords North America Nordic Blue), Montana Gold Shock Black, Montana Gold Shock White, Montana Gold Yellow Paint Marker.

Ordered: January 2017 - BBB Date - February 2017- Started February 2017 - Ended : WIP

 

Hello! This is my build log for my Shoretrooper in a squad leader variant. This will be my 501st application entry.

 

BBB Day (BBB Box Photo missing :\) This was when originally the Squad Leader had the ammo satchel optional config in the CRL. (Will use it for the Mud trooper or something else in Solo or another spin off )

 

Prep Sanding 600 and 800 grit Wet sanded with sanding sponges and paper.

 

Warm bath with soap to clean off the sanded materials and if there was any more release agent.

 

The initial Paint collection when I was new and foolish... *note I probably did not use any of these cans or paint markers when said and done. Besides the plasti dip that I used for the inside of the armor*...

 

 

 

More post to come (bondo, helmet, priming prep next!)

[TK8271 Rogue Trooper]

Keep posting brother and we will guide you to make the best armour you can

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[CoryBoom]

Appreciate it Stefan! I am getting close to the realm I am unfamiliar with rigging it up (Later post bellow ) I have the materials. Its just putting together in a correct fit.

 

First layer white primer to offset the black resin this is the first layer of many primer layers

 

 

 

Love the saw horse for this job.

 

 

 

Not a whole lot of pin holes for the armor besides the belt boxes! Good thing Primer shows it well! Off to repair it with Bondo and sanding. After that I did another bath on all armor parts that were primed to be safe the spray can accelerate, dust and hand oils are cleaned off.

 

 

Bondo with Glazing spot putty

 

[CoryBoom]

Working on E6000 Parts together. Then fulled the small gaps that the E6000 did to fill with MilliPut (Easy to sand down two part Epoxi type fill material that can be smoothed down with water)

 

For prosperity purposes how I cleared Jim Bucket lens section. Did not know this is the right or wrong way to do it. It worked though! filled any seperated gaps with Milliput.

 

Drilled holes allover the lens are. Careful since the cast is not uniform throughout and will fracture unexpectedly.

 

Metal Snips to get the bulk of the center. Once again this can go wrong quick! Start in the center and work to the edges. Blue tape their to protect slight grazes with metal tools.

 

 

After cutting!

 

 

Used this fine tooth hack saw to cut down to the needed length on chunks that were a built tricky that metal snips cult not snap easily.

 

 

Big file works relay well! Be safe with this thing it will eat away quick!

 

 

Done!

 

 

Oh yeah I got the Anovos bucket Side by side

[CoryBoom]

Same day I sanded the insides of all the armor and plasti dipped the inside of it. The Fiberglass will be there slightly frayed. Even if you do not see it it is there. (Had to use some tape to pull the suckers out of friend skin that were irritating her.) As you can see I was multi tasking rotating between priming (ran out of white primer and started to use black), plasti dipping and opening the lens up.

 

Some of the parts I been advance prepped before the big group to test how the primer will work and see what is a good dry time before the next bath. Also a confidence boost to get me to the next step. Besides some sanding help by friends its has been me alone to do this.

 

 

 

I was going so hard on sand-able auto priming that I was running out of everything started to use this brown reddish primer for a second layer on most of the parts (I just grabbed what ever was left on the store shelves since I am going to use a filling gray primer before base layers.). Kinda cool look. Once these dry I will start to do final sanding and another soapy water wash to clean off any spray paint chemicals that caused the next layer to bubble. (I figured that every layer I needed to do this since my first try it was reacting inappropriately). Also during the wash I would sand down any over paint with 800 - 1000 grit sand paper.

 

This is the bath area in the lawn as I continue to prime

 

 

 

I used a pasta drying rack for parts to dry!

 

Started to put down the first layer of grey primer, dark brown under paint and Montana Sierra Beige. (Found the Cans at a local art store near SCAD Atlanta and my local Blick's Art store when they are in stock (they tend to restock two at a time locally))

 

 

At this point different parts are in different stages based on their complexity or how long they took to repair and sand .

 

[CoryBoom]

Started to buckle down and get all the pieces into the same state of Priming. The self fill grey auto primer. I layered down beautifully with all the prior prep! At this point I have been at it for 5 months with other projects helping other 501st members with their kits (they found out I can paint and they needed help to get there kits past the finish line). The prime and plasti dip pass was the biggest burst of effort and to two weeks to finish a White layer, a color primer layer after repair and sanding, and finally a gray filler primer layer to finish it off.

 

 

Parts primed grey and then under layer painted dark brown (dark brown was how the parts were cased in the making of R1). If there was any areas that were needed to be painted black then this would also be the point of the area that this was done. Also I under painted the sleeve Montana Sierra Beige and then auto spray paint the Toyota Red that was used. The under layer of beige is there if I ever sand down to it to show it before a dark brown. (you can see the sleeve on the traffic cone drying)

 

Anovos Bucket for reference of how much more I need to go but It is getting there. I am learning so much!

 

[UT Trooper]

You need to not finish it so you can keep taking pictures of us at troops!

 

Looking good! Can't wait to see a shore in GA Garrison

[CoryBoom]

Joe! Hey! Hahaha I appreciate that! Ill still be doing photo trooping. It makes me happy that everyone loves when we do it.

 

Build Notes:

Onto paint time! One of the reasons beside being able to sit in kit was the absolute awesome color the armorhad and the bucket. The test pieces worked out and I am getting the hang of how the Montana spray cans work (Shake 5 min and let sit for a bit and then spray out the accelerator on a spray cloth or cardboard. Go fast but stay two feet away or you will be wasting time and paint this stuff is very opaque but the comes out at is very low PSI. It self levels fairly well).

 

Outside with a beach canopy to stop the afternoon rain from interrupting my painting or the prior days rain from falling on my pieces. Nothing will stop progress!

 

 

Now getting to the fine details of under paint masking. Masked off areas of a specific color (Primer, next black, the dark brown, the Sierra beige then special accent colors like rank bars, red sleeves or the yellow U)

 

 

The back plate masked off the black/brown over paint for the sierra beige, Used cotton swap fuzz to fill the vents and blue tape to cover the larger areas. Of to the Sierra beige races!

 

Used 6 total cans (had to sand some over spray, dust build up or the humidity was so heavy that the paint would pinhole or bubbled. This was either the paint did not de-gass or it was taking a lot longer to dry due to the Georgia humidity. I had to re do some of the paint job. Wet sanded, soap and water let dray and started again. At this point every layer is a day and I let the paint de-gas before washing it down and letting it dry over night) Used 1000 grit sand paper for the wet sand

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally Done after three weeks of non stop painting after work.

 

 

At this point I had life catch up to me and I needed to step away from the project... I would not touch this for five months...

[CoryBoom]

By the time I felt like I could work on the kit it became winter in Georgia... A long one

 

 

I flirted with the idea to go grunt at this point just to be done, and since all my avenues to find a Kama maker was coming up dry and nordic blue was hard to come by (till I did more digging after an odyssey you will read in a latter post). So I picked up a Mr.Paul thigh plate armor since I did not prep my original kit plates since they required a flexible wing(?) to be attached. Also I was curious of the build and paint quality I am expected to make my kit. Lets just say these kits a labor of love.

 

I also removed the blue tape masking and ear swab fluff

 

Shortly after the new year I found "The Darkside Closet" who is based out of Florida and is super reptible and made good works for 501st approval quality under suits and Kamas for the Shore trooper. I will be buying my next under suit from him to say the least after I got my Kama with lots of updates and easy of transactions.

 

 

Got it and loved it (Photo with non Jim's jophers pants not dyed yet but his under shirt Anovos helmet pre repaint)

 

Onto finding the right Nordic blue replacement after I did some more creative ventures with some 501st members. Namely repainting a Gramorian Mask with oil paints and rubber cement.

 

After gaining the kama I felt renewed on the squad leader front I started to work on rigging and test fitting. This is where I have stalled out and now I am working on painting the rank bars and logos. Also starting to re paint my Anovos bucket.

 

 

 

 

 

(Next update: 1) I get Plastezote black foam for the arm holes. 2) Next Small guy (me) test fitting into a round models fiberglass kit. 3) I try different blue spray cans to color match Nordic Blue 4) Make a grey blue close to nordic blue with chalk paint 5) finding the paint code for the Ford Fiesta Light blue (Aka Nordic blue but for North America) 6) Progress shots for paint overs.

[CoryBoom]

Shop night awhile ago. Getting the Plastezote foam cut out. It not finished. I am trying to strap up before I make the foam attached to the armor.

 

Getting ready to work on one part of the set and test fit. (I guess I deleted the test fit photos with the foam loosely held)

 

Butcher paper templet over the Plastezote foam

 

Getting it lined up inside

 

Plenty of material to cut away

 

Next I fixed so more Velcro use on the arm and instead of a full line of velcro I just use the pre cut ovals instead. The other side is E6000 shut.

[CoryBoom]

On to the silly journey of me fining a Nordic blue color alternative by mixing different colors, before finding out that the american color of Nordic Blue exists its just named different with a slightly different paint code...

 

This is the Nordic blue we know and love from halfords I found while looking for the color in the wild. Found it in use by a scale boat modeling group of all places. The maker was looking for a duck egg shell color. That gave me the idea to use that color in chalk paint.

*REFRENCE NOT PART OF MY BUILD*

*/REFRENCE NOT PART OF MY BUILD*

 

 

First my spray paint swatch with the widely used Montana Gold color of Himalaya and alternatives over a Saraha Beige base to see. Personally I do not like the Himalaya it way to sky baby blue for a gray blue that was suggested.

 

Next I mixed Chalk paint and got relay freaking close! I just progressively added a blue and a duck egg shell chalk paint till I pushed the green of the egg shell to a more grey blue hue.

 

Masked it up and went to town on the bells with the chalk paint that I was happy with the match. Used my airbrush for application. Note on chalk paint after you use one hopper fill of the stuff you have to clean the airbrush out. the chalk even if it was thinned will still cake up quick once exposed to air.

 

Lastly I found out Ford FIESTA Light Blue TO/XSC-1401A was Nordic blue but for North america... Oh well one step closer to piece on that front. Comparing it with my chalk paint mix on the spoon!

[CoryBoom]

Swatch test for weathering paint for the armor to match the Anovos bucket!

 

Grayish Brown - MR .Weather color (Mr.Hobby) works fantastic. I will need to color match with oils or an acrylic wash since the bottle is small. (Buckle is unweather to show a part that is just the Beige color.)

 

 

Different weathering colors test (bottles in the background)

 

 

For color watching reference if I need to make a larger batch of the two colors I used.

 

Multi Grey - MR .Weather color (Mr.Hobby) also works fantastic to desaturate the Nordic Blue based off of my swatch I did. Un touched bell for reference

 

[TK3100]

Nice work! I have Jim's armor too and one of the trickiest things was shaping the straps. They are very rigid and unforgiving. What glue are you using to fix these and the buckles?

[CoryBoom]

Nice work! I have Jim's armor too and one of the trickiest things was shaping the straps. They are very rigid and unforgiving. What glue are you using to fix these and the buckles?

 

I did not. if I knew these were going to be rigged and unwely I would of not primed them and painted them. I would of dunked them in 20 seconds of hot water then shaped them around some object roughly the same size as the parts.

 

I picked up 850 (US) rubber straps instead and skipped the rigged straps. Mr.Paul (UK) also sells rubber straps as well as Bone's (Germany).