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[mrfred]

Progress had been a bit slow this past month, as one would think be an easy part of the kit to complete, proved to be one of the more challenging...the fitting of the vest and---

---The Upper Armor Plates

Going back to my initial rough cuts of my upper armor chest pieces, I figured that the plates still seemed a bit too thick. The average thickness of the upper plates were about 12mm...too thick...so I measured out and trimmed them down to about 8mm, a decent thickness visually, I think.

Next I set out to cut out the slots for the left chest piece after reviewing reference screenshots.
Penciled it in first...


Then taped the area for the dremel cut...


After the cut I sanded the edges and prepared scrap ABS for the backing...


I added another layer of ABS from the interior side of the slots to give it a bit more depth before covering it with the backing.


Overall view of the upper plates...trimmed and sanded. The middle diamond originally came with a thicker middle resin piece, but I thought it was too wide when comparing it to the screenshot references, so I made a thinner one out of sintra.


Added EVA foam to the interior of the plates...the EVA foam was 10mm a bit too thick for the plates...


So I used a heat gun to shrink and compress it down to about a 6mm thickness.


Then glued on hook side velcro using contact cement.


Positioned the plates on my vest...


And then proceeded to sew on loop-sided velcro. I'm glad to be able to find navy blue velcro at that!


Applied the plates to the vest and test fitted the upper assembly...something is still not right...still a lot of looseness, slack, and crimping in the backside of the vest...


So I used 5 mm EVA foam to cover the interior of the vest (like a liner). It'll give it a little more volume to fill in all the extra loose space of the vest...will keep the form and shape of the vest and eliminated the flimsy crimping of the vest. I guess using EVA foam now makes me a bona fide convention cosplayer!


Overall fitting of all the upper components...

[mrfred]

Only a few updates to report for these past couple of days...

First off...I got myself the correct cod piece for this particular version of the kit from a fellow Merc...


After trimming and sanding it, I compared it side by side with the original one (left), that came with the kit... clearly the one to the right is the  one i'm going to run with the kit.


I then applied the cod,  so it would adhere to the underside of the leather girth... also with the leather girth, I trimmed 1/2" off the top  bringing down the height of the belt from 6" down to about 5.5", still keeping well within the minimum parameters of the girth dimensions.


Next, I updated my holsters...
 I put in EVA foam so that it will hold the blasters in place...I used anywhere from 2mm to 10mm EVA foam to keep the blaster snugly holstered.


Looks good so far...
​​​​​​​

And that would be it for now...

[Kryamla Redalur]

Looking good so far Fred

[Naglium]

Looks awesome!  I love how you did the belt pieces.   

[Drakaar Vosh]

Fantastic work! Love the belt setup.

[mrfred]

I'll have to admit that one of my weaknesses in the build for this kit is dealing with the soft goods. But as I chipped away at it, I found myself to speed up and develop a growing skill than when I first started...though I did find myself like pull teeth in this phase of the build, the reward was that much greater as I got through it. Time it took was almost double than the other parts of the build but it was worth it. OK, here we go!

---Flight suit and Fitting

I went with a heavy duty coverall, about a size 38 in navy blue, and is 65%-35% Poly-Cotton...



I bought two of them, one being a donner for making double sleeves...I had also acquired one that was 100% cotton (middle one pictured below), but it seemed too thick and heavy.



I had sent off the coveralls to a seamstress to take care of the alterations to the collar, double sleeves and tapering of the leggings, but to my dismay, it wasn't exactly perfect. I guess that's what you get for sending it off to someone out of state...It still was a little baggy in the leg area so I had to make some of my own adjustments after the fact... I suited up and armored up from the waist down; girth and cod, thigh holsters, knee armor, and shins... I held them up temporarily with rubber bands for placement.



Then I marked off the placements with tape. That'll be the area which I will sew on the loop sided velcro.



Then I went to work on the armor pieces...cut to shape and glued hook velcro to the thigh holsters, knee armor, shins, and shoe armor and cut out the loop side for them to, which will be sewn to the flight suit (I was fortunate to find navy blue velcro). Because the leggings were still a bit loose, it'll be a problem when adhering the armor to the velcro...they'll droop out of position from my legs...Solution: use elastics...I'll be using 1"in elastic x 3 for the thigh holsters, 3/4"in x 1 elastic for the knee armor, 1"in x 3 for the shins, and 1/2"in x 2 at the bottom of the pants for where the shoe armor will be placed over.     



I sewn up the elastic according to the areas of placements for each one. I measured around my leg on each area without stretching it and then subtract 2"inches. This should give me enough tension to keep the armor to the pants to my leg in position.



Once I had finished sewing the loop side velcro to the outside, I had to sew the elastic to the inside of the pants. This part was painstaking.



Here is what the flight suit looks like now with the velcro, and elastic applied. (I had also applied some velcro to keep into position where the girth will sit.) Don't mind the off color photo, I had to take a pic using a different exposure in order for the velcro to be seen.



Armor pieces now fitted to position...
From this visual evaluation, (as advised by Bo Katan-Kryamla R.), I will be trimming the thigh armor a little bit near the cod area as it seems a little crowded there. I had marked out the areas in pencil.



And an overall fitting...



Now going back to the upper right arm, I had to figure a way to attach the hose of my gauntlet up into the double sleeve...the cheapest and easiest solution at hand: Velcro of course!!! Cut to size and pinned up for position for sewing...



Underside of the double sleeve with attached hose...



All set...!

[Kryamla Redalur]

Looking good Fred! I think that thigh trim will be good! Can’t wait to see more

[mrfred]

A small update on the interior of my bucket...

Will be using some helmet padding I got off Amazon and will be laying it out in this configuration...



And will be using two USB fans hooked up to a 13000mAh dual USB port power bank...



Lined the inside with loop velcro, padding and fans placed and the power bank will sit in the middle...



...and will place the middle pad over the power bank via velcro...

 

All set!

 

[mrfred]

A couple more updates...I continued to modify my boots with this small detail...again, here is the reference...


From the toe armor to the heel armor, there is a small thin band of area that stretches across between the two points on both sides of the boot...and I wanted that area to be seamless to connect the two areas (my boots currently have a checkered pattern on that strip that I didn't want...), so my plan is to replace that strip of area...

I first prepped a sheet of 2mm EVA foam, originally gray, lightly heat sealed it with a heat gun to seal the pores, and then primed it with a rubber seal like Plasti Dip.



Here you can see that I plan to cover that area up with the EVA foam I prepped. I traced out that stripped area and then cut out the pattern...



And then glued with black E-6000...


I did it to both sides to each boot, which are now ready for the painting phase.




Next, I went back to my thigh holsters...during the fitting, it was determined that I needed to trim them a bit, especially the area where it was getting crowded around the cod piece.
Here I finished the trimming and did a little bit of spot putty touch up work, since a gap had developed between the holsters and the thigh armor...


But unfortunately it didn't turn out so well...the thigh holsters seemed to be an area where there'd be a lot of stress and flexing on the ABS, and since bondo is brittle when dried and set, it wasn't going to cut it...


So I had to resort to slugging...covered the areas up pretty good...


I then sanded the rough ABS application and then bondo and sanded 3 times over to get a smoother surface.


All set for now.

[Kryamla Redalur]

Coming along nicely Mr.Fred!

[mrfred]

Some quick minor updates...
Now in the painting phase... after some light sanding (~800-1000 grit) and some cleaning,  I've now primed up all the armor pieces with a light gray primer.


And then coated everything, sans the shin armor, with Rustoleum metallic matte nickel. From there I'll need to let it sit for a day for the paint to set.

[mrfred]

Haven't had any updates for awhile due to hitting a roadblock on the blue swatch for this kit. I really struggled with this one...

There weren't many clear screenshots of this kit in natural lighting in the previous season of TCW, until season 7 came out...that was when I was able to determine with fair certainty that not just one kind of blue swatch was just used throughout in this kit.

The airborne trooper showed up several times in season 7, with more clear and natural lighting, and I was able to make out three subtle but distinctive different blues used in different parts of this kit: on the helmet, the torso including the cod, and the shins.

Staring at the screenshots for hours and researching the variety of different shades of paints and brands out in the market, I came up with my own forumlations and will reveal them as I go through the painting process. I've also studied Kade's and Eqdizzle's thread and their choice and usage of their blues (definitely valid in their own right), compared the character concept designs to the final screens used in the episodes, and came up with a medium that I'm fairly content with, visually to the naked eye and to various camera photo exposures.

Here are the sample swatches taken in various lighting conditions.

Indoor lighting with no flash...


Indoor lighting with flash...


Outdoor natural light...


Outdoor natural light and shade...



---Shin Armor Painting and Weathering

One of the fine details to note when painting the stripes for the shin armor are the top corners of the side panels that are close to the upper three darts. The left and right inner shin panels have sharp angled corners, while the outer left and right shin panels have the corners round. Here are my reference shots coming from the charater concept designs and screens from S5 & S7...




These are the paints I'll be using: Rustoleum Aged Gray, Montana Gold paints; Stealth-G7070, Signal Blue-G5075, Ultramarine-G5080


Previously I primed the shins with light gray primer...so then I went ahead and masked and painted the shin darts with the Montana Gold Stealth-G7070, but use of any dark gray will do.


Next I wanted a more warmer gray, so I used the Rustoleum Aged Gray to paint the main body of the shins.


Masked the side panels, so I can proceed to paint the middle stripe with Signal Blue-G5075 and dusted with Ultramarine-G5080


I then masked the middle stripes and painted the side panel stripes, measuring out the top and bottom stripes at 1/4"in and 1/8"in for the left and right stripes.


Next, I sanded down the side stripes for weathering.


In addition, referencing from the screenshots, on the side panel stripes, there is a Blue-green color corrosion or rust on the beskar. This is most likely resulting from contact with water, oxygen and carbon dioxide over time, causing a coating to build on the surface with makes the metal more resistant to further corrosion.

So with blue and yellow acrylic paint to get a greenish mixture, I did a wash to the striped areas. Then I did an overall black wash to everything.


I highlighted the darts by dry brushing a little light gray to it. The black wash, after drying, looked OK to the naked eye, but didn't standout much with the camera...


...so I applied black graphite to simulate and accentuate more carbon scoring.


All set for now...

[Kryamla Redalur]

Looking good to me!

[mrfred]

Looking good to me!

Why...thank you my lady Bo Katan! 

Another quick update, going back to my gauntlets to now weather...

I had already set both of my gauntlets with the base primer... but now, I'm going to add a coat of the warmer Aged Gray for the left gauntlet. I will keep the initial base primer for the right gauntlet as is.


Next, I did some dry brush weathering with light gray acrylic for both gauntlets and my hand plates as well.


After that, I did a complete overall black wash on these parts, then applied silver Rub n' Buff on the medium and light gray areas like the darts, rockets and comlink, and finally applied black graphite for carbon scoring on all the mid to light areas. For the charcoal body color of the right gauntlet, I used light gray fuller's earth powder to help highlight and distinguish the contours of this piece. And to top it off, I did a general matte coating to seal the weathering.





Enjoy!

[Mi'ix]

My apologies if I'm beginning to sound repetitive, but I am just so impressed with the quality and dedication that have gone into this build with excellent research going into each element present.

This is exactly the thing that makes writing the standards for this character MUCH easier and gives folks a road map for following in your foot steps as you trailblaze this kit.