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[aforklikeutensil]

Greetings all.  I am in the process of building my first kit.  I am new to costuming in general, so I've been doing a ton of reading and a fair bit of trial and error.  I am finally far enough along that I decided to start a planning thread.   

My intent is to build a medium class, modern era medic kit.  I'll be sticking to a red/white paint scheme, and the in-universe medic emblem(s).  Below is a rough idea of what I'm thinking.  The filling defects around the periphery of the armor plates are there because I'm too lazy to clean up the image.  But, the more I thought about it white margins with red in center might not look too bad.  I'll  likely go with grey scrubs instead of a flight suit.  Other goodies will include a medpack, beskad, small sidearm...and bacta.  So much bacta.





I am going to start with the buy'ce and move on to armor and the remainder of the kit afterwards. So far I've tried my hand at the bucket from buckets scratch build.  Not my cup of tea.  Not overly difficult, but I just couldn't get it to come out right.  I moved on to pep/cardstock and the WOF template, and that came together pretty well.



Then I tried it on...  It seemed like proportion-wise it isn't horrible, but still seems a bit small.  Even though the rule of thumb of bucket width half of your shoulder width was pretty spot on still seemed not quite right (without ear caps anyhow).  It's also a struggle getting it on/off due to the size of my melon.



All that said, I need to a scale up a pep file to fit me a little better.  Has anyone tried the math this guy recommends?  http://www.405th.com/showthread.php?t=25588  Sorry, I'm sure this has been asked before but my searches of the forum was coming up dry.

Anyhow, I'll be posting more as I make progress.

[Natan Vizsla]

Go ahead and bulk it up some since you will have extra width on your shoulders from your armor, especially if it is styled like the TCW DeathWatch. The cardstock work is good, but I have no idea with the math since I haven't scratch-made a bucket.

[Havelock]

I've go absolutely zero experience with pepakura.  None.  So I can't weigh in on that guy's math.  Besides, math was never my best subject.

I mainly wanted to stop by and say I like your color scheme, and offer words of advice I've seen a lot of Official Members and Brigade members offer to people starting their builds. Focus on getting your basic kit approved, then focus on making the brigades.  From what I understand, it makes things much, much easier.

That being said, welcome to the mercs, vod, and I'm looking forward to watching your build come alive.

[Titus_Crowe]

Nice pep work! I personally haven't done any so like everyone else I can't comment on the math. I will advise though if it is already snug and you're making it bigger, also take into account room for the fiberglass on the inside.

[Avidem]

I like seeing Medics. You can't go wrong with Bacta either.

[Shammah]

If you pull this off you'll only be the second in our clan to build your own buy'ce.  Check your messages, sending one.

[aforklikeutensil]

Finished the pep'ing process on my up-scaled helmet.  Used Fierfek's Boba helmet file which is quite a bit more detailed than the WOF templates, and was challenged at times given my newness to pep.  I removed the RF (with exception to the "base" at the bottom) and ear caps and left that area relatively flat so that I have area to mount some electronic goodies eventually.






And for size comparison, my first bucket and the new one side by side.


Now if only my epoxy resin would only arrive.   

So, next I'll clean up some stray hot glue and get ready for the resin process once that's available.  After that: bondo/sanding. 

Any suggestions what to work on in the meanwhile?  Do most start working on armor plates next?  Start on soft parts?  Take a nap and allow hot glue burns to heal?

[Shammah]

Only nap when you are too frustrated to work! Soft parts are always a good idea, and tend to be the hang up with a lot of kits. Think flight suit, then vest and boots: build the from the basis of your kit out. If you have your soft parts before you start with armor, then armor will be sized and shaped to it as you go. One of our vod had his armor shaped and beautifully painted before he got his vest, and when he got the plates on it they were too small. Things will need to be reworked as you go, but the flight suit rarely needs much. Even if it does, everything builds on top of that.

[aforklikeutensil]

Still gradually working on the buy'ce. I have resin coating and fiberglassing done.  Just have to clean things up/sand, and then it's on to bondo'ing and shaping.  I did sand and shape the exterior after the first coat of resin on the outside and that's made quite a difference in overall contour.  I had to remove the keyhole area in the back because there was some warping due to a mistake I made in the pep process.  So, I took that area out and made flattened/raised area out of cardboard (2 layers).  I will do some swarzing up of this area later.  Thinking of adding a cluster of LEDs, perhaps some switches for the helmet electronics.

Here's what I've learned thus far: 65 lb cardstock is too flimsy, I should have gone with the 110 lb variety.  Getting the pep as near to perfect as possible makes things soooo much easier in the long run.  Epoxy resin: a little goes a long way.  Fiberglass mat: pokey, stabby, itchy...but strong a heck once resin is applied.

Now for some pics!

[Havelock]

Nice. It's looking good.

[Bowfanny]

I don't know how I missed this thread with as often as I am in this section so I do apologize for not having stopped by sooner! I am an avid pep helmet maker and I don't use that scaling method(s) as they're complicated, I simply use Pi-circumference of head divided by 3.14 plus one to two inches for comfort and padding and that is the width the pep file needs to be at the base in the opening. Since it's too late now for that to be helpful just remember take your time on the bondo stage and use small amounts at a time! Also Bowfanny has tons of Mando Pep helmet files 

[Havelock]

I'd listen to Bowfanny.  He's an expert at buckets.   

[Bowfanny]

I'd listen to Bowfanny.  He's an expert at buckets.   

not quite an expert just very entusiastic!

[Shammah]

Nice job Fork! Keep working at it and it will happen. Still no good date on the next armor party, but I hope to see you there.

[aforklikeutensil]

not quite an expert just very entusiastic!

I'm going to side with Havelock on this one.  You make some awesome stuff, Bowfanny.  Thanks for the advice on sizing.  I'll give that a go next time I get in the mood to made a bucket.

Nice job Fork! Keep working at it and it will happen. Still no good date on the next armor party, but I hope to see you there.

I'm looking forward to getting together.  I'm going to be purchasing my soft parts soon, and I'd love some input from you and the rest of the vode.

[Bowfanny]

Lol I don't see it myself but I'm probably too close and OCD about the stuff I make lol

[aforklikeutensil]

It's been too long since I've posted an update.  Making slow progress on the bucket.  Found some air bubbles between my cardstock and fiberglass/resin layers so I filled and bondo'ed those, and have generally just worked on smoothing.  The Right cheek was also slightly more indented than the Left so I have a bit of evening/sculpting out to do.  From here on out it will be primer, bondo, sand, primer, bondo, etc until things are ready to paint.

I also have nearly completed pep work on a Deathwatch style blaster which is turning out fairly well.  As I'll have a bit more waiting time for primer and bondo to dry I'll be working on that alternately when unable to work on the bucket.  I really need to order soft parts so I can start work in earnest on my plates.  Hoping my vode will have suggestions about that stuff at the upcoming armor party.   

Anyhow, pics!

[Shammah]

Vod, you've got a lot more patience than me.

[aforklikeutensil]

A few pic updates of sanding, filling, sanding, filling...then finally base coat of paint!  There is primer under that base coat, but I forgot to get pics taken before I put the base coat down.  Blaster is 65% done.  I will post pics of that in the next couple days along with with more bucket pics.

[Titus_Crowe]

Looking good there vod

[Shammah]

I'm impressed vod.

[Raestin Ke'Varek]

That's a super clean scratch built bucket vod, nice job!!!

[aforklikeutensil]

Thanks for the kind words, vode.  Unfortunately all I see are the mistakes I made, but I'm doing my best

Anyhow, while the paint is drying on the bucket I figured I do a little work on my Deathwatch inspired blaster.  I really didn't care for the direction that my pep blaster was taking because there were just too many problems with symmetry, and the tiny details weren't going to come out right.  I had great luck with using the cardboard in my bucket so I figured I would just take some measurements of my pep blaster and take transverse sections and stack them together.

Here's the raw material.


Measurements/cardstock templates.


Assembled sections (glued together with hot glue)




After some resin and a little bondo.




Still lots to be done, but making progress little by little.

[Shammah]

Vod, it's awesome to have that kind of patience. I'd just get a chuck of wood and stop cutting when it looked like a blaster.

[aforklikeutensil]

Vod, it's awesome to have that kind of patience. I'd just get a chuck of wood and stop cutting when it looked like a blaster.

I'm really not sure that this is the best way to do things...it's just the way I know.  I'm sure the wood method would be much more efficient.

Here are a couple of pics of my coat of satin white as well as the toothpaste masking over my base silver coat.







Have to admit I really dig the all white.  Maybe a snowmando in my future?  We'll see.  First thing's first.