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[Roe Montar]

Right! So here we go. This will be my first kit, so I know I have my work cut out for me.  I want to push for the Force Hunter brigade at some point, and I figure its never too early to plan along that route. To start off, here's the color scheme Im going to go for.



So, based off of that, Ive started acquiring components for my kit. Ive got my girth belt, some lightsaber trophies, and a rank rope-type trophy that I wove some Nexu teeth into.






Ive got some various armor pieces that ive traded for that are coming, I have a helmet from Droodles thats coming, as well as some grenades and a Good Samaritan (The revolver from Hellboy) cast that im going to use as a base for a blaster, and im also working on a melee weapon, which will be an electrostaff that I can disconnect into a pair of 'electro batons' which I hope to integrate into my kit.

 Still need to get a vest and some other little odds and ends, but I think im off to a good start

[The Doctor]

Loving that 550 cord necklace!

[Roe Montar]

Loving that 550 cord necklace!

its actually not a necklace, though yeah, without much to compare it to it does seem like it. That's the rank rope trophy I came up with, so it will hang from my shoulder down to roughly my elbow.

In other SUPER EXCITING NEWS... I got my bucket from Droodles in the mail today, and tore into it like a 5 year old on Christmas morning.



As you can kinda see, I went with a Cody style visor for it. But now I sit here and look at it and go "Okay... now how do I effectively put this together" 

[Mavik]

It can be a little stressful when you start assembling your first bucket. As long as you did your research first you just kind of have to dive into it. Everything is looking good so far.

[Russiya]

I have the same bucket and they are great magnets are the best way to go for the visor if you would like it to be removable but I actully just dremmeled some slots in my ear caps and then glued the visor in to them and they'd mounted the ear caps on the bucket

[Roe Montar]

I havent decided on whether I want the visor to be removable, but im leaning towards not. I have a RF with mine as well, so I need to work with how the two will interact so they play nice. I want to make sure I do my bucket justice, so...

Do I cut out holes under the ear caps where the 'vents' are?
Should I attach the ears and THEN do base coat?
WHAT DO I EVEN USE TO ATTACH THE EARS?!

*Flails wildly*


Instead of working on the bucket (due to the questions above) I instead worked on my melee weapon more, which was inspired by this thread. I like the idea of an electrostaff, but honestly I didnt want to carry it around, so I thought up a modification that better suited me. My idea is to make an electrostaff that can disconnect into two pieces, almost like stun batons. Those two batons which I can then come up with a mounting solution for my kit (im thinking my back plate when I get it)

So I started with this:


its the same materials from the electrostaff tutorial thread, except I cut the 1" PVC into two 1' lengths, and decided to forgo the metal flagpole (which I had already substituted for some conduit) and added the male and female PVC connectors. Since I didnt know how well my plans would work out, I decided to just focus on one baton at a time. Here it is all laid out in how I would put it together.



In the first picture, you can see I taped up one of the sliding parts with blue tape, and marked some lines on it. I knew early on I wanted these to be more than sticks that I waved around, and was aiming for an overall asthetic similar to the electrostaffs that Grevious' magnaguards used



So I took that piece of PVC I marked up, and took my dremel to it, and cut some slots in it.



Which then leads to the baton looking like this.



Now came the fun part, and the part I didnt take as many pictures of, so I'll take pictures of now. I got some pink LEDs, wired up 6 of them (two strings of 3 in parallel) and used some hot glue to put them at the bottom of the part I cut the slots in, and put some leads on them. Then after drilling a hole in the shaft of the baton for a nice push button, and wiring it all up to a 9v battery, I have a little baton that lights up with pink slots.






Fun fact; while dismantling it to show it for the pictures, I actually ripped the leads off my button.  So now I have some more work to do! Once I get that all fixed up, im going to sand down the components, clean it all up and paint it silver-gray.

[Kavryn Falco]

Hehehe that's nifty!

[Roe Montar]

Woo! Big-ish update. Got a box delivered today which had some goodies in it; mainly the lower body armor components that I traded for, some frag grenades, some cryoban grenades, and the replica gun I plan on using (which is the Good Samaritan from the Hellboy movies) as a base for my blaster.



Only downside was that it appears the top of one of the cryoban's went ker-snap in the shipping process, but nothing some glue cant fix.




Closeup and some better lighting on the Good Samaritan as it is now. Still brainstorming ideas for how im going to modify it and make it more swarsy. I'll prob take it to the weapons forum and see what kind of feedback I get



and of course the all important plates. Straight from the box onto my legs. There's some modification/fixing to be done to them for sure, and as this is a super rough fitting, they're not perfectly aligned for now. But I still think they're awesome!

[Cayden (Lupus Kan'do)]

Lookin good Roe! Keep the posts coming! Maybe I'll join you on the progress train soon 
As for your bucket questions, I would say use the magnets, that way any alterations or fixes you may have or want, will be easy to tackle, and you can bet those magnets won't allow any accidental detaches!  For the vents, I would at least make a few slots for airflow, you know how hot helmets can get, and for painting, just my preference because I'm not the best with taping things off, I would paint the ears separately but that's just me, and I'm no OM 

[Roe Montar]

As for your bucket questions, I would say use the magnets, that way any alterations or fixes you may have or want, will be easy to tackle, and you can bet those magnets won't allow any accidental detaches!

Not quite what I mean. I fully plan on using the magnets to hold together the two halves of each ear, I more of was questioning what to use to basically glue the inner halves of each ear to the helmet itself.

Im going to go spent some quality time with my various WIP right now anyway.

[Roe Montar]

So THIS just came in the mail.   



Straight from Gungan Armory to my door the day after my Birthday/Easter. Good timing I'd say. Now the real work starts; shaping, trimming, painting, ALL OF IT. Also time to pull the ripcord on buying a nice vest too.

[Cayden (Lupus Kan'do)]

Awesome vod! Shaping time!  I can't wait to see! I'll be around to help 

[Roe Montar]

Time for an update. It took me a while to make progress, and im even worse at taking pictures during that progress, but oh well. Im (I think) 90% done with the exterior of the helmet. Here's some pretty pictures.







I still need to put my visor in obviously, but Im on the fence about adding more... severe weathering, before I apply the final clear coats.


I also finished my blaster I believe, though I realize it may need some more greebles to make it more Swarsy.










Love to hear some feedback on it all so far too.

[Havelock]

That is definitely looking much less Hell Boy and more swarzy!  It looks really nice, vod.  And the rest of your kit is coming along nicely, too.

[Cayden (Lupus Kan'do)]

Love that blaster Roe, helmet looks great too! I would personally add more weathering on the bucket but that's just me it's all looking great! Can't wait to see more! Played perhaps?