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[RC-3141]

And we're back for another episode of filling and priming, starring the hardener that I put in the body filler before mixing was actually the non-active component because it seems to have separated. (I didn't actually catch any pictures of this though, unfortunately.) If anyone knows of methods that would work to cause that to harden without the hardener, I'd much appreciate any advice for remedying this.
In other news, I had a fun time drilling 7 different holes in my helmet


I drilled the hole for the flashlight, dremeled out a little bit more and got it to fit, tacked it in with hot glue and then superglued it.






Drilled out my keyholes in the back of the helmet, and then used small hand saws (I ended up settling on the one in my swiss army knife) to cut the rest of the shape. I attempted to use the dremel on the first one and it... didn't go terribly well. I put filler on that one and I'll be filing it down again once my filler actually hardens





I also found this cool greebly bit when a kitchen utensil broke, what are your thoughts on that? Use it for the keyholes? Save it for the something else?

[RC-3141]

Continued work on the helmet today, mostly just sanding. I ended up scraping off the unhardened stuff and reapplying another coat, and that seems to be going ok although it felt bad to be doing negative work

[RC-3141]

Attached my visor today, it's all starting to come together.


I hope to have most of this kit done before the end of August, which means I'll have to really knuckle down and work on it

[Anansi]

That's coming along really nicely!

[Awall]

Your bucket is sick!  Nice job!

[RC-3141]

Printed my gauntlets, 2.5 days of printing to find out that my hinges were slightly off. Nothing sanding couldn't fix, but I know what I'm improving before the next one





Fit is reasonably good, will definitely benefit from some velcro on the inside to grip the flight suit better.
Can't wait until in-person armor parties can happen again, it'd be nice to ask people questions about all this in-person

[Anansi]

The print came out rather well. I've never used velcro inside my gauntlet but I have considered it. See foam more often than not to give a little padding. How does it fit with your gloves on?

[RC-3141]

How does it fit with your gloves on?

Good question! I haven't really given thought to my gloves or other soft goods yet, which is definitely something I need to do. I'm thinking I'm gonna de-label some leather gloves that I was given that I don't have any other particular use for, however the color for those is a bit different than what I'm thinking for the rest of my kit so that may need some reworking.


I also need to figure out what I'm doing for my flight-suit, which will probably end up deciding a lot of my colors.


EDIT: Here's what I'm thinking about right now

[Awall]

I like the clean look of your print!  Great job!

[RC-3141]

Started work on painting and weathering my buy'ce, as well as some work on my gauntlets. One question that I've got before I move on with painting my kit is whether I should leave the metallic paint on the "weld" between the the visor and the brow ridge to help make it clearer that it is in fact meant to be welded, or if I should paint over it?
My flight suit is in the mail and should arrive by Tuesday, I settled on Dickies khaki coveralls to go with option two here




Used a permanent marker to mark where I wanted some weathering and dings before I started painting fully, making use of lines and imperfections that were already present on the bucket. Adding a coat of one-color of paint was very useful in determining where there were imperfections. I also spent some time dropping gravel onto the bucket in order to scratch it up a bit more.





I also threw some primer on my gauntlet



I then hit my helmet with Rustoleum soft flat iron and I'm really happy with how it's looking



Note: visor is not final, this is what was in my J2P

[Anansi]

Personally, leaving the weld unpainted helps it stand out and gives the look a little extra something.

[RC-3141]

I finally got around to posting in all of my WIP threads!
Redid the wiring on my flashlight, I had kinda messed it up the first time



Made some bes'kar'ta to try out color schemes and have fun with weathering, but I did paint then weathering then more paint which didn't work out too well, however it did work fine for color samples




I settled on Behr Express Blue for my helmet



I may end up having to redo the paint because I don't think I left enough masking fluid (AKA toothpaste) to properly weather the paint

[RC-3141]

New holster, and bucket progress today, check out my weapons thread to see the wood-handled deece as well.
I'll likely be attaching the holster to my kama (which I'll get around to sometime) and I'll probably print another one for my left side, I printed this design off of thingiverse.
Also repainted my buy'ce and blackwashed, and I do not recommend handpainting a helmet, brushstrokes are annoying and uneven layers are hard to get rid of. Put a visor in it as well, I think I just got a Shade 5 Welding Visor and cut it to size, still needs a little more fitting though

[RC-3141]

I know I said in my weapon WIP thread that I wanted to try to work on everything at least a little bit every day... and that lasted about two days. But I think these more than make up for it, I came in and used the embroidery machine at the makerspace at work for a a couple hours and made them: