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[D'shon Lorra]

All cut out, with extra on the chest and ab plates:



Now for shaping and another armor party consultation. 

[Raquel91]

Hi Lora!!!!!

Very exciting seeing your progress!!!

[D'shon Lorra]

Finally reengaging after the hijacking of life as we know it. I was sooooo bummed when my Clan's March and May armor parties were canceled, but I did finish bending my plates. Now, I have to do detailed shaping. Placement question: does the ab plate rest at the natural waist, such that when I bend over it will be 100% above the bend, or should it ride somewhat lower such that it makes bending over forward problematic? I need to know this so I can sort out exactly how much I want to take off the ab plate versus the chest plates to have them space correctly and "fit" together.

[D'shon Lorra]

Cross-posting to my own thread from the Kick the Bucket thread:

I finally got around to smoothing the cutout in my bucket today! I roughed it out a while back with a dremel tool - rough being the key word! - and it had sat staring at me accusingly since the shutdowns in March. Here it is with white paper in place of the visor for contrast:



I forget where I read it, but the originator of the advice to glue chicago screws inside and drill little holes in the corners of the visor to mount it was brilliant. Super glue on ABS plastic makes an immediate bond.



What do you think: should I leave the supports at the top and bottom of my 'beak' in after I get it all painted up (the supports would stay flat black to blend in with the visor), or cut them out eventually?

[D'shon Lorra]

I have been working with Kai via Messenger for a while and finally got in contact with the new Russ'alor. Here goes the updates since.

1. Progress on the helmet -

a. added ears


b. trimmed up vent



c. worked on building up the 'band' around the crown with bondo



2. Progress on the main plates -



3. Made a waist item based on live action Night Owls -

a. front view (also shows the breastplates with the attempt at darts that I rejected as a bad job)



b. left


c. right



d. back (super-awkward, mirror-over-the-shoulder, I need us to have armor parties again!)



4.  Decided Faceted Breastplates are The Way for me -

a. same custom template as prior, just slit four ways



b. shaping - they both broke the same way, for good or bad



c. this is a lot better!



d. on my dummy, pre-bondo



e. bondo layer number 1



f. sanding cycle number 1



5. I really enjoy constructing iron hearts. Kai likes Number 4, but I intend to finish them all and may decide when I get there.



6. My backplate, prior to bondo -

a. back view


b. right side


c. left side


And I will post pics of the backplate, post bondo layer 1, another night.

[D'shon Lorra]

I spent three hours sanding just my helmet the other day. It started out as "I need to level out the bondo," and then it dawned on me that the smooth plastic areas were likely to not take paint well, so I kept at it. 120 grit, then 220 grit. I see some still-black areas in the pics, so will hit those again. Want to ask here: is the 220-grit matte finish good for taking paint on ABS plastic?
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[D'shon Lorra]

Progress!

Thighs shaped and one knee finished:

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Also realized the breastplates need to ride higher and be cut down in the center:

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Marked them up:

and

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Ending up here:
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And had a great chat with my Ruus'alor tonight about it all. Happy thoughts that I can implement all his advice.

[D'shon Lorra]

The closer I get to actually painting, I find I am falling out of love with the Death Watch blue. My personal color is actually a dark red - like antique ruby. Swapping it in for the base blue in my earlier artwork gives me this:



My RPG characters are always my soul in a different circumstance. I figure I started as a proper Night Owl when Death Watch still felt righteous. I was disappointed when Viszla lost to Maul, and disgusted when Kryze left in protest instead of challenging Maul properly. I stayed until Maul deserted us. As a rank-and-file nobody, I never heard what sounded like a real explanation.

[D'shon Lorra]

Working with my Ruus'alor, I got to cutting down my front-facing kit. Collar first, trimmed to allow a better range of motion on my arms.

1. Marked up:

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2. Cut but not finished, and first hack at the right breastplate:

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I feel pretty good about that collar.
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Then, I realized the breastplate still doesn't curve in enough to "follow my body".

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And the faceted edges did not hold up to cutting/whittling, which I think means I was frustrated and not gentle with them, more than it means the seams are unsalvageable:
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Then, I think I mistook advice from my Ruus'alor that sounded like I should do this:

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Which took me here:
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Now I think this set is another sacrifice to the pursuit of knowledge. Is my idea of making them faceted worth pursuing? Would it be acceptable for me to make them more faceted? And what if I treat them like the iron hearts I was playing with, and make them from layers of 3mm, instead of directly from 6mm? The scuff-and-glue-together lay-up of 3mm sheets after shaping seems to be very solid. Help?
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I will post a specific question thread, too.

[D'shon Lorra]

Needed a break from futzing with shapes, so I sanded the simplest of my plates and got to painting.

Naked pair of thighs, gauntlets, and one experimental back plate:

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Two coats of primer:

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Two coats dark base:

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Two coats metallic:

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Two coats "original" blue:

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Three coats wine red:

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And I have ordered an iridescent visor, because this has to happen:

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So, now I wait for the paint to cure completely in the humidity so I can paint the helmet and whatever else I feel good about by then. Happy thoughts!

[D'shon Lorra]

Still putting off working on breastplates again, I spent some time on my soft goods. That $1.50 resale shop belt has been covered with simple black fabric:

I really like how it gathers up naturally, but now need to figure out what to do for the rings:
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And I used the same fabric to make myself a rough cape:
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Side:
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With the belt:
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And now I want to embellish it, so I played around with scraps. I figured out that bleach has no effect at all on this particular fabric's color, but acrylic paint works fine. Tried a mythosaur skull:
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And a Vizsla/Death Watch emblem:
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Thinking that when I put one on my cape, as a bullseye over the place my backplate rides, it needs to have some Maul markings added in red and black.  Not too much of either, but enough, like a splash of red on each wing with a black line or two through the red patches.

The body of beast should remain white: the heart stays Vizsla, even though the power has moved to Maul.

[D'shon Lorra]

Soft goods and waist item check. (Plates progress will be added another day - these pics were taken with old plates while new ones were curing. They still need sanding, edging, and fine-tuning to line up with each other properly.)

3 belts: one holds a set of show-inspired hip-covers, then it gets covered with the wide black belt, and a third skinny one goes over top to hold utility items.

Taking the advice that it's best to go overboard on waist items so there's no doubt there are two. "Utility items" so far are just bags, but I have other bits in work to clip on the belts, too. The wide black belt sort of disappears and looks like the bottom of my vest, but I promise it's there. It's is the one pictured alone in the previous update.
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This image shows the other bag I am flirting with, and seems to better show the scrubs, undershirt, and vest combo.

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Both bags, side by side:

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And this pic lets the little scraps of sintra I use to keep the skinny belts in place show up:
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Proposal is to finish/paint the scraps used for pins and dye the weird webbed belts.


Specific questions I hope to get answered:
1. After dying, do you think the weird web belts I scored from a resale shop will be acceptable?
2. Would I be better off to mess with the wide belt's cover or the vest, to make it easier to tell the belt is there?
3. Is it CRL-acceptable to have the show-inspired ducktail and hip covers?
4. Is it likely that the simpler bag on the right will be acceptable after weathering, and the one on the left will either get rejected or relegated to hiding under my cape?
5. When submitting an app with a cape, are photos with and without it required? I thought I read that the backplate is optional, if one has a cape or duster, but no longer trust that memory. I plan to have a backplate - I have two in work - but also made that cape. For carrying a speaker facing forward, the simpler bag will work, but the zippered one would be great, hidden at my back, to hold my cell phone and keys. Practical things for being out in the world.
6. Do the pics so far give enough view of the cape to form an opinion as to whether it is heavy enough? I am waffling about adding a third layer of fabric between the current two, to give it more weight.

[Awall]

You have been busy!  Great progress!

[D'shon Lorra]

Thanks, Awall! 

I have been busy since, wanting to have a batch ready to paint before the anniversary of receiving my helmet. I had the helmet, knees, shins, and cod all ready to go, but it was too cold and humid. Then the Great Power Outage of 2021 happened here in Texas and I lost that whole week. (Fortunate I only lost a few hours of vacation and plants, we all stayed warm enough boiling water on the gas cooktop while we were out of power those days.)

So, here's where I am now.
1. Discovered the beauty that is Apoxie Sculpt (Thank you, hazelspikes!) and used it on the latest breast plates, shins, experimental shoulder bell, and flatter backplate:

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2. Sanded down and further shaped the breastplates:

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3. Heard back that the lower collar bar is acceptable in the CRLs for Modern, so I can keep it, it just needs cut to closer shape. Progress:

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4. Went on a painting spree after we warmed back up this week.
a. Naked Helmet, sample iron hearts, cod pieces, shins, and knees:

b. Two coats primer:

c. Two coats dark undercoat:

d. Two coats metallic:

e. Two coats "original" night owl blue:

f. Three coats final color (red helm and hearts, dark cod, knees, and shins):

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5. Was very happy it was low enough humidity for it all to cure out well in about 2 days! Felt ok taking my helmet apart so I could take the tape off the visor and try it on:

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6. And got a shot of it with my first experimental back plate ("the curved one") while working to gather my vest to fit more closely:

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I am going to enjoy it in its "new" condition for a while before adding battle damage. I have time: my vambraces haven't shipped yet and there's still plenty to do. Must get the final plates whittled and sanded to shape - I am down to taking off slivers! - including machine sanding that flatter back plate to see how the facets turn out when added/enhanced after the fact.

[D'shon Lorra]

More progress.
1. Cut out the breastplates to frame an iron heart
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2. Took side view pics for my Ruus'Alor.
a. Left - non-selfie
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b. Selfie

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3. And right -
a. non-selfie
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b. selfie -

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4. Put my version of the Clan Vizsla emblem on my cape and Maul-marked it up -
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5. Geeked out a bit about well it works with my still-new helmet, gauntlets, and staff -
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6. Got so excited that my April Storm vambraces arrived that I took no Before pictures and just started sanding and fiddling with the lights and buttons -
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7. And set up for painting it all.
a. Naked parts laid out - if you look closely, you can see the vambraces hanging at the far end -
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b. Failed to a take a picture of the primer or dark undercoat, but remembered for the metallic layer -
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c. And the "original" Night Owl blue -
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Then, I realized how late it was and that I had to be a grownup the next morning, so there they sit. They will pass the 24-hour mark tonight, and there is supposed to be some less humid air tomorrow afternoon, so I can add their top color.

Also, decided it was time to go for my Mando name and sound off for the veterans list. At some point, I should start showing up as D'shon Lorra and drop the LStarrunner.