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[Rayne]

You’re making progress!  Gotta use the nice weather while you can !

[CaTra Dral]

Thanks so much! I can’t believe it has been so long since I last posted. I got pretty sick right after that so the only thing that has been working on this kit is my printer 😂

So excited to see the BRLs have been completed on Bo! Thank you guys for your hard work on that. I can’t wait until I’m ready to apply!

So on to my updates!

Some of my stuff has gone to plan, some of it hasn’t. I’ve mostly fixed my printer settings so the quality of my prints have vastly improved. I had some issues with sizing, so I’ve been doing the print and fit method. The pieces that haven’t fit have already been passed off to other members of my clan, so I’m pretty well liked at the moment I think 😂😂 I’m going to invest in armor smith (thanks for the suggestion Mi’ix) because I already have enough half rolls of filament at this point.

The other problem I’m running into is I’m losing weight at the moment (on purpose). I am down 17 lbs already and I don’t know where I’ll be at the time of submission. I would like to be another 30 down so all of my stuff may not fit. I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it because I don’t want to wait to work on it 😂

I ended up buying some new paddock boots so I wouldn’t have to remove the straps on the others. I think am going to end up adding leather to the back of the shin armor to give the finished look it needed.





Unfortunately, even though a lot of the files for the armor I bought is excellent, some of it doesn’t match. The boot and thigh armor, for instance. Going to have to end up cutting it out of Sintra. I’m wondering if 3mm will match up well enough with the 3D prints, or if I need 6mm?

My jetpack ended up being tiny. Almost kid sized. I have to reprint my shoulders a bit bigger and one shin, and then I am going to reprint the jetpack. I am not looking forward to it at all - each 1/3 of the jetpack is a 4 day print at the smaller scale. I didn’t take a photo on me, but it definitely doesn’t fit.



I’m dreading my backplate. Getting it to match the chest plate, the jetpack, and myself... It is going to be a delicate balancing act I’m terrified to take on. But oh well, gonna make it work!

Finally, here are most of the pieces I have now. My chest plates and my bucket are not in there, and the jetpack is a no go so it’s gone. My ripper blade for my dark saber is stuck somewhere in Nevada so I’m starting to get really nervous... keeping my fingers crossed it gets here soon!

[Rayne]

I hope you’re feeling better!

Those boots look good! Looks like they’ve good tread for trooping too!

That’s a bummer about all the printing issues, but it sounds like you’re figuring it out! 

[CaTra Dral]

Thank you so much! I am feeling much better. It was a crazy two weeks, and thankfully was not COVID.

I’m glad you like the boots! They are super comfortable and pretty well made. They should weather pretty naturally over time (though of course I’ll weather them for my kit now) and they are super comfy so they should be good for long troops.

Haha the printer has been so much trial and error. Didn’t get Armorsmith installed yet due to some Mac/Windows problems but I’ll hopefully get all that resolved tomorrow. 50 hours into a 99 hour print anyhow so I’ve got time. 

Last week, I bought 10 tubes of spot putty to start finishing my printed parts. If I don’t use it now, I’ll use it later, haha. I used my 3-D printer pen to bond my lines between glued pieces of prints to avoid using regular bondo. I do need to sand it now, but it works pretty well to fill the gaps.



All of my printed pieces have been spot puttied; it’s nice to see a bit of progress! I even found my heart. Tomorrow, I hope to start sanding.





The garage has been pretty warm, so I’m hopeful it may stay warm enough for me to paint. I had to repaint my blade because I let it dry on a plate, taking pieces of it with it. If it crackles, I can just sand it down. If this test piece fares well, I can at least start priming all my pieces to hold on to until the next nice day. If they all do well, then I can continue painting! That would be wonderful.


Apparently the secret to motivating myself is updating my WIP, lol. The virtual armor party Saturday helped too 😊 I think I’m ready to get going again and get this armor under way.

[Rayne]

I hope the weather holds for you to paint!

It’s been hard to stay motivated with 2020 and Covid and no events. We completely understand!

Your pieces are looking good!

[CaTra Dral]

Haha well it kind of held; it wasn’t smart for me to go out in a t-shirt at 9:00 at night and prime my chest plates... but so far no cracking and I’m not any worse for wear 😂 I hate the cold.

My friend used a resin printer for some of the buttons for my gauntlet. We will light them up with LEDs. I’m going to have to think really hard on which of the yellow lights are which color. I’m slightly lost. In the meantime, I have the green button in, some yellows and the blade.




I was able to sand and prime my chest plates for a second time; I think once I sand them one more time they will be good to go. Of course, we’ll see if they crack when they dry.



My friend is having me come over and we’ll trim up my wig tomorrow. That should be fun! I’m going to bring the headband so we can set it up the right way. I can’t wait.

You are so right; honestly building has been one of the only things to get me through this time with no cons. I lost that motivation for a bit but I’m so glad to be back at it.

[Rayne]

Your gauntlets and chest are looking great! I love the resin printer idea for the buttons.

To help with the buttons, here are a few reference photos I have for the gauntlets:





Hope that helps!

[CaTra Dral]

Thank you so much, that really does help! I am thinking maybe it will help to use brighter yellow and warmer yellow LEDs to light the buttons to mark the difference.

The buttons almost look white to me right now. Are they too light? I like my green, and it will light up such a pretty green. We tested them over his pilot chest box lights and it is so cool. The pale yellow lights well over the yellow LEDs, but when they aren’t lit, they really seem white.

The translucent yellow resin was on backorder everywhere when we tried to buy it a few months ago. It is what I really wanted. It would match the green button and look a lot better. Time to start looking again!

The lamb skin for the leather that wraps around the back of my shins is due to come in the 23rd. Since I’m no longer using tall boots, I’m still going to need something that would come up to the top of the shin armor, correct? It looks like it is actually gray and not black.


This is what I got; I can always use leather conditioner or dye to darken it if need be. I can’t tell you how many saddles I’ve darkened with neatsfoot oil (some on accident...)

[Rayne]

I don’t think they look too white as is. I’d have to see them lit up to be sure, but they look pretty good right now.

The different yellow LEDs is a great idea to show the variations!

For your legs, yes, you’ll want something that extends to the top of the shin plate. I can’t find good reference photos for the color right now. Let me get back to you on that.

You’re doing a great job!  It’s really coming along.

[CaTra Dral]

Thank you so much!! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the help. I really appreciate the reference photos. They are great. 

Glad to hear that on the lights! Maybe I can test some lighting this weekend.

Awesome, thank you! For the leather, it should be pretty easy to tweak the color if it ends up being too light. No rush on the photos, whenever you find them 😊 it doesn’t come in until the 23rd, and I’ll probably wait until my flight suit is done.  If the color doesn’t work, guess I’ll start learning some other leather crafts 😂

I did some more sanding, but sadly it was raining pretty bad today so no priming. Oh well, maybe there will be a break in the rain. I’d not, my shoulders and shin will be done tomorrow so there will be other things to sand.



Now, on to what I’m really excited about... the wig! My friend had me come over and put it on, and trimmed it to fit myself, the BRLs,  and make sure it didn’t show under the bucket. I doubt I will wear both at the same time, but I wanted to be sure.

Just chillin in the salon:



All finished!



The one problem is the headband. It fit initially... but for some reason now it doesn’t. It might be where the wig fits? If I try to move the wig back, it looks weird. I can try and heat the headband and bend it more, or I can reprint it smaller. I’m not sure quite what to do yet.

[CaTra Dral]

My shoulders and shin finished printing! The 5% increase in width on the shoulders made all the difference. Which made me decide to widen the shins. Someone with thin legs will be very happy  I may be able to make a kid bo katan at this rate, lmao.

I started my jetpack based off the measurements we took; these match the measurements of my jetpack for my current kit. Keep your fingers crossed it works. Still don’t have armorsmith downloaded; that’s on the list for the weekend.

I can’t remember if I talked about this yet or not, but the thigh plates on the files I bought aren’t accurate. So my friend drew them out and hopefully we can cut and shape them tomorrow.  Just had to buy some more Sintra first lol. Also hoping to get the new buttons printed (and try and get some for the headband and chestbar) and try and bend the headband. Worst case scenario I size it down and reprint it.

Spot puttied my shoulders:



I did get to prime several pieces in the snow. That was fun.



Hopefully I can sand my remaining parts so I can prime them Saturday morning.

[Mi'ix]

sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand

*Breathes*

sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand

[MadCelt]

sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand

*Breathes*

sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand

ACCURATE.

[CaTra Dral]

sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand

*Breathes*

sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand

😂😂😂 a truer statement has not been spoken!

My boss let me work from home today. So of course my first thing was watching the new episode, now I’m trying to decide if he’d notice if I sanded and primed my other parts before I started working... I mean there is only so much daylight but I’ll always have invoices. Right? 😂

ETA: I couldn’t help it, I took some time during my lunch and sanded and primed my last printed parts. Even though it was only 36 degrees, it was too sunny to pass up! After work, I’ll sand and do a second coat of spot putty on everything.

[Rayne]

Looking good! Gotta get in kit work when you can 

I found a few photos of the backs on the shins. It looks like they’re the same black as the boots.  Hope this helps!