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[CaTra Dral]

Hi Guys!

Now that my first kit is waiting for approval for brigades, I've turned my attention towards my second kit - Bo-Katan from Rebels Season 4! I'm ready for the challenge of creating a canon character. I'm also looking forward to being able to carry a dark saber.

My nite owl bucket just finished printing tonight, and the first layer of spot putty has been applied. Now for lots of sanding, another layer of spot putty, and then primer to see how it looks. I'm ordering a visor tonight.


My gauntlets (printed from April Storm files) still have 14 hours on the printer. The buttons will be resin printed and all lit up with LED's, as will the bars on the chest.

The hilt from my dark saber from the Pach Store has shipped, and my blade from Ripper Blades will hopefully ship soon. I can't wait to get that together.

The flight suit I bought from amazon doesn't work. The shirt seems to be the wrong color and the pants came in the wrong size. So those will be going back. Back to the drawing board for them! Whenever I find a suit that works, I'll be ordering an extra shirt to try my hand at making gloves.

I also have ordered a wig from amazon to test; my friend is an amazing hair stylist and she is actually going to cut and style the wig for me for free! It needs a lot of the shine taken out and quite a bit of love. If it doesn't work, I'm only out $20 and I'll get a better wig. We'll at least have learned on this one.

I'm using the 3d-mon files for my westar and my armor. The only thing I'm missing is the headband. I am thinking that if I can't find it (since I bought my bucket somewhere else and don't want to pay for the file for the headband and the bucket together), I may end up crafting it out of Sintra. Lighting it up will be interesting; will have to find a battery holder small enough. Maybe the 2032 battery holders?

Hoping to make the vest out of duck cloth like my current one. I have a friend who will be helping me with that.

I also have ordered the leather to make the belts and pouches. I have another friend helping me with that.

My question is... Will these boots be acceptable? I'm going to take the straps off and will paint the leather with a dark gray leather paint I've purchased. But that does leave the elastic on the shaft of the boot. If they aren't, I'll just add it to my normal boot rotation. They do have memory foam though, so they would be amazing at cons...


Pardon the photo bombing by Jethro, he wanted to be part of the process.

I have been reading through WIPs continuously,  I think I've read most if not all of the Bo-Katan ones on here.  I love that finally I have enough done to start my own. I'm so excited to work on this.

[Mi'ix]

We JUST finished up working on the early version of Bo from TCW.

Rebels is next for Brigades. 

[CaTra Dral]

Awesome! I can’t wait. I’ve ordered the resin for the printer; yellow, white and green. Because if I can see the screen shots correctly, some are white. At least I think so... if not we’ll use it elsewhere. It will be here tomorrow, as well as the thread for the leather goods.

I now have the file for the headband, provided by 3D-mon. I think I’ll start printing that next. Visor will be here Thursday.

Have I put this in the right place, since this kit is only in pieces at the moment? I figured it would be the best place to start to make sure she is as close to the CRLs as possible.

[Mi'ix]

Right here is just fine.

Do you plan on going for Brigades eventually?

[CaTra Dral]

Great! And absolutely. I want my kit to be as close to screen accurate as possible, and how better to achieve that then to go for brigades? 😊

[CaTra Dral]

Gauntlets got their first coat of primer and then a second layer of spot putty to make sure the printer lines are gone. I’ll sand and prime them again to make sure it is all good on Friday.



Bucket has been sanded, primed and the base layer has been added.


Getting ready to start the headband on the printer in just a moment.

I am hesitant to paint those boots yet with the leather paint before knowing if the elastic on the shaft of the boot is acceptable under CRLs. I have plenty of other things to do at the moment, but I would love to know.

In the meantime, I am so happy to see forward progress on this build and I am enjoying it. 😊

[CaTra Dral]

Made a lot of progress today. We’ve gone through three types of blue and three types of gray to find the shades that look like they match. Some too light, some too purple, but I think I’ve finally got the right shade. Add some black and gray wash and it will be good.

My headband has some good progress; will cut out the bottom to be able to add resin printed buttons and LEDs later.



My first westar came off the printer today, the amount of detail is amazing. It also took forever to sand and prime, but I have the base coat down. I’ll be starting on the details tomorrow.  Second westar is 11 hours in, 32 left to go.



Still don’t have any idea on the flight suit, but my friend should be starting on my flak vest soon.

Gauntlets are in process; will be working on the side attachments tomorrow.



I also got the range finder and some other pieces of my westar primed and ready to paint.


I have another friend who has been working on my bucket for me. He also did the maul patterns on my approved kit.

[CaTra Dral]

Made quite a bit of progress!

My new flight suit came in! It matches much better. I do need some more fabric to make gloves out of, but don’t want to buy another set. So I’ll try and find some matching fabric. I need to find the accent color to sew on next.

The first blaster has been blackwashed. I added some other colors but haven’t taken updated photos.



The dark saber hilt came in; no news on my blade. I love it! It needs to be sanded down to make it more silver and less gunmetal but I am going to do that in a bit. I had some fun playing around with it and the generic light saber blade it came with.


Finally, my friend has almost finished my bucket. It looks fantastic and I love it. I can also see so much better in it than my approved kit, which is all pink lol.



Funny enough when I started I didn’t want to do a canon character, I didn’t want a nite owl, and I didn’t want a range finder. Now, you couldn’t pry this bucket out of my hands. I’m absolutely in love with it.

[CaTra Dral]

More work done in the last two days!

The shoulders and chest plates finished printing. They do fit, but the chest plates are waaay too small. Going to either try to scale it or possibly have to cut it out of Sintra.



My friend has cut and created two of my pouches before we ran out of leather; I have more on order that should be in next week.



Flight suit works, I think. And I found some material to use as the accent color; my seamstress friend is going to help me with that and my vest in a few weeks. I’ve made some wonderful friends in my clan! 😂



Wig has been dropped off at my stylist and reference photos given; she is looking forward to the challenge. I am so excited to see how it turns out.

Blaster #1 is finished and blaster #2 has first coat of primer and 2nd layer of bondo. I should hopefully have it sanded and second coat of primer done tomorrow.





Gauntlets got a layer of blackwash, side attachments got painted and attached. There is still room for the buttons to be installed with LEDs.

[CaTra Dral]

Nearly done with my blasters; I left my grips at my friends. They still need some detailing on the grips as well and then some fine tuning.

I also did some changes to the dark saber. It was pretty before, but was a gunmetal, almost green. Spray painted it black and then sanded it down to the aluminum so it looked more weathered. I absolutely love the look now. Also, without a blade in, it makes a wonderful spotlight if you have your hands full and can’t see a thing in the dark😂😂



In good news, my blade should be coming in next week!

 I had to print the chest plates at 120%, but they finally fit so I am going to start spot puttying them and then painting them. I’m currently working on printing my jetpack. That should be a 12 day process.

It’s slow, but steady. And I’m definitely ok with that. 😊

[Rayne]

Hi CaTral!
Your boots look good.  The elastic area you’re talking about, as long as it’s the same color as the boot when you’re done, you should be fine.

Your blasters are looking great! The small color details look spot on.

Your gauntlets, helmet, and headband are looking great!

You’re doing great so far! I look forward to watching your build!

[CaTra Dral]

Thank you so much, I’m so glad to hear that!

The chest plates seem to fit so I bondoed them and left them to dry.



 My holsters have an issue due to my printer. I may try to reinforce them or I may completely break them and start over. I think I finally (after 7 months of issues and an entirely new hot end) have the issue fixed) but I was tired last night and had some minor problems, so rather than wait to see if my ab plate would be ok overnight I just scrapped it and decided to work on it this afternoon with a better attitude haha.

[Mi'ix]

Lol Rayne and I both know allllllllll about printer problems.

[Rayne]

Definitely feel your pain. I agree with your strategy of walking away for a bit   

[CaTra Dral]

Oh no, both sorry and slightly relieved to hear I’m not the only one 😂😂 I think I may have fixed my underextrusion problem and gone the other way. I’m letting it go a bit further before I stop the print again and tweak the settings. Ah, 3d printers. I was previously spoiled by the Makerspace I was at because they kept the printers running well. Now I have to fix all my own problems and I see just how much maintenance it takes haha. I am so glad I walked away yesterday as I would not have fixed the issue as tired as I was, lol.

I did get the chest plates hastily sanded and primed while the weather was good. I know they look rough; I will take my time and sand them down and do a second coat of spot putty later tonight. I was running out of nice weather and daylight so gave it a go.



First part of the jetpack is off the printer! If I was smart... I would have printed the pins so I could glue it together instead of a 12 hour ab plate. Oh well.

[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.