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[ValinKrai]

After a quick attempt to make a first set of armor back in 2012, was coming back to try again with a simple goal of actual completing it. Don't wanna go to crazy, so figured I'd start with some simple modern armor in my favorite color. My pepakura/fiberglass helmet from last attempt seems too small now unfortunately, and wouldn't fit to hide chin and keep nose behind a visor if I added  it, but I'm tempted to reuse the knee armor (Also fiberglass) I'd made as shoulder armor (Unless that was my plan for it, I've forgotten at this point). The rest of it never was far enough, or well throught out enough to reuse.

I have a navy flight suit that I'm gonna keep with for now, though might well switch it out later. Wanted to keep things basic, and purple is great, especially with Jango plates. I'm thinking I'll do that, plus a sand green similar to what I was originally gonna do for the first armor. Thinking about aiming to do a 3D printed DC-15s (Republic commando) for side arms, and 3D print the gauntlets as well, but we'll see my motivation to relearn blender/learn 360, or pay for 3D print files for it.


I started out with the vest, since soft parts were intimidating to me last time. Using the dented helmet drafting tutorial. Debated between quilting it with the flannel fabric I liked, but figured I'd try it first with only quilting the neck and shoulders, and making a quilted version for the Kansas City winter months if I need to.

Now at the point of doing test fit of the plate templates, since figured there might be advice to be had before I cut it out of the 6mm Sintra sheets.

Added a neck seal, because it seemed like I'd end up doing it anyway, and it'd make it easier to test how it looks with helmet.

With it on:


I've got a 4'x8' of grey 6mm Sintra standing by ready to be cut, so I figure I'll end up with plenty of extra, but don't want to waste it.

[Aster Veris]

Looks awesome! Love the colors 

[ValinKrai]

Thanks! Update:

Made the girth belt. Pretty happy with it, probably won't redo unless I need to change color.



Plates cut. Redid the collar once to pull it closer to the vests neck. Not quite sure if the plates are falling in the right place. Debating making collar shorter vertically and raising top of the chest plates. My muscles are clearly not built for this. Also struggling with chest diamond. My chest comes in a lot there (Apparently a genetic thing, so it kind of just ends up floating.



For weapons, still thinking about DC-15s from Republic Commando, but this had a nice STL is another high on my list of favorite blasters. Smoothed pretty nicely, still need to give a last wet sand, but almost all the 3D print lines are gone (Tried the resin+bondo, though I wonder if my resin was too old and cold since it didn't spread great, might try heating it if I did this again)..


Finally worked on smoothing out the shoulder plates. Probably would have been easier to just use sintra, but wanted to include these fiberglass pieces for the object history. Still need a bit of work, they've got hot glue under the thin resin in places that's making it difficult to get smoothed without tons of bondo build up over them, and being very careful not to uncover. Planning on attaching these with Chicago screws when they get here, then finishing them up.



Thinking about making either a second canvas girth belt to go over the vest so it doesn't end up going over the girth belt, or trying to seam rip the sides and make it into a side-closing vest so I can pull the waist in, since there's a few inches of slack to get it over shoulders.

[Delphin'Kam]

Hi there! Awesome start!, however it looks like the armos is too big? Because in the thotos your chest plates are bigger than your chest, also the collar.  Perhaps trimming an inch everything?

[ValinKrai]

Hi there! Awesome start!, however it looks like the armos is too big? Because in the thotos your chest plates are bigger than your chest, also the collar.  Perhaps trimming an inch everything?

Yea. It seems a bit too wide right now for sure. I'm a little more comfuzzled on the height since i feel like the chest plates should fall slightly higher relative to arms, but i don't think I want much less spacing.

[ValinKrai]

Recut the plates, but I'm struggling to keep the proportions right, since it falls directly above the belly button right now, and seems a little stretched. I added a bit of extra on the top, so I could just drop that, and end up and inch or so above the belly button if that's the lesser evil. I did get the shoulders attaching with Chicago screws, which I really like now that they're in place. Planning on using these whenever I'm ready to paint test it.

3D printed a few things. Still need to make final decisions on gauntlets, but after one too larger attempt at the helmet, this one came out pretty nicely, and seems like it'll be okay once I add patting/fiberglass reinforcement (if I do so). It's PETG besides the gauntlet, so next thing I need to decide is sanding/line cleanup method.



Started on the leg armor, with just the shins made so far. They still need cleaned up a bit, but more or less in a decent place. Trying to figure out how I'll want to attach things.

[Arco'thyel Wyshla]

Great work here, those seams on the shoulder and shin pieces are crisp! I'm not sure how modern sizing works, so hopefully more folks can chime in on that.

Those prints turned out nicely too, may I ask which 3D printer you use? My brother was going to get one, but was having trouble deciding.

[ValinKrai]

Great work here, those seams on the shoulder and shin pieces are crisp! I'm not sure how modern sizing works, so hopefully more folks can chime in on that.

Those prints turned out nicely too, may I ask which 3D printer you use? My brother was going to get one, but was having trouble deciding.

I'm using the Ender 3 v2  and the Inland filiments from Microcenter. It's pretty nice, though I'd probably do a CR-10 if I was planning on doing helmets more often. Their PLA also seems to have similar properties to ABS for acetone smoothing, at least to some degree. And if I didn't mention, the shins are Sintra glue together with E6000.

[ValinKrai]

Did a quick color/paint test.  I'm fairly certain on the darker purple, and I'm leaning towards switching the secondary color to pink. Going to add white stripes to brighten things up a bit and break up larger areas of purple.


Also did a paint on my scout blaster. Pretty happy how it turned out, even if I think it ended up heavier than I'd originally intended.


A few other things are in various stages of paint, including the helmet. Next major thing is to try cutting down one of my two plates sets and get the proportions where I want them, so I can start locking those in.

[Arco'thyel Wyshla]

You've really got great weathering, especially on the plate! I still think I prefer the dark purple/pink overall, but it may be neat to do the pink accents and even smaller green accents that pop.

[ValinKrai]

Been a while, got distracted by grad school, but slowly but surely made some progress. Painted a few finished pieces, and finished helmet save electronics.

So here's where I'm at:

Armor test fit:

Shins:
These have been painted, going to look at adding straps tonight.
Painted:


Weathered:


Helmet:
Silver finished:


The alter ego armory helmet didn't have a practical vented model for the rear keyslots, so I modeled my own to learn fusion 360:
Fan mount/trim:

Keyslots:


Printed Assembly with test fitted 40mm fans:




Helmet painting:
Gloss black undercoat:

Initial aluminum paintjob. Well, the version it was before I painted it. Did a lot of sanding and smoothing and perfecting here. Then I said yolo on the paint job because I figured the mottled look would be nice under peeling paint anyway.

I painted this in multiple layers to give the appearance of having been someone elses before. Hypothetically it was a lighter purple and green first, but I never took the masking off to do purple before throwing the final pink on the ear caps.

Undercoat:
Light Purple (most)
Green - earcaps, keyslots

So here's the progress pics as I build up to final layers:



Final purple coat (Some issues on the cheek here, but came out nicely with sanding, and otherwise, whatever.


Finished paintjob:


And finally, weathered up, with the shoulder armor attached to vest (Used chicago screws here).


So for the fans, I'm planning on controlling with an Arduino Mini, and running power from my belt pouches over CAT6, which would be able to accept the analog signal from another run to the gauntlets. Might mess with wireless, but trying to avoid Li+ batteries 1 inch from my head.
Schematic for fan control:

Circuit in fan with one fan group setup:


Struggling a bit to get the other fan (Centrifugal fan) to run off the 5v signal, the Noctua ones went perfectly though. We'll see if it even fits, and if the placement on the bottom of the visor is viable space wise, but my first test fit went okay, though it was strategic once glasses were involved. Did the PlastiDip trick on the interior, which worked wonders on the claustrophic feelings I was getting when my first coat of it got dusted with white and silver from painting.


Short term, gonna try and finish up lower legs, since the knees are painted as well. Just need to nail down placement. Still need to order boots and do thigh plates.  The codpiece is also todo, but I've got it traced onto the Sintra. Probably going to try and do once more trim on these chest plates, and redo the velcro on my vest again, so I can lock that in. Nailing the sizing and spacing has definitely been the biggest struggle.

[Aster Veris]

colors and weathering look great, very excited to see more! Question about colors, will you be doing any more green, the three colors together looks really nice.

[ValinKrai]

colors and weathering look great, very excited to see more! Question about colors, will you be doing any more green, the three colors together looks really nice.

Plan right now is to use it in undercoats for pieces shared between light and medium armor classes with the light purple. I do like it, so I'm tempted to keep it as a final coat for something like the gauntlets, or maybe a redo of the girth belt. It's the only shared color from way back when I'd originally tried to make Mando armor inspired by Kit Fisto.

[Arco'thyel Wyshla]

Color me impressed! I've been interested in Alter Ego Armory's files, but the lack of vents was a big drawback. I'm interested in your electronics, too. What signal are you planning on running from your gauntlets, a control switch for the fans?

It's cool to see the paint layers coming together. The final result is striking!

[ValinKrai]

Color me impressed! I've been interested in Alter Ego Armory's files, but the lack of vents was a big drawback. I'm interested in your electronics, too. What signal are you planning on running from your gauntlets, a control switch for the fans?

It's cool to see the paint layers coming together. The final result is striking!

Yea. It's the only thing I wish was different on those files. And for gauntlet, I was just hoping to take a smoothed PWM signal from an arduino in gauntlet to send a 5 volt analog signal to fans in helmet. The arduino there would control fans based on it, and gaunlet one would take inputs from a potentiomer, as well as controling a display. I guess I could do a direct resistor hookup, but trying to use the CAT6 wires effectively, since I'll only have 6 free for signals after 5 volt and ground are assigned.

Probably going to start those once I get plates going. Messing with the keyslots in Fusion 360 has made me a little more confident about directly modifying the customizable AprilStorm gauntlets to add holes for electronics, instead of printing and physically cutting plastic. Gonna end up with so many extra gauntlet prints. Already have 2 pairs printed in PLA, but I'm meh on using 3D printed buttons.

Only thing I'm not 100% on is how I want to get an RJ-45 connector, or what else I might use. It's a bit bulky. Would love to do a magnetic one with pogo pins, but not sure how viable that is.