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[Karl Dha'Werda]

How is this kit coming along?

[Woody556]

How is this kit coming along?

Been spending a lot of time getting sizing right for the chest plate. Started with cardboard as to not waste PVC sheet, and just moved to outlining everything on PVC sheet last night. Hoping to start cutting and assembling here pretty soon. Still need to make some minor adjustments to lengths and angles of a few pieces, but I believe it's going in the right direction

[Karl Dha'Werda]

Been spending a lot of time getting sizing right for the chest plate. Started with cardboard as to not waste PVC sheet, and just moved to outlining everything on PVC sheet last night. Hoping to start cutting and assembling here pretty soon. Still need to make some minor adjustments to lengths and angles of a few pieces, but I believe it's going in the right direction

Sweet, I started with cardboard as well.

[Woody556]

Sweet, I started with cardboard as well.

It was extremely useful for sizing and helped me get to this point today



(Just to reiterate from before, the parts of the vest that need to be covered/removed will be covered/removed)

Pretty happy with how it turned out. Currently just using Gorilla Tape to hold the top corners in place so I don't have to continuously hold the plate up to myself and find the position I want whenever I size check. Everything on it is shaped to my body as well so there's no plate-float when being worn. But yeah, just done with this part (outlined in red) so far and I think it lines up well with the reference I'm using


I can't imagine I'm alone with dealing with perfectionism on this stuff right? I keep wanting to make extremely minor changes to the way things are curved but i feel like it's just the perfectionist in me taking over and not allowing myself to be satisfied

[Karl Dha'Werda]

That is an awesome start. And turned out really well

[Woody556]

Putting my CAD skills to the test here and modeling it in 3D. I'm still going to continue messing with PVC for shaping, angles, sizing, etc. but ultimately I think I'll end up printing the design. It's much cleaner, the lines are correct, and everything is perfectly symmetrical this way.

With the prep I did from using cardboard and PVC, this took me all of about 10ish hours? Progress started to pick up quite a bit once I uploaded a canvas of the chest piece into CAD and used it for shaping everything. Learning a lot while I go haha

[Karl Dha'Werda]

I haven't touched CAD in years. Chest plate is looking great!

[Woody556]

I haven't touched CAD in years. Chest plate is looking great!

It's both a great and frustrating tool haha. But thank you! Here's where I'm at from a week worth of work on it. Time to skeletonize it and check it for size

[Karl Dha'Werda]

It's both a great and frustrating tool haha. But thank you! Here's where I'm at from a week worth of work on it. Time to skeletonize it and check it for size

That looks sweet!

[Karl Dha'Werda]

How is it going Vod on this build?

I was reviewing some other WIPs today from a few years ago and came across this ones that has a similar chest design you are going for without the hoses in their concept design.

[Veeds]

I looking forward to watching your progress

[Woody556]

How is it going Vod on this build?

I was reviewing some other WIPs today from a few years ago and came across this ones that has a similar chest design you are going for without the hoses in their concept design.

Hey! Sorry, haven't been in the forums in a bit. It's going alright. Still waiting on the prototype of my design to be printed so I've been working on getting my bracers sorted out. That is a pretty similar design; would've been neat to see it come to fruition

I looking forward to watching your progress

Thank you! I'm looking forward to having it all finished one day

[Woody556]

While I wait for my designed stuff to be printed, I decided to work on my rifle build:

Here is my base. It was originally an airsoft bolt action that the bolt handle snapped off. Between the bolt no longer being functional, and my rendering of the trigger unusable, I have made it safe to be a prop





From here, I wanted it to look a little more minimalist and less earthy so I worked on the stock and barrel. I cut a hand hold in the stock, and trimmed down a piece of PVC tube that is press fit over the barrel via barrel spacers that I created in CAD and printed.







My next addition was pretty simple. I wanted a muzzle piece that looked more in-universe so I did some more CAD work and printed this piece that slides into the PVC tube.







From here, I'll be adding my scope and making the cuts to the barrel cover. The scope is made of pieces of other PVC pieces that I'll mash together. My current design is here:



As for the barrel, I plan to do these cuts symmetrically down both sides (obviously all a uniform size; I just can't draw it very well in paint.) Once that is done, I want to run some sort of colored LED strips down the inside so that the inner barrel has an energized glow to it.





I currently just have two questions about this so far:

1) Will I need to cover the parts of the picattiny that are not being used for mounting the scope? I plan to remove the underside one where a bipod would typically be mounted.

2) Do I need to fill the screw holes that hold A) the two sides of the stock together and B) the barrel to the stock itself?

[Karl Dha'Werda]

I currently just have two questions about this so far:

1) Will I need to cover the parts of the picatinny that are not being used for mounting the scope? I plan to remove the underside one where a bipod would typically be mounted.

When I built my original rifle I did remove the picatinny that wasn't used for mounting my scope.  I also covered some of it with leather strapping to fit the beast hunter scheme I was going for.  The upgraded rifle does have some leather strapping but it was used less and specifically to cover a missing part behind the trigger in which sintra didn't work out.  The picatinny rail for the bipod doesn't need to be removed if you are using a bipod (which is seen in this era, see references below).

2) Do I need to fill the screw holes that hold A) the two sides of the stock together and B) the barrel to the stock itself?

All screw holes need to be filled, unless the screws would be seen in real rifle (example screw/bolts attaching grips to handle).

Strongly recommend that you find some rifles from the crusader / old republic era that you like and then gear and build your own rifle towards those references.  When I upgraded my rifle recently I used these images for reference with my build.  Here are some image references from SWTOR video game.

[Woody556]

I was thinking of just mounting the scope via scope rings to their respective spot on the rail, and then covering the rest with some sort of printed piece that slides over the rails. As for the bipod, I hadn't considered having one on mine yet but that may change.

All screw holes need to be filled, unless the screws would be seen in real rifle (example screw/bolts attaching grips to handle).

I'll use my real steel bolt-action rifle for reference on structural screw holes and then transfer that knowledge to this build.

Strongly recommend that you find some rifles from the crusader / old republic era that you like and then gear and build your own rifle towards those references.  When I upgraded my rifle recently I used these images for reference with my build.  Here are some image references from SWTOR video game.

I've been using them as I go and I've definitely taken inspiration from some of the things I've seen. For instance, I cut out the stock to be minimalist based on how a few of the rifles you've posted look.



As for the rest of the armor: the chest piece is finally being printed as I type this so if that turns out well then I can get started on that. I also finished designing my bracers so I can get those started soon too. I'm pretty excited with how things are going