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[Zophar Ptay]

I think I'll be alright with the super fine tooth blades I have.  It will be too awkward of an angle to get the dremel in where I'd need to I think

[Dresdon Acacin]

that reminds me, Mastercrap makes 90* Dremal heads that you screw onto the end of your dremal where the collar fitting is so you can get into hard to reach places like when dremaling something on the inside of a helmet or in gauntlets.

[Zophar Ptay]

Trimmed the visor and internal padding tonight.  A picture directly under a 100W light bulb:



and a selfie with the flash directly on the visor:



No seeing through the visor from the outside but is the foam weather stripping I used for mounting it going to fly?

[Dresdon Acacin]

The foam looks way too thick to work(i.e. its too visible) Id reccomend using the thin 2sided mounting tape if you use tape. I personally used hotglue but like the really hot hotmelt ones so they don't break off.

[Zophar Ptay]

The problem is the complexity of the bucket.  It isn't a bend-and-glue like a standard modern bucket.  There are several complex curves and depth changes that it is nearly impossible to get exact and the foam makes it manageable and looks far better than without.  Also planning on some EL wire around the trim so I'll need gap for that as well

[Zophar Ptay]

I like to switch to blue filler hardener every few skins of filler to get a better idea of how much I'm actually building up with each successive layer.

Cool idea!

Sprayed some primer and did some spot filling, sanded it back down and realized I had the perfect visualization of this now.



Note the grey areas which are down to bare fiberglass, darker pink was the first layer of bondo, then light pink, blue, light grey and finally dark red.  Pretty good way I've found to visualize the current height you've built something up.


I hit it all with some 400 grit today so hopefully when the last few little spots of spot putty dry I'll be painting tonight.

== update ==

Black base coat laid:








====  update  ====

[Niabi]

That paint looks Gorgeous  

[Zophar Ptay]

Yeah, I'm happy with it.   Almost a shame to have to beat it up :-P    I'm planning on a Jango-level weathering though.   Just multiple layers of various washes, not chunks taken out and huge paint-stripping skidmarks.   Zophar isn't a frontline soldier, he has a support role so no reason to have chunks out of his beskargam.  He won't be polishing his kit, but he maintains it.  The knees will be pretty heavily weathered and the back will be weathered a bit more heavily than the front in keeping with someone who is opening access panels and crawling around in tighter spaces, I think.

[Zophar Ptay]

Theme song for the night:  Gotta Keep 'Em Seperated


Zophar is really starting to take shape!!







I guess the shin-knees are next on the docket.   Planning to make a PVC master then fiberglass casts.  We'll see how that works out.   Leather for the strapping is in hand and lasercutter templates are laid out for the blaster parts.

[amouro]

Was the faceted look of the chest plate the original plan? That's cool if it is. To me it just strikes of a low poly model being used to form a curved surface but having never been fully smoothed out. Like I said, cool if that's what you had in mind. It looks good, I was just expecting it to end up smoothly curved.

[Zophar Ptay]

If you can see the three horizontal segments, the plan had been for the top two to be a smoothe curve with an angle to the third.... if that makes sense.   While working on it I realized that it would require a full restart to get that with the method I used so I finished this one off.  I didn't think it was THAT obvious.  Hopefully it's just the lighting that makes it jump out that bad...

It's on the "upgrade list" .... is it sad that I have an upgrade list already going and haven't even finished the kit yet?

[amouro]

Ah so you wanted 2 horizontal hard edges across the chest, with a smooth curve from left to right? that makes sense. You could probably still do this. you'd need to build up some fiberglass on the back side where the high corners of the facets are. then grind the front of the corners until you form the curve you were looking for.

But it does look good enough for now. I don't see anything wrong with putting that on your upgrade list. I'm honestly kind of torn on it. Part of me says "oh the facets are kind of cool" while another parts says "no that aught to be curved".

[Zophar Ptay]

I'm in the same boat and, yes, that is the way to fix it.   I'm not sure it is worth the work right now for something that frankly isn't kicking me in the teeth.  It isn't 100% what I was going for, but I don't think it is BAD either.

[Zophar Ptay]

My squire put the shoulder on WAY too high, and it took so long to get that far that I just let it slide and left the other one off for the pic.  The point of the shoulder should sit roughly at the edge of the chest as it does in my profile pic, so shift it outward a good 4", but you get the idea.  She's an ewok, what's she know about beskargam?   

[Zophar Ptay]

Right gauntlet started and almost finished today.   Fill in that wee crack, drill holes for some LEDs on the face like in the initial sketch and add straps and I'll call it good.



also mocked up the left gaunt and started construction.


Left gaunt:


Right Gaunt: