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[Karjair]

Slowly working on getting a repulsor pack together. Going for Shock Infantry: Orbital Drop.  Planning to have the breathing hoses pull off the back of my helmet going into the top of the pack.

 Here are the concept drawings. I've decided that I like the V2 version better so that's what I'm building to.



I'm cutting the shapes from foam core and hot gluing them together. For the curved areas I will be using poster board and then the whole thing will get reinforced (probably with drywall fiberglass tape), some Bondo, and finally sanded down smooth. Here's what I have built so far.



Comments and advice are welcome. Thanks for looking.

[Ca'tra Firaxan]

This is interesting! I've never seen an orbital drop brigade mando before. I can't wait to see this done.

[Karjair]

This is interesting! I've never seen an orbital drop brigade mando before. I can't wait to see this done.

Before the brigade forums were limited to OM's I saw one, was really well done. It was early era's I think, neo-crusader possibly.

[Ca'tra Firaxan]

Nice. I guess you might be original for the modern era.

[Karjair]

Nice. I guess you might be original for the modern era.

Yeah, that's the plan. Hoping this turns out as well as it looks in my head.

[Ca'tra Firaxan]

With a pack design like that, I think it'll be pretty cool.

[Draarn Cetar]

Vod,

 You've stirred my motivation!  I was thinking of going Recon but after 17 years as an Army Paratrooper the orbital drop Mando brings a pang to the old ticker.  I'll be watching this with great interest!! 


Draarn

[Niabi]

Cool concept vod

[Karjair]

Vod,

 You've stirred my motivation!  I was thinking of going Recon but after 17 years as an Army Paratrooper the orbital drop Mando brings a pang to the old ticker.  I'll be watching this with great interest!! 


Draarn

I might need to pick your brains to refine some of the ideas I'm kicking around in my head.

Cool concept vod

Thank you ner vod

[Tact Kor]

Looks like a great start, looking forward to watching this.

[Karjair]

I managed to get some (small) work done on the pack today. I installed the lower wall of the repulsor pods after cutting out the spacer I had glued in  place to get the angle I wanted on the outer panels. It occurs to me that cutting out and installing the lower wall and installing the outer panels afterwards would have saved some cutting and (eventually) sealing issues. Closed in the long sides of the jetpack chamber (the blocky teardrop at the bottom) and the lower wall of the "life support" area (top area between the pods) so that I could begin building up the main area which sits in the middle of everything. I cut several 2" tall sections of foam core and hot glued them around the edges of where the main deck would fit to act as a ledge for the main deck to sit on then applied the hot glue to the top of them and pressed the main deck in.

There are gaps in a few areas but I'm hoping that those can be sealed up with minimal issue
(on the right side in this picture)


Here's a pic showing some of the internal supports holding things in their proper places.


And here's the current state of the pack.


There is surprisingly little left to do on the main build portion of this:
Close in the JP chamber bottoms (this will be where the rocket nozzles get mounted)
Close in the main deck bottoms
Complete the "life support" area (where I'm planning to attach hoses running from helmet)
Build the raised center that runs from the JP chamber to the "life support"
Close in the top and back of the repulsor pods (direction references are "as worn")
Tape, Bondo, Sand like crazy

Then I can start worrying about things like "What kind of nozzles do I want, and where will I get them?", "How am I supposed to make these pods look like they're repulsor pods?", "is this enough greeblies?", and lastly "How am I going to mount this monstrosity on my armor?"

Also... This thing needs a name. I was considering 'Basilisk' in homage to the war droids but that seems a bit much. Names are hard.  Comments and advice are, as always, welcome. Thanks for looking.

[Tracyn Ordo]

It's a neat design man! I like it Keep up the good work.

[z2the4]

I love where this is going, I enjoy reading over "different" builds.

[Karjair]

It's a neat design man! I like it Keep up the good work.

I love where this is going, I enjoy reading over "different" builds.

Looks like a great start, looking forward to watching this.

Thanks vode 

I did make some progress today but not as much as I wanted. The next update will most likely be when I have it all closed in and possibly taped. This might take a while as I need to get materials for taping and bondo. The bondo process will be somewhat slow as well because I can't do it in my tiny apartment and will need to do that work in another location.

[Karjair]

So I managed to finish closing the shape up this evening.  I have also obtained the materials I need for the next phase: Fiberglass mesh drywall tape, Spray Adhesive, Bondo, and several sizes of flexible plastic scrapers that will be used to spread the bondo over the drywall tape.



It's a video, but I was unable to figure out how to get a photobucket video to play in the forum.
Comments and advice welcome, thanks for looking.