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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.

[Niabi]

Looks awesooooooome vod I really really like it

[Drak Fiurr Verda]

I really like that design you have there. Great job, this is the way things are supposed to be done carefully with precision.

[Karjair]

Looks awesooooooome vod I really really like it

I really like that design you have there. Great job, this is the way things are supposed to be done carefully with precision.

Vor'e Vode! (hahaha mando rhymes). Seriously though, Thank you.

[Solus Raam]

Whoa this is starting to look really cool. I'll be watching.

[Karjair]

So I have decided I'm not happy with where the pack is going. Mostly I have decided I hate large quantities of Bondo. Having discussed some options with Hondo Karr (Thanks for the advice vod), I will be making this pack out of sintra and only using putty to clean up the seams. Instead of the simple graph paper drawing I was working from previously, that led to some improvisations I was not happy with, I managed to model the pack in Sketchup well enough to use as a visual reference.  I also have a second copy of the same file saved with dimensions added in to assist in laying this all out to cut.  Overall I think I am happier with the new look of the pack than I was with the old.

Lessons learned from Pack V1:
1) When using drywall tape, don't tape it unless you are going to putty over relatively quickly. The tape adhesive is not very strong and will pull away from the piece, making it look like an unraveling mummy.
2) I need more practice working with Bondo before attempting to cover large areas.  The Bondo I have spreads like very thick cake frosting. I was unable to spread it out without causing ridges and swirls. The anticipation of having to sand this mess is what caused me to hold off on finishing the original version and look at my options.
3) This one is for anyone new who might be reading this... Our brother/sister Mando's are helpful. If you have a question, ask someone. Start a thread, send a PM, make a phone call. They're here to help you.

Since I don't want to necro my thread without at least some progress, here's a photo of the sketchup model I will be working from. Sometimes going back to square one is a good thing.

[Carid Vhett]

Pity about the mess ups of V1. Best of luck with V2, design looks great.

[Karjair]

     I spent the better part of yesterday evening laying out the main body of the pack. I had several bad starts as I was trying to figure out the best way to progress through the build. I remember very little from my mechanical drawing class back in junior high, but drawing through my intended points and not erasing the excess construction lines saved me.  As you see in the photo below I'm going to be folding the Sintra almost like a Pepakura except that the entire piece isn't connected. There is a piece on either side that will form part of the back (as it's worn) that connects to the main section via a 2" piece. I had some difficulty figuring out how best to lay out this piece until I noticed that I had left my construction lines in place on the main section. I used a compass to recreate a triangle that let me get a foothold and something to work from. I finished laying it all out and went over the lines to be cut or grooved with a sharpie. Solids = cut, dotted = groove.




     Today I purchased a V-groove cutter for foamboard and picture frame mats.  It wasn't exactly what I needed but it is sufficient. The blades don't cut a very deep groove in the sintra. I did some test bends and it still worked well enough to do the job.  When I returned home, the uncut armor pieces on the sintra were staring at me coldly so I cut them out. They're happy now and will be even happier when I make it to the armor party in February.  Back to the pack...
     A lot of cutting, and more cutting. Then carefully using the groove cutter where the folds would be. Broke out the heat gun and started heating the first fold, which didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. I overheated it a tad too much and it started to curl. Quickly turned off the heat gun and grabbed my cheap plastic speed square from Lowe's and used it to make my 90 degree fold.  The first couple folds are a little rough but serviceable. The folds for the more critical pieces that fold up and over were much better and I'm satisfied with how they turned out. Here are the results, I will have to fill those gaps and fair the curled pieces at some point.







The 4" PVC sewer pipe I cut from a piece lying around in my dad's hoard of scavenged materials that me might use 'someday'.  In the V1 pack I had intended this piece to be a tube as well but got impatient to build it and made it a box instead.  There isn't much to say about the last pic except that this is the current state of the build.  The pipe is being glued to the rest of the main body and will sit like this overnight while the glue cures.  The ruler laying across is to keep the pieces laying flat instead of pitching up. There is a bead of glue down the entire length of the bottom of the pipe and glue on the inboard corners of the pieces the ruler is laying across.



     So now I have some questions, Should I fill and fair the gaps and seams on this piece before building and adding the next one? The next piece will be the piece that runs up the center. Given my terrible Bondo skills, should I use something else to fill the gaps and fair the curled pieces smooth or just go with the Bondo?
Comments and advice always welcome, Thanks for looking.

[Carid Vhett]

Go with bondo, but invest in an electrical palm sander. Or just sit down one day/night and start sanding. Put some music on and smooth it out.

[Karjair]

Not much progress since the last update. I put some bondo on the inside of the seams and a few of the outside seams as well.  Ground down the bondo with the dremel tool and a grinding stone so that I could get into the corners, the mouse sander is just too big to fit. I cut out, folded, and glued the lower section.



I may pause the build here until after Ge'tal Veh's upcoming armor party.  I want to make sure I can get inside to install mounting hardware and rocket nozzles if I need to.  I am seriously considering making the central section either completely removable or having some other form of internal access for future upgrades. I'll be getting the bondo finished and sanded down on this in the next week or so before I install the central section or the repulsor pods on the sides.

[Karjair]

So it's been almost 4 months since I last did any work on my pack.  Work has been keeping me busy. My kit might get done eventually, not holding my breath though.  Some close friends Kuu and Jaelie from Murran clan started working on their kits, so I decided to get off my duff and get some work done on my own.

Ok... Had some issues with putting the repulsor units on.  I had originally intended to have the pods slide over the tube section, but I wasn't sure about the best way to lay out the ellipse to cut. It's an ellipse because the sides of the pods meet the tube at an angle. So I procrastinated (In addition to being busy at work). I layed out the main parts of the repulsor units, and cut them out.  Then I noticed that the shape didn't match what appeared on the 3D model I worked up. I checked my measurements again and found that I had made an error.  I managed to salvage it but for the faceted top of the units I will not be able to use those measurements from my model. I used the first cutout as a template and traced it onto the sintra and cut out the second piece. Heated, bent, no major issues (minor cracking in one bend that wasn't heated enough).  Dry fit the piece onto the pack... major gaps.  I had failed to account for the additional width that is created by bending the sintra. So... I broke the drywall tape back out, taped the inside of the seams with gaps and liberally applied hot glue. The tape kept the glue from gushing out.  Once the glue cooled down I began filling the gaps from the outside with the "Plastic Metal" Bondo in a tube.  This is where I am currently. Not all the seams have Bondo in them yet, I wanted to give it a chance to cure before I started handling it to finish adding the Bondo.







Comments and suggestions welcome. Thanks for looking.