activation email

[Bowfanny]

Congrats Vod.

[Malek Dair]

Huge congrats to you vod! Great photo essay as well!

[Vyst Nel]

Congratz, vod! I've been following this thread with great interest for some time now (and often reference it for my own build). To see it culminate in such a fantastic way is nothing short of inspiring.  My helmet off to you and your wife, sir.

[Syko Voss]

I've just made a little upgrade to our kits, adding the supporter emblem to show our support to the folks over at the QMU:



Our second troop is coming up at York at the end of the month so it's soon going to be a matter of getting our kit out and double-checking for fixes, mods and such.

[Kurshi BeJahaal]

Congrats and we'll done! I'm glad to see that you've got stripes and a title! Your time has paid off! Incredible looking kits you two have.

[Kitala-Enby]

I love your slow build up of meaningful sigils. Looks awesome vod.

[spideyplumhead]

congrats on your new rank ... and loving all the new emblems, both kits look stunning and a constant source of ideas  ...gutted i missed you at celebration

[Syko Voss]

Well, after far too long of being away from the forums (family illness and, ultimately a bereavement kept me away), I must say, it's good to be back.

We had fun trooping at our local Disney Store in Nottingham for the release of the Rogue One toyline...



And earlier this week I finally had some time to make a small mod to our gauntlets that I've been wanting to do for quite some time.

Our original use of digital picture frames worked really well...for five minutes.  But sadly we found the frames timed out and switched themselves off.

So, having seen how long-lasting coin cells and LEDs are, I came up with the following solution that will mean our gauntlets will look more alive during troops and add more illumination for photographing.

I built two custom circuits - the one on the right being a flashing red LED and a constant white LED wired in parallel with a switch and a coin cell holder.

The second, I took an IKEA LED tea light, cut it down and soldered a flashing red LED on top of the existing white LED so I ended up with the same kind of circuit.

(The reason for doing this was a matter of what spare parts I had and I found that the IKEA tea light was just the perfect size to fit in Jayne's gaunt.)





I glued some 'screen glass' - made out of clear bottle plastic heated for a couple of seconds with a heat gun and flattened and printed out a couple of images onto decal paper that I then applied to the inside of the 'glass' (if you're doing this - this will mean your image becomes flipped!)



Then, with that dry, I took some wax paper and glued and sealed it onto the decal using PVA glue - this diffuses the light - without it you can see straight through into the circuits and LEDs...





And while I'd love a super sharp always animating digital display, this little option displays brighter, more animated and longer lasting than the previous attempt.

(By having the white LED it means that the 'display' always has some illumination and the flashing red LED adds animation, with the red decal meaning that everything ends up differing shades of red.)

Happy Holidays folks, it's great to be back.

Just started building a sidearm for my empty thigh holster.  I'll post pics as I progress.


 

[Havelock]

Congrats on your promotion, vod, and as always, great work on your kit.  I'm hoping one day we'll be able to troop together somewhere.

[Ohl'd Vart]

Good to see you back! 

Rob

[Dar'manda]

Good to see you back in action! Great work as always vod!!

[Syko Voss]

Thanks guys
well, part of this holiday's highlights has been having the time to cut and hack at pieces of wood.  So here's how things have gone so far...

I made a rough cardboard template to work out the rough shape for my hold-out blaster...



And then banged that onto the scanner and using Illustrator worked out a paper template (I could have used pencil and paper to trace but I've got access to the tools and can guarantee a right-angle in Illustrator will be more accurate than one I draw with a set square.)



After that, it was cutting out three layers of MDF - giving the middle one a nice big tab and slot to allow the barrel to be fitted onto and slid back into place...



(This was quite a job as although the blaster is made of three layers of MDF I used six separate pieces of MDF to make them - I was cobbling it together from various offcuts I had laying around!)

Shaping of the grip was done with a rasp, Dremel and sandpaper, cutting the parallel slots in the front of the body of the gun was done with a box cutter, a metal ruler and a file (I'd originally intended to Dremel it but when I cut a guideline with the box cutter I realised I could get better results with more control with a straight edge and a knife.)



Mercilessly sealed the MDF with two coats of PVA adhesive and avoiding using any wet-and-dry sandpaper - so none of the warping I had in the last stages of the carbine.

Various bits of Foamex cut, sanded and scored for the relief detail



And the cylinder at the back - I used the washers-over-Foamex trick I found out while making the big carbine - lined up the washers on either side of the gun, filled in with Foamex and filler and then sanded around the edges until the washers stopped me...



(Greeblies on this were a couple of bits of model kit sprue, a piece from a bathroom pull-cord switch and the ridged pipe at the back of the barrel was a bit of corrugated tubing from a water butt cut down the middle and wrapped over the PVC pipe of the barrel.)



Ended up diverting from my original plan for the pistol as I wanted to make sure that the pistol was thin enough to still fit in the thigh holster - hence more detail on the right side, a simpler design on the left.

First pass of grey primer...









With the thickness of the primer it's now a tight fit in the holster, but then again, I'd rather that than having it slop around...



Next steps - use very fine sandpaper to polish it to a glassy finish - part of what I want to do with this project is to get as close as I can to an utterly seamless machined finish just using the limited set of tools I have in my workshop.  (And certainly what I'd need to do if I ever decided to build props and cast them.)

Happy New Year folks!

[Bowfanny]

As always, you do beautiful work!

[Havelock]

I love watching you work, vod.  It's an inspiration to a still-newbie, and slightly ham-handed guy like myself.

[Syko Voss]

 >:(Thanks dude - loving the new profile pic!

Well, after several layers of silver, black, scratching back, dirt washing, etc,etc (oh and changing the thing down the barrel as the cotton reel I'd put in there decided to crumble)...









...which means (I think) all I need to do now to make my kit eligible for urban assault brigade is to build some kind of breaching charge for it.

[Ajoliveira]

Wow vod, your work and skills, damn m8, speechless  8) 

AJ

[Ryi'nock]

Aayyy glad to see your back boss. Loving the blaster!

[Havelock]

loving the new profile pic!

Thanks!

And your pistol is looking really sweet!  I can't wait to see what you come up with for breaching charges.

[Syko Voss]

Thanks.

Discovered an interesting way to get that distressing - sprayed the silver on top of the primer, then sealed that with a gloss varnish.  (Let each coat cure for 24 hours before applying the next.)  Then, on the third day, I sprayed the whole thing with matte black, let that dry for about 5-10 minutes, then lightly scuffed the edges of the whole thing with fine grit sandpaper, concentrating on the corners and high points.  At that stage I also slid it in and out of the holster a number of times.  The result - more realistic scratch patterns that I could achieve with masking fluid.

As goes weathering - after I'd let the matte black cure, I picked out the key silver highlights with a little dry brush of silver - just to make them pop.  Once that had dried, it was dirt washing - a very thin black wash that I rubbed off pretty quickly, then a few blobs of burnt umber (see the brown mark that's to the front of the trigger guard), raw sienna in odd places - let 'em dry, rub 'em back.  Then, drizzle some cold espresso coffee in a few places and let it dry - it really looks like drizzles of oil.

Finally, the whole thing was hit with a satin varnish - which gives it that 'just oiled' look.

Certainly there's something to getting a bit of subtle colour variation in there with the smudges of browns/siennas- it seems to lift everything from just flat matte black paint with a few silver highlights to something that looks more believably made of metal.

[Raestin Ke'Varek]

Brilliant work as always sir.  8)

[Kris Jasra]

The clear coat between layers trick really does help, especially on plates as you can weather each layer so higher layers have 3D old painted over blast marks and scratches when you get in close.

[Kol Varek]

Some good advice I'm going to have to pocket. Good work as always 

[Syko Voss]

Well, here's an update on my building - lately, finally working out how to mount the Kal Dagger I built ages ago on my right shin and also, going back to finish off the Clone Wars Commando Droid style Vibroblades I began when the LFL weapons ban came in around the time that Force Awakens came out.

Started the dagger sheath build with a card mockup:



And attempted to make it using a backplate made of Foamex with a sheath made of flattened out, heat-formed PVC pipe...



Unfortunately, screwing the plate onto the shin caused the PVC to crack and even 2 part epoxy refused to stick it...



Back to the drawing board, I went with Foamex...



A backplate heat formed to match the shin with bolts passing through it into the shin plate, a sheath formed into a long loop glued to it with 2 part epoxy and then the gap between filled first with a combination of kneadable epoxy putty and then P38.  An old ALT key from a keyboard added as a greebly to the front.



The result...





To do - paint, Rub'n'Buff, add dirt washes and add a leather strap to hold the dagger in.  Just awaiting delivery of a 'Sam Brown stud' from eBay to allow me to allow the strap to fasten.

In other news, I went back to my Commando Droid-style Vibroblades.



For the bar that goes across the top of the blades I found I had to order some 5mm PVC rod (thank you, Trent Plastics) and fashioned the rest of the details using some black corrugated PVC pipe from a water butt and the innards of, my old favourites - liquid soap dispensers...



To give the corrugated detail rigidity and to allow it to fix firmly to the blade, I repurposed a metal rod from an old paint roller extension, cut it to size and cut a slot in it..



To attach the other end, I drilled a hole down the end of the rod with my Dremel, cut the head off a screen and pushed it into the rod.



Then, a combination of garden wire and 2-part epoxy securing it to the blade...



Next up - forming over the end of the rod with kneadable epoxy putty and then P38 over the top of that.


One interesting tip about cutting the MDF for the top of the blade - I used a metal ruler, a box cutter and a bit of patience...

I was concerned about trying to cut a really flat line over the top of the blade with a jig saw - especially because I also wanted to leave tabs to go into the corrugated section of the rod and to secure the rod at the hilt end.

So, I got out my metal ruler, a fresh box cutter blade and repeatedly scored the MDF.  With a bit of persistence I eventually cut all the way through and ended up with an edge much straighter than I would've been able to achieve with any of my other hand or electric tools.

Not recommended in most other circumstances, but I'm pleased to say it IS possible to cut through MDF with a knife if you have to...

[Dar'manda]

Looking good vod! I like the shin mounted knife for sure!

[Syko Voss]

Well, here's a quick update...

Shin knife is sorted...





I could only buy 'Sam Brown' screws in pairs, so I reworked my thigh holster with the same leather strapping and fastening as the shin knife...which I think looks far more authentic...



And the vibroblades have now been filled and sanded a few times and are now ready for metal base coats...
(memo to self - cut off the ends of the sticks so they don't stick out quite so far...)