Bolt's Clone Engineer Build and Hopeful CRL Submission

[Bolt_2112]

Hey guys, this will be a cross post from the CTD. I am going to shoot for a Clone Trooper Engineer (from Star Wars Battlefront 2005) and make a CRL. 

Hello there!

I feel like I need to introduce myself because I'm a little slack posting on the CTD (I keep my troop record up to date though haha).

I'm Bolt, I've been a member of the CTD since 2014.
I've gotten 6 Clone costumes approved so far and I think the CTD is the best detachment out there!

I've been playing the OG Battlefront 2 since I got it in 2006. And I always played as the Clone Engineer class.
Over the past few months I've played with creating a 501st Level Clone Engineer Costume with hopes that I can create a CRL so that this can become an approvable costume.

I would love to work with the CTD Command Staff to make this happen. And I've created this build thread so that I can be as transparent as possible in my build.

Here are the links to my Flickr folders containing all my images (although I will post some in this thread also).

Reference material: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBcTPt

Build images: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBbXHv



Build:

Gotta get this out of the way to start.. yes.. I 3d printed a bunch of this build. As far as I know there is no active vendors who build accurate parts for the Clone Engineer.

So, I purchased the files for a chest piece and helmet. I had to scale them to fit my body and extensively modify the helmet to make it accurate and wearable.

All parts are printed in ABS, which does not warp in the heat and should be tough to survive trooping.



I have a Flashforge Inventor Pro printer and cut the files into pieces that would fit on my print bed using autodesk Netfabb.



Some of the longest prints took 25hrs.



Assembled lower section of the helmet. I melted down leftover filament in ABS to create a slurry which I brushed over the inside of the helmet. This increases strength and welds the parts together.






Assembled helmet upper section and chest piece. Another very important stage of my build was the resin coating I gave the parts.

I used XCD 3d, which is a low temperature resin specificly used on 3d printed parts. This creates another layer which joins the parts and fills in the print lines.

Amazon link to the product: https://www.amazon.com/XTC-3D-High-Perfo...SLI9M?th=1



As with all 3d printed parts... there is a ton of sanding involved. I applied several coats of spray filler and 2 part bog for the seams.



Sand, fill, sand, fill repeat. When I felt I was getting close I started to wet sand to get a fine, smooth finish.



Chest piece with undercoat



Chest piece with top coat. I use MTN 94 paints for my kits. On the left side of the upper chest you will notice I kept a section where I sanded too much of the print. I felt this would look good in the weathering stage.



Back to the helmet! Two things to note from this image. Firstly I used a dremel to remove the innacurate cheek details. These are not present on the game character. I will fill them with two part filler. The other.. in order to make this helmet wearable I cut out a portion of the neck ring. This will be attached to the face plate and the assembly will turn into a removable part fixed with magents!





Half of neck ring removed and raw, cut print lined with ABS.



The other innacuracy with this helmet was the brow line.. the game character has a flat brow which sits just above the eye lenses. I cut ABS sheets and made a frame.





And added the missing Trapezoid section above the brow.



The brow is also supposed to extend all the way to the ear caps. So I added more pieces of ABS to achieve this.



After much more filling and sanding, this was the result.



Brow is now more accurate, yay!



After much, much more filling and sanding. I painted the helmet! The next stage was to create the spots on the dome and the tube stripes. I used my wife's Cricut to do these. I made stencils for the brown spots and cut the tube stripes out of black vinyl.



I painted the Trapazoid and inner section of the face plate in charcoal grey. The vocoder, mic tips, frown and rear tubes in black. The spots in brown and weathered the helmet with my airbrush.







I soldered up 3 blue LED's for the headlamp. The in-game model has kind of a dirty white section in the center, which I replicated by sponging white paint.

The actual lamp is blue acrylic which I frosted by sanding it and applying matt clear.



Completed helmet with satin clear applied. Note that I played with the headlamp to get a better effect.



Completed torso.

That completes my helmet and chest build thread! I will post a follow up thread with my justification and reference material and a thread for my Fusion Cutter build also!

---

Next up I just wanted to run through the Clone Engineer and see how it stacks up against the current ROTS Grunt CRL, and point out any changes that I would suggest specific to this costume.

My comments are in Green.



Suggested Helmet CRL description:

Helmet

•    Battlefront 2 Clone Engineer style helmet.
o    Some "name brand" helmets may be unacceptable.
•    Helmet is painted matte or satin white.
•    Dome has 3 distinct raised sections.
•    A central headlight is present on dome.
•    Mirrored Green or Black eye lens.
•    Frown is black in color with 2 teeth.
o    Teeth are evenly spaced from the middle of frown.
•    Vocoder (chin detail) and Mic tips are painted black.
•    Chin area that contains the Vocoder and Mic tips is charcoal grey.
•    Trapezoid section above brow is painted charcoal grey.
•    Inside of vents are painted black.
o    Vents meld into earcaps.
•    Tube stripes on each side are black in color.
o    (5) stripes per side.
•    Two tan circle markings are present on either side of the dome.
•    Back of helmet has two black hose details either side of the oxygen pack.
•    Helmet is weathered with shades of grey.

OPTIONAL Level two certification (if applicable):

•    Helmet has the appearance of having a neck ring.

OPTIONAL Level three certification (if applicable):

•    Helmet has an enclosed complete neck ring that seals the helmet to the neck.
•    Headlamp is illuminated by blue LED’s.


Neck Seal and Undersuit would be same as the regular trooper.



    Neck Seal

•    Neck seal is black in color with vertical ribbing or smooth in appearance.
•    No logos or labels are visible.
o    If the seal is not incorporated as part of the undersuit, a balaclava or other similar covering is acceptable.


    Under Suit

•    Black non-textured material, either one-piece or two-piece construction with no visible zippers or logos.



As with all the armour, I think the 2005 graphics may be ignored.. the jagged edges and weird geometry certainly were not the intention of the character design and are a limitation of the graphics. Working with this logic forward:


    Shoulder Armor

•    Armor is painted matte or satin white.
•    Shoulders are tear drop in shape with all rounded edges.
•    Shoulders are not symmetrical.
o    The shoulders slightly curve back at the bottom.
•    Armor is weathered with shades of grey.


Upper Arm Armor

•    Armor is painted matte or satin white.
•    A dimple on the lower area of the back of the arm. (Dimple is visible in the following image)
•    The outside of the bicep has a hard line edge at the front that turns in.
•    The inside of the upper arm is rounded.
•    Armor is seamless.
o    No visible traces of how the armor was assembled are shown.
•    Armor is weathered with shades of grey.




Along with the knees.. the elbow armour is quite warped by the geometry of the Battlefront graphics. I think that from the below image you can see it is trying to be the ROTS style elbow. You've got at least one of the parallel dashed slots visible too.
The elbow strap does show up at times, but due to the character almost always having bent arms.. it gets mashed/clipped into the body suit. Perhaps the elbow straps could be a level 2 certification?

Elbow Armor

•    Realistic style elbow armor.
•    Armor is painted matte or satin white.
•    Elbow straps have a raised detail line at the top and bottom of the strap.
•    Armor has two parallel dashed detail slots on each outside edge of elbow at the strap connection.
•    Elbows are mirror images of each other with a notched area on the outside of the elbow above the detail marks.
•    Armor is weathered with shades of grey.




The Forearms are actually fully compatible with the CRL. You can see the flattened triangular area with ridge in both the above and below images.
The Compad has the 8 small buttons, 1 large main button and the smaller rectangular button. The only thing it doesn't have is the detail antenna, which is level two on the ROTS trooper anyway.

    Forearm Armor

•    Armor is painted matte or satin white.
•    Forearms are mirror images of each other.
•    Right forearm has a compad with 8 small buttons,1 Large main button, and 1 slightly smaller rectangular button.
•    Forearm tops have a flattened triangular area with a ridge that comes to a point at the top of the forearm.
•    Armor is seamless.
o    No visible traces of how the armor was assembled are shown.
•    Armor is weathered with shades of grey.


    OPTIONAL Level two certification (if applicable):

•    Compad has detail antenna on its left.


    OPTIONAL Level three certification (if applicable):

•    Instead of a hard edge, the top of the forearm has a bone ridge.



The Hand plates are a bit warped but the intention is certainly there. Particularly in the first person view which confirms the ROTS Style hand plates. (Below)

Hand Plates

•    Realistic style hand plates.
•    Armor is painted matte or satin white.
•    Hand plates have a top curving ridge that come to a point over the index or middle finger just past the main knuckle of the hand.
•    Armor is weathered with shades of grey.




Gloves are also confirmed in first person view   

Gloves

•    Black over the wrist gloves made of leather, nylon, or other low pile fabrics.
•    Gloves cover any exposed skin.
•    Gloves do not show any labels or logos when the armor is worn.


This is my write up for what I believe the CRL should say for the chest piece. I believe that it does indeed have a neck ring at the top and this is not a shadow. This is visible in the first and fourth images I posted above.

Chest Armor

•    Chest has larger pecs than Realistic clone chest.
•    Chest has a neck ring present.
•    Armor is painted matte or satin white.
•    A Tan circle marking is present of left side of the chest.
•    4 Blue/Purple dots are present on left side of chest.
•    Chest and Back armor match together at the sides with no open gap.
o    A seam line is present.
•    Shoulder straps are slotted into the chest into the detail ridges of the top connection points.
•    Shoulder straps are slotted into the detail ridges of the top connection points.
•    Armor is weathered with shades of grey.




The Back plate lines up perfectly with the ROTS trooper. All the detail plate circles, vents, etc are there.

Back Armor

•    Realistic style back armor.
•    Armor is painted matte or satin white.
•    Back has a detail plate with four circles on top, two elongated areas on left, and vents on lower right.
•    Back and Chest armor match together at the sides with no open gap.
o    A seam line is present.
•    Shoulder straps are slotted into the detail ridges of the top connection points.
•    Armor is weathered with shades of grey.

OPTIONAL Level two certification (if applicable):

•    Highly detailed resin Back box plate cover with circuitry insets.



Abb plate also lines up, you can see all the eight holes in the above image. 

Abdomen Armor

•    Realistic style abdomen Armor
•    Armor is painted matte or satin white.
•    Eight 1/4" diameter holes, with four holes inside each indented channel of the abdomen.
•    Abdomen armor wraps around the wearers body and is sealed at sides or back.
•    Abdomen is completely contained under the chest and back armor.
•    Abdomen is seamless at the sides and closed in the back.
•    Armor aligns with codpiece with the seam line hidden by the belt.
•    Armor is weathered with shades of grey.
   

OPTIONAL Level two certification (if applicable):

•    Seam line along sides or back has no gap.



The Cod contains a single, extra horizontal line compared to the ROTS design. The Snap connector is already level two, but if you take a look at my third screenshot or the image above you can make out the shape of the butt plate connector and the join between the cod and butt! Impressive detail for 2005.

Cod and Posterior Armor

•    Realistic style Codpiece and posterior armor.
•    Armor is painted matte or satin white.
•    Cod and Posterior armor connect at the hips.
•    Armor is weathered with shades of grey.

OPTIONAL Level two certification (if applicable):

•    Hips have correct detail connector snap and edge feature at the codpiece and posterior side connection.



The Belt differs from the ROTS design, so I wrote a version to reflect the BF2 version. The thermal det is the only part which suffers from the geometry.. kind of mashing itself into the back of the belt and having no end cap details. Whether a ROTS version is acceptable or not would have to be discussed. Interestingly, the horizontal ribbing is visible on the back of the belt (seen in image 6)



Belt

•    Realistic style belt and detonator.
•    Belt Boxes are specific to Battlefront 2.
•    Belt, boxes, and detonator are painted matte or satin white.
•    Belt front, between front boxes, has three vertical rectangle indents which are spaced apart by two protruding rectangle areas.
o    The rest of the belt is flat surfaced with raised edging on top and bottom that run along the rest of the belt.
•    Six Belt Boxes are attached to Belt, with four on each side.
o    The two largest Boxes are in front DO NOT have an angled top surface that is higher toward the center. Instead they are straight across the top.
o    There is no detail line on the Front Boxes.
o    The medium sized boxes are a smaller, shorter versions of the front Boxes.
o    The medium boxes are spaced close together on the sides of the belt.
•    A detonator is centered and attached to back of Belt.
o    Detonator tube is about 2 1⁄4 inch diameter with wider detailed end caps.
o    Seven horizontally aligned square buttons are on the left side of the tube, facing backwards.
•    Armor is weathered with shades of grey.

OPTIONAL Level two certification (if applicable):

•    Boxes are notched on back and fit flush to belt.

OPTIONAL Level three certification (if applicable):

•    Detonator connects to back of belt without any visible clips and is firmly secured in horizontal position.

•    Back of belt, between rear boxees, has horizontal ribbing.



Thigh Armour is compliant with the CRL (If the odd warped geometry at times is forgiven).



Thigh Armor

•    Armor is panted matte or satin white.
•    Thigh Armor has a flat triangle area above the knee which transitions to a ridge line that travels up the front of the thigh to the top edge.
•    Rear of armor has an indented area.
•    Armor is seamless.
o    No visible traces of how the armor was assembled are shown.
•    Armor is weathered with shades of grey.

OPTIONAL Level two certification (if applicable):

•    Outside lower portion of the thighs come to a point and inner lower end is rounded.



As I mentioned in the Elbow section.. the Knees get quite warped at times. If not stretched out of shape, they resemble the ROTS style ones. As with the Elbow straps.. they also clip in and out of existence. So perhaps having Knee straps would not be necessary for approval.



Knee Armor

•    Armor is painted matte or satin white.
•    Knees wrap around the front of the leg.
•    From top center a raised detail line is present.

OPTIONAL Level two certification (if applicable):

•    Center strap is primer grey.

•    Knees are strapped to the leg via a white strap with a raised center area that wraps around the leg and connects on both sides of the Knee.
•    Connection between the knee and the strapping has a detail clip.



The Clone Engineer is compatible with the ROTS Lower leg armour CRL. Spoons are visible in my reference images, the Front triangular area is behind the warped knee plates.

 

Lower Leg Armor

•    Armor is painted matte or satin white.
•    Lower Legs are mirror images of each other.
•    The front of the armor has a triangular detail at the top of the leg and a hard ridge line down the front of the shin.
•    Back of lower leg armor features arched indentation, just under the calf, that follows down to the ankle.
o    Bottom of this indentation features a smaller arch detail at the heel.
•    Outside of the calf is closed.
o    Calf can have an access area on the inside of the leg.
•    Calves are seamless and have a trap door access through the indent in the rear of the lower leg.


The boots are also quite detailed and match the ROTS ones. They have the strap and the top details.. the only low quality part is the discs on each side, which are hidden by the shins. So perhaps the discs are not needed for approval. 

    Boots

•    White, ankle high or tall enough to cover the ankle and eliminate any black undersuit visible at the ankle.
•    Boots are lace-less.
•    The boots have armor detail to include a natural seam at the toe and a strap that goes over the top of the foot with two protruding disks at each side of the strap.
•    There are no markings or labels from the shoe makers.
•    Boot soles are flat.
•    Boot soles are colored primer grey.




So in summary:

- Unique helmet, chest and belt boxes.
- Cod has extra detail line.
- Compad does not have antenna detail

Possible issues:

- Thermal det lacks the detailed end caps due to geometry issues.
- Elbows and Knees are warped out of shape ROTS style ones and are lacking straps.
- Boot discs are difficult to confirm.

All in all, I feel these are not impossible issues. If I could make the following suggestions:

Make ROTS Style detonator acceptable.
Make ROTS Style Elbow and Knees (With or without straps) acceptable. Obviously having the straps would be my choice.
Make the Boot discs level 2.



Thank you to anyone who read this massive post. I just wanted to lay out my research and the guide lines I gave myself to build this costume. Vod An!

[Bolt_2112]

FYI CTD Command staff have now requested LMOs to see if the Clone Engineer is a viable costume to have approved as a CRL. Unfortunately troopers from the Battlefront 2 game have been rejected before.

Here are the belt boxes I designed and printed for the build.



Still looking a little rough because they need weathering etc.. but getting there.

The other cool thing I've built for this (and I might troop with regardless of if the Engineer is CRL possible or not because of how fun it is..) is the Fusion Cutter!

I have scratch built it from a sheet of white ABS, a bent piece of electrical conduit, a sika-flex nozzel, two RC car axels and the cap off a fuel additive bottle.





To create the screen I used my wife's cricut machine again to make stencils which I then sprayed with the black, green and red.



Then I created a vinyl decal to add over the top for the text and to give it some definition.





It's not perfect.. but with some brushing it should come up nice! Also.. yes the 300 text should be green, but I wanted it to stand out against the green background. Maybe in future I will create an illuminated version!



And that is all the progress I have for now

[Glitch]

This is wizard trooper!

[Cyclops]

That’s a pretty full on and comprehensive build , love the detail as per usual . Is a really good physical representation of the references.

[Ktty]

My goodness friend, this is IN DEPTH! And I expect nothing less from the clone wizard!
I can’t wait to not only follow this build but see it in person and celebrate YOU and the build you come up with - because this looks so rad!!

[Bolt_2112]

Thank you all for your kind comments!
Yes it is very in-depth.. I haven't tried to create a CRL before so I thought I'd give it the best shot I could for justifying making one for this character.
With some luck, hopefully I will get a chance to do this.

It's a very interesting Clone varient for me.. the helmet is taken from concept art that was intended for Clone Commander Faie in a cut section of Revenge of the Sith. So besides a small section in a comic book, this is the only appearance of this helmet in Star Wars. It's a mean design, a combination of a TIE Pilot and Clone Trooper, so out there and pretty cool.