Ready, Aim, Thire?

[PhantomBlade]

Look what showed up the other day.....Pulling my usual stunt of 2-3 kits at once (the mando kit is also getting revamped. and I should probably look at repairing the Jedi too )



Crow props boots from a Spanish Thire. The armour kit is on order from ChrisThePropGuy. I can make neither the kama nor the pauldron until I've got the armour, but should be able to make both easily enough. I do however have a two piece undersuit, depending on if the fabric is acceptable. It's a long sleeved skivvy and tights, so not shiny like underarmor. The command buckle has me thoroughly lost.

Trying to source Krylan paint is driving me mad. My local art/hobby shop stocks some of the Montana range, but not the MTN94. So far I've purchased Montana Gold 'Shock Red'. Does the amour colour need to match the boots?

Never worked with ABS so I think this will quickly develop into 'how not to build a clone'!

[Bolt_2112]

Hi PhantomBlade! Congrats on your first steps on the path to being a Clone Trooper!

I would highly recommend looking at the Bad Banshees over on the CTD. They specialise at modifying Clone armour to better fit female members, and do an awesome job of it!
https://501stclonetroopers.com/forum/ind...-banshees/

As for your boots, it looks like they have a black sole.. according to the CRL, they must have a grey sole. So you may have to paint them or consider another pair.
https://databank.501st.com/databank/Cost...nder_Thire

Skivvys can sometimes not be approvable.. depends on what it looks like. I recommend the black activewear that Aldi sells.

I wish you all the luck in the world with your Chris armour kit.. I usually do not recommend them to anyone. I have purchased several and been quite disapointed by the quality. I suggest you read my Clone build thread for more information.

I wouldn't bother trying to find Krylan Paint, go for MTN 94. You can order online and it is cheap to ship! Do not purchase the Montana Gold as it is their cheaper range and the paint can have trouble bonding to your kit. (I also suggest using Rust-oleum as a primer, not MTN brand ones).

The armour colour should match the source material first and foremost. Your boots might have to be repainted to match. I had to do this with my Shocktrooper.
I would suggest buying a few different reds, spraying them out, and seeing what looks closest to your reference material. Then purchasing more as you need it.

All I can say is reasearch, research, research! Clones are the most complicated ABS builds you can do, there is seemless building, plastic welding and a ton of prep work involved!

---

Oh! Forgot to mention, I use Oddvikings kama clips and command buckle. The best you can find!
https://501stclonetroopers.com/forum/ind...uckle-kit/

[PhantomBlade]

Thanks Bolt! Someone tried to tell me a clone would be easier than Boba. Haven't laughed so hard in ages.....
Will definitely peruse the Banshees advice, as being definitely pear shaped was a problem I foresaw before even purchasing the kit.
I'm surprised I didn't notice the boot soles (I wonder how they were previously approved???), but I'll paint them primer grey. Hopefully I should be able to add some light coats of a brighter red to the boots. I'd hoped I could convince myself that they were the correct red, just weathered, but they're really not.
And thanks for the heads up on the paint before I bought any more of the Gold range!!

[Bolt_2112]

Well a clone might be a bit easier than Boba to be fair, but they aren't as simple as a TK or Scout. There's a ton of sanding and painting in your future!

Yes, have a look at the Banshees. I don't think any of our ladies have ever converted a realistic Clone before.. as animated kits are easier to trim down.
Realistic kits have details that can be lost unless the part was cast smaller.. Kev makes a "small" clone kit which I would have recommended over Chris.

Too easy! I also recommend the MTN Hardcore Satin white as the white for realistic clones.

[PhantomBlade]

Luckily I won't have to trim my kit. I"m fat, not short haha. So keeping things proportional when I add shims rather than detail loss is going to be my headache. But I'm always up for a challenge.

[PhantomBlade]

Better? The soles are now definitely primer grey, because I just painted them   The sides of the sole were it turns out actually a heavy weathered primer grey, but the bottoms were definitely black. Now it's all grey. I"ll take them for a walk around the yard and go for some natural weathering to tone the grey down a touch.

Also gave the whole boot a light spray of a lighter red, so they now match my kama fabric, and I'll ensure it matches the armour.

[Bolt_2112]

Nice! They look great!

[PhantomBlade]

BBB day was last Thursday, right before I was due to go away for 3 days. Typical. So far most of the limbs have been rough trimmed. I've been watching Patch Bots build series religiously. Waiting on the second shipment from Chris, he threw what he could in a box and shipped it before he went to SWCJ, but I'm missing the knees as well as all the straps for the shoulders, elbows and knees. Tin snips have been amazing. I'll take some better photos on the body section better detailing how I've been trimming, I just got a bit excited yesterday!

[PhantomBlade]

Forgot to put my glove on when sizing my forearms. Even a thin glove makes a huge difference, just because you managed to get your hand in doesn't mean you're getting it back. Now I've got more sludging and sanding to do. What a karking shiny.



And I'm having short problems already. Going to trim 10mm off the forearm, and probably something similar off the elbow. Not sure about the bicep, bit too detailed to be trimming so will see how I go. Please ignore the forearm orientation, it twisted when I moved, the curve should be in the inner elbow.

[Ktty]

We love a short problem! I swear everything has to be modified for heights ahha

Looks like it's progressing well!

[PhantomBlade]

My build thread isn't a very good how-to at the moment. I"ll try to rectify that. Keeping in mind this is my first clone and I know diddly squat. I have however built a mando, as I absolutely do not recommend this as someone's first kit. If you're close enough to one of the expert builders we have, you might get away with it, but some kit making knowledge helps with confidence immensely. As you are definitely hacking into this kit, and it was terrifying to begin with!

Step 1 for rough trimming. You'll need a pencil. Run said pencil along the edge of your armour. There should be a nice little groove that the pencil will settle into automatically. This just gives you a better line to follow.



Roughly trim along the aforementioned line and remove the excess ABS with whatever tool you like. Dremels are popular, I'm lousy with power tools so used a set of good tin snips (just means I"ve signed myself up for more edge sanding). Then fetch some tape. Roughly size the armour to yourself. It can be tricky on your own, so either find, or make, a friend.

I haven't got reliable access to a friend, so I made myself a friend. Now I've got a reasonably accurate set of dimensions to tape the armour to. (Not sure what I"m stuffing it with yet, we don't seem to have the expandable post mix they use in Murica. Maybe the spray foam will be close enough?)



Here is a beautiful example of A) the amount of shimming I get to do on this kit being a fat lump and B) why a friend is handy. The back plate shifted as soon as I moved to take the photo.



Along with shimming (adding material) I also get to trim (remove material). I've started on the forearms to improve wrist mobility. Lots of this kit requires a return edge, and those are a pain to rebuild if you cut them off permanently. You can cut it off, trim the part, and reglue the edge however. It mostly fits back on, and means a lot less edge rebuilding than having to do the whole piece. You can see below where I carefully cut the return edge off, trimmed 10mm from the forearm, and then am going to reattach the return edge. The amount you can trim depends on the details of the piece. If you're really little, I suspect along with taking from the edge, you'll actually have to cut some pieces in half to trim from the centre.



Also, hang onto your ABS trimmings! You'll need those later to make ABS sludge. ABS scraps plus acetone, makes ABS soup, which you can apply in all the seams. Works as both a glue and a gap filler as the acetone dissolves the ABS, causing a chemical bond rather than just a physical bond. In theory the joins remain as flexible as the original ABS.

[PhantomBlade]

What feels like days of sanding later, and I"m only halfway through the forearms and biceps. And yet people make multiple clones. This is painful enough the first time through.

Next steps!

Make yourself ABS sludge. Glass jar with an airtight lid, put some ABS trimmings in, and cover them with acetone. You might have to play with the consistency a bit, my first batch was very runny. This risks the acetone running away over the armour, melting the plastic as it goes. It makes a perfectly acceptable glue when its runny however. Having a thicker mixture allows you to start filling your gaps. The sludge is actually somewhat malleable once it starts to dry, I found once it formed a skin I was able to manipulate it slightly to smooth it out more.  I'll attach a photo of this step when I remember to take one.

Once the ABS has cured overnight, you can start with your body filler. Now a few people use blade putty (I believe this is what the Americans call 'Bondo', which you can apparently thin out with acetone to make it more workable. I was worried that the acetone would melt the armour before it cured out of the putty, so I'm using traditional 'Bog' or body filler. Lightweight stuff from an auto store as its slightly easier to sand. Do yourself a favour and get a finishing sander, I was without power all day so got stuck doing this by hand.

On the right is two layer of car body filler. Try and smooth the filler out as you apply it, I find either a flexible scraper or wet fingers work well. Sand the high spots. Second layer of filler, fill in the low spots. Sand again. Repeat this step as many times as you like. I was lazy and only did two layers, so its going to take some more finishing. After its fairly smooth, I used two layers of spray putty, wet sanding between the layers. The intermediate product can be seen on the left. This is all getting left to cure overnight, before I give things another sand. I'm likely going to need another layer of body filler, I haven't used the filler in ages and it was curing too quickly on me. Also haven't tried to fill such large gaps before so it's definitely a learn as I go process.

[PhantomBlade]

So the partner was not amused with my attempts at bogging, so he's joined in with this to try and get it wearable for a local con for strapping and fitment purposes.

The forearms are done I think, minus weathering and foam insertion. To get to this point was multiple layers of bog, sanding, primer filler, sanding, white paint (due to poor vision I struggle to see the inconsistencies on the grey primer, so have to waste time with a white base coat), go back and repeat steps as often as necessarily. Then decide any remaining chips and low points are getting black washed and being called weathering.

 

The upper arms are also finished minus weathering and foam. I'm going to strap my biceps to the shoulders permanently I think, unless any fellow clones or TK's find that's a bad idea mobility wise? The white strap on the left forearm is just some nylon webbing from Spotlight. Their 'Trims' section is great for finding fine detail bits. The strap was attached with spray adhesive, then the boxes (after being sanded, primer filler and painted) were attached with ABS sludge. The sludge actually glues quite politely through the webbing.

  



Headache number 1 - the thighs. Trimmed, then taped to me to measure the gap



If people are needing to add as much as I did, don't do my next steps. I just used the strips I had in the kit box. Find a plastics store and buy yourself a large enough piece of ABS to cover the gap in one go. I landed myself hours of extra sanding and gap filling the way I did things.


The inside view of the horizontal bracing strips, with gap filling strips placed on top. After hours, and I do mean hours, of bogging and sanding first the gaps between the strips and then the entire side of the thigh to even things out a bit, you should end up here (the partner got tired of my attempts at bogging so stole my thighs and got the blade putty out). As is, there's likely going to still be a couple of rounds of primer filler and sanding before I get anywhere near painting. 



The resin detail piece has been superglued and ABS sludged into the back plate. Dive weights come in handy for difficult to clamp sections.



And the bucket. ChrisThePropGuy didn't have my helmet ready, and didn't seem to be ready to send it any time soon so when his arrives its going to be a display helmet. This one is from Sanotized Creations. And yes, I missed the red on the back on either end of the slotted area. The forehead and jaw stripes are going to be fun to mask 

 

Having a major fight with the chest/back assembly to convince it to sit straight. So it's my problem for the weekend around night shifts. 



And that's been my fortnight. The pauldron will be next week's headache I think.

[PhantomBlade]

And now I have stripes! Electrical tape is an absolute godsend for taping around curves, stretches beautifully, sticks where its put and doesn't leave residue or strip existing paint. 0.9cm stripes, with 1.0cm spaces leads to 12 fairly centered stripes. 

Now we're starting to look more like a Corrie. Still not looking forward to the aerator stripes though.

 

[PhantomBlade]

So I've learned with this kit you need to be happy with 90% on the sanding. Otherwise you'll be there for weeks. This was after sanding the calf down again due to a seam. The back plate also fell off the table and the resin detail piece fell out. So I"m getting the big guns ie Sika Flex out this time. That'll learn it. 

I've got strapping, weathering, holsters, kama, pauldron and belt buckle to go. It seems like a nearly endless list when its written out! I"m yet to train my wrangler in adjusting plates, so positioning is a bit dodgy. Happily enough I think I can actually dress myself if it comes to it. The back and chest are still taped together until I can work out the strapping. Any suggestions? I"ll have a proper look at how much room I've got in there for magnets, as its pulled in pretty tight against the ab. 

Also, how come noone has their thigh straps down the outside of their leg? Everyone seems to run them down the front of the thigh. 

But my progress so far.....