My scratchbuild armor first step

ash

New Hunter
Hi all, following what another member has adviced me, I´ll post some of the pictures of my step by step process of scratch building the armor and parts of this amazing character in his ESB version. I have followed the incredible templates of wizardofflight. The parts showed are the two bells and the abplat. I´m very impatient waiting your opinions and advices to see if I´m going in the right way. I have the intention to build it according 501st parameters. Many thanks.

two bells.jpg


two bells and abplate_1.jpg


two bells and abplate_2.jpg
 
I am slowly building my custom armor and I can give you one great piece of advice. Be patient, both in seeking advice and in building your armor. Not everyone checks the boards everyday and some may even miss your post all together.

As for what you have started it looks good and you have a great start.
 
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Thanks ZolarKresh for your advice. I´ve satrted to build my armor after almost 2 months of documentation and searching information and a huge mount of pics from the films and from the fans. These are the first pieces of my armor that are ready to paint if people of this forum give me it´s "bless". The other pieces are in a very early phase of construction. I´ll put them as soon as possible. Thanks I´ll be patient with the comments.
 
Looks good, but why don't you say how you made it and what is is made of? Is that vacuformed, fibreglass or bent ABS? Explain how you did the dents - I always like to hear the different ways people come up with to do produce the same outcome. Are you building a helmet out of scratch as well?
 
Ok, I´ll explain the process I´m following:
Firs of all I transfer the wizardooflight templates to the base material using an ink transferpaper (I don´t know what´s it´s name in english). The material I´ve used as base material is a plastic (PVC if I remember well) named Forex Print. This is the name here in Spain, I don´t know if it has the same name in another countries.
This material is very flexible to manipulate it and has 2milimeters of thickness, that is why I´ve used two layers of it to build each piece. It sticks very well itself with cyanocrilate glues as "loctite". I bend each layer manually till get the shape I want and then I stick two identical layers of that piece to get a stronger result. To make the dents an bendings I use a dremmel to make some holes and then I apply epoxi plaster of two components in order to mold and sculpt the dent. When the epoxi dries I sand the excess of product and I apply fibberglass with polyetser resin to overall piece´s surface. I sand it with a rough sand paper and then I apply car plaster and sand it again with a smoother sandpaper. Finally, I apply a thick layer of gelcoat over all the surface and I sand it with a very smooth watersandpaper. The result is a thick piece with the hardness and a surface with the smoothness of a fiberglass plate of whichever motorbike or car. Here are some pics:

01_transfering the template.jpg02_the tamplate transferred.jpg03_bended and dented piece with epoxi plaster.jpganother example of epoxi dents_1.jpganother example of epoxi dents_2.jpganother example of epoxi dents_3.jpg04_with fiberglass and polyester resin applied.jpg05_with plaster for cars applied.jpg06_sanded piece (yellow parts are the plaster, the grey ones is the fiberglass).jpg07_gelcoated surface without sanding.jpg

I bought the helmet to bobamaker in order to be secure that it fits the 501 st´s parameters. The other parts I´ve bought him are the jumpsuit, the flak vest, the gloves and the ankle spats, all in ESB version.
 
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You've done an amazing job so far and you won't be disappointed with the Bobamaker stuffs, he is one of the best craftsman around.
 
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Thanks showing your step-by-step process - very interesting and a little different from what I have seen. I always wondered how the dents were made, glad you gave me a solution which is pretty simple; I have been over thinking that i guess.
Keep posting pics and good luck!
 
Hi all I´m back with a little step forward in this building I hope you´ll like it. Thanks.

Chest Abplate Collar and Bells.jpg
 
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Hi, here you have some more pics, this time of the painting process. I´ve started with the metallics because the idea is to mask each layer of color/material in order to recreate the natural weathering. See you.

METALIZADO HOMBRERA DERECHA.jpgMETALIZADO HOMBRERAS.jpgMETALIZADO PECHO.jpgMETALIZADO PLACA ABDOMINAL.jpg
 
Hi here I am again with more hot pics of new steps done with this project. Here you have the process of masking the different layer colours.

Here, the masking to protect the metallic colour:

HOMBRERA DERECHA_FASE ENMASCARADO RESERVA METALES.jpgHOMBRERA IZQUIERDA_FASE ENMASCARADO RESERVA METALES.jpgPECHO PLACA DERECHA_FASE ENMASCARADO RESERVA METALES.jpgPECHO PLACA IZQUIERDA_FASE ENMASCARADO RESERVA METALES.jpgPLACA ABDOMINAL_FASE ENMASCARADO RESERVA METALES.jpg

And here, the yellow colour layer applied:

HOMBRERA IZQUIERDA_SIN DESCONCHAR.jpgPECHO PLACA IZQUIERDA_FASE AMARILLO.jpgPLACA ABDOMINAL_FASE AMARILLO.jpg

Many thanks and greetings for all.
 
I´m back again, this time with the left shoulder bell almost finished. The only two things left are to apply satin varnish and some weathering with lighter and darker colours to make it looks closer to the film. I hope you like it.

HOMBRERA IZQUIERDA CASI TERMINADA.jpg
 
Hi all again I have to say that I have the inttention of repeat all the painting process for this bell. I have followed the stencils of Rafal Fett and in the Spanish Garrison have said to me that it isn´t like the film one, the scratches are very exagerated, the bell in the film is more like airbrushed dirt so... sanding timeeeeee. It has been my fault for not reviewing well the film pictures. Thanks and greetings.
 
Hi all again I have to say that I have the inttention of repeat all the painting process for this bell. I have followed the stencils of Rafal Fett and in the Spanish Garrison have said to me that it isn´t like the film one, the scratches are very exagerated, the bell in the film is more like airbrushed dirt so... sanding timeeeeee. It has been my fault for not reviewing well the film pictures. Thanks and greetings.

I'm sorry to hear that and maybe you could correct that shoulder bell by misting over the medium grey scratches, which is a bit too dark.

Well, the first thing when using any template is to always check out any reference material you have, because while the templates will guide you in the paint process, the hard part of the painting is on your shoulders. The stencils are often graphical representations of what the original paint scheme should look like, especially with the misted areas (most of these are present on the Sandy helmets) which is kind of hard to implement in the stencils without confusing you.
 
Please don´t say sorry because is not your fault, it´s mine. I used other your templates and they were right. You made an awesome work preparing all that templates and stencils so I thank you for that. I repeat it was my fault for not reviewing with the film images. Sorry if I have offended you, and greetings.
 
You didn't offended me at all. I really like what you've done with your build so far and I hope you will do the same thing with the other parts and I think your suit will be excellent.
 
Hi all, I´m back again after correcting my shoulder bells closer to film pics, here you have 2 pics one of the right shoulder and the other one of the chest and ab plates. I have not applied satin varnish yet but I´ll do. Thanks and greetings.

hombreraderechacasiterm.jpgsetarmadura001.jpg
 
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