Sintra back armor fab

I finally got the model of my torso done so I started shaping the back armor. I'm using 1/8" sintra and WOF's templates. Thanks WOF. Here's what I have so far. This is the largest thing I've built with sintra. I still need to do some more shaping, and it's gonna require some bondo to smooth it a bit. What do you think? Any tips or suggestions?

T

Looks great, how did you make the model of your back though? May come in handy when I start the chest pieces and such for my DT project.

-tubachris

Looking good. You may need bigger slots for the jet pack straps, depending on what system you will be using. I like it. Good job

Originally Posted by tubachris85x

Looks great, how did you make the model of your back though? May come in handy when I start the chest pieces and such for my DT project.

-tubachris

I started with an old t-shirt and a couple rolls of duct tape and had my wife start wrapping me like a mummy. We did 3 layers up to my neck, about 200 feet of tape, to make it more rigid. (I'm a big boy so it probably wouldn't take as much tape for an average sized person). It took about an hour and a half to two hours, so make sure you pee before you start . After all the wrapping was done we cut a single seam to peel it off and then put it back together. I then sealed off all the openings with cardboard, except the neck, and filled it with expanding foam over the next few days, about 12 cans worth. And after that dried I had a model of myself. The key with the foam is to fill it slowly or you will get air pockets and soft spots. I found this out first hand, so just have a little patience and don't rush the filling. Someone tole me you could use newspapers to stuff it too but I wanted it to be a little more sturdy. See attached images.

Originally Posted by mrgr8ness

Looking good. You may need bigger slots for the jet pack straps, depending on what system you will be using. I like it. Good job

Thats one of the things I plan on working on. I think I'm gonna cut an inch or so up from the slots and heat and bend the flaps up a little bit. That should make the slots a little bigger and make the overall appearance better.

-Troy

Nice work.
I'm working on mine right now and I can't seem to get the top part of the back to bulge out like yours.
Any special trick to give it that smooth curved shape?
btw, what are the dark patches on it? It looks almost like mold... (no offense)
I like the blue color though, pretty sweet.

Originally Posted by Ion_Cannon_Gunner

Nice work.
I'm working on mine right now and I can't seem to get the top part of the back to bulge out like yours.
Any special trick to give it that smooth curved shape?
btw, what are the dark patches on it? It looks almost like mold... (no offense)
I like the blue color though, pretty sweet.

No special tricks just shaping around the model. I started with the top of the shoulders and worked my way down. Then I bent the sides in and smoothed out all the wrinkles as best I could.
No offense taken. The dark places are scorching from getting it too hot with the heat gun. I would really have liked to have white but the shop I bought the sintra from had a half of a 4x8 sheet of the blue he sold me for five dollars.

Originally Posted by t_bone9600

Thats one of the things I plan on working on. I think I'm gonna cut an inch or so up from the slots and heat and bend the flaps up a little bit. That should make the slots a little bigger and make the overall appearance better.

-Troy

Awesome, thats exactly what I was going to do with mine. Then cut some sintra triangles for the sides of the shrouds, use a little bondo, and you'd be rockin. I started doing it, but then got lazy and bought a FP backplate

Wow i am really impressed. I know how much work goes into these things and yours has turned out really well. Just like Mrgr8ness i too have now ordered another one (a BM one). Not sure what to do with my old one, might take it down the range and use it for target practice.

Thanks guys and/or gals. Eventually I'm sure I'll upgrade, but for right now I'm in college and not working so I'll make this one work. I started fabbing knee armor yesterday to kind of take a break. I'm using WOF's templates for that too. Thanks again WOF. I hope they turn out as well.

Did some more work yesterday and today while waiting for paint to dry on my knee armor. I'm getting there.

Nice work so far, keep up the good work, can't wait to see your knee armour....

Originally Posted by Darth Valcar

Nice work so far, keep up the good work, can't wait to see your knee armour....

Thanks! I have pics of the knee armor here. I have the finished pics posted now. I got the back armor finished now too, but my cam is acting up... again. I'll try to post sime pics if I can get it to work. I've even found time to get the mount for my JP harness in place. I'll add pics of that in my JP thread too.

Alright, I got the cam to work for me so I'm putting up some pics of the finished piece. As usual I'know it's not "screen accurate", but how can it be anyway? You never see the whole thing. Well... here it is.

I like it!
Awesome work man!

can u move in it in every picher that u r wearing it the arms r in the same spot if u r selling it ill look at the price and u might have a buyer!?

Originally Posted by bradfett

can u move in it in every picher that u r wearing it the arms r in the same spot if u r selling it ill look at the price and u might have a buyer!?

I can move very well in it. It's formed to my body. Unfortunately... it's not for sale. Eventually, I plan on re-doing my front armor from sintra, using the same set of templates, so they will match perfectly. I'm gonna stick with my current set for the time being, until cash isn't so tight. Thanks for the interest though, makes me feel good about my work.