Sci-Fire 7th Legion/ Commander Faie Clone Armor Build

So, out of the blue, I come in to work today and there is a big box awaiting me. Had no idea what it was but was thrilled when I opened it and found it was my Sci-Fire Clone armor! Unfortunately, I left town only a few hours later and didn't get a chance to take pics but I wanted to give a brief review anyway.

First and foremost, this is ARMOR! No, I don't mean replica armor... I mean, I think this stuff could actually deflect bullets! In all my time messing with prop replicas, I have never seen anyone use such thick base material for their armor. I am assuming the clone armor is at least .125". It feels like a tank! The armor is styrene and is very stiff and inflexible, very unlike the super thin stormtrooper armor I am used to dealing with. I am a bit apprehensive about how this stuff will go together, because there won't be much bending or flexing it to align the halves... of course, I have been told by others the halves align perfectly already, so that is good. The good thing is, unlike my stormtrooper armor, I think the clone armor will be virtually indestructible.

The pulls are nearly perfect, with crisp lines, and fairly good sharpness, especially considering the insane thickness of the plastic. I do see some very faint horizontal lines in the plastic, but even a light sanding should take them out. Overall, the cleanness of the pulls is breathtaking. I am used to dealing with lots of wonkiness from the more organic forms of OT pieces, so this is very odd but cool to get pieces that are almost spotless in their smoothness and perfection.

The pieces are trimmed very cleanly, leaving only a small amount of flash for me to take off of each piece and nothing was overtrimmed as is often the case with pieces I have received in the past.

I am pretty excited about this because only a few weeks ago I got a set of stormtrooper armor and it was very interesting to match up some of the pieces side by side. I had a chance to do a quick compare and while the size of the pieces are surprisingly similar, the similarities end there. You really can't appreciate the truly rushed and poor quality of the OT costumes until you have a perfectly smooth and precise piece to compare it against.

I am looking forward to trimming the pieces out in the next week or so and hope to show some pics of the process as well as post some comparisons to the stormtrooper armor. After that, I need to get some styrene adhesive (something that fuses the halves, not just glues them), and I will begin assembly.

A big thanks to John and Lewis for making this happen! I had tried to put a clone together before but the timing just wasn't right, so I hope this effort comes out a bit better!

And just for ref, I am going with the 7th Legion design and hope to eventually convert to a Commander Faie costume.

Awesome man!

I has to be some really good stuff! Cuz I know how hard it is to please you.

Can't wait for the day I feel the same way about this armor.

Awesome Art. I know I love my Rig and "a tank" is a very accurate description. I think you will be pleasantly surpised at how easily this armor assembles, ease of wear and how the accuracy is sick! Enjoy and post your progress!

sweet... you know we want progress pics as this stuff goes together!

Will definitely be taking progress pics. Hope to snap a few pics tonight of the raw pieces, as they were shipped so you can get an idea of where I am starting from... which is a pretty good place. There really just isn't that much I am going to have to do! My biggest question will be about whether to sharpen edges or not.

looking forward to seeing this, andrew.

Looking forward to your progress Art. You're a stickler for quality and details, so I know it'll turn out great.

I had heard from Gino that you bought a set of his TK armor Art, are you converting it for another Sandy build?

Originally Posted by Bountyone

I had heard from Gino that you bought a set of his TK armor Art, are you converting it for another Sandy build?

Yes, doing a side by side build with the sandy and the clone. Very interesting because for all the seeming similarities, these are very different builds. Guess I should be posting the sandy build here as well.

OK, here is a quick pic of the chest as well as the back. I am planning to start with these pieces. The pics below are the pieces as I received them.

From what I can see, there are basically 7 steps that need to be taken to these pieces:

1) Trim the extra material from the individual pieces.

2) Sharpen the details.

3) Reform pieces to fit my body.

4) Attach pieces together with smooth seam lines.

5) Add additional details.

6) Paint pieces.

7) Weather pieces.

This is the process I will be taking with each part although for the last two steps I will probably wait until I have all the pieces complete for paint and weathering.

Art with armor? Who'd a thunk it? Can't wait to see the progress!

Nice start man! And with the pics this is going to be awesome!

I like the design too

Can't wait to see it!! When it comes to fusing plastic, I like the plastic weld technique Just take some shards, mix it with plastic weld, and smash it the groove and you can sand it down for a flawless finish. I have done this before with my AP suit, and also filling holes in ABS Stormtrooper kits

OK, so started playing with the chest... I am using a dremel with a reinforced cut off wheel to trim the extra plastic. Two things immediately came to my attention:

1) While the plastic is very rigid due to its thickness, it is VERY soft and extremely easy to cut into/through.

2) Probably BECAUSE the plastic is soft it melts READILY and will fuse back to itself easily. I noticed this when using the cutoff wheel. Some of the little melted pieces that flew off while using the cut off wheel reattached to the plastic. While you can usually just pick these little plastic "boogers" off, some of these melted back onto the main body and had to be cut off.

I used the cut off wheel to score the plastic (didn't cut all the way through) and then snapped the extra plastic off in large chunks.

Once I had all the extra plastic on, I couldn't help but put the chest plate on. I am not a very big guy but the bottom of the chest plate is VERY tight under my ribs, but as it extends up under my arms, it gets more loose. There is a rather thick lip on the undeside of the chest plate. I am not sure if that lip thins out as it goes back to the sides of the body or not, but I have concerns about the fit once I have the belly plate in place under the chest.

Once I had the chest rough trimmed I played around a bit with detailing and sharpening. On the Sci-Fire chest plate, the chest of chest division (the veritcal line between the breasts) is very shallow and dull. John recommmended I use a triangle file to enhance the line. However, for me, it was easier to start with a small square file. Looking at the reference material, I will need to finish with a triangle file, but the square file made it more easy to make a straight line and dig out an initial groove.

After creating the midline groove I wanted to see if I could sharpen the breasts a bit. I started with a piece of 220 grit sandpaper on a vibrating sander but found that the friction melted the plastic very quickly instead of grinding it away. I switched over to 100 grit and that did a much better job. Even then, you have to be careful because the plastic tends to melt if you press down too hard in a single area for a sustained amount of time.

I sharpened the right breast and took a pic. It doesn't show up all that well in the photo, but standing in front of it, the right breast is clearly much sharper than the left! I plan to go over a few other lines with the 100 grit on the vibrating sander and then switch to 220 by hand to finish it out. I still have a ton to do and still need to clean all the egdes that I trimmed, but at least we are moving forward!

Your not finished yet?

Man! you been having this armor of a whole weekend already.

Off to a good start Art! I have an idea on sharpening up all the edges, but it is laborious. I will posting an update hopefully before this week is out, explaining with images.

I agree with you 100% on your statement about this armor, it's rock solid through and through. Feels like real armor, totally awesome!

Originally Posted by Replicant Shadow

Off to a good start Art! I have an idea on sharpening up all the edges, but it is laborious. I will posting an update hopefully before this week is out, explaining with images.

HEY! Don't wait to post up ideas! I am sweating up a storm sanding the heck out of this chest plate!!! If you have an idea, lets hear it!!!!

Here is the chest plate after another hour of the vibrating sander and some hand sanding. The sharpening is starting to take effect, but there is going to be a lot of detail and clean up work!

Just talked to dgasser and he suggested using a straight razor and scraping it along the edges to sharpen them! I might just give that a try!

Originally Posted by ART ANDREWS

Just talked to dgasser and he suggested using a straight razor and scraping it along the edges to sharpen them! I might just give that a try!

Did you ever think about useing a wood plane to sharpen the edges, might just work

Looking good so far. You are right that the bottom edge thins out as you go around to the sides. It never has looked to me that it thins out completely though. I have always thought it looked like there was a little lip there. You might also try just scoring the plastic with a metal straight edge and a razor blade to remove the excess plastic. I have gotten some nice edges like that. Keep up the good work.

OK guys... spent about 2 hours using dgasser's method with a straight razor and lets me tell ya... that is the ticket! Really took the sharpness to the next level! I actually went a bit farther than I expected to go but after looking at the reference, the breasts almost look like they are separate pieces from the ribcage, so I went in with the razor and small flat files and the square file and etched out the breasts in more detail. I am going to have to go back and fill a few bad spots, but overall, I am pretty pleased with the results and the progress I have made today.

My tendinitis is killing me, but the chest is starting to shape up. Will I have this ready in time for Comic Con? I am thinking no way at the rate I am going, but at least when I am done, I will be happy.

Bingo!!

That's fantastic!! There's no way any vac table will pic up that sharpness in the chest. That's what Dana & I did with ours in order to accomplish that sharpness.

Great job man!

I could already tell that this wont be just any other clone. It's going to be a killer clone. To bad it wont be a 41st either.

Took a look at the thighs tonight and I am going to have to take at least 2" out of the circumference of the thighs.... which means I am going to have to do some interesting filling and patching to make the edges match back up....

Also took a look at the biceps and well.. the biceps just baffle me.

Since I am working on a stormtrooper build alongside the clone build, I thought it might be interesting to see the crazy difference in size between a typical trooper chest plate and the clone chest plate.

That looks really good, Art. I like the way you've sharpened the edges. I did the same for the legs and chest on mine as well. This is one benefit from having very thick armor pulls. I actually used a needle file set to work the chest on mine.

Thanks John! I too am using jeweler's files on some of the chest. I have pretty unsteady hands so while this stuff looks good in pics, it is a bit rough in person. Hoping to get it cleaned up along and along. I am a bit apprehensive about doing this to the whole suit but it is nice to know that most of the other parts are just simple line sharpens, and not as complex as the breasts.

wow... i'm guessing that, details aside, the AP and Gino chest are about the same size.

i found the AP chest fit me pretty well.

so it seems that the clone one would just be ginormous.

how does it actually sit on you? not necessarily front to back, but side to side?

Originally Posted by ART ANDREWS

Took a look at the thighs tonight and I am going to have to take at least 2" out of the circumference of the thighs.... which means I am going to have to do some interesting filling and patching to make the edges match back up....

I had to so the same thing on my own sculpts. I made them a bit larger just to be safe, but still had to cut them down to fit properly.

Originally Posted by stormtrooperguy

wow... i'm guessing that, details aside, the AP and Gino chest are about the same size.

i found the AP chest fit me pretty well.

so it seems that the clone one would just be ginormous.

how does it actually sit on you? not necessarily front to back, but side to side?

Yup, the Gino chest plate should virtually be identical in size to the AP since they more or less came from the same source.

The biggest "problem" I see with the clone armor is that it was simply never made to fit a real live human being. This is no knock on Sci-Fire's work but on the original LFL design itself. Also, the stormtrooper has a very tapered top that allows for decent arm movement while the clone armor doesn't taper as it runs up the chest and I am assuming the end result will be that you will not be able to cross your arms at all.

The chest has an "issue" at the bottom that I haven't been able to properly determine yet... On the bottom is a very thick wide ledge that runs the entire length of the bottom edge. I don't have the ab plate or belt yet so I don't know how the chest will sit on the ab with that ledge. There is no clear photo ref but I think the ledge should thin out as it goes around the body which would completely change the way chest fits. Right now the chest end just under my ribcage and that ledge digs in very harshly under my ribcage, but if I thinned out that bottom ledge, I would end up having to heat the whole chest and pull it in tighter.

As far as the chest and back, both are going to have to have considerable material taken off the sides or I will look like a toothpick in a barrel. I am just concerned that if I actually make it "fit" me that it will look ridiculously thin from the profile. We will see. Maybe I will throw the chest on this afternoon and snap a quick pic. I don't want to trim any of the width until I have the ab plate and see how that affects the mix.

Thanks for the heads up RS! With this post and a PM, RS directed me to the perfect reference shot that clearly shows the cut on bottom of the chest! No doubt about it now! The ledge on the bottom of the chest cuts away exactly as RS cut his!

Originally Posted by ART ANDREWS

Thanks for the heads up RS! With this post and a PM, RS directed me to the perfect reference shot that clearly shows the cut on bottom of the chest! No doubt about it now! The ledge on the bottom of the chest cuts away exactly as RS cut his!

yeowch. while it may be a small accuracy sacrifice... you may want to round that corner off a wee bit for wearing. that looks like it could hurt if you moved the wrong way!

Haha. Yeah, I will probably round it out a bit, like RS did on his chest plate. Otherwise, that harsh point would be digging in, just under the ribcage... OUCH!

Very nice stuff! I too will be selling my armor later this summer to acquire this.

Beautiful stuff, I am anticipating a great build and will be watching intently.

Great job at trimming that, Art!!

Those edges are good for making omlets in the field...you can crack your eggs on them. I've just started my Sci-Fire clone build as well, so I've already followed your lead on the chest. Glad to hear I'm not alone in not doing a 41st...as I'm going the AT-RT route.

Great job so far! Keep the progress pics coming!

This is great stuff, keep it coming!

Originally Posted by Cruzer

Glad to hear I'm not alone in not doing a 41st...as I'm going the AT-RT route.

AT-RT will be quite the undertaking!!! I initially was going to do a 41st troop, but fell in love with Commmander Faie which has swayed my build.

Very nice, looking forward to seeing more shots. The sharpening you did on the chest was a vast improvement. Nice work!

OK, a slight update. Started using the razor scraping method to sharpen the back. I have gone through one razor blade on the chest already and still not done with it. The back is starting to take shape, but as with everything else, I have a lot of work to go. I thought building something "perfect" would be fun as opposed to the wonkiness of a stormtrooper build... I am beginning to realize more and more that wonkiness leaves a lot of room for error where a perfect build does not. I am just hoping paint and weathering will cover my mistakes!

That's what I am aiming for on my build, for Celebration 5. Won't finish in time for SDCC 09'. That wonkiness leads to future damage, pinches in places, and overall fatigue when wearing for extended periods of time. Especially with the way clones are designed. That is another reason I am using magnets, to keep those parts in place precisley not only for the proper asthetic, but for ease of movement. That straight edge razor technique is cool, taking a crack at over the weekend. Backplate is looking good Art!

So, I started looking at the buttplate today, and did a basic trim of the flashing. No sharpening yet. All I can say is, if your butt actually fits this thing... whew... you got a BIG BUTT!!! I am going to have to do some SERIOUS surgery to get the butt plate to fit my skinny rump. I am very nervous as this is going to require major cutting... so I am just going to take it a bit at the time.

That's a sweet armor Art..

Well... since I am sizing pieces (really struggling with aligning the cod plate and the butt plate)... I took a look at the biceps... and then took 3" out of the bicep to make it fit! here is an after and before pic to show the difference in the circumference. After cutting so much material away, I had to heat the halves and press them back into a circular shape. I am very nervous about all the pieces working together since there are some pieces I can really cut to size and some pieces I can't.

Excedllent build Art, I really like the pics of the "razored" edges, that really sets it off !

the size of clone armor has always been an interesting thing for me... most kits out there make me feel like i'm a 10 year old wearing grown up clothes

the first kit i owned (MG v1) was so big that when i connected the cod and butt plates together i could slip the thing down over my shoulders.

Coming along great!

If you mangle any of the parts beyond repair, just let me know. I can get you pieces of my armor which would require much less hacking.

Originally Posted by TD-1536

If you mangle any of the parts beyond repair, just let me know. I can get you pieces of my armor which would require much less hacking.

Thanks, Mike! I keep inching along, just waiting to really screw something up... So far, it seems like I am doing ok, but I have a LONG LONG way to go.

I took several inches out of the bottom of the butt plate. It now fits considerably better and doesn't quite feel as much like a diaper as it did. I still might need to do some final tweaking so I can walk around without it cutting into the back of my thighs. Here are pics of before and after.

I myself removed alot of material on the biceps, and as a result they are now to tall in appearance, over referrence. I am going to use wide shims to recapture the width prior to finalizing the seam. I have the same issue with the butt plate, now I can study yours before I execute final trimming on mine. :thumbup

Youre going to study Arts butt James? wow... LOL

you be silly Chase . You "Hot" Fox LOL

So, I finally got in my glue that John from Sci-Fire recommended. It is Weld-on #4807 Styrene Glue. You can get it here:
http://www.rplastics.com/weldon4807.html

This is a SOLVENT Cement which really holds the parts together incredibly well, but it does melt the plastics a bit, so be warned!

This is NOT a fast-setting glue and your pieces need to be fairly flat and match up fairly well... Most of all, make SURE you pieces are in the correct position because once this glue cures, there is no possible was of disjoining the pieces!

Because I cut so much material out of the biceps, they no longer created a circle but had a somewhat football shape with the joins being pointed.

I used a heat gun (be careful of the fumes!) to mold them into a more cylindrical shape, then added a strip of styrene to the back to support the joint. I used 60 grit sandpaper to roughen the surfaces to be glued then used a small paintbrush to apply a heavy coat of the glue to both surfaces.... gave it about a minute and then stuck them together.

Because my surfaces aren't perfectly flat I still needed to use clamps to hold the pieces in place for 24 hours until the glue fully cured. After an hour the initial curing was done but I gave it a full 24 to insure it was set.

Below are photos of the outside and inside... still messy and not at all cleaned up, but I wanted you to get an idea of what it looked like.

NOTE: After trimming down the two halves, I laid a full sheet of 150 grit sandpaper on a flat surface and ran the freshly cut edges of the pieces over it. This created a smooth flat joint that matched up with very little gap. Don't just rely on making a straight cut! Sand until it is perfectly straight so you have very little gap to fill later!

Pretty sweet Art, can't wait to see it come together, its gonna rock.

Art, great job! I am enjoying watching your progress.

a secondary method for sharping the edges: I roughed up the surface area around the edges with course sand paper. I then applied magic sculpt to the leading edges. Let dry and sanded it down. I have yet had any pop or crack off. The dry time took longer than the sanding and shaping did.

Go Art! Go!

I can't wait to see you suited up in something for once!

Originally Posted by webchief

Go Art! Go!

I can't wait to see you suited up in something for once!

Ummm.....

Me too!!!

Cmon now, its been a week!

alllllo ???

Bueller? Buellller?

Sorry. Been busy with a lot of other projects as we are getting to the end of the college semester. I did get one bicep completely glued and I am VERY pleased with the solvent glue John recommended, although you need a LOT of clamps to hold it in place while it dries.

Biceps are my next step. I need pick up that solvent glue, and more clamps it sounds like

I have finals through May 6... then some free time. Hoping to make some progress then!!!

Art, paging Art, where you at bud?

Looking forward to seeing more of your build mate.

Unfortunately, I couldn't see any of the pictures, they were all "x'd" out. Maybe it's my POS computer!

Originally Posted by Null-11

Unfortunately, I couldn't see any of the pictures, they were all "x'd" out. Maybe it's my POS computer!

sounds like you are using internet explorer... lots of people report problems with explorer here.

firefox will work better.

http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f22/tdh-threads-loading-real-slow-help-32191/

I'll try with Safari and see how that works

Yup, Safari works Nice pics!

Great progress thread!

Seeing the unrazored and razored armor side-by-side is like night and day. Very well done!

You've gotta spend less time working on boards and more time on your armor

(really just bumping this thread as I pointed a local clone at it for tips on her own sci-fire clone kit)

Indeed. I am grateful for the link and am also having trouble fitting the body parts being a slim female. I am going to have to try and trim my breast plate also as I just can't get all that material to stay close to the ab plate without it standing off the top by five inches.

Barriss, have you thought of padding the ab plate with foam strips so they sit off your stomach a little...that would help give the appearance of the chest plate being more flush to the ab.

Originally Posted by Gilmore of OK

Barriss, have you thought of padding the ab plate with foam strips so they sit off your stomach a little...that would help give the appearance of the chest plate being more flush to the ab.

or like i told another really thin person... just gain 30 - 40 pounds, the armor will fit GREAT!

Terry,
Head over to the closest Building 19 and grab some foam padding there. I picked up a 4'x8'x1" sheet of white foam for padding for my arm and leg pieces. They also have it in different thicknesses (if that's even a word) so you don't have to layer it on in areas where you might need more padding.

Originally Posted by stormtrooperguy

or like i told another really thin person... just gain 30 - 40 pounds, the armor will fit GREAT!

That's what I've been telling myself too. So what if I was 50 pounds lighter in high school, I'm not in school anymore.

My ab plate is the rubber and just gets around me as is. When I first got my kit I trimmed the ab plate and belt to fit..not realizing that the cod and butt had to go under them... ignorant newbie at armor. I left a little bit but now it is pretty snug under there with the butt and cod. I actually had to add a top lip to the butt and cod so I could fit that thin lip under the ab/belt section. There is no room for anything under there but my natural padding. The ab comes just under the boobs. I could perhaps put padding in my underarmor to make it fuller at the top by the shoulders in front. I plan to work on it this week when out of school.

What about just redoing the belt? That way you can then fix the armor and such with some foam to better proportionate the chest to ab deal.

Is the belt the rubber version as well? That would make for quite an easy fix if I am thinking the way I am for it.

Which that in itself could be a dangerous thing lol

Now with the chest piece, I take it you've tried everything short of a sports bra and a straight ducktape applique "corset"? Because modding that belt is going to make everything work out I do believe.

Art, did you ever find a source for the helmet? It looks like some sort of variant of the Neyo helmet?

I started working on armor chest and back yesterday by trimming the bottom lip on the front and then 'warming' the sides to bring it in more so now it fits much better. I think I am ready to do the velcro on it to hold the sides together. Thank goodness for IS velcro.