Hey Chris, any updates yet buddy?
Gav
As a matter of fact ...
Ok guys. Unfortunately we just had our first delay. Shoulder bells. They dominated my sorry butt for the last 5 days. And I was sick to boot
So I didn't get much of anything else done. For that I apologize. to those that have impending shipments, I also apologize. I will be utilizing the next 3 days to catch up on those orders. No further delay. But the armor orders are going to get hit a little bit over this. I may not be able to get quite as many out before Christmas. But I will do my BEST anyway. I might surprise you. Realistically I figured I could get 10 out before then. I think I should still be able to do at least that. Hopefully with what I'm posting, you might feel that it's worth the small delay for me to pay attention to one last detail for you guys. Every time I thought I was done, I made a temporary mold (part of the process of making a vac mold) and then noticed something still wrong, and do it again. I did this 6 times ! And, I have pictures to PROVE it
I would have never thought, in a million years, that I would let myself get enveloped in trying to perfect lousy shoulder bells to the extent that I did
They drove me 10 ways to crazy. Are they geometric? Are they Angled? Are they round? Grrrrrrrrrrrr .... the photo reference indicates one thing, video indicates another. And thanks to Spideyfett, I was able to confirm what I feared was true. And that is, they're a little bit of EVERYTHING
Until now, anyone I know that makes these things (myself included) have taken a 2 dimensional approach to them. Six sided, and barely con-caved in contrast to the screen worn. They're almost ridiculously compounded in just about every direction, yet they still have angles. Most of what shows up in photo reference are the angles. That in turn, throws us way off. I've always known there was something wrong with my bells. They look pretty good straight on. But to the right, or left of that, or any other angle or direction, they lose it. Now I understand why
So not to try and make a big deal out of something so small, here goes. Love them, or hate them ... they are what they are. And remember, if you like them, you saw them here first
It should also be noted, that the dents are different from the V.2 as well. When I get a free minute I'll post what the dented bells for each version look like in comparison to the new. I didn't have any movie specific dented bells at the time of the pictures. Just a plain bell. What I can say for sure, is that the ROTJ dents are MUCH, MUCH more shallow. They're barely impressions in the plastic. As it is on the real suit. The ESB, well, the main blast dent on the right bell, is still up to interpretation because of lack of reference (sorry guys). I can see some detail inside the dent, but not all of it. Sometimes the big blast dent looks huge, sometimes it looks smaller. I split the difference. I hope you like my "interpretation"
First the plain bell comparison between old and new. Looks pretty harmless, right? Pretty close between the two, right?
Nuh, uh.
These things appear to be around the same size as the old, but they're not. They're huge !, They "wrap" around the shoulder, literally. So this explains why in some pics, they appear flat, with straight angled lines, and some, they appear almost bulb-ish. I was never able to match up my bells to the following angles ... this time, at least I got close
There is one other updated detail that I will post later this evening. Then, I'm out for 3 days of catch up. Then this weekend, it's kicking armored butt.
Thanks to everyone for their patience !
FP