Thanks for the comps guys !!
Lets get this party started ! :cheers
First, the little surprises. Yes? Then the changes that were made to V.3 a little later. As well A few comps to V.2.
I've already been asked about how on earth are members going to attach their knee darts. My canned response was ... "Got it covered"
First, let me just address the new knees. I'm a firm believer that the original Fett knees were one piece vacuum formed. Period. There was some evidence of a knee guard being separate pieces, but I don't buy it. I believe this was a broken and "repaired" knee guard. There is plenty of substantial evidence that they were one piece formed. Such as the "webbing" between the front knee cap portion and the dart housing where they come together for instance, which if you haven't already noticed ... I replicated
There is only one way to do this, and that is to form the whole knee in one piece. Why? Because the webbing is the product of failure to suck the plastic down into such a tiny little area. That's my take on it, and until further evidence or proof is presented, I'm sticking to it
It's taken me 6 years to figure out how to make the dag-gone vac mold to do it ... and it's probably the most complex vac mold I've ever made ... but I think I proved that it can be done. For ILM, it must have been pure accident
So why the "lead-in" ?
Darts. How to attach darts. Without them tearing the plastic apart if they get hooked on something (or a little kid runs runs into you at a con, and rips them off
). If the knees were separate pieces, this could explain why they've lasted for 30 years, because they could have had solid resin housings, like some makers have produced in past. But I still don't subscribe to that. So the whole idea is to mount the darts in a fashion that reinforces them too. My V.1 knees had inset sockets to mount the darts. WRONG. I've always sort of known it, but never could think of anything better. Until now. It's as simple, as simple gets. DON'T ask me how I came up with it
K, so follow me here ...
There are indentations on the outside of the vac formed dart housing. Pic #1. This is where you will cut holes to fit YOUR particular darts. So ... "Size matter not" anymore
But what holds them in place?
An ultra light, virtually unbreakable resin support insert. Pic #2. This resin support insert, has matching indentations that line up PERFECTLY to the outside marks. Pic #3. With this support insert, you will drill holes to match the diameter of YOUR darts. Once you have matching holes in both the vac formed knee shell, and the support insert, the insert can be glued/epoxied inside of the dart housing, and then your darts can be fitted from the outside , and epoxied into place. VERY simple really. One thing is for sure, the darts will never rip the housing apart this way
At any rate, these will be included with every kit.
Next on the agenda ... center chest diamond. I'm a firm believer that this was vac formed too. Let us not forget, that these guys were CHEAP when they were in pre-production ... because they HAD TO BE on such a tight budget. So I went back to the old days of my V.1 armor with this. Refreshed of course. Bo more resin. Unless you REALLY want one
But the cool thing, isn't as much the diamond, as it is the insert that will be included this time around. It's been known for quite some time that there was an actual insert glued into place. Including pieces of sheet steel with the V.2 to back the diamond, was a temporary solution to the following ..
Each kit will include this cold cast insert. (will not need to be polished). The trick to more difficult than it looks. Vacuum forming small detailed areas like that of the center rectangle of the diamond, teild very SOFT detail. Mor rounded on the inside, nothing flat to glue an inster into. So I devised a "stamp" to stamp a nice crisp "bed" for lack of a better term .. for the insert to sit flat inside and be affixed to.
Next up .... the ab plate detail. If you take a peek at the Super Troopes pics (white pre-pro Fett), you can see shining metal throw the three holes on the ab plate (as well as the center diamond by the way). They're not painted silver, that's for sure
So again, a cold cast insert that you can glue to the inside of the ab plate after you've painted and detailed your ab plate.
K, that's about it for the time being. I've got to go and get dinner and play liek a human being for a couple of hours This itme I won't pas out.
Oh, wait .. one more thing ... "Your wish, is my command" .....
And I'm not ignoring anyone about details on the armor ... I will post all of that here pretty quick. As well as put up the list of members down for this run. Payments in advance, reserve your slot.
FP
:cheers
FP