Sci-Fire TDH Clone Trooper WIP

Last night I began the process of unpacking the armor. The raw pulls are the cleanest I have ever seen, no question. The surface areas are smooth throughout, with no rippling of the plastic. I popped in Iron Man, called a girlfriend over, and I promptly began working on a forearm. The Iron Man soundtrack is great for setting the armor building "tone" LOL.

Let's just say that I was done, trimming to fit my forearm (rightside) within an hour. I trimmed off an excess of an 1" inch of material off the two indvidual forearm parts, and an roughly an 1" 1/4 inch off the back ends (shortening the length) and the two pieces clamshell/align perfectly, and still look very accurate as far as mass and scale. I also trimmed and excess of a 1/2 inch total of material off the right bicep halves, and those parts clamshell perfectly! I will post images on the leftside forearm and bicep proceedures over the weekend. Left my camera at the office last night. I am BLOWN AWAY by the precision and simplicty! (y)

Below is the primary frontal reference image I am utilizing at this time. I am doing everything possible to capture the overall essence as seen below, which to me conveys that "hermetically-vacummed sealed" look. Though, the cod/abplate is Pre-Pro in this image, I will not be going with this set-up; rather the ab and cod as seen on the majority of clones, especially from Revenge of the Sith.

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Nice to see you back dude. Sweet set of armor and cant wait to see your build!
 
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In your first post, any reason why Volt**** is censored?? haha. I doubt the French verb, taire, "to be quiet," is considered a swear word :)

Think this will be done at San Diego Comic Con?? You're doing a great job on it!!
 
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Enjoy the process RS. I have enjoy putting every piece of my Sci-fire rig together dude/ It was awesome! I have a bit more to do and I'll throw in some progress with ya, not to highjack just to share bro. Hope to meet up and compare note someday. C5 perhaps? ;)

jon
 
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Hey Jon! To say the assembly process has been enjoyable is an understatement! I cannot impress upon people how precisely the parts align together after cutting, it's like putting together a Snap-Tite model kit! (y) Feel free to drop in any progress images as you go along, just as long as folks bare in mind that the modifications I am making to this kit will be slightly different than yours, with nip and tucks throughout to correspond with my physique and individual quirks LOL.

This weekend I have been concentrating on the arms. Though, today I will be primarily updating with the trimming proceedure of the handplates.

I spent roughly two hours a piece on the handplates, and the time and effort was entirely worth it. Initiallly, they are somewhat difficult to assess. I took a pencil and very carefully plotted my trim lines. Which in fact, I used my dremel with a sanding spool (with 80grit equivilant courseness) to cut away excess plastic. I used varying dremel speeds, very CAREFULLY to shape the pieces. Once the initial work was done, I used 80 grit sandpaper to clean up the newly trimmed/dremmled areas. Then, I proceeded to use a file, to set the final desired contours and nuances (on the underside edges) as per reference.

I then sanded the entire handplates with 220, then washed with warm water and dried both pieces. Finally, I sprayed both handplates with two super light coats of white Tamiya Fine Primer:

Left handplate, prior to trimming:
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Left hand plate, next to finished right handplate:
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Right handplate: note the angular nuances, filed into shape:
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Both hanplates finished and sanded with 220 grit:
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Left handplate:
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Both handplates primed, and ready for multi-layer paint process. I will be sanding the primer coats, prior to applying the first under color coat:
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I am totally stoked on the final result of these handplates. They are simply the best have ever worked with.
 
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With the arms I had to shorten the lengths. I trimmed anywhere from 1" inch, to about 1" 1/4 on what is the backend of the parts (where the arm bends) I CAREFULLY penciled my trim lines, to follow the curvature of the backends. I also trimmed off roughly a half inch on both the tops and bottoms of each arm piece, bringing the overall width inward (an 1" inch total) to restore balance to the parts after cutting the length, and obviously for an optimum, specific fit to my forearms. The parts, after the aforementioned trimming, aligned perfectly! (y)

Once I was done trimming, I proceeded to take a sanding block with 100 grit sandpaper, and lightly cleaned up the newly trimmed straight edges. I also cleaned up the trim work on back ends of the pieces, with 80 grit. I rounded the back end trim areas with the 80 grit as well, then washed the parts. Once that was done, I glued in the interior shims, and then proceeded to glue the halves together:

Rightside forearm halves, washed and ready for addition of interior shims:
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Inside of Rightside arm halves:
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Gluing Rightside forearm bottom shim:
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With the right forearm unfortunately plastic from a "For Rent" sign LOL. I was out of the white sheet styreene I use. The for rent sign though is the proper thickness (very thin) for all intents and purposes. I will be sanding the red paint off tonight. I fully intend to line the interiors of all my parts, in sheet plastic. I am going inside and out with this one, full detail.
 
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So are you going to sharpen the edges where any turn in the plastic is? Keep going dude, this is awesome homeboy...
 
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James, I am a bit confused on the part where you were adding round styrene dowel detailing to the rectangles on the center of the belt. Here is an image of the Ep II clone belt... now I am not sure how much it changed by Ep III but I am not seeing the round details, only little squared off supports on either side of the center rectangles that go all the way down into the deepest recess of the belt. Am I missing something?

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Wow! I need lasik or contacts. The images I am using are not as clear as the image you just posted above. I also now see two new details that need to be added. I will do a quick tear down and rebuild based on this clearer image. Thank you Art!(y)
 
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Here below are images of the leftside forearm. Just like the right side, I took a sanding block with 100 meduim grit, and lightly sanded smooth the straight, newly trimmed seam lines. I beveled the backend edges with 80grit, then went straight up the scale to 220grit, making the backend trimmed areas nicely rounded and smooth. Addtionally, I took my file, and sharpened the areas at the base of the "triangle", near the wrist area, then sanded the entire piece with 220. What I am doing is sharpening and enhancing the molded-in nuances, to offest the loss of these particular nuances once the paint process takes effect. In short, preserving as much detail as possible.

As you will see, I am also experimenting with possible interior greeblies, and I have decided to go in a different direction, after analyzing the the bottom image closely this morning:

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Quick mock-up of the rightside forearm and handplate:
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Interior detailing experiment (leftside forearm):
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Very impressive !

can't wait to see how you make your interior detail.

Great to see all the small details put in.
 
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Though I didn't mention this in my very first post when I iniated this thread, I do intend to dress the interiors of all the armor componentry. I am taking a Batman Begins/Dark Knight, Visual Dictionary approach to this build, impressing a "plausible reality".

My view on Clone Trooper armor is that it was very expensive for the Republic-Empire to manufacture, as opposed to the later stormtrooper variants. When you read the various descriptions offered in the Visual Dictionaries, with regard to the two different types off armor, it's clear that clones had a far more sophisticated panopoly.

According to the Episode II, AOTC Visual Dictionary, all armor is attached to the clone body glove via a type of interior magnetic plating, or "Mangatomic" plates as called out in the Visual D. Considering that the clone bodyglove is designed to fully encapsulate a clone for extreme combat environments, including the vaccum of space, the idea of all armor componentry being precisely locked in place makes perfect sense. This would not only help prevent the bodyglove from puncturing, preventing injuires and loss of pressurization, but keep all the the armor components properly spaced between each other for optimum movement and protection.

Please be advised that I am not finished with these parts.




At the wrist is a Mangatomic Coupler. This coupler attaches to an identical coupler on the bodyglove. The two plastron encased wires lead back to an Energy Sink, which serves the dual function of not only disapating electrical discharge that the armor may come into contact with (i.e., close combat conditions with battle droids, ect.) but also operates as a negative ground for the coupler.
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I got the ridge plating design cue for the Energy Sink concept from the ridged/indented exterior pattern that runs along the forearms of the Imperial Stormtrooper:

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The round disk is actually a resin clonetrooper shoe strap disc. I glued on a temp magnet, which will be replaced by a rare earth magnet. I have four of these discs, and I can't remember who I got these from. I will need 12 more of these if someone can help identify the maker, or make me some :)
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I did a quick test fit last night too. I put on my current Under Armor and flight gloves, and the interior detail virtually goes unseen, keeping the componentry unexposed.
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