C6 Clonetrooper tutorial and build from head to toe!

DW Design

Active Hunter
Hello Clonetrooper friends. I have completed my Clone Pilot tutorial and am moving onto
a Clonetrooper suit tutorial. I have been building these suits since 2005 and plan to share
some of my tips and tricks with you here. I have build around 10 suits for myself, friends and
local 501st members. Hopefully this tutorial can help you with your build. Maybe I can also
learn some new tricks and ideas from fellow board members.
Once the tutorial if finished the suit will be for sale. Please contact me if you are interested.
Please feel free to add to the discussion.

We are going to take a pile of plastic, reins and rubber and turn it into something like this!
CTkit1.jpg

CTkit2.png

These photos were taken a few weeks ago at Wonder Con in San Francisco.
As you can see, the suit can be made to fit troopers big and small.
The bigger troopers in these photo’s are around 6’1” and the smaller ones are around 5’8”.
CTkit3.png

CTkit4.png
 
Well I am dying to buy one just as soon as I finish my Jango build. This thread will be bookmarked for future reference.

And I will watch it as you go too. Thanks for these tutorials that you have been doing they are appreciated.
 
Day 1
Trim out all the pieces and clean up as necessary. I like to use a belt sander to file most of the items down.
I purchased one for around $40.00 at Harbor Freight. I got one that can by turned upside down to sand
down the parts easier.
For the tight areas I use a dremil and for the straight lines I use a metal ruler and utility knife.
I also use a file to get those nice round corners. This is just a quick trim, we will do the final cleanup as
we move onto each individual piece. I spent about 3 to 4 hours on this step.

It’s is extremely important to use a pair of work gloves. They can be purchased at Wal Mart for around $10.00.
I nearly cut the tip of my finger off because I was not wearing my gloves.
I could have saved all that pain by just taking a few more seconds to grab and put them on.

cbday1-1-1.jpg

cbday1-2-1.jpg
 
look, if you're going to tell us about an injury you incurred during costume construction, you have to show pics of that too. i think that's an internet rule.
 
I don't want to derail this thread but here you go.....
First two, same injury. Utility knife slipped and I was NOT wearing gloves.
Third photo, I cant remember. I think I was trimming plastic without gloves.
Fourth is from this week. It's from the sander. It was throwing hot plastic on my arm so I cut up a sock and used it like a sleeve. Then sock then got caught in the sander :(
.
.
.
.
injuries.jpg
 
the sacrifice for art! You have to have a little blood in your costume. That's what makes it yours.
 
Day 2
First we are going to take all the items that need to be made seamless.
This is the forearms, biceps, thighs and calves.
This part is never fun be we will tackle this first.
Keep in mind these items were sculpted by hand not by a computer. You have to be able to be a bit creative when putting these pieces together.
We are going to begin with the calves.
The calves consist of 6 total parts. Two front, two back and two spoons.
I will walk you through the whole process which will take a few days from start to finished.
cbday2-1.jpg

When building the calves you will realize that after the initial trim they don't line up very well.
Don’t worry, we will trim and cut them to make them look good.
I am around 6’ 1” and I like to trim about 1 1/2” off the bottom. I don‘t trim them until after the super glue, epoxy and fiberglass tape steps are finished.
Smaller trooper can trim more if they would like. Just always shorten it from the bottom.
I also leave the back spoon area in until after the seams have been finished.
It just much easier to work with when the spoon area in place.
Try to cut both the front and back as straight as possible, then do your best to make them fit together cleanly.
I will use my sanders, sandpaper and file to make this work.
Sometimes it lines up right on the first try and other times I can spend up to a hour working on this step.
As you can see here, the top is looking good but the bottom needs some more sanding.
cbday2-2.jpg

Once you have a good clean edge on one side, then work on getting the other edge to line up. Like I said don't
worry that the top and bottom lining up, we are going to cut and sand these areas after we get it glued together.
This first front and back look’s good. Now we will move onto the other side. Before I tape this first side together I like to scuff up the inside with sandpaper. This will create a good rough area for the glue and epoxy to stick to.
cbday2-3.jpg

Alright, we have one side done and taped together. Now lets move onto the other side.
With the first side done, you can uses one of the edges on the second side to mark your trim line.
Sand and clean up as needed.
cbday2-4.jpg

Now that it all lines up, tape them together. Add super glue to the inside seam.
cbday2-5.jpg

Once dried, now its time to add the epoxy and fiberglass tape. Pre trim your tape so it is ready to go.
Use something round to mark the areas for mixing the two part epoxy.
I like to do this on the actual pieces so that none of the epoxy is wasted. I then use a rubber glove to run the
epoxy along the inside seam. Once applied, lay the fiberglass tape down, use your finger to press the fiberglass
tape down along the inside seam. Mix another batch of epoxy and cover the top and edges of the fiberglass tape.
Also run a little epoxy along the outside seam to fill in any holes or spaces.
cbday2-6.jpg

Once the epoxy has dried overnight, mark the areas that will get trimmed down. I use a pencil to do this. Cut the bottom and round off the top as needed.
Sorry, the photo’s are a bit out of focus.
cbday2-7.jpg

Now sand and cleanup all the edges.
cbday2-8.jpg

Apply the bondo to the seam and any low spots. I went a little overboard here. As you can see, most of this bondo
gets sanded off.
cbday2-9.jpg
 
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