World's Slowest Republic Commando Build

mothmonty

you do great work man, the Fixer bucket and ear attachment are spot on

thorssoli

Thanks for the compliment. It's nice to know that someone is actually reading this thread.

Today I split the chest armor and added some spacers to make it a bit bigger from front to back:


Otherwise, there's not much to report on this project.

Stay tuned...

Zorlord

this is the best thread ever. dont stop this project

Zorlord

Also, do you have the link for the pep file you used?

thorssoli

This was skupilkinson's model. You can find it at Skip's Pepakura Costumes.

In other news, the helmets are done:


Details of the lighting and wiring can be found in my blog: When My Brain Leaks, the Drops Drip Here

Stay tuned...

Laranorac

This is one of the more professional looking helmets I have seen. Well done sir, my lid is off to you

thorssoli

Thank you for the compliments. It's nice to know somebody's actually reading this thread.

Today I did a bit more fairing on the chest armor:


In the next couple of days I should be able to finish smoothing it out, split it in half, fill in the openings, and make a couple fo pulls on the vacforming table.

Stay tuned...

Qui-Gonzalez

Oh, he ain't the only one! I thought you were stopping at the armor, but lo and behold, I did not take the title of the thread literally. Are the armor pieces going to be vac-formed on this? I need to get my butt to Harbor Freight for a better sander.

thorssoli

I've got the pep files for the whole suit and the backpack. With the helmets done, I don't see why I shouldn't own the whole team worth of armor too. Plus, since I'll be vacforming them, they'll be quick and easy by comparison.

Not that it's hard to do anything quicker than the 2+ years it took me to do the helmets...

struve1976

Doesn't matter how long it takes...it looks great!

thorssoli

Thank you for the compliment.

Yesterday I figured I was mostly done with the fairing and decided to try on the chest armor:

After embarrassing myself for a few minutes, I decided to cut it apart:


I like the fit much better now:


A note about Skip's scaling: I set the build height to 1750mm. I'm 1727mm tall. The reinforced piece fits a bit snug under the arms and if I hadn't added the spacers it would fit airtight in the front and back. The original model was clearly intended to fit a ridiculously thin person.

As long as I was trying on the parts, I figured it'd be good to see what it looked like with a helmet. I grabbed the first one I had handy:


After a bit of looking, I found one of my reject casts:


I figure I'll lose the bobblehead look once and I add the shoulder bells and rework the padding in the helmet so it sits lower. Here's my friend Matt, who's a bit bigger than me, trying on the parts:


The last thing I did last night was to spray on a coat of white to see how well the fairing had gone:


It turns out I still need to do a bit of touchup, but it's coming together. I should be able to make a few pulls in a couple of days.

thorssoli

As has been the way, this project got shelved again when more pressing things came up. Then, in the course of reorganizing the workshop last week, I pulled out the chest and back pieces and filled in the gaps so I could make them into vacforming bucks:


I also pepped a couple of shoulder plates so I could pull them in pairs on the forming table. Unfortunately this is the only picture I have with either of them:


Today I reinforced the fiberglass a bit more, so I should have a couple of pulls in the next day or so. I also need to build the greeblie that will go into the recess on the shoulder plate.

Stay tuned...

superweasle

Can't wait to see more of this, I love this build!

thorssoli

Shoulders in place for scale:



I've got a lot of filling and sanding yet to do, but they'll be ready for forming soon.

TAZNITBR

Nice place you have to play bro ^^. It looks like you have a lot of fun doing your job. Great work!!!

thorn13

This is amazing stuff. unbelievable

thorssoli

Yesterday was a bondo day. I did quite a lot of work on the shoulders:



While I was at it, I felt compelled to touch up the chest form:



Looking at the back plate, I decided it really needed a frame to make it fit in with the other types of republic/imperial troops:



I'll be making more progress on these over the weekend. Stay tuned...

thorssoli

The forms worked:


The shoulders came together nicely as well:


After a quick, rough trimming, here's the parts taped together:


And a quick test fitting:


From behind:


And a quick action shot:


Once I make the bicep parts, the shoulders will stick out a bit more like they're supposed to. I also have to make the cast resin insert to go into the recessed area in the middle of the shoulder plate.

Stay tuned...

SampleName

This is really awesome! I'm planning on starting my own RC pep. project fairly soon, so I'm really enjoying your work!

john2daextreme

hey man i was just wondering why do you paint your helmets pink before you mold them

msleeper

Love the builds! Makes me wish I had more than 1 friend into cosplay to get together a whole Commando group. But since not I've been kinda thinking of doing a Rex and Cody from Clone Wars.

Can't wait to see more!

thorssoli

Because I need a nice, smooth, glossy finish and I don't want to have people nitpicking how I got the color wrong at that stage. It's something I started doing after I made the mistake of painting my prototype Halo helmet the wrong shade of green. I just grabbed the first rattle can that was handy because I wanted a smooth finish.

That got me enough negative comments that I decided to start making it more obvious that I wasn't even trying. Since then, all of my prototypes, even for my Combat Garden Gnomes, get painted a lightish shade of red before I start making molds.

CorriTimigan

I can't believe I'm only just finding this thread, this is fantastic! I can't wait to see the finished product(s)!

SampleName

I have a question for you - Is it necessary to add the extra pieces to the arm holes of the chest/other pieces when making a vacuum forming buck? I'm getting closer to vacuum forming my own set, and I'm not really sure.

thorssoli

I'd suggest you do a bit more research into vacforming. If you don't fill in those holes, the plastic will lock onto the forms or blow in and rupture. I'd recommend Thurston James' excellent book: The Prop Builder's Molding & Casting Handbook which you can get HERE.