ROBOSTEVE 0671
Sr Member
Well this build has been going on for longer than I care to admit. I'm at the two year mark now, mainly as I work fulltime and spend around 4 hours a day getting to and from my job as crazy as that sounds so time on the actual build is slim to say the least but I'm really happy it's dragged out this far for one reason, it's allowed me to discover there's more accurate parts out there these days by some very talented members right here on the RPF.
The build started out as a V3 TMP kit as I was one of the original owners of a TMP V1 so I got the upgrade.
When the kit first turned up I was pretty over the moon to be honest but I started to try things on and realised that certain parts were simply too big like the mid section / pelvis, so I'm looking at replacing these.
Also, some parts were missing that don't come with the TMP, like the elbow guards, inner next collar details and two part shoulder bells.
My main aim was to get this suit much closer to the film Mark III and so I set about making various parts as well contacting several folks and friends on here which I'll credit as I go along.
I originally started out thinking as I was happy with my V1 in the first place that I'd simply sand down and smooth out this V3 kit and then paint with rattle cans but in the last 8 months or so we've seen a few members paint their suits with a spray gun, now being an airbrush artist for many years I know there's a huge difference, down to quality of paint and of course the correct air pressure and materials available that paint cans really do struggle to give that same result and after seeing Fingaz's thread of his build and his awesome paintjob, I thought, Damn! that's the finish I want!
I made contact with Mark (Fingaz) and asked loads of questions and got this expert advice on what colour to use, what conditions to paint in and really got the bottom of what's the best route to take, you can get a great result with cans, it just means more work with the prep of the surface and the polishing to get a good finish in the end, more work than I cared to give myself as I've filled and sanded this suit more times than I care to mention.
Fingaz has been an awesome help and without him, this build would not of been half as good without his hands on the job with this , he really has been a massive help and made me realise I've gone wrong in a few areas with my filing and prep work and where I could of saved myself quite a bit of time just by simply using the right techniques and of course the right sanding materials.
I've made many friends on here at the RPF and I'd like to thank each one as I go along and show off pictures, please note though, this isn't a complete build thread, it's ongoing but I'm getting asked by a few members to place up my WIP pictures
and so here we go.
The lower legs were huge so I set about cutting them right down the middle and then bridging them from the back and reinforcing them with fibreglass. I've ended up doing that much work to these over the months that they are now practically full fibreglass in the inside and body filler to the outside, here's an early picture of my cut and shut progress.
rear holes re drilled as the previous pattern was kinda untidy.
Also as the lower ankle area was all ABS and quite badly warped and tearing in places on the corners I thought, right I'm going to thicken up the area, reinforce it an get a better all over shape.
here we see an overall better shape and finish although I was worried about the bumps caused by filling over those side seems and of course when I took these pieces to Fingaz, he pointed out these would stand out once painted and so these were then filled and block sanded back.,
here's a pic with the side pumps and seems still visible.
and here's a series of pics of the legs painted by Fingaz once he'd flatted out those nasty bumps and seems.
here's a few pics of the legs before the paint started just to see how they fit..
Other work that was carried out was around the neck area, the TMP inner neck was missing some of the smaller finer details, I think this was down to a lack of reference at the time so I wanted to go ahead and recreate the inner detail myself
The collar bars were provided by Leslee, (Masked Rider) and the styrene work was done by myself.
Here's the templates..
here's the parts fitted on for scale
I also replaced the gloves, the best ones at the time on the market were these by Masked Rider again, these are very cool and what you'll get if you buy a full suit from him.
I held the finger pieces together with guitar cords
Again extra details like the elbow guards were missing so I created these from scratch in ABS and fibreglass with a cardboard inner frame to start off with.
Another big shout out I'd like to give on here is to Matt (Surreal Studios) as he provided some of the most awesome shoulder bells from his own build.
After studying the screen used build more and more though I wanted to get the two layered look and so I spoke with Matt and told him my intentions of trimming these back and making them into a two part sliding shoulder which worked out a treat, and by doing this I gained more length and size of the bells and they dropped down the shoulder to a more desirable position
here you can see the chest and the shoulder bells on the set up with a primed Masked Rider Mark IV helmet
you can use my cats for scale
I then set about doing a test fit, here though I'm using the Suckface 3d Milled helmet
Just to give you a better idea, I stand at 6, 3" tall, I have a chest of 42" and a waistline of 32" an inside leg of 34" with size 12 UK feet.
The neck seal in the pictures was another part that replaced the TMP neck with a Masked Rider one
Another shout to Surreal Studios and the RealTonyStark as I managed to be lucky enough to get one of thier UniBeams which fits perfect.
I'll place up pictures of that in the chest one my chest is on Paint.
Here's one shot taken by Surreal Studios
I made these ribbed sections for the back of the legs but after several attempts in different materials I discovered after test fitting with the armour that they were still too brittle and they started to split so I'm not making a mould and producing these in Urethane but there's a pic of my current ones to give a rough idea.
I simply cut these from a rubber waste basket.
here's how they looked when I used the same idea inside the arms
One last area of the TMP back that looks great but I realised again it's probably down to a lack of reference is the rear spine, now this bit looks cool but again I decided to make it more accurate to the screen Mark III and so I've ripped out the spine and I'm rebuilding the middle inner back from scratch.
Here's a before and after work in progress shot. More pics to follow in the coming weeks as I get time on this build.
Before
After
Thanks All for looking
The build started out as a V3 TMP kit as I was one of the original owners of a TMP V1 so I got the upgrade.
When the kit first turned up I was pretty over the moon to be honest but I started to try things on and realised that certain parts were simply too big like the mid section / pelvis, so I'm looking at replacing these.
Also, some parts were missing that don't come with the TMP, like the elbow guards, inner next collar details and two part shoulder bells.
My main aim was to get this suit much closer to the film Mark III and so I set about making various parts as well contacting several folks and friends on here which I'll credit as I go along.
I originally started out thinking as I was happy with my V1 in the first place that I'd simply sand down and smooth out this V3 kit and then paint with rattle cans but in the last 8 months or so we've seen a few members paint their suits with a spray gun, now being an airbrush artist for many years I know there's a huge difference, down to quality of paint and of course the correct air pressure and materials available that paint cans really do struggle to give that same result and after seeing Fingaz's thread of his build and his awesome paintjob, I thought, Damn! that's the finish I want!
I made contact with Mark (Fingaz) and asked loads of questions and got this expert advice on what colour to use, what conditions to paint in and really got the bottom of what's the best route to take, you can get a great result with cans, it just means more work with the prep of the surface and the polishing to get a good finish in the end, more work than I cared to give myself as I've filled and sanded this suit more times than I care to mention.
Fingaz has been an awesome help and without him, this build would not of been half as good without his hands on the job with this , he really has been a massive help and made me realise I've gone wrong in a few areas with my filing and prep work and where I could of saved myself quite a bit of time just by simply using the right techniques and of course the right sanding materials.
I've made many friends on here at the RPF and I'd like to thank each one as I go along and show off pictures, please note though, this isn't a complete build thread, it's ongoing but I'm getting asked by a few members to place up my WIP pictures
and so here we go.The lower legs were huge so I set about cutting them right down the middle and then bridging them from the back and reinforcing them with fibreglass. I've ended up doing that much work to these over the months that they are now practically full fibreglass in the inside and body filler to the outside, here's an early picture of my cut and shut progress.
rear holes re drilled as the previous pattern was kinda untidy.
Also as the lower ankle area was all ABS and quite badly warped and tearing in places on the corners I thought, right I'm going to thicken up the area, reinforce it an get a better all over shape.
here we see an overall better shape and finish although I was worried about the bumps caused by filling over those side seems and of course when I took these pieces to Fingaz, he pointed out these would stand out once painted and so these were then filled and block sanded back.,
here's a pic with the side pumps and seems still visible.
and here's a series of pics of the legs painted by Fingaz once he'd flatted out those nasty bumps and seems.
here's a few pics of the legs before the paint started just to see how they fit..
Other work that was carried out was around the neck area, the TMP inner neck was missing some of the smaller finer details, I think this was down to a lack of reference at the time so I wanted to go ahead and recreate the inner detail myself
The collar bars were provided by Leslee, (Masked Rider) and the styrene work was done by myself.
Here's the templates..
here's the parts fitted on for scale
I also replaced the gloves, the best ones at the time on the market were these by Masked Rider again, these are very cool and what you'll get if you buy a full suit from him.
I held the finger pieces together with guitar cords
Again extra details like the elbow guards were missing so I created these from scratch in ABS and fibreglass with a cardboard inner frame to start off with.
Another big shout out I'd like to give on here is to Matt (Surreal Studios) as he provided some of the most awesome shoulder bells from his own build.
After studying the screen used build more and more though I wanted to get the two layered look and so I spoke with Matt and told him my intentions of trimming these back and making them into a two part sliding shoulder which worked out a treat, and by doing this I gained more length and size of the bells and they dropped down the shoulder to a more desirable position
here you can see the chest and the shoulder bells on the set up with a primed Masked Rider Mark IV helmet
you can use my cats for scale
I then set about doing a test fit, here though I'm using the Suckface 3d Milled helmet
Just to give you a better idea, I stand at 6, 3" tall, I have a chest of 42" and a waistline of 32" an inside leg of 34" with size 12 UK feet.
The neck seal in the pictures was another part that replaced the TMP neck with a Masked Rider one
Another shout to Surreal Studios and the RealTonyStark as I managed to be lucky enough to get one of thier UniBeams which fits perfect.
I'll place up pictures of that in the chest one my chest is on Paint.
Here's one shot taken by Surreal Studios
I made these ribbed sections for the back of the legs but after several attempts in different materials I discovered after test fitting with the armour that they were still too brittle and they started to split so I'm not making a mould and producing these in Urethane but there's a pic of my current ones to give a rough idea.
I simply cut these from a rubber waste basket.
here's how they looked when I used the same idea inside the arms
One last area of the TMP back that looks great but I realised again it's probably down to a lack of reference is the rear spine, now this bit looks cool but again I decided to make it more accurate to the screen Mark III and so I've ripped out the spine and I'm rebuilding the middle inner back from scratch.
Here's a before and after work in progress shot. More pics to follow in the coming weeks as I get time on this build.
Before
After
Thanks All for looking
Last edited:
