In Progress: Obi-Wan Kenobi Clone Wars

[defyitall]

7-13-08

Ugh. What a weekend. I hate leaving this stuff to the last minute because when stuff goes wrong you can't really figure it out, you just have to try something else. So, the original forearm pieces I made ended up too short due to bad measurements. So I ended up using them to make the smaller cone on the elbow side and remade the front forearm portion. Cutting the sintra way to long so I would have the extra material to cut away and make it flat and symetrical. I spent all day today working on this. Left the TV on FX all day and saw Ray and Walk The Line in a row without noticing. Here's what the final assembly ended up looking like:

I really pulled this out of my ass. Sometimes you get strokes of genius when you're pushed. I'm happy with how these assembled. I still have a lot of work to do. I am going to let the epoxy cure until tomorrow night. The I have to prep sand then Bondo. Then sand down to filler. I still need to prime them, spot fill them, add the top coat, and then weather. It'll take all week and then next weekend is my final paint and weathering time. Hopefully I'll have my chest and shoulder armor to work on this week.

Here's the Nomex gloves and hand guards, from my Clone Wars Microseries Volume II costume, I'll be using. Been done for a while just never photographed them. All they need is weathering.

Comments, as always, are appreciated. Not that I can change anything now!

 

[Miana]

Nicely done, though I think you're missing a last photo.

 

[defyitall]

Good call, thanks.

 

[RogueSolo]

Looks good Chris!

 

[Koda Vonnor]

Great work, brother!

Can I ask what you used to heat up the plastic? Did you do the round curve free-hand or wrap it around something?

~ BC

 

[defyitall]

I have a Black and Decker heat gun. Put the pieces on an old cotton blanket while I warmed them.

The tubular parts were just wrapped around to meet the edges then monkeyed with a bit. Then I epozied the edges together. Then after the epoxy cured I would heat the whole thing up and get it as round as I could.

The elbow extension I just did by hand. I molded the lower most part to the forearm obviously but the rest i just would heat in sections and mess around with.

 

[Koda Vonnor]

That's extremely well done for free-hand. Especially the main tubes.

 

[defyitall]

I'ts porbably one of those things where if I tried to do it again it would come out crappy.

 

[Redboykliq69]

Very nicely done, I can't wait to see it done.:thumbsup

 

[defyitall]

Very nicely done, I can't wait to see it done.

Yeah me too. Hopefully the armor maker will get me the chest and shoulder armor this week. If not, I'm not sure what I'll be able to do.

 

[Propazoid]

You totally look the part. Awesome progress! thumbsup:thumbsup

-Robb

 

[defyitall]

Thanks dude!

I got a lot of sanding and bondoing done these last two nights. Nothing worth taking photos of. I'll be spot filling tomorrow night and maybe trying out the weathering powder I got on the biceps.

 

[TMP]

I really enjoy watching this project.

 

[zahal]

Nice to see it progressing along.

mike

 

[defyitall]

The chest armor should be getting shipped out and arriving here on Saturday. Oooo, it's gonna be close.

 

[RBJ]

Lookin good! I can't wait to see it in person at Comic-Con!

 

[defyitall]

A friend of mine who has an amazing Clone recomended a weathering powder for model trains:

http://docscaboose-online.stores.yahoo.net/wema.html

My god was it easy to use. My stuff is already painted flat whte so it adhered great. I used an old brush and built up leayers. It came out great! I weas abel to get my hand plates, biceps, and my old Clone cavles done in under an hour. I'll get some pics tonight of the results.

 

[defyitall]

Holy crap, I had a horrible weekend. I finished up the forearms on Friday night and was hoping to recieve the chest armor and shoulder bells and get to work. I get an email on saturday from my armor supplier saying he can't make the deadline. He didn't contact me on the day he told me he would ship and say he was going to miss it. He contacted me on the day I was supposed to recieve.

So I drove out to a 501st armor party and me and my friend put together some sintra armor based off some molds he'd alreayd used. We got it built on saturday by about 11 pm. But I still had a lot of work left to do and was coming down with some kind of illness; quicker by the second.

I slept horrible and woke up super ill with the flu. But I went to work. Yesterday I was able to get the shoulder bells cut out, sanded, painted, the Jedi symbol applied and weathered. I got the chest armor trimmed, shaped, glued together, and bondo'd before I passed out at 11:30.

I've two nights and I have to:

-Sand the chest armor
-Spot fill the chest armor
-Paint the chest armor
-Add velcro to the backplate
-Make the collar portion out of foam
-Add foam for fitment to the biceps and forearms
-Hang the shoulder bells

Think I can do it?

 

[Koda Vonnor]

...I've two nights and I have to:

-Sand the chest armor
-Spot fill the chest armor
-Paint the chest armor
-Add velcro to the backplate
-Make the collar portion out of foam
-Add foam for fitment to the biceps and forearms
-Hang the shoulder bells
-Get over this god dam flu

Think I can do it?

It'd take me two WEEKS to do all that, brother.

(...fixed your list there in the quote... )

But I can see me in the same spot on 25 Aug... :eek :redface :cry

 

[defyitall]

Oh, I'm on the mend with the flu. Luckily I started to fell better yesterday. Got a good bit of news about an insurance claim against me being settled and it lifted my spirits. A friend was nice enough to come over and play house wife for me and take care of some stuff around the house like laundry while I was working.

I'm still daunted. Hopefully I can get it to at least a passable way by Tuesday night.

Some of it will take like 5 minutes like the foam for the forearms and the biceps. The forearms fit well on their own, I just need to add a couple foam tabs up in front so they don't wobble around my wrist. The biceps I am putting some of the non-slip drawer lining material inside. They fit tight on my biceps right now and I am not worried about them falling off. Just a little extra security. I can do those while paint is drying.

The shoulder bells are a pain. The CG bells sit low on the deltoid. Normally I would do the TK solution and have a strip of velcro hag over the top and hold it up. But that would be very obvious. So I have have to add non-slip into the inside, do a rather tight elastic strip around the arm and then do some elastic from the corners on the chest. Maybe?

The stuff that haunts my dreams is the collar. I have an idea in mind but I don't know if it will work outside the realm of my brain.

The sanding just takes time. but I am not going for perfection. This armor is beat-up in the show. I just want it passable and then i'll paint.