TFA Snowtrooper Ultimate Build!

[watsonstudios]

Finally have time to make my own thread on my snow trooper build. Started mid October, and though I was in the process of making my son's clone trooper costume for Halloween, I slowly started to put together my snow trooper. I think the TFA snow trooper is the coolest of the new trooper designs, with just as much "soft" content as hard armor. I thought it would be a great challenge, seeing that I have "some" experience sewing and still consider myself a novice. I'll post as many pics as I can as I make progress. What you're seeing now is the last month and a half of effort. I started with 3d modeling the armor starting with the helmet. I started with building the flame trooper helmet, since they re very similar, then once done with that, I would chop off the "beak" so that the snow trooper face shield would fit. Here are some early screenshots and renderings of the CG parts. Most of these are early versions, I've tweaked them quite a bit and have over 30 hours into the helmet alone.

 

[watsonstudios]

Progress on the soft parts/snow suit is also going well. Here is a few test/practice pieces I made to get the right quilting technique down.

 

[watsonstudios]

More 3d modeled armor.

 

[watsonstudios]

The large pieces need to be printed in sections. My printer has a build volume of about 9 x 9 x 9 inches. I usually "weld" the pieces together as opposed to gluing. Works much better.

 

[Thain]

Very fond of the new snow trooper design...excited to see this project unfold from a great start!

 

[RetiredClone]

Great work! That helmet is stunning

 

[Felice]

Yes, the TFA TS is one of the coolest trooper!
Great start!

Just one question: what kind of fabric did you used? It looks like nylon or something similar.

Thank you and have fun

 

[DaftAider76]

That helmet is a thing of beauty!! Are you going to be selling these?

 

[Strongbow]

Yes, the TFA TS is one of the coolest trooper!
Great start!

Just one question: what kind of fabric did you used? It looks like nylon or something similar.

Thank you and have fun

I see what ya did there.....

 

[watsonstudios]

Yes, the TFA TS is one of the coolest trooper!
Great start!

Just one question: what kind of fabric did you used? It looks like nylon or something similar.

Thank you and have fun

The real fabric is definitely a polyester. This is what I use for the outer layer, on top of the batting. You can find it at Joann's. It looks perfect but can snag easily. I'm still looking for the perfect fabric, it's proven to be quite the challenge. I know it was mentioned in another post that it was a "polyester jersey knit with neoprene backing" but there are a million variations of that out there and just searching that didn't come up with anything. The knit pattern is large on the real costume so It's very hard to find. There are many similar fabrics out there but have yet to find "The One!" I will find though, it's my greatest mission! LOL

 

[Probe Droid]

Looking good!

Shot and a few others at the Discovery Times Sq Star Wars and the Power of Costume exhibit. More pix in my Flickr album ifs you can use them.

Good luck!

 

[Bogleo]

Amazing!!

 

[joshimus]

Wow that looks really clean. Will you be selling these helmets?

 

[deserthunter]

What do you think of this fabric? The fabric on the left is the Pellon interface that you used. The right 100% polyester that i found. You can hardly tell where one starts and the other ends.

 

[watsonstudios]

Wow that looks really clean. Will you be selling these helmets?

Eventually, yes.

 

[watsonstudios]

Here's my little "mic" tip for the helmet. Originally made on my CNC router, then cast it in resin. I tried a few machining techniques before finding the one that worked the best. The black one was made without the little "box" on it thinking I could get a cleaner cut but didn't work out so well. I ended up just carving the whole 3d model and it came out pretty good, still some machining marks but those sanded out. I cut it from some PTFE plastic so the mold would just pop right off.

This was the first try, not super happy.


This one below if the final version. Much better.


Here's the raw cast.

Here are a few finished and painted. I used aluminum powder in the resin and a gun metal powder brushing to the inside of the mold. Then hit the edges with a little Rub N Buff.
The bottoms still need to be sanded down.

 

[watsonstudios]

Here are the forearm and hand armor. Just a test fitting. It's important to test fit before printing all the parts. I had to print the forearms and hands twice to get the size right. It's not always easy to just measure and make sure you 3d parts are the correct size. Sometimes you don't know if it looks right until you print and then you may need to make adjustments. I'm using the wrong gloves of course, but it's a good way to verify scale.

 

[watsonstudios]

Here's a helmet update. Just painted the inner helmet and face shield. Thought I'd try some catalyzed urethane automotive paint. Stuff is awesome! Looks like it's wet even when it's dry. Has a great gloss and buffs out really nice, very easy to buff out dust specs. Still need to finish prepping the outer "dome" for paint. I used vinyl decals I cut myself on my Silhouette cutter for the stripe at the bottom and the small rectangle opening. I found some satin black at a local sign shop. The only part that will be painted black will be the line above the eye opening.

 

[wasili]

Very nice build.

 

[watsonstudios]

Very nice build.

Thanks man! Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your thread. Just hadn't start my own yet and was excited about your build. Hope to see more snow trooper builds pop up.