World's Slowest Republic Commando Build

[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]

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

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.

 

[SampleName]

Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely look into that book. I want to make sure I don't make some stupid mistake my first time vacforming.

 

[thorssoli]

You should also check out the how-to section at studiocreations.com. That page was indispensable when I was doing my stormtrooper armor back in 2002.

 

[SampleName]

Yep, I've poured over that page, along with a few others. Would you mind telling me a little bit about the book?

 

[Itsanonsense]

Looks like a barbie sneezed all over your helmet!

But seriously: love the helmet!

 

[Diastrom]

Any progress on this? Very helpful indeed. As we are the same height, I was curious what scaling you used for the bucket.

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