Star Wars Battlefront: Phase Zero Dark trooper

Hey all I've been looking forward to posting some progress on this project for awhile now. I've always really liked the phase 0 dark trooper from the Battlefront 1 and 2 and decided it needed to go on my projects list as something to make. I had to get through my version 2 tk armour, my fem trooper armour and an mg34 to get here but I've managed to make a bit of headway.

For anyone (everyone) wondering what the hell a dark trooper is have a look here:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Phase_Zero_dark_trooper

So I really like the sculpt (stormtroooper yet not stormtrooper), the back story (what do we do with all those injured clone troopers?) and they way it moved in the games (jetpack!)

I want to say cheers to Tubachris (you still out there?) for his build thread and reference material gathering. I found his thread inspirational and I learnt a lot watching his build

There's a bit of reference material and screen shots on the net that I was able to get hold. The best stuff came from the rpf. I've made the following design decisions when approaching this build;
* the armour is low polygon count so curvature will need to be added
* the armour is bulkier than regular stormtrooper armour but not taller
* scaling will be needed to make the suit work in the real world
* I'll refer as much as possible to a couple of colour palette/ armour shapes files I found on the net





I was able to get a front, back, partial side and jet pack images which I got blown up to make a 1.8m figure. I mucked around with some of the dimensions to get it working better and got some starter profiles.



So the armour is kind of the same size as a stormtrooper just a bit wider and bulkier.



Here's it next to my mg34 and bucket





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Construction for this guy is pretty straight forward but a bit labourious. I recast a few of my stormtrooper armour pieces to try and make things easier but in the end that was more hassle that it was worth and I just made most of the forms from scratch.

I've finished most of the forms at this stage. Quite a few need some final finishing and shaping but the bulk of the armour is done. I'll post a bunch of progress pics in this post just to give you an idea. the coolest part of the build was the jetpack! I had a lot of fun with that. The suckiest part of the build was the stupid legs. Lots of intersecting curves slowly squeezing my brain.



The chest plate is frickin' HUGE!




apologies to any ford drivers. that sticker on my toolbox was from a different time in my life I am not prejudice against fords













still a little bit to do on the jetpack. It's going to be roughly 8 pieces plus some backs for the inside of the main body

I've left the helmet till last as it's the trickest part and the piece I want to spend the most time getting as close to the look of the game as I can (keeping in mind it will have more curvature than the game graphic)

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And finally I've started to pull some pieces on the vac former as I get them finished up. I started using black 2mm ABS sheet but it's a total PITA to get black ABS in New Zealand so I'm switching to white. It's all going to get painted anyway



Ok that's it for now. I'm going to be updating this thread hopefully regularly. As always comments and critique are always welcome
Cheers
oota

Looking great, thanks for sharing! The sculpts are really nice, what kind of timber do you craft them from?

RetiredClone said:

Looking great, thanks for sharing! The sculpts are really nice, what kind of timber do you craft them from?

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Hey retiredclone cheers! For the bigger pieces I am just using pine, the smaller pieces I use mdf. I used a truckload of bog to cover the wooden forms and provide a decent surface to finish with. I think I've used 10kg of bog on this project so far

Very awesome. I've always loved the dark troopers.

Think you might ever try your hand at making a phase 3 dark trooper armor set? I've been dreaming of doing a phase 3 costume for years, if someone made the armor kit they would totally be my hero. XD

Blue Leader said:

Very awesome. I've always loved the dark troopers.

Think you might ever try your hand at making a phase 3 dark trooper armor set? I've been dreaming of doing a phase 3 costume for years, if someone made the armor kit they would totally be my hero. XD

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Hey Blue Leader thanks. I think someone did have a go at a phase 3 a few years ago. I think they are pretty huge! Let me get this one finished first then I'll think about it

oota goota said:

Hey Blue Leader thanks. I think someone did have a go at a phase 3 a few years ago. I think they are pretty huge! Let me get this one finished first then I'll think about it

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Yeah, they are bigger. Perfect for a bigger guy like me. A stormtrooper-ish costume that I could actually fit into!

I remember seeing a dark trooper costume some time ago, one that was painted white. It all kind of looked like paper but it was an interesting take on it. There was also one from a Comic-Con a couple years back that was a bit better, I think the costumer used Fierfek's Pepakura model but I'm not sure. But, ugh, Pepakura... that just goes right over my head. XD

But yeah, if you ever think you might try your hand at it, definitely let me know. I'd be in for a set, that's for sure. Been wanting to do the costume for years, even been thinking of how I could do the pipes and stuff. Heh heh.

Maybe I should try to finish that helmet.

If you'd want the 3d model from the game, I can send that to you. Was able to convert some of that to pepakura

And I wanted to mention that it does not use the Clonetrooper hand-plates-

I had to further evaluate the model, but it turns out to be ESB style TK/Snowtrooper handplates, which was an error on my part

Additionally, I had thought I could have gotten away with a straight clone belt, but I don't know how I thought differently, but it's a TK-style belt.

tubachris85x said:

If you'd want the 3d model from the game, I can send that to you. Was able to convert some of that to pepakura

And I wanted to mention that it does not use the Clonetrooper hand-plates-

I had to further evaluate the model, but it turns out to be ESB style TK/Snowtrooper handplates, which was an error on my part

Additionally, I had thought I could have gotten away with a straight clone belt, but I don't know how I thought differently, but it's a TK-style belt.

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Hey man! Yeah it's funny I did exactly the same thing with the build. I thought quite a few more things were clone that turned out to be more tk. I've elected to go with a straight tk belt with clone boxes. The belt looks the same as the one on the battlefront TK so I think it works to use a real tk belt.

Agreed the hand guards aren't quite clone I ended up making my own. I'll take some pics of them see what you think.

The other thing I found was I had to resize a few things like the forearms and the chest plate to get them to work better

Yes please I'd love those files PM on it's way.

I thought you'd made some great progress with your helmet; from memory you were up to the 'epic sanding mission' stage

Hey all small up date. Here are pics of the shoulder strap (short clone style), Hand guards (kind of clone trooper like)......and....um..... the nipple.


Ok so it's not my favourite part of this build to be honest. Why the hell did they have to put nipples on the dark trooper? I understand the idea. Machines need lubrication, lots of them have nipples for grease or oil. Dark troopers obviously need this to so they can keep jumping around or whatever. But couldn't they have moved them up the chestplate a bit? Make them less.....nippley?





I hope to have some prototype pieces out this week
Cheers
oota

Wow! I'm defenitly folowing. Awsome project!

oota goota said:

Hey all small up date. Here are pics of the shoulder strap (short clone style), Hand guards (kind of clone trooper like)......and....um..... the nipple.


Ok so it's not my favourite part of this build to be honest. Why the hell did they have to put nipples on the dark trooper? I understand the idea. Machines need lubrication, lots of them have nipples for grease or oil. Dark troopers obviously need this to so they can keep jumping around or whatever. But couldn't they have moved them up the chestplate a bit? Make them less.....nippley?

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*LOL*...I don´t understand these "nipples" as being refill ports for oil etc, but hose connectors.
Just make them detacheable with magnets, if you don´t like them as permanent parts of your armor...just an idea

Yeah. Detachable nipples would be good. They are the one thing I do not like very much about the armor.

Delta13 said:

Wow! I'm defenitly folowing. Awsome project!

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Cheers Delta I'm getting my head into the bucket (no pun intended) it's a good bit longer than a tk but I think it'll work out ok as a three piece helmet plus ears. It's hopefully going to have that 'no neck' look when it's all together

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OdiWan72 said:

*LOL*...I don´t understand these "nipples" as being refill ports for oil etc, but hose connectors.
Just make them detacheable with magnets, if you don´t like them as permanent parts of your armor...just an idea

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Good point OdiWan they could be hose connectors! magnets are a must I think with these guys. Also around the knees; those interior knee nipples wont last long if you're walking around in a suit so they'll have to be removable I think.

I'm thinking a vac-formed nipple back filled with foam and a magnet should do the trick cheers!

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T K said:

Yeah. Detachable nipples would be good. They are the one thing I do not like very much about the armor.

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Agreed. I don't think it detracts from the armour that much to have no nipples. I doubt anyone would even notice. Same with the knee nipples; nice accessory for the overall look but a total PITA practically.

Ok thanks you fullas I'll post more update pics soon!

I had envisioned putting LEDs on them. Though, i avoided calling them "nipples" but saw them more as a "bolt" or like someone else mentioned, a connector piece/port. Doesn't matter, it's semantics anyways

For the ones that go on either side of the knees, I had planned to get one of those knee-brace things (or maybe a fitness one that's thinner) and attaching them to that.

tubachris85x said:

I had envisioned putting LEDs on them. Though, i avoided calling them "nipples" but saw them more as a "bolt" or like someone else mentioned, a connector piece/port. Doesn't matter, it's semantics anyways

For the ones that go on either side of the knees, I had planned to get one of those knee-brace things (or maybe a fitness one that's thinner) and attaching them to that.

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ha ha yeah bolts is a much better term

Hey Chris do you know if the helmet lenses are meant to be red? And lit up? I can't remember where I got this from, maybe your original build thread?

oota goota said:

ha ha yeah bolts is a much better term

Hey Chris do you know if the helmet lenses are meant to be red? And lit up? I can't remember where I got this from, maybe your original build thread?

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To me, based on the bump-map art of the model, I had planned to use a dark red chrome. I don't think it'd hurt to have a backlight, maybe a nicely diffused light would look best if you do.

Ok I got a moment to do some preliminary work on the bucket. A while ago I had cut up one of my old tk buckets added some spacers tape it all up and cast some bog and resin into it with a view to using it as a base for the dark trooper. I pretty much guessed the width of the bucket and I am happy to say it matches the paper template I have really well.

So I've added a ply base board as a spacer for the vac former and then a piece of 9mm mdf the top of which will be the trimming edge of the bucket. It's looking pretty rough at this stage but most things are in the right place so I can start add in the curvature. I've got to add about 15 - 20mm of material to get the length of the helmet right and I think I'll re position the rear trapz. Wow this bucket is going to be huge. I reckon I'll have room for snacks and a beverage service up there






The height of the trapz is good as it the ear placement and the height of the bucket walls. I need to rework the curvature on the top a bit but it's not too far off just need tidying up

As much as I can I'll be keeping the features of the bucket as close to a tk as possible. So the trapz can stay the same size, the ear rounds can be the same, the curvature can stay pretty close etc

Haha! It is indeed a huge bucket. But it make fitting in electronics easier!
Looks like it's coming along well though.

I followed your guidelines and quickly drew this. This is going to be epic.



The long bit at the back reminds me of a roman helm.