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My first build, a ninjabenben story.


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Got the stinger attached.

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Mortar tube attached. Pulled in the screws with string taped to a sturdier ziptie lead which I then taped the screw to.

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lab pipe zip tied to side

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Seedtrays held together with the ziptie method

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And pack is all assembled. Going to weather it then add the straps. Overall happy with how it looks! Any and all feedback is welcome!

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  • 4 weeks later...
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Adding the first layer of weatering (paint)

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Rubbed a bunch of the weathering off

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Adding some detail to the rifle stock

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And blotting off most of the watered down black paint

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Cleaning up some of the flashing from the mold

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Added silver rub-n-buff. Not sure if I used it right, but in the end it looks nice so that's all that matters

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First layer of black and blotted alot of it off.

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Second layer of black paint and blotting off again

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Added some of the wire detail

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DLT-19 is complete!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Added some Fuller's Earth weathering

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Sewed some backpack straps

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Attached the straps, I made it adjustable to help reduce any wobble. They also snap on and off easily on the D rings.

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The outside is all done! Plan on adding some internal stuff like making the radio switch turn on a LED behind the radio display and adding an mp3 player and speaker with radio chatter loop.

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Gloves weathered

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So far so good! Pretty much waiting on the rest of the armor and boots at this point!

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  • 7 months later...

ALRIGHT! I'm Back!!!! and thanks for all the previous comments everybody :)

Soldering some wires to a battery pack, one of the toggle switches, and an LED drilled into the water bottle lid. The other switch is soldered to a power switch on a portable speaker that will play a loop of Mos Eisley Police radio chatter.

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TK Boots!

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Look what finally arrived!!!!!

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Alright, time to get started!

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Cutting out the strips to cover the butt joints

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Drawing guide lines and cutting off excess flashing

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Sanding down all the edges to all the pieces

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Initial gluing of strips to the forearms

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Prepping the other side of the forearms with E6000 glue

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Getting some use out of those weights finally to hold pressure as the glue dries.

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Question for anyone who reads this. I know alot of people have the hook at the top inside of the bicep to hook onto the shoulder bell, but it looks like the Cantina Captain does not have that. Or am I missing something?

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Wow, thanks for sharing your buildup. I don't know how I missed this, but those were some really great ideas to get the screws into the bottle and mortar tube. I'll be adding this thread to the list of references I send out with my backpack kits thumbsup.gif

I agree that the orange pauldron trooper does not have a hook on the inside of his right bicep in this scene. The bicep armor is actually sliding down his arm because of that!

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Keep up the great work with your outfit, and we'll see you deployed in no time!

Charlie

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks everyone! and that's awesome Charlie! I've read a lot of helpful tips in different forums for my research so hopefully it can help some others!

Alright, so the left bicep is shaped a tad differently than the right, so I had to adjust the width of the strips to accommodate for the smaller inner area to fit my bicep.

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This is why I went with E6000. So I can fix screwups. This one happened to be the clamps slowly slid overnight so the strips were off center. (but I'm not ruling out I'll make a mistake later) But I was able to peel it off, peel the glue off, and try again.

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Stacked some quarters to cut off the excess on the shoulder bell. With a pencil on top I just held it in place and spun the shoulder bell around on the pencil to trace a line.

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Flip the shoulder bell upside down and make sure the height is the same from the outter edge of the bell to the inner. Flashing will be different lengths so you can't measure in from the parts you'll cut off.

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Sanding the shoulder bells

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Using a heat iron to flatten out a couple spots I think will help the pieces fit better.

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Tracing out to cut off excess flashing on the back and chest.

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Cutting off the excess

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Sanding down the edges. I used a dremmel for the rougher stuff and then went over with a fine sandpaper to smooth out all the edges.

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Got my assembly brackets all ready

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One by one, I set the brackets up to the return edge of the pieces, traced dots and drilled holes. I placed the center one in the center, and the center of the other two pieces 2 inches in from the sides.

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Back and front pieces assembled

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  • 2 weeks later...

Drilled out the holes in the abdomen and then kidney plate. Abdomen first to make sure the holes don't go too low into the crotch. Then held the pieces together to mark where the holes go on the kidney plate

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Cutting strips of black stretchy fabric, then burned the tips to keep the fabric from unraveling.

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I don't have a fabric hole punch, but the soldering iron works better i think because it then melted the edges to keep it from fraying.

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Carefully used a screwdriver and hammer to knock down the split rivets to the ab plate then the other side.

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For the other side, I have the one strap with a snap attached and then glued to the kidney plate

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Sewed a simple under belt with snap buckle that will be used to hold the legs up

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Wanted to show my mistakes too, because I'm sure someone could run into the same problem. I drilled a hole slightly too big to fit the snap in, so i put scotch tape on the back of the hole, then packed in some plastic shavings and poured super glue to help melt it all into place, then I can sand it smooth, redrill the hole, and can paint it later if needed.

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I then had my wife help use a piece of tape to measure out how long the bottom strap needs to be. I poked holes in the tape where the drill holes were to measure where snaps will be.

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Layed the tape over the stretch fabric, pulled it a little taught, and then used a soldering iron to burn a hole where the rivet from the cod piece will go. I then placed the male snaps where the other two holes are.

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Hammered in the male snaps. Used drill holes in the wood to help with the male sticky outtie parts as I hammered.

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Strap riveted in.

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Used a punch to attach heavy duty snaps to shoulder straps.

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Cut up some pieces to attach the female ends of the heavy duty snaps. Used a dremmel to help cut grooves to counter sink the snap.

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Glued the female ends to the back plate. I went ahead and did both straps so I could completely open up the body if I need to get in there in the future.

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Put everything on and then had my wife pull the shoulder straps down and place tape where it meets the chest piece so I know where to put e6000 glue on the straps. I have wonky shoulders so they were slightly uneven.

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And now glued the straps to the chest plate.

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I know! I almost want to burn some days off of work so I can just sit down and plow through more of it. At this point I just need to:

1. glue in straps to connect the arm pieces together with the shoulder.

2. assemble the legs and strap them together

3. assemble the belt and minor detail stuff

4. weathering

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  • 1 month later...

Got the cod strap riveted and snaps installed

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Sewing the 2 sides of the shoulder strap snaps

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Taping the shoulder bells for test fits and then gluing everything into place.

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I'm adding snaps to connect the pieces together so I can break down easier to transport

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Cutting out all the little detail pieces, then will sand them and glue them onto the torso

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Cutting corners on the belt piece

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Drilling holes to rivet the belt plate to the belt.

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Drilling holes in the torso to insert the snaps

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Very carefully/awkwardly hammering the heavy duty snaps into place.

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Measuring where the snaps will be compared to the rivets

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Majority of torso done.

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Adding the rivet covers and detail pieces

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Measured, test fit, and gluing in the straps

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Cutting off excess flashing of the leg pieces

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Cutting out the joining strips for the legs

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Gluing all the leg pieces together

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Rounding off corner of knee ammo belt thingy and riveting to thigh piece

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Adding spacers to the sniper knee plate

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Painting rivets and other hardware white.

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Cutting out strips of heavy duty velcro and attaching it to the back of the shins

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Sewed some thigh straps to loop around the belt and glued to the thighs

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hey Merak don't be overwhelmed man! This is the first time I've done anything like this! The most important thing you'll need is patience. It's taken me over a year to do all this, but just one step at a time and here I am!

But alright, final pics for now! Starting to do initial paint layer

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After letting it dry for a minute or so, I rubbed most of it off

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A before and after side by side of when I rub off the excess. Making sure that I concentrate on keeping dirt where it would get stuck in the nooks and crannies in real life.

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Placed some paper inside the helmet in front of the lens to protect it from weathering. I left some cracks around the eyes to hopefully help with ventilation, so that's how I got the paper in front of the eye pieces.

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Onto the fuller's earth layer of weathering. I used three different shades (tan, gray, and brown). First I spray some hairspray (aqua net).

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Then I use a brush, rub it in the fuller's earth and then flick, fling, pinch, glob, whatever randomly all over the pieces. Don't forget to concentrate in those nooks that dirt would naturally collect into.

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Then after waiting several minutes to let it dry alittle, I use a very fine sanding pad or green scrub sponge to rub off excess, but again be sure to leave some especially in those hard to get areas.

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I then did a final layer of aqua net to help hold everything in place and let it dry.

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And then FINALLY.... ta daaaaaa!

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