TK-459

Looking great! I like how you took the time to round off the end of it.

You're guys are right. It's hard not to get caught up in it sometimes. I've been reworking all the parts. I've actually been subtracting color more than adding it to increase the dirt contrast. I'll post that up when I finish. I kept the helmet weathering towards the end, but tonight I had at it. Here are some images.

Cool pack, looks great.

I'm having this problem too, but on the right shin turning out.

That's awesome! Congratulations! Really cool poster there. Your weathering really matches the scene well.

not too far. Mine went through but you can't really see it.

That's what I did, flattened out the area around the hole a bit. It doesn't sit perfectly flush, but it still holds well. Just drill a small pilot hole in the back of the tip, screw in a screw, and cut off the head. I also added a bit of Devcon to keep the screw from turning.

Here's the chest piece I've been working on today...what do you guys think? Better? Suggestions?

Lol, well since I have been spending a good deal of time at both the dented helmet and here, I ought to be fairly detail crazy by now . I am going to go back through screenshots and try some of the heavier weathering sections that you guys are suggesting today. I was worried about over-weathering. I'll post something up as soon as I update some parts. First, I wanted to post the good, the bad, and the ugly of the results with the vents. The good...it came out pretty good. Even though I pressed the mask down with the edge of a knife, there was still a bit of bleeding in the corners. I used a waterbased acrylic, so I was able to fix it with a wet q-tip before it fully dried. The bad...I was worried about the permanence of the acrylic going into weathering. The ugly...I not so brilliantly decided to seal the vent stripes with a little Krylon Acrylic Satin Finish. The Krylon Fusion didn't agree. This was probably one of those times that I should have just went to sleep for the night, but I couldn't rest on this mess. I sanded much of it down and salvaged what I could. Then I hit it with some fresh Fusion white, wetsanded, etc etc. In the end I ended up with this. I think I'll be chalking it up as some actual battle damage. {SMILIES_PATH}/icon_confused.gif

I used automotive pinstripping and masking tape.

Thanks for the compliments. My greys are wetsanded primer. As for the tube stripes...I set up a mask but I'm not sure about it and I am worried about bleeding. I may just grab some more decals. What do you think?

Either is great. If you are planning on painting it, no matter either way. If not and the wait was not long, I would wait....but only if you knew the new armor is just around the corner. The blue hue is mild and I think it actually really pops on clean armor. On dirty, it comes across a little grey...not that it's a bad thing, it just matters what look you are after. There is also a swirl on the helmet with the old sets that seems to be resolved with the new ones. It's not a big deal but its there. How's that for a confusing answer?

Cool, thanks for the feedback and constructive criticism. I'll revisit the contrast. I'm really curious to see some of your armor in person. I'm gonna keep a closer eye out at CIV. One more thing to post so far....no I do not work at super-human speeds, I've just had a lot of images sitting in my camera for awhile. Here is the up-to-today progress on the bucket. Again, I've taken what I have learned here and decided to do all the layers. Tons of thanks to everyone. I started with this..my pristine baby. And stripped it back down to this...YIKES! Setting if up for chips with a khaki base Then applying a chip mask using ripped pieces of masking tape Hitting it with Fusion Gloss White Some of the results And remember those perfectly edged helmet details? They sure were pretty, but they are gone for these fugly-sweet handpainted ones

Lol. Thanks guys. I am continuing the progress of this armor towards a Sandtrooper HERE.

Thanks. Am I getting too brown? It's certainly tricky to control the paint and dust, not to mention taking decent photos of the weathering. By the way, all the weathering is following Brak's Tutorial (Woodland Scenics and Fuller Earth). I am applying the paint with a sea sponge and removing with a cloth. I am blowing the Fullers off of a brush and softening/removing with paper towels as the hairspray dries. Here is everything else I have weathered so far... Weathered sections versus unweathered chest and abplate.

After a lot of testing, my first weathered part.

Now that I got my armor build thread done, I wanted to post up my progress towards a Sandtrooper. I've been working on this steadily for awhile now. The first thing I did was strip down the details that I didn't need. This was pretty simple because I knew I was going to go TD and made them all removable. The ab buttons and shoulder ribs were velcroed, the helmet stripes were pinstripped with decals, the dropboxes were snapped, the detonator was clipped, and the knee was riveted. The knee was the only part that would need a little repair from the two small holes. My AP armor was originally unpainted and I was on the ropes about painting it until I did a few tests and talked to Seth and Mike about it. Here is an image of my unpainted AP on the left, and a swatch of 1536's awesome work on the right ( ) . The slightly blueish hue of my unpainted armor looks good clean, but it just greys everything out a bit when weathered and didn't match well with the Woodland Scenics paints. It's not bad, just not was I was looking for. Apparently the AP armor is using a different ABS now that is more of a pure white. Still, the weathering also didn't take to the unpainted armor as well as it did the painted surface. So....I decided to paint all of my armor Krylon Fusion Gloss White. The Krylon Fusion Gloss White is a much closer match to the SDS Stunt, which has my favorite white-hue (milky, slightly yellow).

Yeah, I planned ahead for that. I made all the TK-specific details removable.

Thank you to everyone for your help along the way. Ready for the dirt.

Whew, just about caught up here. Here are my gloves. I use three snaps on the gloves for the hand armor to keep it from wobbling. The lowerbody also has modified suspenders attached to help secure it. The front has hidden slits that the suspenders clip into. The back of the slits are reinforced with Devcon Plastic Welder. Additional elastic snaps are used to secure the chest and back to the lowerbody.

Hmm, the snaps work great for me, but I do use more than one on high-stress areas just for backup. One thing to be careful about is mixing and matching sets of the snaps. At some point they changed the packaging and the new ones don't fit well to the old ones. Other than that I have never had a problem and much prefer them over velcro.

All legs, arm and thigh pieces are again connected with abs strips. Mine are about 5/8" on the biceps and forearms, 6/8" on the shins, and 7/8" on the thighs. Cut the lip of each to about half the width of the strips. The only open area is the back of the shins, which overlap and connect with white industrial velcro strips. Here you can also see the snap connector for the thighs that connects to the lower body. Drop boxes attach with one snap. The other side is attached to the drop box with e6000. Thermal detonator assembly riveted with the Staples banker clips. I also attached an additional piece of velcro on the inside of the clips and the waistbelt to help keep it in place. The knee (shown unattached) was secured with one white rivet on each side of the shin. White rivets also secure the right thigh box detail.

I seperated the back and buttplate for better flexibility. Several 2" black elastic straps (six) are used here. Be sure to leave a small gap so the armor doesn't bind. The increased number of straps (up from three on my last set of armor) help keep the piece better in place while still allowing some movement. The straps are attached with e6000. Masking tape does the job of keeping the straps down while the glue sets without sticking afterwards. Here is the lower body assembly. Three white rivets attached through a 2" black elastic strip hold the left side together. There is also a small gap between the front and back parts to avoid rubbing/binding. e6000 also reinforces the elastic strap from the inside. The right is secured with 2 x 2" black elastic straps, top and bottom of the side. Each of these has 2 snaps. The cod attached with a different style connector. I suggest a firm connector because this part is prone to pop open when you walk.

I prefer snaps for most of the armor connections. Here is the upper-armor strapping. I attached an additional length of 2" white elastic strap to each existing strap. The additional lengths have a snap connected to the middle to secure the shoulder straps to. The additional 2" straps were also connected with e6000 for flexibility. Snaps are either connected to scrap length of abs/sintra (round the corners so it doesn't catch your bodysuit) or directly to the elastic straps. I glue the abs snaps to the armor with Devcon Plastic Welder. The elastic strap snaps are fed through with a micro-screwdriver, and I also use a small about of fabric glue around the hole so that the straps do not friz up.

Time to catch this thread up. I had to start this armor out as a TK, but knew that I would be reverting to a TD. For this reason, a few of the parts were attached with temporary methods (abplate, ribbed shoulder straps, drop boxes, helmet details, knee). Test fitting the chest and back sections with tape Once satisfied, 2" white elastic strips are attached to the chest with e6000, held flat with scrap plastic and clamps. After this sets, I did the same in the back. Some people prefer adjustable shoulder straps...thats really up to you. I then attached the ribbed straps over the elastic by connecting with industrial velcro on the chest and back plate.