another noob with an HD MKVI build

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On a lighter note, here is the final forearm and shoulder with the tester chest. I'll snap more pics in a bit
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I have since started sanding the bicep, but it is only 35 degrees here. Too cold for just latex gloves during long periods of time.
 
its looking good keep at it. I do have one thought though maybe its the angle on the pic, but the shoulder looks big and the forearm small. Do you have full ability to flex in that shoulder piece.

also on the helmet, some people say its fine, others say its big. I would say stay to the scale you chose and it should look fine when its all on. for instance. I scaled my helmet 1.5" more to allow room for padding, fans, and batteries in it. while it does look a little big when i had put on all my pepped pieces it looked size appropriate as i kept the 1.5" extra scall added to all the pieces. Also you need to remember that the body suit will add a little bulk to you do to the padding.

any way those are the thoughts of a noob. good job and keep it up, i look forward to seeing it all done.
 
well, I can't pick my nose if that's what you are asking. Both the shoulder and forearm are the exact same scale, and any smaller on the bicep, and my arm won't fit through. I'm a pretty muscular guy. In fact, the chest won't fit with me wearing the 661 undersuit unless I take off the back padding. That's how big my chest is.

My mobility isn't lowered very much by the bodysuit in either the forearm or the shoulder. I just glassed the forearm though, so I can't show any pics of it till at least tomorrow. I definitely have to decide what to do about the bodysuit asap. Either I make the chest significantly bigger (about 4 scale inches), I modify the backpiece so that I get rid of the thickness under the armor but keep the padding below the armor (which will be tough since the back pad is zippered to the suit right where I need it to be smaller), or I don't wear the back pad at all and have no extra padding below the armor (I want the padding because of the look). Also, It would get rid of the belt that I would use to hold up the thigh pieces since it is attached to the back padding.

Heading back out to glass the left bicep. Tomorrow I should have enough time before work to resin the inside of the left forearm, and then thursday I can fiberglass it. Only problem with that is that thursday is gonna be my only day to bondo for another week at the best. Temp will be too cold after that. As of now, I have the shoulders and forearms pep'd and resined, right shoulder and forearm glassed, right bicep 20% bondo'd, and by the end of the night I should have the left shoulder glassed.

Off to go try to glass the left shoulder. I've mixed 5 batches of resin in the last hour. I'm running out of places to mix it.
 
Wow, today feels like way more of a sucessful day than any peping day. i resined the outside and inside of the left forearm, started sanding the bondo on the right shoulder, glassed the right forearm, and glassed the left forearm.
 
Here is my dilemma.
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see how thick my chest is? I'm going to remove some of the padding from the undersuit. hopefully that will help. Gonna try to glass the left forearm before work today, and I'm going to bondo the right shoulder, right forearm, and left forearm before school tomorrow, and start peping the helmet or chest when I get home. I should have enough time to get both through fiberglassing before my next warm day for bondo.

I've been going through the pictures, and i need more bondo in a few places on the bicep. also, i ordered 30 feet of 1" nylon strapping, parachute clips, and 6 tubes of bondo 907. anyone know the temp restrictions on applying the spot putty?
 
Looks like i get thursday, friday, saturday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, and maybe saturday to bondo. two week span, not repeating days. so, if i have my stuff right, the helm, chest, codpiece through glassing. i can also have the entire upper body through bondo application. i'm allowing 2.5 days for chest and 2.5 for helm peping.
 
need some help

The hand hole in the forearm is too small for my hand. The forearm is just the right size (I've been going over screen caps and other mkvi builds, and my forearms and shoulders are indeed on the same scale). So, should I split the forearms? My wrist will fit in the hole (I got my hand in there once, but probably won't happen again), but I can't get my hand through. It would be one heck of a cut, but at this point, I don't see any other options. I already trimmed the ring out, so it is as wide as it can be, but my hand (with the thumb still attached) just won't fit. My hand barely fits through the full sized one after fiberglass. I made a set of full size low def ones by mistake.

If I have to do the forearms again, there is no way I make my deadline. I'm going to try and avoid redoing them as much as possible.


The earlier picture was before fiberglassing. That's why the forearm fit in that picture.
 
I would see nothing wrong with splitting them, you have tons of options on how to attach them together. Rare earth magnets, piano hinges, velcro, etc. All of these are easy to hide to make it look seamless.
 
okay, thanks. If it comes to that, I'll definitely have to figure out a way to attach them. Magnets or velcro seems to be the best. Parachute clips won't really work since I won't be able to detach them once the part is on my arm. I know you didn't say parachute clips, just thinking out loud here.

I've been sanding away at the right bicep. Just applied some primer, and then I'm going to school for a bit. When I get home, it's bondo, bondo, bondo, fiberglass. It must have been really cold the past two nights. The coat of resin I put on the fiberglass for the left bicep is drying at snail speed. I put plenty of hardener in the resin, and it is drying, just very slowly.

There are a few areas I have to bondo on the biceps that I wouldn't have thought of. Such as the shoulder (middle and middle-top section), on the tricep side (where the weird shaped detail is, some of the paper isn't flat), and on the back side (along the center ridge going up and at the bottom on the sides of the indent). I'll sand off the primer and apply the bondo later, but I'm waiting for the temp to rise, so I figured I'd get in some sanding before I did the bondo.

I'm learning so much in this project. hopefully I can get the bicep totally detailed so that I know that I can do this. I'm a little iffy on my skills in detailing it, but it's looking good so far. pics a little later.
 
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Shoulder would sit a bit lower and forearm a bit higher normally. I can bend my arm to just under 90 degrees. Won't get much better.
 
I realize this is quite a few posts in a row, but I'm making good progress and I like to keep this updated. I'm about 75% bondo'd on the right shoulder, glassed on the left forearm, and tomorrow I should have the helmet pep'd, and the left shoulder, left forearm, and right forearm bondo'd. I'm trying something a bit different on the right forearm. I sprayed it with primer before I bondo'd it and before I even sanded it. This way I can be sure I sanded it everywhere that the bondo needs to go before it goes on.

The bicep looks pretty bad when the part is just sitting there, but when it's on my arm, you can only tell if you are 18" away from it looking at it head on. I don't know how many times people are going to be in that proxmity and looking at that spot from just the right angle, so I'm gonna keep with this one.

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you were talking about your chest piece not fitting, did you consider splitting it on the sides in the smallest area you can. you could then custom make a extension to give you a extra inch or 2 so it fits well with the 661 suit. Im sure you could blend it perfect since you have to resin, bondo and sand anyway. just a thought though but better than starting over if you make it work.
 
I could do that, sure. I'm trying to minimize mods to the armor exterior itself though, since i'm pressed for time. I'm redoing the chest right now. I need the HD one anyway, but i'm making it the same size. I'm modding the undersuit to fit. It looks like i have to remove the elbow pads for a proper fit of the forearms anyway, so there really is no avoiding it. I like the look of the 661 suit, and have no interest in trying to make my own, more accurate undersuit, so modding seems to be the right answer.

When i have the HD chest made, resined, glassed, and split, i'll make my decision. Good idea for sure though.
 
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Progress so far

Biceps need more bondo, especially below the shoulder. primed forearm hasn't been bondo'd yet, but the primer helps me see where i have and have not sanded.
 
I think i'm gonna put an ipod nano in the left forearm somewhere. That can handle the music at least. My voice amp will be separate anyway, so no need to go too fancy. Voice amp will be a voice core v3 from a place called plecterlabs. It is in development still, but you will find no finer voice amp on the planet. He also makes the world's best lightsaber soundcards (which are insanely rare, and i have 4 of them).

I've also almost finished cutting out the HD chest. I'm trying not to look at the quadruple digit glue tab numbers, but it is hard to look past. This is gonna be a long build. I'm racing the clock too. My only two warm days are gonna be tuesday and wednesday. If i can't get the chest fiberglassed by then, i won't be able to bondo it in time.
 
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Been chipping away at the chest. taking a long time. helm is next, then gonna work on finishing the upper body before moving on.

The chest pictured is once again the normal def one.

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looks great!! we might also have an electronics whiz on our hands? man the 405 is gettin better and better. haha I use the novastar sound banks in my fanfilms since they're loopable(for lockups and such) it's great what people can come up with. :p
 
Yup, i have 3 self build cf5 sabers. electronics are cake for me. also building my first commission saber this week. i have huge plans for all of the space i have in this suit. much larger than the 1.25" by 5.5" cylinder i have to work with normally.
 
Just in case you were wondering about the sabers I mentioned.

Yup, i have 3 self build cf5 sabers. electronics are cake for me. also building my first commission saber this week. i have huge plans for all of the space i have in this suit. much larger than the 1.25" by 5.5" cylinder i have to work with normally.

Also, figured I'd post a few videos of said sabers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5wkAQiuruc&list=UUlBdiZH6SOxsqtNfxV-j2aA&index=25&feature=plcp

This video is my most popular. It demonstrates the only true FoC™ (Flash on Clash™) via a plecterlabs Crystal Focus Saber Core v5. Anything else is just a knock off or stolen IP from plecterlabs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNS4jfgAxb8&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

This one shows my personal saber, REDEMPTION. Crammed with all of the features that a CF5 offers and the largest batteries that could possibly be used in a hilt design like mine. Wiring that one wasn't fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb0vJ5dn5mM&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59R5LnlHtPM&feature=related
These two show my other MKVI. It is a luke skywalker episode VI hero hilt done by LDMCustomSabers and Acerocket of Orbital Machining. Electronics were installed by me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vor5-j-8nH8&feature=related

This one shows my biggest hilt (internally), yet my most challenging build. I had to run wires through the control box to the leds, mount switches behind two of the leds, and all of this had to be done in a 1.5mm thick space.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgdZxUURJYY&feature=related

And last, but definitely not least, I upgraded a saber that was build by one of the best (if not the best) sabersmiths for a friend. I upgraded the soundcard, put in a different led for FoC™, and rewired the crystal chamber (depicted in the video below this one). Please note, I didn't build the saber originally, I just upgraded the electronics. I don't have the tools or skill to build something this beautiful on the inside.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D18X5RbBEwg&feature=related



If you only watch 1 video, watch the last one. If you watch two, watch the first and last. If you watch them all, I promise you will get into an arguement with your wallet.
 
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