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[haserd2]

Hey folks!

I've been lurking since 2011 and tried off and on to make a build, now I have the proper time on hand to finish a suit.

I started printing the suit back in march and have gotten pretty much everything ready for priming and painting. ill be following up with proper updates but for now ill just be photo dumping some pictures of the assembled chest and helmet.

The rest of the armor is printed minus the boots. Ill be following up with updates as more progress is made.

 

[DestroyrDude]

Looking good!

 

[haserd2]

Set up a painting and priming booth with my older printers enclosure, makes painting outside perfect now
I managed to get the helmet and visor buck almost completely sanded down and primed for painting today. there's still a few problem spots that ill need to hit with a tiny bit of Bondo. I'm hoping to start getting the base gray paint down tomorrow.

 

[DRChefboyRD]

I need to make a paint booth so bad. Im absolutely gonna get charged for paint damage on my apartment balcony floor

 

[haserd2]

I need to make a paint booth so bad. Im absolutely gonna get charged for paint damage on my apartment balcony floor

highly recommend a 3d printer enclosure, its been working absolute wonders if you cant get a typical painting booth. Ive been using this one meant for a lk5 i never use anymore and that works great.

 

[Helljumper757]

looks like the same helmet i just got

 

[haserd2]

Got the helmet sanded down to where I'm satisfied, im leaving small pits here and there for some much needed weathering. I want the look of armor that's gone through a few battles. Need to wait on some more paint to arrive but I was able to get the first base coat down, I'm very happy with the look so far

 

[haserd2]

Moderate progress update, I had started getting everything painted but after some more painting i wasn't happy with how the lines came out.

The colors look fine but there is some spill over and sharp points on the curves. I went ahead and picked up some 2mm tamiya vinyl tape and have recoated the entire helmet with new points. its too rainy today to try to knock it out but should be good tomorrow. For now the helmet is taped off and ready to reapply the black.

I took today instead to rearrange my craft space to give me more work for vacuum forming, managed to get two good visor pulls out for both me and my girlfriends helmets.

Hopefully by next week ill be able to finish off some weathering and detailing, then i can move onto sanding and painting the rest of the suit.

 

[Scrap Yard]

It's looking good! Where did you buy the PETG for the visor?

 

[haserd2]

It's looking good! Where did you buy the PETG for the visor?

I sourced them off amazon, definitely the easiest spot to find them at least in my area. the local craft shop only sells 10x12 sheets unfortunately.
Heres a link to the exact ones i order, you can get them in smaller sizes if needed.
PETG 18x18 sheets: Amazon.com

 

[N8TEBB]

It's looking good! Where did you buy the PETG for the visor?

I sourced them off amazon, definitely the easiest spot to find them at least in my area. the local craft shop only sells 10x12 sheets unfortunately.
Heres a link to the exact ones i order, you can get them in smaller sizes if needed.
PETG 18x18 sheets: Amazon.com

If you can't find the exact right size of PETG anywhere, mcmaster carr will always come in clutch. Not always the cheapest option, but definitely reliable.

 

[Scrap Yard]

Thanks for the help all

I sourced them off amazon, definitely the easiest spot to find them at least in my area. the local craft shop only sells 10x12 sheets unfortunately.
Heres a link to the exact ones i order, you can get them in smaller sizes if needed.
PETG 18x18 sheets: Amazon.com

Thanks for the help all! The PETG has been the biggest hurdle of making visors for myself.

 

[haserd2]

If you can't find the exact right size of PETG anywhere, mcmaster carr will always come in clutch. Not always the cheapest option, but definitely reliable.

ill keep this in mind if i get a larger machine, but it doesn't look like they sell any in a 18x18 plate.

 

[haserd2]

Back again with a relatively large progress update. I got the yellow striping on the week prior and retouched up the black and grey of the entire helmet to get some crisper lines. I am now much happier with how the whole helmet looks. and set a whole day aside to get the final painting and weathering done.

I might have placed my finger on the front of the yellow striping and smudged it (we wont talk about that whole ordeal of touchup and wet sanding)

If anything it added even more small pits for the weathering stage, so i can accept it as added detail. (definitely not a cope)

From there i went ahead and used some garbage brushes I picked up from the local modeling shop to start adding some metal scratches, and went ahead and filled in the divits on the helmet with metal acrylic paint.

Took time as well to begin painting the chest plate, ill leave that for another post down the line, but also used time in-between coats of primer and base coats to make a few different visors with various colorings. Ill be following up with a different thread indexing the results of different brands of dye on PETG sheets. That being said, I-DYE Poly turquoise I think comes to closest to the visors from H3ODSTs in game models, so that's what I've decided to go with.

Watching the way dat_boi_builds does his visors however made me rethink the way ill be attaching the visor into the helmet, and I've decided to shift over to a Velcro attachment system. This will allow me to change out to different visor colors rather than having to stay with a permanent decision if I find something better down the line in terms of accuracy. Please check out his resin visor tutorial, its a great watch and shows his attachment system at the end. Resin Visor Tutorial Video

All that is left on the helmet detail wise is to touch up a few spots where there was acrylic runoff from the darkwash, doing the clearcoat, and add in the vents to the exposed holes. Otherwise its just attaching the visor and adding the helmet padding that's left.