Flyboy's Clone Pilot + RC armour

[flyboy424]

Today I got back into pepping with an RC chest piece.  As I'm still quite new with the software I decided not to try to scale it even though I thought it might be a bit too small and I was right, so like the RC helmet I'll use it as a test piece for fibreglassing, and I may use it to come up with a custom colour scheme.

[flyboy424]

I did a Clone Trooper chest piece of my CP build over the weekend and here are the pics for it.



And a test fit with my helmet (very pleased with this pic!):



I'm happy with how the chest turned out as it was my first successful attempt at scaling in Pepakura.   While it maybe could have been a centimetre or two wider, its a very good fit overall and nothing I shouldn't be able to adjust later on in the build.

Also, I ordered a fibreglass kit today so hopefully over the weekend (depending on if I can get myself away from Ghost Recon Future Soldier ) I will have a go at doing a few test pieces before starting on my CP build.

[GOODYSMOODY]

So cool, wish I had your talent.
Looks very nice, cant wait to see the end result and fiberglass peices

[flyboy424]

Using Pepakura isn't really that hard.  All you need to know is how to print onto card, cut and fold along lines and stick edges together by numbers.

I have 2 updates today.  First, I have finished pepping the back piece for my CP armour.



I hope tomorrow to get one of my parents to take a pic of me with the chest, back and helmet all on.


Second, I tested out the resin and fibreglass yesterday that I got.  I had a couple of test pieces to use it on and so far I've learnt that I probably put a bit too much resin on with each layer, I need to leave it in the sun to get it to dry fastest, and I much prefer the thin fibreglass tissue then the fibreglass matt as while while the matt has much better strength it is also horrible to work with and harder to get into corners so I'll likely use the tissue on my helmet (probably doubling-up the layers too for added strength) and use the matt only for simpler bits like the chest.  I'm hoping to start work on resining my CP helmet soon, but I'm out of latex gloves right now and I don't know if I'll get time next weekend to do anything.

[GOODYSMOODY]

Well I'm gonna give it a try. Hopefully I'll get  a hot glue gun soon for the harder and more precise stuff.
 Really nice work btw, your doing great

[Dha'ward Krayt]

Looking good boyo.

[flyboy424]

On Saturday I began to resin my Clone Pilot helmet.  Following the results of the test pieces I did last week I applied thinner layers of resin then before and thankfully it dried rather quickly while still stiffening the helmet slightly.  I didn't get to fully fibreglass the inside so only the dome at the top is done, and even with just one layer of the thin cloth inside I was surprised this morning when I held it just how strong it was.  I'm still going to use the thicker matting on the chest piece (which I partially resined as well) but for the helmet I may abandon the idea of applying multiple layers of cloth and just stick with the one if the rest of the helmet has the same strength.

[flyboy424]

Had a day off work today so I did more work on the helmet.  Since it looks like summer has finally arrived here in the UK I might take the opportunity to finish fibreglassing it, but that may depend on how much more of the ear pieces I get done.

[flyboy424]

As those who are my friends on Facebook should know, this week has seen one of the biggest changes to my helmet so far.  I've cut off everything from the ears back (with the exception of the dome on the top) and over the past week have begun reconstructing it manually.  I've not bothered with Pepakura this time, I've just used the few reference photos there are of the helmet and done it all by eye.  Here is the progress so far.

Helmet with old parts cut out:


Reconstruction work so far:



I've made a few more changes since taking the pics (most noticeable is the angle at which the back of the new back part sits) and this week I also got some P38 car body filler (UK equivalent to Bondo) in preparation for when I'll need it (which is looking further and further away at the moment).

[flyboy424]

Latest progress on the build and getting very close to re-resining now.  First, I rounded off the back end as it was very flat before.



Then I did some more work on the right ear.  Still needs a bit more work IMO to match it to the left ear, but its much better then it was before.



Finally I just started remaking the rim around the bottom.  I've kept it short to ease getting into and out of the helmet while still leaving enough space to attach magnets which a proper neck seal will attach to.

[flyboy424]

Been working little bits each evening on my helmet and I'm very nearly at a stage where I'm done with the cardboard construction work.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll finish off the right ear, re-do the chin and basically get it at a stage where on Saturday and Sunday I can take advantage of the break in the recent wet weather and do some resin and fibreglass work.

[flyboy424]

I got more done since my last post with the back of the helmet mostly finished and the chin completely redone, as well as applying resin to the whole thing.  I don't have any pics of it yet though.

I do, however, have a pic of my new effort on the chest piece as my current one has become a little deformed (as a result of its bad storage) plus I have been going over as many reference pics as I can find and I'm not entirely happy with the overall shape of my current chest piece so I'm starting from scratch.  I'm ditching Pepakura from now on as I can't find good enough files to use and instead going from hand-drawn templates.  I'm hoping that because I don't have work this week I can get at least the chest and possibly the back done.  Here is my progress so far:



Right now its just made out of paper as I want to preserve my cardboard for the final templates.  Its also my 3rd revision since I started yesterday afternoon.

[flyboy424]

I used the good weather on Tuesday to fibreglass my helmet some more but couldn't finish as I've begun to run out of supplies like gloves and disposable cups.  I'm going to pick up more over the weekend and hopefully finish it off next week.

In the meantime I've been doing more work on my new chest piece.







I've also begun using Google Picasa Web to store my photos and have created an album for them which can be found here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/103229789563758596776/ClonePilotBuild?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNDZ0bvQmMDxbg&feat=directlink

[flyboy424]

It's starting to look like I won't finsih my CP Phase I armour in time for Celebration Europe II due to a lack of decent reference pics, so instead I started working this week on something else:



Its still a little rough, and missing key bits (like the ears, the back of the head, and the neckseal...), but hopefully by the end of next week it'll be at a stage where I can put it into Pepakura.