TS-6538 in progress...(pic heavy)

[Havoc6538]

A couple of months ago, I bought this from a friend:



It's a set of fibre-glass armour, and not particularly well made, but it was a bargain, so I don't mind a bit of work. First of, the helmet had a ridge around the "skirt" part. This is not accurate, so it had to go.



The armour and lid is all a bit lumpy, so while I was sorting out the ridge, I also sanded the high spots and filled the low spots.







The squares on the back of the the helmet were wrong and also very "soft". I've now sorted this, but am still not entirely happy with it, and considering buying a replacement lid.








The chest armour was heated and bent inwards as it was very wide on me. This revealed a load of cracks which have been fixed. I've also now reinforced the sides, especially where the cracks are with a couple of layers of fibre-glass on the back, as well as the usual filling and sanding.



As I have a ROTJ E-11 I use for trooping, and I need an ESB version for my snowy, I decided to make a new one with pipe and resin parts. I started off with a length of 1 1/2" PVC pipe drilled to a template from the Blaster Builders Club.



This was pretty rough after drilling:


so I had to clean it up:


For the internal barrel, I used some aluminium tubing I had lying around in my garage and drilled the muzzle and the part that goes behind the ejection port to take the tube.




With those parts glued together, I then glued the whole section into the PVC pipe.


Then it was a case of gradually adding the resin parts, which I bought from The Film Freak from his ebay shop Doopydoos. These parts are really nice - very sharp and clean. I've bought from him before and I'm always impressed by the quality of his resin parts.



I modified the front sight - it came as one solid piece, so I filed out the autside part, then cut away the inner part and added the flat "pin" in the middle, so it all looks much more accurate now. This done, I primed it to see how it looks. Needs a slight rub-down and re-prime, but it's definitely a sterling.

[Havoc6538]

Had some wooden t-track lying around from an old ROTJ EE-3 project, so I shortened it and shaped it to use on my E-11


I gave the blaster a coat of black cos once the barrel fins are on, it'll be hard to get a good coat on the inner barrel. Then I stuck on the t-track.

I'll make a start on the scope rail tomorrow.

Meanwhile...gloves are done and dirtied:


stitched on as with the originals:


The knee pads are all tidied up now and sprayed. To fit them, I attached press studs to pieces of material. Then I used fibre-glass resin to fix the material to the inside of the knee pads, essentially treating the material like fibre-glass matting. This is nice and strong.




I've fibre-glassed the rest of the armour after heating it and bending it so it conforms to my body shape now, instead of just flaring out wildly as it did before, and I've added a load of fibre-glass to the ab-plate, so it's nearer the size of the MonCal plate, which a mate in the UKG let me take measurements from. I've also bought the material for the duster and will be using the Matrix coat pattern from Simplicity (5386) which I'll adapt. This seems to be what most of the BF snowies are using now in the absence of Butterick 3723.

[Havoc6538]

The duster is all but finished now (just the front/bottom edge to hem).

This was the moment I was thinking "What am I doing?"


But I think it's turned out ok. The main problem was that the back has a seam running down the centre - the original prop did not. I cut the lower section off at the waist and added a panel in the middle, more like the screen prop.


Meanwhile, my mukluks arrived.


The trousers I bought were martial arts trousers, and very baggy. I've altered them to fit now and stained them, using coffee (did experiements with tea, but it came out too reddish). Unfortunately, I think the water I used was too hot and they shrunk! They come up short now, but still long enough that the mukluks hide it.

[Havoc6538]

Well, I've finished with the chest piece - I had to resculpt the detail on the left (as you are looking at it) as the original was very soft and had 2 weird round bits on it. Got all the strapping together, so the time has come for a first fitting! I also ended up buying a replacement ab plate as the existing one was wrong size, shape and needed too much work.

Things still to do, so don't mention:
The back pack, shoulder bells, forearms, d-rings on boots, chest greeblies. Also, the cowl is only temporary while I try to get it right and I don't have the rear piece done yet.







That lid looks HUUUUGE from the front, but fine from the back. Also, I'm having trouble getting the cowl to hang down so it rests on the chest armour. Will try iron-on backing suggestion and see if that helps.

Any other suggestions or opinions on how it is all going are very welcome.

The backpack looks ok in these pics, but will need a lot of work to pass close scrutiny. I'll just have to remind myself how cheap it was, lol.

[Snow Wolf]

Very nice work!
I especially like the E-11. The one thing that stands out is the straps on your mukluks. Maybe try weathering to match your boots. That's what I will have to do as my mukluks were bought used.

keep up the good work!

[Havoc6538]

I haven't weathered anything yet apart from the gloves and hand armour , so the boot straps will be dulled down to match the boots. I've stained the trousers but still have the actual dirtying up to do yet.

I'm waiting for some ESB blaster greeblies, but might complete the E-11 as the "clean" version, (like the ANH without the hegstler or cylinders) until the maker has sorted his moulds.

Oh, and the pouches are next on my "to do" list.

[tk6237]

Looks great so far, especially when taking into consideration the amount of ground work you had to do just to get the kit cleaned up! Good job! Blaster looks brilliant, and I´m happy to see you´ve sewn the handplates on to the gardening gloves. I highly recommend going the same route with the shoulder armor as well.

The helmet does look a bit big, but I don´t think it´ll be as noticeable once you get the shoulder armor on. I would perhaps try and and find a better material for the cowl, one that´s softer and more pliable, which´ll fold and crease better. Good cowl material seems to be hard to find, though.

The cod piece also looks to be on the larger side, but I dunno if that´s due to your build or the make of the cod piece. I believe it´ll look a lot better with a pouch on either side though, to sort of balance things out, same thing as with the helmet and the shoulder armor.

Thermal detonator/02-canister also looks a bit too big; not too wide (end cap-to-end cap), but the diameter of the pipe piece seems off. From what I could find on the FISD, the best match for this is a 2.5" PVC pipe.

(Oh, and - it´s kinda hard to tell from the pictures, but it looks like you may have put the detonator on upside-down..? The big, round button on the control panel is supposed to be pointing up, and to the right. But you knew that, right?)

Lastly, you might need to find something to make up for the lack of the "nipple" on the upper right side of the back pack. From what I can tell from the pictures, this seems to be missing on your kit. But judging from the excellent work you´ve done so far, I doubt that´s gonna be a challenge for you!

[Havoc6538]

Thanks for the feedback so far.

I'll post up some more pics in the coming week, but until then a quick update.
The shoulder bells have been fitted now (using snaps - I never even noticed those holes in the shoulder bells until you just mentioned them. Oh well. It's done.). I've made some alterations to the duster, nothing you'd notice, but it fits better now.

The pouches are made and attached to the belt and the ab plate greeblie is now in place.

I've also bought a new (second hand), more accurate helmet from our very own John Danter, pre-weathered and fitted with fans. Love it.

I've resculpted the forearm armour. Still a little way off total accuracy, but miles better than they were. I've done a lot of work to the backpack so should be done with that soon.

E-11 is now totally done and I'm in love with it. It's my new baby. Straightforward, clean E-11, but will update it with correct scope rail and greeblies when they become available from my best source.

[jasond011]

Hey Simon, I think I'm lookng at the same kit here:
http://blizzardforce.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=16618#16618

Do you know this kit's origins?

I too don't mind putting in some work due the low investment in getting this kit from a friend. I certainly don't want to spend more money than it would cost to get a complete, correct ABS kit in procuring parts to make this fiberglass kit correct though.

Do you have any updates in the revamping of this inaccurate kit? Primarily, the forearms, as mine are both the same as well. I'd love to see how you tackle that. As for the chest piece, did you cut off those little nubbins that were cast into the lower right quadrant of the fiberglass chest piece with a Dremel and smooth it with Bondo, or did you go a different route? Mine didn't come with a thermal detonator and is missing the abdomen piece as well. Nor does it come with a lid. What did you wind up getting for the thermal detonator?

Oh yeah...Great work on your blaster!

[Havoc6538]

I don't have time to post pics right now, but I'll try later. (Just realised that I promised that before!)

I don't know the origins of this kit. The friend I bought it from got it off ebay.

I have resculpted the forearms. They're still quite shallow and the wrist end is still square instead of round, but I have resculpted both to at least make sure that the shapes and details are right, and made the cuff parts from some plastic pipe.

With the chest armour, I did have to sand down the detail on the lower left side (as you're wearing it) where the grey square is painted, and the two overlapping grey/red buttons on the other side had to be completely re-done.

I bought a detonator from someone in my garrison, but I've now realised it's the wrong diameter, being a little big. I'll replace it in the long run, but it's not on my "urgent" list. Just means if I need to blow anything up, I'll get a bigger bang than everyone else, lol.

I've also found a couple of bits and made the backpack "nipple" and given all a coat of white paint. Will paint the backpack and arms at the weekend, then all will be done.

[jasond011]

Can't wait to see all the mods and how you did them:) Thanks for the response.

[Havoc6538]

Ok, pics tomorrow.

[Havoc6538]

Ok, here are a couple of updates.

The finished E-11:




Here are some WIP pics of the forarms and the backpack nipple. These have started to be sprayed up now, I just haven't got around to taking pics.
How they started:


Sculpting with car body filler:


Reworking finished, but awaiting chip repair - this is done now and they've had their first coat of paint.


The pouches - these have been dirtied up a little and washed since I took the pic, so they don't look quite this "fresh" any more.


The parts I used foro the backpack - a cut-down rubber bump-stop from a mountain bike rear shock and a cut-down shampoo bottle lid.

[jasond011]

Looks like THERE IS hope for the same fiberglass kit I got:) Looks great ol' chap! Love the gauntlets. Thanks for the update!

[Havoc6538]

Managed to get some proper pics done of the whole costume, minus backpack.







The armour is much more weathered than it looks in these pics.
The backpack is being painted so not in the pics.

The qauntlets are an off-white at the moment and need repainting (I just wanted to get a couple of coats on and didn't have the right paint, so I went for something close, lol) and they are literally taped on for the photos. I'll fit them properly in the next few days.

I can see from these pics I REALLY need to do something with the duster's cuffs. I'll have to see if I can elasticate them, but not much idea on how to do it, and I still need to do a bit more weathering and remove the D-rings on the mukluks.

Quite happy overall though.