Death Watch Building Armor for Star Wars Celebration 2015 - Now with Night Owl

[thorssoli]

I suppose we're overdue for an update. So here goes.

The other day I finished the mothermold for the jetpack body:

Here's the mold once it had been cleaned up and the prototype was removed:

After laying up the gelcoat in the mold, it looked like so:

Here I am laying up the fiberglass inside the mold:

Here's the first pull out of the mold:

Here's the codpiece all blocked up and prepped for molding:

And the female codpiece (vadpiece?) ready to mold:

In other news, Matt's brother has churned out a couple of the jetpack parts on his 3D printer:

And pistol casting has been ongoing:

Other than that, there's been a lot of fiberglass work. Here's my friend Dani laying up a fiberglass backplate:

Here's Trevor laying up a thigh plate with the nearly finished vadpiece mold in the foreground:

He was working in the shop without me. Otherwise I'd have beaten him for not wearing a respirator:

All the same, there's been a lot of parts getting laminated:

Finally, we've got the first set of knees out of the molds:

And the different sized gauntlets are ready for their mothermolds:

Much to come. Stay tuned...

 

[Skyfire]

After C7 is in the bag and you have had time to clear the resin from you lungs, will you make a few sets of pistols and maybe some more of these goodies availible to those who are intrested?

 

[thorssoli]

Probably. I've got a cargo hold thread going for the Nite Owl helmets. Shoot me a PM and let me know which goodies you're after. I could use some help paying for materials.

 

[eqdizzle]

you guys and gals are machines!

 

[thorssoli]

Progress continues in my absence. Matt and the crowd have made the mothermolds for the gauntlets:

The first round of castings look good:

That little one second from the left is the first gauntlet casting for my Shae Vizla build. You can see more details here: LINK

So yeah, a lot of parts are stacking up:

We now have three of these:

Still a ways to go, but the ball keeps rolling.

 

[thorssoli]

Nosecone molds in progress:

Then more progress:

More fiberglass parts are being made too. Here's some with gelcoat in progress:

And with some glass laid up:

The guys have been making a heck of a mess in the shop while I've been away:

But at least we've got some of these;

And a couple pairs of knees:

Progress continues. I'll be back in the shop this weekend, so stay tuned...

 

[Dunesoldat]

Awesome thread, thanks for sharing!

 

[Novenas]

I've been watching your progress all along. You all are amazing craftsmen and women. I like the movie style theme. When all is said and done, be sure to post up pictures of your night owl gauntlets. They looked very well constructed. I am wondering if they are screen accurate. I know you arent going for that, but if by chance they are, I might be interested in upgrading mine. Keep us posted.

 

[thorssoli]

Thank you all for the kind words. It really helps maintain the level of motivation needed to keep going with this project.

I suppose we're way overdue for an update.

First off, the piles of parts were starting to get out of hand:

So Matt and I started stuffing them into the rafters:

Even so, there's parts everywhere and more being made daily:

We pulled the first set of jetpack nosecones:

Then we pulled a lot more:

At this point we're up to seven jetpacks. Here's six of them:

We've got 3D printed exhaust nozzles for the jetpacks:

Everybody's been making the necessary mods to their undersuits:

Prep work has begun on gauntlets:

But we're still casting a bunch more:

And all the Westar35 blaster pistols a squad of Mandalorians could ever need:

And we've almost got all of the helmets prepped and painted:

Meanwhile, there's been a lot of other awesome stuff going on in the workshop:

Stay tuned...

 

[thorssoli]

No comments at all? Bummer. I'm starting to doubt anybody's reading this thread at all.

Still, work continues. We've been fiberglassing like crazy:

Fiberglass is everywhere:

There's been a lot of rotocasting too:

We've done a test-fitting for the smallest girl in the group:

I think it'll work:

I finally tried on a set of parts myself:

We've also got the jetpack exhaust nozzle all ready to mold:

We've also got a pretty impressive stack of Westar 35 blaster pistols:

But what's really cool is the huge stack of armor parts and jetpacks:

This puts us just about halfway there.

Seriously, halfway. We still need ten more jetpacks and a bunch more leg armor and male chest armor. Fortunately, we're done casting helmets, pistols, female chest armor, and gauntlets.

So it's starting to feel achievable.

 

[sgtski]

that is seriously an obscene amount of armor parts. Have you had to change respirator filters yet on this project alone?

 

[Tarok]

Such an awesome build. When does the painting start? Only once all the parts are produced?

 

[Scurvy]

I'd guess there arent many recent comments because everyone's too damn jealous!! Fantastic work, I love watching this build progress!

 

[Geo]

Very nice!!! You selling the Night Owl helmet? PM me with a price if you are. Thx!

 

[thorssoli]

that is seriously an obscene amount of armor parts. Have you had to change respirator filters yet on this project alone?

I've gone through a couple sets of filters at this point. I think Matt's had to change his out at least once as well. It's an obscene amount of parts, but not as obscene as it's going to get by the time we're done.

I actually put together an Excel spreadsheet to figure out how many pieces we need. The total I came up with was 585 parts. To make it more obscene, a "part" is considered to be whatever comes out of one mold, so a pair of knees is one "part" and a set of four knee dart launchers is another "part." If I actually figured out how many individual pieces we're making, I'm pretty sure the number would get into four digits.

There is madness here.

Such an awesome build. When does the painting start? Only once all the parts are produced?

We've got most of the helmets painted. You can see them on the bench in the background of this pic:

Since the rest of the armor will be simpler to paint, we'll probably end up doing all of those pieces at once.

I'd guess there arent many recent comments because everyone's too damn jealous!! Fantastic work, I love watching this build progress!

This build shouldn't make you jealous. These other two should maybe...

Very nice!!! You selling the Night Owl helmet? PM me with a price if you are. Thx!

PM Sent. Again.

In other news, we started the mold for the jetpack nozzle and the socket it goes into:

The first half of the socket mold came out great:

Matt boxed and poured the second half, so today I should be able to get a couple of castings of this piece.

Aside from that, yesterday was another day of laying up fiberglass parts, trimming fuzzy edges off of the pieces, and casting little parts.

For those of you keeping score at home, we're now done casting helmets, female chest armor, knees, and gauntlets. Only 276 more parts to make.

 

[Novenas]

Gogogo! Nothing like a deadline to keep you moving.

 

[Skyfire]

I was lucky enough to get a Night Owl helmet kit and a pair of Westar 35's this week. It is a great cast on the helmet and it will need minimal surface work and he definitely did NOT scrimp on the resin pour. The Blasters are wonderful too, the grips are good size overall for a man but thin enough for a more petite hand. I am one happy collector!

 

[thorssoli]

Nozzle mold came out pretty good:

Here's the first cast and the socket it'll fit into:

Like so:

I cast a bunch of them:

I also dry fit a pair onto a jetpack:

I think they'll work:

Work continues. Only 242 parts left to make.

 

[wondersquid]

My god! How many in your platoon?

 

[thorssoli]

My god! How many in your platoon?

Eighteen. We're on track too... For now.

Today I pulled another set of fiberglass armor parts. While I was wrapping those up, my friend Trevor spent the day prepping pistols:

At least that's what he said he was doing...

When Matt came in to the shop, he cast a few more exhaust nozzles:

Somewhere along the way, I sat down for a minute and came closer to assembling one of the jetpacks:

To protect them from breaking off if they get bumped, the exhaust nozzles are held in with a bungie cord hooked to an eye screw stuck in the top:

The other end of the bungie cord is hooked to an eye screw in the middle of the nosecone on top of the side tank:

It makes me happy:

Only seven more jetpack bodies left to make now. In other news, the fuzzy, untrimmed parts are starting to pile up again:

And we have yet to do any trimming or filling on the knee castings:

But at least there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

Only 216 parts left to make.