Koda Vonnor

Three puzzle pieces. Just add magnets. The squares will be milled out and 1/2" x 3/8" round neo-D magnets glued in the holes. 1/2" x 1/8" mates to these will be glued on the galvanized strip that's attached to the elbow guard. The other sintra pieces are guides that mesh with the edge trim on the main assembly and keep everything locked tight. This is the same closure system that was used for the left vambrace. I hope to have this ready to prime and test at the 501st armor party on Saturday. ~ vonnor

See? A beauty. Just a few battle-damage pock marks, but those will fill in with plastic model putty. Next up is the elbow guard edge trim and the magnetic closure system. I'll probably do that at the 501st armor party next Saturday. ~ vonnor

I cut out 4 pieces of fiberglass cloth in the shape of the mold, and this morning laid them on with a couple rondo coats to top it all off. Had some difficulty with the Bondo mix and it started to gunk up real bad. But when in doubt, throw another layer on there. You can always sand it off. She's kinda ugly on the surface, but underneath she's a beauty. ~ vonnor

I cast a 2mm thick flexible elbow guard in the same mold I used for the left one, then took one of those plastic sheets you put over a bowl in the microwave to keep your soup from sputtering all over and tack-glued it inside the main assembly. I superglued the flexible model in place on the plastic sheet, then capped off the ends with clear-coat sealed cardboard and hot glue. Poured in some plaster to make a mandrel/mold. The plaster is baking in the toaster oven at the moment, but will be sealed and waxed this evening, and a 4-layer fiberglass production elbow guard will be cast in the morning tomorrow. Note the trimmed and shaped forearm plate in the background. Stay tuned. ~ vonnor

Fits pretty good. ~ vonnor

Flexible model of the right forearm plate on the left, cleaned up mold in the middle, production main vambrace assembly on the right: Finished fiberglass and rondo layup, still in the mold. 50/50 bondo/polyester resin gel-cote, 6 layer glass cloth, 60/40 bondo/resin finish coat: Production right forearm plate - freshly broken out of the mold: I had to do all this between 7 and 8am today. Even at that, it was freaking HOT out by the time I finished. Next step is careful sanding then edge trim. The edges to be sanded down to meet the trim extents. ~ vonnor

I brushed on a few layers of Smooth-On Rebound-40 silicone rubber and after it set up I under-cut the edges all around. This helps the rubber mold liner stay tight inside the plaster mold shell. I sprayed clear cote acrylic on some scrap cardboard then hot-glued an ugly but good enough bowl around the green rubber. Poured in some hobby plaster and now waiting for it to solidify enough to break it out. Note I carved a sorta flat bottom on the mold so it will sit better while I do the fiberglassing. I will bake the mold in the oven for a few hours at 180F to get rid of any moisture, then wax the mold liner a bit to help the fiberglass dry after I cast the production forearm plate in the morning. ~ vonnor

I cast the flexible model for the right forearm plate using Smooth-On ReoFlex® 40 urethane rubber then krazy-glued it to a .020 thick plastic sheet that I had taped tightly around the main assembly. Tomorrow evening I will make a silicone rubber mold of the thing. Hopefully I can get it in fiberglass on Sunday morning. This soft model was cut about 1/8" too big around the edges so I can dremel/sand it down to spec. The 1mm sintra edge trim will go on the fiberglass production casting. ~ vonnor

This will be the right forearm guard junk model. The paper template will be aligned over these grooves, and the rigid model cut out. A silicone rubber mold will be made on the flat, and a urethane rubber flexible model will be cast. The flexible model will be laid over a plastic sheet wrapped around the main assembly, then a plaster backed silicone mold taken of the flexible model while it's in place. When the rigid production piece is cast in fiberglass it will hold the same contour as the flexible model while it was wrapped around the main assembly. ~ vonnor

Today I got back to this, and carefully sanded around the epoxy fills I did a few weeks ago. Here is the first primer coat, there are only a few little scratches that I will fill in with styrene model putty and do one more primer coat. This one is cleaner, sharper and more screen accurate than the left vambrace, mostly due to lessons learned on the previous piece. Next up is the right forearm plate. ~ vonnor

No pictures this time but Saturday I attached the cross-straps using 50/50 Bondo/Polyester resin, then took off the temporary spacers, cut off the elbow end to the correct length, and dremeled down the ends of the straps that were run through the slots on the insides. Smoothed out the inside surfaces with sandpaper and tacked the upper two straps to the axial edge trim with superglue. The strap near the wrist I left un-tacked. I glued it tight to the edge trim on the left vambrace and opening the unit to get my hand in has caused hairline cracks (not visible past 1 metre). I hope to avoid this on the right vambrace by allowing the flex along most of the strap length. Next up is to add the radial edge trim at the wrist and elbow, and fill the tiny gaps at the strap slots. ~ vonnor

Eighteen months those three fiberglass cross-straps for the right gauntlet sat on my shelf. Today I told some Starkiller costumers I would have this finished by CVIII, so sandpaper finally hit the bondo. It took a bit of grinding and shaping but here they are sitting nice and flush along the main body assembly. These will be bonded to the radius and ulna plates using polyester resin at the slots, and superglue at the edge trim as soon as the weather cooperates. Like a book, the costume project waits patiently until you pick it up again, no matter how long you've been away. Tick tock. ~ vonnor

This past weekend was spent sand-weathering the rest of the armor parts, casting the right gauntlet cross-straps in fiberglass, and putting a collar on the tunic. Here is a small teaser (sorry for the blurry focus), Marek family crest by Jedi Leda: This costume might actually happen. ~ Vonnor

Lots of things at the same time! First, I have started on the tunic. I am using stretch twill cotton that surprisingly takes a press very well and resists wrinkling. The sleeves will be cut off below the elbow and sewn to a brown spandex forearm that will hide under the gauntlets. The collar has yet to be engineered. Second, I have decided to commission a much more accurate Rahm Kota lightsaber hilt. Don Close of Do-Clo Custom Sabers will hopefully be cutting the metals, and I will be doing the wrap. One major improvement will be the accuracy of the Tsuka-Ito. After thinking about the topology for three years I have finally figured out how to get a diamond pattern on just one side of the hilt rather than on both sides. I did a proof of concept with some scrap leather and it looks very nice. The 2D orthographic drawings below are sans-dimensions in deference to Mr. Close. Third, I am still doing the first-cut weathering on the completed armor parts. It is going more slowly than I thought it would due to the darker iron metallic coat being too thick. I had said "live and learn" when I did that on the last project... Oh well, at least I'm still alive. Some pix: Hope to get the tunic finished next weekend. Stay tuned. ~ Vonnor

Yesterday I did the first pass at the weathering. 800 grit wet sanding of the darker top-coat. This is just to get the overall variegated patina seen in the CG references. This will be followed with some low-lighting and a wash of darker "dirt" that's a bit more color rich, then final screen-accurate scratching. These photos show a test fitting. Note the main assembly still needs sand-off. I wanted to check spacing and clearances with the gloves on. I will need to open up both the elbow end and wrist clip about 1/8" diameter, but they both have enough allowance for that. It's a ton of hand-sanding though. I had to add a non-accurate 6-32 hex-screw (just barely visible in one pic below) to clamp the wrist-clip to the main assembly. More to come. ~ Vonnor

Armor parts so far (L to R): Right shoulder bell Left gauntlet assembly Right hand guard (weathered test casting in front) Left hand guard Left wrist clip Left elbow guard Left forearm plate All have a thin even coat of Rustoleum metallic Soft Flat Iron except the Left hand guard and Left elbow guard. Those were coated with Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze as a test, but are too brown for the tone I was looking for. They will be sanded down and re-spritzed with the Iron color. The bronze tone will work much better for the final low-light dirt on all the pieces. The Left shoulder bell will get the Soft Iron coat tomorrow. I ran out of paint before I could hit it. Note my Kitchen Witch and her escort in the BG. 24 total armor parts to this costume (counting gauntlet cross-straps individually). 12 are completed. I consider it a milestone. ~ Vonnor

Now that the left gauntlet assembly is complete, the right gauntlet build begins. I expect this to go much faster than the first one, for two reasons. Less trial and error: Lots of mistakes were made and lessons learned on the left arm assembly, so I already know how to build each element. Less time trying to figure out how to build the piece. I can just build it. Less unnecessary pre-production detailing: Most of the parts do not need detailing on the intermediate steps. For example, I did not bother to square up the edges of these cross straps, since I have to finish-sand the fiberglass production straps anyway. Why do it twice? This was repeated many times while building the left gauntlet. I hope to get these in a mold tomorrow, and cast the fiberglass straps on Tuesday or Wednesday this week. I am also going to do the final painting on all the finished armor parts so far, with the dark iron metallic coat ready for scratch-weathering. Onward it rolls. ~ Vonnor

This past weekend I did final filler/primer and metallic silver. There were some surface imperfections but none that can't be either fixed or hidden by the weathering. I do love the shinies. ~ Vonnor

Here is the rough casting. There were a good number of air bubbles throughout the piece, mostly on the edges. After de-flashing and sanding, many were exposed. I don't think it's bad enough to scrap the casting. but I did fill them all with PC-11 Epoxy Paste. That stuff is fantastic as a filler, but it does take 12-24hrs to dry (depending on temperature). More after the filler dries. ~ Vonnor

I poured the top half of the mold and capped it with a 1/2" plaster slab, then cleaned all the filler clay off the bottom half. I had to pull the rigid model completely off the rubber to do this, then re-seat the model to the mold and flip it all over. After shaping the pour-hole and spraying Ease-Release 200 over everything, I poured the bottom half of the mold and the plaster cap. I had some issues where the 2nd half of the mold stuck to the 1st half in a couple spots. This was due to my grabbing the mold and oscillating it to help get the model to sit tightly in place for the 2nd half mold pour. My fingers rubbed off most of the mold-release at those spots causing the new rubber to stick to the old. Luckily it was in places that don't effect the casting. Today I will microscopically pick all the debris out of the mold using double-sided tape, then bake the mold halves for a couple hours. If the TASK® 9 in my closet is still viable I'll attempt a casting this afternoon. ~ Vonnor

The lower half of the wrist clip rigid model was carefully masked off with clay, then a mold box was put up around it. The contours of the piece made it a major challenge to determine the split point between mold halves. As long as the halves can separate, and the air bubbles can escape during the pour, it's all good. The little gems are the registry keys to insure a perfect join, and the little straws on either side of the pour hole will let the air out as the resin goes in. I ordered some OOMOO25 for this mold. The pencil line is the approximate fill level. A half-inch plaster slab will top it all off. ~ Vonnor

I filled all the tiny flaws with plastic putty, primed and sanded it with 800grit wet. I back-filled the whole thing with oil clay, then sprayed a clear-coat over it. When that dries I'll attempt to make a rubber block mold for pouring the production piece. The wolverine grooves are to help it get a purchase on the padded glove closure around the wrist. The tracks cut in the top of the tab will mate with the edge trim on the main assembly. ~ Vonnor

Doing a lot this weekend. So far I've modified a new pair of gloves (the last pair had irremediable issues), stripped the cracked silver paint off the right hand-guard and re-primed it, and adjusted the edge thickness of the wrist-clip. I also added an epoxy putty back-fill that was pressed into the main assembly at the closure point to imprint the contours of the edge strips into the reverse of the wrist-clip. This locks the clip into position and prevents any lateral movement. The production piece will have a hex-screw backed by an aluminum clamp that will take the place of the green temporary clamps shown in the photos. The clamp will not be visible when worn, only the hex-screw. That is a necessary deviation from referential accuracy (one of two total in this build - more on number 2 later) to insure a rock-solid assembly. The gloves have a 1.5" Velcro closure strap that goes all the way around the wrist. This not only allows for a very snug fit, but nicely pads the wrist-clip from digging into my skin. The edge of the clip digs tightly into the padded closure strap and holds the entire gauntlet assembly from slipping down onto my hand to interfere with the hand-plate. It's all working much better than I anticipated so far. More stuff tomorrow. ~ Vonnor

I shaped, trimmed and primed the wrist clip hard model, then carefully notched the mounting grooves into the palm-side flap. It came out much better than the previous attempt. It still needs some minor contour corrections, but it will definitely work. The rectangular cutout will be added next. The production piece will be cast in high-strength urethane and will be attached to the main assembly using a cap screw and a threaded aluminum backing plate. The screw will be visible and not be true to the CG reference, but will be necessary for real-life wear. The torque is likely to be too much for magnets at that mount point. ~ Vonnor

This evening I stuffed the mold with Rondo and fiberglass. Here's the left wrist-clip hard model fresh out of the mold. Still tacky, smelly, and carrying a lot of flashing. ~ Vonnor