Thursday, June 16, 2011

Print Friendly Option - now avaiable on this blog :)

I know when I have been to a blog and have seen a piece of information that I wanted to keep for future reference, or as a guide, but when you go to print it or save it as a PDF, it just spits out pages of gibberish, the photos are all crammed into one corner. It is just a waste of paper.

To stop this happening here, I have installed a new tool, called PrintFriendly.  So if you open a post you are interested (as a separate post, not in the blog feed), then you will have a couple icons come up, giving you the option to print the post, or save it as a PDF.  All free, and free of ads too.  I hope it saves some hassles as well as saving some trees.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Cutting the armour

Last night I started to cut out the chest panel of the armour that has arrived. As I could see the boundary a lot easier on the inside of the ABS plastic, I drew my lines with a 6B pencil then slowly, using a Olfa craft knife, I scored the lines, then cut deeper into them till I went through.  I have not done the upper part that joins to the back yet as I need the back to see how much I need to take off, but once I do that I will sand the edges with wet and dry sand paper so they will not only have a better shape, they will also not be so sharp.

It was easier to cut out then I thought it would be!
I also need to add a little hole for the strap near the bust line.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

E-11 (Hasbro)

I have been tinkering on my E-11 (Hasbro) for a little while now.  I do plan to make a scratch or pipe build one day, but till then, the Hasbro will work well for my Scout Trooping.

The Blaster just as it arrived!
Blaster after a lot of sanding.  I have a couple resin parts for it already and they have been sanded and prepped too.
I will have to work on the trip next and the sight.

DL-44 Finished

Last night I dry brushed the pistol using Citadel paints.  For the silver colour I used Bolt Gun Metal.  On the grip I used a brown (the label had come off) then dry brushed with a bit of Chaos Black, then did a very light layer of Bolt Gun Metal over the top.



Now all I need to do is make a holster for it. :)

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

DL-44

For my Imperial Officer weapon I have chosen a DL-44.  The brightly coloured, blue and orange toy arrived on Friday and I have been modding it since.  Here is my progress...

The DL-44 blaster in its packaging.
I am worried by the "other play" that they mention... :S
The front was removed from the blaster tip, holes drilled in the muzzle, putty put in the screw hole, writing sanded off, and the mould lines were also sanded away.  I have painted the muzzle black already to see if it needed more work.
A bit more sanding is needed...
The gun now has had a few coats of Games Workshop Chaos Black, a good paint for plastics.
Ready for the dry brushing!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Armour!

My first batch of vac-formed armour arrived yesterday - the chest, back, and back pod. Thanks Nick! :) So exciting!

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Cummerbund Revisited

During my last troop (with borrowed armour), I found that my cummerbund started to slip down after about and hour of trooping. I kept thinking about that rather than concentrating totally on the troop. My pouches also need a larger area of tethering rather than just the upper hinge too, especially as I was carrying most of the troops wallets and keys in them!

Here are my solutions to my two problems.

I bought a pack of four black military shirt stays to act like suspenders. They have clips already attached, they have adjustment clips, and are shorter then suspenders. One would have been enough on each side, but I wanted there to be room for adjustment, so I neatly joined two together using a decorative zig-zag stitch. The zig-zag keeps the edges from fraying and allows a bit of stretch in the joint. I made small button holes directly on the cummerbund for the stays to attach.




When I put on the cummerbund, I just undo the main Velcro on the back, leaving the under-strap still attached to the Velcro, and the stays in place, and climb into it.




Friday, May 6, 2011

More on my helmet


I have been continuing to work on my helmet, doing more sanding, trying to get it smooth. Since these photos were taken, I have sprayed more primer, added more putty in the low areas, and started sanding again. It is getting there… :)





Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Imperial Officer Code Cylinders

On eBay a few weeks go I came across old dosimeters for sale that can be used for Imperial Code Cylinders. They arrived this week and look great! They just need to be cleaned up a bit and have the blue top painted on.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

SuitAbility Jodhpur Resized Pattern Links (Imperial Officer Jodpurs)

If you are getting confused how this is different from my previous post, please let me explain. The previous post includes the SuitAbility Jodhpur pattern and instructions. To make my pattern, I took the images from the pattern file and resized them in Photoshop, then saved each page as a PDF. I then placed the PDF file into a full version of Adobe Acrobat, set "print scaling" in the "print" menu to "Tile Large Pages" so I was able to print the large sheets onto A3 sheets (but it can be printed on what ever paper you have).

The files below are the resized ones I made. They are all PDF's.

SuitAbility Jodhpur pattern page 5

SuitAbility Jodhpur pattern page 6
SuitAbility Jodhpur pattern page 7
SuitAbility Jodhpur pattern page 8
SuitAbility Jodhpur pattern page 9
SuitAbility Jodhpur pattern page 11
SuitAbility Jodhpur pattern page 12
SuitAbility Jodhpur pattern page 13

Please note, Page 10 is not required. To reduce file sizes I made the images gray-scale.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

SuitAbility Jodhpur Pattern Links (Imperial Officer Jodpurs)

For the SuitAbility jodhpur pattern, you can find it at Char Tozard's site,

or mirrored links here:

SuitAbility Jodhpurs Pattern (3 MB)
SuitAbility Jodhpurs Instructions (2.1 MB)

Mock-up Jodhpurs

Here are some images of my mock-up Imperial Officer Jodhpurs based on the SuitAbility pattern.

The pants have not been cuffed, and I have not put the waistband on. Alterations to the pattern that are planned to include a slight increase in the back (for the times like now when I have eaten far too many Easter eggs), a slight trim of the sides of the Jodhpurs so it isn't as extreme, and an addition of about 3cm to the length of the pants to be cuffed properly.

For the pattern



Time worked on pattern: 9 hours
Time spent waiting in Spotlight to be served: .5 hours

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Before You Start...

Before you start a project, it is recommended that you move the cat...



Spook enjoys large sheets of fabric and paper and has to be taken to another room otherwise he rolls and dives on it all very cutely. :D

Friday, April 22, 2011

Imperial Officer Pants Pattern

I have been interested in the Imperial Officer uniform for a while, especially the black one. So I thought I would give it a go sewing one. I have been using the out of print SuitAbility Jodhpur pattern that Char Tozard made available, scaling the photos to the correct size, printing them on A3 sheets, gluing them together, then tracing the around the correct size. This is the result.


Now time to cut out the calico and test the pattern.

Time worked on pattern: 4 hours
Time spent waiting in Spotlight to be served: .5 hours

Thursday, April 14, 2011

More work on the helmet

I have been working more on the helmet, and this is the first filler base coat on the front plate. As I had adhesion problems on the main part of the helmet I used paint stripper to get it back to the resin and worked from there.


The next bit will be to get the upper part to be smooth like the movie prop, then to file and dremel the lens area to the correct shape (and flat to allow a lens easily). I am also trying to get the helmet to close properly, so more sanding. :)

This is the helmet prior to stripping the paint off.  It sanded up ok, but with bubbling and adhesion issues with the old paint, stripping was the best option.


Total work time: 5 hours

Monday, April 11, 2011

Working on the helmet

I have been working on the helmet a little, trying to sand the bubble out and smooth out a few other bumps. Laying on a lot of putty is the next step.



Total time spent on helmet: 3 hrs

Friday, April 8, 2011

My First Troop!

Last Saturday (2nd April), I was out in the field teaching students geology. The air was cool and crisp, the wind coming off the Mountain. Suddenly my mobile went off, it was a call from Nick B, asking if I wanted to help with a troop that night. I said I would love to, but I had not finished my armour let. I would be borrowing his.

Doning armour was great. I did feel like a noob, though. Putting things on in the wrong order or up-side-down. I got sorted in the end.

The troop was for the Magpies football team which were playing at the KGV in front of a crowd of over 8400 people. One the whole the troop was good, but there were some people that prefered to knock us about.

Today we made it into the paper. :)





Sunday, March 27, 2011

Cummerbund and Pouches Complete!

After spending another evening with the sewing machine and iron, my cummerbund and pouches are complete. :)  I think the trickiest thing about the pouches was joining the inner and outer parts, make sure they all aligned and looked neat. Here are the results...

One pouch ready to be put together. On the Left you can see the upper flap, the middle it the outer pouch, and on the right is the inner pouch.

The pouches and cummerbund completed. Phew! :)

A close up of the pouch with the flap open to show to the detail.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Biker Scout Helmet

Nick B was down south for the weekend for the 'Weird Al' troop and he brought with him Scout helmet that he had kindly cast up in resin for me. Yeah! :) Very exciting!  Thank you Nick! :)
Here are some photos of my new bucket.

The back and faceplate (separated for the photo)

An air bubble appeared in the front face plate during the drive down.  There is also a small hole at the base of the face plate.  Nothing some sanding, metal mend and bog won't fix. :)

Inner part of the face plate.