Mandalorian Armor Project 5: Knee Pads

I printed out the WizardofFlight Knee armor templates as a basis for my knee armor. As with the helmet template, I transferred and cut these pieces out of poster paper. After a few minutes of head scratching, I finally got these pieces arranged in the correct format.

I went ahead and attached the pieces together. I used hot glue to attach most of the pieces, but I found that I could use tape to attach the non-structural parts. As this was just a rough mockup, I wasn't especially concerned with building the model with perfect accuracy.

To make sure the knees would keep the right shape, I cut off two strips of my aluminum sheeting and used them as supports. I clamped it up with a pair of binder clips and then superglued them together. After the superglue dried, the knees held their shape really well. The only issue I had was that the superglue is very brittle. If they bent or moved, the superglued pieces snapped right off. These pieces were great proofs-of-concept, but they weren't very practical. I wouldn't be able to wear these without them breaking, and I didn't particularly want to fiberglass these too.

I reprinted these pieces and took them back down to my lab. I ran to Home Depot to pick up a pipe saw and some PVC piping. Unfortunately, they only had 10 foot lengths of the 3 inch PVC piping. Talk about overkill, right?

I taped my template to the pipe with some of my packing tape and traced a rough outline of the paper with sharpie. This is one piece where it's important to be true to the template, otherwise the knee pieces could end up shaped differently.

I used my pipe saw to cut out the pieces for the knee pads. Normally, these pieces would be very difficult to cut without some type of tabletop vice. Luckily I had access to several of these at TCNJ.

I clamped these pieces lengthwise in the tabletop vice. Otherwise, they'd be bouncing around as I tried to make each cut. The next two cuts I made went down the back of the pipe. These cuts would eventually form the back of the knee pad, and let me pry these apart.

The pipe saw I originally used was great for making big, straight cuts. Because it has a really wide blade, it doesn't do curves particularly well. To cut those tight curves, I ended up using a 6" coping saw.

These cuts were pretty rough and needed some serious cleanup work afterwards. I used my dremel's sanding drum to round off the sharp edges and clean off any burrs from the saw.

I might have been overenthusiastic with the sanding drum and accidentally created a few divots in the along the edges. This isn't a huge problem, but in hindsight, I probably could have used a bit of MDF and sandpaper.

Sanding these pieces created an amazing amount of PVC dust. Even though I had a respirator on, the dust from the dremel turned my face completely white. The next time I do this, I'll pick up a set of sealed googles.

Once I finished sanding my pieces, it was time to start shaping them. To bend the PVC, I had to significantly heat them up. Some people choose to heat their pieces in an oven, but I chose to use my heat gun. The PVC gets gets really, really hot before it becomes malleable enough to bend, so these leather gloves were an absolute necessity.

I started by heating up a side tab and then flattening it with a thick block of plywood. PVC takes a long time to heat up before becoming malleable, but if you take your time with it, you can avoid burning the plastic or bubbling the material. The key to evenly heating the PVC is using the heat gun at a high setting and evenly heat the entire area.

The next step would be flattening the sides of each knee pad. Once I had sufficiently heated each side, I  took a scrap piece of plywood and applied pressure. Using plywood had two benefits; it kept my hands from making contact with the hot PVC, and it ensured that I had completely flattened each tab.

I found out that PVC holds its heat really well. The first piece took almost 30 minutes to cool down enough to touch without gloves. Afterwards, I decided it would be quicker to dunk it in a bucket of water. Once I had pulled both pieces it out of the water, I had a nice pair of knee pads.

My next step will be to drill holes in these pieces. I'll start mounting straps to these pieces.

Full album: Imgur

Step 6: Blogger

Mandalorian Armor Project 4: Primer

This chapter covers the process of priming and smoothing an exterior surface. This chapter takes place after applying Bondo over top of the fiberglass. Originally, I thought this step would take all of twenty minutes.

Boy, was I wrong.

At this point I was finished with the biggest construction parts of the projects. After I was satisfied with the surface of the dome, it was time to begin the priming it.  I'm using Rust-Oleum's automotive sandable primer. Some brands of spray paint don't bond well with other brands, I only used Rust-Oleum brand paints for this project.

In the past, I've had problems with getting an even coat of primer. Considering this was the first time I used a spray booth, I took my time with the painting. To avoid large buildups of paint, I made several dozen light passes. I placed the the helmet on a large cardboard circle, which allowed me to rotate the helmet without touching the wet paint. Definitely one of my better ideas.

As soon as I finished priming the helmet, I started noticing things. Like little holes and weird textures.

The primer gave the surface just enough contrast to show me every single imperfection in the fiberglass and the Bondo.

The back of the helmet looked absolutely terrible. The entire surface had a very distinctive pattern left by the fiberglass.

On top of the fiberglass fiasco, I didn't sand the ear caps well enough. I needed to go back and resand each ear with some 400 grit sandpaper. There were a bunch of tiny imperfections in the Bondo that needed to sanded down and filled. 

Either way, I needed to fill and smooth and fill all the imperfections on the helmet.

Durham's Water Putty quickly became my best friend throughout this process. It's a handy material to work with because its thickness depends on how much water you add. I had to mix several batches to fill all of the holes in the fiberglass.

I originally used my fingers to press the mixture into the holes. After the first few batches, I started using a sheet of cardstock. The cardstock was gave me much better results because it didn't leave behind air bubbles or streaks.

The back of the helmet took an obscene amount of work to coat. Upon taking this picture, I had already put on three coats of Durham's. I would eventually put eight coats of Durham's on this area. 

Talk about overkill, right?

This is what the helmet looks like between applications of Durham's and primer. After the most recent coat of Durham's had dried, I would spray the patch with primer. The primer would highlight any uneven areas or ridges, which meant that I knew where to sand. I'd take a square of 150 grit sandpaper and give the area a quick scouring. Low areas and pockets wouldn't get touched by the sandpaper and  would show up grey. Then I could sand the area until I saw a uniform color.

I finished this phase of construction just in time to present it to The College of New Jersey's IMM Department. I secured my visor in place with a bit of gaffers tape. 

It was a huge hit with the visitors, and looked amazing when it was combined with the rest of the costume. Now that I have a coat of primer, its time to start painting.

So in hindsight, what did I learn?

1: Using the cardboard as a swivel stand worked very well. It allowed me to spray the entire piece without having to move. Because I didn't have to touch the helmet, I avoided putting fingerprints on top of drying primer.

2: I shouldn't have fiberglassed the outside of the helmet. When most people build a helmet from scratch, they will put a coat of resin on the outside and two layers of fiberglass on the inside. This way they don't have to go back and fill holes on the exterior.

3: Use cardstock or a sheet of spring steel to apply Durham's putty. Using fingers leaves rough patterns in the finish, which translates to more sanding in the long run.

Link to Full album: Imgur

Link to Part 5: Blogger