On a journey to a galaxy far far away...

[Spacegoat]

Also if the Roosters keep up this good streak, we might just take out this season.

Hopefully so. :tup: Though, the qualifying final against the Sea Eagles will be tough especially with JWH suspended.

 

[Touring Mars]

Congratulations on the expanding family... I've not seen as many Syntax Errors since I tried programming my Commodore 64!

 

[Syntax error]

Congratulations on the expanding family... I've not seen as many Syntax Errors since I tried programming my Commodore 64!

Thanks TM.

 

[Syntax error]

Not per say armour building related (that's moving along slowly, pics to come in a few days once I get to do a bit more painting), but I made a little wolfpack onsie for the new addition who should be here in about 6 weeks time now. There is no escape from Star Wars for my kids

 

[Nicksfix]

Syntax,

Being the big Star Wars guy that you are, have you played, or do you have any of the Star Wars video games ? Do you collect these games ? Obviously, any gaming platform applies.

I had the Clone Wars at one time for the PS2 and then dumped it for a Tiger Woods golf game. Wish I hadn't of done that now ...

 

[Syntax error]

Syntax,

Being the big Star Wars guy that you are, have you played, or do you have any of the Star Wars video games ? Do you collect these games ? Obviously, any gaming platform applies.

I had the Clone Wars at one time for the PS2 and then dumped it for a Tiger Woods golf game. Wish I hadn't of done that now ...

Sorry, I just saw your post.... well you could safely say that I may have played one or two Star Wars games in the past..... or close to 100 of them...... I actually collect Star Wars video games/consoles/peripherals (anything actually video game related), this is a pretty outdated photo of my collection which is actually even bigger now, I have just gotten too lazy to lay them all out to take a photo of again:

Back to some progress on my armour:

Shins done (apart from the weathering which will be done in the next few days)

Also just finished sanded down the bogging for the seams on the forearms. Also they were a bit too long so I've shortened them. Much more comfortable now that I can bend my wrists. Also painted the chest/back. tomorrow I'll be sanding and adding the weathering to it.

 

[Cano]

That looks amazing. How do you make the molds for these things? They're cast plastic/resin/polymer, right?

 

[Syntax error]

That looks amazing. How do you make the molds for these things? They're cast plastic/resin/polymer, right?

These in particular were originally cut from a thick foam and then bondo was used to harden and sculpt it further. These are then cast with ABS plastic via a technique called vacuum forming. Basically a sheet of ABS plastic is heated up and slowly lowered over the molds whilst the air is sucked out from in between the mold and the plastic. Pretty much the same way the bubble plastic on hot wheels cars packaging is made.

 

[TB]

I'm not the least bit surprised but it's looking awesome!

 

[Nicksfix]

Sorry, I just saw your post.... well you could safely say that I may have played one or two Star Wars games in the past..... or close to 100 of them...... I actually collect Star Wars video games/consoles/peripherals (anything actually video game related), this is a pretty outdated photo of my collection which is actually even bigger now, I have just gotten too lazy to lay them all out to take a photo of again:

Dayuuuum dude ..... nice collection. And this is an old pic ? WOW- just wow !
Nice work on the armor as well. 👍

 

[Ibonibo]

Very cool.
Welcome back 👍

Your little Ewok on the pic, it's the cutest Star Wars pic I seen 👍

Cool that your whole family participates and tolerates.

New costumes looks awesome.

Keep us updated

 

[Syntax error]

I'm not the least bit surprised but it's looking awesome!

Thank you good sir.

Dayuuuum dude ..... nice collection. And this is an old pic ? WOW- just wow !
Nice work on the armor as well. 👍

Thank you. Most people tend to collect the figures (of which unsurprisingly I do have a sizable collection) but my love has always been video games so I really pride in that portion of my Star Wars collection.

Very cool.
Welcome back 👍

Your little Ewok on the pic, it's the cutest Star Wars pic I seen 👍

Cool that your whole family participates and tolerates.

New costumes looks awesome.

Keep us updated

Haha Thankfully my wife is very tolerant of my shenanigans in general. It's also easier to sell the concept to her as the 501st Legion (which is the Star Wars costuming group I am part of) are renowned for doing charity work and have a membership base of roughly 6,000 strong active members around the world with screen accurate costumes. We don't just dress up to goof around (although lots of goofing around is mandatory), we do it to help charities raise money for sick kids. Plus the kids get an awesome kick out of seeing Star Wars characters in real in the flesh.



Also on a positive note, although I have been ridiculously busy with work and just generally trying to keep the kids in line and the house in shape (as my wife has only a few weeks left before our new addition arrives and since she is so heavily pregnant, it's hard for her to do much of anything at all), I have still managed to make some progress. Big progress actually, the ab/kidney plate is the base part of the armour and everything essentially hangs off it. I finally got to strap the ab/kidney plate into place and so the rest is coming together very fast. I've added some straps to hold the shoulder and arm plates in place but they are not visible in this photo.

This was a big step forward. There is still a lot to do, but this was one of the most important parts I needed to get right. Hopefully the rest will be smooth sailing.... although I still need to tackle the sewing machine for an integral part of the armour.... and I have zero skills with fabrics. :/

 

[Cano]

Haha Thankfully my wife is very tolerant of my shenanigans in general. It's also easier to sell the concept to her as the 501st Legion (which is the Star Wars costuming group I am part of) are renowned for doing charity work and have a membership base of roughly 6,000 strong active members around the world with screen accurate costumes. We don't just dress up to goof around (although lots of goofing around is mandatory), we do it to help charities raise money for sick kids. Plus the kids get an awesome kick out of seeing Star Wars characters in real in the flesh.

:0 dude that is awesome-awesome. I never knew such a thing existed. Newfound respect right here 👍

 

[Syntax error]

:0 dude that is awesome-awesome. I never knew such a thing existed. Newfound respect right here 👍

Thanks dude. The 501st has an amazing history of partaking in all things charity related first and foremost. Here is the official site if you are ever interested in having a read up on it. Fun fact, the 501st garrison (Vader's Fist) in the movies, clone wars tv show & books was actually added in honor of the organisation which had the name first. The writers added the group into the Star Wars lore.

Anyway back to the build which has been slowly progressing:

I found that the thighs are just a tad too long, in the interest of maneuverability, I took a bit off the top. Now I should at least be able to walk.

I ordered some Nomex gloves, animated clone neck seal and the ear muff looking things for the shoes. Still need to find suitable shoes to actually modify to look like the ones worn by the troops however.

Managed to paint the ab/kidney plates, shoulder bells, hand plates and thighs. The white on the thighs unfortunately highlighted what a terrible craftsman I am with bondo and sandpaper so I went and purchased a detail sander from bunnings and will be redoing them.

I attached the container thingies (that's the technical term I believe) to the belt and the straps to it for the thighs so they all sit very well now.

Here is what I have done so far:

The forearms are the right length now but have slid forward in the photo as they are pretty wide. They actually feel too wide, I might need to cut and re-attach to make them thinner.

Since Friday it's looked like the baby would arrive but no show so far so I decided to paint the shoulder bells. Wolffe has some fancy designs going on and this was one of the more difficult things about the build so far.

Left shoulder taped up:

Painting along with the hand plates:

Reasonably happy with how it turned out. Still need to clean up the pencil marks from when I drew on the design and then weather it:

This nearly killed me. I hand drew the wolfpack logo and taped it. Seriously I must have spent a solid 4 hours doing this. The paint is currently drying so I haven't taken any further photos. A finished pic to come in a few hours when it's okay to remove the tape.

And the final result which I am quite pleased with:

Apologies for the billion photos, I find that it helps keep me motivated if I document the process and posting it up kind of keeps me a little more accountable, so hopefully I'll manage to finish this in a month or so.

 

[Leonidae@MFT]

Since you like Star Wars.. http://front.kinja.com/hilarious-ne...source=gizmodo_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow This oughta tickle your fancy.

 

[Brett]

@Syntax error Very impressive stuff with the armor! 👍

:0 dude that is awesome-awesome. I never knew such a thing existed. Newfound respect right here 👍

The 501st is pretty awesome. I have seen them at one local event and was very impressed with their costumes.

 

[Syntax error]

Since you like Star Wars.. http://front.kinja.com/hilarious-ne...source=gizmodo_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow This oughta tickle your fancy.

Haha yeah I saw that just a little earlier today. Funny stuff.

@Syntax error Very impressive stuff with the armor! 👍

The 501st is pretty awesome. I have seen them at one local event and was very impressed with their costumes.

Thank you. One thing they very much pride themselves on (apart from the charity work) is the accuracy of the costumes. They are very specific about making sure everyone looks up to scratch. It can be a tad annoying at times when seeking approval when they come back telling you that some insignificant little thing no one would ever notice needs to be fixed or changed before re-applying however they want to make sure everyone looks the part and that we don't just look like a ragtag bunch of nerds lol.


EDIT: Still a lot to do but I feel like I've gotten some traction in the last few weeks. Hopefully I can keep the pace up (will be difficult once my third kid arrives). I received my neck seal today from Darman over at CT.net. Fits like a dream and has a lovely perfume scent so I smell all womanly and pretty when i put it on )

Also nomex gloves arrived too so I attached the freshly painted hand plates. Now to weather them.

With that little progress I thought, what better excuse for selfies:

 

[Syntax error]

I'm done! I'll add in an additional strap to hold the ab/kidney plates to the closer to the crotch plate but that's it (well unless approval is knocked back in which case I'd have to do what ever mods I'm told to).

Very happy with the final product. Can't suit up without serious help, (seriously almost every piece needs to be put onto me by someone else) and I can barely move, but I am ecstatic and cant wait to troop, particularly at the Dream night where the kids will be able to see Wolffe and have a great time.

Although I posted in the announcement thread nearly two weeks ago, I'd like to introduce my third daughter:

Alecia Daenerys Zsolti

 

[TB]

Looks awesome, @Syntax error!

And the suit, too!

 

[Nicksfix]

Pretty cool onesie. 👍

 

[Syntax error]

Since I have officially completed the armour, I decided I'd like to move the thread from the infield into the rumble strip for general population viewing. To give the new comers to this thread a quick recap, this is a build thread I created to help motivate me to complete a Commander Wolffe armour based on the animated Clone Wars TV series. I wear it at events such as hospital visits for sick kids and to charity events with a group known as the 50st legion.

For those unaware, here's a quick run down of the 501st:

The 501st is a Star Wars costuming group that currently have roughly 6000 members world wide and pride themselves in having movie quality costumes that they use to either directly do charity work or to help boost the profile of other charity events run by others. A fantastic example (if a little extreme) is this one 501st member who is walking all the way around Australia in a sandtrooper costume to help raise money for the Monash Children's Hospital. Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/StormingAustralia?fref=ts

Back to the armour now, here is a shot of me with my kids all fooling around with Star Wars helmets:

I also debuted the armour at a very special event last Thursday. It's called Dream night at the zoo. Taronga Zoo in Sydney holds an annual evening event for special needs children who get to come to the zoo, see the animals and be entertained by a bunch of Star Wars nerds dressed in costume, also along with the NSW police, Harley-Davidson and a bunch or other organisation which had all sorts of fun activities for the kids. We turned out to be the biggest attraction, bringing lots of smiles to the kids.

A few photos from the night:

For those interested, here is the full photo set on flikr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/retrosez/sets/72157638429362225/

What next? I'll continue to attend events like this one and I'll probably update the thread with photos of some of the bigger charity events. I've also kicked off another stormtrooper build, so I'll probably share some photos of that as I make more progress.

 

[Brett]

Awesome stuff! 👍 I have seen the 501st at one event and their attention to detail is outstanding.

One question. Has the 501st extended itself to the Ghostbusting business? I noticed three guys dressed as Ghostbusters, but are missing a fourth member.

 

[Syntax error]

One question. Has the 501st extended itself to the Ghostbusting business? I noticed three guys dressed as Ghostbusters, but are missing a fourth member.

haha not exactly. But their outfits were phenomenal. The 501st only has villains of the SW universe (Clones go either way really). There are separate organisations that look after droids, Jedi/miscellaneous good guys and the bounty hunters too. In that big group photo you'll notice there was representation from all the big costuming groups, the 501 is probably the best known, biggest and the oldest of the costuming organisations however.

 

[The Bman]

That's one sweet costume. I'm a Star Wars fan myself, by the way (as hinted by my user name). 👍

 

[TB]

The building alone was phenomenal. Topping it with a Special Needs event? Stellar. Well done, SE.

 

[phillgt2002]

You, I envy your skills. Nice job!

 

[Sharky.]

Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?


Armour looks amazing Syntax!

 

[Grayfox]

Not sure how Australia works, but don't take those awesome pistols out in public unless you got some orange caps for the barrel.

While we do have some gun crime, it is not as bad as the U.S ao our cops are less likely to shoot.

Our cops also have tasers and will draw them first before they use their gun.

But if you see a guy in a starwars getup holding a "gun" you can assume it is a toy.

But we aussies never had an issue like the one in the US a while back so it is hard to say how it will really go down.

 

[photonrider]

Since I have officially completed the armour, I decided I'd like to move the thread from the infield into the rumble strip for general population viewing.

👍 Since I very, very rarely visit the 'in' field myself I would have missed this completely. I like talking to the 'general population' myself. This is mind-boggling stuff!

Too awesome for words.

May the Force be with you?

Gosh, would I have loved to be there . . . My second kid and I take part in something like this - 'Nerf Wars' - actual battles staged in various environments (mostly schoolyards that provide us with the venue) and it's a lot of fun, sometimes as much as 60 - 100 people taking part from all over the city. Various battles are staged, and of course we have a variety of NERF weapons in use, though there is not much role-playing via costumes - just the occasional guy in camo.

 

[Cano]

Man, this thread turned out even more awesome. I missed the announcement of the new Error, she's a breaut! That picture of you in full armor holding her and with your kids in helmets and stuff is pure gold. And of course the charity event pics are also awesome.