Death Watch

[Voss]

I just can't help myself, two animated clones and now I am tackling animated death watch Long Live the Clone Wars.

I will be building the Super Commando patterned after Darth Maul below. I have started with the following:
Blasters: Woodchuck with LED's (couldn't resist splurging on these)
Armor: KW Designs
Helmet: Eternal Armory
Flak Vest: Local Seamstress
Flight Suit: Arkady
Boots: Brahma from Wal-mart
Backpack: Eternal Armory - pending
Wrist Comlink - custom

I think that's the general parts list. With the exception of the backpack, I've set all of this in motion. I've collected a series of screen shots here for reference. There are a lot of shots with the various Death Watch characters because I need reference shots for the Wrist Comlink mentioned above.

Death Watch Screen Caps



Oh and let's not forget the guns



...well that's just karma for ya, as I'm posting this pic my wife walked by my door and "shot" me with my own blasters.

[Voss]

Updates:

My flight suit is officially on order hopefully I'll have that around the beginning of July. I met withmy local seamstress over the weekend to get the Flak Vest started. Here is the material I'm using for the vest. I went with a upholstery vinyl in a dull black color. I plan to make the belt out of the same material.



I finished trimming up and rough assembly on the second gauntlet. I haven't done much work yet on the communicator for the left gauntlet. Also, lesson learned while trimming my first gauntlet. On Kev's kit I took out all of the material between the two halves of the inside face. When I closed it there was a considerable gap so I went back in and glued in a backer which needs to be trimmed down a little yet.



I began assembling the knees pieces. As I've had to shave down the return edges at the knees on both of the clone suits I've assembled from Kev, I wasn't suprised to learn I had to shim the knees a bit. This worked well for me as I wasn't keen on having a large bondo joint on the front of the knee. It seemed like a future crack waiting to happen. I basically just took some .1 think ABS and cut and pre-bent it into shape. I glued the two haves of the knee to the new front plate and the used my dremel to shape the plastic.





This knee on the right is still a work in process. I still need to smooth out the edges and hit it with some bonod putty.



I also got the belt assembled over the weekend. Another valuable lesson from working with previous kits from Kevin...he's skinny So when I was trimming the belt I left myself a bit of extra breathing room. In the picture below the whole section between the lines is supposed to come out. As you can see I left about 3/4" on each side for comfort.



Finally, I trimmed up the boot armor and attached it to the boots. I prepped the boots first by rubbing them down with acetone to get rid of as many oils and such as possible. I then roughed up the areas with some sandpaper to help the glue adhere. I opted for E6000 to attach the armor. I haven't worked with it much previously but I've been told it should stay a bit flexible which sounded ideal for my shoes.



My helmet shows up later today, I'm looking forward to starting some preliminary work on the horns.

[Silverfox]

Are these 501st or Mando guild?

[Wags]

They were in the clone wars cartoon so I would think they would be under both groups.

[Voss]

This will be 501st approvable when complete although there are none to date. There are at least two other people I am aware of starting this project. If things work out for me on the supply side I could be looking at a Legion first It's not really my goal but it would be cool nonetheless.

As far as the Mercs go, it should also be approvable through their organization as well. When I first started this process, I had thought about going down the route of a generic Mando since I already have a painted helmet ready to go. Ultimately I decided if I was making an investment I wanted the costume to be 501st approved so I have flexibility to wear it when and where I want at our events.

[Mr Fett]

Ultimately I decided if I was making an investment I wanted the costume to be 501st approved so I have flexibility to wear it when and where I want at our events.

Good man. Because if you talk to ANY of the old school Fett costumers (who were costuming pre-Clone Wars cartoons), you will hear them rip on "custom Mandos" every single chance they get.

[Voss]

And today's project.....

After assembling the forearms, I took measurements and mocked it up in AutoCAD. Using the screen caps, I proportioned the size of the communicator to Kev's to the top of the gauntlet. I used a base of 1/8" MDF board and then took a trip to the hardware to buy a few miscellaneous things. I wouldn't say the results are 100% screen accurate, I think it will get the job done. I still need to make the mounting bracket for this but that's for another day.



Assembled with primer



And on the gauntlet for reference.

[Voss]

Getting close to the fun part! All of the parts have been primed and I've hit all of the pieces that will eventually be red with a coat of silver metallic. I'm hoping to put some quality time in this weekend on the painting of those parts. I've got a new helmet on order from Skirata Arms which I hope ships out this Friday. I've also got a backpack harness on order although I'm still waiting to source the back pack itself. I may end up being forced into a scratch build.

I've also finished up the comlink for the left gauntlet. After reviewing the pictures however, I believe I'm going to redo the "button" as I'm not entirely happy with it at the moment. There is also a screw head detail to be added which should be a quick trip to the hardware. Here are the pics of the comlink with the mounting tray.

[n0c00lgamertag]

Wow. That is some detailed work... Nice!

[Voss]

Got an early start today. I painted up my boots and did a color test for the red on the shins. I figured they would be the easiest thing to sand down and repaint if I didn't like the looks of them. I'm happy with the results and will be finish in up the red on the rest of the armor pieces over the weekend.

Paints used on Boots:



Paints used on the shins in the order they were applied. Note that all of the armor has been primed and has a coat of silver metallic applied.



The base coat of apple red was applied in a heavy mist but not enough to fully cover the silver. The colonial red was applied in a light dusting over the whole piece. The Claret Wine was laid down in blotchy patterns to simulate the Clone Wars rendering. I then hit the piece with the dark gray on few specific areas and did a light misting of the black over the gray. This is after the apple red:



This photo shows the three coats of red:



This is the finished result after sanding the pieces and rubbing them down with the palm of my hand.



Oh and completely off topic, I finished my little side project as well....

[Voss]

Well after the successful color and weathering test yesterday morning I spent the rest of the day finishing the red parts of the armor. I also went back and weathered my pistols (I'll have to get a pic of those later) because they were looking a little too shiny for my taste. The best news however was that late last night I got an e-mail saying my flight suit has shipped which is about 3-4 weeks ahead of schedule!

Armor pics before the Tattoos:







And after a trip to the tattoo parlor...



Gonna start work on the shoulder spikes today and start painting up the black/ gray armor parts.

[Voss]

Well I wrapped up paint on everything I have in the shop at the moment. Nothing as exciting as the first batch, this is all gray and black. I did final assembly on the gauntlet however and I'm pretty happy with the end result.





And a test fit (flash was on in this shot):



and a shot of the pistols post weathering...



And finally the last bits on the shoulders. I did an initial test fit using .1 ABS and wasn't really happy with the result. So, I grabbed the MDF that I used for the base of the comlink and started tracing out the patterns. I left a little leg on the bottom of each blade and cut a slot in the shoulders to give them a bit more positive attachement. I also took the dremel and sharpened the blades to give them some depth.





The flight suit should be here as early as today, so I can start working on attachments and weathering. My helmet is also sckeduled for delivery so I should have things to keep me rolling over the next week.

[Mowskwoz]

Looks Great! It's really coming together fast.

[Mr Fett]

That Maul pattern looks sweet on armor.

[Voss]

Looks Great! It's really coming together fast.

You know me... Slow and steady

[Voss]

Step 1:



Step 2:



Step 3:




Couldn't find any good reference pictures of the back of the helmet so I made something up that looked like it would go with the design. Took a page from the diamond tattoos down Maul's nose.




Step 4: The Horns....to be continued.

So I've been playing around with my flight suit a lot this week with various dyes and bleach and paints. I have something that I now feel is passable but I think I'm going to order a new flight suit in a slightly different color. This one was way too yellow for my taste. More on that later.

[syntax]

Amazing work as always.

[Voss]

Did some mock-ups out of cardboard today for the horns. I also made my first test mock-up with magnets. It was a partial success in that the magnet actually held the horn in place, unfortunately it wanted to rotate on me. So I've got an idea I need to test out tomorrow using some pins along with the magnets.

Here are shots of the mock-up:


You can see the left and right sides of the helmet are slightly different. The ones on the right (helmet left) are what I intend to use.

[Wags]

Bad assery sir!!!!!