Costuming:C6 armor build-day2

Day 2

• First we are going to take all the items that need to be made seamless.
• This is the forearms, biceps, thighs and calves.
• This part is never fun be we will tackle this first.
• Keep in mind these items were sculpted by hand not by a computer. You have to be able to be a bit creative when putting these pieces together.
• We are going to begin with the calves.
• The calves consist of 6 total parts. Two front, two back and two spoons.
• I will walk you through the whole process which will take a few days from start to finished.

• When building the calves you will realize that after the initial trim they don't line up very well.
• Don’t worry, we will trim and cut them to make them look good.
• I am around 6’ 1” and I like to trim about 1 1/2” off the bottom. I don‘t trim them until after the super glue, epoxy and fiberglass tape steps are finished.
• Smaller trooper can trim more if they would like. Just always shorten it from the bottom.
• I also leave the back spoon area in until after the seams have been finished.
• It just much easier to work with when the spoon area in place.
• Try to cut both the front and back as straight as possible, then do your best to make them fit together cleanly.
• I will use my sanders, sandpaper and file to make this work.
• Sometimes it lines up right on the first try and other times I can spend up to a hour working on this step.
• As you can see here, the top is looking good but the bottom needs some more sanding.

• Once you have a good clean edge on one side, then work on getting the other edge to line up. Like I said don't worry that the top and bottom lining up, we are going to cut and sand these areas after we get it glued together.
• This first front and back look’s good. Now we will move onto the other side. Before I tape this first side together I like to scuff up the inside with sandpaper. This will create a good rough area for the glue and epoxy to stick to.

• Alright, we have one side done and taped together. Now lets move onto the other side.
• With the first side done, you can uses one of the edges on the second side to mark your trim line.
• Sand and clean up as needed.

• Now that it all lines up, tape them together. Add super glue to the inside seam.

• Once dried, now its time to add the epoxy and fiberglass tape. Pre trim your tape so it is ready to go.
• Use something round to mark the areas for mixing the two part epoxy.
• I like to do this on the actual pieces so that none of the epoxy is wasted. I then use a rubber glove to run the

epoxy along the inside seam. Once applied, lay the fiberglass tape down, use your finger to press the fiberglass tape down along the inside seam. Mix another batch of epoxy and cover the top and edges of the fiberglass tape.

• Also run a little epoxy along the outside seam to fill in any holes or spaces.

• Once the epoxy has dried overnight, mark the areas that will get trimmed down. I use a pencil to do this. Cut the bottom and round off the top as needed.
• Sorry, the photos are a bit out of focus.

• Now sand and cleanup all the edges.

• Apply the bondo to the seam and any low spots. I went a little overboard here. As you can see, most of this bondo

gets sanded off.

On to day 3