Daryl's Denuo Novo TLJ FOTK build

[daryldoak]

Drilled the holes for the ab boxes:



Then attached them:





USE EXTREME CAUTION when drilling the pilot holes in the boxes and screwing in the screws, the screws are too long for most of these boxes!!  I added washers to most of them.

[daryldoak]

Time to start thinking about making the belt.

First I added some hook Velcro to the front tab and side tabs, since the back of the belt is lined with loop Velcro, then wrapped the belt around:



It is huge and needs to be shortened:



This will include unstitching some of the Velcro on the back of the belt, and cutting the rubber.  Not ready for that today.

So I moved on to more strapping.  I’m going to reuse my garter belt from my ANH Stunt TK (top right in picture), so I made four looped straps that will have buckles on the bottom for adjusting the thighs (top left in picture). And I attached the buckles to elastics that will go inside the shoulder bells (bottom left in picture):



I’ll attach these inside the shoulder bells once I figure out how low the biceps needs to hang.

[daryldoak]

Glued the biceps closed:



Drilled the holes for the “kit-kats”:



CAUTION the guide holes on the template are incorrect!  You can see the difference in the above picture.

Added them:



USE EXTREME CAUTION when drilling the pilot holes in the kit-kats and screwing in the screws, the screws are too long for these!!  I added washers to them.

Also, I highly recommend adding these before gluing the shins.  It is really hard to screw them in after the shins have been assembled.

[daryldoak]

I added some Velcro to the center chest and the sides so I could do a rough fit test of the torso with the chest:



Then I went about getting the outer chest’s upper tips to properly “close”.  I used a heat gun and very slowly “bent” the tips so they would lay nicely on the inner chest.  It took a few applications to get it, but I think it turned out really nicely.  USE EXTREME CAUTION WITH THE HEAT GUN!  I used one quite a bit on my ANH Stunt TK, so I was comfortable with it.

Then I built up the inside with scrap ABS so that the Velcro would adhere properly between the inner and outer chest pieces:



Then added the Velcro and put them together:





I’m happy with how it turned out.

[daryldoak]

Time to tackle the belt build.

Started by printing the belt box template sheet.  CAUTION: Even though the template is 1:1, the boxes printed on the sheet are too small, and some of the center holes are not centered.  You can see the pencil lines I drew on the template:



Next I put the belt on the torso, with the spine and butt plate attached, in order to size the belt.  It’s way too big for me:



So I marked the proper size and started to unstitch the Velcro and strapping from the back of the rubber.  Then I used some clips to mock-up the size.  The top piece is the rubber belt, the bottom piece is the Velcro:



Then I cut the Velcro and strapping and then used some E6000 the reattach the strapping at the proper sizing:



Then I cut the rubber to the end of the male clip.  This shows how much I cut off of each:



Then glued a short piece over the female clip:



Then using the templates I marked the holes and used my leather hole punch to make the holes:



This is assembled, but I haven’t painted these resin boxes yet:



On the armor:







Bought a replacement for the large pouch from Trooperbay today, since the DN large pouch is too small for the ABS front panel.

Saw Jim mention that he couldn’t move his head in the armor with the helmet on, so I did a test:



Looks like I’ll be good.

[daryldoak]

Finally feeling inspired again, back at it.  Almost at the finish line.

Rough leg fitting:


Rough torso fitting:




Rough torso + legs fitting:


Rough arm fitting, need to raise the bicep a bit:


Converted from velcro to magnets for attaching the outer chest to the inner chest:


Results look good:


Final piece is the detonator.  The decals provided do not properly cover the end caps, so I painted black:

[daryldoak]

4/15 preapproval troop (GCO approved) at Randall Children's Hospital:



Wore the costume for about 1.5 hours, walking for most of it.  Overall went very well.  Learned that I have a few things that need adjusting.

[CadBane3]

Looks awesome, man!

[daryldoak]

Approved!!

[VADER0605]

Looks AMAZING!!!

[daryldoak]

First enhancement, replace the solid resin detonator with an accurate, two piece 3D printed detonator.

Thanks to our very own Darth V (Steve V) for the amazing 3D printed detonator.  The model came from FISD forums, created for the Denuo Novo armor.  It is sooo much lighter than the resin.

https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/52672-first-order-thermal-detonator-tfa-tlj-anovosdenuo-novo-replacement/



Painting the tube and the enclosure using the Behr satin black and gloss white:

[daryldoak]

Completed the new detonator:





Install on the spine plate just using a couple of wood screws:

 

Been working on some refinements to my suit-up process.

* Put spat on the shin before putting shin on.  This puts less stress on the spat than trying to spread it open and putting it on with shin already on leg.
* Attach leg gasket to thigh before putting thigh on.  This will be much easier than putting the gasket on first, then trying to get the thigh on properly without shifting the position of the gasket.

Here is my suit-up process.  All steps are done by myself unless otherwise is mentioned:

1. Put under-suit on.
2. Put on neck seal and balaclava.
3. Put shoulder/arm gasket on. 
4. Put thigh garter belt on.
5. Put lower torso on.
6. Attach gaskets to thighs, put on thighs, attaching thigh support straps to garter belt.
7. Put spats on shins, put shins on, tucking gaskets inside.
8. Slide up shins, put on boots, slide shin down over boot, position spat.
9. Attach cod piece to butt plate/spine plate.  Hang spine plate on back of lower torso.
10. Attach cod to front of torso.
11. Put fabric pouches on belt, put belt on.
12. Attach shoulder bells to upper torso, put on upper torso.
13. Put on biceps.  Have helper buckle bicep under shoulder bell.
14. Put on forearm.  Have helper attach gasket to inside of forearms.
15. Put on gloves.
16. Put on helmet.