Home of the Sovereign Protectors

so i have ordered and recieved my bucket from fenix props and the helmet itself i think is great, though i was a little horrified when i saw how the box looked when it showed up. i guess mail down in south america isnt looked or cared for very well. i must say that fenix props did a good job and though it was probably unwise to have them paint it and have it all done for myself, i was a little afraid as to how i would tackle this as my first project, i have worked on TB and a little TK rmor but have never really done anything with the helmet.200 is alot of money and if i were to screw up, well...bye bye half a weeks pay. this week i plan on ordering some biker scout shoulder bells to cut up which brings me to this. is it ok to vacuform them just incase i screw one up? because in the future i may also want to do some other suits and i would like to have backups for them as well. also, can i use the plastice shoulders as a mold, or would the hot sheets of ABS i plan on using melt or warp the said copied piece? i need to know if its up to snuff or force me to get a clay mold. lastly, i was wondering if anyone had schematics and a list of things i would need to get to make a thero-former, if its acceptable. i would like to get some trooper suits for one of my in-laws because hes a huge fan and surprising him with a tk suit that i made from plastice here instead of buying them premade and having to pay for the shipping would cut my costs down tremendously. thanks guys, anything would help.
-Manuel-

Manuel,

I would be very careful in pulling plastic from someone else's pieces. This is what in the community is known as re-casting and is generally frowned upon. If you do want to pull your own pieces (and have the setup to do so) it is highly recommended you make your own moulds from which to pull the plastic. There are plenty of people around who have done this and have the expertise in how to set it all up.

Agreed - pulling copies of anyone elses work = re-casting.

Buying a set of TK bells (yes those are the right ones to use for the shadow guard) - cutting them, shaping them, making them your own - then making a mold of those should be a ok.

Or there is this option also ...

pepakura....thnx but no thnx, ive had too many bad experiences with that, though i very much appreciate the idea, heck, i didnt even know that there was a file. imagine having an entire set of helmets all constructed and having armor and weapons as well. then finding out one day that it was all destroyed by 13 dogs because you cant bring your work home with you. months of work gone. so the line "a dog ate my homework" is very much a good excuse... maybe when the trauma has gone away, i may look into doing small things like a comm or something.

Man...that's an interesting question about re-casting. My uninformed opinion is this: First, I'd ask the creator of the original armor his/her opinion. Tell them your thoughts and reasons for it. This shouldn't be too big of a problem so long as you're not planning on selling the pieces, I think that's fine. I'm of the opinion if you're not going to make money off of it then it's cool. But like I said, this is an uninformed, and not really well thought out opinion

thnx, and no, i dont intend on ever selling armor, i have to get all my stuff from scratch. its a matter of helping myself save money in the long run. like i said, if i was to order the pieces then screw up. well. id probably put the project off for another few months because convention season for me is comming up here real quick. i just want to make an extra strickly for myself.