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Hey all I've been looking forward to posting some progress on this project for awhile now. I've always really liked the phase 0 dark trooper from the Battlefront 1 and 2 and decided it needed to go on my projects list as something to make. I had to get through my version 2 tk armour, my fem trooper armour and an mg34 to get here but I've managed to make a bit of headway.

For anyone (everyone) wondering what the hell a dark trooper is have a look here:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Phase_Zero_dark_trooper

So I really like the sculpt (stormtroooper yet not stormtrooper), the back story (what do we do with all those injured clone troopers?) and they way it moved in the games (jetpack!)

Luckily there's a bit of reference material and screen shots on the net that I was able to get hold. The best stuff came from the rpf. I've made the following design decisions when approaching this build;
* the armour is low polygon count so curvature will need to be added
* the armour is bulkier than regular stormtrooper armour but not taller
* scaling will be needed to make the suit work in the real world
* I'll refer as much as possible to a couple of colour palette/ armour shapes files I found on the net





I was able to get a front, back, partial side and jet pack images which I got blown up to make a 1.8m figure. I mucked around with some of the dimensions to get it working better and got some starter profiles.



So the armour is kind of the same size as a stormtrooper just a bit wider and bulkier.



Here's it next to my mg34 and bucket

Construction for this guy is pretty straight forward but a bit labourious. I recast a few of my stormtrooper armour pieces to try and make things easier but in the end that was more hassle that it was worth and I just made most of the forms from scratch.

I've finished most of the forms at this stage. Quite a few need some final finishing and shaping but the bulk of the armour is done. I'll post a bunch of progress pics in this post just to give you an idea. the coolest part of the build was the jetpack! I had a lot of fun with that. The suckiest part of the build was the stupid legs. Lots of intersecting curves slowly squeezing my brain.







apologies to any ford drivers. that sticker on my toolbox was from a different time in my life I am not prejudice against fords













still a little bit to do on the jetpack. It's going to be roughly 8 pieces plus some backs for the inside of the main body

I've left the helmet till last as it's the trickest part and the piece I want to spend the most time getting as close to the look of the game as I can (keeping in mind it will have more curvature than the game graphic)

And finally I've started to pull some pieces on the vac former as I get them finished up. I started using black 2mm ABS sheet but it's a total PITA to get black ABS in New Zealand so I'm switching to white. It's all going to get painted anyway



Ok that's it for now. I'm going to be updating this thread hopefully regularly and I'm starting one on the rpf as well. As always comments and critique are always welcome
Cheers
oota

This is very cool!

I can't say I like the big peak on the back of the helmet, but everything else looks great. I'm all for the variety and can't wait to see one of these bad boys walking around.

Fantastic work as usual oota. I will love watching how this evolves. Artistic license will be to the fore here, as low polygon character models from a game are (by necessity) a compromise.
Do you see the armour as a grey colour or metallic?

As for the sticker...I couldn't agree more....I'd rather see them push a Holden than drive anything

Armante wrote:This is very cool!

I can't say I like the big peak on the back of the helmet, but everything else looks great. I'm all for the variety and can't wait to see one of these bad boys walking around.

Cheers Armante. Yeah it takes a bit of getting used to but I think it makes sense when you put it with a jet pack; a bit of a directional fin or whatever.

The armour is pretty big. I'm not really the right shape to wear this well it would suit someone bigger But anyway I'm going to give it a bash!

cadium wrote:Fantastic work as usual oota. I will love watching how this evolves. Artistic license will be to the fore here, as low polygon character models from a game are (by necessity) a compromise.
Do you see the armour as a grey colour or metallic?

As for the sticker...I couldn't agree more....I'd rather see them push a Holden than drive anything

Thanks Cadium yeah there's a lot of missing curvature to added back in. Fortunately there's enough reference material around that I can justify my changes

Well I'm reading it as mainly a mid-grey with gun metal panels, some black bits and some light grey bits. What do you reckon? Eyes are meant to be red I believe

I like this armour and helmet. The narrow nose bridge and flattened/broader frown and brow ridge gives it a look of mean determination.

oota goota wrote: it would suit someone bigger

How much bigger?

MattG wrote:I like this armour and helmet. The narrow nose bridge and flattened/broader frown and brow ridge gives it a look of mean determination.

yeah agreed! I've said this already on the thread but I really like the design and where they push the stormtrooper look to. It still looks like a stormtrooper but with a bunch of differences. I'm just working on the bucket at the moment and the back fin has some really nice (and somewhat frustrating) curvature on it