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excellent work - carry on

Good to know! I figured best to double check before I glue flexible hand guards to these. It probably does not come off as easily as ABS does

My gloves look just like these. And nothing was ever mentioned to me on my Centurion application.

Correct. We've probably read and seen the same information . The point I was focusing on was not whether the edges are 45 degrees or other, but moreover they're not required.

Now starting to see the end of this build, but there's still a bit to do: finish the leg's (I've done the right undersuit leg, still to do the left), strapping on the shin guards, finish painting and detailing the helmet, including lenses and installing the mouth & chin grills, and filling in the indentation in the middle of the circle shape on the belt buckle. I also need to buy boots and am hunting around for suitable ones, otherwise I'll make something up for them. Everything else is essentially done, so I couldn't resist just propping it up on the couch and balancing the helmet on top, hoping it wouldn't roll off. Here's were it's at now, I'm still aiming for Supanova in 3 weeks, which gives me two more weekends to finish.

6

Alright Luc thanks for your patience brother. Welcome to your EIB application. Let's have a look. CRL and EIB Application Requirements: All submission photos have been posted. Beautiful job on your ATA build. All required photos have been posted. Andrew and I are pleased to say your armor displays all the necessary elements to qualify for Expert Infantry. Congratulations! Other-Armor Fit/Assembly: In this section we review observations made by your fellow troopers and ourselves. Some observations may lead to suggestions to improve the overall look of your armor. We have a couple minor suggestions to mention here. Areas to work on to enhance the overall accuracy and look of your armor. Starting at the top and working our way down 1) Frown, technically it should extend just past the outer edge, though yours aren't bad they could stand to be a little longer. Reference photo 2) The shoulder bells should be closer to the chest and back plates. Tighten the straps and or removing additional lower return edge should bring them closer. As suggested by your fellow troopers if you're using elastic for the upper connection you might want to switch it with nylon webbing eliminating the stretching. Reference photo 3) Posterior should reside under the Kidney. A simple strapping adjustment here should do the trick. Reference photo 4) Lastly your thighs. As you already called it they could stand to come up a bit. Reference photo Centurion Suggestions: Because Centurion photos show much more detail than EIB, items pertaining to Centurion might be seen there and not here. We try to point out all we can from what is seen but the final accuracy is the responsibility of the trooper. A this time we have nothing to add. Great job on your build Luc

Hey guys and gals, I finally finished my Stormtrooper blaster and I've been searching all over the internet for a suitable blaster stand to put it on display. I'm not really a fan of the transparent acrylic ones and any other stands I saw were either no longer being made, out of stock, or just too darn expensive. That's when I stumbled across Matt's Shack (click for the original blog article). Matt has created a great little stand that you can do on a budget. Parts were about $20 and the data plate was about $20, although I did have some paint and a wooden dowel left over from my blaster build so I didn't have to buy those. You can certainly follow Matt's article but I thought I'd post my build here since I made a few modification to the dimensions and hole spacing. Here's the completed stand: It's really easy to put together and something I built in a few days. Most of that time was waiting for paint to dry. Materials: Base : An oak board I got from Home Depot. 3/4" thick, 3 1/2" wide, 4 feet long, but you really only need 2 feet. Poles : 5/8" Wooden Dowel. 10 inches long is fine. Holder : 1 1/2" ABS Plastic Pipe Coupling cut in half Plaque : E-Bay (captain-america-tfa) Misc - 2 small screws for the data plate, 4 drywall screws for the dowel ends, black EVA crafting foam and contact cement for the padding. Build: Starting with the base. The 3/4" thick by 3 1/2" wide were already perfect. I just needed to trim the length to 2 feet. I used a router with a roman ogee bit to give some detail to the edges. Give it a quick hit with sandpaper to clean up the edges so there are no little bits of wood left hanging on. Next I painted the base with wood primer. My original idea was to get rid of the wood grain. I thought if I painted on several coats of primer and then sanded it down I would get rid of the grain and leave a smooth surface. That wasn't the case. After 4 coats and sanding, it pretty much did nothing to hide the grain and wasted a lot of time. Then I switched to filler/primer I had leftover from my blaster build and still no change to the grain. I figured fine, I'll keep the wood grain look. :-) Next I moved onto the pipe coupling... Using the grid guide on my cutting mat, I found the center point and cut the coupling in half. I sanded down the cut areas so they were nice and smooth and used a Dremel with a sanding drum to take off the little ridge in the center of the coupling. I marked the center point where the dowels would attach and drilled a small pilot hole. Then I used a 5/8" spade bit to make a recess for the dowel to fit into. Be careful not to drill right through your coupling. I cut a 5/8" wooden dowel into two segments. One 4 inches long and one 5 inches long. I painted the wooden dowels with primer and sanded them down with 400 grit for a slightly smoother finish. Next I drilled a pilot hole into the ends and used a black drywall screw to attach the pipe couplings to the wooden dowels. Next I used masking tape to mask off the center part of the coupling where the crafting foam will be glued. Then I used some leftover spray paint. I used Tamiya Grey Primer to prime the dowels and couplings and painted them with some Rust-oleum Silver I found in the cupboard. I then removed the masking tape from the couplings and cut two rectangles of black crafting foam which were glued onto the coupling with contact cement. Next I drilled the holes for the dowels in the base. I used the same 5/8" spade bit to drill a recess where the dowels will fit into. Maybe 1/4" deep. Again, be careful not to drill right through the base. These are the spacings I used for the holes. Measurements are taken from the outer edge of the board (not the edge of the routering) to the center of the hole. Then I painted the base. I had quite a bit of spray paint leftover from my blaster build. So even though it's not really meant for wood. I primed the base (again) with Tamiya Grey Primer and gave the base 3 coats of Tamiya TS-14 Black Gloss and 2 coats of Tamiya TS-13 Gloss Clear. These are the same paints I used for the handle (grip) of my E-11 so I had lots left over. Sorry, no photos of the painting in-progress. Once everything was completely dry flipped the board over to work on the bottom. The spade bit I used for countersinking the dowels on the top left a nice (smaller) hole in the bottom for the drywall screw. I just had to countersink this hole so that the base would sit completely flat. I drilled a pilot hole in the bottom of the wooden dowels and screwed the drywall screws in from the bottom to hold the dowels in place. (There's lots of overspray but I didn't care what the bottom looks like) Lastly I attached the E-11 Plaque I found on ebay from Captain-America-TFA. If you click this link it should take you to the purchase page but in case the listing changes, just search ebay for "Custom E-11 Blaster Plate" and you should find it. I think he's on ETSY too. I just used some small black screws I had leftover. That's it. I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. Mark

Name: Yiqiao Zhao 501st TK ID: TK-88101 (Link to 501st : http://www.501st.com/members/displaymember.php?userID=25423&costumeID=124) EIB Request Link: Armor = RS Helmet = RS Blaster = RS Height = 176cm Weight = 55kg Boots = TKBoots Canvas Belt = RS Hand Plates = RS Neck Seal = RS Holster = RS Thank you for your consideration!

You did now

Wow. I never win anything.

Those pieces are at the largest 1/4". Let it set over night and stir it to mix as well as checking the consistency. Sent from my VK815 using Tapatalk

Sweet, thanks Rat...and the picture is a great reference! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the good eye and the encouragement! I did clean up the return edge and started gluing the front cover strip. I plan to do one more resizing before I finish with the back cover strip. I'll also post pics to make sure I get the taper and vertical alignment right of the back cover strip, before I glue it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My build is near completion. I have been feeling pretty crummy the past couple weeks so I've been taking things more slowly. Last night I made a to-do list of everything that needs to be finished and I completed it this afternoon. I'll suit up for some pics when my husband gets home. I think I'm about ready to submit for basic. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Here's how I made my ABS paste: https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/38416-crickets-rs-stunt-build-for-the-vertically-challenged/?tab=comments#comment-514232 Hope that helps!

Right between 5'9" and 5'10" and around 175 pounds so I'm fairly close to screen accurate. Sent from my VK815 using Tapatalk

Looking good! Our founding fathers wanted nothing to do with anything Catholic, so Good Friday was out

Suso, congratulations for your new level of EIB!!! You have a few flaws but easy to solve. we hope you soon as Centurion. Oscar Enviado desde mi SM-G955F mediante Tapatalk

Would these gloves work for centurion? I am unsure about the texture on the top of the finger tips

While waiting for the glue to dry on my kidney tab and for the ABS paste repairs to cure on the bracket holes, I began looking at other parts of my kit to see what else I could do in the meantime. I remembered that my biceps seemed kind of small on me. Not that they don't fit, because they do. But I would prefer them to be a little more loose than they currently are. Since removing the ridges on them, they're awfully small. I saw somewhere around here that someone increased the bicep size by simply creating a gap under the cover strip. So I decided to pull apart my biceps and increase the circumference about 1cm. I'm only going to pull apart the back side of the bicep for now because I don't think I'll need much more than 1cm. (I could also do this to the front as well.) You can see where the halves of the armor meet together, sandwiched by an inner and outer cover strip. After removing the inner and outer cover strips, it's time to make a suitable gap. You don't want the gap to be any bigger than 1cm on each side. This is because you want to have at least a few mm on each side to glue the cover strips on. (Remember, the cover strip on the biceps should be about 15mm wide.) I taped things off from the outside first in order to secure the halves with the desired gap size I need. You can see the light shining through here. Then I applied a bit of e6000 to the edges of the gap. The inner cover strip will be secured here. Then I take the same inner cover strip I'd used before and clamp it down. Further clamped with magnets. Once these cure, I'll remove the blue tape on the outside and glue the outer cover strip back on. **Note!** I don't think that I would do this procedure without having an inner cover strip on there. When I attach the outer cover strip, there will be glue applied to the edges of the bicep and to the inner (exposed) cover strip. This new closure should be pretty strong!

I built my Doopys blaster this past week. I decided to make a few mods, but not go crazy in this one. I definitely think another, more derailed, blaster build is in my future. Metal thumb screws, metal site pin, drilled out barrel tip. Modded parts prior to painting. My rag tag paint area. I’m using Rustoleum satin black. Here is the finished product. I’m going to keep the blaster looking new for now, to match my new armor. I’m sure there will be some weathering in my future. Cheers! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

16 fyi: https://m.imgur.com/px3Ksz1?r

To help the bells come closer to the bicep and chest I suggest some elastic glued to the bell as seen below on Luke -----------

Thanks! It would probably be helpful if I shared my PVC supply list, wouldn't it? This should be enough PVC for most average height trooper displays. It cost about $36, but should even come to less than that because I purchased some extra 1/2" PVC pipes and connectors for this, and never used them. It took me less than an hour to cut and assemble it, even including adjusting the height down to my size. Fittings 1" tee- 3 1" cross- 2 1" 45 degree- 2 1" 90 degree- 2 1.25" tee- 6 1.25" caps (not entirely necessary, but nice to have)- 2 Pipe 1" PVC pipe- 10 feet length 1.25" PVC pipe- 10 feet length I made my mannequin similar to the one in this video: I like how you can easily separate the torso and leg parts on this. I didn't do the same 'floating arm' modification because none of the 1/2" caps I could find would fit into the 1" PVC, even after heating things up with a heat gun. I made the top half of the torso out of 1" PVC and connectors, and it works just fine.

Thanks Rat! Yeah once I get the front cover strips on, I'll get a final fit and taper the thighs. BTW, was there a thread that explains how to make ABS paste? I have a few nicks from trimming that I want to fill. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

As you said, the backplate tabs could benefit some reshape (if the back plate sits as high as it can) and to help with that I suggest you remove more of the returns as it`s prone to cracking even when heated. The chest plate looks like it`s in the right position (nice and high) so my advise here would be triming more of the return edge to make it less "choking"

Congrats on your EIB!

Well done, Suso. Welcome to the ranks.

Congratulations Luc, nice armour you have, a few tweaks and we will see you at Centurion Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Welcome to the forum mate, and good luck with your armour, whatever you do. I’m an armour building novice, having only recently completed my TK armour. I can confirm first hand that the guys n gals on here are both very knowledgable and very helpful regarding all aspects of building a costume. I can also confirm and this is from someone with no prior knowledge of ABS that the repairs are indeed very simple to undertake, heck even I can do it, so it must be simple . Welcome, good luck in your quest for armour and ask any questions, someone will have the answer, oh and remember..... the only daft question is a question that’s not asked..... we have all been there not knowing what we were doing at some point .... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Congratulations on achieving EIB, a few small tweaks and we will see you at Centurion . Well done trooper Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Congratulations trooper

Anovos is a decent set of armor, but as mentioned by Brien, though, it is a little on the thin side. The wait times have been up to a year, and because of this and communication problems it has been removed from the "vetted" seller's list that Dan provided the link for. If it's not too late, I would cancel that order. Unfortunately, it would require quite a bit of work to get it up to 501st requirements, and it is definitely a "recast" (copy) of someone else's armor. This is not a good thing. Your best bet would be to save up a bit more money and use on of the sellers suggested on that thread. They are tried and true, are known as reputable vendors, and their kits are 100% approvable when built to our standards. In the eBay listing I noticed this quote from that seller: (on ABS)... and if it cracked or damaged, repairs are difficult, costly, and rarely return the plastic to its original state. Fiberglass, however, is not only more durable than ABS, but repairs to it can also be easily completed by almost anyone. This is simply not true. Unless you have some experience working with fiberglass, repairs are not nearly as easy as working with ABS. Is fiberglass more durable? Yes, in some ways, but a good set of ABS armor will last you you for many, many years, and repairs are pretty easy (and VERY inexpensive). Plus you will have a ton of information here and hundreds of fine folks who may have had the same problems to help you out.

Congratulation Suso! welcome to the rank. Cheers

Hi Suso, thank you for your application for the EI badge, lets have a look at your armour! CRL and EIB Application Requirements: All submission photos have been posted. Your armor displays all the necessary elements to qualify for Level 2. Congratulations and welcome to Expert Infantry trooper! Other-Armor Fit/Assembly: In this section, Tony and I review suggestions made by your fellow troopers and our own observations. All go towards improving the final look of your armor. If there is anything that would affect a future Centurion application it will be mentioned in that section at the bottom. We do have some minor things that could be corrected for accuracy sake Frown paint job too far from gums and could be extended at the ends slightly. There are several slightly different frown paint jobs in the movie, and we try to look for a happy medium so the bulk of our troopers look the same. You could paint the frown so the teeth are painted to the gum line as we see most of our applicants do, but also slightly extend the ends. I have added a reference chart below. Knee pack rivets incorrect position The thigh ammo pack looks to be mounted too high, the rivet should be located in the corner and the top of the pack in line with the top of the ridge of the thigh. Reference Image Thermal Det screws This is just a nice to have in the accuracy stakes. It is difficult to tell the type of screws you have used due to the small image size, but they look like Dome head screws. The screen used Det's used a Pan head slotted screw type. Reference Image Centurion Suggestions: The ultimate accuracy of Centurion is up to the Trooper, and as we have mentioned above, you are already on your way to making those finer details. Make sure in your Centurion application, you keep an eye on things like Ab to Kidney gap, any overlaps or excessive spaces occurring while having your photos taken, and follow the Lvl 3 CRL and photo check list. Great work and once again, congratulations sir

Hi Tony, Just for clarity, (myself and anyone else reading), the thigh piece you’ve referenced appears to be the same thigh from the RS suit that I referenced early in the thread where I suggested 45 degree angles on the cover strips for a more screen accurate appearance. When we zoom in on those pieces, and others on the RS suit, it appears that most pieces had the ‘intention’ of a 45 degree cut (give or take). When I’ve looked online, a chamfer appears to be describing a type of bevel at 45° angle to two adjoining right-angled faces. Am I right that you are just confirming that whilst some cover strips are cut with 45 degree corners, others (like the elbow end of the forearm that you pictured) are cut to conform to the relevant armour piece, not strictly 45 degrees? Thanks in advance. :-) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Updated. We really need something of the holster though. FWIW, I had to tweak the wording a bit.

Well done, Luc. :-) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Removed.

Looks good!!

When I checked for the return edge, I never thought of looking there because for me, it was part of the pattern on the piece. I sanded the return edge, is this OK?

Thank you for the answers and the warm welcome! It has been a long time since I've been into any online community. Yes, I paid $189. Is that fairly average? I was worried that the Shadowtrooper would be harder to find materials for. Now I am looking into the 501st vendors and guides.

Imperial Boots for the win! https://imgur.com/a/s375M

Hey, lookie at what I finished! No, that's not my WTF kit. haha... I built a PVC mannequin last week and dressed my RS kit on it. I think my kit is much happier here than in my bin. My helmet is displayed on my wall, so that's why the mannequin was headless. I've since added a foam head, complete with a beret and aviator sunglasses. Anyhow, if you've got an extra $35 bucks or so laying around, and you want to display your kit, I highly recommend picking up some PVC pipes and fittings, and building a PVC mannequin. I'm still building the platform base (to hide those ugly pipes and to properly display some 'display only' boots), but it'll be an easy assembly once I get time for it. And now, back to the build! I tried on the torso last week and discovered that the right side of the kidney could be trimmed about 2 cm to better fit my frame. I hadn't trimmed anything off the sides of the kidney yet, and glad to realize that I didn't need to take much off in that area. In fact, the 2 cm only needed to come off of the right side! Yay! I used my compass tool to draw my cut line on the kidney. I removed the gaffer's tape and traced again before cutting. And I measured about four more times after this to ensure that everything would be even on both sides if I did this little trim. But before I could cut, I needed to remove the kidney tab from the inside. See, I told you that it's important to use e6000 for this! Okay, I can't deny that there is immense satisfaction when you can peel a whole section of e6000 off at one time. It's as good as popping bubble wrap, am I right?! Okay, with that tab removed, I removed the brackets on the right side of the butt plate and kidney as well. I have to move the brackets due to the loss of that extra 2cm of material. Here's the outline for the new kidney notch. The return was so strong that I couldn't cut through it. I had to cut along the corner, then score/snap the return first. This allowed me to then easily cut the ABS of the kidney. I'll patch up the extra holes left from the previous placement of the brackets, then install the brackets in their new location once everything has cured. I did some minor hot water bath shaping on the chest to curve it in a little more and fit the ab better. And glued the ab buttons on. I'm currently waiting for glue to dry on the chest/ab elastic connections. I've glued just the ab parts first, and will follow up with securing the chest part later. I think I'll tackle the shoulders next. I don't want to get the ab/chest fully attached just yet because I don't have the shoulders properly fit at this point. Once I get the torso fully dialed in, then I'll begin sizing down the legs.

Congratulations Trooper and welcome to the ranks

Thanks, Frank! Yep, feeling good and moving along now. I definitely feel more comfortable on this build than the first one. I don't have that nagging "Is this right?" question always in my mind like before. This allows me to work at a faster pace, actually! That said, I'm working on several other costume builds at the same time, so that slows down my TK progress for sure. I was selected as a team lead sewer on a really big costume build project for my garrison, so that has taken a bit of time away from the Hero, too. And kids. They kept me super busy during their Winter Break last week! So glad they're back in school now so I can resume Star Warsing. Honestly though, I think I'd be done with this kit by now if I didn't have the attention span of a squirrel.

Just received my BBB from Anovos. Hoping to start building tomorrow.

If that is the case and you try my method, before closing the gap try gently warming the plastic with a heat gun or hair dryer first. You want to warm the outer half of the forearm since that is the part that needs persuading. Try a few gentle wafts and then try a few more until the plastic gives. You just need to warm it up enough so the plastic is more pliable and then quickly tape it closed. You want the glue applied to the inner part when you do this and have your tape strips ready, then use magnet and/or clamps to keep the parts secure while the glue dries. It's worth a shot

Sunday evening update, after having an odd day on the leg parts. Have started strapping the upper body together. Still need to attach the biceps to the bells with poppers to stop them from slipping (Is that correct?) CFO STORMTROOPER BUILD by Justin, on Flickr CFO STORMTROOPER BUILD by Justin, on Flickr CFO STORMTROOPER BUILD by Justin, on Flickr CFO STORMTROOPER BUILD by Justin, on Flickr Attached the glove parts with velcro but they keep coming off so may just glue the velcro to the glove. CFO STORMTROOPER BUILD by Justin, on Flickr Will start on the butt and abs section over the week and attach it to the chest and back and join the chest and back together as well CFO STORMTROOPER BUILD by Justin, on Flickr