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Brian, thanks for the support. I know it will be close but I will not know until the witching hour. Updates… Sanding is finally done (I hope). I knocked out the last few items earlier this week. I am still not happy with the thighs but I am hoping that the primer will do the job (fingers crossed). Next I built the paint booth. For this I used ¾” PVC. Lessons learned from my previous paint booth are as follows: 1. Buy a lot of “T’s”, you will still run out and need to go to Hope Depot but buy more than you think you need. 2. Ventilation, buys some cheap A/C filters and use them to filter air that is being introduced into in openings of the booth to equalize the pressure. 3. Figure out a way to prevent the sealed booth from collapsing due to negative pressure from vent fan. 4. Anchor the floor tarps so they don’t pull up from negative pressure. So I don’t recall exact measurements but I started out with a 10’ x 12’ x 80” tall booth and eventually made it 10’ x 10’ x 80”. I used more cross members and supports than I did on my previous booth to help in making the booth more resistant to the negative pressure. Once I tested the booth, I added some tables and hanging wires to hold the armor being painted. Since the hanging wire was an afterthought, I hard mounted it to the ceiling in my basement. This meant I needed to cut holes in the clear tarps and then reseal them. Due to a mistake on my part, I ended up adding another filter to one of the holes which will help in equalization. I did put some hanging wires on the PVC pipes but it will not support a lot of weight so this is for small stuff only. The blower is a 12” unit with exhaust hose I got from Northern tool. I already had an 8” (same model just smaller) for my smaller paint booth but I wanted something more effective. The motor is completely sealed so no issues with using it to vent flammable fumes. Running on low it does a great job for the paint booth. I think running it on high will be too strong for this paint booth. So, once everything was set up, I masked most of the armor and hung it in the booth. I still need to mask the helmet and then I will be ready to paint. Unfortunately, I will be working the next week so everything will have to wait until I am done with work. And that is the update, thanks for the interest.

Hi Rat, for the parts that are broken off or a bit beyond an easy green stuff patch , I would consider trimming these parts off an finding some replacements if you have a budget for it, like the charging handle and the rear sight. For the warped folding stock , I would try adding some thin metal support strips on the inner side so it won’t been seen but will guide that area straight. . The sterling d ring has more of a rounded curve on each side. Have a look at the blaster reference by clicking on the banner in my signature. You can find some good reference pics. It’s tough to get the right bend but perhaps with aluminum you can make an easier job of it. Brass or stronger metals are a pain to work with unless you have the right equipment or things to shape it around.. hope this helps.

LOL you caught me... i was only wearing 1 pant on a leg, and only pulled up to my thigh, I had the other leg in my teeth as a i took the picture. The undersuit definitely isn't as baggy as it appears. I'm also ordering from Imperial Boots this week for shoes - I guess I can use a pair of dress boots to do the sizing, thanks for reminding me. I also do have some return here - I will try removing some until it helps. Thanks!

The CRL states it is "optional" however, for those that have it already or it's molded into their armor but not cut out, this is a canon element, why not have it. Especially for those building their armor to accuracy specs.

Boots arrived today - thanks imperial boots

Hi there. I upgraded my DoopyDoos mag with one from Imperial Warfighters (UK). Whilst I had to do a little bit of repair work on mine, it’s certainly a big step up on the DD. Mine arrived with a little bit of damage to the front lip. Whilst I could have sent it back, I took it on as a project and corrected the issue with green stuff. This mag was under £20 GBP. Best wishes Dan :-)

So things are still a bit hectic but I'm sneaking in work whenever I can, trimming the armor pieces and working on outfitting my helmet with all of the electronics. I was getting some whine in the Hearing Assist that I got from Ukswrath that I could not get to go away and I narrowed it down to the USB battery packs I was using, but Tony and I got to talking and I ended up upgrading my electronics to his newest version. So now the Hearing Assist is powered by the speaker amp (yay for one less battery pack in the helmet!) and there's no more whining (me or the hearing assist). I wrapped up the helmet tonight and I'm really happy with how it turned out. Everything is contained in the helmet, so I won't have to run any wires outside of it and my big ol' noggin still fits inside too. That's dual fans & battery pack, hovi-tip speakers, I-comm, amp, and the hearing assist. Plus padding. I obviously don't have to state how quickly room runs out but it was fun working out how to get everything in there. The helmet now only goes on one way, but once it's on it is comfortable and somehow nothing is rubbing on me. I only used 4 helmet pads: one at my forehead, one on each side at about a 45 degree angle, and one at the rear at the base of my skull. The placement worked out very well, the helmet moves with my head and I can look up, down, and side to side without it moving away on its own. The soft side Velcro at the very top is just to provide a little extra friction against the top of my head, it helps keep the helmet still. Helmet outside: Inside: I glued each component on some scrap ABS as a mounting bracket/surface and used the ear screws as main mounting points. For the brackets that go up, I backed them with industrial Velcro to support the weight and to keep them from flopping down. And for the front, I installed the frown mesh with glue and then hot glued some fine fabric over the mesh to keep people from seeing inside, I'm not sure if I'll use a balaclava or not yet. I painted the dried glue flat back to clean it up some and then I used Velcro to mount my microphone in place. And obviously the accurate S-trim is already in place, that actually went on a lot easier than I expected based on what others have posted. lol And that's about it for where I am now. Now it's on to finishing the trimming of the rest of the armor pieces (one shoulder, biceps, forearms, and a couple leg pieces) and then it will be time for fitting and gluing and all that other fun stuff. Parts list from this post: Ukswrath Cooling Fan Kit Ukswrath TK Hovi Audio System Ukswrath SHA (Hearing Assist) US Army ACH/MICH Helmet Pad Set ( Link ) - From this I only used the 3/4" Oblong Pads

Well, it's been a while... Some family stuff took away most of my time to mess with my kit, but I still was fiddling with some things when I had any spare moments. I did get to go out with the Georgia Garrison to the May 4th Braves game, while I had originally hoped to troop that event I obviously was not done with my armor. So I volunteered as a photographer instead. A handful shots below and the rest HERE if anyone wants to look through them. It was a great time and it really got me itching to work on my own armor again!

oh Snap!!! Belt is done. Snap plates are going in. Gonna take a few days for lack of clamps and magnets. but ill get to my goal by this weekend!!!

That is one fine-looking TK you have there! I believe basic approval is in the bag, and the minor tweaks listed above if you're interested in EIB/Centurion. (Why not?!)

Hello, Originally posted on my Garrison's forum (Imperial Sands Garrison) and having completed and approved I thought that I would share my build here and on the MEPD forums. And yes, it took me a month and it was my first build! Of course I trolled this and the MEPD forums and I had tons of help from my garrison and Mentor. And with out further preamble...here goes!

Not if they match up

my feeling exactly Sure thing Totally bitten by the armor building-bug

Great photos and awesome looking helmet - well done

wow. Your helmet work makes me want to re-do everything about mine. This is a compliment. Impressive work.

I actually sewed mine, was quite time consuming sat in front of the machine do all 18ish straps. I guess I am lucky as I only use 1" as well and there's been no issues with "pull". Maybe the best course is start with elastic, but if there are areas that you can already tell will need pulling in or show they need it later in use swap to webbing.

A lot of that will depend on the particular connection. Some larger framed Troopers shooting for L3 have a problem with gaps between the a/kidney and kidney/back plates as well as what I call (for lack of a better phrase) "Trooper butt", where the posterior plate sticks way to far out under the kidney. Using nylon will help keep these areas tight and aligned, but can unfortunately restrict movement if there is not much wiggle room. Using elastic is great if you can get away with it on any connection, but as Chis mentioned, be sure to double it over before setting the snaps in in it. (I glue the double fold together before adding the snaps on mine for added strength).

I do the same as TM. I thought that was the natural way to set them.

You have an unusual way of pairing up the snaps. This is how I have always used them. Setting the snaps this way gives you a low profile male snap plate glued to your armour and the bulkier female snaps on your elastic straps.

Joseph used webbing here, I personally would recommend elastic for some flexibility. For elastic add an extra inch at end and then fold that back to double it over for extra strength.

What an adventure you've embarked on - here's a plastic alternative but requires trimming to get to screen accurate size. https://www.starwarscostumeprops.com/listing/529614517/new-star-wars-stormtrooper-1-12-wave Note: there's a sandtrooper Tunisian version from the same maker as well. I know there's rubberized versions as well and also metal replicas but are quite a bit more coin. Sent from my SM-G390W using Tapatalk

So i decided I couldn’t stand my bucket anymore. Took it completely apart. (Rivets and all) to get it looking better. I’m super happy with It now. I lowered the brow a tad, gave it a slight bow up in the middle, and got the ears fitting waaaay better. Before After Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

These 2 things really make the suit look much better! I had to trim the greeblies to fit snugly too. Also I see Jim added the bicep details in the newest version, nice

UPDATE!

That's awesome. I'm getting close, at least I'm on the last bits of assembly/fine tuning, from there I can move on to the paint stuff. Luckily I'm in Utah so it's crazy warm right now and decent painting temperature (If I'm in a garage)

Indeed Dan - and he has not done it all yet... The first two photos are really scaring. Let's keep fingers crossed you'll never have to disassemble that blaster for maintenance after filling the screw holes...

Loving this