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I would agree with RS that the ANH stunt helmets were made from PP rather than what was commonly thought as HDPE. I have formed both materials as RS has and PP has the best results. Having handled the original RS ANH armour it felt very much like Styrene to me. It was very rigid and brittle which is not surprising due to it's age, so it's possible it could have been made from ABS but deteriorated over time. Another possibility which I strongly believe in is that the armour was made from at least two types of plastic, since some were made in-house at Elstree and the majority made by Ainsworth, so it's highly possible that the studio used one plastic and Ainsworth used another. As long as it was white plastic was good enough...right? ESB used reconditioned ANH armour. Completely new costumes were being made for ESB but never came to fruition in time with only one making an appearance on scree. These were made from haircell ABS with the texture on the inside. These costume were ultimately used for promotional purposes after ESB was released and formed the base for new costumes for ROTJ. These were slightly refined versions and made from smooth ABS.

Okay, now with another DragonCon in my rear view mirror, it's time to get to work on this kit! I can't help but sharing one of my favorite pics from the con... When the worlds of Star Wars and Pokemon Go collide, you know you're at DragonCon! And now, the BBB day box pics, because that's kind of a thing, isn't it? Awww, aren't they cuuuute? I love how well-wrapped each piece is. And this was something I didn't receive in my last RS kit... pre cut and drilled aluminum to make my own thermal detonator clips. Nice! Took everything out and inventoried... And the helmet bits and pieces are all there, too. Old TK, meet new TK! So today I spent about 90 minutes doing all of the rough trimming of the kit. I used my compass tool to draw consistent cut lines to the returns. It all went faster- and smoother- than I expected. Not very much plastic left over at this point. I know there will be more extra scrap once I begin the front side assembly phase of this kit. At any rate, I honestly don't think I could possibly use all that extra plastic for ABS paste anyhow! My biggest challenge for this kit will be to not build it for my husband! I had him try on some pieces, and it all fits him very well. He is super excited to become a TK, and I will be building an RS Props kit for him once I'm done with this one. Hoping to have this kit finished by early December. Must stay on target!!! Tomorrow will be focused on trimming the front seams and gluing inner cover strips to forearms, biceps, thighs, and shins.

Update, I wanted to ensure that the barrel was secured to the frame so I notched the frame and cut another piece of plywood. Then I fit the parts together and glued them in place. I have been torn with rebuilding the cooling fins and adding a cover over them like this. But this would require another modification to the feed tray and I like how its coming along so this is one detail that will not be incorporated in my build. With that settled, I primed and painted the cooling fins. I cut the center peep sight out of the rear sight and extended the inside rectangle about ¼” longer towards the bottom. Once I did this, I realized that I will need a longer bolt but I think this looks better. So I mentioned in a previous post that I had cut a horizontal line in the feed tray to give it a more realistic look. Here are some pictures of that line. SO I figured out how I will replicate the rivets in the feed tray. I went to Ace hardware and picked up a few things. These are some furniture nails. And this is how they look on the feed tray. Also note that Glued on the low fence just above the rivets in the picture. I had some time so I ran a test of the sandblasted roll markings on a spare piece of the resin. Here is the vinyl decal mask I printed in my silhouette. Since these markings are so small, its hard to keep the small vinyl parts that go inside the letters like the letter “b” or “O” but I think the overall look is a nice touch. I applied the mask to the resin and sandblasted it. Once I removed the mask, I brushed on some black paint and wiped it away and I like how it turned out. So my plan is to prime the feed tray then mask and sand blast. Then adhere it to the frame and paint it. I sanded the sides of the receiver and added some PC-7 to the spring knob to widen it and make it look more realistic. I will sand this once its cured and shape it properly. Lastly, another thing I got from Ace Hardware was an “I” bolt and a coupler nut. This will be the tall aerial sight. First, I needed to make the coupler nut round so I put it on the lathe. Next, I ground down the front and back face of the “I” bolt to remove the markings and flatten its rounded look. Then I drilled a hole in the top and through the center of the base of the “I” bolt. Next I tapped the hole with a 4mm tap. Next, I added a 4mm set screw for the sight aperture. In this picture I screwed on the now rounded coupler nut. This is what will protrude on top of the barrel shroud. I think it will work out nicely. And that is it for the update. Thanks for the interest.

E11 Trigger internal frame going through its ops

Gotta have some laughs in life [emoji106] Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk

Yeah rub it in why don`t you…..

Yes!!! You should only be sizing your thighs to fit for width at this point, not length. Don't trim those thighs down just yet! It's very important to make sure your torso is correctly fitted first. To look best, the tops of the thighs and the bottom of the cod should have as little black as possible between them (still allowing for relative comfort to walk, of course). The thigh tops and cod bottom edges should kind of fit like loose puzzle pieces. I made the mistake of trimming my thighs without the torso, and overtrimmed them waaaay too much. They seemed fine at the time on their own, but once the torso was on- yikes! An expensive mistake for sure. I had to order new thighs. I didn't make that mistake again. Adding some pics so you can see my overtrimmed vs. better trimmed (i.e. trimmed with correctly fitting torso on): Overtrimmed thighs. They fit high, but leave too much of a gap at the knees. When I lowered them into a better position at the knees, I ended up with too much black showing at the hips. Gah! Below you can see my second set of thighs after trimming around the properly-fitted torso.

Hi Adi! Honored to be asked. Tony has given great instructions; sorry I only just now saw your question! (Who ever thought I'd give advice on my thread?!) If you're still curious what I did, here's my experience with hot water bathing. When learning to reshape my pieces, I first tried pouring the boiling water into another container and placing the armor in the new container for 30 seconds. It hardly did anything to soften it, even when I left it in for longer. I think it just cooled down too fast in a new container. What ended up working for me was putting on protective gloves and bringing water to a rolling boil, then holding the piece I wanted to shape with a pair of tongs and submerging it in the pot only to a little past the point I wanted to bend. For instance, I knew I didn't want to risk messing up the clean line of the ridge along the outside of the bicep, so I only submerged the bicep edge horizontally until the ridge. You'll want to grab the part that's above water with the tongs. I held the piece partially underwater for 30 seconds then pulled it out, shook the water off, and pushed it into shape with my palm and the heel of my gloved hand while I turned to the sink. I pushed the cold water on with my wrist while holding the new curve in place (if that won't be possible for you I recommend filling the sink with cold water before you start so you can dunk the pieces in that instead), and let the water run over the plastic until it started cooling off. My gloves were thin enough that I could feel it cooling off - it took about 10 seconds to be past the point of easy damage. 30 seconds in boiling water was just enough time to get it to bend - I only had a little bending time when it came out - but not enough time for it to be floppy, or make me concerned about leaving dents with my fingers. It will feel stiff, but it does move. Bend a little, cool it, check, and repeat if you need to. It's better to have it in the water for too short an amount of time than too much! You should get a feel for things pretty quickly. At first it felt like nothing was happening but then I held the pieces up to each other and was happily surprised by the progress. I will have to reinvestigate options when it's time to reshape pieces too large for a pot, but I've heard of people filling their sink with boiling water and adding new water to keep it hot occasionally as they worked, which is what I'll try. Be safe, and let me know how it goes, please! ATA ABS is thick, but workable.

Also: No rivet gun needed, and they're removable at any time. A.J.

Waiting for E6000 is like....

There are probably a few on here that also have BF costumes, but you might want to ask over at the Bounty Hunter's Guild as well. http://thebhg.net/

Haha. Thanks, Dan. ;-)

Okey...I can`t hold it in any longer ….(sorry for the hijack Taylor)….You insist on calling me Dan but Dan you call Daniel altough he is to be called Dan and I´m Daniel although we both are named Daniel! (just pulling you leg Rat...but still beeing serious about the name-calling) What`s Life without love and humor

@Cricket I tried on the ab plate with the thighs like I mentioned, and yeah, I certainly have some trimming to do for all three pieces. Sorry for the awkwardness [emoji23] I had to bend my knees forward in order to get the thighs to stay up, because I had to hold up the ab plate too. But yeah, the thighs and ab create that U shape Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk

Forget my TK mates! Haha, never! - especially so since still have allot more build to go and go and go....not sure exactly when I'll finish my blaster... do wanna prime and paint before the summer sun completely disappears. Sent from my SM-G390W using Tapatalk

Yeah, just as Rat mentioned, I was focusing on length and not circumference. I'm still trying to figure out how much to trim from the sides. As for picture angle, I have no helpers, I'm completely alone on this, even with pictures [emoji23] Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk

I know you mentioned that you corrected the thigh placement- so I am assuming that you've corrected the seam placement to show up in the front. But I don't know if you realized that in these pics, you've got the left shin on the right leg. You can tell this because the deeper swoop always goes to the inner thigh for easier mobility. Just swap your thigh, and you'll be golden.

I'm not positive but I think she has been focusing on the length so far and not the girth Daniel. Sent from my VK815 using Tapatalk

Nice work on those ab buttons

Nice progress so far, Taylor. Just an observation. I know it's early days and you are currently in the "tape bits up" phase, and it might just be the angle of the photos, however it looks like you might be sizing the shins and thighs a little on the big side. Usual rule of thumb is to leave around a fingers width around most limb parts (some suggest a little more around the top of the thighs for mobility), so that the armor is a nice fit to the wearer. Nice and snug around the boots is also a nice look. Here's a nice example of the fit around the boot and lower leg: Keep up the great work. :-)

Or if you trust RS then the best source to match their original stunt helmet is a PP plastic.

Impressive work, as always. :-) (Almost thought you’d forgotten us!) ;-)

Welcome Trever. :-) It is believed that the six ANH “hero” helmets were made with white ABS. As above, the original 50 “stunt” helmets were made from Khaki coloured HDPE, then painted white.

As far as I know the ESB mkii suits were made in a pinseal/Hair cell and and rotj in smooth ABS. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

For a new hope they used ABS for the armour and HDPE for most/all the helmets (not 100% on that one). ESB used ANH armour repainted plus a few fresh helmets that are closer to ROTJ in look. ROTJ was all new armour, I believe they used ABS but @troopermaster or @sskunky would know for sure. Most decent Stormtrooper kits will be made of ABS. Some will be available in either PVC or HIPS to reduce cost, and the age yellowing ABS suffers. Most members will be using ABS kits though. Occasionally an HDPE helmet run will happen but not often and these tend to be bought for collections rather than trooping.

Adding some photos Hand plate options ANH or ESB/ROTJ TD's ROTJ Or Game

Kind of late to the party, but I also like to add. I have built a RS suit (as a TD) and an ANH hero set + a ESB bucket from Paul. Both are great kits and fun to work with, but I prefer Paul’s kit anytime. And yes, it’s pure work of art.

Hi everybody! It sure has been a while since my last post - the intricacies involved with getting my BlastFX speaker installed and scratch building by ROTEB (rear of the exposed bolt) had been challenging. A wire to my speaker broke off and I needed to paint the ROTEB since its an inner component, it won't be easily accessible after install. Discovered liquid electrical tape and applied it stabilize the speaker wire, after some soldering and keeping things in place with E-6000. As for the ROTEB paint, used metallic and flat black for the charge handle. Getting the charging handle of the ROTEB installed was a tricky endeavor - had to feed in the ROTEB down the reciever tube and had to put the handle in place from the outside within the charging handle track. Then, only to get in the screw for the charging handle from the hole revealed from taking out the trigger group. I eventually did It! To protect the speaker from the compressed coil when the charge handle is engaged, a plastic washer was installed. I skipped the idea about foam. I will soon screw the speaker into place and also screw in the end cap retainer. The end cap retainer is carved to accommodate the speaker. Taking a closer look, I blundered on the carving and have to follow through with more carving to get the end cap retainer oriented correctly. The outside of the end cap retainer has three holes drilled so it can be installed into the end of the reciever tube. Holes recessed to accommodate screw heads. Feeling so very ellated! Charging handle is now operational! It has allot of resistance with the gauge of wire from Tino's Completion Set. It can be pulled back and the blaster can still achieve 'surround sound' by using the reciever tube as an echo chamber for my BlastFX speaker! Blast and stun sound is nice and loud!! What follows is some photos with descriptions... Original doopydoos charging handle much like the real thing with a circular base - I sanded away the sides so that it can fit through the charging handle track. Prepped for tiny screw to get it into place. Here's some updated pictures of the ROTEB group of components. Metallic paint on spring cup and ROTEB with matt black on the charging handle. Taped over an area of the ROTEB so that I can install that raised portion of the ROTEB with clearing strip at a later time. It'll be easy to install as I would simply plop it into place at the charging handle track. Here, ROTEB funneled into receiver tube and charging handle to position inside the charging handle track with a tiny screw to install the handle to the ROTEB from the exposed hole when taken away the trigger group. Spring cup would fall in, but first getting the coil to 'hug' it real tight to keep it in position. Plastic ring recessed onto the receiver tube. It is installed flush against the end of the receiver tube so the BlastFX speaker can sit flush against it with screws holding it down. Upon speaker install, have to compress the coil inside - interesting challenge. Preliminary carving of the end cap retainer to accommodate the back of the speaker. Inside of the End cap retainer carved to shape. More shaping required so to have it installed correctly relative to the rear sight. Here's a first look at the ROTEB with charging handle, spring cup and coil inserted together! Dremel tool used to create recess for screw install. Here I have screws attaching the BlastFX speakers to the receiver tube. Three 1-1/4 inch long wood screws will be used to install the end cap retainer part. Here's an older picture that shows how I have to align the end cap retainer with the rear sight. Don't want to get this wrong or else the end cap will sit the wrong way! Thanks for reading once again! Until next time...it'll be sooner!

Congrats on your EIB. :-)

I don't recall off the top of my head but it was around the 5mm mark but this is what I did as it was suggested to me to do it, I don't recall who though. I used a heat gun but you can also do the boil method. I used a dremel for it and I believe I trimmed it back a little more than what is shown here. Sent from my VK815 using Tapatalk

6). Redo Abd Buttons ..... Buttons redone freehand 3x before I got the look I wanted, ALOT BETTER than before ! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm sure you already know this but just in case, don't forget to paint the bracket screw heads

You can fit both legs in there Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Brilliant work Glen.

Safety first: USE PROTECTIVE GLOVES! Bring a pot of water to a boil. Reduce to simmer or remove heat Submerge item for 30 seconds Remove, shape as needed Hold under cool water for 60 secnds Repeat as necessary NOTE: Try not to apply pressure with finger tips instead entire hand or palm.

"Note: It doesn't have to be perfect considering the cloth waist belt will cover most of the area. " I keep forgetting that. Thanks! A.J.

Outstanding work, Glen! Once we get things "set in stone" the caps that show the acceptable should be posted in the TKC reference area. https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/gallery/category/15-tk-commander-reference/ I also think a lot of the odd differences have to do with how many people actually work on the designs of these games... (over 1000 for Grand theft auto).

I got to see Lorelei's neck seal creation live and up close this weekend...it was pretty cool, and an ingenious approach. The rubber might get a little sweaty, but some fabric on the inside will fix that nicely. I think Lorelei got past some of the initial butterflies giving her biceps a workout, and she should be off to the races now! Watching with keen interest.

I got my EIB 6 hours ago !!! Am i taking the night off HECK NO !!! EYES ON THE PRIZE, BABY... EYES ON THE PRIZE !!!!!!!!!!!!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Progress! Got home from Labor Day weekend and took the clamps off. Now on to the next project. Either abdomen and chest or thighs and shins. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wohoo!! That`s awesome news and the pics are great tooWe are in for a treat with this build and I´m glad to hear I played a part in it happening

More parts completed today!