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While waiting to figure out what to do about that Grappling Hook Box, I decided to try to improve the returns where the kidney and butt plates meet. That gap was making me a little nuts. I removed the brackets from the butt plate (again, sigh) and examined what was going on. It took a long while of looking at how the returns were meeting together to figure out what the issue was. Turns out that there was a slight- and I mean VERY slight- area on the left end of the butt plate return that was a teeny tiny bit warped, and it was throwing the entire alignment off back there- causing that weird gappy thing to happen. I busted out my handy wood jig and heat gun, secured the butt plate directly to the jig (a new trick I just figured out, BTW), and not just flattened out, but angled the return in and down. Pics are before and afters... I know it's not the same because I'm not wearing it, but even just hanging there, it is a huge improvement over how the two pieces were meeting before. That small gap was making me crazy!!! Now I can get back to fine-tuning more fixes without this on my mind.

Thanks!! I am really feeling it now! :-) Thanks Dan! I contemplated angling my cover strip corners back when I did my forearms, but (as long as it's okay with L3) I think I prefer the straighter edge. :-) Thanks Joseph! :-D Yeah, my thighs look real poke-y from behind in that photo. They have been cleaned up and smoothened out! I just forgot to take an up-to-date picture. As for the ammo pack, thanks for the note! I have now done so (pictured below). Right on! Yes, they were great in my last test-fit! Hi everyone! Almost there! Firstly, the cover strips finished curing on my shins. Which meant .... it was time to tackle the dreaded sniper knee plate. I haven't necessarily been procrastinating it, since I've been building from head-to-toe, buuut it I've read enough AP build threads to know that this was gonna be a tricky step. Here it is as it comes from AP: And after trimming: I took the hot water bath route. As you can see, the right "wing" of the knee plate lines up just fine on the left shin, but the left wing doesn't sit nicely at all unless I tilt the whole thing on a diagonal. So into the water it went. I was gently bending the right wing higher while bending the left wing lower. The result: Good enough for me! I applied e6000 to my three connection points and clamped it in place. It's not pictured, but I also trimmed a little more off the ends of the wings to make them straighter and align more with the shin. Last weekend, I headed to Home Depot and picked up the highly-recommended, "standard-issue" TK transportation unit: the Husky 50 gallon mobile job box. What an awesome looking crate for Imperial luggage! Unfortunately, it runs a little more costly in Canada than in the States (just under $180 CAD after tax), but as many here have wisely pointed out, it would be crazy to put all this time and money into a costume and then be stingy when it comes to proper, safe transportation for it. In the photo above, you can also see the 1.5" foam sheets, black fabric and Jef Bond 88 spray adhesive that I picked up at our local craft warehouse. I'll be using those materials to cut out cushions and then lining the box with them. After measuring all my rectangles, I cut out little notches where appropriate so that they would sit nicely and flatly in the case. I also left openings so that the tool tray could still fit properly inside. Then I laid out my fabric and glued the foam to it with the Jef 88. Then I glued the cushion into place (this one inside the lid), also with Jef 88. Lastly, I repeated the process for the five remaining cushions. Ta-da! Sorry that it's a little hard to see in there! My flash wasn't co-operating with me. As I get closer to the end of the build, I've got a little laundry list of tasks to wrap up. Yesterday, I did the following: Trimmed some more off my thigh ammo pack (thanks again, Joseph!): Cleaned the weathering off of the T-tracks, grip and the rear of the hengstler counter on my E-11 (thank you Dan for pointing that out!): Removed the ABS reinforcement from my forearm straps, because they were too thick and digging into my arms uncomfortably (the bicep ends were just fine): And lastly, got the hook velcro glued onto my boots where they will fasten to my shins to prevent twisting: Once the knee plate is finished curing, I'll get the soft velcro glued inside the shins. Also, not pictured, I shortened up my thigh garter straps. I love having them positioned on the sides of my legs (thanks Eric!), but the 4" I measured earlier was too long. Probably since the straps are elastic and can stretch. I shortened them to almost half of what they were before and the fit is much better! I'll post pictures with my next update. Today, I'll be painting my ab/kidney rivets and the thigh junctures white. I also plan to get my thigh ammo pack installed, and those rivets will be painted white, too. After that, I think all I need to do is glue the velcro inside the shins for the boot connection and ... that might be it! I'm sure I'm forgetting some things and will think of them along the way. Regardless, I think it's realistic to predict that I could be taking my submission photos this weekend. Hype!! Thanks for all your help, everyone!

It looks like the strip is not quite central, but it's not leaving too much or a ridge on the sides showing. Here's some screen images, when in doubt check the gallery section. You'll also notice that even though a lot of people round off the corners of the coverstrips they where actually just cut off.

Updates for today! Firstly, I painted the PlasticWeld on my thighs. Nice and white now! With that done, I started on the thigh ammo pack. There are no guide spots on the AP thigh ammo pack for drill holes, so I used photos from Ukswrath's ANOVOS build to approximate where they should go. My holes ended up being 10mm from the top and 15mm from the back edge. Then I lined up the ammo pack with the right thigh and marked and drilled the holes. Installed it with the supplied AP split rivets: I added some e6000 to the front of the thigh where it makes contact with the ammo pack to keep it in place (even though it held still pretty well on its own). And lastly, I painted the rivets white. At this time, I also painted the ab and kidney rivets. I also got the soft velcro glued into the shins where they will fasten to the boots. And ... that might be it! Tomorrow, once everything is finished drying, I'll do a test fit to make sure I'm not forgetting anything. It'll be the first time I wear the thighs and shins together, so I'll find out how well I can walk and if I need to cut any out of the backs for mobility. Other than that, I think it's on to submission photos! Woohoo!

So, I have been surfing the forums and found everything from just a chin strap to the whole electronics and fans set up. I am always looking to find better ways to set mine up, So with that lets see the insides of your bucket.

So, this is quite a bit different than I envisioned. Also, I know I missed some things, read on and I'll explain At first this was going to be a more dynamic, action-pose type of thing...it looked completely different. But I decided to pare it down a bit. Full disclosure: I'm not an expert on embroidery or patch design; my strength is in designing shirts as you can probably tell So I don't even know if this will work, but it's at least done 100% in vector format, so digitizing it shouldn't be too big an issue if it comes to it. It can be rearranged quite a bit, at any rate. I know, I totally missed the note about the shape. Sorry. And the date. That can be added later of course. Easily. So, even though this is my "entry," I'm now aware that it won't work. Well, it would make a cool shirt I think. Even though I don't love the banner at the top. Anyway, maybe it could be a starting point. Any ideas?

Measured mine and box is 9cm and total 15cm wide.

Congratulations Trooper! Welcome to EIB.

Hmm, don’t remember I had that much of an issue with my set up, looked for a pic but apparently I didn’t take one showing the back so I’ll have a look and get back to you

A friend told me to do this, I haven't got to this point yet in my build, but will be doing this!!!!! Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

Fantastic work on the calves and thigh ammo pack, Brendan. Not sure if you were aware, but while getting suited up for a troop you can extend the handle on the bin and the tray fits perfectly inside. This keeps it handy/accessible and still gives you access to your armor inside the bin. Be sure to push the handle in snug after putting it in though. I had my bin for almost 3 months before I figured out I could do this, lol.

The knee plate can be difficult - you did an excellent job with it! I also found that gluing the front (and maybe one side) first - waiting a couple of days for the glue to really set - and then gluing the remainder helped to line it up as well. Looking forward to seeing the completed kit!

Whoop!! Ross’ videos are superb. You’ll do fine with those. (Don’t forget to listen out for the snoring dog [emoji23])

Scratches head and fires up YouTube...

No worries, brother. See you at Centurion next!

First, congrats, Sven! The strap Tony is referring to is the elastic band that holds down your shoulder strap to the back plate. It should be in a position where it overlaps the tab on the top of the back plate in the area seen below.

You're right, but I'll have to move the hole. It's an easy fix. The top cover isn't squared, but slightly askew. So it will only fit one way. And thanks!

Personally I find the difference to the better.

Looks great James , yes I'm biased lol

@Harbinger I was actually thinking about flex sealing mine this afternoon lol

Congratulations Sven! Welcome to the Ranks!

You're spot on with your self critique Christine. May I suggest ditching the elastic kidney/ab connection and going with nylon for more control. It looks like you have plenty of room to spare around the waist anyways (so jealous). THT

Congratulations and welcome to the EI ranks trooper

Hey Sven, thanks for your patience and your EIB application. CRL and EIB Application Requirements: It appears all the required submission photos have been posted. Your armor displays and the required components for L2. The DO crew would like to welcome you to Expert Infantry . 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. If any suggestion affects any application, it will be listed separately in the above or below sections. We have a few minor areas to go over so let's get to it. Taking a look at your helmet first, The right ear upper and lower mounting screws should align with the trailing edge of the trap. If you can pull this angle off without damaging your helmet or expose any pre-existing screw holes we're suggesting you make the correction. Reference photo Next, there should be minor return edge material at the eye sockets. Please remove as needed. Reference photo Moving down to the arms. Given your height this area can be difficult to balance out the spacing between arm sections. We feel there's too much of a gap between the forearms and hand plates. To resolve this we're suggesting you drop the biceps minimum of 1/2"+(13mm). This should reduce the gap in question. Reference photo Same situation with the legs but near the knees. We're suggesting you drop the thighs and raise the shins a bit. The goal would be to reduce the gap by a 1/2" (or so. Reference photo Moving back up a bit, as mentioned by your fellow trooper the tops of the Ab and Kidney plates should be aligned. Adjusting the connection straps should resolve this. Reference photo The lower blue button size on the large Ab plate is a bit larger than we expect to see at this level, but by no means a deal breaker. Reference photo And lastly the DO crew feels your waist belt could us a little hair cut, at least to remove some of the longer loose threads . Centurion Suggestions:In this section we prepare you for Centurion. If there were any areas of concern they would be discussed here. The only area in question, and we're certain you probably didn't even know it but the right side shoulder cover strap appears to be missing. Just make sure it's there at Centurion if you choose to apply (that means take new photos). That's it, congratulations again, great job

Taking a short break from my husband's RS build to work on my own build today. Had just a few minutes to get my black leggings on and try on my torso with arms. This is the first time I've tried this much of the kit on since reshaping things last week. Photos have been adjusted so they don't look backwards (they were taken in a mirror). Here's my before additional shaping pic of the back (on the left), and the after additional shaping on the back (on the right): A few things I'm seeing. There's a strange area at the returns where the butt plate and kidney meet in the middle left. You can see it's a bit more gappy in that location. I've compared this to the same unaltered parts of my husband's RS TK, and it's there as well. Quirk in the armor I suppose. It bugs me, but I'm going to have to live with it. The right side of the butt plate is still wanting to flare out a bit at the top return. I'll have to hot water bathe that area so it curves a bit better. Left side is good. The right side lower corner of the back plate is overlapping the kidney. That can also be fixed with a hot water bath so it curves in and up. See pic below. In the photo below, you can see how my right side shoulder bell is smushing itself in my back plate as I bring my right arm back. That area where the shoulder bell is flattening out it where it's all happening. I'll need to trim some of the bell for clearance. And this just looked 'off' to me: So I removed the belt, and here's what's going on: Dammit. I need to shorten the lower rivet elastic and possibly make a slightly longer elastic for the top rivet. Ugh. Really glad I bought a bag of 100 split rivets way back when I built my first TK. At least the other side seems to be okay. I'm also considering doing some additional trimming to the bottom of the chest plate. After looking more at the Luke Hero, I see that I could flatten out the curve of the chest by trimming up on the sides. This alteration will also make the lines of the ab plate look better along the waist, too. I am still missing my shoulder straps and still need to refine my forearms. Well, that and a bunch of little adjustments still need to be made here and there... I forgot how time consuming the final fit can be to dial in! Oh, and if anyone sees something that I've missed, please let me know. I can handle the critique!

Aside from my head, I have my self-built fan system, tactical padding and an EVA foam lining.

Ok guys, the test of the shoulder straps was successful; however, the Velcro attacked to the front top section of the shoulder strap to attach them to the inside of the chest armor was not sufficient to hold the straps in place. Although, they stay tucked inside the chest armor, they did move and displayed a gap between the straps and the chest armor. This is not a serious issue and I am considering adding a snap to the strap and inside of the armor to hold the straps in place. Here are some pictures taken when I test fit everything the night before my troop. And here are a few pictures from the troop. So, in the coming weeks I will work out the remold and how to attach the straps. Once all this is done, I will put a feeler out to determine how many of you Rogues are interested in these. As always, thanks for the interest.

The issues Praetorian had were simply that the owner got a contract job out of state, and had to move there for work. He made arrangements to get all then-existing orders out, still, but there were some delays. As I understand it, he has put a hold on accepting new orders until July, when his contract is up and he returns home to his workshop. At that point, he'll resume accepting orders normally. It's hard for anyone trying to get something RIGHT NOW, but Praetorian should be a good resource once they're up and running again. The loss of a good vendor like Hyperfirm is indeed rough, in the short term. There is a company in the UK called Shear Tech that also makes good rubber E11s. Very active troopers. You'll pay a little extra for shipping from the UK (for those of us in the US), but that's a solid option for anyone who really needs something in a shorter time window.

Nice work, hope those V tabs work, it's helped a few of my guys locally

I don't have any streaming services. I bought each season of Rebels as it came out on DVD. I think I will watch it with some friends or family who are planning on getting the streaming service, but I will be buying it when it come out on DVD. There have also been reports that Thrawn will be in episode 9. Matt Smith has been cast for the movie, and I think he REALLY looks like Thrawn. Same jawline.

I am covered in white dust and plastic bits. I am weary. I am not finished my build, but I practically am. There are a few things gluing (shoulder straps, hand plates) and tube stripes to be cleaned up and shoulder strap snaps to be sewn in and that is - Lord willing - all. Here's one random photo of midway through today when I first put my leg armor on and realized that I'm getting to look kinda like a stormtrooper. More later!

Now that all my adulting stuff has finally been taken care of, I can resume working on my TK Hero. Back in October, I thought I was pretty much done. But believe it or not, based on ShaSha's feedback (as well as scrutinizing over the pics of the back of my kit), I ended up tearing the entire kit apart so I could get some better shaping done on the kidney and butt plates. This TK has been in pieces on my floor since October. Gah! Thankfully, I still have my stunt TK in good working order for trooping in the meantime. At Christmas I trooped in the Atlanta Christmas Parade, and I was so proud to represent the Empire in my shiny white (and very wet, extremely cold) armor. And I wasn't the shortest TK in the squad, either! This is the first time our garrison has marched in formation in years. Years I tell you! So excited to have been a part of this. And with that weather, I couldn't resist recreating a scene from one of my favorite movies! Okay, so back to continuing this build... Since I'm simultaneously working on this along with my husband's RS TK, I thought now might be a good place to show some comparisons of sizing/shaping of certain pieces. Here, I'm comparing butts. Butt plates, that is. The only trimming alteration I have made to my butt plate is near the snaps at the crotch. I had to make it more narrow for my size. The rest of the butt plates are identical. Any difference in sizing is due to hot water bath and curving the butt plate to better match the lower curve of the bottom of my kidney. Here, you can see my butt plate inside of my husband's out-of-the-box butt plate. The curve of the kidney on the left side is much more significant on my kit, thus you can see more curve on the left side of the butt plate at the return. And you can see how I curved the area near the snaps inwards to reduce strain on the strapping. From the sides: So even though my butt plate looks smaller, it's not. It's just got more curves to it. On the left is my properly fitted (curved) kidney with the unaltered butt plate. The right photo shows my curved butt plate with the same kidney. My suggestion to other vertically challenged individuals is to refrain from cutting the sides of butt plate at all until you've properly curved and shaped it. Trimming may not be necessary at all, but instead, just some gentle hot water sculpting. After reshaping the butt plate, I noticed that I needed to move a bracket on the right butt plate return. Grrr. So now I wait for ABS paste to cook so I can patch up the screw holes and drill some new ones. So another tip to those who are sizing down their kits: wait to drill your bracket holes until everything is shaped correctly! Once I patch things back up, I'll reassemble the back half of the armor, then reinstall the split rivets on the ab/kidney. From there, it's just fine-tuning the armor for length. I'm still shooting on earning EIB/Centurion on this kit. More progress pics to come!

So first off your gonna wanna check this out. https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/11538-the-various-types-of-armor-and-where-to-find-them/ From there your honestly going to have to contact manufacturers to find out prices. They vary but stick around the same price. Expect to pay $700 or more to get started then add on everything else you need. I have AM armor cause I’m a bigger guy and love it, but you can’t go wrong with any seller on the list. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk