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Ok, I'm officially starting "A.J.'s O.F. AM 2.0 Build." So, why "O.F.?" You’re probably thinking I'm dyslexic and meant First Order. Nope. That stands for "Old Fart." Or, in keeping with ANH canon, I guess maybe that should be "Old Fossil." Either way, I'm probably one of the older noob armor builders and 501st aspirants you're likely to trip over. In viewing all my armor spread out in my shop, my wife noted how pleased she was that I'm enjoying my second childhood. That's nonsense, since I’m nowhere near finished with my first one yet so the joke's on her. In any event I'm certainly older than most of you -- likely old enough to say, "Luke, I am your father" to a lot of you and have it be accurate. Well, except for all the genetics, of course. I've been reading the build threads (and pretty much everything else around here) for several weeks now, and while my abject terror at making the first trim cut is no less than it was when I first started researching, I'm fairly confident that I'm as prepared as I can possibly be. To that end, as soon as I post this I'm heading down to my shop to get started. Before that, however, a word about TrooperGear and the AM armor. First, I'm beyond impressed with this stuff. In going through the many, many builds I'm stunned at how nice AM armor is. The preliminary trimming work is top-notch, the ABS is thick and shiny, and the look of everything is simply beautiful. I'd also like to compliment TG (does that guy have a name?) directly. His correspondence with me before purchasing was complete and packed with information. His responses to my incessant questions were speedy. When I ordered, he was more than willing to ship my BBB around my busy travel schedule so I'd be sure to be home when my UPS guy dropkicked the box from the street to my porch. (All UPS drivers deliver this way, right?) Further, when I discovered a crack in the helmet components -- probably thanks to Mr. UPS -- he quickly and without questions shipped replacements. In fact, when I emailed to verify that he'd gotten the photos I’d sent of the parts, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he'd already shipped them. Also, I couldn't get started without saying just how awesome all of you are here on White Armor. Your willingness to help is nothing short of amazing, and there are no words for the value of the copious amounts of info to be found here. In gathering stuff for my build I’ve even bought stuff from a few of you -- Ukswrath, Pencap, Darman -- and your gear is not only great, but your communications back-and-forth before buying are just as rapid as your shipping. Outstanding! A little about me -- I'm a full-time freelance writer/editor living in Williamstown, W.Va., and have been in the publishing industry in one manner or another full-time since the mid-'90s . Before that, I was a radio broadcaster for a few decades. (The two careers actually overlapped.) I've been a Civil War re-enactor for 20 years, and have written two books on the subject of making authentic reproductions of wooden items from the 19th century. In that regard, I guess I'm not a complete noob when it comes to making exact copies of things from a long, long time ago. If you're not already bored, check out some of the things I've made and written on my website, www.ajhamler.com. Haven't updated the site in a while, though. Gotta do that Real Soon Now. Let's see, what else? My passions include my 4-year-old grandson Jed (who, naturally, I call "My Young Jedi"), gourmet cooking, hiking and a really good IPA. Oh, and I'm also an Old Fart. So anyway, if you’re still with me after all of that, welcome to my build! Next post will be the first item on my build list: the Thermal Detonator. A.J.

Hello fellow troopers, As you may all awared, there has been a few changes made to the TK commander CRL to reflect the latest researches by the FISD CRL team. My TKC kit (made by TROOPERMASTER) was approved and cleared Centurion just before the changes were introduced. I think it’s time now to make the alterations to my set to reflect these changes. This project is still work in progress and the photos below were taken back in December, several minor changes were also added since, which I will post the progress pictures later this week after a photo session with the garrison. Changes implemented here in photos are: 1) Re-did the helmet blue strip, moved the position a bit to the center and now the blue also covers the eyebrows rubber strip. 2) New plastic ammo belt face extended a bit further to the sides. 3) Ammo belt on the Right side thigh was moved and glued above the knee. Hole patched and painted over. 4) The 5 buttons on the left of the ab plate was moved a bit up so that the top button sits just above the the center plate one if you draw a line across the ab. My original Centurion application could be found here:

Thanks for the quick response & I’ll be with you shortly.

After Centurion then And...not much longer on this one

Curious to see this counter in action when it is finished.

It is going on with covering the Hengstler Counter with tape to do the inner painting. Before, a function check of all displays has been done, to make sure, before i close down the displays, everything is working as expected. After the painting was done, I used Green Stuff to fix the displays at their positions. I am not using that much of the Green Stuff, as if the display is not working again, it should be exchangable. The next challenge is, to get the display untransparent (milky), that the display is not seen when everything is done. I am doing this with sanding the Plexi Glass. Meanwhile i am getting more and more exctited as the paintjob is coming up soon :-) Thanks for reading and commenting! Marko

That’s great to hear Miguel - we are standing by for when you are ready, but there’s no rush

Thank you. I write everything down and I'll get on with it

That’s a beautiful lid. [emoji1303] Seeing an RS lid like this really highlights the difference between the higher accuracy lids and some of the lower end offerings. To me, this is worth every penny. :-)

Nice work. That’s looking like a good fit, so far. Something I couldn’t help but notice is the return edge on the knee end of your thigh; Return edge is a personal preference, however you might find that the thickness of your return edge could lead to discomfort during trooping. Here’s a screen used example for reference. Keep up the great work. :-)

My next moves are gonna be on the thighs. My concern is that the thighs are awfully large... well, tbh I've got really skinny chicken legs How much should I be trimming them down? Any good threads on fitting for thin legs?

Alright, time to update this thread I finished up the cover strips on the forearms and biceps as well as added some to the inside to further reinforce the joins Biceps Inner cover strips Arms all done!!

Josh, Thanks again for your application for EIB & like gmrhodes says "just a couple of things you could improve on to really shine:" Before we get into details I would like to see a couple more photos. 1) The right side of the helmet, specifically the ear and showing all three screws  2) Thermal Detonator with a tape measure or ruler showing the lenght 3) Close up of the Ab buttons

Yeah but it's a steel rivet so.... maybe I'll paint a mini Threepio face on it LOL

Thanks, good advice. I will drop thighs a little to reduce gap. Fronts gaps will reduce when sniper knee and ammo pack added but that will help reduce back of leg gaps. I’ll play around with it a bit and see how I can balance out top and knee gaps. Appreciate the feedback Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Make sure you check with your GCO and GML if you are allowed to wear a pauldron, at some events we don't allow non approved costume parts to be worn so it always pays to check Appears ok but I've seen a few get bitten with eBay purchases, things turn up not quite like the photos have shown, best advice would be checking on MEPD they have quite a lot of info on pauldrons

Nice work, just a couple of things you could improve on to really shine: You may want to add a little glue to the drop box straps a they don't appear to be aligned with the end of the belt in some images, also the right side strap looks a little short, should be a small gap between the belt and drop boxes, in the image below it is overlapping. You could also add a little white to your mic tips on the rims You could also remove a little of the grey paint on the gum area of your teeth

Yes, Praetorian are approvable all the way to Centurion. I believe actually Hyperfirm are no longer made, and one of the Hyperfirm founders now owns Praetorian.

Update 3/9/19 Yes, it has been 13 months since I last worked on my TK armor. But! My goal is to have the armor finished and approved as Centurion in time to troop on May 4th of this year. Today, Jon (TK12569) came back to my house and we made huge progress knocking out return edges on the entire kit and we even got the fitting and gluing started on the arms. Cannot express how grateful I am for Jon's time, enthusiasm, patience, etc.

Congrats Kris looking forward to seeing it.

Hey Josh, Thank you for your EIB application, I will be going over it and to make sure all the required photos have beed submitted and then we'll proceed from there.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi again Miguel Upon closer inspection I´m sorry to say that we found a few things we need to sort out before we can proceed. First we have the helmet and the CRL states: the frown is painted grey and does not leave the teeth area (Basic approval) Some mineral spirit and TLC should do the trick. While you are working on it we also suggest replacing the mesh to something more black. Next up is the arms, you have alot of flat surface on this arm that needs to be reduced, either by trim down the forearm (you appear to have room for this) or use a slightly larger cover strip to even things up (the cover strip should be in the center). We also ask of you to provide additional pics showing front/back of your other arm. We also need you to provide pics showing the back of both thighs and shins to allow us a closer look. Lastly we have the sniper knee and unfortunatly, from these pics it does not alligne with the ridges of the shin as stated in the CRL for L2. We know you have been working on this but as it stands it will not pass Centurion. If this a photo issue we are happy to take another look

Great news, Kris. :-)

Congratulations Kris!

Congratulations Kris and welcome to the FO ranks

Whilst Anovos mention Tunisia, they don’t seem to specify that it’s based on a Bapty. These were for the Sandtroopers and, to my knowledge, not used by Stormtroopers in ANH. As they don’t seem to cleared state this, but clearly mention ‘Stormtroopers’ in their sales pitch, this could lead to many disappointed TKs when they realise they can’t really use it. :-(

Thanks Yoshix. Ok so a little update on the shoulder straps. After pondering options other than Velcro for attaching the shoulder straps to the breast plate, I came up with several possible methods. I considered everything from snaps to a hook latch but nothing really jumped out to me, then out of the blue I came up with the simplest idea of them all, a simple pocket. So I took some left over HIPS about 1/8” thick and cut two small pieces to fit the area behind the raised portion of the chest plate. I had filled this area with PC-7 originally to provide an angled surface for Velcro so I needed to mill all the PC-7 out and reduce everything back to the way the chest plate came. Next, I used Bison contact cement to attach the HIPS. Once the Bison cured, I blended the outside of HIPS with the inside of the back plate with PC-7 and let is cure. After the PC-7 cured, I painted it white and added the Velcro that holds the black elastic shoulder straps that run from the back plate to the chest plate. Next, I did a test fit of the shoulder straps and the are perfect. The only thing that holds them in the pocket is friction; however, the pocket is about 5/8” deep so I do not think they will come out hen wearing them. So, I feel this has solved the attachment to the breast plate. I am working on building the new master bucks to cast. Once they are done, I will make a silicone mold then cast some new shoulder straps. Thanks for the interest.

Yess! Alright Kris, great job Excited to have another FOTK in the family

Big news!..., 1 TFA FOTK armor set and Riot Shield on order with KB Props! Should have some BBB pics in 3-4 weeks.

Hey Mike thanks for the kudos brother. From the sound of it I believe we're more equals than you think