Leaderboard

I was just recreating the cover to the user handbook for the Sterling and I thought this would be fun! I am not finished yet. As you can see the sterling needs scope, t-tracks and so forth. But I though y'all would like to see it.

The frown is painted. I always find painting a little fiddly. Does it look like I stopped in the right spot? I noticed that one of the mistakes that gets brought up for Centurion is over painting the frown.

If you use a hosting site you can upload as many photos as you want. I use Imgur and it works great

Noooooo it looks fierce!

Looks neat!

To add photos and logos at the bottom of your posts, go to Account, then Account Settings, then Signature. That's where you can personalize your signature with images and such. A.J.

That’s a yes we’ll be with you as soon as possible, there are a few applications we’re working on at the moment

My pleasure John THT, looking forward to seeing you at L3

Congratulations John welcome to Expert Infantry

It's a two step process, you have to apply for EIB first, once approved you can then go on to applying for Centurion. Also have a read of the EIB and Centurion guidelines Good luck and looking forward to seeing your applications.

Greetings, John and welcome back! Thank you for your patience while we have been reviewing your application. I want to let you know that you've done an stellar job on this build and you should be very proud of your work! In this evaluation, we ensure that your armor follows the requirements as set forth in the CRL L2 Expert Infantry Badge guidelines. We will also point out what will be needed in order to prepare you for Centurion if you choose to apply. You've come this far, and I really hope that you will continue your journey in excellence and apply for the Centurion Badge! CRL and EIB Application Requirements: All required submission photos have been posted and I am very pleased to announce your armor displays all the necessary elements to qualify for ANH Stunt Expert Infantry. On behalf of myself and the entire D.O.Team, 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. Let's begin at the helmet. The vocoder looks like it could use a little more refinement around the edges. This is super easy to do with a small brush and some enamel thinner. That should really refine those edges for a spot-on ANH look! Screen reference vocoders: Now to the ab: Nice job on painting those ab buttons, trooper! I know the WTF ab buttons are super big, and you can clearly see that you didn't paint outside the edges of the buttons. This isn't anything that would prevent you from achieving Centurion, but if you'd prefer to get them looking a little bit more screen accurate, you may consider reducing them down just a tiny bit. Screen reference buttons: Let's look at your holster: For better accuracy you may consider using slightly smaller fasteners on your holster connections to the belt. I see that you've got a Darman's Props holster, and those fasteners were most likely included with the holster. He typically includes smaller open-back Chicago screw posts (they simulate rivets on the outside, but can be removed if necessary) for the belt attachment. That said, I've recently ordered a holster from him and noticed that he sent me solid-back screw posts for the belt instead of the open-back ones. I have extra open-back screw posts to replace them, and would be more than happy to drop some in the mail for you if you'd like (no charge of course!). Send me a PM if you're interested! Further down to your legs: If you're striving for a little more ANH accuracy, consider putting a sharper trim on the inside of the sniper knee. It's just a little sandpaper and a few minutes to get this detail dialed in nicely. Screen references: ******************************** Centurion Requirements: In this section we prepare you for Centurion. More photos may be requested in the future that allow us to make better decisions on possible adjustment etc. If there are any areas of concern they will be discussed here. 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. Below you will find areas that will need to be addressed for a future successful Centurion Application. Please note that text descriptions in the CRL are only one part of the approval guideline. We consider both text and pictures (CRL and Reference) when reviewing the costume. That said, let's get on with prepping you for Centurion, trooper! ************************ Beginning with the helmet: "The helmet is accurate in detail and proportion to official references." You did a fantastic job of cleaning up the paint around the frown. Nice work! Looking closely at the screen-used Hero helmets, you'll notice that the gray teeth tend to be larger than the holes around them. The holes of the teeth on your helmet have been cut bigger than what we tend to see on screen-used helmets, and some of the gray teeth are super skinny. While this hasn't prevented you from achieving your Expert Infantry award, it will need to be fixed for Centurion. Basically, you will need to fill in some of the edges of the teeth to reduce the size of the holes. This kind of repair can be performed with some ABS paste to build up the edges to make the holes smaller. You could also use any other type of putty that sands smooth because ultimately you'll be painting it anyhow. If you feel that this kind of repair is too much of a challenge, then a new face plate would be your best option for fixing this issue. Screen reference Hero frowns: Let's take a look at the tears on the helmet. Requirement CRL L3: Tears/traps shall be hand painted or use decals that emulate hand painted (with correct ANH details). The decals you applied to the tears are too large for the space where they are placed. In the "spirit" of Centurion, they should fit within the recessed area of the tear and not spill out of it. If you prefer to use decals, you will need to find smaller ones for Centurion. Another option would be to hand paint the tears. If you're worried that you may not have a steady enough hand for this kind of work, there are sellers who offer stencils for exactly this kind of thing. Feel free to send me a PM if you need guidance or support on this! Screen reference tears: Next, we will discuss the shoulders: Requirement CRL L3: There should be a minimal gap between the shoulder armor and the chest/back plates. As Joseph mentioned earlier, those shoulder bells need to be brought in quite a bit. Unless you're storing some serious explosives under the shoulder bells, you don't really need that big of a gap on the outer edges of the bells. The top ridge edge of the bells should meet the shoulder straps. You may find that some simple placement adjustment of the shoulder bell elastics paired with a little bit of trimming should bring those bells in line where they should be. It helps to remember that the front sides of the shoulder bells should follow the curves of the chest plate, and the back sides of the shoulder bells should follow the curves of the back plate. The shoulder bells and chest/back plates should fit together and still allow for movement with as little black showing as possible. Screen reference for shoulder bell placement: Additional screen references for shoulder bell placement: Further down your kit, we've noticed the shims on the kidney: Requirement CRL L3: "A single visible seam line is present." There is nothing at all wrong with shimming armor where needed, and you've done a clean job of it! The wording on this requirement can be a little confusing, but simply stated, this means that the shim lines (as indicated by the blue arrows below) must be completely concealed. The only seam that should be present is the one between the ab and kidney armor pieces. In order to disguise that seam, you'll need to create a batch of ABS paste, apply it to the seam lines, sand it down, then polish it smooth. If you have any concerns about how to do this process, please feel free to send either myself or any of the Detachment Staff a PM about how to do this. We are here to help you succeed and know you can do it! Screen reference for kidney/ab seam: Next, to your belt: Requirement CRL: For ANH Hero, the holster is affixed with four fasteners, two on the top, two on the bottom (two per strap). Fasteners may be rivets, snaps, or Chicago screws. We noticed that you have the correct amount of fasteners attached to the belt (great job on that!). However, the placement of the top two fasteners are situated too far away from the top edge. And while the CRL doesn't specifically indicate exact placement of the holster fasteners, please note that we consider both text and pictures (CRL and Reference) when reviewing the costume. Based on the ANH Hero as seen in the film, the fasteners should be roughly where the green circles in the image below are located. Your fasteners will need to be relocated further up for Centurion. The holster fasteners should be placed so that they look a little more like this (I used your pic with some Photoshop magic... it would be great if fixing a belt was as easy as a Photoshop edit!): Screen reference of a Hero holster fastener configuration (that's Han): Let's discuss your sniper knee: Working further down your armor, we noticed that your sniper knee needs some adjustment. Sniper knees are a challenge to most troopers. We see that your sniper knee plate is sitting a little crooked. This is another instance of the CRL not specifically indicating exact placement of the sniper knee, but in reviewing for L3 please note that we consider both text and pictures (CRL and Reference) when reviewing the costume. The sniper knee plate as seen in on-screen TKs are aligned straight in the front of the shin. We don't mind this at the Expert Infantry level, but we will ask you to correct this if you choose to apply for Centurion. From your photos, it looks like you've got some room to move the right side up along the ridge. This small adjustment should straighten out that tilt! Screen reference for sniper knees: And lastly, we noticed several black snaps on your kit: For your EIB this is perfectly fine. However, if you're choosing to continue on to Centurion, you will need to swap these out for silver snaps. Please note that you only need to swap out the Han snap located on the upper right ab, and both butt plate snaps. The color doesn't matter on any of the other snaps that you currently have installed on your armor. Screen reference image for butt plate snaps: Your Han snap: Screen reference image for Han snap on ab plate: That's it! You have done an outstanding job with your Hero, trooper! Congratulations once more, and we hope to see you at Centurion very soon! Now get out there and blast some rebel scum!

Many of us do a little trimming once we start trooping, good luck and remember to keep taking fluids

Got some Riot gear and some spare parts (spats) The webbing, elastic and grips are for the shield. I broke a clip greeblie on this Troop and had to go spat-less I did manage to get the rest of the clip off (not one for using E600) and replaced it but never felt content with closing the spat by that small clip and velcro, didnt feel like doing the snap variant. Then Anovos came out with their instructions I jumped on the idea and ordered new spats from KB and a spur of the moment skull trooper helmet and the sheild and consequently had to get the baton Much more secure and less likely to brake. As a bonus the spats came from a new mold and had a much better fit then the previous ones, JSIN also confirmed they had new shins so I guess the KB kit is getting more and more accurate.

I'm following but I can't help you with the paint.

Costumes have different ID prefixes, for Stormtrooper it's TK so you would have ST and TK. You can find a full list here http://databank.501st.com/databank/Costuming:CRLbyname It the numbers which never change

There´s no such thing as TK overkill - it look awesome!

I think you’ve got plenty of room for more TK stuff. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Front: Right side: Right side, arm raised: Left side: Left side, arm raised: Back: Action shots: Helmet off: Profile: Misc. detail photos: Hopefully I didn't forget anything!

Can I ask what you used to darken the inside of the helmet? Any particular type of paint? Also, how did you protect the area to glue lenses in as I imagine should not put glue on painted surface?

Okay, last post for today. To simplify the scabbard I cut of the frilly bits. Here I shaped one of the parts and attached it back on the right side. I then made a paste out of superglue and baby powder to fill the gaps. I'll be able to sand this down later. I am glad at the rate this is going. I am heading into Salt Lake tomorrow to pick up some silicone and resin. I still am not sure how I will mold these yet, so any input would be valuable. Cheers!

I put EVERYTHING in its place.... VOILA !!! .... We managed to upgrade our Husky Bin to protect our armor !!! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hey all, I just wanted to post a little build-thread here so that maybe some people might learn from my mistakes. I was looking at a few of the different voice effects units out there for a TK build. I really wanted the static burst at the end of communication and I didn't really like the idea of having a dedicated phone running under my armor. That kind of narrowed it down to two solutions: the iComm and TK-Talkie. I like the idea of the iComm because it is so well used, but with current technology, it seems kind of LARGE. Plus I saw a few complaints about internal batteries dying after a year. I'm sure it's also a great solution but I ended up trying TK-Talkie. It's a bit smaller, a bit cheaper and pretty much "state of the art'. :-) TK-Talkie runs on an ARM processor based USB board called a Teensy 3.2. It really IS teensy. You add a sound board and a bluetooth module for configuring and you've got yourself a TK voice modulator. There's an app for your phone which connects via bluetooth and allows you to change settings. Those settings are then saved to an SD card on the Teensy so you only need the phone to make changes. I think my parts came in at about $50 US. The guy (who is on this forum as lerxstrulz) has everything on his web site. Parts Lists, tutorials, source code (firmware), sound files and even the case and lid as 3D printable objects. He sells completed units but I chose to build my own. It's fairly easy to assemble providing you have basic soldering skills, that you are somewhat computer literate and you can follow the tutorials on their web site. The first two came reasonably easy for me, the last "not so much." I made a few mistakes during assembly which caused me to take apart (un-solder) the entire unit and re-assemble it correctly to get things working. I figured I'd post my experiences here so that others don't follow in my original footsteps. :-) I'm not going to post a full tutorial. They have that on their website. www.tktalkie.com This is just going to hit a few highlights in the idea of a basic description and a few "what not to do" examples. So here we go.... This is the Teensy 3.2 along with the header pins (legs) in the lower-left. The first thing you are supposed to do is chop up the headers and only solder on the legs that are actually required. I think there are 28 pins but only 15 (or so) are actually used. I thought, "Why chop them up? I'll solder them all. It will just take a minute." While I can't say for certain that this caused any issues, when I completed all the steps, I had very low volume and the bluetooth wouldn't connect. So play it safe and chop up the headers like they say and only solder the required legs. It's the safe thing to do. Next up here is the audio board along with a mono 3.5mm audio jack I purchased. This one DEFINITELY caused me issues. My problem with almost no volume was because the mono jack wasn't sending the signal correctly. I can only imagine the mono jack did not connect left and right together but only sent audio down the right.....which was not what either the TK-Talkie or the Aker amp was expecting. Once I rewired using stereo jacks all my audio problems went away. So again, play it safe and just use stereo jacks to begin with. You solder the Teensy board onto the sound module, then add the leads for the bluetooth module. I started with a nice connector to connect the bluetooth module (shown below) then later removed the nice connector because it was too big and wouldn't fit in the case. And be SUPER careful of the bluetooth wiring. I messed this up as well. All I can say is READ THE TUTORIAL CAREFULLY and look at the photos when wiring the bluetooth module. Watch where the wires go. There's only 4 of them. Transmit on the Teensy goes to Receive on the bluetooth. Similarly Receive on the Teensy goes to transmit on the bluetooth. Make sure you get these right. Sometimes the tutorial shows the bottom of the board and sometimes the top. Pay attention. I shrink wrapped the mic and line-out connectors. This is probably a good time to test everything and make sure it works. You need a Micro-SD memory card to write the basic setup and audio files to. I used my computer for this. Then you plug the memory card into the Teensy Audio module. The Teensy itself uses a micro-usb connector for power and/or programming. You plug the Teensy into a computer via USB and install some Teensy software. It's like a programming kit. Then you download and write the firmware (from the tk-talkie web site) to the Teensy. May as well go for version 4 of the firmware, it's the latest. At this point it should be working with default settings. You can disconnect it from your computer and now just power it off the same USB connector via a USB battery pack. Once my USB wiring problems were fixed I was able to connect to the app on my phone. Here I had to boost the mic level and adjust the sensitivity. Fairly easy but it seemed to be time dependent. I had to make changes and save quickly. If I waited too long it seemed to disconnect and I would have to connect again. Lastly, a fellow TK-Wannabe, Mr_Fahrenheit, was gracious enough to print out the box and lid for me on his 3D printer. Here's the raw box before any cleanup... I cleaned up the sides and holes. Did minimal sanding and painted it black. It's going inside my helmet so it won't be seen. I jammed everything into the box only to find the bluetooth module was a little too big. As mentioned, I removed the connector I was using and cut the legs off the bluetooth module, soldering the wires directly to the bluetooth board. Then I even dremmel'ed away at the lid slightly to give me a millimeter or so of additional room on the inside. Then everything fit. :-) The blue and white thing in the side is the memory card. And here's a quick sample of the audio... I hope this helps. Learn from me, people. :-) Mark