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Hello all in TK world! I hope all is well and everyone is having fun with their builds! I am a newbie building my first armor, and looking forward to the process, if intimidated. I would love to go for Centurion, and am trying to keep this in mind as I build. This build thread is long overdue since I got my BBB months ago, but I’ve been distracted by work/life/a toddler. I have been rough trimming and buying/modding accessories, undergarments etc., but am getting to the fun/scary part now. Armor: WTF Stunt with shorty thighs and 90% helmet - please see BBB and curious pupper below! Boots: Black Jodhpurs, painted white using Angelus leather paint - I still need to add the gloss on top to add shine! A friend and I followed other trooper recommendations and painted the Roamers Unisex Leather Gusset Jodhpur Equestrian Riding Boots because we have small feet. I bought a lovely neck seal from Teresa Nuthall, as well as purchasing some black under armor with minimal logos from Amazon/academy - any remaining logos I will be sure to black out. I also purchased some black dishwashing gloves, but also plan to get Nomex flight gloves for trooping. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Thanks ukswrath. FM blaster is fabulous. So, after 3 layers of primer to be sure not to forgive any portion, I did several tests on aluminum bars to find the good black color. I also wanted to test textured paints for the scope. The flat black primer was good (not a flat black but not satin anyway). I finally decided to use a real flat black paint (MOTIP MTP-M04006). No textured layer for the main tube, just on the scope. Picture n°1 : you can see the M38 scope as Chris sells it. Picture n°2 : I applied 3 layers of a flat black primer (MOTIP MTP-M04052) on all the scope. After drying, I masked the two brass extremities. Picture n°3 : I used a dark grey hammered paint to give its texture to the scope (MTP-M04017 ). Wasn’t satisfied by my tests on aluminum bars, so I followed Tino’s idea. To enhance the texture, I used a brush to tap the paint when it was drying (sorry Tino, I didn’t use kitchen paper). Picture n°4 : After drying, I unmasked the scope and I applied 2 layers of flat black paint on all the scope (MOTIP MTP-M04006). Et voilà ! I will enhance the text in white later. Will also do some weathering.

Have you checked out the videos I linked? They really break it down. :-)

Locitus, a member I happened to find on the forum has a post showing an original ANH TK. Lots of pictures of various pieces including measurements! Here is the link to your post. Looks like you already have lots of pros giving you help

My advice is to have the knee plate laid flat against the joining strip and let the sides taper to the ridges of the top of the shins. If you look at the original armour, the knee plates look lopsided from the front and the sides rarely meet up perfectly. They never follow the angle of the top of the shins like the Centurion requirement so get the plate sitting as flush as possible and trim the return edge to follow the tops of the shins, the best you can.

That sounds great man. Can't tell you how happy I am to see this parts kit in the hands of a person, so driven to details. Regarding the trigger guard: in Derrek's kits these were made from resin and after building 'a few' of these E-11, it has always been a fragile part on the finished blaster. Instead of getting a new undamaged trigger guard for more fragile resin casts, it might be an option to contact Chris (Fieldmarshall), as he seems to have more than he ever needs: 20.000 pieces!!! And if contacting him, you could also talk about one of his "cut-to-size magazines". Maybe he is open for a deal...

Thanks all! I really appreciate it!! I could not have done it without everyone’s help.

Trying to build my motivation back up. Yesterday went out to a store called Tokyu Hands and bought some tools. Today decided to get past my nerves and took out the paint materials I bought months ago. Took a deep breath and started painting. After I finished painting I used a toothpick to clean up some of the lines and the odd spot of paint that got away from me.

[Edit November 20, 2020] This thread was initially created to document my experiments with molding and casting a M38 scope, but it has now expanded and I did not want to create another thread when this one would suffice. I had hoped to finish with this whole project this summer (2020), but when Covid hit I did not have to opportunity to work on it as much as I would like to. I am not the best at keeping my threads up to date so I'll post below where I am now. I am a college student and I don't really have the space or tools for this project so most of this work was done when I visited my parents home or received help from a friend. Oh, lastly it is important to know that my welding skills are almost non-existent, so show some mercy. ______________________________________________ Hello everybody! I recently purchased real M38 scope off ebay for a good price. As I learn more about this hobby I know that the best way to get better is through practice. Therefore I decided I would try my hand at molding and casting replicas of the scope. Here is the scope: It is a 1943 version and it is in very good nick. I began by cleaning the scope and building a little box for it out of foam core. Then I used my pottery knowledge from middle school It wasn't the smoothest, but it'll work. One thing I wish I did was add escapes for air bubbles at this point, but I didn't think about that until after I cast. Here are some pics. The mold itself is not the prettiest, but the detail of the scope was great! One thing that always bugged me about resin copies of scopes is that to make them believable you had to drill and clean the insides out and then add lenses. I have seen others here do this wonderfully, but I lacked the skill and patience when I first started out here. Tino will remember this. So what I decided to do in this case was to cast in clear resin. This way all you have to do is mask the lenses before painting and then pull them off afterwards. Here is the first cast: This is where I learned I needed to cut in some escapes for air and whatnot. But to prove this concept I painted this scope today to see how it would look. Note I didn't bother cleaning this casting up much as it was so defective. Here are the pictures: Let me know what you think! For my first ever silicone mold I am pretty happy, but I will probably make a new one eventually. Cheers!

$224.99 at BBTS in stock with flat rate shipping https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Product/VariationDetails/65435

I use score and snap, Dremel, belt sander and various things for sanding. Sent from my 5054N using Tapatalk

This is my bicep from my current build it is also a WTF. I may even trim it more. Sent from my 5054N using Tapatalk

Always a good idea when building to check the gallery sections, some great references there in regards to return edges, many had been seen with little

Hehe. Yeah, no worries. Yeah, just don’t add metal-effect weathering to the grip, rear of hengstler, t-tracks. Those were plastic. :-)

Hi all Just joined and sourcing information Hope to get the correct information for me and my body type. Axel_7

I'm using webbing, snaps and Velcro for the assembly. TKSpartan thanks for the photos I think they will be a big help with finishing up my chest and back plate. One thigh, my belt, chest and back plate and I think I'm ready to suit up and see if I can get approval. I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. I was starting to think I would never get here. Hopeful have everything finished in the next week or two.

Josh, Whose armor are you building from? Given the diversity of builders, I'm sure someone has a work in progress ("WIP") build thread that may answer some of your questions. With regard to your rigging/strapping for the build, the bag-o-bits you posted is a strapping, not a bracket, system. I really recommend you look at A.J.'s build thread for some strapping guidance. It's certainly helped me in my build. It's the ole' measure twice times, cut once. But by god it works. Here are the locations for where that strapping goes: Edit: Here's how the snaps will look once fully installed. This photo is from A.J.'s build linked above: If you're using single snaps, the positions will be the exact same. Hope this helps. Good luck!

I did I'm gonna work through those once I start up again. They really did help Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

Yeah I saw that, I'm not even to the glueing phase yet and that's what scares me the most. Haha I'm a wuss. Anyway, thanks for the advice, it's slow going but I plan to have this done by next celebration! Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

Nice work. Looking very, Blaster-y. :-) Are you going for one solid colour as your final finish?

Thanks. I will take care of that tonight.

I know the feeling, for example I am working on putting my sniper plate on my left shin. Before I made the cut I posted a picture of an outline on how i thought the cut should go. This gave people time to give their suggestions and advice before I went to cutting. Now I have it cut and have it held on my shin with a clamp to see if the positioning seems good. It requires patience, but whatever you are working on, post pictures before you do it so you can get assistance. From the looks of your cuts, i dont see anything you did wrong. You took away some return edges which are not a requirement.

Yes I am. I am trying to document every part of my build (build is going slow) but I am making progress. I hope to make it to centurion. I'm following you as well and am looking forward to see both of us go through this adventure ha ha.

Ha, how does it feel, getting to the end :-)? Gesendet von iPhone mit Tapatalk

Hi Robyn! Thanks for your submission, and thanks for the snap paint cleanup! I'll be doing your EIB review. As @TKSpartan pointed out, your frown paint needs some slight cleanup before we can proceed: It should just be a few minutes with some mineral spirits/paint thinner and a cotton swab or toothpick. If anything, err on the side of underpainting them. Once that's corrected, we can proceed with your application. -Sha Sha

Now with the belt roughly trimmed and just held with clamps holding it for the photo- still nothing glued yet Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

No worries. As you can imagine I’m just excited and anxious. I’m working towards Centurion and want to know if there is anything I need to do or tear apart. I’m planning on trooping at some events early Sept and don’t want to take things apart and miss those. Cheers!

Awesome thank you for the pictures and the very quick reply!

Congratulations on making EIB, good luck on your Centurion application.

Hi Dave, It looks like you made it as the picture "B" . If so, it's correct for Centurion. Cheers

Thank you! Very excited to work on a TK! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Look great Trooper !!

Thanks to all of you! I can't wait to know something about my application, if something has to be fixed or what

Thank you all so much! This is seriously a big help!! Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

Good question Tino. If you look in the first post at the parts I have, the magazine was cut in half. So at the moment I don't have a complete magazine to cast from. For now I just thought to cast the two pieces and see if its possible to mend the two parts together afterwards. Ideally I want to buy a new magazine and mold it as one complete piece. Also I found that the trigger guard was cut too so its missing the loop at the end. I plan on replacing these parts in the future but only if I can find them and mold them when I go back to the US. Hope these parts are still out there to buy for a reasonable price. So yes, I plan on making this part for part like the real sterling as realistic as possible. Hollow magazine so its easy to use the inside for any electronics, etc. RA Props already has done this and its amazing. Just want to try it myself anyway.

General consensus that I’m ready for submission?? Thank you

Fingers crossed!!!

Coming along nicely Erick

Great job on your build trooper. Good luck with your application

Fantastic job Brien, nice work If I had any suggestions, in the areas that have excessive gap between sections (shoulder bells to shoulder covers and back plate to kidney when arms are raised), or overlapping sections (posterior to kidney) I highly recommend you replace any elastic with nylon webbing and/or at minimum shorten the length.

Hey Josh, Don’t panic - we all started somewhere. Personally, what I’d suggest is like Tony said: to take a break from your armour and check out some build tutorials etc. The below link is the tutorials that I followed and were incredibly helpful: (This is the first - there are many). Now, this is for a different make of armour but many of the principals are the same. For my build, I probably watched each of Ross’ videos twice before making a cut, just to get a feel for what was going on. I then sat with the tutorial, listened to a short instruction then paused and copied, listen-pause-copy etc etc. You can still make good what you’ve got so just kick back, watch some YouTube and get into the groove. You’ll do great. :-) Dan

Avoid, avoid, avoid. You can do MUCH better. https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/11538-the-various-types-of-armor-and-where-to-find-them/ This list includes kits used and endorsed widely across the trooping community. There are various price points in there. Also, I’d suggest avoiding TKUK and SDS/originalstormtrooper.com due to their inaccuracies. :-)

Red lines look good.

Done, just don’t have a pic of that yet. Have 1/4” elastic straps for shoulder straps to do tomorrow and it’s time to see if I need to remove anything from back of thigh/shins to be able to walk. Then take pics for submission Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi Jonathan, great work with your sniper knee alignment. I went a little beyong with the trimming. here's a reference photo cheers

Hello how’s things going . I’ve been biz this summer with my family which is awesome! Just checking in

Hi Mario, Thanks for the feedback. I took care of that white on those snaps/rivet. I also attached a bunch more photos. So many to keep track of. !

Hi Robyn, glad to see another trooper looking for EIB level. I would suggest to add some photos I'm sure the D.O team will surely ask you to post. 1- Close up of rivets inside and outside of thigh ammo strip. Thigh ammo belt is attached to thigh with a solid head rivet, painted white, in the upper corner and fastened to the lower thigh ridge. The rivets used shall be single cap, double cap or split rivets. No pop rivets allowed. Rivet should be approximately 5/16" (8mm) in diameter (exterior). 2- Close photos of both sides of Snipper knee, to see the alignment. Sniper knee plate must be aligned with the ridges on the shin. Sniper knee plate must not have visible rivets or fasteners attaching it to the shin. 3 Looking at your low center armor noticed that the rivets needed are presents but they're in white color. REFERENCE IMAGE You may want to remove the white color as the CRL States: Two male snaps are present on the lower center tab of the Posterior Armor. Snaps do not need to be functional. Snaps are silver in color with the bottom of the snap facing outward and are not painted. A split (bifurcated) or single cap rivet is present on the lower tab (cod area) of the abdomen armor. Rivet does not need to be functional. Rivet on must be brass or silver in color, approximately 5/16" (8mm) in diameter and is not painted. Any additional photos or requirements will be indicated by the official. Good luck with your application Sr. Your EIB Badge is almost ready.

Hi all, I wasn't originally going to do a build thread, but since WTF is still a relatively new maker, I noticed there aren't many WTF build threads. Also, I'm only 5' 3" so thought it wouldn't hurt to start another thread about fitting armor to small troopers, although this is not going to come close to Cricket's, Diana's, and Fragarock's threads. Also, unlike other build threads, I'm actually already finished with my kit (submitted photos last night), and I didn't take nearly as many photos as other people do so I probably won't go into a ton of detail about some aspects of the build, but hopefully there will be enough information that people find it useful. I had been thinking about joining the 501st for a while, but what finally made me pull the trigger was having a son with severe medical issues due to a congenital brain cyst, and spending 6 months out of his first year essentially living in the PICU with him. Knowing that I could bring smiles to the faces of kids like him and the other families we met while we were there was really powerful motivation. (He is 3 now and doing great.) Index Biceps and Forearms Torso Fit Torso Strapping Thighs and Shins Sniper Knee, Ammo Pack, and Calf Closures Thermal Detonator Belt and Drop Boxes Shoulder Bells and Shoulder Bridges Thigh Strapping and First Suit Up Helmet Helmet Interior Armor Bin 501st Submission and EIB Submission Basics After doing some research, I decided to order from Walt's Trooper Factory for a few reasons. 1) I would be able to get my kit fairly quickly 2) The price was about middle of the road (not as low as Anovos, not as high as RS) 3) I'd heard that it was a good kit for smaller people. I knew that he made a kid's TK so I asked him if that'd be an option for me and he said the kids kit would be so small, but that he offered shortened thigh pieces for the adult TK. So I made my order with him at the end of April. Walt was a bit backed up after Celebration this year, so he told me up front the wait was going to be around 6-8 weeks. Hereare the supplies I used in no particular order: Neck seal first from Darman, then SoulArt because my Darman I gave a too-small measurement 8 oz Holster by Darman Belt from Rob Kittell Boots from TK Boots Hyperfirm B-Grade E11 (I also have a Doopydoo's kit + Bulldog scope that has been on hold) Undersuit top from Eastbay Sports, bottom from no-name Amazon brand Tandy Line 24 snaps and snap setter Dritz #10 nickel sew-in snaps 1" black elastic for strapping 3" black elastic for thigh strapping 3/4" white elastic for drop boxes 2" white elastic for shoulder straps 1/8" white elastic for holding down shoulder bridges 1" black nylon webbing for snap plates & belt Plastic quick release buckles for thigh garter belt E6000 Utility knife (box cutter) Xacto knife Lexan scissors (curved + straight) Metal ruler 1/2" x 1/8" rare earth magnets Soldering iron for making holes for snap plates Hobby iron for rebuilding return edges Testors paint + paint brushes Helmet stencils from Trooperbay 1/8" pop rivets + washers to fit rivet gun Split rivets from justjoseph (I actually ended up buying a decent amount of supplies I never used: tin snips, 2" elastic, 2" webbing, zap-a-gap, china pencil, and probably more stuff I'm forgetting.) Around 7 weeks after ordering, a massive cardboard box appeared on my doorstep! Unfortunately I didn't take pics of everything laid out, but WTF's kits come with all the white plastic, white PVC tube for the thermal detonator, brow trim and S-shaped neck seal, green plastic for the lenses, tube strip decals, mesh for the hovi tips, hovi tips cast in black resin, and helmet hardware (screws, pop rivets; I didn't end up using either). Of the plastic, in addition to everything needed for a regular stunt TK, it includes the diamond knee plate and the 3-button ab button plate for a sandy, and TONS of cover strip and shim plastic. Finally, most of the time Walt's kits ship with 2 sets of ears, but I only received one. Edit: also forgot to add that Walt's kits come with a one-piece kidney/butt so you'll have to split them. When I began trimming, I tried both the Lexan scissors and score & snap and much preferred the score & snap method, even for curved cuts. The Lexan scissors I found unwieldy to use; perhaps it would have been easier on a kit that had thinner plastic. I probably did about 90% of my trimming using score & snap. My one pieces of advice for score and snap is to score many times with very light presses rather than trying to get a good score in only one or two passes. All of my screw ups (knife wandering off the line, knife slipping, etc) were from me pressing too hard and trying to move too fast.