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Just received my approval yesterday. Can't wait to get out and start trooping. Looking forward to meeting other troopers in the Tampa area and around the world. TK 51417 reporting for duty.

Fully finished forearm just needs a little cleaning. I started adjusting the length because the forearms are just way too long on my arms I can barely take my own bucket off.

Hello again! I got everything glued together except the two side grip panels. I have to look in my hardware selection for screws to attach panels to frame and scope clamp screws. The files Glen provided are AWESOME and very detailed, but I did note some discrepancies to the movie prop: When I was gluing the scope rings and scope onto the mount, I had a pain of a time trying to achieve the proper overhang at the rear of blaster, as well as how far forward the scope sits over the body. Basically, front of scope should sit roughly in line with front of magazine well. I went back to the Reference page in this forum and found the picture which stated movie prop scope is approx 11" long. my printed scope is about 10.5". I had not resized it, so the 3D file scope is slightly small. Printed scope looks thicker than the movie prop. Not a huge deal and the clamps fir properly. If you thin the scope then you would need shims inside the scope rings, or you would have to resize the rings and the scope base plate for everything to fit. The 3D file (picture below) shows that both the scope clamps sit behind the zeroing towers (little dials) and the dial base on top of scope. On movie prop the clamps sit just forward and just behind the towers. The 3D file has the adjustment towers pointing straight up and to the left. On movie prop scope is rotated to have towers pointed up and towards the right. I mounted mine the correct way. On the left side of the frame, just behind the magazine housing, is a small lever. On the real Rexim SMG this is the magazine release. Just behind the lever is a small indented circle. On some pics of actual SMG, the Star Wars blaster, and the pistol used in Aliens (yes, the same gun is used in this movie) the indent is there. In other pics it isn't. I'm not sure what the definitive answer is. The 3D print comes with a small coking handle on right hand side blaster. This is not on the movie prop so you don't have to glue the part in. 3D file, full assembly pic: If you have a large enough printer you can do this in all one go. Note the scope thickness, clamp locations and scope overhang front and rear. Movie prop: Note the thinness of scope, the appropriate overhangs front and rear, as well as the scope ring locations. My print: Once again, note all the items I've mentioned. I didn't want to reprint a new scope, but maybe on my second print (LOL) I will make sure everything is good. I went for a mid-line compromise and I think it looks the part. On this shot you can still see the slightly cracked rear cap. I'm attempting to glue this closed, but it will remain on for now. Next step is to use a basic grey rattle can primer to check for major cracks or gaps I have to fill. I'll refill, sand, prime again, then comes the decision of main body colour. Satin black as per movie prop, or the dark smoke grey of a real gun with satin black handgrips? I will also cut out some clear plastic sheet to replicate scope glass. I'll probably tint it red to add visual interest.

Sounds like I need to replace as I am aiming for L3 and don't want to have to take these all off again. Thank you, M

Just watch your angle trimmed corners, they are a touch on the large side A lot of people actually remove this higher section, mainly so it doesn't catch but it is screen accurate to leave it

Thanks! [emoji106] Sent from my SM-A715F using Tapatalk

Looking good David, trim if you need to for movement

Image above is incorrect, should be right in the middle of the coverstrip

Looks good

This design looks great! I agree with thinner walls at the contact point, but having some thin walls at the contact point is important. These snap together, and are magnets often chip when that happens to harshly. But also, the closer the can get, the better, as magnet strength diminishes greatly over distance, so even a minimum print thickness will work. Finally, they should probably be encased on top, but then, I suppose they can get glued in before mounting. for glue, I know E6000 is preferred for the rest of the build, but in this case, you need the speed of CA (with accelerator) to lock them in place one by one, as you can’t afford drift on the first row, or squeezing out on the second set that meets it.

Congrats Eric, great design!

That's gonna be a great looking pack! You're killing it!

That will definitely be my challenge coin of choice to battle with! Great design. A tough choice among many great designs. Very talented people indeed. All of you.

LOVE IT, Will want many of them

I mounted my fail-safe snap at the top, and it works. I just made a single snap mount and strap, roughened the spots next to the pockets to prep them and glued them in with E6000. First the bottom mount, and let dry for 24 hours, and then snapped the strap on, and glued and clamped the end down taught. Once the second part was cured the next day, I tried it out, and it can be easily reached to snap shut, and extreme bending my leg never opens the top. To pop it open is even easier, just slide a finger down under the strap and it pops off. Finally to finish them off, I added the 25mm cover strips once it was all finished. Because the seam needs to click flush, the excess E-6000 glue needs to be removed from the inside along the cover strip (by lightly cutting with a blade, and then scraping and sometimes pulling it off in long, glorious strips when it works). So far, especially with my snap failsafe, they seem very secure. I had to pad the front of the inside to try and push that sniper plate further out from my knee, and so that top magnet is more strained and needs the snap on that side to maintain closure: Update after a few months: The top "failsafe strap" feels like a vital piece, I never worry about them with that on. So I would highly recommend it. Second, someone, I can't recall who, was planning to make a 3D printed "magnet pocket" instead of heat forming ABS. I don't have a printer, but I totally think that approach would be easier. If someone does create that file, hopefully they can share it so others can make a superior version of this. The key is, it needs a fairly thin wall on the side that meets the opposing magnet for optimal magnetic strength.

Thanks brotha.

That looks awesome great job.

Well done Eric. Awesome design

Congratulations, and thank you, Eric! Tremendous competition once again.

Update: I wore the armor tonight and I had room to spare. The last time I wore it the Velcro barely fit and today I had almost two inches to spare. I am so happy that walking every day, cutting out a meal, and reducing my sugar intake has greatly helped me. Thank you!

MV (OP) Post #45: Tears and traps with traps and tears Lesson learned, folks. It pays to follow the general wisdom of painting multiple thin layers, rather than a single thick layer. I fell into the trap of following anecdotal luck and almost shed a tear or two while painting my helmet traps and tears. Don't be like me. Helmet traps Helmet tears Tips Questions Upcoming May the 4th Helmet Traps At long last I have another update, though I'm afraid I haven't really made any progress on my build, other than to finally make time to format and upload my photos, and write out this post. Continuing with my helmet, I set out to paint the black and gray on the rear traps and tears, and gray on the side traps which I had already painted black while fitting the brow trim. The perfectionist that I am, I wanted to use some form of template for the traps, but the Trooperbay masking templates didn't quite fit the bill, since I think the rear trap piece was designed for outlining with black paint after first painting the gray down. So instead I dug into my bin of supplies and found the Trooperbay decals shown in the first photo below. I had purchased these back in 2019 when I had planned to avoid hand-painting, but authenticity eventually won out in my mind. I figured that I could cut out the excel vinyl (or whatever the material is) and use it to mask my paint area. To check their size I traced their outline onto a clear plastic sheet (what I used for my eye lens template), cut them out, and test-fitted them onto the areas on my helmet. Satisfied with the fit, I traced around them in pencil to give me some guidelines for setting the makeshift templates. Below is the progression of the next steps in my process. In this previous post (scroll down) I described the paints I've been using, for late arrivals to this thread, they are Testors 1145 Gloss White, Testors 1139 Semi-Gloss Black, and Humbrol #5 Admiralty Grey. After setting the template and extra masking tape, I sealed in the edges with white, then followed up with the black. After 5-10 minutes of waiting, I peeled back the tape and cleaned up the edges with mineral spirits (end result not shown below). I repeated this process on the other trap, but unfortunately failed to realize that my trapezoid was a little lopsided, so I used some more decal cutout as a straight-edge, then added more black. After cleanup, it blends right in. If you compare the right end photo below with the one above you can see that the one above has a slightly more curved bottom edge; I will likely be remedying that in my next post. I then finished off one of the traps with the Humbrol #5 grey, hand-painted onto the black. Later on out decided that my black "outline" is a bit wider than I want, and doesn't appear quite proper with the outlines I have on my side traps and tears, so I'm hoping to paint another wider layer onto it, which I will ask questions about a bit later in this post. Next came the side traps. As already mentioned in my introduction of this post, I had previously painted the black while trimming and fitting the brow trim, so I only had the gray to do this time. I keeping with my recent success of a heavy-handed paintbrush, I laid down quite a bit of grey so as to maintain as smooth a surface finish as possible. At first everything appears perfect. But my "success" was only momentary. Actually, a couple days to be exact. I left the trap face-up to cure and it seems the paint pooled at the lowest point in the surface, at the trop right and at the leftmost edge, which I believe I discovered on the third day. The first photo of the compilation below shows the resulting wrinkles, which I was able to temporarily smooth away by rubbing it, but it always came back. The second photo shows it somewhat rubbed away. Then I had the brilliant idea of pressing that area down for the remainder of the curing time, so I found my decade-old oil-based modeling clay from college and pressed and clamped it to the surface. To protect my helmet and paint finish from the oily clay, and added a layer of cling wrap. Big mistake. In addition to clamping down the clay too hard, apparently the paint continued to shrink as it cured, so the cling wrap left a series of wrinkles in the paint. These can be seen in the last photo below, so in other light and angles, it sorta disappears, as shown in the second to last photo. To me, this paint job is unacceptable, so this is where I need input from all you experienced troopers. The way I see it, I have two options: Remove all the black and grey paint from this trap and start over. Sand down the wrinkles in the grey and paint another layer on top. To me, option #2 is attractive since I'm already very pleased with the overall shape of the black outline. If possible, I'd very much like to keep it. If I were to sand down all the wrinkles as well as the top and side edges of the grey, would another layer of grey on top appear smooth and seamless? Does anybody have any experience sanding this type of enamel paint? The photo below shows the width different between my two side traps, and ideally the second layer of gray on the right trap would have a little wider footprint than the first layer, in order to better match the left trap. Am I crazy for not simply removing all the paint (lots of mineral spirits!) and starting over? Helmet Tears Now that I've gotten that trap failure out of the way, on to an actually success story with my tears! After hand-painting both the black and grey layers, I was actually able to use the Trooperbay masking template for the lines. I followed the similar strategy of sealing the edges with the base coat color, in this case grey, then finishing with black on top. However, instead of painting the lines with the brush, I decided to try a technique that I saw @Cricket employ for her tube stripes. A makeup sponge! Essentially I brushed paint onto the end of the sponge, then patted it down in several light coats onto the helmet. This was my first time going light with paint, but it was important in order to 1) avoid excess paint being forced to break the edge seal with the template, and 2) to get a quick drying time in order to add multiple layers. After I believe three layers the black was sufficiently dark. And here were my results! A very clean hand-painted look if you ask me. I'm slightly bothered by the height difference between the left and right tears, but I've seen similar results before, so I can live with it. Besides, aren't these TK suits all about the tiny imperfections! A close-up shot to point out two things. Using the sponge left a slight texture in the lines which I'm unexpectedly happy with, since it is in contrast with the rest of the smooth surface. The raised surface of the template sticker also attracted a slightly greater amount of paint around the edges of all the stripes, which actually gives the perception that the stripes are recessed. Another accidental bonus! Yet to be determined if I was use this same method on my tube stripes, as I think I'm going to want them to be as smooth as possible. I have two pieces of advice to give, and they're very much related. Paint MULTIPLE LIGHT coats of paint, rather than a single heavy coat. I learned my lesson the hard way. LISTEN to those with more experience and wisdom. In fact, take this for life in general. Here are questions already mentioned in this post, but compiled and numbered here for ease of recollection and discussion. Should I remove all the paint on my right trap and start over, or sand down the grey and add another layer? Below are some close-up photos. If I were to down all the wrinkles as well as the top and side edges of the grey, would another layer of grey on top appear smooth and seamless? I would also like to narrow the black outline on one of my rear traps, and would like to sand down the edges of the grey to create a more smooth and level transition to the black paint before painting a second layer of grey. Does anybody have any experience sanding this type of enamel paint? Will mineral spirts be sufficient? Any overall thoughts on the thickness of my black outlines, particularly of my left-side trap and the tears, which is what I'm seeing to emulate on the other three traps? Trap paint completion Helmet face and cap assembly Finally, I thought some of you might appreciate this metal piece I saw at a local shop. It was actually reasonably-priced, but I didn't purchase it at the time, as it's not quite in the budget. But I may need to go back sometime... And I would be remiss for not making mention of today's date, so... May the force be ever in your favor. Ha. jk. May the 4th be with you. Always.

That’s a STUNNING design! Well done, Eric. And, hats off to the other excellent entries. There are some seriously talented folks in this detachment. [emoji16][emoji1303]

Well done, awesome looking kit.