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In addition to the BlastFX system I have been experimenting with the addition of smoke effects... Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Wow, smoke effects are a crazy cool mod. Maybe not for every single blaster shot fired, but definitely for the overheat feature (in case that is doable at all).

Hi all...my first time majorly posting on here (hope I got it right) but wanted to share my project. I think we've all seen them on screen and I know thoughts about their look are mixed, but to me the TK seen in the episode looked pretty rad. So since I print a lot of helmets for myself I bought a print file from mcflyprint3d and got to work. It was a pretty fun project and came out better than I expected. I'm now in the process of working on the armor file provided by mcflyprint3d. I've also printed out the animated version of the DC-15S from Galactic Armory that we see them using in the episode. This is my first time trying to print/build an entire kit...I''ll be sharing my progress as it comes along, and welcome any feedback. From start to finish To the finished product Currently on the printers Totally hope this works out.

Don't worry everyone, a bit like my run of EI and Centurion apps I'll take a step away from here for a bit

1: I prefer nuts/bolts you can adjust then, rivets are permanent but usually are included with kits. 2: Ideally the placement of ears are shown in the images below, you trim your ears to match the helmet then add the screws, some helmets have some marks for screw holes but they don't always align that way: The "ideal" ear placement is as seen below, where the screws line up with the rear angle of the trap right above it. Because some armorers design their helmets differently or send them pre-assembled this is not always possible to achieve, but it is suggested that you try to get as close as you can. Note: Top ear screws should ideally be located directly below the rear of the trap. 3: There should be little gap between the back and face plates, your brow trim should push between tightly and will stay there, if it's loose some use glue to hold it in place This thread pretty much covers all your questions

Done

Thanks Guys! Appreciate the advice. I did get fans ordered!! I've read this is a must. My goal is to get to the top! Looks like a lot of walking before I get running. Hoping to get to meet some of the members of my local garrison and get some more visuals! Pics are great but I am more of a hands on learner. I can sell the crap out of anything but making is not my strong suit.

Things left undone after the 4 day armor fest: - ab buttons - shoulder bridges - rear shin cover strips and attachment method - thigh garters - misc smol details like screw paint, glue removal, and knee trimming. The shoulder bridges have metal reinforcement and inner ABS void filling. I got them as close to the correct angle as possible and stuck them on. Fingers crossed that they're in the right spot. Rear shin cover strips have been gluing about 24 hours at this point. I'm gonna let them sit a bit longer before adding the velcro strips. I'd really like to not have that E6000 pop free. Also, the garter snap plates have been glued in and the ab buttons are in place. Excess E6000 is slowly being worried free and screws/rivets are now painted white. Everything on my list has been addressed and will get crossed off SOON!

It's been a long time. A long time. I own/run a small business that's been blessed with insane orders during COVID. But... insane orders. I haven't really had a chance to stop or breathe or do anything but work for the past couple years. My armor has sat in a semi-trimmed state in the original big brown box for all of that time. It's sad, but life required it. A few weeks ago, Eric (@scimitar) had some time off coming up and offered to fly out, hang out, and build some armor. In only four days, armor went from pieces of plastic to a nearly complete set! I cut cover strips, made snap plates, and did general E6000 things while Eric gave the armor pieces final trimming and assembly. At the end of the first night.... A torso!! That can be worn! I'm still medium ashamed that I was never able to get things farther myself. Working 10-16 hour days 7 days a week for 2 years hasn't been good for learning new things or understanding complex shapes and their relation/attachment in three dimensions. Also... most of these pix are Eric's. I wasn't apparently in a photo state of mind. Documenting things. Nope. It was Make All The Things time in my head. So pix are quite light here. And then arms could be attached and I almost felt troopy. Some leg massaging at the master's hands... er... backspace that. Ixnay on the assage-may. Leg day arrived! Legs got roughed in, snipped, boiled, reshaped, and glued. Not necessarily in that order. And then I got to wear the most armor I've ever worn in my life. It was magical. I don't know why I didn't just buckle down and do this all before now. Well, yes, I do. Work has been insane. But armor!!! It finally exists!

Made some tea today! They look a bit darker in person, but still, do they need more bath? Question, should I give these a bath too? Or should I save it for the weathering? These are just beige.

Hi Jeremy, welcome to FISD, looking forward for your BBB day photos and hope you consider to take that great set of armor to the highest levels of accuracy Centurion !

Been working to get my armour in decent shape for Halloween, so I’ve been jumping around getting some parts cosmetically mostly there then circling back to fine-tune them later. Rushing the greaves, I made a stupid mistake and trimmed too much meat off the left one. Now it won’t close around my leg (haven’t got around to putting the cover strip on yet, so it may yet close without a gap, but I don’t want to rely on that). Below, you can see my cut lines and the salvaged armour strips (not quite the right pieces) that I’ve held in place with masking tape to extend the sides. I’ve used ABS paste to extend the edges. While it may be messy, and not as strong as the original, I’m hoping that once I have inner and out cover strips in place, it will all hold together. Measure twice. Cut once. Got burnt. Lesson learnt. Here’s the same piece with ABS paste applied inside: I’ll leave it overnight and sand it tomorrow. Doesn’t have to be perfect as the cover strips will sit over it.

Thanks for the observations, good to have a trained eye to see things that a person might miss by themselves.

As I mentioned previously I'm looking forward to seeing this build progress, I've got itchy fingers and keep looking at the files Good luck with the build, if it's anything like your helmet builds this isn't going to take you very long

I really do appreciate it.

A couple more references for you

Hi Matt, glad to see you were able to remove the rivets with no damage to the plastic. As you can see in the bellow comparison, and this is not the best new I would like to give you but It looks like you will need to relocate the kidney rivets too.

To cut out the teeth, I started by making holes by spinning an exacto knife. then cut, filed, and sanded till it looked about right.so far I’ve only done 4 teeth.

***UPDATE*** I have started sending out PM's to those we have chosen images from, so please check your forum messages. If you have received a PM, please follow the instructions within. As an additional piece of information, please attached the requested images as .jpeg or .png files, and not embedded into the email. We are unable to use images that need to copied and pasted into a document from the body of an email for this project. Also please only send the best resolution you have. Examples of usable resolution are files 1meg or higher. Some at around 600+KB are ok, but I have received a few photos that are as low as 109KB- 300KB and there fore are way too small to use unfortunately. If emailing from a device where you took the photo, you should be able to attache the image at various resolution, go for the highest you have. This may mean you might have to send multiple emails and that is perfectly fine as it is the sharp quality we want. If the image was shared with you through messenger the photo is going to be a low res and not usable. In that case if you know who took the original, you may certainly ask them to email it to me for use. Many thanks and for those who have received a PM, please don't hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions. Once I have all the images, we will move to the next stage of the project and will finally reveal what this is all about.

Here is a quick vid of BlastFX in action... Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

I can understand that the hobby is really intimidating when you first join FISD, and when I was much younger, I felt the same as you. To the point I *gasp* bought ebay armor because “what does it matter? Armor is armor!” sure enough, I opened the box and realized just what I got myself into. Between poorly made parts, tons of inaccuracies, and just in general, terrible part quality. Thankfully I was able to return the armor for a full refund. Didn’t sign back onto the forums for a long while since I felt so discouraged. Then I decided to go to the page Gmrhodes posted and ended up making that my home page for a bit. Weeks go by as I started to really study the different armors to figure out which one was best for me, between quality, durability, and accurateness. I started reading other people’s build threads to get a better idea of what I can expect. I got in contact with my local garrison and they arranged to have dinner with me in just the span of a few weeks! All for a total stranger no less, but they were excited to meet a possible future trooper! Eventually I settled on an Armor Master 4.5 kit. A kit that costed twice as much as the 400 USD ebay armor I got! And let me tell you, I did not regret it. All the research payed off and I was able to get help from everyone on the forums. Not only that, but one of the troopers at the dinner turns out to live just a few minutes from my place and offered me to work on my armor in his basement. He basically was a guiding hand helping me every step on the way and was the one who helped me take my submission photos. What you get for joining the 501st is finding a second family as it turns out lol. what sets the 501st apart from other costuming groups is the fact that we strive for movie accuracy, to aim for a level of authenticity that even Lucasfilm even recognizes. That’s not to say that there aren’t other costuming groups of similar standards, it’s just that in a lot of ways, the 501st is the gold standard. I suppose at the end of the day, you will need to ask yourself why you want the stormtrooper armor. If you want to dress up as a stormtrooper from time to time, it is perfectly fine to do so without the strict guidelines of the 501st. However, if you want to go the extra mile and be part of a group that helps others and has a lasting impact both to star wars and her fans, then maybe this is the place you want to be. Sorry for the long post, but I think it will give you a better idea of “why we are the way we are”. The 501st isn’t for everyone, but unlike Yoda, we are certainly open to people who at least try.