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Wow am I glad to found this thread. In Feb of 2019 my wife and I started a medically supervised weight loss program run by our local hospital. I was 320lb and very unhappy. After consulting with my doctor, we set a weight loss goal of 100lbs. She told me this was very conservative and very doable in this program. She wanted me to shoot for 200lbs, but I haven't weight 200lbs since I freshmen in College, so I didn't think that was a realistic goal. By Jun of 2019 I was down 50lbs and very excited about what could happen. I saw that ATA was having an anniversary sale, and I bought 2 ANH TK kits from him, and decided it was time to join the 501st. (There is a longer story here, but I'll tell that another time). October 2019 came and I was down to 240lbs. I ran my first 5k at my son's college during the parent weekend. I came in 5th in my age group. It wasn't hard to beat the others as they walked the 5k. But I ran the whole thing and was amazed that I completed it. when we returned home I had 2 kits waiting for me. I was crazy excited. and figured my son and I would build them over Christmas break. I didn't have a clue, but I was just starting to read the forums and getting and idea. Nov and Dec I slipped a lot, We had a 10 vacation to Orlando where we did both Disney and Universal theme parks and then the holidays came. I gained about 20 lbs back and was a bit depressed, but was ready to work on my kit. My Garrison's Armorer lives near me and we spent every weekend in January together learning how to build my armor. I was back to 250lbs and fit the kit to me for my approval in Feb of 2020. I attended my first Convention as a 501st member and ran the both most of the weekend. I was so proud to wear my kit. Then Covid hit. Trooping stopped, the medical weight loss program stopped, my son's school went virtual so he has to come home. And the weight started to come back. So here I sit, June of 2022 and I'm back up to 300lbs. I hate how my armor looks on me, My second costume (my tie reserve) doesn't fit any more. So I'm miserable. Luckily the weight loss program is starting back up in July and my goal of getting to 220lbs is alive again. I don't have any pictures currently, but I'll update this post/thread later. I'm just happy to have found this thread so I can start participating and helping us all encourage one another! And hopefully by the time I lose the extra weight again, Dave's Darkside Depot (AM) or Troopermaster (TM) will have plastic again so I can order a new kit to build to at least EIB. Thanks in advance for the encouragement. I've seen some of the post and it make me thrilled to find another part of the FISD to participate with.

I can commit to weekly updates! I’m happy to have support from a couple of fellow Troopers in pursuit of similar goals, and I’m here to offer whatever support I can offer as well. Stay on target Brothers!

Dang. Sorry to read that you need this too James. However, I'm very glad there's a handful of us to participate and keep each other going! I made up something kinda quick to commemorate it. What do you think brothers? Weekly updates? @Order and Justice @jsilvius

Hello everyone, updating my build thread with some fresh paint pictures.

Some bits of info is seeping out, well clones anyway Hayden Christensen with members of the 501st Legion while filming the Jedi Temple flashback scene for the Disney+ Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Now do they mean the actual members of the 501st Legion or actors wearing 501st legion style costumes Appears this confirms it was actors, middle back has been in other costumes And on the red carpet

Hi Nick Enjoy your break away. :-) A little food for thought for your return to the white stuff. Coverstrips. I know you said you’re not keen on the screen accurate 45° corners of the coverstrips, however, perhaps the length of them is something you’d consider changing for a cleaner look. As below, the original coverstrips are never significantly longer than the armour. In fact, they are usually only as long as the shortest armour piece (seen bottom left in picture below): As you’re aiming for Centurion (I.e. for more of the screen accurate details), this could be a consideration. Here’s more details on coverstrips:

@jsilvius you can do it again brother!! Go for it.

Hey troopers, Today, I’d like to run through some tips on ways to make a troopable replica Stunt TK helmet. The aim of my build was to make a helmet that looks closer to those seen in ANH back in ‘77, rather than how those helmets look now, over 40 years later. As we all know, the helmets on screen were used and abused by the actors/stunt team and this is clearly evident in ANH. Highlighted below, the helmets showed signs of cracked paint and usage markings. For those that don’t know, the original Stunt helmets were not white ABS (as many helmets are sold today). They were made of a khaki coloured material called HDPE. This was primed and then spray painted to get the final white appearance. This is why the helmets, when studied in closeups, have chips in the white paint showing the khaki plastic below. According to a trusted source, the process went something like this; 1. HDPE helmet primed oxide red 2. White primer added 3. Ears attached (unpainted) and helmet sprayed gloss white So, if one is looking for the closest appearance to screen used stunt helmets, the helmet has to be spray painted. This leaves a couple of options; Option 1; find a good quality HDPE helmet and follow the original methods Option 2; purchase an ABS helmet and fake the HDPE part For this project, I chose option two. Firstly, creating a “replica” helmet means studying the original helmets, such as how they were constructed and how they were finished. I’ve posted various threads about helmet alignment, brow heights, tubestripes and vocoders (which I’ll link at the end) as all of these elements help create a helmet that shouts ANH. For this build, I used a Troopermaster Stunt kit, 1.5mm ABS (not acrylic capped). After a rough trim, I could use magnets to hold the faceplate and back & cal together to start working on alignment. (More info on alignment https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/48293-anh-helmet-alignment/) At every stage, I use a free smartphone app to compare my progress with movie screen shots. (FISD gallery: https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/gallery/) With the basics of alignment in place, the helmet can be fixed together. Let’s take a second to look at the eyes. As below, the screen used helmets appear to have had the eye sockets cut out with a sharp knife. Unlike many “idealised” builds, they were not finely tuned with sand paper or Dremels - they had nice, sharp cut lines. Once the construction is done, the undercoat that will give the appearance of the khaki HDPE plastic can be applied. I was recommended Rust-oleum Painter’s Touch Fossil. Now, whilst the original Stunt HDPE helmet were primed oxide red, I haven’t used that part of the process - this is because, in this build, the Fossil colour acts as the primer. So, for this build the process would be; 1. Helmet sprayed Fossil green 2. Apply liquid mask 3. Ears added and helmet primed white* 4. Gloss white 5. Clear lacquer applied IMPORTANT STEP To give the appearance of paint chips later on, time to apply liquid mask. This was applied with a paint brush to areas where the screen used helmets showed chips or weathering. As below, you can see that the liquid mask has been carefully applied. This dries to a latex finish and is removed after the gloss coat has cured later in the process. White primer; * to get the masking fluid correctly applied around the ears, the ear caps had to be added before the white primer, otherwise, creating the screen used look around the ear caps wouldn’t be possible. Gloss white; Helmet now ready for hand painted details. :-) So, now the helmet is shiny white, spray painted just like the originals, we can move on to the hand painted details. As always, I used screen shots throughout to be as accurate as possible. Videos part 7 through 10 cover the helmet detail painting; Hand painted details More details on the vocoder can be found here: https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/48252-anh-tk-vocoder-examples/ For the tubestripes, I followed the process used by Troopermaster. Essentially, using masking tape (set 15mm apart), starting approximately a pencil width from the cheek, then using a curved template (made from offcuts of ABS) to mark the pencil lines. Each stripe should be approximately 3mm thick. Note the angle of the front few stripes - more details on that here; https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/44755-tube-stripes-anh-stunt-dave-m/ With the tubestripes complete, some gentle weathering can be applied. I used an off cut of rubber s-trim to mark the helmet, then used damp newspaper to give it a slightly used look. And there we are - a helmet built using original construction methods, painting processes similar to the originals, and hand painted details, with realistic weathering. The completed helmet can be seen here; Also, the build can be seen throughout this playlist of videos; Thanks for stopping by. Any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. Best wishes Dan

@revlimiter @jsilvius @Order and Justice and anyone who joins the club.

Thanks Dan!

Lovely work, trooper. [emoji1303][emoji16]

Yes, Battlefront 2.

Looking good. See how it fits when worn, if you need any more room near the elbow when moving about you can take some more return edge off. My skinny arms needed to keep some return edge to fill the gaps

I guess they got all jelly about your mod. I will have to dl the mod when I get to my PC shortly. It is for Battlefront II yes? I may have to reinstall it again

Wow Adam, you are a legend to keep that at bay under your own steam, that's impressive. I am positive you can get back on that horse and work yourself to wellness, you've championed it before so you are in control of your destiny here. Think of it like centurion Level, it's not easy to achieve, but it is possible, you just need the focus and drive. In your case, your body is centurion level, you managed it on your first build, now your onto a new build and you are hungry for it again. You got this.

I haven't had much luck with bending ABS, but have found these work well to accomplish the same thing and with a little dab of epoxy on the butt plate side only, are now a standard addition on suits for me! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07793L26V/