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****WORK IN PROGRESS**** (relevant photos have mostly been moved over but I'll flesh out more descriptions/info as I can) Hey all - mostly for @RINZLERz but also in case it helps anyone else, I'm going back and compiling just the HELMET build portion of my Jimmiroquai Rogue One TK into one, more straightforward thread/post. There's a lot of info in my main build thread, and if you're just working on painting and assembling an ROTK helmet (of almost any make), this may be more user friendly. I'll still start at the very beginning, but I hope it helps! I organized a group buy of Rogue One style Stormtroopers from Jim "Jimmiroquai" Tripon in the Philippines in 2019 (to save shipping), with Big Brown Box Day not long after! My fiberglass helmet, as received, in all its glory: One of the better reference shots of a studio helmet, and what we're aiming for here: The first thing I did was reinforce the interior of the helmet, as I felt there were thin spots and that the helmet would not withstand almost any type of impact. My guess is that Jim leaves his fiberglass unsealed on the back to allow for flex, or for the end user to apply additional resin as they see fit, but I definitely wanted to. I gave Fibreglast 1110 vinylester resin a go with very positive results. Any in her very first coat of (actually light grey) sandable filler primer! I always recommend using different colors of primer when prepping, as it will allow you to more easily see high and low spots when you've sanded from one color to another. I think this actually still ended up being a good approximation of the products I used to prime and paint the helmet - could you do it with less? Probably. But I wanted this to be perfectly smooth and glossy, and it is. I also prepped and painted the interior black, which I do on all my helmets. Note that this is entirely optional, and that the studio helmets were not painted inside. I just prefer it. It also was an opportunity to address any final spots that looked thin or any big high/lows in the interior with a quick rough grit scuff. Primed, filled a few spots, and lightly sanded: And finished with truck bedliner spray. You can also see where I began cutting out the tube stripes. I chose to cut the tube stripes, but not the traps or tears, as on the real helmets, they weren't cut and backed - they were a separate piece added on top. Most helmets I've seen with them cut don't look as good, and its very fine detail work. I'd skip it, but the cheeks really should be properly recessed in my opinion, as it's a hallmark of the helmet, as opposed to the OT helmets. I drew the edges with a sharp pencil, drilled a hole at either end of the recess, then used a tiny cutting wheel on my dremel to connect them (BE CAREFUL), and finally jeweler's files to get all of the edges as square and uniform as I could. Just so it's noted, I was sanding in between each coat of primer to level out any high and low spots or to address any pinholes or imperfections. I would take it with me and wet sand in the shower for a few minutes like every day for a couple of months, no joke. But here she is in her first coat of flat white: Next up was masking off the helmet to do the gray details on the tears, traps, ears, and frown. I taped all around each of them, then covered the helmet with a garbage bag, cutting holes for the areas I wanted color on, then taping around them. I did about 4 light coats, 5-10min apart of RustOleum Painter's Touch 2x Satin Granite gray. I haven't been the best about documenting, but you can see the masking underneath after I removed the plastic bag. I actually got very little overspray and didn't need to do much cleanup. It's worth it to take the time to mask properly! And finally with all the masking removed! It was a LOT! I went in with my awl again and lightly scraped off any overspray - the 2K clear is hard and smooth enough that the awl would remove the gray paint, but not noticeably scratch the white. I then went around with a Q-tip and some polish to clean anything left up. This let me get even smoother, cleaner lines than I probably could have achieved with masking alone. Again, in hindsight... using a white tape on a white helmet probably wasn't best. The frown was hardest to mask, but cleaned up pretty well too! Next I tried to go in and do the black outlines with a fine marker, which worked okay at first, but when I touched them several HOURS later, still smudged... I gave it overnight to dry, but it was still wet the next day. Upon closer inspection, the pens I was using were water based and probably not bonding to the paint and drying properly. I ended up just wiping as much of the black outlines off as possible, and ordered myself an Extra Fine Oil-Based Sharpie that should arrive this weekend, then I'll give it another go. Next up was the neck seal trim. Didn't take photos, but same deal - masked with the Tamiya, some thicker masking tape, then a plastic garbage bag and a piece of adhesive foam sheet to block the head hole, similar to when I did the white paint. Again, cleaned up with the awl and polish for a respectably smooth line. I used RustOleum Painter's Touch 2X Flat Black for this to simulate rubber and am pleased. I used the same flat black and masking technique - this time with some spare newspaper instead of the plastic bag - to do the brow trim. Once I removed the masking, I went ahead and installed the blacked-out mic tips from Ukswrath (after painting the interior stem, nut, and washer with some flat black) - they look great! Of course, I'm sort of a perfectionist and took the time to make sure they were straight, as was the mesh in them (it was a pain). I set the helmet in such a way that it would stay in place overnight, then used some Gorilla Glue to attach the vocoder as well. I ended up having to heat it with some HOT water and bend it slightly to get it to connect at the top, and at the bottom near the neck seal - it previously had about a 1/4" gap. I also used my Dremel to rough the surface up slightly where it contacts to give it a better physical bond (hopefully if it ever comes off, it doesn't take a bunch of my clear coat with it......). That dried very securely, and brings us to where I'm currently at... all done with paint and just a few items left to assemble! I'll be finishing any final cleanup around the frown tonight, then using some strips of black 3M VHB tape to attach my frown mesh, and some velcro to install the lens (I like it easily removable for cleaning). I'll likely use the VHB to secure some fabric under the tube stripe vents as well. I also added some "airsoft helmet"-style padding from Amazon, but haven't dialed the fit in just yet (pics when I do) - it's a pretty room-y helmet.

getting close! The Velcro just kept falling out on the shoulder bells, so I put snaps 2 inches from center to the outer edge of the bell. then I made 1” elastic straps that are 3 inch center to center of the snaps. This makes the other snap hang out 1 inch on center, the exact distance to the snap centered on the 2 inch wide bridge strap. also started installing the padding and fans in my bucket.

Weekly update time! Start weight: 191 lbs Goal weight: 150 lbs Current weight: 184 lbs (gained 2 lbs since last week) Last week really killed me when it came to exercise, so I've decided to cut back my elliptical and recumbent cycle distances from 15km to 10, but I've upped the resistance on each machine, so I'm (theoretically?) doing more work. My garden has been going nuts, so I've been eating a lot of fresh produce which has been nice. I'm looking for more exercises to do with a set of dumbbells besides bicep curls, so if any of you folks have recommendations for dumbbell routines I'd appreciate them! Thanks again for all your encouragement, and keep up the great work, troopers!

Only an FYI so everyone is on the same page. I have been discussing a few minor details on these files with Chris from a separate thread we have running in staff area. As always Chris has taken everything on board and is continuing to tweak the files. I think its suffice to say many of us would love to see this come full circle, and I'd wager no one more so than Chris himself. Thanks for all the work you have poured into this project mate, keep it up

Great tips on aligning the stripes. If it gets to the point where I can't get Centurion because of it I'll fork over the $10 or so to get my third set lol Guess I'll head to Amazon for some elastic now. I'll probably keep using the nylon for the snap plates since I have it. I think once they're glued down, I won't have the issue of them pulling out of the nylon. He said confidently. Thanks for the help all, you guys keep me from throwing in the (very expensive) towel!

Nice work, you can use either nylon or elastic, I use nylon for the snap plates but for the strapping itself I just find elastic allows a bit of give when moving around, nylon would be a little restricting. No doubt try it when you are kitted up and moving/extending arms and legs NOTE if you read through that thread others mention using elastic for give I see what you mean by stripes moving away at the back, I doubt this would be an issue for basic approval but may come up at higher levels, perhaps the @Deployment Officer Team could chime in. What I do is measure on some tape the width of a pencil, then apply the tape to the helmet, you adjust to get the gap just right then apply decals. An old hobby trick was to use soapy water when applying, you can move the decal's around then push out the soapy water and pat dry.

Hello! I hope this topic is fine, if not, feel free to remove it. So, whilst I've seen memes pop up every now and then, I haven't seen any actual thread with memes about the FISD. Because I personally love commenting the things in my life in memes, I decided to make a few memes about the FISD, based on things that I've noticed on here so far. Please feel free to share your own memes as well, if you've got any This was something that I had a bit of trouble with in the beginning... Perhaps some of you can relate, haha Don't worry, we appreciate it I've only been on here for a short time, but during that time there've been a lot of armors by Glen. Most impressive! The struggle is real. Now I just need the money and to decide on what I am going to build. "Troopers helping Troopers" really encompasses the spirit of the FISD and I appreciate that very much. No explanation needed Feel free to share some more memes or to take this post down if it's too off-topic for the off-topic area

Some great images there for others to follow. For anyone looking, note that Jim's kits do have a few lumps and bums (being hand made molds), I also found this with his Sithtrooper helmet, it can also be the same with the armor, just a case of a little more prep work. Also a great tip for anyone using paint is to go over your filler primer/spray putty with a very light mist coat of black (or another dark color paint), it's an automotive painters trick, when you wet sand and use a block (sanding pad/block of wood) for larger areas you will sand down any high spots first and any low spots or scratches will remain and show some black.

My own week update: I sprained my back... no. That's not right. My back got sprained last Thursday. I have no idea how and there was no sudden twinge when I was bending over or anything. It just started to slowly hurt while I was sitting at the desk and then it hurt a whole lot. I've been lurching around like Frankenstein's Monster for most of the week. Not great. I stretched for over an hour yesterday which helped a lot and was able to do an abbreviated workout today. Not a lot of weight or cardio effect, but it felt good to work out. Fortunately, not much in the way of side effects from 4 days of sedentary life and then today with a small workout. Crohn's still on the ropes and scared of my newly found health.

Dumbbell exercises I like: Overhead press - it's a much more natural motion to do with dumbbells instead of a barbell since your head can fit between the dumbbells. Keep your shoulders back so that you're not cheating and lifting with your front shoulder (anterior head I think) and risking rotator injury. Bent over row - I prefer no bench for this. Get your legs in a front leaning stance and rest your elbow on your front knee (you'll be bending almost all the way forward to do this). Then grab the dumbbell and row with the free arm. Switch after 45-60 seconds. Tricep kick backs - basically the reverse of a bicep curl. You're leaning forward like with the row and straightening your arm. Gravity wants to make your arm bend into an L. Go slowly on the down stroke to get more out of it. Dumbbell squats - pretty simple. Rack your dumbbells on your chest and then squat. Dumbbell bench press - you can use the floor if you don't have a bench handy. I also like this more than using a barbell because your arms can naturally rotate on the down motion, which a barbell henders. You also can get a squeeze at the top for more chest activation. (Literally touch and then squeeze the two dumbbells together at the top of the motion.)

Dank farrik that's beautiful.

The Hovi-tips came painted so I'll see about sanding them some. I was using as a reference for doing the snaps. Seemed to indicate using nylon but perhaps I didn't read all the way through. I have a butt-ton of nylon strapping now ha ha

Hey troopers, This “fix” for Stormtrooper armour is not my own - it’s a tried and tested method shared here on the forum many times. However, I decided to put a video together to show how I use this method (white fabric and super glue. If you have any other methods, or tips on this method, feel free to drop a comment below. Best wishes Dan

It's from Denix and it's really something. My metal E-11 came from Blaster Factory. I highly recommend it!!!

Jim uses a flexible fiberglass not a rigid fiberglass so any coating you apply on the insides needs to also flex, most resins do not. Personally my Sithtrooper from Jim has some fibers inside but I sanded and coated in black spray paint and it's been fine for me. For just sealing the surface on the inside you could use something like a truck bed spray similar to what some have been using in their helmets A few options Rustoleum knock-off of FlexSeal Plasti-Dip Truck bed liner spary Dupli-Color rubberized undercoating

Thanks! I'll take a look!

Ok so I think ive completed all forms, Im looking to get some feedback on each indiviual part before I start smoothing them and adding cover strips as when I do that I wont be able to go back and fix things. Happy to send the files off to some people who are keen, as a thanks youll recieve the finished files free as well as some extra stuff. Anyway, here is what it currently looks like: Hope detail is visible enough, was difficult finding a colour and ligting preset that would show off the details well enough. Very keen to get some feedback on this, if youre interested to look over the files, shoot me a PM here or on FB.

*enters with large, stuffed trenchcoat* Wanna have some memes? So glad to see this thread in the newsletter and to see others joining in with the memes! They're awesome, especially yours, Glen, with the editing! Just an example