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A bit of delay as I was completing the lights for the jetpack, chest and gauntlets (will post some nice pics later, but very satisfied with low cost solution to get screen accurate lighting ). Here is one nasty part that gave me a lot of trouble... the ABS Abs section Probably the most challenging part is going to be the ABS section. The canon pictures are showing flexible armor With only one seam on the right side. On top of being accurate, I really did not want a hard armor, since either will be too large of a fit, or will be very uncomfortable (I can relate with my sith trooper). So I decided early on I would cast the ABS. I designed a mold out of 3D print (+bondo+ filler+ clearcoat to get perfect smooth finish) based on many pictures. 3D models online are not perfectly accurate and of course cannot be made flat. I will have the 3D model available on my Etsy soon for everyone. It had to be printed in 4 sections on my large printer to be approx. 330mm x 1000mm, as I am 5’8’’ /165lbs but I want the ABS mold to be fitting a bit larger/taller troopers if needed. casting material ****** old post, do not use- see updated material in later post****** So I did a LOT of research on best suited material (I didn’t want to go to silicone, unless last resort as it cannot be painted ( except with costly stuff) and with the size, would be also costly. I went with Smooth-on Tuff Stuff 15, which is supposed to be designed for cosplay. Ok, that was a learning experience which cost me 4 full bottles, chat with Smooth-on tech guys, frustrations,… I colored it with so-strong pigment white and black to end up with a grey. Just black is not accurate or enough qty. Lessons learned: - Works great if : - You cast it with a room that is 20-23C. Don’t do it in hot or cold environment. The foam WILL collapse - You have to use the proper mold release and don’t be cheap on it, urethane is very sticky - Don’t remove it out of the mold before 24h, even if they say 3h,… it WILL collapse in some areas - Mix it with color in part B only. Mix it with mechanical mixer ( I used Allway HMQHelix paint mixer drll attachment on Amazon) in a high container (from 1$ store- you will throw it away) so that your mixer on your power drill will not inject air into it. Mix it for 1min at full throttle, after the first 30s, poor in new container, otherwise you will have some areas that will not cure. - Once mixed…you have 1min to poor it and level. You’ve got to be fast and accurate as it will expand 4x, not to have thin and way too thick - You have to put a plate with stoppers over it to control thickness uniformity (aim 8-9mm) and have a nice surface finish. - Even with all this, you will end up with marble finish (after several chat with smooth-on staff) , but surface finish will nice and even, so when you apply the paint it will be smooth and nice. I used Tulip grey fabric spray paint ( you can get it at Michael’s if your in US or Canada). Fabric spray paint is the best for this flexible material. It’s scary when you apply it, but when dried it is very uniform. Below are images of the mold open and closed with the cover (showing white stoppers to have 8-9mm thick ABS ( I tried several thickness and this is the optimal for this product). ****SEE UPDATED MATERIAL IN SUBSEQUENT POST-DO NOT USE AS-IS***** Here is the ABS as demolded. Painted The ideal is to use straps on the ABS to support weight of the belt, cod and holster. I used velcros from brand 'Velcro' heavy duty, white from Amazon) inside and outside to secure the parts to the ABS

Doing some forearm trimming on a rainy Sunday. Next step is to get them sized and then move on to the biceps. Sent from my SM-N981U1 using Tapatalk

Whoever says that you're done with working on your armor once you get approved is lying. So here I am, once again! Aside from the usual clean-up and crack repair, it was time for something more unusual: Bleaching my armor Now, if you've taken a look at my troop log, you might have noticed that every since June last year my armor color hasn't quite matched up with that of my fellow troopers. Long, long hours of trooping in the sun can do that to ABS. After a bit of looking around and researching, I stumbled across the fact that you can bleach your armor. Here is a good tutorial. First things first, I got rid of everything that didn't need bleaching or that might make the process more difficult. Just look at this part of my helmet: you can clearly spot which parts were covered by the ears and which had some sun exposure! By taking my helmet apart I could more or less guarantee equal sun exposure during the bleaching process, as well as making sure the screws, the lens foil or the rubber parts wouldn't get bleached by accident. The paint however won't be impacted by the bleach. Similarly, I made sure to remove padding and strapping wherever possible. For bleaching the armor I used this hair bleach. I put a dollop of it onto the cardboard and painted a layer onto my armor. I then wrapped the armor in clingfoil and sealed it as airtight as possible with see-through tape. Remember to only use bleach whilst wearing skin protection and being in a ventilated area -- I forgot the gloves at first and my skin got really itchy and a bit spotty. Once I had everything wrapped up, I put the armor parts out in the sun, making sure to give them the most sun exposure they could get. Originally, I had planned on leaving them there the entire afternoon whilst I relaxed inside, but it was a rather windy day and I instead spent the next two hours playing catch with it in the garden. After those two hours I decided enough was enough -- at this point it was fairly likely that all the tumbling around would mean risking cracks and there were storm clouds coming up anyways -- so I carefully removed the cling wrap and wiped off all the bleach with water. Since I was already dedicating that day towards armor maintenance, I decided to give everything a good clean up as well, getting rid of some of the scuffs with a magic eraser. At a first glance, my armor certainly appears to be less yellow than before. I didn't get around to bleaching the whole armor, but only the more yellowed parts -- shoulders, helmet... anything with sun exposure from the top -- so we'll have to see just how well I will fit in with my fellow TKs at the next troop.

Hey all, I'm hoping to document my first order TK build here! This will be my first build, and I will inevitably have a million questions, so I'm hoping I can have some guidance! Here are my current plans: My dream is to make the TFA version of the trooper, as this design is what truly got me invested in stormtroopers years ago when I first saw them walking around Hollywood Studios. The DN kit is obviously intended to be used as a TLJ/TRoS suit, but from what I can tell, it can be made into a TFA kit. So that leads me to my next question, are the only differences between the two versions the helmet, forearms, and cod piece, or are there more? My plan is to order the individual TFA pieces from Imperial Surplus, and make both versions of the suit. Long term, id like to have an approved TFA kit, TLJ/TRoS kit, and Executioner kit. Lofty, but doable I think. As far as the helmets go, I would love to have both of the DN premium helmets, however, im not keen on dropping nearly $1,300 on the two of them. I will certainly get the premium TFA one, however, for TLJ, im going back and forth between the premium and standard line. The premium line helmet is very accurate. The standard line helmet is slightly inaccurate beneath the mouth, using the TFA chin. I thought about converting a black series helmet, as the chin is more accurate, however, I have quite a large head, and worry it won't fit. I have 3D printed 5th Horseman's F11-D, and SE44-C. Geeky Pink seems to be the go-to for gaskets, however, I am looking for rubber ones, as I hope to apply for centurion. I believe there are runs of accurate metal holsters, as well as well defined resin hand plates, both of which I hope to purchase. In addition, I may upgrade to Dino's spats. Any guidance and/or tips are greatly appreciated! I have completed a few ANH TK kits before this, and I'm excited to add this to the roster!

Forearms and biceps rough trimmed and taped so we can size, then glue. Sent from my SM-N981U1 using Tapatalk

Also don't cut into corners, best to drill then cut, the round hole should prevent splitting

Well done Luca! Looks like this has been a very successful task.

Having taken a short break to build my ESB helmet, troop, work on real life stuff... I'm back with some armor updates. Replacing the Ab-/Kidney Rivets Back in April, I got the following feedback after my EIB approval: This meant, I had to replace the rivets. I started prying the rivets off, only to irreparably damage said rivets. Therefore I had to buy new ones. Cue hours of internet searches, only finding wrong or overpriced options everywhere, until I asked an acquaintance if he knew where to find such rivets. He gave me different keywords and on my first attempt I found correct rivets. (Tovetis Zweispitznieten 8 x 9,5 8mm, if anyone's curious. 38cts/rivet). So here's what I did: I removed the existing strapping and rivets. I marked out a new cutline, cause I didn't like the old one. Cut to size. Marked up correct rivet placement. Filled in holes with ABS paste. Glued strapping back in. Then I added in the new rivets, first testing the whole process on a piece of scrap ABS, because I could do without repeating this entire process again, just because I didn't know how to set the rivets correctly. The new rivet placement was set precisely according to this: Afterwards I repeated the entire process on the abplate and then I painted the rivets white. I'll probably do some gentle colour corrections on the ABS paste in the future, due to the fact that my armor already yellowed a bit in comparison to the used paste. Adjusting the Chestplate Maybe it's just me slouching, maybe it's just something that I'd prefer to change for no other reason than the fact that I spotted it twice on some pictures, but I oftentimes got the feeling, that my chestplate was sitting a bit low, sometimes even catching on my an plate buttons (yikes). So to fix that I had to bring the chestplate higher up. Now, one way of doing that could have been a more rigid strapping at the bottom of the chestplate, such as the original strapping, but I moved away from that for a reason (less mobility and easier to pack). Therefore I had to pull it higher up by shortening the shoulder straps. Looks good, right? Had to heatform the shoulder bridges to conform to the new shape and loosen one of the elastic keeping my shoulder bell connected to the shoulderbridge strapping a bit, as the shoulderbells moved forward a centimetre, but overall I'm happy with the result, even if it was a lot of work that could have been avoided by having a better posture in armor Kidney-/Buttplate Strapping With me always sitting down in armor, it was probably inevitable that I'd get a crack in the return edge right to the screw, thanks to the original strapping in that part of my armor. Once it finally happened, I took out all the old strapping and replaced it with Glen's V-tabs instead. So functionally, I currently only have one plate of armor for both parts, and I got a pretty good gap between them thanks to it. Also, no risk of anything cracking -- worst comes to worst, the V-tabs will simply pop off and I'll have to reglue them. Boot Repairs Piece of advice: Photoshooting in the middle of the Netherlands in nature? Awesome. Wild growth? Dangerous for your boots. I must have gotten caught on a thorn or something with my boot during the shooting. Luckily, the local officers knew how to work with fabric of all kinds (shout out to ID-14445/Robin) and gave me the advice to simply go over it with some superglue. Worked really well, and with some additional help by a white outdoor marker, they look pretty spotless again. Other stuff I reworked my padding a bit, repaired some other things and am currently working on a trading card box. This weekend I'll have another troop, and I hope I can get a friend to check my thigh armor position and what I can fix without having to cut away (much), as that is the last to-do on my EIB Application Feedback List. Obviously, there's another few things that I might work on as well, but hopefully I'll continue on to my Centurion application within the next two months (no promises, I've got a few busy trooping weekends ahead, am still working on applications and will move again soon). Looking forward to any and all feedback!