kiyotei

ok since I looked at the last post, I wanted to ask a question of all you gurus. One of the guys I work with tells me he knows for a fact that the early concepts for the trooper helmet in ANH were based on a motorcycle helmet, MSR (Malcolm Smith Racing) from that era. He says he used to have the helmet but it was ruined in a wreck he had. When he says he heard them talk about it after the movie came out, he's usually correct. Has anyone seen or read any articles talking about this? Unfortunately he does not have pics of this helmet and a quick search online with him turned up nothing.

Someone said "you can't even wear it". I don't understand this comment. Why couldn't you wear it?

I don't have any white leather handy but I'm thinking of riviting some white foamie foam to the front and back of the boot to extend its height a bit. This should help with it slipping out from under the armor. That's are real pain. I also added some foamie foam to the bottom of the shins. I'll add pics once I decide if I like it. Basically I have a in the front and rear of the shin to extend that area over the boot as well as reduce rubbing in those two areas. I thought this might help keep the boot from slipping out but didn'. I have to mod how I did it in the back which is the worst area for slipping. I split the foam at the seam unfortunately that is THE critical slip point.

I always thought it odd they had that line in the movie. Storm Troopers are the terror of the empire yet they can't see out of their helmets??? Doesn't make any sense.

you know, I went back to the site that I bought the suit at and none of the helmets look like the one I got with the suit. Though I think this one is closest: http://www.officialstarwarscostumes.com Its beyond appalling that Lucas would ever liscense these helmets. they are such total crap, beyond crap. Anyhow, I bought the $74 suit and as I said the helmet does not look like any of these though the link above comes closest. The $8 helmet appears to have bubble lens. It might be better to buy it and see if you are desparately looking for bubble lens. You should be able to find these same costumes at costume stores in your area, though with Halloween being over, it might be harder.

here ya go, a pic of the bubble lens. You can find the helmet at any online costume store. Its the middle priced one. Here is one link you can check out. Its for the whole suit but you would want to buy just the helmet. The costum is total crap. They make it look ok in the pic but its not even good for a kid. -----------------

yea bigturc its the right one. Mine does it too. I'm thinking about adding some type of extension to the top of the boot to keep it from slipping off.

I'm working on a pic. You can have them if you want. I can't use them since I have a stunt helmet.

Hey Guys, Not sure what you all do for bubble lens but I came a cross a neat solution last night. I have this old cheap crappy halloween costume SW trooper helmet. I noticed that it had bubble lens. So I just popped them out. They are held in place with what looks like heat gun glue. That was easy to break the seal on. You can just peal the extra off with your hands. They seem to fit pretty good at least in an AP helmet. Of course the AP is a stunt helmet so no good there:( i don't know if they are dark enough for use though. I guess that depends on your view point.

firebladejedi, you definetely have a lot more room at the bottom of your shins than I do. Mine are very tight fitting. I like the idea of leaving the bottom of the seam open. I may try that. I just don't want the boots to get trashed too fast. I know scrapes are a way of life and are not bad looking.

I plan on getting some pics soon. I'll let ya know once I post them. I'm more concerned about looking left and right vs down. I realize down is a lost cause.

Here's one other topic I have not seen any one discussing. How do you get a good fit of the shins over your boots? How do you keep the bottom edge of the shin from scraping the white paint off of your boots? Any suggestions out there. so far I've had to redo my back seam on the shins to make more room for the boots to fit under them. That was no big deal. Fortunately AP sends you some extra scrap ABS sheets to make shims.

Ok, so here's a new problem I have not seen on here yet. I have AP armor. I'm too short I guess and my neck is not long enough to give the helmet clearance from the chest plate and back plate. So basically this means I can't really turn the helmet left or right easily, and well forget looking down, no clearance at all. I'm guessing there is nothing I can do about this but thought I would ask. I can't increase the padding on the top of the helmet to raise it on my head because then I won't be able to see out the eyes.

I originally considered FX because of price but then realized I would have to buy a new helmet right away (I'm only 5'7"). Buying a new helmet + FX cost I might was well buy a more expensive armor set, so I did. I bought the AP kit. I guess if you are serious, why pay a little now and a lot later when you know you will upgrade the kit sooner than later. Though fit was also critical for me and AP is one of the smaller sets of armor out there. All the original troopers were about 5'11". both FX and RT are made for larger guys. I think the RT guy told me he is 6'2" and resized his armor design to fit his frame better.

I recently bought a pair of black leather boots and painted them. There is a link some where on this site showing how to paint boots, but basically its pretty easy to do but time consuming. First you get a leather shoe cleaner (just go to a cobbler and tell him what you are trying to do). The cleaner removes all wax from the leather. You can then rough up the leather a little with steel wool. Then you buy white leather shoe paint at the cobbler. You must spray the leather with very light coats. Wait for coat to dry and spray again. The paint dries very fast because you are using very thin coats. Thick coats take a long time to dry and also will wrinkle. I used 2 full cans of paint on my boots but they look great (yea yea Daetrin post pics I know and I will). You can then use white scuff remover to paint the cloth u-shaped area white. Ok the boots I bought I found at a used clothing store in Los Angeles. They are no longer available new. They were made by Rockport and I'm guessing new they were well over $100. The boots are in perfect condition, never worn, I got lucky. Unfortunately they are a size too big but I'm hoping they work out for me. If not I'll be selling them so some big footed trooper, LOL.

Curtis, what is the volt and amp ratings on the fans you used?

The eye sockets molding sticks out a lot on the inside of the AP helmet. How much of this do people grind down? In other words how flush do you make it to the inside of the helmet or do most people leave a lot of it there? The more you grind down the less deep the eye socket will look.

my only concern with using truck liner spray is that it might insulate the helmet making it hotter inside? Anyhow have this experience? I used Fusion flat black and it worked fine. Paint the helmet before you cut out any holes and before assembly! Mask mask and mask some more. You would be amazed out how that paint gets in the tiniest hole in masking.

I went to numerous large sporting goods stores in Seattle and no one sells the helmet liners. If anyone in the SEA area knows a store that sells them, let me know.

turns out my sister in law works with a trooper. She works events at one of the big studios and actually has brought in troopers for two events this year.

Good idea. I found I could only post a message in the "guest" area even after registering on the site.

I didn't know where to stick this post so sorry if its in the wrong place. I'm heading to Los Angeles tomorrow for a week to visit family. I was wondering if there are any good shops in the area to look for stuff like trooper boots? Any cool trooper events going on next week in LA? I'll be in the Century City area.

This helmet is for troopers with massive brains, a side affect of all the cloning they did, think of the aliens in the movie "Mars Attacks".

Hi Paul, miscommunication there, the shoulder bells hang from the shoulder straps, not the biceps. I have the biceps attached to the shoulder bell. I got rid of the strap that some guys use which goes all the way around the bicep to hold it to the shoulder bell. I used Curtis's method of securing the bicep-shoulder bell assembly. It looks good, works fine, and you can't see any black strapping. I was guessing you had TM. Is your bucket TM as well? I looks really wide in the pics but then again, I've never seen a TM bucket in person. FYI your armor looks awesome. Jim

Paul, I like how close your shoulder bells hang. I cannot get the AP should bells to come that close to the body armor. I use straps to hold them to the shoulder but they just don't seem big enough, I'm guessing its an AP thing. What kind of armor is yours?