kiyotei

Me too. Its a strange assembly. It does not really fit the way you would think. I was really surprised at how much plastic you are suppose trim off of it. Curtis has some good pics of this piece.

I'm 5'7" and have an AP suit. I have the same problem. I have to buff the top of the chest plate after each wearing of the armor because of the rubbing.

I live in Seattle and dream of "In and Out" burgers. I used to live in LA. Hmm yummie. I used to miss Fat Burgers but they finally opened one here.

Paul we definitely need another "bringing of the helmets" party so we can do pics and measurements. I'm still mad that my pic of all the helmets came out blurry.

the tint level you want on welder masks is #3. I think most welding supply stores carry it.

thanks. Kinda strange that they would make one shoulder bell with a swoop and one with out. Or perhaps they just screwed up the original molds. One guy made the left and someone else made the right shoulder mold. One carved a swoop the other guy didn't??? We'll never know I guess.

When you say swoop, do you mean just the little bit at the bottom of the strip or do you mean the entire strip that runs from top to bottom of the shoulder bell?

fireblade, what armor do you have? The AP ab plate has a distinct line I think you can cut along. I have not done this but I am considering it. I would like better flexibility plus the bathroom thing.

I was in 6th grade when ANH hit the theaters and I was blown away. I never had any SW toys, mom thought I was too old for them. Over the years I would occasionally check the internet for a trooper suit. This past year I came across the 501st and the armor. Finally I could justify the price of armor. My dad loves Darth Vader so I may talk him into buying one and I could build it for him. Would be cool.

I've found that it works well to stick the shin piece inside the thigh piece and then stick the forearm piece inside the shin piece. This really helps with space particularly when you have to pack in a suit case for travel. I can take my chest and back piece apart. I unsnap everything to pack it. Daetrin loaned me a motorcycle helmet bag for carrying my helmet in. Very nice. Oh Daetrin, my armor arrived in NH with me so all is well. My nephew loved seeing my armor. He was in shock when he saw it. I didn't tell him I had it.

The hardest part of putting on armor is stretching that "under armor" over my less than chiseled body

I like to ask the kids if they are rebels. I ask girls if their name is Pricess Lea. I ask them if they have any droids with them, stuff like that. Kids like to ask if the gun is real. I tell them its a real blaster. I think Darth Vadar gets the best questions. At a toy drive we had recently, a girl asked Vadar why he was collecting toys for kids cause he is evil. she just kept saying, "but your evil". Very funny.

AP says use velcro on your seams but you will need to use glue on at least one seam per piece as the other guys stated. I would hold off on glueing the shin pieces until you have your boots. Getting the shins to fit over the boots properly can be a bit tricky with AP.

I came up with a good working solution now. I added a white elastic strap to the inside of my shin pieces. It loops around under my foot and pulls the shin piece downard. This works real well at keep the shin piece from sliding up over the boots. Some ski pants and long johns have a strap at the bottom of the leg that keeps the pants pulled down, same thing that I did. I also had to add a vinyl strip across the bottom of the back side of the shin. The vinyl is from a very large window blind, very flexible. This strip keeps the boot tops from trying to slip thru the seam. the strip sticks out a bit from the bottom of the shin piece. I only secured one side of the strip to make it easier to put the shin piece on. We had a toy drive troop this past weekend and it worked like a charm. Another problem I was having with the shins was that they would slide up over the boots and their tops would hit the thigh pieces.

using the black pinstripe tape is a great idea. I totally screwed up my ears when I painted the black trim on. I have to redo them now. I will go buy that pinstripe tape today.

21 helmets, damn! You are the master builder of helmets.

Just curious why you don't paint the helmet disassembled in individual pieces and then reassemble it?

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.