kiyotei

It appeared that a number of troopers had trouble walking down the stairs at the start. They kinda made lots of fast cuts while they were walking so you had to look fast. I didn't see any armor malfunctions.

Just a reminder...tonight, Monday April 28, is a 2 hr special Deal or No Deal with a Star Wars theme. [Edit] 8pm - 10pm

I used a number of methods. It depends on the part you are cutting. Some places you are best using a razor to score it. Other places you could use a dremel to cut thru the plastic. You can also use tin snips on bigger pieces.

Daetrin, I'm really surprised you don't take a strong stance against recasting

Darth Nickel, Have you tried wearing the HD (summer) under armor? Its suppose to actually help keep you cool by whisking the sweat from your skin? I switched to TK4205 neck seal light weight under armor shirt and summer HD pants, makes a huge difference. I found that putting fans in the back of the helmet didn't help much because my hair was against them so no air flow out or really in. I'm fan free now. I do add an anti fog stuff to my lens but that does not work very well. I big improvement came from adding an air dam around the mouth area of the helmet. This forces my breath out the mouth holes and prevents it from flowing up to the eyes. This was a major improvement in fogging control. I found that probably 70% of my fogging is caused by my own hot air. Jim

I'm a proud owner of AP but after reading this thread decided it was time to reduce the bump. I have a heat iron for forming plastic that I borrowed from TK9323. I used that to flatten the bump some. My only problem with the bump is that it interferes with my vision. This of course all depends on how big your head is and mine is small. I got a big troop this weekend so I will be able to check out the difference then. I've had my armor finished since December 2007 but only in the past month have I gotten the helmet fitting properly. I had a lot of vision problems initially but I've got the helmet sitting pretty good now. One of my problems with fitting the helmet was that my chest and back plates were sitting too high and holding the helmet up too much. I'm short and have a short neck which caused a clearance issue with the body armor.

thanks for the tips. The entire inside of my helmet is painted black so I just need to blacken the white cross section of the helmet that was exposed when I made the cuts.

Ok here are two pics for ya. Please be nice, it looks crappy. Once the weather turns nice, I'm gonna remove the decals and hand paint it so it looks better. Last night I took a black marker to try and cover up the white plastic showing in the slots but that didn't work. ----------

I should mention that my head generates a lot of heat so I defintely need the extra venting. I also recently found out that Underarmor makes both cold and hot weather version. I just assumed it was for cold weather. My second top I bought is from TK4201 who used summer weight and its much cooler and more comfortable for indoor trooping. I made a huge difference in my comfort level. I just bought summer weight pants as well. They are suppose to help keep you cool. I'm looking forward to my first troop wearing them.

I seem to recall talking with RT about his armor before I bought my AP. He told he resized his armor some time ago making it bigger than his original suit. So TK-4510 do you have one of his original models or the newer one? I'm 5'7" and AP fits pretty good. To get a fast start on the armor you should hold an armor party with your local garrison. That first cut is a tough one. I held an armor party to help get my armor started and it was a big help. Fortunately for me my garrison is full of guys who are a big help. There are some guys on here as well who do armor assembly for $$. They do anything from trimming to full assembly. PM me if you want to know more on that subject. I think spring and summer are big trooping months so would be nice to get your armor done by summer.

I'm working on this. Initially I only cut out 4 slots per side. I had fans installed in front of the vents to blow air out. I've now cut out all the stripes but two and removed the fans. I haven't had many troops since making this mod so still seeing if it helps. Once the weather gets better here I"m gonna remove the decals and hand paint the two areas to make it look better. I cut right thru the decals so it looks a bit sloppy right now.

glad to hear you are slowly getting better. Keep your chin up. I should have sent you some Jar Jar targets to shoot. That would be fun, perhaps some ewok targets too.

I guess the link crap is case sensitive, sorry got the new image linked properly now.

I can't help it but I think shooting ewoks is funny. But why stop there, here's one that I think everyone will want to add to their blaster: -----------

For you ANH folks (me too) I'll have to create a scope site with Jawa's. We shot up a few in ANH. I'll post it soon.

great job, I'm glad I could server as your inspiration for this.

They all laugh until you show up in armor and then they are all scrambling to have their pic taken with ya. I'm an engineer and work with a ton of them, they all loved it when I showed up at work in armor. I think its really funny when we do an appreance in public, say at the mall. You can see a lot of high school age kids walk by giving you this strange looks. Then you see them pass by again and again. Then finally they walk up to get their pics taken with us. It takes a while to burn thru the "I'm so mature (adult, cool, etc) attitude but in the end no one can resist the power and allure of the TK's.

Looks great. I took your image with the red 501st logo and made it my wallpaper. Looks great.

If the price is going to be $850 why bother buying it? Its not better than what you can currently get for about the same money. I don't follow fx armor but I'm guessing you can buy fully assembled FX online for less than that.

fyi if you want a copy of my file PM your email address and I'll send it to ya.

for some reason the pic I posted is not currently showing up. I think my photo storage site is malfunctioning. Check back later to see it.

the only think I don't like about the stunt is the bump in the right eye. It blocks part of my view. This issue will depend on how the helmet fits you. Also I don't know if the TE2 has the bump? If not then no issue. I wear AP which is a stunt helmet.

I think you should add a pic of an ewok behind the bullseye in the scope like this (I hope this pic is visible): ---------------

looks like your thigh pieces need to come up a bit more. The hand plates are hard to see but they look too thick. I think you need to trim more off of them. Perhaps post a closeup of the hand plates making sure to show the edges. Also it looks like the upper back piece is over lapping the kidney plate. I believe they should butt each other. The armor is looking good. Great job so far.

I've used a lot of the locktite just cause I hate mixing epoxy. Anyhow, I've found epoxy does not hold great in the long run on ABS. When using the ABS welders make sure you don't use too much. It will heat the plastic as it cures and can actually melt it. If you are using clamps to hold the joint and it gets too hot the clamps will sink into the abs leaving permanent marks. I've seen this happen on someone elses armor.