RogueTrooper

Using elastic on these sides will help, also you may warm up the flare parts with a heat gun, so bend the flared sides inward to fit your body better. Warning be careful not to overdo the HIPS with the heat gun. You can use either E6000 or HIPS Styrene Plastic Glue for the repair jobs on HIPS.

The top of the butt plate does have return edge, If you want to give your armor the 3 dimensional look and keep in the same vein of the original screen used armor, then add back the return edge. Here is a tutorial for making return edges: http://forum.whitearmor.net/index.php?showtopic=12972

Welcome aboard Michael! Just look over the Tutorials and HOW to's / Tips that Panda post above. Here is a link for tools you will need: Basic tools needed for armour building BTW which kit did you buy, and which of the black armor are you doing, a regular TX (Blackhole/Shadow) or the Novatrooper? Also if you have not been on the Special Operations Detachment, not forget to pop in over there and say hi! Here is the Blackhole / Shadow Stormtrooper CRL link Here is the Novatrooper CRL link or if your going to set it up a notch then here: Elite Novatrooper CRL The one thing more have fun with your build, do not rush, take your time. Also, take lots of pix. If you need help, have questions or want advice, just post. Also if you need hands-on help, your local 501st Garrison can help you. Here is a link where you can find your local 501st: http://www.501st.com/ Each Garriosn/Squad/Outpost has a site/forum, jump on your local 501st's forum and introduce yourself, and tell them about what you are going to do with your build.

Hey Juan, just like John said above, try to scar up the edges and corners. If you weather the scope, use brass colored paint, since the real scopes are made of brass. Also, here is one I saw over on the MEPD that Graham / tk7713gra30 did to his Hasbro. He gave a good weathering look to it.(really battled scared) Link to:painted metal weathered E11 conversion-finished

Happy to help Ricky. Panda's build should walk you through the stages that you need, to do your build. But, if you do get to a point that you want advice or need a question answered, just post. We are here to help you. A little tip: If you have any hesitation about where you should cut or mod, take some pix and draw a pencil line where you think the cut or trim should be, so we have a point of reference to give you feedback. I also know it is hard to take photographs of stuff that is white, because the flash will blur the detail out. If you can open the curtains/shades and take the pix in natural light, it should improve the pix.

Typically the bottom of the kidney plate has the flat return edge and the top has a more arched or rounded return edge. The flatter one should be toward the butt plate and the arched or rounded should be toward the back plate. As for the edges that butt up to the AB section, you can see in the two pix below of an original TK suit how the kidney and AB section meet. The ATA does not have the notch out at the bottom corner of the Kidney plate, but if you want to put that in yours, it's not that hard to do..

Hey Ricky your amror looks to be MFX, which is like FX, and now AM armor. Your best bet is to use Terry's (PandaTrooper) AM build post to go by. Terry had to do a lot of trimming and modding to his kit to get it the fit him properly. And it turn a great. -----

Once again we have a great leader at the helm!! Congratulations Paul!! Thank you again for being here for us all! Cheers! Let's all make this a great year for the white armor! BTW, cool FISD Logo!

Congratulations Paul!!!!!!!!!!!! Here's to a great guy, and a great leader! The ultimate measure of man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Hey Jason, Here is what I am getting out of the TKC EIB requirements: You will build to the requirements of ROTJ EIB armor minus the ROTJ helmet and hand plates. Replace with the EIB Stunt Helmet and ANH trapezoidal hand plates. The main difference between the ROTJ armor and the ANH ESB armor is the Ab button section is upside down on the ROTJ armor compared to ANH ESB armor. The kidney and butt plate is one piece and not two. Certain sections of the ROTJ armor has the door trim molding around it. The shoulder bells do not have the elastic that wraps around the biceps. In other words just follow the requirements for the ROTJ EIB just for the armor. Link to:----------- The holster should be attached to the belt per the requirements of the ANH Stunt. Here are the requirements: *Holster should be attached to the belt from behind instead with no loops covering the outside of the belt, using two fasteners at the bottom. These may be rivets or Chicago screws. As for the paint scheme you shoud be referencing the video game only. If you have the video game, press pause, and go to input code, enter "TK421BLUE" for the TKC. As for the blaster, it has been suggested if you are doing the video game variant (ROTJ style of armor) you should have an ROTJ style of blaster. However, I have read that they are not being as picky about the blaster because there is no real good screen grab of it to reference. Also, from what I have read they are not being as picky with TKC EIB for the moment because it is still somewhat new and there is only one TKC EIB recipient for right now (Will/Wildabeast). ---------- As they probably get further along with more TKC's getting their EIB's they will probably tighten up on the requirements. Reference Will/Wildabeast's TKC build and you can PM him and ask his advice on this, also. --------- Hope this helps you.

Hey Jarred, I am with everyone on the paint chips. If you want to give it a little scratch and scoring, just take something like steel wool or a Brillo pad and scuff it up to give the red a little bit of battle wear. One other thing that I noticed was that your Co2/Thermal Detonator endcaps are a bit too long. The total length of Co2/Thermal Detonator should be 7 1/2". Trim the caps just a little bit and it should look better. Take a look at the little diagram that I made:

I will agree that your armor Juan, is fantastic, and I don't like being a wet blanket, but the EIB "must" states that the gap between the kidney and ab should be closed. I would like to know if the rules have changed? If so I apologize and disregard this. If you look at one of the pictures, you will see what I am talking about. Like I said I am not trying to be unkind, I just thought that this was one of the requirments for getting your EIB. EIB Requirements MUST HAVE: * Armor side gaps should be closed. This should be done by adding a shim or shims of material that must be of similar material and color as the ab and back plate. Shims should fit flush and may have seams. Ideally they will be seamless if possible to the ab and/or back plate, resulting in a single seam between the ab/back rather than extra seams for where the shims are joined. BTW, The verbiage in the EIB states "back plate" which should actually be "kidney plate". Link to EIB

Now Pat, you know this is the original unaltered pic below:

Congratz Pat, on your EIB! Top notch work my friend, the armor looks great. But, I really did not want to know about this on your list... I am happy for you bro!!

Pretty much anything will fade and/or turn yellow from UV rays. Certain materials fade quicker because of the purity of the actual material that it was original made from. And, certain plastic will fade and turn yellow from man made light. Even if you are not displaying it in direct or indirect sunlight, make sure that you are not using a harsh spotlight. There are some things that you can use to slow down and help prevent premature yellowing and fading, one of which is by using a UV protectant blocker or wax. Check with some marina supply stores. Most boats are made from fiberglass. The white water style boats are made from either ABS, HDPE, HDXLPE, etc. They do make a UV protectant for the material that these boats are made from. They get a lot of direct sunlight and a lot of reflection of the sun off of the water that will speed the fading/aging of the material that the boat is made of. Most marina stores will have some type of spray on or wipe on protectant. Also, certain manufacturers of car wax do make a plastic protectant that help guard against UV damage, fading and discoloring. Contact you local marina stores and pop into you local automotive store.

Have fun Michael with your build!! BTW, Larry the Cable Guy has got something to say to you....please watch the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtAUsVXB9OU&feature=related I've got the soda and popcorn ready!!

Take a look at this: Looks to me, the "MKII" was in the ROTJ as well. Have a look:

Justified's second season starts Feb the 9th on FX. FX's Justified lead character, U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, a John Wayne/Dirty Harry type of law enforcer, who talks through his teeth and sometimes shoots first and asks questions later, and sometimes shoots first without asking any questions at all. You can see why producers couldn't resist comparing him to another popular anti-hero, Han Solo. Take a look at this awesome new promo for the second season of Justified. Marshal Givens channels the different versions of the Solo/Greedo Cantina scene and gives the impression that Marshal Givens just might shoot this guy in cold blood, and make it look like the guy drew first when he did not... BTW, Justified is one of the best new series out there...

Since the replacement ears that you purchased were meant for a different style of helmet and the helmet that you are working on is an FX style helmet, the new ears were not made to fit the contour of the FX style lid. Thus the "hair pulling" experience that you have had for the past three days. If I may suggest two options: (1) just cut the center part out of the new ears (the bump with the four ridges), glue them to the original ears, fill, sand , smooth and paint and you should be good to go. (2)Or you could take the original center bump that is flat that came with your FX style helmet, buy a dowel rod and file or sand down the dowel rod until it is a half circle. Then cut the half circle dowel rod into four sections that will fit onto the flat center to make up the four ridges. Glue them, sand them and paint them. If you use either of these methods, you should have no problem getting your 501st clearance, or at least for your ears.

What is a stormtrooper?? All kidding aside, it's like the old saying about potato chips "You can't eat just one" the same thing applies to armor, you can never have just one..... Just do the verison you like the best first (Stunt or Hero), and I bet you that you'll get the itch to do another... As for the original ROTJ helmets, there are variances other than the battle weathering of Endor. These include: the way the frown edge was painted, some had bubble lens and some of the background ones had flat lens. Also, variances in the ears shape, also the the center ear ridge, there were some ROTJs that had four bumps and some ROTJs that had three. There has been some suggestions that there were two different molds made for the ROTJ's. Side-by-side comparisons from SWH:

You can glue the rubber gasket/neck trim if you want to. If you do, I suggest just tacking it in spots and not gluing the whole thing, so if you need to take your lid a part at anytime, it will make the process much easier. As for the Captain's backpack, yea #3 will work for these: Road block, "Move along" The Cantina, "All right, we'll check it out" Alley door check, "Check this side of the street" Alley way/Falcon blasting out of Mos Eisley. But #5 will also work for the orange pauldron: The desert, "Someone was in the pod" Docking bay 94 shoot out. Also, there were a couple of orange pauldron TDs that did not have a backpack at all, but that's no fun not having a backpack... The TD CRL states: Desert Backpack: Styled after the ANH sandtrooper packs. A loose interpretation is allowed, but screen accuracy is encouraged. (This is optional because we're aware that not all Sandtroopers had backpacks.) But it all depends on which version of the TD you want to do.... Below is the breakdown of Pandatrooper's Photoshopped, cleaned up versions of Rolf's original diagrams from the MEPD:

I double dog dare you...

That's great news man. BTW, take lots of pix as you open the box!

Hi Kieran, I see that this is your first post on the FISD, so I would like to welcome you aboard! BTW, it is customary to introduce yourself, tell a little bit about yourself over in the New Members section so the FISD members can welcome you, and get to know you. As to your question... Some vendors do, some vendor don't... Also, some of the vendors do offer lay-a-way. BTW, buying the parts, piece by piece is usually more money out of your pocket. Just check with the armor makers. Also, if you don't get an answer right away, do not worry, because making armor is a hobby and is secondary to their real lives, but they will reply.

Your Cap-W lid look great Peter! Like you said, all you need is to weather it. BTW, which pauldron color and which Backpack version are you doing?