pandatrooper

The screen accurate brow trim was a strip of rubber trim material in a thin U shape. You can buy some brow trim here: http://members.cox.net/appstronaut/supplies.html

Have you taken a look at these threads / tutorials? Perhaps they will help. http://forum.whitearmor.net/index.php?showtopic=1101 http://forum.whitearmor.net/index.php?showtopic=13069 BTW: that's an FX helmet with a new dome that you have, as AM does not have a "new" AM helmet yet.

My suggestion: start with something small like the biceps before tackling the helmet. You'll find that your skills improve once you start with small parts up to the bigger ones. It's one thing to mess up a bicep slightly (no one notices) but if you cut your eye holes too big, it will be too late to fix them and people will notice that something looks wrong. Start small and work your way up!

Troopermaster nailed it on the head. AM made the forming bucks taller which made the shins wider, but not "deeper". The shins have a very square profile to them, as opposed to round or oval shaped. One thing I did (and I have skinny legs already but the shape wasn't working for me) is close the shin up, and run some tape on the back closure, to make it 1 solid "piece". Here's a diagram to describe what I did. Using a heat gun, slowly warm up the area on one side of the front cover strip (Area indicated in RED) from the instep to about 6 inches up the shin. Since the shin is taped together, squeeze the shin while heating / moving the gun to bend this sharp square profile corner, while at the same time straightening / relaxing the side of the shin (green directional arrows). Repeat this on all 4 "corners" of the shin. What you're essentially doing is reforming the square profile, into a longer / deeper oval profile. The key is to use low heat, keep the heat gun moving, and slowly work each corner until it's slightly soft, then reshape it. Make sure it cools before moving onto the next corner. I was able to do this to the whole shin, and rework the shape so that the back closes / matches up nicely, and had enough length to accommodate my ankles. As mentioned, I would trim some of the return edge off around the ankle too, it's not really noticeable and it helps when re-shaping. I know this is a lot of work, but unfortunately if have this issue, this is one of the few ways I can think of that will help alleviate it.

The only thing I would suggest if you want to repaint the helmet is sanding down. I'd be very weary of using chemicals on plastic.

The green line, but you should leave a return edge wherever you want a return edge to be. Read those 2 threads for assembling thighs and arms, there's pretty good indications on how to measure and cut parallel to the ridges. *Just a tip going forward: try to take some pics where the room is brighter. The pics are all coming out really dark and blurry

Looks complete, and very cool too! Should pass EIB just fine.

Hi there Ged. I would suggest looking at the movie screenshots / reference photos, as this may depend on your sizing. The AM kit has a lot of extra plastic in these areas. As a rough guideline, I would say trim the side of the chest, just before it reaches the vertical seam on your ab to kidney section (which is the halfway mark on your torso). For the back, you can trim a lot more. In the pictures, the back wraps around just a bit, then blends in.

The pics are a little fuzzy / backlit, but the helmet looks good to me. The only small nitpicky things, none of which would affect 501st application or EIB: - it looks like it already has flat green lenses, so not sure if you need to change those - the brow looks a little crooked, it's higher on the left side than it is on the right. - hard to tell, but maybe the eyes could be trimmed more? - the teeth look OK, but maybe a little more timing could be spent finessing the edge of the grey. Also, it's a personal choice but not sure if you want that unpainted gap in the frown? - personal choice: I would clean up the black outline around the ears - personal choice: the vocoder outline would be cleaned up a little if you want. - personal choice: I like my helmets with about 13 tube stripes. This one has more which is OK, I just like a few less to make it a little less crowded. Easy to remove the first and last stripe if these are stickers (looks like they are stickers).

If they are latex, you can paint them as described. If they are silicone, you can weather them - but you can't change the color. As John stated, nothing sticks to silicone except silicone.

Not sure if you want to do that. It's not a hollow blaster inside. The HF blasters are a hard rubber skin outside, filled with foam and then they have a carbon / glass rod inside for strength and to keep it rigid. You don't know for sure if the rod is centered down the barrel, and you don't want to catch it with the drill bit. I would personally leave it as is. Some people modify the scope rail, but that's about it.

For the belt, I don't think an extra 1/8" of thickness will make a big difference. I wouldn't cut bigger holes in the canvas, not worth the trouble of fraying. One thing to consider: how did you glue on the rivet covers on the belt armor? Can they be removed and then you can reassemble the belt in a more commonly used method? My Doopys pipe kit is heavier than a modded Hasbro, but a bit lighter than a solid resin blaster. But as Paul mentioned, I find it's still kind of heavy to holster it. I would definitely either use some kind of plastic reinforcement inside the belt, or an additional snap / velcro to prevent the blaster from pulling the belt down. You'll also find that with the extra weight of the blaster that even if the belt looks OK, your whole torso will be tilted to one side slightly. You can pad it or something, but it's something to consider. Or just carry the blaster as much as possible, and only holster it when necessary.

Why not fix it like this? - Remove your current belt fabric (the blue lines in the diagram). Looks like they are velcroed on. - Get yourself a canvas belt. - lay the canvas on top of your current belt armor, and make marks on the belt that line up with the female snaps in the belt amor - punch holes through the canvas belt. - install male snaps on the outside of the belt, and female snaps on the inside (you can use 1/8" rivets with a small backing washer, or use 3/16" rivets, but you will need to enlarge the snap holes slightly. - now you can snap the belt armor onto the canvas belt. And snap the completed belt onto your ab armor. - install your holster per usual methods. --------

I dont think it will affect Eib application, but its not hard to trim it down some more. Draw some lines about 1/8" - 3/16" below the rounded lip and trim it down. Then lay a piece of sandpaper on a flat surface and place the ab button box on top and sand down the edges to make them even. Then reinstall it.

All the best on your very special day!

Thanks Cary, glad you found it helpful!

The Doopydoos pipe kits are great on detail, but still a little heavy for trooping (if you have everything installed on them like Hengstler, etc.) The resin is also a bit fragile. I broke my front sight in my living room, and I wasn't even trooping!

The title in his topic says Cap-W.

Lithum batteries aren't like the old Nicads or NIMH. You don't need to drain them down every time (RC car racers drain their NIMH batteries down before charging to get maximum power). I charge mine the night before each troop. I don't want it to drain just in case. There's been a few times where I have done 2 troops over 2 days, and forgot to charge it. Still worked just fine being on the whole time.

You can buy them from Lee Valley http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=31200&cat=1,42207 Or if you're getting hand plates from Karin, just order the gloves from her too.

Good start! Something to keep in mind: don't believe the hype on Krylon fusion sticking without sanding. I've tried it, it's no "stickier" on plastic than any other paints. I would still suggest some scrubbing with a fine scotch brite pad / washing or white primer myself, but I'll let others speak based on their experiences.

Drill a smaller hole using the metal bit. Doing it in stages helps. Or drill a small one first, then enlarge the hole with a Unibit. It works great.

You can use ABS or PVC Pipe. Yes, if built correctly it will meet EIB requirements. http://forum.whitearmor.net/index.php?app=forums&module=moderate&section=moderate&f=61&t=11326&auth_key=cc2a24022d5f0ce3dde2f7e6a5a7846f&do=05 Theres several other blaster pipe builds on the forum as well.

Brandon, I have edited your post. Most armor makers do not want pricing info listed, this should be kept to pm's or buyers should contact sellers directly.

Hey guys, just offer some insight. What I'd like to see happen with the academy, is have content that's kind of tiered in terms of detail. Eg: "Here's how strapping is done". A: In the films, they used these bent wires, and elastic... etc. etc. here's some links to Stukatroopers / Firebladejedis build, you can see that they replicated this... etc. etc. This is the most screen accurate method, etc. B: Another method is snap plates. This method is effective because.... etc. etc. C: Heavy duty velcro also works. It's the most cost effective, and it's good because... etc. Depending on how it's applied, it might have issues in the area of... Does that make sense? I'm still working to have all armor sections completed by the end of the year. At least getting the base content in for coverage. Then updating and refining it as described above. I think the last few years have been great for those in the hobby, as new things are discovered, etc. Hopefully this info will help not only those that want to be screen accurate, but also those that just want to learn how the original stuff was done, etc.