pandatrooper

Here's some completed pics one of my photographer friends took. Still working on a few small tweaks (fill and paint the rivets white, adjust how the chest plate hangs slightly, but that's it). Ive already trooped in it like 3 times!

Small update. Parts were top coated with Krylon black satin finish. Really pleased with the finish! Up next is weathering the ejection port / gluing it in, finishing the Hengstler box, and adding the port cover, and some final assembly!

Hey Andy. My only fear is that that coating would obscure a lot of the small details (like the engraved Sterling lettering, etc.) So I guess if that detail doesn't matter, then maybe try it out on a scrap section of PVC pipe first, and bash it around to see how it stands up. It would be great if it made it more durable / less prone to scratching, etc.

PM inbound.

You’re probably best suited to the likes of AP or ATA or TE2 armor. They are probably the smallest in terms of size. Do a quick search on FISD, there’s a few threads started by female troopers and most have been able to trim things down to size to fit. In my opinion, almost any kit can be sized down if you’re ingenious enough with trimming, Dremeling, heat guns, heat irons, etc. I have an AM kit (yes, it’s huge) but take a look at how much I trimmed off the parts-------------

Personally, I prefer lacquer based paints like you mentioned from Krylon , Rustoleum, etc. I don't like using enamels as they take much longer to dry and have a higher tendency to run. For pretty much anything you are painting, always scuff the surface, sand it, clean it (detergent / rinse with water / hang dry - don't use a towel as lint will stick to it). Then you can primer it, then paint it. Always go with several light coats, as opposed to 2 heavy ones. Some people like to paint primer first (it helps the paint stick) and some like to use paints designed for plastic (eg: Krylon Fusion). Depends on your intended use. I find Tamiya paints too thin and not enough pigment, you'll need multiple coats to get the same coverage for small details compared to Testors. I actually prefer Testors over Humbrol as they dry faster and are more opaque than Humbrol. I found out from a local supplier that Humbrol changed their compounds in their paint, thats whay they are more thin than before. I'm actually working on a tube stripe template I'm willing to share / post on the FISD Academy site. Stay tuned.

Congratulations Eric!

You only really need to paint armor if the finish isn’t what you want with the current plastic. If the HIPS is shiny enough for you, then leave it as it is. You can also polish it with Novus plastic polish (a 2 part polish) to make it shinier if you don’t want to paint it. Most people use the same tools for cutting their armor regardless of what plastic it is. You can use: - Curved lexan scissors (for cutting out RC car bodies) - Score and snap method (score a line with an exacto knife, then snap the plastic along the cut line) - Use a Dremel cutting wheel (use a slower speed to prevent melting the plastic. Some find that the diamond cutting wheel melts less) Then you can finish the edges by sanding them. I usually cut my eyes out on the lid by using a Dremel cutting wheel, then cleaning it up with the sanding drum tip.

20mm more isn't that much. Most people notice the front more than the back. I would just pry the existing ANH strip off, and make a new 20mm and make sure it covers the area you need.

Take a look at Mark / Firebladejedi's tutorial. His is all held with snaps so that all the pieces can be removed. This way, you can make a second canvas belt and just snap all the parts on it. ---------

Thanks Adam! I'll try and take some better pics of them and possibly a video too. I'll post some finished pics before I apply for the ANH stunt EIB. I'm still waiting on my AP lid (I ordered it a while back but it didn't arrive in time for my charity troop last week.)

Nice work Jesse! I think you should call them "Panda Claws".

I don't think the lettering makes a difference for EIB. The SR props E-11 had imperial cog logos and perhaps some other lettering on it, instead of the Sterling text (from what I remember, they closed shop so I can't confirm).

Anyone have an ETA on when it might be back up?

Me too. Resin is generally not very forgiving. It’s hard and can be brittle. There are some resin compounds that have different qualities, but most people use what’s commonly available and it’s usually the brittle type. It would be really cool if someone like Hyperfirm / Sci-fire made a pipe kit with their “Hyper firm” rubber material. That way, they could ship the parts internationally since it’s a model kit and non functioning weapon, plus it has the benefits of being able to withstand bumps / knocks, etc. My hope is that by using nuts, bolts, screws and pinning the kit that the finished blaster will be good for trooping use. I was already a bit bummed when I started painting this kit. I was holding the blaster in one hand and shaking a can of spray paint in the other. I accidentally bumped the end of the magazine with the spray can and chipped a section off! Argh!! I just ground it down a bit with a file and called it “done”.

PM's sent to Jesse and Ryan

Glad it's helpful guys! New pics coming soon as it it's already been painted black along with the stock, but my camera memory card was full

Thanks Paul, glad you like it! I built it for trooping, so easy in and easy out was very important to me. I spent a lot of time on the harness and snap system, it's really easy to get in and out of now and a lot more comfortable too! Jesse, I have a few ideas for your TD clips. I'll PM you!

"It's as easy as gluing all the parts on". Well, in my journey to make the folding stock stronger (by gluing the fork section to the single arm) the tabs snapped right at the join. I had considered just gluing and and then gluing the folding stock to the blaster, but I wanted to make sure it was durable enough for trooping. So I decided to make a new section for the single arm and replace the resin one. I've cut out a section of square aluminum tubing I had laying around. I drilled holes in the underside to match the original. I then dremelled the join section smaller, and inserted it into the square tubing. I riveted the section in place with 1/8" rivets on both sides. I had considered making a new butt stock / handle from flat plastic or aluminum, but then I figured I could salvage the resin one. I cut the stock from the single arm. Notice I also replaced the front sculpted rivets with real ones for better detail Sizing up the parts, you can see that the square aluminum tubing will work in place of the resin stock piece I let the stock sit for a while and decided to address some other parts, since I'll be painting it separately anyways. For the ejection port, the resin bolt or whatever you call it was too big to fit into the ABS pipe, especially with the screws and bolts I used to secure the grip and magazine. So i took a section of 1" PVC pipe and filed in some curved line detail to simulate the bolt. This will be simply painted and glued inside the barrel receiver. For the scope rail, I decided to use a section of flat 3/4" wide aluminum strip, bent at 90 degrees at the front, and a notched end that fits inside the rear sight. A hole drilled into the notched end allows a bolt to thread through and bite into the ABS, clamping the rear sight (affixed with glue) and scope rail in place. The front is a section of metal bent at 90 degrees riveted to the scope rail. This front angle will fit into the last vent hole in the barrel and prevents the rail from popping off the receiver. Notice that the rear sight also has 1/8" rivets added to the sides for detail instead of the sculpted ones For the Hengstler bracket, I used a 2.5" T bracket from a hardware store. I drilled holes in it to match the scope, so that the screws used to hold the scope in place also hold the Hengstler bracket in place. I put the bracket in a vice and hammered it until it bent to a 90 degree angle. In this pic, I already primered and painted the scope and rail separately since it's easier to paint off the blaster I had considered buying that screen door rail for T track but it was just as easy to make them. I used 2mm plastic, and cut the sheet into strips. I glued in vertical strips that were 1.5mm thick and 4mm tall using Plastic weld. Cut and taper the ends, sand the profile to get that curved shape. Make sure to make the T-track slightly longer than your holes, so that when you heat them up and bend the ends, they fit nicely. Since the barrel is ABS and the T-track is ABS, I used E6000 to glue them in place. It does a great job as both surfaces are melted slightly resulting in a very strong join. I clamped them in place. I washed the resin parts again with detergent / water, after blasting them with some pressurized air from a compressor to get rid of all the sanding dust etc. After that, it's 2-3 coats of primer *NOTE: you may have noticed that I didn't glue on the 2 semi circle shaped things (the ejection port cover the one that goes near the muzzle). My intention was to get it ready ASAP for a local troop, so I could add those later in a more secure fashion.

The kit is fairly straight forward in that once you've got all the holes drilled and cut into the pipe, it's a simple matter of gluing all the parts into place. However, I like to make my stuff a little stronger so I used some old tricks from my resin model building days to make the blaster sturdier. I drilled and tapped some holes in some parts so that I could bolt and glue them in place. The grip / trigger area needs to support all the weight of the blaster, and you're going to be swinging it around all the time. So I tapped 2 holes in the grip. You can use bolts or screws, but I happen to have some 10/32 bolts and a 10/32 tap on hand, so this was easy to do. Or you can use screws and simply make the hole slightly smaller than the threads. Don't make the hole too small as you could crack the plastic with too much pressure. Before gluing resin parts, sand both surfaces and clean them off. Some people who make resin parts use a mold release to make removal of parts easier. Paint and glue to not stick well, so sand then wash parts with detergent and rinse with water, and allow to dry before assembly / painting. I applied some "Zap a Gap" CA glue on one surface, joined the parts, then tightened the bolts from behind. The magazine can be bolted via the ejection port hole. For the grip, I drilled 2 holes on the top of the blaster (the scope rail will cover these). To join the magazine with the mag well, I hot glued in 2 long screws that correspond with holes in the mag well. Once the hot glue was dry, I put some hot glue in the holes of the magwell and some CA glue around the edge of the magazine, and joined the 2 parts. To add a little more detail to the muzzle, I drilled out the cast bolts and replaced them with real steel allen bolts To glue the fire selector switch in place, I drilled a hole in the side of the grip and a hole in the bottom of the switch. I cut a section from a used 1/8" rivet pin and glued it into the switch before gluing the whole thing into the grip. This is called "pinning" in the model making world. The trigger and trigger frame was also pinned in place during gluing. This will make a much stronger join than glue alone. I screwed and glued in the support for the folding stock. *Important!* make sure you measure the location of where this part should be glued by attaching the stock to it first! If you glue it too far back or forward, the folding stock won't line up correctly. Progress so far. The front and rear sights were glued and small screws hold them into place. The rear sight has a bolt that goes through it that will also hold the scope rail in place.

Here's my more accurate blaster build up. I've been trooping with my modified Hasbro for a while now, and while it's great and very practical - I was yearning for something more accurate in terms of size, proportions and details. I had bought a PVC pipe kit from Doopydoos last year, but I didn't get around to starting it until now. Here's the parts and a section of pipe. Here's where the issues begin The Doopydoos kit was designed to work with 40mm PVC pipe, which I don't think is available in North America (I'm in Canada). I had tried to look for different options but got impatient and decided to just make this blaster, otherwise I would never get around to it! I used 1.25" ABS pipe because I couldn't find 1.25" PVC at any local home improvement stores. I've read that's what most of the PVC blaster builder types use, but selection is limited in Canada. ABS pipe has an inner diameter of 1.25" and the outer of just over 1 5/8" which is around 42mm. Close enough! Here's all the parts that come with the Doopys kit, along with a couple extras. The scope doesn't come with the kit (sold separately) and I'll be adding a Hengstler counter (not in the photo - I got one from a local Garrison member who had a spare). Here's the muzzle tip. To make it fit into my ABS pipe, I had to Dremel out the inside. Since the ABS pipe was 42mm in outer diameter, I had to file / sand the outside where the end cap fits to make it slip on. I used the blaster templates from Blaster Builders club to make the holes I need to drill / cut. You can find the link here: http://www.imperial-fleet.com/BBC/community/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2 Wrapped the template around the pipe Marking the hole center points with a screw / nail After I marked the holes for everything, I used an exacto and ruler to cut through the paper template and "score" lines in the ABS pipe. This way, you can remove the template when drilling and cutting holes. I drilled some smaller holes first before enlarging them to bigger ones. I think I used a 1/8" bit to start the pilot holes, then a 3/8" to enlarge the holes, then the final size for the barrel and other sizes for the ejection port, etc. I used a unibit to enlarge the biggest holes so that the larger drill bit wouldn't chew up the edges of the holes. For the ejection port and the cocking lever slot, I used a Dremel / file to clean it up. After all the holes are drilled, I wanted to sand the pipe since there was a lot of plastic "flash" from the drilling and cutting. I thought it might be cool if I could create sand marks that went "around" the circumference of the blaster instead of lengthwise ones. I know you might not see it, but I thought it might be cool to make it look more like machined metal. Plus, I get lazy and tired hands with sanding! So I made simple rig using a long threaded rod, and block of wood and a washer / nut at the end. Place the barrel / pipe through the threaded rod, and clamp the end of the rod in the chuck of your drill. Tighten the nut at the end of the threaded rod, and presto! You just created a low budget "sanding lathe"!! Simply wrap some sandpaper around the pipe and press the trigger on the drill at a slow speed. Work the sandpaper slowly down the length of the pipe. This will: - clean off the extra plastic from the holes - prep the surface for gluing / painting - give it that "machined" look Finished sanding!

Here's Wyatt's canvas "vintage cargo strap" belt material. I know Wyatt said not to, but I used a solution of 20% bleach to 80% water to clean / bleach the belt slightly. The AM kits is quite white in contrast to the belt, so I felt a little color match was in order. I only bleached for about 45 mins, then soaked and rinsed the belt overnight, and rinsed it again, to make sure no bleach was left to weaken the material. I hung it to dry (avoid using heat as heat will shrink canvas). I wrapped the belt around the torso to make sure it fit the armor, and left a 7" overlap for the closure in the back. I sewed the ends of the belt and closed them with bar tack stitches, that way the ends can fray a bit for that "used" look but they won't fall apart. I've also sewn velcro for the belt closure which will also hold the TD in place. I also like to sew in some velcro (hook side) on the inside of the belt on each side of the hips, to support the holster and to keep things aligned. The front of the belt is held in place with snaps (belt to ab armor) to keep it centered every time you put it on. For the drop boxes, I had a set of KWS designs "inner boxes" I had never used. I trimmed slots in the corners to make it fit snug inside the AM drop boxes, they fit perfectly! I also cut some 1" wide notches in the inner boxes, to accommodate the elastic to allow it to lay flat. I took a different approach to attaching the elastic. I made a loop of elastic, and through the loop I placed a piece of ABS scrap, and glued the ABS scrap to 2 small "bridges" under it, and glued all the ABS into the inner drop box with Plastic Weld. I also spread some E6000 onto the elastic to glue it to the inner drop box. Then assembled the 2 halves, and used Plastic weld to seal them shut. I found that this way, the elastic stays nice and flat and the inside is nice and tidy (yes, I know no one sees the inside, but I do!) Here's an assembled one and an opened one before sealing it shut. You can see how the elastic is attached inside the box, and I will attach this to the belt via the snaps (punch a hole in the elastic, and slip it under the snap before attaching the armor to the belt.) You can see the rivet used to secure the drop box. I used a rivet and not the snap backing as that was too short to pass through the belt armor, cargo strap belt, the drop box elastic, and the female snap. I took a long 3/8" rivet and cut it exactly to the size I needed, and snapped everything together. You can also see I've riveted in the Anrev made leather holster. I attached it "Stunt" style with 2 rivets on the lower part of the belt. I used rivets because I never really take the holster off, and I'm super paranoid about the holster falling off during a troop. Great photo of the belt, holster and TD in place. You can also see I have installed the rivets on the side of the AB / kidney section, I will paint these white later. A few people have asked for info on harnesses. I made a custom harness setup that's very easy for me to get in and out of. The left side is hinged clam shell style with a few elastic and snap straps, and a couple sections of velcro (not attached in the pic). The closure side is simply velcro, very quick to put on and take off. The suspenders are attached via velcro on the ab section and kidney, but in the back they extend up to the shoulders of the back section and attach with velcro and snaps. The back has a bridge of nylon webbing across the back to prevent the shoulder bells from separating. The front of the suspenders have "suspender fastex" clips which are very flat and low profile. I usually leave the left side one always done up, and I only need to un-snap and snap the right side one. There is a short sternum strap as well.

For the Thermal Detonator, I decided to do the hanging clips a bit differently. On my previous build, I did them in the screen accurate way by bending aluminum hooks that were riveted to the TD pipe. But after several troops with photo ops with fans, I found that the slightest bump would send the TD flying off my belt. Wasn't super practical for me so I came up with a sturdier solution: Closed end style clips that allow you to slide the TD onto your belt. It won't come off unless you take the belt off and slide the TD out (which is held in by friction against the velcro). I had tried making them out of aluminum, but I ended up snapping the aluminum flats I had 3 times so I abandoned that idea. Maybe I can convince Jawa001 / TK4702 / Jesse to make some for me. I figured I'm much handier with plastic, so I started by trimming some plastic to the size I needed. The belt was 3" tall, so I accommodated by adding about 1/4" for each top / fold that would be bent into shape. I made a simple clamp out of a vice clamp and a few sections of aluminum flat bar. I clamped it into place, and heated the tops with a heat gun, then quickly folded the clip over itself to create the loop. Once it's cooled, it's quite strong since it's ABS. After you fold both ends, this is what you end up with You can see how they will attach to the back of the AM TD here. I actually like the AM TD as it's much lighter than a PVC / ABS pipe. I've drilled some 1/8" holes in the clips and the TD backing plate. The holes against the TD are 1/8" but the holes on the other side of the clips are bigger about 3/8" so that the head of the rivet gun can press against it for the correct pressure. This image is just prior to painting them silver to look like aluminum (if I didn't tell you they were plastic, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference!) Underside of TD clips Rivets visible on the inside. Always make sure you use a backing washer on the inside when riveting plastic to prevent the rivet from pulling out. You can see how the TD mounts on to the belt here (scrap belt material shown) The TD can now be assembled by gluing shims inside. You need to assembled the clips / rivets first, then glue it together. Glueing the button panel on the TD and end caps in place. Holding everything with rubber bands while the E6000 sets Thermal Detonator completed

Getting back to updating this. I've actually already trooped twice with my AM but haven't had time to update this thread due to local garrison duties. Here's goes. To add some extra detail to the vertical button plate, I cut a small scrap of ABS and glued it to the AB section to replicate the look of the screen suits. The AM buttons are separately machined aluminum buttons which is a nice detail. I've also cut out the ab button panel. I trimmed it thinner than it came from AM (I removed about 1/8" from the thickness). I drilled the holes in the panel, then glued it to the Ab section with Plastic Weld and drilled the holes through the panel into the ab, to ensure that the alignment was good through both sections. Back to the piece that took the most work: the chest. Believe it or not, it's probably the piece that's taken the most work. It's very large in size, and I have a few nit picky things about it. I know its a fan sculpt and doesn't have screen lineage, but some of the design elements made it harder for me to assemble the way I wanted to. Just a recap of what I've done so far: Initial cut of extra material Cutting material off the lower edge to reduce the height. No picture shown, but I also did the return edge on the bottom Here, I've trimmed off more of the arm pit area after comparing it to my screen lineage armor. The AM chest is considerably wider here, and will work great for bigger troopers, but needs modifications for slimmer troopers I've added the return edge to the arm pit area I used a heat gun to bring the side / bottoms a little closer together, to create a more "barrel chested" look. The screen lineage suits had this sculpted in but the AM has very straight lines, so I tried my best to emulate this shape. It's actually a little too strong in this image, I've since softened the taper slightly With the chest plate mostly completed, I glued on the ribbed shoulder straps. I used Plastic Weld on the edges and E6000 under the ribs to hold it in place. The Plastic weld cures much faster, and prevents the straps from sliding or moving during the curing (something I learned from my last armor build). Torso / arms completed (I took this pic before I finished the ab button plate) The belt has been curved using the "paint stick clamp" method (see tutorial link in this post). For the belt, I'm using TK4205 / Wyatt's canvas belt material (Thanks Wyatt!)

Thanks Keith! Hope it's helpful for you.