pandatrooper

To be honest, you can get good armor for about that price, and some armor is even less. AND you can get it from reputable dealers. FX, ATA, and AM armor fall roughly within that price range. I would suggest looking at the various build threads and see which ones you like, and approach the sellers directly, not on Ebay, etc.. Most reputable sellers (mentioned) are on FISD. You could also look into used kits that people are personally selling, and upgrading. They may sell their older assembled armor for cheaper. Again, just shipping plastic to armor makers isn't going to make your project cheaper. Remember, you buying armor supports those that support the hobby, so trying to short cut that isn't the best way to approach it. OH, and "want to buy" threads for armor are not allowed on most forums. Contact should be made via PM or e-mail, as there are certain legalities, LFL, conduct to respect.

So are you asking for armor that's been pulled but not trimmed in order to make a buck, or asking to borrow someone's bucks? Either way, you're recasting someone's armor and if it's not with their blessing, that's considered a no-no in the costume community (especially if you intend on selling it). You have access to a commercial vacuformer which is great, but the best way to make your own armor is to make your own molds by sculpting it yourself. Recasting will lead to a lot of drama, and you don't want to go there. There's a good amount of info online on how to make your own molds. If you're asking someone to pull plastic for you, you sending them plastic is not going to save much cost, and most armorers wouldn't likely do that anyways since they might have high standards for the plastic they choose to use.

There's a few images in people's AM builds, maybe check those out? I know the AM kit is designed to overlap, but I'm going to butt seam mine ANH style. I can't see what that wouldn't work.

Very good point too. Where I live, it's colder and wet / humid, so it makes spray painting a bit tough. on several occasions, I'll put a portable heater in the garage to warm it up, and put fans in to vent the fumes outside. This keeps the rain / moisture outside, and raises the temperature. I also find it helps to store your object to be painted and the paint at room temperature. Don't paint with cold paint (stored in a cold basement) if you can, you will have lower pressure in the can. You can increase the pressure slightly by submersing the can in warm water for a few mins.

Looks great so far! Looking forward to seeing the rest of it! I'm working on my T-21 now, and it's going to be a fairly detailed tutorial too. If someone makes a good DLT-19 scratch build, we'll have BFG tutorials on the FISD!!

Check the cracked areas. If the cracks reveal primer, then the bond of the primer to plastic / previous silver paint wasn't a good bond (washing would prevent this and or using a paint that's compatible with the previous paint. If you laid on the new paint too thick, it can also react with the layers underneath. It's all about using light, overlapped coats.

Michael's has it.

Oh, and here's another diagram from the friendly folks at MEPD http://forum.mepd.net/index.php?showtopic=2061&st=0&p=24106entry24106

Some good info here as well (German manual of some kind) -----------------

Did you wash the helmet with detergent and water to remove the oil / residue before painting? Did you primer it?

Have you tried these? Some good reference and line drawings here http://forum.mepd.net/index.php?showtopic=2061 Blaster builder club tutorial and templates http://www.imperial-fleet.com/BBC/mg-34.zip http://www.imperial-fleet.com/BBC/community/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5 http://empireprops.freeservers.com/mg34rifle.html http://empireprops.freeservers.com/mg34break.html

very nice work. Are you building an MG-15? Are you documenting it? Making a tutorial perhaps?

Sand both surfaces, clean off the dust. Lay down a "squeeze" of glue the same width at of the tip of the tube. Then use a popsicle stick or whatever to spread it evenly over the area you want to bond. Do NOT spread it right to edge, leave about 1/8" space at the edges so that the glue can spread a bit once compressed. If it's a big area I like to apply some masking tape to mask off areas I don't want the glue to spread. After it's cured, i can trim the glue off with a razor blade. Apply E6000 to both surfaces, wait a couple mins, then clamp. Let cure overnight.

*BTW: I moved this topic to the "assembly" forum rather than tips (as that's saved for actual tips, not so much questions about assembly). My first "moderator" attempt. Thank god FISD didn't implode.

Personally, I like to use E6000 glue rather than ABS glue. Much longer working time before joining surfaces, this gives you more time to align things, tape it in position, then clamp it, etc.. If you're doing an overlap join with E-6000, spread some on both surfaces, and then let them sit for a couple mins before joining, then clamp them. You shouldn't need to velcro the back of the thighs. The back of the shins you can velcro. Make sure you have the overlap seams facing the right way! ----------

Nice progress, more than I've made on mine! The shoulder straps (chest to back) seem a bit high on you, is it just riding up? The ab button area looks a bit too covered, see if you can raise the chest any more (without it digging into your neck). Also, i love the AM kit but I find the chest still a little long. I might cut my neck opening lower slightly, and if necessary - trim the bottom of the chest and roll the edge.

Looking really good Juan! What are those black lines? Are those painted on?

It could be primacord / detonation cord which is like a thin hollow rope, filled with combustible materials. It's used for film FX, military, etc.. It flares up very quickly, and looks a lot like the effect in ANH. Squibs usually result in a single "bang" like an old mob gangster movie gun shot. Primacord comes in different types / forms with different properties (color, duration, etc.) Some can "explode" and some can spark / fizzle like we see in the above shot. Might be what they used?

Very cool! Are the feet removable to put the thigh armor on?

My friend Jay from Badlands Garrison (BH-8957) is looking for good kids armor. Anyone have any leads? Hey all!! Ok, so our youngest of 3 boys lives and breathes Star Wars....takes after dear old dad...lol...so I'm posting to ask if anyone knows of any trusted place to get a full set of child Stormtrooper and Clone armor made the same out of the same materials as the ones worn in the Legion? He's 12 if that helps. I've heard of an Imperial Cadet thing that's supposed to be going on or in development and I'm still trying to find out all of the details there, so I would love to get some TK and / or Clone armor for him (and possibly our middle son should he decide he's really into it). This way when I'm - and hopefully soon my wife - are trooping, they can take part in some way and feel they are a part of the Legion until they hit old enough to fully and officially join up. Yes, at least one, the youngest, is already planning to join when he hits 18. It's awesome. LOL

very interesting. The bump under the tape seems very prominent and consistent all the way through. I think a crack would be more tapered, bigger at the open end near the armpit and tapers to nothing / smooth transition towards the center of the chest plate.Looks more like a wire, etc.. that triggers the squib. My thinking (from a directors perspective as you mentioned) is that GL might have had multiple troopers "squibbed up" for various takes from different angles, and cycled through them just to get the shots he needed. The tape wouldn't be that noticeable on screen / moving, so it's more like: "OK, let's get 3 troopers squibbed up" - Take one! - Take "OK, I don't like the right side, let's switch sides to TK #2. Patch up the shot guy and put him in the back" - Take 2! - Take "OK. Let's get one more take for safety from that angle. Patch up that other guy, and put him in the back. - Take 3! OK, we got what we needed. Nice work guys, let's move on to scene number..." Having worked on TV / film sets as an art director and AD, this would be a very common practice (getting multiple people ready for a shot and conserving the time / people on set).

Looking really good Juan! I assume you'll paint the traps, etc.. by hand to replicate the screen used look? It would be a shame to put stickers on your hard work. Your project is inspiring! I'd like to do a replica of the "Stop that ship" TD someday.

Very nice find Pete! That was probably an easy way to cover the armor, just tape the squib over the armor, or drill a hole in the armor, tape a squib inside, then back it with some fireproof / safety material of some sort. Likely that they had to do a few takes, so perhaps the tape also covered multiple shots instead of getting new armor each time. The guy on the left might have been a backup, depending on how GL wanted to shoot the scene. Interesting both of these guys are right handed shooters, perhaps framing wise they "played" better to the camera for framing purposes.

Make sure the top coats are FULLY cured before you sand them back down. If the coats underneath aren't cured, you'll end up with this weird texture when you're sanding (the paint will be slight;y "soft").

Looks like the paint was applied too heavily, and reacting with the coats underneath. If it's in an area that's on top of the latex, just leave it - since you peel it off anyways. If it's on an area that's "finished", I would personally remove it by sanding it down. I don't think I would have replicated the paint drips by spraying it with more paint since you can't control where the paint drip will appear very well. I think I would have used a small brush and overload it with paint, and apply some to create the "paint drip", let it dry and repeat until its the size you need. This makes it appear exactly where you want. If you only have 15% left and you need to paint a somewhat large area, I would get someone to send you another can. When a can is that low, the paint tends to have a different quality to it, there's stuff that settles in the can and you end up with a slightly different finish. Also, the pressure will be very low (you can try to bump it up by submersing the bottom of the can in some warm water, this will increase the pressure somewhat. I almost never use those "made for plastic paints" directly on plastic. They say they bond better, but in my experience, they don't hold any better than straight up lacquer on a primered surface. Primer bonds much better to surfaces, then you can top coat it. Also, if you added more coats too early, you may not have given enough time for the top coat to cure. Remember, lacquer will dry faster than enamel which takes much longer to dry. Good luck! Let me know if you need more help / input.