pandatrooper

I would offer a different opinion on the mic tips. Both were super wonky, the mesh was not that well done (wires from, the mesh coming off, etc..) compared to Keith's mic tips which are perfect. The bolts were way off center and I didn't want to install them in that form. I cut the bolts off. Dremelled them out, and installed my own T nuts and inserted bolts from inside the lid. I reglued the mesh. Helmet wise, the pull is a bit softer than other kits and on the stunt the neck opening (undercut) is a bit big. The bell doesn't go as deep as other helmets. The plastic however is thick. The aerator sockets get rather thin on the helmet, so they might need to be reinforced. The color of the plastic is also different from some other kits, it's not white - it's almost a warm off white / beige color. Make sure it matches your armor if that's an issue for you.

Still working on it. I was going to make it out of PVC but I decided to make it out of aluminum instead (more room inside for electronics). That's one of the "other" projects I was referring to. Along with a T-21 blaster, etc..

Thanks guys! I'll probably start with the torso first. I already have a plan of attack: - heating up ab / kidney and re-shaping to fit my waist - trim sides to match with kidney - reshape butt - trim and shorten chest (it's a bit long for me), might cut the neck opening, and the rib cage edge, and do a return edge there. Risky, but I may attempt it. Might need to make it narrower too. - install the 6 rivets, elastic sides, and "Han solo" rivet on the right - create a custom harness for myself based off my current design - integrate my thigh garters - make a crotch snap / strap - I have a new way of attaching the chest plate - install voice amp / wireless mic - make many, many snap plates...

I stand corrected. VT recast the TE2 stunt helmet, and sells it under the VT name. The VT hero is a AP recast. For the body, VT has recast the AP armor, and is also selling it under the VT name. Whether you choose to support recasters is up to you, but this thread should remain on topic about this helmet in question. You can find more info on recasting in the "recast discussion" forum.

Saving this post for more pics!

What's in the brown box?... No, I'm not going to start a mystery thread! It's a new AM kit from Tupperware TK! I was very excited to get this kit, and I'm glad to have a kit that's 100% fan made. This will be a longer term project, so this won't be updated as quickly (need to finish a few other projects first), but I wanted to save the space for it. I know this kit was built to accommodate bigger troopers, but being a thin guy I'm going to build it slimmer. I want to see if I can capture that "70's slimmer / screen look" of the promo pictures. I don't think I'm as tall as those guys, but I'll do my best to scale the kit accordingly. This AM kit will be my primary TK armor going forward, with an AP lid. I want to make EIB stunt with this kit, along with a new blaster build. Tupperware TK is a great seller. Great product, and great service. I couldn't recommend him enough for a great quality kit at great prices! Wish me luck!

Don't inhale It's bad for your lungs. Wear a mask when sanding / grinding. Wash your hands and clothing afterwards, to prevent tracking dust around the house. I usually have a shop vac sucking the dust when I need to do serious grinding of resin.

It's a recast AP helmet. You can do a search on FISD for feedback on this lid / kit. There's lots of threads in the Ebay armor section with feedback as well.

Yes, Fimo and Sculpey are commonly available at most craft and hobby stores in Canada. Michael's crafts carries them. You can also use 2 part epoxy putties like Aves or Milliput.

You should be able to sand it so that the surface is more even. ABS is very resilient! Take some 400 grit and a small sanding block, and even it out, then 600, then wet sand and polish that area. You won't even know it was damaged. Even with all the new "plastic paints" available, I still use primer. My brother was an autobody expert, so he taught me all this stuff about adhesion, prep, etc.. BTW: paint should stick right away, even with one coat. You shouldn't need more coats to "make it stick more". I only ever do a max of 3 thin coats on most things I paint.

I've done the "spray some paint in the cap into a puddle and brush it" trick many times, however: If the paint you're using is lacquer based, it will dry very fast and you need to be quick with your brushing. Do it quickly and keep the brush loaded with paint, avoid "dry" coats and over brushing, this will give you streaks / brush strokes. As stated, sand the bad paint off, do not soak plastic in thinner - you risk melting / damaging plastic if you don't know what kind of plastic it is and what solvent you're using. The paint may also have cracked / peeled because of prep. Did you wash the plastic with detergent / water / rinse before painting? If not, you may have contaminated the surface with oils from your fingers, and potential mold release from the casting / molding process prevents paint from adhering well. Prepping is the MOST important thing to a good paint job! Re: sand paper, I'll use 400 grit (black kind) don't get the "wood" brown sandpaper, I find the sand particles come off too easily. Sand, then wash, then dry your parts before painting. Wear latex gloves so that you're not getting your greasy finger prints on your items before painting. Hanging parts isn't always needed, I paint parts on a flat horizontal surface all the time, and it works fine. You just need the right technique. When painting with spray paints, always do light coats, from about 10" away, and spray across you're object. Start the spray off the object, pan across, then when you've sprayed past the object, release. Always do several light coats instead of one heavy one with pooling. I hate watching those home makeover shows where they show someone just gunning and object with a spray can and "waggling" back and forth. Gah!! Light coats, do it right the first time. *ps: re: your white spot the size of the quarter that's not shiny, you might be able to wet sand it / polish it to make it shiny again. What kind of plastic is your helmet, HIPs, ABS,? Good luck!

Thanks for the tips Lou! Much appreciated.

I have an orange one, I might order another one. Hey Lou, what are the inaccuracies and what do you need to do? I'd be interested in modding mine. Thanks!

Your daughter is adorable! Very cute! Great job on the TK as well. She even has a little thermal detonator on her back.

The key to using a heat gun to doing less concentrated heat on one area, and instead you want to heat an area slightly larger and don't make the plastic too soft. Avoid using fingers or pointy objects to reshape the plastic. For example, I needed to make the ankle opening larger, so I stuck a roll of masking tape inside the shin (which made it "bulge" out a little.) then I heated the general area a little bit at a time, until the plastic softened. You don't want it to go limp, you just need to soften it. I probably had the same bruise as you, on the front edge of my ankle. The heating helped big time, and I trooped for 7 hours this weekend with no problems.

The Hasbro is not as screen accurate as a pipe build as Pablo has mentioned. Another electronics alternative is Hyperdyne's blaster upgrade, which is more expensive than Blastercore. Keep in mind that Blastercore is not assembled and ready to go, you need to source additional electronic parts and solder it yourself. It has the advantage of being able to change sounds via the memory card. Hyperdyne's kit is ready to install, and has several firing modes, but is not customizable. It's also designed for Hasbro proportions, so the LED's do not match up to "real" Sterling hole spacing, but if you're making a pipe kit you can drill the holes where you need to.

Looks great! Awesome suggestions Brian. I would also suggest / add: - I would clean / sweep / hose down the area if you can to lock down the dust. I hate spray painting and having dust land on a perfectly painted finish - I like to have a working area or table (messy) and a clean area (for putting clean finished items, or freshly painted items. Make sure this area is dust free. - a giant garbage bin (you know when you want to trim or sand something, and you do it over a garbage can? It helps from having to pick it up / sweep afterwards) - a specific area with a solid table and scrap wood like 2 x 6 for drilling and hammering rivets, etc.. - heat / humidity / correct temperature is key for spray painting. Make a simple spray booth so that you can spray paint some items in the garage. get a giant cardboard box or build one out of wood. Flip the box on it's side, so that the opening faces you, and place it on a table / bench. Cut a big opening in the back, and the top. The top, cover it with clear or white plexiglass and or put a light on top (for light!) for the back, tape a dense furnace filter over the opening and place a rectangular box fan up against it. Duct the fan with tubing outside. Presto, you just made a low budget spray booth so that you don't have to fill your garage with dangerous fumes. - spray stand. Take a 2 x 4 or 2 x 6, cut some coat hangar wire and twist the ends into a circle, and screw this end into a the wood. Do several of these for holding blasters, greeblies, etc in the spray booth for painting. - a sanding area. If you're going to create a lot of dust, turn on the shop vac and sand over the hose if possible. - a shop vac for cleaning up - some bench tools would be handy, like a bend grinder / sanding wheel, etc.. I have a scroll saw I use quite a bit too. - a bench mounted vise - a mitre box (essential for hand cutting piping etc.. square, or a chop / mitre saw) - spare clear rubbermaid boxes for storing bits - a pegboard wall for your tools. I always seem to be reaching for the most common tools like: - file - Dremel - heat gun - curved scissors - xacto knife - sandpaper - E6000 glue - plastic weld

Sideshow must have done some reference gathering, and perhaps the older photos / footage of TD's are much like what the public can access. So probably in the pursuit of more detail, they looked to the internet / best sources. The figure is pretty much "Davin Felth" from the Looksirdroids / BraksBuddy site. Right down to the blaster, pauldron and even specific dirt details.

Looking very nice!! Good work trooper! The only small thing I would say is lower the chest slightly so that it overlaps the ab section and doesn't have that "popped out" look where you can see the black spandex underneath. Might need to straighten the shoulder straps slightly to lower it. I know you still need to strap together the back / chest so maybe that will solve it. I'd pull the forearms up a smidge too. Other than that, looks great!

Plastic weld will work on styrene and ABS too, you can join the two together, or use it to join ABS to ABS.

Yes, I believe it is an air filter. It's round and should have thicker "columns" than in the Sideshow figure. Check out the Looks sir droids site: http://www.looksirdroids.com/backpacks.html

Congratulations!!

I posted these on MEPD as well. These are some detailed pack photos I shot of my Sideshow TD Sandtrooper (white pauldron version). They seemed to have done a decent job in capturing the details, so I that I'd grab some shots incase anyone needed them. I have the other 2 figures on order (their "Squad Leader" and "Corporal") which could be used as reference for Pack 3 and Pack 2 respectively. i could post pics when I get them if people want them.

I would think you either need to remove the comlink and put the TD back on. Or keep the comlink on, and add the grappling hook / box and leave the TD off.

Here's a new template I created for the T-21 blaster. I created it by gathering multiple pictures and diagrams of Lewis guns and overlaying them in Photoshop to create a template. It's not uber accurate by any means, but it should be helpful in creating a "trooping" version of a T-21. I'd love to own a Sci-Fire / Hyperfirm, but they don't ship to Canada and it would be dicey to import one due to customs regulations. But nothing says you can't make a PVC / wood replica for trooping! I've sourced most of the parts (still need a few more) for the build and I'll be creating a tutorial in the coming weeks. Stay tuned! If you're antsy, here's a preliminary parts / supplies list: - 3/4" thick wood for main body - 1/2" thick wood / MDF for stock & receiver details - 1/4" thick wood / MDF for grips - 3" black ABS pipe (it's larger than 3") or 3.5" white PVC for main shroud - 2.5" PVC for the barrel - Large diameter to small diameter reducer, or a long tapered funnel - 2" PVC for the receiver - 4" drain piping or half round adhesive foam - more details to come! Here's the full size version (if you can print this large like Kinkos or something, print it at 72 DPI full size). Or you can crop and print just the sections you need (eg: the stock, receiver, feed cover, etc..)