pandatrooper

Nice to see you back Steve! Another future Badlander!! Armor is looking good. Let me know if you need a garter setup, I'd be glad to help you out! Terry

Take a look at some of the screen used pics. You can see where they cut notches in the tops of the back of the shins, and the bottom backs of the thighs to allow for more movement. Only cut a little at a time, test it, and then cut more if you need to. I find that if you cut too much off, you can ruin the look.

I found that if you hammer down the rivet on the anvil, the styrene plate conforms and bends in a similar way as described above as well. The only issue is that sometimes, you actually want the plastic to go the other way (concave instead of convex).

Glad you like it! A few people have asked, this is the custom harness / garter system I made for Dennis (displayed on a mannequin). It was custom made for his armor based on his body size.

Looking sharp Will! Keep up the good work!

Hey Dennis, looking good so far! Looks like that harness worked out Just a couple points: - As Stuka pointed out, the shoulder bell lateral straps will help a lot. I’m not sure what thickness of elastic you’re using for the shoulder bell to bicep connection, and the shoulder (near your neck) to bicep. But I tend to use something a little wider, I find that helps reduce floppage. If you’re using like ½” or something, I find it swings a lot. - For the strap holding the shoulder bell on, can you tighten that up? I’m not sure if your shoulders are really that wide underneath, but the bells seem really wide. - Can you raise the thighs a bit using the garter adjustments? The black gap there looks a bit big, and there’s no gap at your knees. So you could even those out a bit so that you have a bit of black showing at the thighs / hips and at the knees - The battery packs on your right knee seem to be drooping (there’s a visible gap at the front between the battery pack top and the end of the thigh armor). Can you close this up with a bit of Velcro? That’s what I did to keep it in place. - I’d maybe lower the chest a bit. Can you extend the strap between the chest / back and lower the chest plate a bit? It seems tight against your throat. That’s all I got for now!

No worries, it was kind of hard to see in the photos.

Not sure how screen accurate you want to be, but if you're doing ANH do the ab buttons need to be the right colors? This may not be EIB required, I just noticed that they look like they're black. Very nice build regardless, good job!

Just throwing it out there that it might be good to account for blaster electronics mods too (like Blaster core, Hyperdyne, etc.) Gino, just to get you started, here's a few prop makers you might want to look at: Hyperfirm --------- SR Propsh ---------- Doopydoos http://www.doopydoos.com/star-wars-props-a...plicas-31-c.asp

Those Daft punk lids are awesome!

Shouldn't this be reported to LFL? I mean with all that they went through, this guy is still trying to do this illegally?

Looking good Robert. Are you planning to have this build meet CRL requirements only, or will you be applying for EIB or doing more screen accurate ANH style (or whichever movie) details later on? There might be a few things you can do now that might save you time later on since you're building it anyways (eg: gluing the shoulder straps, left side torso rivets, etc..)

Thanks Jon. Unfortunately, I don't have a photo of the Terminator (I did the T2 version in college, I had some robotic arm bits and everything, pretty good for a low budget version). Here's an image of the Alien I did based on James Cameron's Alien. Along with the link to a post I made a while back with pics of other costumes. http://forum.whitearmor.net/index.php?showtopic=8257 On the topic of Jar Jar (ah, the poor guy) I'm actually rather proud of the work I did to create it, and I'm not embarrassed about it. Keep in mind that I started the costume before EP1 came out, and that at the time no one knew what a useless character / bad comedy attempt by GL he would be. Regardless, I still wore this costume to a few parties and most people thought I had bought it. My friends that have kids that saw me in it were super excited about it, so that matters more to me than what hardcore fans thought about him (as a character). I also went to a few parties with it including a big EP1 launch party at Virgin records where I won a pretty big prize package, which was a pleasant surprise. The Vader, Maul and a few other hardcore attendees weren't as impressed. The costume is in storage now, but ideally I'd like to sell it and see it go to someone who appreciates the work. Whether they want to display it or do a sacrificial torching it is up to them. At the end of the day, my TK is still my favorite. Here's a few "making-of" pics and some completed ones.

Not sure if these count, but I have a bunch of notable ones (not all are SW related): First home made costume at 7 years old - Stormtrooper Ninja Turtle Terminator Speed Racer Kato (from the Green Hornet) Alien from Aliens Jar Jar Binks (seriously, I'm openly admitting this now) Darth Maul Transformer Army of Two Rios ANH style - Stormtrooper (come full circle!) Already planning for the next costume...

Nope, there is no strap that connects the chest to back, I was referring to the shoulder strap that connects the top of the chest to the top of the back, and then an elastic strap that comes out at 90 degrees to attach to the shoulder bell. This isn't a great picture on mine, but you can see the white straps with snaps on them.

For the snaps you can order them online at "Tandy leather". The size you need is "line 24". The heat sealing modeling iron is used to seal RC model airplane wings. Try online shopping at Tower Hobbies. Good luck!

Saw it over the winter break, enjoyed it. I tried to lower my expectations slightly before watching it, but it surpassed my expectations. There's definitely some simplistic "inspirations" for the story, but Cameron's delivery and presentation were great. I think George and Mr. Bay could learn a thing or two from this James Cameron guy...

Very cool! I wish I could do one of these. They'd be so much fun!

Were the tube stripes really hand painted, or airbrushed using a template? Looking at the pictures on Starwarshelmets.com (picture borrowed from there for reference)... ------------ I find that the individual stripes have very sharp corners. This would be crazy to try and achieve with 50+ helmets for a film production on a short time frame (note, I’m a traditionally trained artist, so I know how to handle a brush, and it’s hard to get the lines that sharp freehand). Also, I know the individual blue lines themselves have an organic, hand done look to them, but the “row” of stripes (the actual width) is very consistent, which leaves me to believe at least some masking tape or stencil was used. Does anyone know the actual process used? Were they maybe brush painted with masking tape to mask the rows, and then a brush stroke was done to paint each stripe? Or was a mask / template used and the whole thing was airbrushed?

Does anyone know how the original screen used ANH helmets had their tube stripes done? Were they painted or decals, stencil / airbrushed? Also, were the tear ducts / traps always hand painted? Thanks!

Wow, fantastic pictures! You should have been EIB a long time ago! I was surprised when you got your TK number! Great job Pablo!!

I noticed one leg is separated at the thigh, but the other is not. Make sure you can get the thigh armor on without having to cut a leg or something before buying!

I've been scouring the internet for one for a while, and found the same things. People were jacking the prices up or they were sold out. I wouldn't have a problem paying $25 or so, but $50 and up was a bit of a stretch! Thanks for looking Tom, and thanks to everyone for searching! Ah, the power of the Dark Side.

Trim it where Alex mentioned. You don't really need to trim the face plate much, just get the brow done first and line things up. Cute the eyes and teeth out and clamp it down. You'll want to grind down the pinches on the face cheek tubes to make sure it matches up with the tubes in the back. Again, before you assemble it, make sure you leave a gap for the brow trim.

Thanks for the info, that's a bummer! Thanks for looking into it! Hopefully I can find one somewhere.