Tray

I used 150 grit on the edges. I used a table sander with 80 grit after my rough trimming to get the armor down to the cut lines so the edges were fairly rough like. Using the 150 sandpaper smoothed out the rough sanding. After doing that I used a utility knife to remove the edge burrs by dragging gently down the edges at a 45º angle. This created a perfectly smooth edge on my armor.

They aren't that great. I have them and they work barely if at all. And people can't hear that well. They hear better if i just yell. Sorry, forgot to answer your question. I got mine from Eric Seaman of the ECG. I am not sure if he is still a member or if he left the legion. Last I heard he was selling off all of his stuff.

I've heard the same as what Steffen said. The easiest and most forgiving to work with is HIPS.

Welcome to the FISD, David. Glad things worked out for you. We are all impatient and overly excited for armor. NO matter we can get you back on the right foot. Great find with the blaster. Those are hard to mess up. Good luck with your armor purchase. There are a great number of awesome makers out there. Find the one that suits you and there will be a host of people who wear it with pride and more than happy to help with questions.

All great kits. Wait time and money are your biggest factor as far as the makers. As stated, they all have slight differences. TM, AP and T/MC are all great. I hear good things about ATA as well. Hard to argue screen derived or something called Authentic Trooper Armor. I've never heard complaints about any of them.

Sorry Kal, I never got any PMs from you. You said you made contact above so I went back to check. Not sure where you tried. Very sorry about that. As you say, it is and is not proven to be T/MC armor. Its a great kit. Best of luck with the build. Some helpful tips. Use a table top when gluing the forearms and biceps to help hold and make the strips glue flat. Magnets and clamps work well but to get things aligned I found using the flat surface helps hold and place things very well.

The girl in that photo is Ania Solo from the new Star Wars: Legacy, Vol. 2 comic series. She is not a female Stormtrooper.

Belt is too low. Should be centered on the raised squares you see just above the belt. See photo where snap is located. You don't have to use snaps and be placed where it is but the belt should be up that high to cover the area. Gloves must be full fingered. Boots can't be Elvis style. I don't particularly see anything else wrong but you are also only showing us one side of the costume. You should provide photos showing all angles of your armor for a better critique. --------

Boxer briefs FTW. If it is winter and cold I will wear my under armor under my civilian clothes sometimes. I'm not shy so I have no problem stripping down in front and any costumer in the room. I'll be the first to yell to close the door if people walk in and out too often or don't close the door behind them.

i added the inner strip and they work great. Very sturdy and have never feared them breaking apart. When I started they didn't and all I heard was cracking sounds. Scary. Not anymore. And after 6 years.

Love the family tree. Yes, T/MC is cast from the GF2. Many many moons ago approval was given to MonCal to do this with the understanding that some changes were being made. This was all before AP actually bought the molds from my own understanding.

no need Brian. Its been picked apart to the max.

it may be stress from you raising your arms and causing it to slowly crack over time. Mine has been cracking and patched 3 or 4 times and finally broke completely just recently. It was a good thing I had a kit to make a death trooper costume. I just took the chest and shoulder straps from it and made a new one for my TK.

You did a great job on the helmet Michael. Nice job. I tried to make mine flush up like yours. I didn't get it perfect and then when trying to put them on I only had my two hands and couldn't snug it up any better. I'm going ot be workin gon a brand new kit one of these days and will be making sure to get my ears to fit nicer. Great seeing your time pay off.

just found it odd that I have never read it spicifically. I am sure the one hundred billion places to read facts it is in there but of course I'd have thought it was easier here. Oh well. Now I know.

Is it me or is there some place that says only one bicep should have the thumbprint? And if this is the case which arm should it be on? And why have I never ever heard or read of this before?

I find the biggest issue with having someone else do your build is you won't be able to fix anything with quality on your own. Knowing how to trim and fit armor yourself after completing your kit will help you fix any problems you have in the future.

It really looks well fit. I've seen some wide strips on the backs of the thighs. Usually I try to encourage them to do it wide in the back and keep it official in the front. Sometimes you can add a little bit more width in the front if you are bigger than the typical TK's from the movies. I'm also thinking about a way to lower your kidney and butt plate to take up some of the gap with the thighs. Normally you would want ot have about 1/2" black gap between your back and kidney piece. If you lower the kidney and butt you can create that gap and take up the gap in the back between the thighs. This might need you to change the angle of your side plates. Im sending you a PM of an animated image showing this adjustment.

Personally I would not cut that if you can avoid it. I've seen armor where they separate the cod from the ab and it just looks silly flopping around. Sitting is overrated.

what are you asking? Good reference? The photos you posted are of ESB and show the very same holster as ANH just mounted with loops and on the right side instead of the left. You can see the stitched side is forward

Looks great. The helmet looks like it is leaning forward a bit. Almost as if you are slightly looking down. You might be able to remedy this by making the inner padding thinner so when you tilt it back you can still see out the lenses. Drop boxes, depending on the straps that wrap the belt and where your mounting is on the armor belt to the canvas you may need to move it inside the mounting hardware. The leading edge of the drop boxes should align with the leading edge of the outer most belt box. Whatever it takes to do that will work perfectly. I would also try and lower the chest a little more by lengthening the supporting straps. This will keep it from catching or riding on top of the ab plate. I have elastic mounted from chest to ab to hold the chest down but allows me to still move around and flex with me. The black straps on the bicep look good. If you think they are too low you can always raise them on the shoulder bells so they ride higher on the bicep. My straps don't align with the bottom of the shoulder bells like yours do.

looks good

I bought my metal at True Value or Sears. Both places have small hobby racks or all kinds of litle metal pieces from round and square tubing to flat metal sheets in many different thicknesses. Measure, score and break. Done.

If the parts are ABS yes.

Turned out Great TJ. Nice work.