Azrok

Requesting 501st access My 501st profile: http://www.501st.com/members/displaymemberdetails.php?userID=16621 Tom / TI-18545 / Georgia Garrison Thanks!

Hey guys, Looking for any tips/shared experiences on bringing a TK helmet as carry-on luggage for a flight (domestic U.S.). Such as : - have you done it / what was your experience(s) in airport security and on board aircraft? - in helmet bag vs open vs carry-on luggage (box?) - stow in overhead bin vs hand-carry (which I think means you would have to wear it during takeoff/landing?) Thanks, any tips appreciated Tom

Fixed! Marked up with a pencil, couple of minutes on the bench sander, and smoothed it out with some hand sanding. Thanks for the help!

Got it, your photo worked fine. Thanks much!

These shoulders aren't supposed to have that lip around the edge, are they? I received these 90% pre-trimmed, have checked CRL photos, but just wanted to make sure before I started removing it. Thanks!

TapaTalk working well here on iPad and iPhone (lonnng time MS and RIM supporter, finally had enough, lol)

Haha, yeah, those rare earth magnets will get you if you're not careful. They're also fragile in some ways, I broke two or three of my ring magnets at once when I dropped an armor piece the other the other day. Ouch...$$. I agree on a wider inner cover strip (I can't think of a better name for that, but there's got to be one). I am going to have to do that with a thigh piece that is giving me fits, or maybe both thighs.

I don't know what's cooler, you doing your first troop, or rockin' that 'stache and 'burns! Whew, tough, but I guess I'll go with the troop. Congratulations!

outstanding, way to go. And awesome hat, too!

Hahaha, thanks! I've probably got twice as many not in the photos, but those probably were the best sized for the job. Those Irwin ones are $weet, but the Stanley variety pack black ones from Walmart / Sears work great too..

...okay, next are thighs Measured, cut, and sanded inner and outer cover strips for the thigh pieces Taped/test fit the thigh piece. Not even sure if that's on the correct leg in this photo. I later changed to exercise pants and re-did it when I remembered I would be wearing thinner material under the armor, not jeans. Derrr.... When I did make cuts, it was very difficult to make one neatly for the length of the thigh piece. Attacking it in smaller sections made it much easier. By the way, I used regular old box cutter with a fresh blade for most of my trims. It just worked a lot easier for me instead of the X-acto / hobby knife, though I did use those in the beginning and from time to time. Gluing the inner cover strip on a thigh piece. This is a good time to endorse the use of rare earth (neodymium) magnets, not regular magnets. Pandatrooper has photos/description in his assembly tutorial. In his photos, he used disc shapes. I used rings only because that's what I already had. These things are awesome. The thighs curve forward, and the worst part of the curve is too far down the piece for the clamps to reach. I didn't trust the painters tape to hold the curve down for the long set time of the glue. I put the magnets on in pairs, one underneath and one above. These things will snap into place when their magnetic fields encounter each other, and the outward flex of the armor's middle section immediately disappears, and I mean immediately - click!. Problem solved. I got mine at K&J Magnetics (http://www.kjmagnetics.com/). Marked several different positions on rear of the thigh for trimming, so I can try and decide which cut to go with. Looking to find the balance between comfort and troopability while decreasing gap around the knee..

Hey fritzthefox, I believe I had the same issue with my AP armor, yes. Sometimes the curve is side to side. I trim the half, and sometimes there's just going to have to be a gap. This is where using inner cover strips can really help you out. You can fix part of the problem with the inner strip, then complete it with the outer strip. Here's a good example: I have also experienced curves in the forearms, and used a shim piece of thinner plastic to solve that (cut from a for sale sign from Home Depot) on one half of the exterior. Then put the outer cover strip over it. Here's what I did: I've also been troubled by the "bowing out" of the thigh pieces, meaning they curve outward. And the length of the thighs was too long for my clamps to reach, and the bend of the curve was stronger than the tape I was using to hold in place. Solution: rare earth (neodymium) magnets. I got mine from K&J Magnetics (http://www.kjmagnetics.com/), and these things are way strong. One underneath on the inside, one on top. As soon as I put them on there, -click!- curve was gone. Magic, and this is what I recommend. (I used ring shapes because that's what I had, Pandatrooper used disc shapes in his assembly tutorials (http://www.whitearmor.net/fisd/Tutorials-legs).

...Okay, we're back Time for outer cover strips. Measured them, made trim cuts on the ends with a Dremel. Rounded the ends with a couple of quick gentle passes on the bench sander. Despite best efforts at trimming, alignment, and inner cover strips, sometimes the armor still doesn't line up right, either side to side (more fixable) or in height (more of a problem). I solved this problem on one difficult forearm by using a shim piece of thinner plastic. I just cut it from leftovers of one of those big red and white For Sale or something signs from Home Depot. Then I put the normal outer cover strip over it and the join. Worked great. Arms assembled! Still need to trip the forearms' lower return edges, add snaps and straps. ...more to come...

W..a..i..t..i..n..g for months on new TIE Pilot armor and flightsuit to arrive, so I can proceed with resolving issues with my outstanding TIE Pilot 501st application. Meanwhile, I'm restless as all get out to make some kind of progress, so I dug out the AP stormtrooper armor, which a couple of Georgia Garrions folks helped me with advice on and removing the velcro from a good ways back. Thank you , guys. Thanks also to Evolver79 for sharing his build thread and early encouragement. So, I want to go for ESB stormtrooper. The armor is roughly trimmed, I'm fine-tuning some of it as I go along in assembly and some of it once parts are assembled. First order of business, remove the remaining strips of velcro. Next, remove the Velcro's glue residue, using Goo Gone, then cleaned the GG's film off. Yes, you need to clean the residue of the product that you used to remove another residue! :roll: Time to start actually doing something. Decided to start with the biceps and forearms. I read Pandatrooper's http://www.whitearmo...d/Tutorial-arms about a dozen times. HATED the idea of cover strips, hated it, and wanted to do overlap method when joining the various arms/legs halves. Just didn't believe in the strength of cover strips vs overlap, and was afraid to make such 'drastic' irreversible cuts to my armor. But, checked screencaps, and reference photos, forums, yep, there are the cover strips. Dang. Also realized that the shortcut of cover strips over overlaps was, ahhh, not a look I wanted to go for. So I went into cover strips kicking and screaming. More like cursing and mumbling, haha. Decided if I was going to do it, there had to be inner cover strips as well. Measured and trimmmed my bicep and forearm halves, according to the tutorial. Cuts done, surfaces cleaned and ready for the next step Gluing in one of the inner cover strips. Completely worth the additional build time in using these. Often, the armor halves won't align just right. You can trim/workout 90% of most alignment issues with the inner strips, including any necessary ugliness there, which makes the outer (viewable) coverstrips much easier. Plus, combined, the two are double strong. Having too many clamps finally came in handy, it let me work on multiple pieces while previous ones were setting. All glue used is E-6000 by the way. Recommended set time is 24-72 hours. Available at Michaels, Hobby Lobby, Jo-Ann. ...more to come, just breaking up the posts...

Nice tip on clamping the ruler, I will definitely have to do that for the legs. I've been pleasantly surprised at the better hand control I have with a good blade in a box cutter, thought the x-acto would have been the way to go. Go figure. My kit (AP) came with plastic to make strips also. I used a good bit of it to make a Sandtrooper backpack radio on another set of armor a few years back, lol. Long story, I didn't know any better. So that's partly why I had to source the extra plastic and/or the sign material. I have cut up a lot of the sign material (the one from Home Depot) into squares for snap plates, it should work nicely.