Smitty

I've done all of the above,except the tinfoil saltshaker which is pretty ingenious Just about any aerosol paint will attack a plastic cup. I was using Colorplace flat black when i melted the cup. Makes a nasty mess. You can get Rustoleum High Performance Enamel in a Regular paint can. I've used it. The color and finish are the perfect match for the spraycan.

Ive used the bolun system many times. Its a great system for the price. I used it to link a mic in my helmet to a speaker system in the chest and it worked great. The downside is that being an inexpensive system, it runs on a very common frequency. A couple years ago I was at DragonCon and the elevator music at the hotel was being broadcast on the same frequency as my Bolun kit. When I turned the unit on, all I got was lounge tunes. Try your plan with a more expensive wireless rig. If you get into the frequencies used by "5 mile Hikers' radios" you'll avoid alot of interference and those radios can be had for $20-$40.

OMG! and CFO too! ROTFL Oh and when do we find out what TBA means?

I use black 14 or 12 guage wire and coil it around a screwdriver shank when I make mine.

The trimming of the eyes has a big impact on the "mood" of your trooper. The cut of the eyes can cause an optical illusion that the "frown" is happy or angry. I've seen Angry troopers, happy troopers, sleepy troopers etc. Try it out put a happy helmet and angry helmet side by side and cover up the eyes and for the most part the frowns will look neutral.

Also read the costume requirements for the different types of helmets. That is more of a checklist style list of differences between the different helmets.

I may show up for the 501st mixer. If I come to ATL that weekend you can bet I'll bring it. It weighs 8 pounds.

VIDEO DEMO

Well I finished it this morning. Before I say another word I am stating for the record that yes I know the paint job is jacked up. It looked great after I sprayed it and the next day it had wrinkled up severely breaking my heart in the process. The pictures show the extent of the wrinkling. I certainly hate that it happened but oh well. I have fixed my file serving issue so without further delay here are the pics.

I'm recommending ATA as well. The first auction as stated earlier is a trustworthy seller. The second auction is for a fiberglass recast. Stay away from that one for sure. Fiberglass is usually a dead give away for an inferior product. All of your better quality kits come in either ABS or HIPS. There are a few good fiberglass helmets available such as the SFS fiberglass bucket but usually fiberglass means its a ripoff.

Novus polish. You can get it in a kit with 3 graduated strength bottles. Start with the paste and finish it off with the spray polish. Makes ABS look good as new.

Great looking E-11! Only thing I see thats you are missing is a piece of T Track on the bottom row of holes on the ejection port side. Oops one more thing, you need something that resembles the bayonette lug on the opposite side.

I'll say one thing. Filling it with concrete would definitely give it that real weapon feel. I'm almost finished with my de-act sterling conversion and it is extremely heavy.

You can put your first coat of paint over the primer the same day the primer is sprayed. In your case I would use the following schedule primer wait one hour khaki wait at least a week - two weeks if you can hold out that long gloss white Primers can basically be topcoated immediately. Paints are a different story. You have a recoat window usually 2 to 4 hours. Even if the paint is the same color and brand you have to put multiple coats on within a few hours of the first coat. Once your recoat window has expired you have to wait for the paint to fully cure or else you will cause the first coart to lift or wrinkle which will leave an unwanted texture in your finish.

Punitive action is not even an issue here. The goal of this thread is transparency and honesty.

Oh man, that looks good! I'll get to crackin' on my girlfriends measurements for you sometime this week.

Man that looks so great! Can't wait to see you fully suited up. Have you got your hands on a rifle?

I've gotten some more info note: 1 Rem = 1000 millirem; 1Sv = 1000 millisievert It is important to note that the health effects of radiation exposure vary for different doses. It is important to note dose is different from dose rate. Dose refers to the total amount of exposure, while dose rate refers to the exposure per unit of time (typically per hour). The dose numbers provided in the following discussion are not exact numbers, but instead general averages. An acute dose (received in a few days) above 250-400 Rem (2.5 – 4.0 Sv) is considered to be lethal for at least half of the population exposed. Not much is known about doses between 50 Rem and 250 Rem (500 mSv and 2500 mSv), but the exposed person will experience acute radiation sickness. The symptoms of such exposure can include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, burns, and hair loss, but may or may not lead to near term death. Below this level, no acute symptoms have been observed. For radiation exposure of less than 50 Rem there is the potential for delayed effects such as non-specific life shortening, genetic effects, fetal effects, and cancer, but little is known about the long term consequences of exposures in this range. For doses less than 25 Rem there are not enough data to determine if such an exposure can cause any long-term effects on human health at all. What this all means: Highest readings found at Fukushima are 40 REM per hour. Unless it regains criticality then this is a well contained nuclear accident and everyone should put a Japanese nuke worker on their Christmas list this year. So far Chernobyl was literally by the numbers 1000 times worse than this.

Holy Crap!!!! Dude those are some great pics!!!! I know where I'm getting my gear!!! Here comes another PM!

WOAH!!!!! Soooo, you making the shocktrooper helmets? Man that's awesome! How much for a bucket? As far as the guns go, the majority of them are the wrong size and based off the toy gun. How about yours?

Hey Nate! Long time no see. Glad to hear you are ok! So far the radiation exposure is not that bad. The hottest spots at the reactor site are rated at about 40mrem/ hr. Basically you would have to stand over that spot for 4 to 5 hours to get acute radiation poisoning. The symptoms for that is pretty much like a nasty virus. The good news is at that kind of exposure you'd be ok in about a month. Long term though all bets are off. I'd get the hell out of there. They are in a loss of coolant casualty. I split atoms in the Navy for 8 years so I know thats a bad thing. Also they said the fuel rods are melting. Thats almost the worst thing that can happen. The worst thing that can happen is prompt criticality. If the core melts thru the bottom of the reactor, you've got this huge blob of highly enriched uranium exposed to the atmoshere and it will burn extremely hot and unleash massive amounts of radiation at the site and most likely have an explosion of some sort. I don't think it will reach that extent. I would be willing to bet that when all is said and done, it will be cooled down, capped with a sarcaphagus and it will be fenced off for an exposure perimeter. STAY INDOORS! They are venting those reactors occasionally to relieve pressure, plus the fires at the reactor are creating radioactive ash. These are low amounts BUT if you breath them they stay in your lungs FOREVER so the more you breath in the fallout the more potent radioactive source material is stored in your lungs. Only drink bottled water. NO TAP WATER. Once all the fallout settles to the ground you can go outside but i dont recommend drinking tap water over there ever again. Glad your ok!

Ears are easy if you have a dremel. I use a cone shaped grinding stone about a half inch in diameter. Using the dremel shave off the edges and test fit it. Keep doing that till you have a fit you are happy with. When "shaving" you need to shave in one direction so that the flying debris land ahead of the dremel and not behind it. If it lands behind the tool the melted plastic will stick to the part you already cut. The other way you will cut over the new debris preserving your edge behind the dremel, If you get any white plastic accumulation at all on the stone then you are cutting too fast.