Smitty

Yeah I noticed this too. I had to redo the links in my sig. I'm not griping but ....ok yeah, I am....The pre-snowstorm links in threads arent working either. I'll cope.

The respirator has been bothering me and today was the last straw. I removed the respirator and went a different route. I used some 1/8" foam sheeting and used lightweight velcro to hold it in place in 3 places. Its like a veil sort of. the bottom bunches into the chin area and covers the aerator bolts quite nicely plus it matches the new batting helmet padding I added today. I went to Wal Mart and got a Rawlings T-Ball/Junior Helmet for $10. The Padding is easily removed as long as your are gentle with it . The padding was glued into place with loctite powergrab construction adhesive. This adhesive has a 24 hr cure time and has the highest initial tack in the industry. You can glue a brick to the ceiling with this stuff. This high initial tack allows you to glue in the padding let it sit for 15 minutes and then put it on to check your fit. If its not right you can slide the pad to where you want it. You can see in some of the pics where the padding was repositioned. Now lets talk about the roominess of the TE2's interior. When the padding goes in, you run out of space very quick. Small electronics are a must...its a good thing I have my secret weapon. Which will be unveiled in near future as my speakers as in the mail as we speak. Speaking of speakers, if the ones I have ordered work out for this project, I will be doing a run of speakers that fit the Hovi Mix PA tips. More on that later as well. Back to the latest additions, more specifically the veil, This material looks great from the outside and will be great for hiding electronics and it can be cut to expose cooling fans. The 3 pieces of velcro at the top and the unattached bottom makes it easily removed while doing an installation. Ok here's the pics and I'll shut up now.

You do not want welding lens they are going to be way too dark. What you are looking for is the lens for acetylene/Oxygen cutting torches. Welding lens are almost completely blacked out they are so dark.

Yeah it kinda sends me back to the drawing board about what I will do for the cooling fans. I think I can still get one on bottom of the respirator. Its really all gonna boil down to in helmet testing with the mic and fans. The last thing I want is to have the mic picking up noise from the fan. The tubing stands off from the mesh enuff to use a fan to get airflow thru there.

Is it really stealing when youre you just reclaiming Imperial property from filthy jawas? My armors not finished so its the best I get to maintain the "faceless warrior" act on short notice. They had a couple of droids too but I figured they would be of no use to the Empire so I let 'em go about their businiess. Hang on, just got a call from command. I wonder what they want....

The last pic doesnt do the respirator any justice but it looks really good from the outside. The respirator is caulked into place inside the helmet. Its fully inside the nose of the helmet and doesnt interfere with wearing the helmet. I'll get creative with the split loom tubing when I'm routing the speaker wires and make it look like there are tubes running from the top of the respirator into the back of the aerators. That will conceal the aeroator mounting bolts too. Im thinking the tubing across the back of the respirator will make a good mounting base for the mic as well.

I'm going with screen mesh. The green film behind the frown just isnt talking to me. Maybe I can round up some today and stick in there. I get paid again on thursday so I'll be off to buy a batting helmet on payday. Once the frown mesh is in place, I'll start testing CPU fans. The plan is to have 2 fans, one on each half of the frown. They'll be wired to blow air out of the frown which should exhaust my breath so that I wont fog up the lenses.

The exterior of the helmet is now finished. Got my tubestripes in the mail today from Scott M. Definitely the goto guy for tubestripes. Next on the plate is to install padding from the interior of a batting helmet, stay tuned for more stormtrooper helmet building action!

Are you gonna use the Mike H white ABS in a can, to paint it?

You did a great job cutting out the eyes and frown and you have an excellent ear fit. I think its gonna look awesome when youre done.

Its a tad smaller than that FX barrel huh? You should be able to trim it up and get your head in there with no problem. I have faith in ya.

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With Costumejunkies prices you can get much better armor for less if you build it yourself.

Hovi's put in today. I drilled holes for both the mounting screws and the speaker wires. When mounting Hovies with speaker wire runs you want to use a large washer with a small screw hole in the middle and about 3/4" in diameter. Now take a dremel and drill a another hole in the washer about 1/8" away from the center hole in the washer about the same diameter as the screw hole. Drill the mounting holes in the mask and in the center of the back of the hovis. Use the washer as a template for drilling the wire runs in the mask and the back of the hovi's. Now put it all together lining up all the holes and you should end up with a firmly attached Hovi with an easy wirerun. Check out how the sharp pull does to shadows. Love this pic.

I'll get some TE2 pics along by tonight.

Thanks for the comments guys. I pinstriped the ears last night. Today I'm taking my bucket to work and attaching the hovi's. I couldnt find any good screws at home last night to use so I'm gonna fish through the selection at work and find some good ones. With any luck the tube stripes I got from Scott will be in my mailbox this afternoon. Expect some pics this evening. On another notemy friend at work was telling me about something interesting. It's a type of bondo material unofficially called "bumpflex". Its used to repair polyurethane bumpers on cars. Just like bondo but flexes instead of cracking. Sounds like a good alternative to regular bondo on the ears for the next helmet.

And one more...

Satin Black is harder to find in Testors enamels than you might think. So I ended up getting a can of Krylon Fusion satin black and spayed it into a container and then brushed it on. Turned out great. Got the vocoder and rank stripes done today. I did the Dave M helmet rank. The next step is pinstriping the earpieces or maybe hovies. Havent decided yet. Here's the pics!

I'm using satin black on the vocoder and the rank stripes. I know that I will not paint the entire interior black as I dont want to cover the TE2 personal touch and helmet number, plus I'm signing the inside as my #1. I believe Im going to paint the inside of the face plate flat black so that it does give a more realistic look. The inside of the cap n back will be left white. My dad said he was getting me a hard hat from work. I plan to dremel out the clips of the hard hat and industrial velcro them inside of the helmet. That way I can remove the liner if need be. I know I want to avoid using a chin strap so a system that gets good grip on my noggin is a must.

I'm not much worried about thread derailment in this thread, its my thread and I got some down time going (waiting for a chance to get to Hobby Lobby to get satin black paint) Once I get my paint I'll drag us back on topic.

Well it sounds like you have a good plan in mind, I dont even own a set of armor yet so Youre ahead of me. I hear E6000 is the way to go for ABS armor glue.

Someone mentioned newspaper earlier. I know this one already. News print will come off onto your fingers and make you leave little black finger prints all over your helmet. Bubble wrap it!

Man and I was worried about a few little cracks, sounds like you got your hands full. So basically you ABS cemented blue paper onto your armor? Sand it out and use some Novus? What kind of armor? Consider painting?

The AP definitely looks more accurate than the GF in that pic. The Mullet on the GF looks horrendous.

Denvers a wee bit far for an armor party But I bet with some pics we could come up with some remedies. Pm me some pics and I'll fire up the think tank.