dougefresh

A man after my own heart.

Looks fantastic, Mark! The hero look seems to be a lot harder to nail, for some reason, but you've done a great job! I can very easily see you waving Imperials off the elevator, with Chewie in tow. I love TM's stuff-- I'm jealous as well.

Looks brilliant, Aaron! *Very* nice prop, my friend!

I dunno about the rest of you guys, but there's just no such thing as a quick-draw with my holster. It's a ridiculous, illusion-shattering moment, every time... "Umm... if you could just hold on, I'd be happy to vaporize you... I'll be with you in a moment... just hold still, sir.... red, firey death awaits, I promise... just a jiff..." Never fails to make me feel like a bozo.

I think this is awesome... I keep singing the song from The Jerk... "I'm picking out a thermos for you..."

That would explain it.

My opinion -- less than stellar -- of the guy aside, I didn't think he'd vac-form a screen-accurate lid with the brow trim already on it. That ain't him. Lame

I just want to specify that T*E does amazing work, and he's made a HUGE contribution to our hobby. I don't know the guy, and have never even met him, so far be it from me to cast judgment on him, one way or the other. I'm not a huge fan of some of his posts in the past, but no matter how ya' slice it, the dude makes a MEAN helmet. I was just commenting on the fact that he seems to be a magnet for controversy-- folks seem to get all riled up whenever his name comes up. Not sayin' it's right, I'm just sayin' it's so.

HAHA!!!! Rolf-- the photo with the Jawa is PRICELESS!!!!!! :D :D Best thing I've seen all week! Thanks for posting that!

Running away, covering head and unmentionables, waiting for high-explosive can of worms to litter countryside.

Paul-- you could take a broken 1963 Polaroid and smear the camera lens with pancake syrup, and your armor would still look incredible.

How you guys catch this stuff astounds me. The only thing I pay that much attention to is the Slave Leia outfit.

Aaron -- the blaster looks amazing! You've obviously put in a considerable amount of time pimping it out-- and it shows! Really nice job. My hyperfirm is in the corner right now, moping inadequately.

Phil-- for Elite status, they just need to be glued to the chest, with no rivets showing... they're not attached at the back; they just float freely, held down with little cords of elastic. The physical shoulder connection between the chest and back plate is done with white webbing, or elastic.

Oh man, you gotta strap that thing up and run around in it! If you're anything like me-- and I imagine many others -- you'll instantly revert to being a hyper, giddy, beaming 12-yr-old kid. It's a mix of "this is SO friggin COOL" and "Ohmygawd, I'm a dork" that you'll never forget. You're gonna have a blast!

Thanks! With my job, I spend an ungodly amount of time with my head buried in Photoshop, After Effects and Flash, so "I know a few maneuvers". I don't want to derail the topic, but I think Nathan (TK9135) and I are going to be creating a TK resource website in the near future, and I'll be sure to post a tutorial there, once we get it up and running. I could post one here too, I suppose, if anyone's interested. All you really need are a couple of brushes and the "skew" and "distort" tools. Sorry for the wandering -- Keep the pics comin'!

Insomnia + Photoshop = ----------- Everybody looks great! Scott-- your armor is amazing! TE2?

I put a D-ring on my hyperfirm. I used a small engraving bit, and just went nice and slow.

BTW-- as an After Effects geek, I want to come to Utah and use your green screen. It's way bigger than the one I have access to.

Lookin good, Don! Nice armor ya' got there, my friend! At first glance, it looks like you have all the requirements nailed, but I would suggest posting some pics of the following, just for good measure: 1.)A shot showing the D-Ring, and the Hengstler counter on your blaster. 2.) A close-up of your helmet lenses, preferably back-lit, so Scott can see that they're green. I'd also suggest rotating your forearms/gauntlets a bit -- if your arms are hanging straight down at your sides, you want the side with the square indentations to run parallel to your body. I have the same problem-- I'm adding a little bit of foam inside to keep them from turning. Otherwise, everything looks sweet! You've done a really nice job!

That's awesome, Jez! Congrats! You must have your statistics program set up to register only unique IP's, because I could have sworn that I visited your site at least a million times by myself. Thanks for sharing so much great info with us! Here's to a million more!

I bought mine at a model railroading store, here in Denver. I would think most hobby stores would have it-- anywhere that sells model kits, RC cars, etc.

Yeah -- TM's stuff is nice as well. And Ferrari makes a decent sports car. Also, Jessica Alba is moderately attractive.

Ask, and the man delivers! You rock, Peter.

I had enough cringing, heart-stopping moments with the Dremmel tool-- the last thing I needed was to go all bananas with the heat gun and turn my expensive armor into a Salvidor Dali painting.