gazmosis

I am sorry that this took so long. Thank you for the follow up on those wrist openings!! Your Hero Armor is officially Centurion approved. Congratulations!

Actually, the Sterling handles were hard plastic.

I take it you like the low brow!!

I agree. This build is so cool to watch! Awesome progress! The boy looks outstanding in it!

For the short duration that any E11's had their wires in the film, they were very thin diameter wires. Sorry to say that yours are a bit thick. Take a look here:http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/2485-e11-power-cylinder-wires/

Thanks guys! I am so anxious to get this done. We dry fitted the torso on him and it was like the suit was molded from him. Can On my way! one please make days 48 instead of 24 hours!!!!!!!

Leave it to maker of things. There is nothing he hasn't recasted

Sent him a LONG message. Doubt I'll get a reply but any bug in his ear is a good one.

I really didn't want to do a full build thread not knowing what this armor had in store for me. A garrison mate very generously purchased this armor for our garrison. This armor will remain in our area for us to use to hopefully be able to make a kid's dream come true. It will be used first by my mate's son for halloween. First I would like to state what a pleasure it was to work with Walt and the quality of this armor and the sculpts of the molds are fantastic. It is almost like an RS suit was shrunk down it is that high quality. Because of its quality, it has made this a pleasure to build so far. I have mostly pics of the parts so far. The helmet was a joy to build. The brow trim is a little soft but if that is what's out there in this size, so be it. I did go to the hardware store and pick up screws that had heads with just a bit smaller diameters. All details hand painted except the tube stripes. Standard helmet ones I felt were a little wide left to right so I trimmed them back a bit off the sides. The hovi tips are adorable. The have these large back ends on them which I cut off.I decided in stead to make an ABS plate with a screw post so I sanded down the back and superglued it to a piece of ABS and sanded it flush.I was able to install the screens after that which have a nice little platform for the screen to sit on in the inside edge of the tip. No changes needed with the thermal detonator. I did get 3/4 inch aluminum to make the clips, though. The tube needed to be painted. I felt this project desserved to have the proper belt so I scaled it down to meet the mini angles on the mini waist belt. 2 1/4 inches total width but same construction: two inner layers of duck cloth with an outer layer of denim twill and inside layer of white satin. I sealed the edges with diluted elmers all purpose glue to prevent fraying. The outside: and inside Although much of the hardware I am scaling down to meet the reduced size of this armor, I am going with the standard 8mm split rivets becaus I have them and I will never use smaller ones. Not worth buying a whole bunch of something you'll never use. You can see here that the split rivets really don;t look too out of place. I did add the kidney notches on both sidesFor any snaps that are showing, I scaled them down from line 24 to line 20. These do make a difference in appearance because of the difference between the two snap sizes. Line 20 is on the right. These smaller snaps look very appropriate for their placements.Mini button platesFuture rivet placementsThese just show how nicely the parts are going together. I am using interior connecting strips then cover strips.The boy is very thin (as most 11 year olds are. I had to take quite a bit off the forearms and biceps which left one of each splayed wide open. It would be too much stress on the parts to glue them as is so I wrapped them and gave them a hot water bath to close the gaps. Beforeall wrapped up ready to bathe!!They came out very nice. One other thing I changed was the rivet covers on the waist belt. These were molded with the dome and the square which we all know leaves for little gluing surface. I ground down the diameter of a dime slightly and using the same method as in the "how to make replacement rivet covers" thread....made new rivet coversSO CUTE!!!!! Random leg part pics.I added the notch at the top of the right thigh. I will post more pics as more progress is made.

I use a band saw or electric carving knife

Your chest is catching my eye. it seems to be bulging outward at your arm pits. In looking at the before/after shots of your adjustment with the heat gun, you reduced the side flare to adjust so tightly to YOUR shape. Now you ad the ab plate underneath, it seems to be pushing the sides back out making it flare up higher. Maybe I'm just seeing things???????

those tear vents are cool!!!! Well, so is the whole thing......duh

Alright Andy! I hope it's OK to call you that. Anyway, thank you for your application for Expert Infantry! Let's take a look at your armor. CRL and EIB Application Requirements: You didn't post a close-up of the hovi tips which is an important detail since AP doesn't come with them. Are the sink aerators still coming with the kit?? Anyway, the close up of the helmet face clearly shows they are NOT the aerators and are the proper tips. I am pleased to say that your armor expresses all necessary elements for EIB. Congratulations and welcome to Expert Infantry!! Other-Armor Fit/Assembly: This is a section reserved for suggestions from both myself and fellow troopers for tips and suggestions to improve the overall look of your armor. However, with pleasure, I can say there isn't a whole bunch to add here!! The attention to detail and assembly care are evident. If there was a book with the title, "The way your AP armor should look", yours would be a chapter in it. Well done. Centurion Suggestions: Since you included extra photos with this application, there are few Centurion details that cannot be seen. Nice work on those kidney nothches!! The only thing that needs to be done is make certain to re-take full body armor shots wearing your rubber gloves with the flexible hand plates. For Centurion, it's not enough to have them. Your application must represent your Centurion quality armor. Also, make certain when posting your pics, that you show a pic that has both of your forearms showing the wrist opening with no return edge. It was a pleasure to view this! Congrats again!!!

You're famous!!!!!!!! Awesome right up......awesomeness armor, brother!,,

Magnets are your best bet for assembly though some just use tape but that can get expensive. As for the cover strips: A common guide that has always been followed is 15mm width on arms, 20 mm width on the leg fronts, 20-25mm on leg backs. For length on the arms, the strip should run the length of the seam top to bottom. For the thighs, the cover strips will go from the top and go UP TO and not exceed the ridge at the bottom. On the shins, the full length of the seam on the front. Since the shins are open, you will only attach the strip to the outer half, and will go UP TO and not exceed the ridge at the top. As for the seams themselves, if the part you are working on has a raised ridge like the thigh fronts, the ridge should be the same width as the cover strip. On MTK parts like the biceps and thigh backs that don't have the ridge(which is more accurate anyway) you just need to worry about proper fitting to your body and a straight seam line.

The only bad question is the one not asked. But keep on educating yourself and you will be able to answer most of your own questions.

I will go over this in greater detail, but for now, the forearm shot is not even required for an EIB application. For Centurion, picture both next to each other.

As uncomfortable as that may seem, it is an aspect of the ROTJ armor that must be present. Good luck in your final decision!

Nice!!!Anyway, some good advice here! Especially on the t-tracks. With weathering, usually a less is more approach is taken. For the areas of paint scratching, I have always used the gun itself as a guide. Just lay the gun down on all sides and see where it would repeatedly touch (front sight tops, magazine end, muzzle front, butt cap end, vent and ejection port shields, cocking handle) just name a few. The real critic is you, though. If your weathering makes your heart skip a beat and makes you say, "cool", then leave it

Congrats on the suit! RS is a real work of art. On your biceps, the one with the thumbprint is your left bicep. The seam on the front side of the right is really uneven. It's supposed to be that way. The other way to tell your right forearm from your left is the raised portion of the seam where the cover strip sits. This flat raised area should be on the top. The underside will not have this raised area. It's just flat which is great for custom fitting to your arms. The shoulder bells are actually left and right. You can tell this by the trim seam. This seam will be more straight up and down in the back and more rounded in the front. The rounded area, as you will see, fits nicely into the curve of the chest sides. Your shins should be marked and thighs are kind of obvious with the swoop going much lower on the inside of the thigh and higher on the outer half. What is your body type? Are you a thin guy? If so, you will need to trim off some extra material RS leaves on the sides of the ab. The left side(as you are wearing it) has three dimples along the vertical side seam for the rivet placements. These should be right on the seam approximately 10 mm in like in this pic:http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/gallery/image/929-ab-kidney-connection-01jpg/. The right side is the same in regards to the one male, inward facing snap as you see here.http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/gallery/image/928-ab-kidney-connection-02jpg/ the kidney plate has no dimples for the rivet placements. Just mark the locations exactly across and about 10mm in from the seam.

http://www.501st.com/databank/Costuming:TK_rotjThere were Many differences. For the exception of AP, only CFO is really capable of being made into ROTJ armor out of the box without major mod work. Mainly because ANH and ESB armor had the butt plate separate from the kidney plate and RotJ was one piece. The clamshell parts like biceps, forearms, thighs and shins all had overlapping at the seams rather than butt joints and cover strips. The waist belt is a little different in its final state, the belt material is different, there is a white trimpiece around the edges of the torso parts, the details on the helmet are different. I would suggest you take a look at the CRL link above as well as check out threads on sskunkys armor here. The differences are there and need to be followed if you are going to shoot for higher accuracy levels in your build.

Nice job hollowing out the mag well! That's some un nerving work.

Thank you guys! It was an adventure for sure!

It sounds like you gave many options!

Although attaching all the parts together is ideal, not everyone is built the same. If you have a smaller torso or if you are shorter all together, it just may not be possible. I have built suits where the torso is one section, then the chest, back, and arms are put on like a shirt pulled over the head.