gazmosis

Germain brings up a good point and fixing this is really easy with just a little trimming. You are thin enough that if you removed this extra material, You would be stellar!!!! Did you order this pre-built by RS?? Not that that's a bad thing, I am just wondering why they paint the ab buttons so small?? I just saw it on another trooper this weekend.

There should be three connection points between the butt and the kidney plate; one in the center and one on either side.-----------

Just a suggestion. If this is something that doesn't concern you, then disregard this. Where you have the brow line cut to now, the brow trim will end up IN the trapezoid exposing the bottom paint line. I have always trimmed it to the end of the trap so the brow covers all the paint. The blue line is where it would end up now and the red is trimmed a little further. Again, this is just what I do and is just being offered as an option.

AMAZING work so far!!!! I can't wait to see how this all works out!!!!!

Nice work so far!!! On that knee pack.........there really should be more material removed from the top and bottom.I t will make it easier to bend and shape around the base of the thigh

Anything of an automotive rubbing compound will work. I have topped off the polishing process with an automotive cleaner/wax by meguiars. This will do a final cleaning as well as protect you armor to make future spot cleaning REALLY easy

What do you call a guy with no arms and legs in the water? Bob! What do you call a guy with no arms and legs on the end of a stick? Lance! Rock that build young man!! Post lots of pics!!!

Sure, Eric!!! Elastic could also be used...there is no law against it.

You will not be denied approval with 20MM clips. As long as they are metal and follow the shape they are supposed to, you will be fine

Way to go, Doc!!!!

Normally, the blaster retaining strap would be left unsnapped. As for the shin......I don't know. He did not have his compression wear when we fit them, he wore mine. His new pants were very tight and it might be a little loose. Nothing a small strip of foam won't fix. Thank you for the good words and yes, he was very happy. He told me he slept in it.

It's an honor, Sir! I will have a few more coming here soon so if you know anyone needing one, pass the word!! Once I have worked my way to the top, I go back down three holes to ensure the end stitches are nice and tight and will never come loose. I end in the back of the holster with both threads.I will tie off the ends to create a small knot.I will cut the threads and leave about 1/4 inch tail. I will twist this together tightly.I grab a lighter and gently heat this tail until it melts down to the knot. I wet my finger and press it into the knot. this melts all the threads together permanently.The finished stitch line.I won't bore everyone with the installation of the straps. I cut 3/4" squares out of scrap leather. Drilled some holes, popped some rivets and completed the holster. Next it was time to attach it to the belt. The owner wanted his holster detachable. I used line 20 snaps which are a tad smaller than the regular line 24s. I used the smaller ones because the male snap can be set with rivets to the canvas belt.The rivet was not POPPED because of its small size, this might damage the snap. The rivet was drawn just tight enough to hold. It was installed with a washer underneath so it would never pull through.The hole locations on the holster straps were marked. A little extra material needed to be removed from the straps so enough of the post of the smaller snap could come through. The snaps were set.The completed holster ready to hang.The armor's owner came by for some final fittings and helped me out with these final steps. Time to get him in his undersuit and fit the final parts. He put on the garter and thighs. He pulled these up as high as he could get them in his crotch. I then marked them. Boy that flash makes my hair look gray!!! Anyway......I left far more elastic than was necessary to hang the thighs requiring them to be cut down. I like the ends of elastic sealed. It will fray if not sealed. I found that folding it over and sewing it is one way, but if you superheat a nail and gently pull it across the end, it will gently melt the edge.We superglued the straps in place. They will be coated in E600 later. The attached thighs.No they are not mounted that close to the belt. The belt just wasn't held high enough. Anyway, next we installed the straps and drilled the holes in the back of the grieves. these were superglued in.I opened the clips slightly so they would go on and come out easier. Next we attached the shoulder bells to the chest. We positioned the biceps, marked them and glued the straps in place. We also installed the elastic that attaches the forearm to the bicep. As soon as this was done I could see that the owner's proportions were going to affect a few things. He is 6' 1" or 2" has long arms and a long torso. If the biceps are moved up any, there will be way too much room between the forearms and biceps. It is what it is. There were troopers like that in the film. When fitting the back plate on, his torso length made the back sit way too high from the Kidney plate. I lowered it a bit to compensate and shorten the gap. BUT BELIEVE IT OR NOT>>>>>>>>>>>>>LAST THING TO BE DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Some paint on some rivets!!!!!!Drum roll please!!!! The owner was very comfortable and VERY EXCITED!!!! It is always such a pleasure to see a smile on a new trooper's face!!!! It was a pleasure to build this and I hope I provided a cool tip here and there. Thank you.

If you brush anything on it, it may lift it off unless it's a water based clearcoat of some kind. Whatever you decide to use, get some scrap ABS and a sharpie and test it first. Weird Al events are cool!!! It would be a shame if you couldn't preserve this great moment for you.

I went to a leather warehouse and picked up material for the holster. Sadly, you just can't buy material for one. I came home with a cow. MOO! I decided to cut some connecting straps first. 20mm X 4 3/4" (121mm).Next I hoisted the cow hide up to measure for the holster blanks.You are correct. This is much thicker leather than is commonly used for standard holsters. I built mine like this and others noticed. They liked the way the thicker leather allowed for a permanent opening in the holster that made holstering and drawing your weapon easier and so do I. Anyway. Troopermaster blueprints are followed with one change.Since the leather doesn't collapse and stays rounded, one inch needs to be added to the front portion of the holster that folds around the front and get's stitched. A couple blanks prior to detail trimming.After the front detail has been trimmed and the hole for the front snap drilled out. Material needs to be removed from the inside of the holster in the snap area so the post can protrude enough to be set properly. I don't have a sewing machine big enough to do leather work. As a result, hand stitching is necessary for me. In order to stitch, you need to make accurate holes to do this. The holes are measure along the stitch line at precise increments to assure that when folded over, the holes align. The holes can be made either with a punch or in my case drilled out. In order to guarantee that the holes are exactly the same distance from the edge. I set a fence on the drill press.Once the holes are drilled, I need to install the snap because that can't happen after stitching. To prepare for stitching, You just can't use standard needle and thread. Leather sewing needles are used and wax coated, nylon thread is used. The needles are not sharp so they wont catch on anything. Here's the secret: TWO needles are used at the same time. A pre-cut length of the thread is cut. I have honed this down almost to the inch. Anyway, I clamp the two halves together and begin by passing the needle through the THIRD HOLE FROM THE BOTTOM. With a needle in each hand, I make sure the thread length is even. I then pass the needles through the same hole back and forth working my way toward the bottom pulling each stitch tight. Then I work my way up passing each needle back and forth through each hole. Sometimes it requires a set of pliars to pull the needles through. But starting three holes up makes certain the thread is locked and won't ever come loose. This "back and forth through the same hole" stitching method assures that even if a stitch or STITCHES are broken, the seam will not separate.

Your belt has issues that need to be corrected First, it needs to be trimmed down. there is too much material at the top and bottom. Second, the corners need to be angled down at a 45 degree corner

Well thank you Eric!!!

If you get hopelessly stuck, get someone to help you. Have them hold the backplate on you while you hold the chest. Find a way, with a mirror, that you can see the back. Then take each bridge and hold it up. You don't want them to angle in too much, you just want them to lay nice over your shoulder. Once you see it like that, hold it in place on the chest and mark it. Like Mike said, you only glue the front on the chest

That light at the end of the tunnel is shining bright now. With the snaps in place on the chest, I can go about attaching the shoulder bridges. As we know there is little glue surface for something that gets bent, caught, and stressed as much as shoulder bridges do. I cut slivers of scrap material and glued it into the recesses underneath.I suppose I could have used E6000 to glue these in, but I opted to use the 2 part plasti-weld. Time was short on this day and the plasti-weld has a 5 minute set time. A little mixing, a little clamping. It worked well. Now.....The next step was something that has been a nemesis of mine for some time. I have been told in the past that I didn't connect my shoulders close enough to the shoulder bridges when in fact it was the shoulder bells pulling out from under the bridges. In the past, I have installed snaps under the bridges that attach to the white strap. This didn't leave much room for the second snap to attach the bell, though. With the large snaps that RS provides, this was going to be an issue. My idea was to combine the task using the snaps. First, with the bridge strap snapped to the inside of the chest, I marked where the shoulder was going to be located and stitched the shoulder strap to the bridge strap. I then stitched the snap half to the bridge strap. I cut down the white elastic for the grieve closure to get a couple short pieces of elastic. After sealing the ends of the elastic, I held them in place while marking the snap location. I then sewed the other half of the snap to the elastic and superglued it to the underside of the shoulder bridge. I only glued the ends to allow for alittle movement of the shoulder/bridge straps.I then re-installed the shoulder strap and tested it for range of motion. It worked well and should not pull out or pop off. With all the crap that is going on in the Legion forum, I became stressed. Painting helps lower my blood pressure. AB BUTTONS!!!!!!My weapons of choice. The Humbrol French blue speaks for itself. The testors 1138 gray I alter slightly. A while ago after deciding I was going to handpaint all my details except when asked to do an ESB helmet, I wanted to find the right shade of gray. (NO BOOK REFERENCES PLEASE! LOL) ANYHOO!!! I dabbed a little 1138 onto a sheet of Trooperbay's Dave M helmet decals. It was too light. I added a little gloss black until the color matched perfect. I now do this with every fresh bottle I buy. Onto the buttons. First I traced the circles around the buttons in pencil.This allows me to control where and how big each betton should be. If I don't like it, I eraseit and start over. Once the pencil mark is in place, I have a visual reference to follow rather than just relying on the button shape itself. The Testors paint dries quickly so I was able move on to the blue right away. This was good because Humbrols take a long time to dry and I wanted it to sit overnight. Ab buttons done.

Usually, there is a mold ridge that is pretty well seen on the inside of the helmet around they eye area. I make sure that is CLEARLY marked. I cut out the vast majority of the eye by first drilling holes around the perimeter so it looks like postage stamp perforations, then connect the holes with an exacto blade. The rest I grind down using the drum sander on the dremmel. There are smaller sanding and cutting posts available for the dremmel that I use to get into the sensitive corners of the eyes.

Just take it to a hardware store. I know the threads are fairly fine. Ace usually has a good selection of loose nuts that you can try

What Glen said! Regarding the fit of your forearms: What you have going there is right on. Although the shape is a little different, that's just way it is. What you need to remember, is that once you have the connecting strips installed, the forearms will change shape and become more rounded. If you look at your pics, the loose ends go upward at angles. You will be gluing the ends to a flat surface. As for the elbow side return edge, in the film it varied from a hint of a return edge to a slight, at best, return edge. I would take your dremmel sanding drum and just even things out in those openings. Your shins look great. You might want to take a little of that inside return edge off. It might make them a little more comfy to wear.

Pics would be very helpful seeing as we now have bad thoughts as to the trimming of the bottom like you said. With these parts, the only place you can really trim are the bottom of the grieves and the top of the thighs. A hobby iron, if you can borrow or buy one cheap, can help you re-make the return edges if you will need to cut them off. This is a pic of the hobby iron I refer to

For a really nice helmet, contact Troopermasr or Rs Propmasters......both in the UK

I have built both MTK helmets AND MTK armor. Both are great to work with. MTK has done a few tweeks to his armor to make things fit better, it butt join assembles and looks great when done. He also has a few other TK based things available so I hear

I just placed my bid!