gazmosis

Regarding the bicep, if you look at the pic of the original armor, the halves were not cut to line up at the top. The finish strip was just angled a bit. Regarding the finish strip ridge, the ridge edge was always a bit wavy. Take a straight edge and mark a line along the outside edge of the ridge. You will see it is probably far from straight even flaring out at the top. Use this straight edge line to mark your 7 MM from. Here is the build thread I am in the middle of. It shows this process as I did it on my forearms. http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/24737-rs-props-build-in-progress/ To answer your question about the underside where there is no strip ridge, yes....just wrap it around your forearm leaving enough room for you to get your hand in and out at the wrist. Mark it, cut it, glue it

On the forearms, align the portion of the halves that are closest to the elbow. Yes one half is way longer than the other in the case of the right one. On the right bicep, the side that sits against your armpit will line up at the top. The outside portion does not. Although this is a pic of a different set of armor, they share the same molds. This is the right bicep during a build and a pic of the original.=======--------

Just a question, I know this is NE armor. Are you a larger trooper that needs the extra plastic on the sides? If not, the kidney can be trimmed down along that ridge down to the little "corner" at the bottom. Glad the horseman filled you in on the rivet placements. You had them way too close together

That's not even recasting. That is just risking destroying the armor that's being vacuformed over. and it will be HUGE and ...........recasted. Never mind

You should be able to order one through the link

Your TD should be between 7 1/4- 7 1/2 inches in total length. The clips, for proper position, should be close to, if not touching, the outer caps.

Looks nice so far. Sadly I must tell you that your TD clips are too far inward. They should pretty much be touching the outer caps.

It looks to me that a little more can be taken out of the eyes. The last pic along the outer edge shows where the darker shadow meets white. Trim there and along the tops. Teeth look like a little more meat could be removed especially at the bottom

YEAH!!!!!! WHAT VERN SAID!!!!

Sweeeeeeeet!

You should be proud! Great paint work and attention to detail

Don't even bother looking!!!!

Damn!!!! You pretty much hit every nail on the head. OUTSTANDING helmet build. It show the time and effort you put into getting that right. Did the T tracks on your blaster come with it?? I like them. If I was to make ANY kind of comment, it would be on your side with the 6 split rivets. IT looks like you left a little extra material on your ab plate side to the point the ab and kidney over lap. The armor fits you so well that you could probably shave a touch off the ab plate and make that seam line up perfectly. I believe the split rivets should be about 10MM in from the seam. scuff up those boots for Centurion. I hope no one has an issue with your scope. It looks like either an M38 A2 or an M 47; neither of which was actually used. Although this is a minor technicality, the entire package of your armor is outstanding!!!!!!!

Weathered and battle scarred kind of goes with the territory. I think the public sees that as cool and so do I. I was asking more towards the details in the construction. No gaps, straight lines, tight seams, etc.....

The rear sights are kind of off as is the front sight. The front one sits too tall and the rear sight has flat sides in the front and rear. Just seems off to me

You can really do either one without consequence. That part is hidden under your belt. Try it on to make sure nothing digs into your sides. Now one thing to watch for. There is a little notch at the bottom corner of the kidney. That vertical edge between the top of the kidney and this notch should match up with the ab. If you are unsure what I mean by this, I have a build thread going on for an RS suit I am doing. There is a pic of the kidney/ab side seam.

That is something to consider when next to the public.....what do the people who come to see us want/expect to see?

Baby wipes...Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm nice!

Great post Brandon!!!!!

I will put my neck on the chopping block here. We all know that the original Star Wars was a silly space movie that was never expected by the movie company to do well. As we were all pleasantly surprised by how wrong they really were, let's talk about how this pertains to us and what we do. We all want to be as accurate as possible. To make the 501st look as good as it possibly can is everyone's job. But take a close look at the story and how the armor fits in. Then take a close look at the armor itself as it appeared in "A New Hope". We all love the telltale little bumps and imperfections that the suits in the film had. But do you honestly think that the Empire (if it were real) would produce below standard armor like that? When I build my armor, I prefer straight lines, tight seams, and ears that come darn close to fitting the helmet perfectly. Am I wrong for preferring this? Am I wrong for remembering that the suits for the original film were basically slapped together in a short period of time, and acceptable repairs were gaffers tape and a brush dipped in paint? Is this what the standards of a mighty Empire(again..if it existed) would tolerate? I have seen many build threads where the answer to a question was followed by, "Don't worry about getting it perfect because in the movie..........". What are your feelings on this matter?

VERY few of the original helmets had 5 teeth cut out. I can't find it right now, but there is a promo shot of a pile of neatly stacked TK helmets prior to paint and details. A few had 5 teeth cut out. Of the 50 or so pictured; maybe 2. Stick with 4. And yes I agree with Brian about taking a little more meat out of the teeth holes them a bit more square. WAIT!!! FOUND IT! EDIT!!!!!! -----------ok...maybe not 50 helmets are pictured. My bad

No. You don't want to remove all the return edge. The return edges were sculpted into the original suits to provide the appearance of thickness to the armor without adding bulk for the actors inside. It also provided a spot for the connecting brackets to be installed. Anyway, Why my red line is half blue, I don't know. It was red when I drew it. But the other blue line at the top right corner shows the line where the original stopped. Below this line, NE provided extra material for larger troopers. ----------

You just said it. CA or any superglue for that matter, will work. Cut a piece of old t-shirt big enough to cover the rounded area and soak it with superglue. Watch for those fumes, though!!!!!

Sorry it has been a while guys, but progress has been made. Lots of the usual; mark and trim return edges.Drum sanding bit on my Dremmel is my good friend!!!! Kudos to you also, sandpaper! Finally onto the Kidney A fellow Garrison mate gave me an extra pair of curved hobby scissors he had. This is the first build that I have used them. The PVC that RS uses is much softer than standard ABS and has trouble with the typical "score & snap". I actually had the return edge crack slightly in a couple areas on the cod. I will be using these much more from now on!!!Finally I got a chance to do some fitting. The armor's owner is 6' tall and about 190. Tall and thin. All parts can be cut to there minimum and will fit him like a glove. I want to make the sides fit as close together for a nice tight seam. The other side fit just as well. Once I was happy with that...onto the butt!!!! I had a fellow trooper lending a hand for trimming. He worked on the return edges at the tops and bottoms of the thighs and shins (grieves)Marking the return edge I wanted so Kevin could trim it while I worked on the back plate. With the backplate done, I grabbed the left bicep. I trimmed up the vacuform table edges but without the owner here to properly fit the bicep, that's as far as I could go with that. NEXT!!!!!!!I decided to change gears just a bit and knock out the end caps to the TD. Trimmed down to 3/4". I also trimmed out the control panel (not pictured). I pressed the caps onto the pipe supplied by RS. This is UK plastic pipe either for electrical or plumbing. It is 68MM outside diameter and NOT available here stateside. The finished TD should be about 7 1/4"-7 1/2". RS must have been a little enthusiastic about trimming because with the caps pressed on all the way it ends up being a little shorter than that. I pressed each side on a bit at a time until it measured 7 1/2" then marked it at the edge of the cap. Upon gluing, I can press each side to just cover these marks making the TD the right length.I will be making my own belt clips at a later time to be installed prior to final assembly. Now it's time to work on the forearms. Cover strips for the arms are 15MM. This means when trimming each half, the cut needs to be about 7 MM from the finish strip ridge molded into the forearm. Anyone who has assembled RS before will tell you that this is easier said than done. Finishing strip ridges on ALL the parts are FAR from straight. To accomplish this, I get a straight edge and position it on the outer edge of the ridge.You can see here how the ridge goes from thinner to WIDER to thinner again. I found a path along this edge I was happy with, clamped it and traced the line. I then measured 7MM in from that line to achieve my final cut line. You can see the heavy flare out on this piece. I was able to razor cut the straight parts with no fear of cracking since there were no curves to contend with.Another RS mystery: Why is the inside half on the right forearm so much longer??? Who knows!!??I repeated the same process with the left forearm. The backsides of ALL the clamshell parts do NOT have this finish strip ridge. Trimming like this will only be done on the ridge for now until the owner comes over for final fitting on all parts. Then the rears will be marked and cut to size. Onto the thighs!!! The same technique was used to get the cut lines on the thigh ridges except because the finish strips are 20MM, the mark was made at 10 MM on both halves. More markingThese next two pics are to show what I do to avoid the open "V" that I see an many troopers' return edges. I leave this bumped out a little, then I can fine tune the final fit once the main seam has been established.Nice, even return edge seam that will be evened up after final gluing. top of left thigh.Once the front seam was established, it was time to tackle the notoriously uneven right thigh. With the bottom of the thigh covered by the power pack, it isn't really necessary to make the bottom flush. However one needs to make sure that where the bottom ridge angles upward to the finish strip ridge end up even. The top, however, is a whole different story. This uneven...ness, was documented in the film in a couple scenes. I can't imagine that the Empire would really build their armor this way so I will attribute this to rushed costume assembly in 1976. With the help of some trimming and a hobby iron, I will trim this down and create an new return edge that will come close to matching the other half. I have the new return edge marked and my cut line marked. I will do the return edge first them trim the return edge to match the other half.I am pretty happy with the final product and will fine tune the trimming once all is glued up. I rough trimmed the shoulder bells next.And that is all for now.

They may just make up a new one..."Aren't you a little TALL for a Stormtrooper?"