Midnyt17

Yeah. TK-4510(Mike) is my first and only option if I go the decal route. When you bought decals from him did you get it shipped to the Phil or the US? I'm wondering whether the decals will still go through customs even though they're just stickers. As for the gap, I've tried adjusting the lower screw to no avail so either I'm leaving the gap or I need to find a way to fill it in.

That ATA kit looks really good. It's actually more "trimmed" than I expected. Have fun on your build. Pics! Pics! Pics!

And isn't the stormtroopercostumes.com one a recast?

That's some great work there! Do those officer uniforms come in kit form or did you make it from scratch?

Thanks! I'm still thinking about it. Decals would cost me three to four times as much as painting them myself but I don't trust my hand painting skills so I'm still weighing if the cleaner, more accurate look of decals is worth the cost.

Thanks for the info guys. I guess I'll try and paint the outside first and see how it looks then decide if I'll paint the inside as well.

Here's my assembled helmet. Sorry for the picture quality. What do you guys think? I still need to do some finishing sanding and filing then paint everything.

Alright. Will buy a can of black spray paint tonight. This is a stupid question but should I paint the inside of the hovi's or keep them resin colored? I'm going through pictures around the forum and I can't tell if the insides are painted or not.

The ATA kit is supposed to come with the screws and trim for the helmet. Even the lens. I just finished building mine.

Yup washers are in place and I've just cut, drilled, and installed the lens. I'll probably paint the aerators this weekend. What kind of paint should I use? Enamel? Acrylic? Glossy? Matte? I'll keep thinking about painting the inside. I kind of want to paint it to make it look "cleaner" and I've read it makes it feel cooler in there. And speaking of the Philippine Outpost, isn't there a troop this weekend at Megamall? I saw the poster on another forum.

The sealant set pretty well. Not as concrete hard as I imagined but still good enough to add some strength to that area. I've drilled and screwed in the aerators. Are they really a little bit wonky? The wonky-ness isn't so noticeable though. What paint should I use to paint the resin aerators? And also the inside of the bucket since I'm asking about paints anyway. I want to paint the aerators and the inside of the bucket already since I don't really need to wait for the rest of my armor before I paint those. Any advice or links on the type of paint for the aerators and the inside of the helmet? I'm going to work on the lens while I wait for someone to reply

Not at all. You paid for the item (even if you got a refund), he gave you a fake/non-working tracking number, the item was never shipped or received. Negative feedback is the least he should receive IMO. It's just VERY bad business.

I just put the sealant on the aerator bumps. Will let it set overnight before I try and drill. Crossing my fingers that it sets right.

I only have the small 2-part package of the sealant. That'll probably only add a 1/4 cm thick layer on top of the plastic. Just to thicken up the plastic 'cos the pull on the aerator sockets of the ATA kit are pretty thin. I'd rather it be a bit heavier than break off if the mic tips get snagged. And yeah the AM kit is the new version of the FX. I'm going to be following pandatrooper's tutorial when I get my kit which won't be for a couple of months unless I come across a large sum of money

I asked this on another pandatrooper's reinforcing aerator socket thread but no one seems to read that anymore. I want to reinforce the aerator sockets on the bucket following panda's method so I went to the hardware and this is the closest thing I could find to what he used and I was wondering if it was ok to use this:

Thanks guys. It means a lot coming from you. I'm not so worried about the holes but I'd like to reinforce them one of these days just in case. Any suggestions on what I should use? I'm actually really tempted to go ahead and paint it and just hope it matches with the AM kit

Here are the pics of the bucket: The damage from the re-drilling: Now I personally know the importance of measure twice, cut/drill once.

I probably have one of the worst made helmets in FISD after what I did today. I decided to re-drill 'cos the brow was too low and had too much of a gap from the face plate. I thought re-drilling the right side of the bucket would be the correct way to go to tighten the brow onto the face plate. After re-drilling that side I then saw my mistake. The face plate was now turned to the left too much. It looked really ugly and wonky. I then decided to remove all the screws on both sides and align the center of the cap to the center of the face plate. So I did that and ended up realizing that I should have re-drilled the left side instead of the right. So after re-drilling the left side and returning the right side to it's previous position I finally had the face plate acceptably centered and snug to the brow and had the brow line at the height I wanted. My helmet now has 9 extra holes holes on it. None of them are seen from the outside but I know I'm going to have reinforce those at some point. My helmet is also an asymmetrical mess now; The gap between the left tear and ear is around 3/4 of an inch but the gap on the right is around 1 1/2 inches. And the alignment of the eye to the vent on top on each side is different. Will try and take some pics later. Oh well, I hope it's good enough to pass membership and EIB.

Anyone?

I've put on the ears and the neck/brow trim. The right ear fit pretty well but the left has gaps. I'm trying to accept the gaps but I might fill them in before I paint the helmet. What should I use if I decide to fill in the gaps? The brow also went lower than what I wanted and it looks a little too "hero" for me. Is it? Will it still pass as an ANH Stunt or do I have to trim the brow line or re-drill? Also, did anybody elses brow/neck trim come covered in dirt and oil/grease? My bucket feels like it can pass for a TD or a mechanic trooper. How do I wash it off the helmet and the trim?

Yeah, I see that now. I finally built up enough confidence and was able to do a lot of work done tonight. I trimmed out the teeth more, trimmed the top and sides of the face plate, trimmed the front & sides of the cap more, drill the face plate and cap together. Here are pics: I'm going to put the ears on now. More pics after that.

I just bought a pair of lexan scissors this morning. Will trim the bottom of the face plate and finish the teeth tonight and do some minor trimming here and there before I start drilling.

Why does it seem like the cap 'n back is a little too "wide" for the face plate? The sides of the cap n' back seem too far from the sides of the face plate when I try and fit them and have to flex the cap 'n back quite a bit to get it to align with the face plate properly.

Haha thanks, I will. But trimming the bottom of the face plate will have to wait 'til tomorrow when I get a pair of Lexan scissors. My fingers can't take the "score and score until it snaps" technique anymore. Thanks for the tip. I've changed my trim line and will trim it tomorrow. Thanks. Glad to know there are people nearby who can help. Are you from the south also? Thanks again Luis. I've cut the sides and they look fine on the helmet now. I've got another trimming problem now though. Should I trim this area? It's keeping the front of the helmet from fitting snug on the front of the cap. Or is that normal?

Good that you're getting back on horse so to speak. I would've probably reacted the same if it happened to me. Both VT and ATA are good choices if you're on a budget. Check out Jesse's (TK-4702) review on the VT here: ------------- and there are a couple of ATA helmet builds on the TE derived armor thread including mine. Good luck.