Jorran

I got the ears screwed onto the helmet last night and...I can't get the lid on! The screws dig into my forehead and back of my skull when I try to get it on. My first thought was that I just need to cut off the excess on the screws, but the welder's mask hangs from the top two screws, right? I don't think my noggin is significantly bigger than most troopers, so I doubt this is a major issue.

There were a couple of bad spots on the helmet - cooling ridges from the forming process. Check out this link: http://forum.whitearmor.net/index.php?showtopic=15105&hl=&fromsearch=1 One person was able to get a helmet where the issue was fixed, but my replacement helmet still had the same problems, so I went with a different helmet that didn't have this problem.

Nice start! I used score and snap on just about all of my armor, but I did find the dremel useful, particularly when putting the finishing touches on the ears. The only thing that stands out to me is that it looks like you could trim a little more around the eye openings. It looks like there's a return edge/lip left in there, and I don't think you need that. I'm new to the game, though (heck, I haven't even finished my helmet yet!), so please wait for an expert to chime in!

Thanks Mathias. Yeah, I just finished removing the last of the E6000 snaps that I felt like I needed to replace due to space. Several of them I'm just leaving and will put new tabs next to them. I labeled them "BAD" to try and help myself avoid unnecessary confusion down the road. Now I just need to wait for Tandy to send me more snaps.

It's possible that I just bought a bad set of pliers or maybe the wrong size...but the snaps fit and they're the ones from Joann's that people had recommended. What I'm wondering now: for the snaps that I glued to the armor with E6000, will it do damage to the armor to pry those off and redo them? I'm debating between prying those off or just putting new tabs adjacent to the existing ones.

Ok, I took the last couple snaps I had and put them together using the anvil/setter tools...and it worked like a charm. The snaps are easy to press together and hold solidly. So the good news is that I know I can assemble the snaps properly now and won't have that problem. The bad news is I've got to basically redo all of the snapping on the whole suit. While not the end of the world, it's just more I have to buy and more lost time. But in the end everything will hold together better and I won't be constantly worried about my arms and other plates falling off.

Ok, thanks again for the pics and advice! I had already flattened out the inside of all the female snaps with the setting tool once, but I'll gladly go through and beat the tar out of them again!

Thanks for the feedback, all. As promised, here are a couple pictures of a pair of the offending snaps. The first is angled to see the centers of each, and the second is a little more top-down.

Understood. I will cast my pliers into the fires of Mt. Doom as soon as I get home. I guess the follow-up question is: is there a way to fix the snaps that are already glued on (could be an impossible question without pictures, which will come later)? Or will I just need to make a new series of plates using the hammer/anvil and put them adjacent to the existing plates?

Luis and Steve, I made all of my male snap plates while waiting for my armor by using the snap pliers. Once the armor came and I got to the point of making the elastic straps with the female snaps, I noticed that the connection wasn't very good and started using the snap tool+anvil to flatten out the interior of the female snaps. Should I go back and do the same to the interior of the male sides as well, or does that even matter? I'm just thinking I might've screwed up the male ends already by using the pliers and wondering if there's a way to fix it since they're all glued to the armor already. Also, someone earlier mentioned that there might be too much stress on the snaps due to the elastic being too short. This is something else I'll look into, but I thought part of the purpose of the straps was to hold the pieces closely together so that there won't be gaps showing. If I made the straps longer with less tension, gaps would start showing everywhere. Maybe that's just the trade-off I'll have to make.

Luis, the snaps connecting my shoulder bells to the elastic strap under my bridges were the biggest problem last night, although I also had one of my chest-to-ab snaps and butt-to-kidney snaps come apart. The bad part about the shoulders, of course, is that once that snap comes loose your whole arm starts falling off! Darrel, I was thinking of reinforcing some areas with Velcro as well. Ricky, you might be on to something. It's difficult to get the snaps together. I'll try flattening out the centers on a few test subjects and see if that improves the situation. Sorry I don't have any pictures to post at the moment. I will tonight once I get home from the office.

As seen in my other thread, last night I finally completed the body portion of my armor (helmet still in progress) and got suited up for the first time. Wow...I mean...wow, what a feeling! Now I know for sure why this hobby becomes an addiction! But while I was suiting up I started having a problem: my snaps were not staying together. I wasn't moving around much - since it was my first time in the suit I had my wife helping me snap a lot of the pieces - but snaps were still coming apart all over the place. I used Tandy Line 24 snaps for everything, as that's the brand I saw most often referenced here. I bought a pair of snap pliers from the local hobby store and crimped them all together using that tool. One thing I noticed while I was assembling the various pieces was that it was sometimes very, very hard to get the male and female snap to make a connection, and when it did, it was a weak bond that would come apart very easily. Have any of you ran into this problem before? If so, what was your solution?

Thanks Eric! Last night was just too exciting for words. Once I got it all on and secured...dude, I didn't want to take it off. I was just walking room to room getting the feel of everything. This is an addiction, man! Now I can't wait to get the helmet finished.

Finally!!! The body armor is done (only the helmet remains). Please let me know if you see things that I need to change.

For me, every page that I try to access on the main site returns the "JOOMLA! First Imperial Stormtrooper Academy - This site is under development. Please check back again soon" error, even the link Mason posted. Does someone have a list of the EI/Centurion requirements for ANH Stunt that they could send me? I should be able to finish my armor tonight, but I want to double check a couple of things against the reqs first.

The back of the male snap should be visible on the outside of the right side.

I went ABS primarily because I knew I would have no area to paint in, and I've been extremely happy with that choice. Cutting ABS is not difficult at all. My recommendation is a good pair of curved Lexan scissors and an Xacto knife with several sharp blades. Oh...and a pair of work gloves so that you don't end up with the same set of little scars that I now have!

You'll be working with some sort of adhesive - be it E6000 or plastic welder - that is pretty potent. In both cases, they recommend working in a well ventilated area. As far as the workspace goes, take it from me, it's possible to complete an entire kit at your dining room table! I'm getting close to finishing my TK, and every step of the way I've been sitting at that table (or outside in my breezeway if there was gluing to be done). I'm sure it makes life much easier if you have a workshop, but it's not a requirement.

It's always a good day when I can post something and it's mostly a progress report, and not more questions to badger you all with! I have all of the strapping done to hold the abs, back, and butt plates together, so I decided to suit up to that point and see how everything looked. So far, so good...I think! Take a look below and let me know if you see something wonky that I'm not catching. A couple things to note: The crotch strap is installed, but I didn't get it snapped together for these pictures. I got everything on before trying to get that snapped together, and once I realized I'd forgotten it, I didn't have quite enough mobility to snap it. Hence, terrible TK Tail in these shots! I don't yet have the snaps installed on the ab plate to hold the belt in place (that's the plan for tomorrow), but I think I have the belt placement correct. I see that I need to rotate the torso slightly to my right to even out some gaps and get the center button box lined up. On with the show:

Caleb, this is done using 3DS Max. I went to school and learned Maya, then work made me transition to Max. They're both awesome programs and now that Autodesk owns them both, they keep getting more and more similar to each other. Pablo, I completely agree! I love that old game. X-Wing Alliance is still one of my favorite games of all time.

Sorry, I missed this earlier. I work in 3DS Max, though I went to school and got trained in Maya.

Thanks everyone. My goal, if I somehow find the time, is to also make an X-Wing, Vader's TIE, and Y-Wing, and do some recreations of the Battle of Yavin. No, I hadn't. Wow, he's doing some incredible work!

Here are a few shots of the back, showing the same process as above. For those who care about such things, this was done in 3DS Max Design 2009 and rendered with mental ray.

I had some time between projects recently and felt like I needed to tackle something that challenged my 3D skills, as far as replicating small details in models (as opposed to bump or normal mapping everything). So, as is often the case, I fell back to Star Wars for my inspiration. I found a great site for reference (Modeler Magic) and started working on a TIE Fighter. I thought the members of this particular fine establishment would appreciate the subject matter. Here's a render journey: The first step was to get the basic geometry in place. Then it was on to roughing out the iconic cockpit front... ...and adding the extra details and cannons to get closer to the final look. Then I added all the little widgets to the wings. This part took the most time out of the entire project. It's unreal how many little pieces they crammed into the small area at the center of the solar arrays. Both panels complete... ...and an initial texturing pass done. Finally, a closeup to show some of the smaller details, plus the "fabric" texture on the solar arrays. Enjoy!