Darth Aloha

This here... Is pure awesome. How much time do you have into your build so far? Aloha, -Eric

If you decide not to replace the barrel I suggest the epoxy putty stuff for plastic at Ace hardware. Cut off a bit, mix it up with a putty knife and sculpt away. Easily sandable and it likes plastic... Where convincing bondo to stick to plastic is difficult. Fiberglass resin is just epoxy not actual fiberglass. If you use it straight you'll just be glueing the barrel together. I love my hasbro but wish I had gone right to the full resin droopy kit. Keep up the photo documentation and excellent work. We dig it. Aloha and good luck, -Eric

I keep meaning to chime in here but I keep getting..... Squirrel!... distracted during the day. By now I'll be echoing the same tune the more experienced troopers are singing in this thread. I, obviously, have an RT-MOD bias. But that has less to do about my recommendation than preferring a more screen accurate kit. You have to ask yourself what costs more? Money from your bank account or your time and energy. If you went AM you'll spend way too much time trimming it and trying to make it look good. After all that effort you will have armor that may fit you but doesn't look as accurate. I have seen some good looking AM troopers here on FISD but know that it took serious time and skills to do so. A good indication of the accuracy of AM is the growing movement to ban the AM/FX helmet from the base 501st requirements. There is also talk of changing the centurion requirements to replace the chest plate with one more accurate or embark on heavy mods. You could do what Brian did and get AM and buy an RT chest down the road. Or just go with RT from then get-go. RT is pricey because you're paying for Rob's labor to trim the armor. And now that you have a helmet you'll pay less for RT by a few hundred bucks. Or you could go ATA and shim the thighs and sides for the sake of a cheaper kit. Heck... that's my plan for a TM kit someday... just without the cheap part Aloha, -Eric

I used an awl or sharp punch to find the center for a pilot hole. I carefully drilled the holes with a drillbit by hand just spinning the bit with my fingers. The drillbit I used was slightly undersized. I would be afraid that melting a hole would increase the chance of the hole being off center... or possibly creating a ridge of melted plastic that you then have to sand or file off. Aloha, -Eric

I just E-6000'd the white elastic to the back of the drop box.

You look great in that there ATA, especially being a tall guy. Nicely done. What is your waist and chest size if you don't mind me asking? I can't quite see in the photos if you have elastic around your biceps attached to the shoulder bells. It might just be lost in the black of your under suit. Aloha and good luck -Eric

Check out these two threads (titled the same): http://forum.whitearmor.net/index.php?showtopic=14108 http://forum.whitearmor.net/index.php?showtopic=17435 I would also try cruising around the blaster build threads and see what else you can find. Aloha, -Eric

This here makes me want to get a sucktastic FX kit and get my zombie on

12.5 EEEE here and I got TKBoots 13s. They're a tad big but pretty comfy. I didn't want to risk the 12s. Aloha, -Eric

In addition to Panda's tutorial... Check out trooperbay's videos on hand painting a helmet. Or just buy the hand painted looking decals from Trooperbay Aloha, -Eric

I've been giving this some thought too. My long range plan is to turn my current RT kit into a TD and save my pennies (and continue losing weight) for a TM. While your question can probably be answered with a quick search on MEPD... or comparing the CRLs... I think the differences are something like: Remove lines in the traps and tears of your helmet Find a way to remove built in center ab buttons Remove drop boxes Change knee plate to diamond shaped Don't wear your thermal det Remove your shoulder bridges Of course you'll need pouches, a pack, pouldron, and a T-21 or DLT-19 and lots and lots of dirty sand. I'm sure an actual sandy will pipe up and correct my list.... But I'd study the CRL first. Aloha, -Eric

I didn't either... but I wanted to and I wish I did. You can read about my lament in my hasbro mod thread... but also I wanted to split it because I read Pandatrooper's hasbro mod thread way too many times. Now my lament has less to do with not splitting my hasbro but more to do with not going with a droopy full resin E-11 to begin with. Aloha, -Eric

Unless your GML is a real turd... I doubt you'll have a problem

I'm no GML but you look better than most TK's in the legion You shouldn't have a problem with 501st approval at all. And yeah you and I must have the same shoulders. Mine pulled my elastic way way way down too... looked like total crap... so I ended up putting a strap all the way across my chest from one bell to another. Aloha, -Eric

Yah man. Looks good. A couple minor things.... The thighs should come up fo sizzle. If you can't get anymore height out of your straps I would suggest rethinking how they're set up. You may have the same RT shoulder bell thing going on as I do. They could be higher...or rather... up closer to your shoulder bridges. Mine won't get much closer either and end up rotating one way or another. I think because you don't have as long a torso as Rob, your chest is a bit low (and not just because your belt is riding high) but not a biggie. However, it doesn't look like you have much room to pull it up toward your neck. Maybe someday once you get a few troops under your ammo belt you could think about trimming some off the bottom of the chest... or maybe trimming some off the top of your cod would lower the ab plate. Since its covered up by the belt it would be way easier than trying to get the shape of the chest right. Just leave it for now and ignore me Your drop boxes look a tad low too. Check out some screen caps or centurion threads for reference. Now wasn't the knee ammo pack a real sonofawitch? Rock on with your bad RT self! Aloha, -Eric

Do you mean the inside diameter of the inner barrel of a full resin droopy or a droopy pipe build? My resin build is at work or I'd go measure mine for you. Aloha, -Eric (null)

You freaking rock that ATA kit even being a tall dude. Great paint job and overall attention to detail. Your belt and knee pack are spot on. Will you be outiftting a blaster with a folding stock and going centurion? (the EIB requirements say "should" have a folding stock for ROTJ, which I take as "may") Aloha, -Eric

Hey... did Rob paint your ab buttons for you? The new teeth look way better for sure. Shame he doesn't put green lenses in eh? I had a real witch of a time painting my vocoder... let me know if you need help when the time comes. Agreed about the back of the TD. Ditch it. I use mine to test paint for my helmet and added a couple Jesse TD clips to the RT one.... my more accurate Jesse TD is still a work in progress. Rob's new TD plate is much nicer than the old one... fo sho. Did you just tape up the parts for display or have you managed to glue thighs, forearms, and biceps already? Rock on with your RT-MOD bad self. -Eric

On the subject of sniper knee plates... as Kevster can attest mine caused a fair amount of angst. So much that he got on skype with me to bare his sniper knee over the interwebs. I tried using a heat gun gently but decided it would not make much difference in aligning/fitting. I would suggest not risking it. I did think I had to trim my sniper knee some to get it to go on correctly. I was wrong. I trimmed a bit underneath the front of the plate to get it to sit nicely on the shin. It turns out that it would have fit just fine without trimming. Trust in the Rob that he trimmed it properly for you. Here's a closeup of the the knee plate now: Before glueing I fit my sniper knee in two steps... First I clamped the plate with many many spring clamps to the front of the shin such that "A" was as as vertical as possible. Don't try to make it inline with the the front face of the shin. I had better luck with making it as plumb as I could. The front face may not end up being perpendicular to the floor after glueing, but it is an easier goal for alignment's sake. Make sure there are as many clamps on there as you can fit. Once you start fiddling with the sides of the knee plate the front will want to move around. I would suggest letting it move around a little for your own sanity. Second I pulled the sides back carefully so that "B" seems to run along the same line as the top of the shin. It turns out that you only need to do this for the last inch or so of the plate side. The whole side does not run parallel so stop trying. This maneuver takes quite a bit of force and squeezing. If you look down into the top of the shin you can see where the sides of the plate actually becomes warped and curved (I don't think I have a photo of this handy.) Please dont be surprised if the sides are squished where you end up glueing and clamping. Observe what parts of the sides actually touch once the knee plate is in place. You may not need to spread glue everywhere, only the mating surfaces. I made a mark with an exacto knife (sharpie will smear when glue gets on it) in the inside of my knee plate where the top of the shin hits. This let me know it was aligned properly once the panic and anxiety of freshly spread glue begins. For glueing please do not use CA for the initial knee plate attachment. You need more time to get very pissed off at your clamps, so E-6000 is the way to go here. Make sure you rough up the shin and the insides of the knee plate sides before applying goop. I might have used 600 grit maybe? After fitting, glue it on in the same order you fit the plate. Glue the front on first and clamp the living poop out of it. You may find that there isn't much surface area to glue the front onto the shin. That's ok. Just spooge it up as best you can, even if it is barely touching the shin. A well placed RT knee plate does not fit flush on the front. Carefully fold the sides of the plate onto the shin with copious amounts of E-6000. The red shaded area in the image above is roughly where the sides make contact with the shin (I would go look at my knee plate to check but my son is napping in that room and none of you are here to help with a cranky baby.) I spread glue everywhere of course, but I'm pretty sure that red are is the only surface holding the sides onto the shin. Next: clamp clamp clamp and then add another clamp for good measure. Check your reference mark in the inside of the knee plate and slide it up or down depending. Leave your sniper plate for 48 hours, or even more, to cure. One side of my sniper knee started to separate a bit right before my last (and first) troop. I daubed a bit of zap-a-gap CA in there, clamped it for 30 minutes and moved on with life. All is well in sniper knee plate world now. I hope this helps the other RT folks who end up wanting to melt down their sniper knee plate into a tiny little white middle finger and mail it to Rob. Aloha, -Eric

Hmmm looks to me that your cod should come. It doesn't look flush against your ab... Then your thighs can come up too so your shin tops don't get caught on the bottom of your thighs. Your butt is hanging low too (I amuse myself way too often) and when it comes up your thighs won't hit your butt in the back. What's your inseam? Rock on. Aloha, -Eric

Kinda looks like half of a hasbro scope part: (photo by Jorran) Aloha, -Eric

I would agree. The standing one is better. The photos are a bit dark so the gun on the aiming action shot gets washed away. Seems to be a common problem. The sepia tone your armor took on from the red curtain is easily fixed as well. Will this be acceptable for your card?