LittleOne

got some pics on facebook...first test pull..pretty cool stuff...now awaiting rest of this story

looking for wire for the brackets? try this music wire

do you have a visual example of what you mean Paul, In north america what you are describing might be hard to find because we dont use the same systems for tagging hardwares....well i think....

would the bolts to tie down the ears on the helmets do?

for me... and i may be wrong.... no return edge at all on the forearms for the regular stormtroopers. I have scanned the movie in several places and i see no return edges on the forearm parts, not on top not at the bottom for both hero and stunt versions,,however, the biceps and shoulder bells have different degrees of return edges. the sandtrooper do have return edges on the top portion ( elbow region )of the forearm...look at ANH when the falcon leaves mos eisley's and you will see the return edges when the stormtrooper turns around and on the others. but the best bet is to scan the movie for accuracy.... my 2 cents

All the best to you Rolf in your future builds, I have received my ATA suit and making a TK suit following your assembly example. cheers!

I know that Rob,it says in the post "1980's Chelsea boots" so they can't clearly match. What i meant to say ( to clarify) is that this "might" be a manufacturer that made Chelsea boots in the 1970's also thus maybe made the boot for the movie. If that company by such name ever existed to begin with,so far that name did not turn up anything for me...

i found this... another shot at it.... vintage 1980's Chelsea boots a lot of similarities with what Paul has posted someplace else...ok the elastic is not the same exact way...but the sole is almost identical as to what Paul posted and elastic is same pattern and sowing is almost the same style too... anyways... manufacturer... regency UK so it could make sense...

mmmmm, wonder if simon still has the boots that came with his costume... maybe he would tell us if he still has them....who knows... does he have them Paul?

well if you used a wire bending jig and had set it up to bend your wires then they would be the same size and shape... but if you do them by hand with pliers then they will vary in width...i guess it is safe to say that they have to be the width of the elastic you are gonna use and just give a slight play on both sides but not much.... Rolf had a suit and he showed what he did with the ANH bracket system.. perfect example there and this how i will make mine too... plus the bolts seem to be the same as the ones used on the ears to tie them down on the helmets......this ill have to test on mine armor... Rolf's wires inside his armor just keep scrolling down the page and you will see his set up... peace

good idea, no oxidation, might be a little bit hard to bend though...might try that...

here you go, best guesstimate... from a sales thread... original link not sure if seller makes them anymore though... that is what ill use on my suit when i am at that part.. measurements in wire size, roughly 1 MM (= or -)...assuming they are wire coat hanger size... but the measurements can be off so you have to build a few i guess.. nuff said....

yes i suppose super glue does the trick,,,but super glue is glue and probably a pain to apply and cannot be rubbed off or hard to clean if you change your mind while liquid mask you can paint it into any shape or form and looks decent when dried but then again what do i know... it was a fluke result for me... cheers!

Hi all, many of us want to reproduce current helmets like on star wars helmets.com and screen accurate paint drips is harder than it looks. i have something that happened to me while making my HIPS kit from ATA...what i am gonna explain would only work for hips and not ABS. at some point in my build i had to mask some small parts to create chips on my helmet. I use vallejo liquid mask and mask here and there in forms of tinny chips then painted my helmet then removed the mask after painting was dried out. But as some point i did some other masking on my helmet and weather got against me. in the meantime the liquid mask was drying and drying and i was not paying attention, usually the liquid mask would come to dry and remain as some sort of rubbery substance that you can easily remove. however before i had the chance to go out and paint the liquid mask dried up longer than normal...i went outside and painted several coats and i let it dry out. the next time i got my helmet i started to try to remove the liquid mask but found out that it had become so hard that it was near impossible to remove by just rubbing it off and fearing the worst i let them there to simulate paint runs and not paint chips, which was not my intent originally...the paint runs are not super apparent but up close it shows somewhat if you inspect it. therefore i can say that if you wanted to create specific paint runs i believe you could... all you have to do is get some liquid mask and paint it in the shape you want on your helmet. but there are 2 things you have to do... you have to make sure that if you lay your shape up with the liquid mask it need to be thick enough that is would show up after several coats of paints on your helmet. also you would need to let the liquid rubber crystallize or almost get crystallized before painting...because the liquid mask is liquid to begin with ( of course) then it rubberized then it hardens and crystallizes...when that state is almost achieve you just paint carefully over and you will get the shape that you need one the paint is dried up. i have only built one helmet so far and i cannot say that this a 100% guaranteed technique but it happened to me by accident and i was happy with the results of the accident. so if you got some spare plastic from a hips kit and some rubber liquid mask and some krylon paint... maybe you could try this out... i am just throwing this out for the benefit of everyone... no guarantees of results but worth a test....

also found this My link

why not use old coat hanger made out of wire... they are copper colored, seem the right size and strong enough to do the trick... i have tons of them...and will probably end up using them..but yes i have to get a bending tool too... or make one, i have a few ideas on that one... my 2 cents... link to a product

I use a metal socket that was the size of the entry of the hovie mic... i gently tapped the mesh around the socket and repeated the process until i could insert the mesh with a certain amount of pressure but without bending it...the trick i think is to have your mesh cut as small as possible so you barely have to ben a few parts... mine turned out way better than expected, what i tought was gonna be hard turned out to be fairly easy... ---------

NIceeee!

pretty much done for now. All i have to do if fill in the holes with bondo or something else then order a doopydoo kit, installs the few other mods i havein mind, then do the paint job... not gonna rush too much on this though... so when i get something done i ll post the updates... have a good one folks...

Part 2 cleaned the trigger part a bit and also drilled the holes under the gun part....well finished them out... cleaned the site, it is possible to do it without damaging the gun...also i ll put some fimo in the sight to simulate the targetting site...i ll show you later how i will do it.. another view and another one for good measure cleaned the cocking handle part...will mod it and ad some part later... cleaned up the scope area because i have some idea of a mod, just need to find what i need then i ll post it when i am done and explain it...

and the other part because people would ask...

fyi you actually get to see the brad in the cod piece at least twice in the movie..but you have to pay attention as it goes by so fast.... and soon after when han shoots a stormtrooper when they turn down a corridor and han starts running after them, the stormtrooper that falls shows his brad if you look closely... i did a research on this to find out if they were painted or not that is why i know.... staples sell them in canada at least... and the butt plate snaps in the actual film...for accuracy.... i was scanning for rivet on the battery pack on the knee wheni landed on this one...so dont ask....

very nice....looks imposing! love it!

on my helmet which was hips, the cut line were pretty much indicated on the helmet. i have not seem a abs one so i could not really tell you, i would assume that the line "might" show up the same as it did on my helmet since it is the same tool to cast them ( i assume ) then all you have to do is follow those lines...they are there.... if you are afraid to mess up then leave more on then off....drill your holes in the cap and face plate join them with some brads instead of permanent rivets...then shape your ears the way you want them and also install them with temporary brads, that way you will be able to see if you need to remove some more of the cap and back...otherwise if you remove too much you wont have enough cap and back behind your ear and you ll just want to cry....when you see it assembled and that you dont have enough... also tk4510 has some super nice vids for the assembly of the helmet...i followed a lot of his advices and panda's tricks here and ended up with a real nice helmet....i had a ton of problems with the painting but the assembly went fairly well for a first helmet. look up mike ( tk4510 ) for help and panda here...

Thanks Obi! so if i get this correctly, on the right side ab, these is only one snap with an elastic that hold that part together with the belt on of course...am i right? and for the should strap one is glued completely and the other has a snap inside like your pic..then the rubber band goes over the plastic part to camouflage the effect right? i think i got it all for that part...you just need a lot of pics and thinking to figure why it was made that way...but what would be cool is a video showing a guy putting on his suit with the original strapping style..that would help a lot of newbies...mmm maybe i should post a request like that..maybe some people would be graceful enough to do it for us... i have seen one guy put his TD armor on and it was great but his was a modded one...also i am not too sure of the suspenders/belt or ( garter ) system that holds the leg parts together...can someone show how these hook up together? P.s what kind of snaps should i be looking for for the right side attachment..i have seen many pics but not sure of what is screen accurate or not. thanks a bunch guys...always a great help!