Airborne Trooper

You wouldn't happen to have a pencil outline of the wearer's RIGHT thigh, would you?

I'm almost done with my first build and it's a TD. I have a love for all stormtroopers and eventually I'll get a TK but with TFA coming out soon, I've been eyeing the new Tie pilot.

Looking forward to seeing all the new builds and excitement. Cool to see the detachment getting a forum update. If only my garrison would update their antiquated site and forum.

Just noticed that too. Nothing a little ABS paste can't fix. I use the pre-glued velcro strips. My reasoning is velcro wears out and will need replacing. I suppose E6000 would let you remove it too though.

Awesome!

Wow, that's must be a nice polishing kit. Can't even tell there was a repair.

I have to do my shins this weekend too. How much do you recommend trimming off the upper return edge? Leave like 1/8" inch all the way around?

Congratulations!

If you're feeling adventurous since you haven't done the front cover strip yet, you should look into doing the ANH style notches on top of the thighs. I have to trim mine height wise so I'll be doing that this weekend. It's not necessary in the least for approval but I like the way it looks.

Ken makes a very important point. Always try on the pieces with the compression gear. You'd be surprised how much gut gets sucked in on the midsection.

Check out some of the other AM2.0 build threads for help determining the pieces. You can get some rare earth magnets off amazon for cheap or home depot/lowes if you're impatient like I am. I use clamps, painters tape, and rare earth magnets. Good luck with your build!

I had to do larger cover strips on the rear of my biceps. So know that you should always aim for the front of every piece to be accurate, there is wiggle room especially in the rear of pieces. Some people also give a few mm on each side of the ridge lines and still use accurate cover strips.

Wow, you're off to a great start and great documentation. Wish I would have thought about binder clips. I could have raided my office instead of buying a million clamps from Lowes and Home Depot lol. On you forearm, you'll see a very minor gap on the cover strip. If you want to try and eliminate those, wrap painters tape around super tight. You probably won't get rid of all of them but it does help some. That's more of a nit-picky thing that really isn't a big deal tho. Trooperbay makes it look so ridiculously easy and the fact he uses a shop knife and zap a gap, he could build a whole suit in a few hours.

Is your husband going sandy as well? Make sure you sign up for the MEPD.net forums if you haven't already done so!

Dang, I'm only 5'5". I could have saved a ton and got the kid's size lol.

try dropping your thighs down a notch

I trimmed just like you have penciled out on both sides of my bucket. When I put the S trim on, I don't tuck the bottom of the ear in the s trim because it makes a gap in the slot of the s trim. I wear a 7 1/4 fitted baseball hat so I don't know if my head is considered big or not lol but it was tough putting my bucket on before making these cuts. I still have to "screw" it on but that's just the nature of the beast anyways.

Definitely add some strapping for the clam shell and heat bend the butt or add more straps towards the outer corners.

I started on my AM2.0 thighs this past weekend and they are HUGE! Much larger than my MTK both in height and width. I was able to perfectly do 20mm in the front and have more than enough overlap for the rears. Obviously, fit them the best for you and definitely give yourself a few mm on the front if needed. There are a few AM2.0 builds here where guys have needed to do it and it doesn't look bad at all.

You can go 25mm rears if needed just always aim for the front of every piece to be as accurate as you can.

The thighs should be 20mm/2cm wide total. Granted, you can give yourself a bit more room if your legs need, just try to use a 20mm cover strip.

I shimmed my kidney and it's not hard but shimming thighs was a pain in the butt and I just don't like the look of it so I dropped another $200 on legs and shins. I also have a hyperfirm on the way and a nice white pauldron from MEPD

I know that feeling man. I've been building my sandtrooper since March and I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. So many hurdles in my build. Whenever we seem to have some spare money, something comes up. I have MTK but just ordered and got my AM2.0 legs because the other ones don't fit without having to shim. I still have a pack to build that Mrs. Airborne is making me hold off dropping the money on. Luckily, it's not required for 501st basic approval. Doesn't help that Tony/UKSWRATH keeps coming out with cool stuff I want for my bucket. I just started a state job so hopefully I'll be able to get all the stuff I want soon enough.

I placed my pencil on top and basically did the same thing you did with the piece of wood. I think I was able to use my exacto knife in the same manner to do my scoring on my shoulder bells too.

That's a nice tip! I think I used a soda bottle cap or something to do my shoulder bells. Cool seeing someone document it