Airborne Trooper

When I assembled mine, I paired it from the bottom instead of from the top since I knew I had to trim anyways. The originals had a distinct line so try to get them flush and even as possible. You can use a scrap piece of ABS and glue it behind to get them flush.

Awesome work. I opted to do the black outlining first then fill in the grey. My hands are no where near steady enough

Adam is correct. You can use cheap For Sale sings from walmart. I choose to use the same material for the cover strips as inner strips as well. For my thigh shims, I used a thicker No Smoking sign! Go to the ANH Build section and look at UKSWRATH's build thread. Might be on page 2 but it is very detailed and will help you out a ton!

Super exciting stuff!

PITA but it works. Pretty much did the exact same thing for my thighs

I went with using the strip material for making inner and outter strips and I have now ordered 3 pairs of extra strips from Trooperbay. I realized the other night I didn't have enough material to make the 2 1" strips for the back of my calves. Doh!

Awesome, Rusell!

As long as you are sure of fit and placement use zap. Mike from Trooperbay makes it look easy. On curved areas like the shins and thighs, I put clamps at the end, then I use painter's tape to first tape the cover strip then I pull each side while pushing down the cover strip so it glues on flush and doesn't poke up on one side. Then I throw magnets and clamps where they'll reach. With zap, you may need a friend for the long cover strips so you can push them down flat in enough time before it bonds.

On your left thigh (right side as we view it), the front cover strip is too long. It should fall short just before the ridge at the bottom of the thigh.

Make sure you're using plenty of clamps and magnets. Another tip is to sand both surfaces a bit.

So much trimming!

I would highly advice you don't use zap a gap unless you're 100% you know what you're doing. While it's not impossible to remove pieces bonded with zap, it is a pain in the butt and can lead to damages if you have to remove something. Are you using E6000 to glue one side, let it cure for 24 hours then doing the other size?

Sanded the last coat of ABS paste last night and wet sanded to bring back some shine. I'm about 90% satisfied as some of the ABS paste left some pockets and craters that bondo would not have but then again, I didn't have to paint. Luckily, a little weathering should hide some of the imperfections. I only managed to get one of the finishing strips before my wife yelled at me to spend time with her and watch tv. I'll get the other one glued after work and throw up some pictures. I have Wednesdays off so hopefully tomorrow I can get the battery pack on the knee knocked out and start on the shins.

How are you gluing them together? Are you doing butt joins and using an inner strip? While an inner strip isn't necessary, it makes it a lot easier to line parts up.

I am short at 5'5" so I had to trim the top of my thighs so they don't go inside the ab/cod area. She might benefit from trimming the swooping inner portion of the thighs which would allow her to pull it up a bit higher. Don't know how accurate you guys are aiming for but she also will need the ANH style notches on top of the thighs as well. Last thing is the gap of the kidney to ab plate. Won't hurt acceptance into the 501st I don't believe but for Police Officer deployment on MEPD it will. Look into the different shimming techniques. Had to shim my sides and my thighs with my kit.

It's not a race and we will see each other in the dunes soon enough!

Very cool! I hear you about wanting to go your own route with the weathering. No shame in that IMO. I am going to do my best for SWAT but the rules change every week so who knows if I'll make the cut. Still have a long ways to go on my end.

Thighs turned out nice! Oh, man! You can read my thread about my experience with ears. I went through 3 sets before finally being satisfied.

Sorry to hear that, Tony. Hope everything works out for you and you can get back on your feet. At least you have something to put your frustrations into.

LOL

Behold the power of ABS paste! Great job!

I got some for when I do my canvas belt. I figured it was no less different than using a soldering iron like I've seen people using. Getting back on topic... Russell did you get the Centurion approval yet?

Hey, Jarhead! When you jump out of a perfectly good airplane, get back to me! 82nd Airborne Army vet! All in good fun though, I like the HWT and I think it's cool that its getting more popular around here. Just wait until TFA comes out and brings a bunch of new troopers to emulate. While everyone in their mother is looking at the anovos TFA TK, I'm drooling over the new tie pilot.

I've been using a drill bit and using my butane lighter to heat it up to make holes for snaps in nylon for snaps. Just want to avoid fixing this for a second time.

Coming along nicely! Looks like you're definitely going to need to do the shims. There are a lot of build threads that had to do it as well so don't feel discouraged. I had to do it too and it's documented in my build thread. I'm currently doing shims for my thighs as well.