xaoslord

Woo hoo! Good job!

I think the two sets of ears that come with the set are different. The three bump ears (like the one in your photo above) are for the Hero version, and the four bump ears for the Stunt version.

Keep the pics coming!

Added the last coverstrips on the biceps today. Once they are cured I can trim a little where they join. Here are some pics with one of the forearms on. Depending on how I hold my arm, I have some slack at the elbow end. How do they look, length-wise? Should I trim a little off the ends?

Looks great!

Let me check how I am length-wise on the forearms. I don't think I needed to lose any of the length, but maybe I could take a little off...

No, I haven't closed the forearms yet. The wrist opening is so small that I can't really take any diameter off of it, but I do need to take some of the diameter out on the elbow side. If I cut the overhang completely off for the butt joints, the wrist opening will be too small. If I leave part of the overhang at the wrist, and taper the cut to take off more on the elbow end of the forearm, it will look odd.

Yeah, one thing at a time. I'm looking into Morten's suggestion on a bayonet lug for the E-11. I'm trying to decide how much detail I want to get into with it. I haven't decided what to do with the forearms yet. I need to take up a little slack at the elbow end but I can't really take any out of the wrist end.

Not alot of progress today. I closed the biceps, and I was suprised at how hard it was fighting me. I could have used a couple more hands. I was trying to avoid using the metal clamps, per Darth Aloha's warning, but they were the strongest I had and ended up using them. I'm not even trying to put the cover strip on until this has cured. I went ahead and removed the extra T-track from my E-11. It wasn't too bad, the holes were already there, so that wil save a little work. Only drilling today was the barrel. Finally finished making snap plates. I made around 40, hopefully that will do.

Perfect! Thanks Steve! So you can do a butt-joint with those, you just don't use an inner strip.

Today's lesson: One thing at a time. With the weather looking up, I decided to try to get some more done today. I wanted to finish the biceps today. I have finished one of the two joints on each, and started working to close the second joint. Like before, I sanded the areas where the glue would be placed to get the best hold. I started by putting the internal strip on one side and clamped it down and thought I would go ahead and close the joint up at the same time. Of course that didn't work because the completed joint now works like a spring to keep the joint apart, and I couldn't get the strip glued, the joint together, and everything clamped at the same time. I had to be content to glue the strip one one side, let it cure and then I will close the joint tomorrow. After I got those clamped, I checked on my E-11. I had glued the counter back on and wanted to see about putting the D-ring I got from Trooperbay in place. I drilled the back of the blaster. (sorry about the bad pic.) I got the D-ring out to bend it, and found the joint was welded shut. I got the Dremel out with a cutting wheel and made quick (ha!) work of opening the ring. Then came time to bend it to my will. This thing is heavy gauge and I had a time getting it opened just right so I could get it on the blaster. I was looking over the CRL, and if I understand it correctly, I need to remove one of the T-tracks from the blaster. Is this the correct one? And now for a question on cover strips and velcro. I'm not entirely sure how to approach the butt joint method with strips, when having to use velcro to close part of the armor, eg. forearms and calves? I don't want to go cutting on anything until I'm sure how these parts go together.

Glad to hear you're on the mend. Looks like some great work there!

It's a great feeling when that box arrives and the wait is over. Take plenty of pics!

Looks like a good start!

The original helmets were vacu-formed, so it is mainly about accuracy. Check out this thread: http://forum.whitear...showtopic=18474 That may be a little closer to your price point. Good luck!

A hard lesson to learn is having to buy something twice. I originally started with building a Boba Fett. I was anxious to start getting parts and bought about $600 in prepainted and assembled parts. Once I got it, I was very disappointed. I was not able to use any of it. I learned to go with the established makers because a bargain usually isn't the deal you hoped it would be. I'm not the only one to go through this. This is why the members here are always vocal when a thread like this pops up. We don't want you to have to go through the same thing. Good luck!

I'll be doing this with my build. Thanks for the tip!

Great job so far! Yeah, that helmet is a reminder as to why the mass made merchandise is never right.

The progress isn't coming as quickly as I hoped, but I'm not getting alot of shop time. Started glueing up the biceps. Started by scuffing up the areas where the glue would make contact, so it can get a little better bite on the plastic. Both the joints on the biceps and the coverstrips got a light sanding. I used a scrap of trimmed abs as a spreader for the E-6000. I didn't want to try wrestling with holding both strips in place while getting the clamps and magnets in place so I did the inside first. I gave it some time to set a little then I went ahead and sanded the outer coverstrip and the biceps where it would go, and glued up the outer strip. Sorry about that, Flickr decided to take a crap while I was posting this. I'll update when I can. [Edit: pic added.] I think I've given up on being able to have completely closed forearms. I just can't get my hands in and out. I guess velcro is in my future. I need to look at some screen captures and other builds to get an idea of how much room I should have the elbow end of the forearms. If I need to take up some space, would it look odd to do a tapered trim? I just can't afford to take any off at the wrist, so any trimming would have to be tapered.

Your build is coming along nicely!

Now I'm going to have nightmares...

Here are some pictures of trimming up the biceps. First I test fitted them while they were taped up to check fit. I knew they were going to be big but I didn't want to trim too much at once so I just started with the 8mm guide and went from there. I put the guide against the overlap and marked it with a pencil. Then it was time to trim. I originally tried to hold the straight-edge in place while I made my scoring cuts. I found it kept wanting to move while making the cuts. I finally held the ruler in place using spring clamps so I could get a straight cut. After cutting the edges on both sides of the bicep halves, I taped it together and made another test fit. It was large so I thought I would start by cutting the remaining overhang on one side first. On the left bicep, I did this with the back seam, so I decided to keep it symetrical and do the same with the right one. I marked the correct overlap to cut so I wouldn't get the wrong one and cut it the same way I did the other cuts. Once I had the overlaps on the back part of the bicep cut, I taped them together and test fit them. I wouldn't need to cut the other overlap. You can see the overlap is still present on the other side. I do need to make another pass with the utility knife as there is a tiny portion of the raised overlap still there, and it will interfere with the coverstrip. I will have to glue one side at a time as I will have to put some pressure on the halves to get them to match up properly, but I think that's standard procedure from the other builds I've seen.

Lookg great! Seems like a good fit.

This should help illustrate how quickly the little things add up. Good luck!