Solcar23

Besides just getting full approval with the 501st and a TK number this morning, THAT just made my day!!!!

Wow!!! That was a turbo build! Nice work! I think you may need to adjust the back. The back plate should meet the kidney, you have quite a bit of space there. Great job though!

Nevermind, its there now. I must have a haunted computer or something! Sorry for the bother!

Hmmm...I'm seeing the post on tapatalk but am not on the laptop. This is kinda like the weirdness I was having with the "new content" button not working. (it does now). Thanks again!

HI! I've notice that my recent posts aren't coming up in my content as well like the others that posted here recently. Also, I posted a question about a Sterling that was offered to me yesterday and I had a couple of responses but it disappeared completely this evening. Was it removed because it mentioned possible values? I didn't mean to cross any lines and I didn't see any notifications about it so it got me worried.

I got them from a camping do it yourself supply house: It's called Backwoods Daydreamer. They had the three point strap guides I needed: The rest I got at Jo-Ann Fabric. ----------

I used the nylon snap plate method from Darth Aloha (that's actually a pic of my armor that Dominic used as an example). Femtrooper Julie recommended it as well and although it was really easy to install the snaps and they molded to the curves of the armor perfectly, I will admit that I had one snap pull out from the front on the double shoulder snap plate on the back plate. This happened because I just used the snap tool and the front and back of the snap wasn't tight enough. I was able to squeeze it back in and CA glue it and it is solid as a rock now. I would definitely recommend that you make doubly sure that the snap it fully compressed into itself. Tap it with a hammer and the setting tool after you've used the snap tool just to make sure it's solid, then try to twist it and if it feels loose tap it until it sits tight.

He said they go for around $900 but thats WAY out of my range. I don't think he's going for 20 bucks though! I'll need to do a bit more research I guess!

My buddy just offered me his real decommissioned Sterling. He's added the rubber t-tracks to it. the thing looks great! I'm just not sure what to offer him. Any ideas? Here's what he wrote me: "Real deal like they used in the movies. Welded shut sterling machine gun, Sherman tank scope and counter. I added the rubber cooling strips on the muzzle as well." ------

Here's what I did, I've seen lots of ways but this worked for me! These are just the snap plate locations but you get the idea of creating elastic straps for each connection. ---------

After your done fitting the back to the front, no matter how you do it (by trimming it to your size or just padding the inside, you may still find that the butt and kidney will be flaring. I've seen this as a common problem with folks with the ATA kits on here. Both Gazmosis and I found that we needed to slightly heat bend the butt and kidney to reduce the flaring that seems to be inherent in the forming process. The belt helps a bit obviously, but as I'm finding in taking practice/sample pics for my submissions I still see just a few mm of flaring in my kidney still (fixing that tonight!) Since you're a skinny guy, I'd say bring those parts in a bit with the heat gun as you do your final fitting. DON"T do it before you assemble the entire back pieces to judge how much you'll need to do. You want to be careful that you don't go too far and end up bending too much, then it'll look like the ab plate is flaring instead of the back pieces. A little at a time and be really careful with the heat gun! Too much heat will easily warp the armor. Just go slow and air on the overly cautious side. Slightly bend the armor as you heat it and don't let it get too hot! Repeat after the plastic has cooled down and keep going until you get the bend you want. Good Luck Man! Nice progress! btw: Did you get to the MWG booth at WW on Saturday? I was there trooping on Friday! So fun! Sorry I missed you my friend!

Great work!

Well, it's time to finish up and get trooping! I'm all finished (generally speaking) and wanted to finish off the build thread with the rest! It's been a crazy 10 months working on this thing that I'm going to miss the obsession! Hmmm......I would really like a sandy, or maybe a scout trooper.......Maybe Boba Fett!!.......Well anyway, here's the finishing stuff! Since I left off last, I was getting a huge flare on my kidney and butt pieces so I had to carefully heat bend the parts which made all the difference. When I looked at some pics of me in the completed armor I see that I still need to go a bit further in with the kidney as well: Then I finished strapping the arms: and did a test fit with the straps in: Then it was on to finalizing the lid. First I applied the Dave M decals and then moved on to the painting. I had heard that the Humbrol gray was a bit lighter than the decal color and that turned out to be true. So I just added a bit of gloss black and was able to match the color of the decals pretty close: I painted the vocoder with a satin black enamel by Model Master: After finishing the outer details I air brushed the inside with a black that was sitting with a bunch of other bottles of several kinds of black and as it turned out I grabbed the gloss instead of matte! Since it goes on wet I was waiting and waiting for it to dull up and it didn't then I finally looked at the bottle and realized I used gloss instead! I also installed a hardhat liner in it and some foam at the top and the thing fits excellent! I'll fix the paint job eventually! After the lid was finished I turned to painting my buttons, rivets and screws: I used the older darker colors for the blue buttons. I am probably going to change it to the more correct color before I apply for EIB/Centurion. Side rivets: Knee ammo belt rivets: And helmet screws: Installed my electronics, Thanks to Sparrow for the idea!: First in the chest and back. I need the smaller Aker and may not stay with the wireless. I need to experiment a bit.: Then I installed the fans, mic and wireless transmitter: Glued my latex hand plates onto my rubber gloves: A final safety snap in the shoulder to keep the bells from pulling the webbing out: And voila the kinda finished product (always a work in progress ya know! ) Flaring kidney and sagging belt a bit on the left. I'm on the fixes though! The belt looks like it slipped down a bit in the front too........another tweak...... It looks like I mis-aligned the belt when I was putting it on: You can really see the flaring kidney and the sagging belt (besides the ugly mug!) in this one: In the Stanley tub, I was able to fit everything, some emergency tools, my E-11 in a towel and my lid in a bag. It's easily the best way to go!: Now on to fixing the flaring kidney, fix the belt, repaint the blue buttons and take some quality photos for my EIB/Centurion submissions! I've already applied and sent in some photos to the Legion and was able to troop once at Comic-Con on Friday with the Midwest Garrison so I'm well on my way to my TK# and full membership! This was an absolutely AWESOME experience!! I'm soooooo glad I found FISD and was able to do it right, so to speak! I can't thank everyone on the boards enough for all of the help and support that was out there! THANK YOU THANK YOU FISD!!!!!! Onward and upward! LET'S GO TROOP!!!!!!

Well since I'm all finished with my armor I needed to finally correct my Hengstler hight and add my wires so here it is! First, I found out that I had set my counter too high and it needed to sit just above the shoulder bracket arm: Then I carefully drilled out the connectors on the Hengstler by hand and was able to insert some black coated wire from Home Depot. I coiled it around a pencil and then inserted them behind the range finder cylinders. I kind of like the messiness of the wires, kinda gives it more of a jumbled greeblie effect! I may upgrade it eventually : And that's it! Finished E-11! Yay!!!

16"

Thanks man! On to tweaking and finishing the lid then!

The first thing to replace is the lid! There's no vocoder on the bottom and the eyes look a bit funky to me. Just my 2 cents..

Thanks Walt! That's a great idea about the velcro and easier than the "Han hook" method! Yep! Painting ab buttons and lid are coming up!

It looks like the little lego trooper in the picture is going to shoot me in the back! Lol!

Maybe a piece of foam in the front of the shin to push that out a bit could help. The only problem is that the legs fit relatively snug so I'm not sure if foam will do the trick. I'm going to try it though!

Got it! I will fix the belt tonight! Thanks for noticing that! I am 5'9" My bicep straps do the same thing. I noticed that if I make sure the inside strap is tight enough to hold the bicep high the outer strap doesn't fall off as much. I have recently seen a tutorial for putting a ABS hook on the inside of the bicep to stop it from popping off. This was also the way they held it on to Han's suit in ANH. There's a pic of it somewhere but I can't find it. Good luck and thanks again!!

Well, I was able to get the whole thing strapped up and got to walk around a bit. This is soooo cool! I MEAN FREAKIN' COOL!!!!! I can hardly believe I'm near the finish line and will be able to get my TK # and really troop soon! I've been researching, purchasing supplies, reading EVERYTHING on FISD for 10 months now! Staring at EIB and Centuion application threads studying details, posting stupid questions incessantly, and just enjoying the process! So anyway, I took a couple of self pics to judge where I'm at and other than some internal strapping issues and painting the buttons, I think it may be done. The helmet isn't near complete and I still have to attach the holster, but the body armor section is just about finished. I also need to replace the Trik Toys neckseal as it keeps bunching up in the back. So let me know what you think it needs as I'm hoping to fix anything and adjust by this weekend. Thanks FISD! Sorry for the blurry iPhone pics. I'll get someone to take some in better light later! Front: Back: With loose unfinished lid: I do see the sniper plate is catching under the knee a bit. Any advice there?

Yeah! Lol! Especially when it's just teetering there because there's nothing in it! I can't wait to get the interior finished and get it to fit comfortable! Thanks!