gattirenata

hi Jenny!!!! well... now i'm stuck on the ears. that round part is just a pain to fit. one side looks nice but then theres a huge gap on the other. =S tried for 2 days in a row and then now i'm bringing to the guys in my garrison to help me out. even if i messed up completely i got the extra pair. so hopefully everything will be good. besides that... i finally made peace with the clamps and mixed it with the magnets and all was good. tucking a sweatshirt inside the helmet sort of help too!!! but before i did that... the helmet slid a bit when i riveted it both parts together, and that forehead part was too low! way too low!!! so a friend helped take the rivets off and i did it again and it looked better. i am def bracing myself for more bad cuts. i'm not very good with sharp things. =S hahaha just for the record... i m average height in Brazil and since i'm Brazilian... i'm not UBER petite! hahaha just shorter than you guys!!!!! =P Ingrid, thanks for the tip on the croch snaps. that makes a lot of sense (not having something permanent and stuff) ouch... yeah... i know i'm gonna get hurt. i'm just glad hot glue and irons are not involved, cause i always burn myself. oooh yeah... ok i got that little iron, but hopefully it wont be as bad! lol OH AND GUESS WHAT!!!!!! I GOT MY BOX TODAY!!!!!!!! i'll post pics later. you guys have no idea how much i screamed!!! hahaha and i got stuck at my front door with the box and it took me LITERALLY almost 5 minutes to get in cause i refused to put that beautiful wonderful box on the ground!!!! sometimes it feels like i'm not going to survive all this excitement!!! hahahahahah

i plan to not talk at all!!! hahahahhah

WOW!!! matias!! thank you sooo much!!! i never really noticed that ROTJ was like that!! aaawwwww now i get it!!! hahahahah thanks rachel!!!! well... Yesterday i sanded everything..... and then tried to put both parts together. i'm following Pandatrooper's tutorial by the letter!!! it's my Bible! but the clamps i got were too small and were not going over the eyes. i was so scared of breaking it or something so today i got 2 bigger ones. I also got rivets, split rivets (still not sure how to put those on!!! =S )and a rivet gun thingie... I was soooo excited to come home today and work some more on it but... =S well... nothing went as planned! First... i cut my thumb pretty badly... then... the clamps are sooo freaking hard to open. i can't hold the helmet and open the thing with one hand. and the helmet is sooo slippery! well... i guess it just took 2 days to be very clear that i have no clue-what-so-ever of what i am doing!! but... i'm not giving up!!! got some tips about using earth magnets instead of clamps. i will try tomorrow if i have some time... right now i'm just licking my wounds and crying over my first failed building day

rachel you should put your build thread here as well.... soooo good for all of us small girls!!! btw, i got to see Rachel in person last week and her TD looks awesome!!! congrats TD!!!! =P

webbing!!! that makes soooo much sense!!!! thanks Tray!!! and gotta stop a bit for a few days cause i needs rivets... and... to learn how to put those on =S btw Tray... i just said white cause i thought these were the elastic on the biceps!

so... i should have done this before... but... didn't really think of it and now.... change of plans... i was planning on doing ANH HERO!!! but.. already messed up!! =S (cut out 8 teeth instead of 6) so i decided to make a little list (of what's different) here, to make sure i got all the things from now on to do the STUNT! soooooo ANH stunt - 8 teeth cut out on the frown. grey (what does it mean "does not leave the teeth area"????) - 9 to 16 medium blue tube stripes curving backwards - i'm hand painting everything, but using those templates for the tube stripes. - 1 or 2 bumps painted on the ear. - WHAT ARE CORRECT ANH TK DETAILS??????? - how is the neck trim of a S-type??????? - floating shoulder strap in the back and glued in front, no rivets - (about the shoulder bell.. just an observation... did you guys notice that the CRL actually says BLACK elastic strap but in both pictures (stunt and hero) the elastic seems to be WHITE???????) - no return edge on the inside of forearm - elastic connecting the chest plate to back plate at the shoulders - 3 blue, 6 grey buttons on ab plate - gonna have to split ab from the "underwear part" lol - 3 split or bifurcated rivets (5/16") on left side of ab plate, painted white. - male snap on top right - 1 split rivet on crotch (i thought people used snaps!!) - separate kidney from butt - 3 split rivets (5/16") on left side, painted white. - 2 male snaps on the crotch area of the butt. (see??? usually those are just like the ones on the front of the crotch, and CRL says nothing about the elastic thingie i always see....) - holster attached to belt with 2 snaps at the bottom of the belt. i think everything else (belt, thermal detonator, thighs, legs, etc) are pretty straight forward..... did i miss anything?????????????? sorry for sooo many many questions

thanks everybody!!!!!!!! i'm just loving working on it!!!! couldn't stay away again and started working on it as soon as i woke up this morning. I found my hobby file set (you know??? with those skinny little metal file thingies???????) i'm using those to clean up the teeth and stuff, and decided to use those as well to smooth out the eyes. it's working great. since i trimmed around the whole thing with sheers i don't have that many jagged parts and stuff, so it doesn''t need that much sanding. the little tiny sharp pointies i had i also smooth it out with the little files. i'm soooo scared of end up "filing" too much with the dremel!!! so i'll probably practice a bit!!!! i have a sanding block somewhere around here!!! that's an awesome idea, thanks John!!!!! I ordered last night the templates (masking whatever they call it lol) for the tube stripes... cause there is no way in haven and earth i can do it free handed LOL so i guess it doesn't matter how fast i go, i'll have to wait for those to finish it up!!!!! do you guys usually paint before putting both parts together or you do it when it's all done????

Guess what i got today??!?!?! a brown box! the little one!!! but still super exciting!!!! At first all i could do was stare at it!!!! sooooo scary!!! lol But after i finally open it i could not resist it!!!! i just wanted to work on it!!! it looked so awesome!! it is quite overwhelming and scary to just go on and cut your very first piece of plastic ever!!! intimidating!! But.... there are so many great build threads around here, with awesome pictures (yeah, cause when you have no idea what you are doing, being able to SEE it instead of just following written directions is soooo much easier!) I opened my computer on Pandatooper's build thread and took a deep breath! I started trimming the sides. it seemed fairly easy if you go on cutting carefully!!! to my surprise it was easier than i thought. i found a bit hard to go cutting around curves but.... my sheers are quite big. i guess having a smaller one and the ones made for curves would make things much easier. But... i don't have them... and made it work with what i had! I still need to sand a bit I guess. do you guys use sanding paper?? or you sand with the dremel??? i was going to stop there, cause i just want to take my time but again... could not resist!! =P lol so i decided to cut the eyes! I marked with a pencil and used the dremel to cut it!!! i like dremels and i'm not gonna say i'm super expert with it, but... i thought i'd be better with then with the score and snap technique! lol needs sanding!!!! but i think it looks ok!!!! and then i moved on to the teeth!!!! i used the dremel on the back of it... then cleaned it up on the front with a exacto knife!!! they too need sanding... but i couldn't find the small file thingie i have... i'm gonna get them all the same size and shape by sanding it, i was afraid of cutting too much, nd decided that would be the best way.... then after that i decided to stop. ii need to get stuff to sand it anyways... so can't really do anything else!!!! well... again... i have to say!! I AM SOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :dance: :dance:

that's good!! i guess as long as it doesn't crack and show the black underneath it it's all good!!!! actually in between coats, when it was completely dried, i scratched with my nails to test it!!!! nothing came out!!! i'm pretty happy with the results. i haven't done the finisher yet... got to do some other projects this weekend, but will probably do it this week... i'll post pics when i'm done!

thanks everybody!!!!! i love these boots!!! ok, ok, i confess i think they are ugly!!! hahahahah but they are very comfortable!!!! besides... they are OFFICIALLY the very first bit of my stormtrooper!!! and how cool is THAT?!?!?!?! lol ---------

this is sooooo awesome Diana!! thank you so much for this thread!!!!

got the boots today!!!! i love them!!! i mean... they are not the kind of shoes i'd wear on a regular day... hahahahhaha but they fit awesome and were super comfortable... for the 5 minutes i wore them at home!!! lol hopefully they will feel the same after an hour or so of trooping!!! =P here they are!!! sorry for the bad picture. just found out the battery in my camera is dead and my phone doesn't have flash!!! =S -------

WOW!!! they look amazing!!!!! you even used the angelus paint on the elastic??? oooh i'm getting myself some of those!!!!! =D

i absolutely love this shot!!!

good to know we can use other gloves for trooping. my hands are very very small and i know the rubber gloves will be ridiculously huge on me... =S

thanks mark!!!! =)

wow!!! thats AMAZING... i mean... i knew that the sizes would be sooo different of course, but seing like that... side by side... wow!!! kinda scary too!!! =S thank you so much for the thread!!! Olga's looks amazing!!!!!! =D

this thread is extremelly helpful since i've been talking to both ATA and AP guys!!!!! what about the helmets size?? i've noticed some helmets are a bit bigger than others... some a bit smaller... does that also has to do with how you put them together... or the helmet kits themselves vary in size a bit? i know it's not really a big difference... but i have the impression that for me it will make a difference if the helmet ends up too big! thanks

ooooh that is actually AWESOME news!!! i was sooo worried about the shoes!!!! i was already planning on "stuffing" my boots hahahahahaha i am actually go ahead and buy them!!! they will be my very first TK purchase!!! YEEEEY!!!!!! Matt thanks for the tips!!! i will sure need TONS of advices. =D wow matt your boots look great!!!!!

hello there!!!!! my goal and new years resolution this year is to get my TK ready for CVI!!!!! i've been reading and wondering around this forum since last year, but now it is time to get super duper serious about it!!! (btw... just tried on part of my CO's tk this past weekend and almost had a sort of excitement attack!!! hahahah i just can't wait to do this now!!) among the many many many many many many many many questions i have, one thing i have not seen yet addressed in here is about boots for the girls. i contacted tkboots this weekend and all their sizes are men's. which means that their smallest one, will still be too big for me. (i'm size 5. can def get away with a 6, especially boots) but he told me men's 6 is more like women's 7, 7 1/2 =( so ... what do you girls with small feet do???? and where did you your boots?? i found these ---------- are ANY of these good?? they are all jodhpur boots as the CRL asks.... of course they would require loads of painting =S but that's ok!!!!! thank you