Darth Voorhees

wow! these look great and sharp! Cant wait for mine to finally show up...the post office is playing games with me!!!

He requested me a few weeks ago...i accepted..no harm done...but then i guess i dont have anything to offer him LOL! The page is an interesting read none the less.

Looks good to me as well. Also a little hard to tell for sure not being worn, but if you find them pushing the shoulder out but the "hang position" is good when wearing, you can trim a bit off the top of the taller/outer side of the bicep, you'll lose the return edge there, but its not seen anyway. Thats what i did with mine and it worked a treat!

look good to me also! thanks for that link Noel! I'll be grabbing those as well!

Hey bro...check out how i did the ab/kidney shims here: http://forum.whitear...showtopic=10307 Its a TE2 kit, but the jist is the same for the ab/kidney shims. I, like you, am not exactly "fit" either. In my pics the ab is a bit angled but if i suck in a bit, i can get it straight...and its adjustable if you lose a few pounds I just basically added the shim to the kidney plate with enough plastic to add velcro to the end to attach to the ab. Once you get that going, its really just a trial and error. with positioning everything. remember the chest and back will have a strap under the arm to hold them to each other and your body. If they are sliding up and bumping the helmet up, you may need to losen those straps so its not squeezing you and making it slide up. Also you can add straps from the ab to the chest to keep everything in place. I had to do that as well cuz my gut would sometimes push the ab over the chest. Ive lost weight since then, but i eep those straps there anyway as i feel it hold it all together better. Also that helmet is known to do that due to its size, so its not necessarily you doing anything wrong. If the chest/back plates are too long under the arm, just look at the angle most armors are when worn..mark it with a china marker/grease pencil and put it on again. Adjust the line if nessisary once you feel the angle is right, then you can trim those pieces. The grease pencil will come off super easy with some goo gone. For keeping the forearm in place, i just added foam inside them. I slide em on and they stay put. Some people do add a bicep/forearm strap added to the inner side of the elbow , but i feel the foam works great. Been doing it that way for 3yrs, never an issue! Hope that helps bro

Thanks Mark! I will be using alot of reference from your ESB builds posted here and on the LSD . Your ESB was very inspiring, and was part of the reason i decided to go ESB with this build. (of course im building to be able to switch it fro ESB to ANH, but the main build will be ESB

So the delivery date for my armor was yesterday...and nothing ever showed. Still says on the USPS tracking the expected delivery date is feb 25th...yesterday.... The USPS sucks. Its being delivered to my job. So it will likely show up there today (when im off) <_< or Monday. I was so happy i was getting it on a Friday and could start at it this weekend. ......oh well. I think the powers that be just want to make me wait forever to get this armor! lol. Between the tax return coming later than originally stated, paypal issues, and now this...its taken likely an extra 2 weeks for me to get this armor.....*shakes fist in the air* LOL! So...i guess my armor build will begin next weekend See you all then!

ive used the winsor and newton mask as well as a grumbacher one called "misket" they both worked excellent. on a side note...R2Dan..can you PM me the color you used to match the HDPE color? I want to build a replica helmet in the future and cant seem to find a color to match it..thanks bud... ok back to our regular scheduled thread

I second this recommendation. I use this amp for all of my costumes. Loud enough at a noisy con and little to no feedback. Id highly recommend them, and Jim, great guy to work with! I have mine mounted in my chestplate. Contrary to what some people seem to think, it seems the sound is coming from the helmet when its mounted in the chestplate. Most people dont know exactly where the sound is coming from!

You can do it this way yes, but then you will have an extra wide strip on the back due to the molded in "center strip". Personally i think that looks horrible. Just my .2 cents I think myself and john are basically saying the same thing. Your still shimming it, just doing it in a way that you wont have a super wide finishing strip area due to the one cast into the piece, the "sealing strip bed" as John put it. We are talking about the final finished look looking correct. Ive done this before on thigh pieces and it works out great. Sometimes you need to cut away that "sealing strip bed" and then add the shim. Its very simple really, and the finished look is 100 times better.

I would suggest what Terry said...or...you can assemble the front as normal/screen accurate and cut the molded in strips off the back side completely, and add a seamless shim, and then add the correct size strip. Alot more work, but i feel it gives a better overall look. this is assuming its HIPS and you'll be painting the armor. I will be doing this with the ATA thighs most likely.

i have TK lenses that will fit the EFX helmet. You would have to drill the holes though. i dont have an EFX helmet so i dont know the exact location of the holes. They are dark green and not see through from the outside at all. Vision out is excellent. I use them in all my helmets. $10 shipped to ya. PM me if your interested! ----------

Well folks...my tax return check has arrived!!!!!!!!! I will be placing the order with ATA tomorrow night! Also...i decided to get 2 buckets, an extra belt front, and both ANH and ESB handplates. this way i can switch from ESB to ANH easily i am SO PUMPED to get this build going! Wooot!

LOL Thats what i was talking about. I may be wrong about it affecting that particular area though. I didnt go back and read the thread where he mentioned it. Although, that original "find" pic wouldn't prove the "heating/cooling HDPE" threory wrong or right. Thats a HDPE pull, not a mold, so But either way, i may be mistaken about what he said. It just made sense to me that it would happen there as its a deep negative area. It also seem weird to me that would be on the mold...it seems like such a pointless detail, from a sculpting standpoint.....but ..ANYWAY!... no more derailing from me..lol....listen to John D he knows way more than i do LOL! EDIT: i went back and read the thread...he was talking about the crease at the side tube right above the tubestripes...so my bad .....move along.. move along....

the little ovals in the tears are there because the HDPE cools differently from ABS. i forget the exact reasoning right now, but GINO explained it in one of his recent helmet threads i believe as well.

Concerning the chest/back strap overlapping the kidney, aside from moving the strap itself up, as Daetrin mentioned, it also depends on how you are "wearing" your armor. If you have the ab/kidney hiked up high you will have this problem. There is no need to pull it up quite that high. what i did with my kit was make sure there is a bout 2inches above the "button box" on the ab plate showing before the Chest plate bottom edge. you can trim the neckline up yo an inch to raise the chestplate if needed. I just balanced it out so the ab/kidney plate isnt ALL the way up, and trimmed a little off the neckline(and shoulder part of course) to raise it a bit and that worked out much like the photo posted earlier from ABS80. As for the 5'2" female chest plate issue.....:)ill look for your other thread....

Yea, what Paul said...oh and crickets...they are brown

i remember noticing this myself, but didnt want the grapling hook on my ANH EIB, so never thought to ask about it. I am curious though as to if this can be accepted as EIB, since to me as well, it is clear that the trooper has these details and a stunt helmet before Luke wears the suit.

where are the pics? you should be half way done already!

Ok well i found out a couple of days ago, they are not mailing my check till Feb 11th...si i should get it around the week of thew 17th...so THEN i can place the order with ol ATA...ugh...this is drivin me nuts! LOL!

also late to the party....looks great brian! Another question...how did ya lose all that weight! i need to drop about 50lbs myself

Haha sweet! Loves me some L&B! Everyone must be like...whats L&B? For those of you not fromj bklyn ny..lol..its one of the best pizza places in Bklyn!

Haha! tax time is a good time of the year hehe. Rouge...you bet your plastic trooper butt im going for EIB! id love to have an armor party!...dont think i can fit many troopers in this little apt though lol...you might have to host it! lol

Hey folks! i have finally made it to what will (hopefully) be my final TK build for a nice long while. As soon as my Tax return rolls in, around the 8th of Febuary...i am placing the order for a nice set of ABS ATA armor. After building 3 ANH style armors (FX TK, AP TK and TE2 TD) ive decided to go with ESB for this one. I figured i have the TD and that is ANH, so why not go ESB for my TK build. I will try and document the build as best i can. i have alot of other stuff going on right now so it may start a little slow. .....but keep your eyes on this thread for the build! I LOVE building armor!!.. cant wait to dive in!

...and its done..that was fast No' ...i mean Bluey!