MisterFubar

I wear a 7 7/8" hat and the ATA I'm building fits fine. I have to "twist" it on but once on there is plenty of room.

Hope you have better luck finding time to work on yours than I have. Mine has been sitting on my work table taunting me for like a month now.

No special plans but I did get an email this morning saying my ATA kit was ready so I sent off payment and my wife ordered the new R2-D2 LEGO set for me so I could get all the May 4th freebies. Today has started off pretty good.

For that kind of money I'd buy one of the functioning Sterlings from SOG or Century with a 16" barrel for less than 400 and deactivate it myself or pay Uncle Sam the $200 sin tax and cut the barrel down to the proper length. In thier last Dealer Flyer, Southern Ohio Gun had the 16" Sterlings with functioning underfolder for $369. That and one of these forms http://www.atf.gov/forms/download/atf-f-5320-1.pdf filled out with a $200 check and some time and you've got the real thing. Just make sure you get the stamp back before you cut your barrel down.

Naphtha(which is about 99% of the ingredients in Zippo Fluid) should work just fine for cleaning ABS.

I just threw up a little.

I just had a nerdgasm. No chance I'll have my armor completed in that time, but I wish the best of times to everyone who does get the chance to go.

Once you go Shadowtrooper, is it possible to go back?

Which one do you like more? It really comes down to your personnel preference, after all, you are going to be the one wearing it. I faced the same decision a few months ago and decided on White for myself, but I would like to eventually do a Shadowtrooper as well.

ABS really likes to soak up smells. On the rare occasion I get some used LEGO(also made out of ABS) pieces that are smokey a nice warm soapy bath with a mild detergent usually does the trick. Dawn ODOR eraser works great for this. ----------- For the especially nasty ones a 50/50 white vinegar and water solution works, just make sure to get white vinegar, apple or any other vinegar with any color to it will likely stain your helmet.

That's why they couldn't ever hit anything in the movies. Most of them were right handed.

I think that is a sneak peak at the helmets George is going to be adding into the 3D versions of the OT.

I've gone through customs countless times with real firearms and a couple times with toys and haven't had any issues. For real firearms there are some forms from the BATF you'll need to fill out. If it's a resin copy or a Hasbro I probably wouldn't even mention it, if it's built off an actual sterling but no longer legally a firearm I would mention it just so they aren't surprised if they see it. Now I'm speaking as a US resident traveling abroad and returning to the US. Your mileage may vary as a Canadian citizen coming into the US. I'm sure someone with actual experience on crossing the border with a replica E-11 will chime in, but I wouldn't worry about it.

I hope not. I can't afford to take too much away from my other my other black hole money pit hobbies.

To me, the way the Centurion CRL reads the Dave M decals are acceptable. I'm hoping they'll work as I'd like to maybe go for EIB and I did order a set. I don't think I want to go for Centurion though, I think some of the details that make Centurion more screen accurate actually take away from the realism of the suits. Not to take anything away from the level of detail though, just a personnel preference I guess. Maybe I'll change my mind once I start putting my suit together.

This is what Thalizar is talking about. Walmart will have it the hunting/sporting goods section as will any place that carries firearms. -------- Since it's basically Kerosene and Ethyl with a few other ingredients it will remove a lot of types of paint, but I would definitely test it on a scrap piece of ABS before I used it on my helmet. Here is the MSDS for Hoppe's #9. ---------- Someone more chemically smart than I should be able to tell you if it will kill the ABS.

A few of us had these made a couple weeks ago to replace our ISAF patches in a company photo... I'll have to dig some more out when I get home, I'm sure I saved a few over the years.

Looks great to me. I'll be tackling an ATA kit in a couple months and I'm a slight bit nervous about screwing it up. Seeing great results from a first time armor builder makes me feel a lot better about it.

While it's not exactly a "costume" I'll try to get a picture for motivation the next time I'm all geared up.

I know that is just a toy, but it's generally a good idea to keep your finger out of the trigger guard until you are ready to fire, and seeing people pose for pictures with their finger on the trigger is a pet-peeve of mine. Train like you fight.

Looks like a fun costume, it'll be interesting to see how you add the metal. Oh, and you need to work on your trigger discipline.

Added to the list... Thank you very much, look forward to putting it together.

So the 10 minutes it took for the first page of the thread to load was well worth it... Excellent work. I will definitely be using this thread for motivation if and when I decide to build my Sterling/E-11.

This thread has been a great reference. I've still scoured the net figuring out what Armor I want to go with but it's great to find one thread that backs up a lot of what I've found. Now if only there was a thread making that made the decision for me.