theisaac

Anyone know a good way to cover that UnderArmor logo on my shirt? I could use a sharpie or something to color it but Im looking for something a little less ghetto.

Im down to the final stages at this point. I'll track down a holster and some boots and Im just about done. TKBoots.com is out right now... has been out for months. I'll check out the vendors for a good holster from a dealer with a good attitude and call it a day.

thanks Jonathan Good luck with your build! post a link to it and I'll check it out! Isaac

You can check out my AM thread to see how I made the chest sit lower. I had to trim the tops of the shoulder and back. This allows the chest to sit lower on your upper body. When you turn sideways you'll notice with the flaps attatched it makes the chest float out and ride high. Its because the mould AM uses makes those flaps stick straight back instead of up and at an angle like it should sit. To keep it sitting low I used webbing with snaps attatched to the pecks of the chest and connected to the inside of the ab piece. This stops the chest from trying to ride up too high like it wants to because of the way it was moulded. Isaac

I used webbing to attatch the biceps to the shoulders and then used the elastic that came with the kit to hold the forearms on so they will have some flex with bending my arms but still keep them from riding too far down towards my writsts. I also trimmed off the return edges on the tops of the biceps to give me more room. Since you cant see it anyway it was a small sacrafice to get them to come up a little higher. I also trimmed the part that starts to dip down towards that thumb print area. since it was squashing my bicep at the top of bending my arms up towards my helmet. Removing the return edge from the biceps was pretty clutch to help them fit better.

Hey man, Looking really good my friend! My shoulders are as close to the webbing that goes from the front to the back of the chest and back as I could get them. You have a wide torso like mine and that helped eliminate the black areas. If you look at page 5 on my build thread you'll see how close mine are attatched. There isnt much you can do about the top / upper pec muscle pushing the chest plate out so having the shoulder bells high covers as much of the black undersuit as possible. That was my experience. Try it out with tape wearing your black undersuit rather than a tshirt and see how it looks. Start high and work your way down until you get the best coverage. Its a little different for bigger troopers so Ive learned there is, "the normal way" and "what I have to do to achieve the look of the normal way". Check out Brian Tkrestonva's build as well as hes got a buffed up bodybuilder upper body as well. As far as biceps go, Im looking at other options for biceps as Im having the same issues as you are with mine. The AM biceps are moulded in almost a squared off shape.at the bottom (you can see it in your test pics above) so we have room on the sides but ZERO room where the bicep actually gets bigger when you curl your arm up. I dont want to frankensuit my kit with other parts but If I cant move my arms I dont really have a choice..

My advice is the same as Ingrid's for the most part. Use E6000 as it will hold everything together and still come apart without destroying the plastic. I used PVC glue for a few parts and they are basically melted together. You can always tear apart the parts and shim up or trim down to fit as your body changes. Now thats my 2 cents and Im not an expert at building... but Im getting very comfortable with sizing TK's for bigger body types as mine has been nothing easy so far getting it to fit. As for lifting, Ive done that for 20 years now. I can offer some things to think about and you can see what you think. Your body will adjust based on what you put it through during your workouts in relation to your genetics. I know for myself, my arms will grow from watering a plant but my shoulders take extra work. I also know that from wrestling and doing squats and takedowns over and over that my thighs and butt will get bigger and react to weights faster than other muscles. Thats just a mix of my genetics and what Ive trained my body to do. So I knew I'd need extra room in my thighs and biceps when I started my build. So as you workout, you'll notice what body parts respond to training faster than other muscle groups and guage from there for your fittings. Being 6'1 your muscles are probably longer so its more difficult to get that body builder look than say someone thats 5'6 so I wouldnt worry about getting too bulky. Best of luck and congrats on the workouts and results you are seeing! Isaac

Welcome to the AM build club! You'll need to have your photographer take pics of the thighs a little closer to the ground to see how open they are at the bottom by the knee. They look pretty good from a standing position but you'll know when you walk in them if they are narrow enough. You want to avoid the "bell ringing" motion when you walk. I have thick thighs and I ended up leaving about 1/2 inch gap at the top and then cutting about 3 inches from the bottom so they taper. I had to butt joint everything to make it fit me better. I also had to trim the tops of the thighs around the back side of them to pull them up higher as my butt cheeks prevented them from coming up any more. Have a spotter / fitter with you when you size them and it will help you a ton. They can eyeball where things are sitting and where you need to trim while the pieces are on your body. I think I spent about 4 hours trimming the tops off my thighs. Trim.... test fit... trim more.. test fit. The kidney is upside down in your pics. The curve goes at the bottom to fit the "small of your back". Hope that makes sense. Good luck and ask a ton of questions and post a ton of pictures and people will be here to help along the way. Isaac

Im no expert but i had the same issue with mine. What I did to fix it was bring the top of the bells closer to the shoulder straps. Less material (strap in this case) between the shoulder and bell tops means less room for them to move back. You can test it by folding the material over itself to give less room and use a bobbypin like girls use in their hair or a safety pin. See if having the shorter material yeilds you the result you want. If not then you know before you redo the sewing to test it. If it does, you can experiment with different lengths to fine tune it. Hope that helps man, Isaac

Thanks man ya I trimmed the belt and redid the drop boxes yesterday. Messed with the thighs and strapping. Tried a belt with suspenders and then attaching the thigh to the ab plate with an elastic stap... Both suck. My thighs just don't pull up higher than they are now. I'm at another plateau with the build lol. I hate it right now and just want to be done with it. Still waiting for tkboots.com to restock my size... And a neck seal... And I'll just make a holster. Probably gonna try and build a t-21 to keep me busy till then. That looks fun

Looking forward to seeing more of this buld. And +1 for the Rev. Horton Heat sticker for the win Isaac

Im honestly thinking about trimming about an inch off of the top of the butt plate. I think this is part of the kit where its made for taller troopers. As far as EIB goes so far... does the fit match what EIB should look like? I know the "requirements" and Im more about the idea behind what EIB means rather than connect the dots. I can do a checklist and meet the requirements but I want to be one of the proud 300 this year. How does it look so far in regards to that? On a side note, Brian are you still using the suspender system you used in your initial build thread? How did you find it worked? Right now I have a single snap glued to the inside of the front of my thighs and Im thinking its going to pop one of these days as its a lot of stress for one harness point.

Ok, here are the latest test fittings. Please let me know what works and what doesnt. Please also suggest ways to fix anything you see needs to be adjusted. thanks guys! I wouldnt have gotten this far without all of the help here from the FISD. Isaac

I think this is one of the few times being tattoo'd from neck to knuckles has its advantages. I tell people, "I tried visiting sick kids at the hospital dressed in street clothes and I noticed they smile a lot more when Im wearing my stormtrooper suit". Im also a hypocrite because a friend at work told me he wants to make a Halo Suit and in my head I thought , "jeez, what a nerd".

You have the floating chest piece like I had. Once I snapped the top so it doesnt ride up it takes care of that. I also had to trim the plastic "shoulder straps" because that was part of the issue with the chest wanting to ride up. Aim to have the bottom of the chest ride about at the top of the button box. The bottom of the back should stay flush with the top of the kidney plate. For mine I have straps to help this but I may need to trim one or the other. Im not 100% sure on which one I want to trim quite yet. I also trimmed off the flaps on the sides of the back plate. They are almost square in the back. Looking good buddy!

I have three straps going from shim thats glued to the kidnet that snap into the ab plate. They are spaced about an inch or so apart. They keep the shim lined up on the cod just fine. I think it depends on your body shape in the midsection though.I leave mine closed all the time and just step into it and pull it up like a pair of pants. Works really well for me so far. Also understand that Im lazy and dont like to fuss with snaps when I want to do a test fit either. So pulling it on and off is just faster. I think I posted pics of what it looks like in my thread but if I didnt I can post some for you to see how I did it. Or maybe a video and post that if it will help you visualize it better. Isaac

Good call on the AM lite and sourcing the lid from someone else. I went that route on my build and got an ABS helmet kit. The service was fast and delivered quickly. There is a very slight color difference with the ATA helmet and my armor. I noticed it when I took pics outside. I dont own an RT helmet but I wish I did. I love what his helemts look like and is always super responsive with his email. I dont think you can go wrong with ATA, or RT. Being a wider than average myself I was worried that the ATA would look too small on my frame but in my opinion it looks just fine. Either one would do you proper. Good luck man! Isaac

Mine are. Im not an expert though. I just drilled two holes and pushed the bottom of snap through then put the male part on the top facing up and used the snap tool and a hammer. Check that photo of the original suits on the racks. Hows the fitting coming along? lets see it buddy! Isaac

Hi Peter, Glad this all worked out for you in the end. Sounds like AA did the classy thing for you and made things right. My build was the one you were talking about with the AM kit. Troopermaster kits would fit our body style as well with a little shimming on the ab / kidney plates. In fact his forearms are either the same size or just a little smaller than mine in person Im told. Some things to expect when building your suit with a weight lifter body is that the shoulders will flare out. I've messed with the position of them and its just something that is going ot happen because of how wide our shoulders are. The other thing is that if you have a big neck / trap muscles it will lift the shoulder straps up and make the chest armor float up and out. I was able to solve that with straps connecting the chest and the ab plate. Im sure the crew from TAG will know how to do all of this. I can show you pictures or take a video of mine if you need some ideas. I'll be glad to give you ideas of what worked and didnt work for mine if you need them. In the end, yes you can make a suit fit people with our build so dont give up that idea. You'll have to be creative but thats part of the fun of building your suit! good Luck Isaac

got the belt sewn and snaps added to hold it on this week. Also cut off the back of the but flap like yours. Both thighs are done but feel like I need to trim them down about an inch. I'll post some pics tomorrow.

Im gonna have to do this to mine. I like the white look personally

welcome to the next phase of your build..... this is where you obsess about every centimeter and where it sits

There is a thread about eyes and frowns reference pics you can search and get some awesome ideas of how much they trimmed them. My ATA build I left a lot of the eyes and my 2nd build I cut them down and like them a lot better. If you look really close on the ata kit you can somewhat see where the mold lines are for trimming them down. Also check Troopermaster helmet builds for some ideas of just how much they can be trimmed out. It comes down to preference though. My opinion is just a suggestion so take it with a grain of salt. You can always trim more later if you want to. So leave them like they are and see how you like it. If you want to trim them down more you can later. When I started I liked the idea of what a Stormtrooper helmet and suit "should" look and didnt care about what was 100% accurate. After a few months here your tastes will change and you get obsessed with how accurate you can get your build. So make what you want and trim down later if the bug bites you. Either way your build looks really good so far! Bottom line is enjoy every step of the way, you only get to build your first one once Isaac EDIT: looks like its not your first build, nevermind. Well the idea is the same. Have fun man. I love the frown like you have it!

good call on the butt plate cut. I trimmed mine but need to cut where you did. There is no reason to have that extra flap and after you get it all strapped up when you walk the extra part pushes back and makes you look like you have a tail. There is a pic on my thread of the screen used suits and they were trimmed up like you have there. So good call. I'll be trimming mine this week too.

Looks hot man! Well played. I enjoyed watching the build! Isaac