theisaac

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

Nice start my friend! I'm gonna follow this all the way through!

Right on! Glad you started your build! If I can pull this off, then anyone can. When I started this whole thing I was going to build a tie fighter pilot because it wasn't as hard to build. The problem was I always found myself on the FISD boards watching builds and thinking I would never fit a TK. I'm just too wide... I'm too fat... Insert any of 30 other excuses here. But I wanted it so bad! I kept reading and saw what others before me had done and what might be options. With some creative shimming I'm not only almost done but I'm still trying for not only basic approval but maybe EIB. The moral of all of this is that you CAN do this. You'll have fun and meet some cool folks. You'll meet some jerks too (it's the Internet right). But if take your time you'll notice you move from "can I cut this"? To "this is what I did" in no time. Good luck man, I'll check out your build! Isaac

Noah- so true! I've been at this "inch here.... Move this left..." stage for a few weeks. The cutlery rivets are two pieces. One with a flange and post and then the 2nd with a flange and female post that goes over the other half. Looks like a small top hat. I put them together and hammer the hat onto the post and it locks. Hope that makes sense

Thanks Mike! Working on the belt tonight and will probably finish it at the armor party next weekend. Except for the thermal det since I can't find the PVC around here and don't want to spend 100 bucks on it.

I've seen that pic before and its funny just how much I miss when looking up ref photos. I think its probably because Im still only 3 months into owning a suit but I honestly walk out into my garage and start working on it and get caught up in the "this is so COOL... I have a Stormtrooper!!!!!!" that I forget everything I had looked at.

Today I got the ab buttons painted and put on the ab plate. Still waiting for the strip to dry and I'll put the last 4 bottons that that strip and be a little closer to being done. The belt it giving me issues but should be one of the last pieces to finish. Then its just wait for boots to get restocked at tkboots unless someone has a better idea to find some size 10 boots. I also have to look a little closer at Vern's e-11's and holsters to finish up..... and a neckseal..... ya then Im done. Are you ever done?

I trimmed this last night and did the two male snaps and one on the cod. I'll post the pics as soon as I get back from the hobby shop with paint for ab buttons

I have the hammer kind and its been pretty good for me so far. The only exception is trying to put snaps through my ab piece for the belt. I didnt want to use snap plates if I could just put snaps through the plate itself. Now I need to put them through a slightly curved piece of plastic and its a nightmare.

Yup one side is closed because of the rivets and the other side snaps closed. I can also make new straps to pull it tighter if I need to or let it out if I gain weight lol. I wanted to have overlap on both sides because of the EIB rule. Since you are going Sandy its not the same rules. I basically can step into the ab/kidney part and pull it up. Then the chest and back straps snap into the front and back of the ab/kidney area and the whole thing sits where I want it. I can also clamshell it if I want to. The step into it is just faster.

Hey man, I posted pics of my kidney / ab plate shim that I did with the rivets on my build. Sorry it took so long. It was a long work week. Im just rolling through my build the best I can so remember Im not the expert but so far its working OK for my size frame. The way I have mine strapped up I can attatch everything from the chest to the butt plate and its all connected. The only part not connected is the legs. For me this keeps everything where it needs to be but every build is as differnt as the body its attatched to Ive noticed. looking good though bro! that helmet is badass! Isaac

Here are some pics of the strapping I went with as well as the kidney shim and rivets. I want to make sure Im still on track to make EIB. If I dont it will be a let down but I can still avoid the gym and just run until I can fit a TM suit.

ya man, great idea with the styrene! You'll spend a few hours getting all the snaps in place. Once you get them on the suit and the webbing gets attatched you'll really start to see your suit come to life. I'll post some pics of the inside of my suit this week to show you how I did mine. Not that its the right way but it holds it together on my wonky frame. You'll find what works best for you. For the most part the ab / kidney back all just sit flush to each other. The sizing comes into play for the chest and where it overlaps and sits in relation to the ab plate. Mine is strapped so it cant ride up and stays in the sweet spot of hitting right about an inch over the button plate on the ab.

I took a spare sheet of abs that came for the belt and used that for cod/kidney shim. What I did was butt up one side so its flush then measured the gap on the other side. Take that and divide by 2. Thats how much you have on either side to hide. I took that number and added a 1 inch to it so i had a half inch on either side to keep the joint covered. (think cover strip only its not glued on both sides) Then i used straps like im sure you've seen everywhere on just about every build in the last year to make the cod kidney open like a clamshell. If you are going EIB and there isnt a reason NOT to, then you'll get some closed rivets that will also hold the shim on the left side. I went to ACE Hardware and they called them Culinary Rivets or Cutlery Rivets.. something like that. They press together. I'll take pics of mine if you want to see it and think it will help. My AM chest needed to have the top straps cut off a huge amount to make it sit right on my body. The bottom of the chest should sit just above the button box on your ab plate. Once you get your ab/kidney sized up then you can see where your chest wants to sit and trim from there. If you look at my build you'll see what i had to do to get my chest lower. You'll see a pic of the chest and the formed shoulder straps, not the ribbed add on ones but the ones formed on the chest was making the chest float up on my neck. That was after cutting about 1 1/2 inches off already. So I lobbed a total of about 3 or 4 inches total to get it lower. You will want to experiment for yourself though. I was in the same place that you are in and I drew a blueprint on paper to help me visualize it and went from there. You will need a spotter for sure though to make sure its fitting right. Have you reached out to your local Garrison yet? I went to an armor party that mine had and it was a HUGE help. You'll find lots of ideas and people who know how this stuff fits. How did the biceps come out? Did you heat them and stretch them out a bit yet? Isaac

Nice man! Keep up the updates!

Ok, I went out and got some white webbing for the shoulders today. I also trimmed off about an inch of the chest (the moulded straps that go back over the shoulder) not the ribbed ones you attatch but the ones on the actual chest. This let me get the top of the chest to sit flat against my chest and stopped my traps from pulling the chest up and out. I also snapped some webbing inside the chest and attatched it to the inside of the cod to stop if from wanting to ride up. This makes the chest sit better on my frame I think. The shoulders still want to pull down and will pull the white webbing out and under the ribbed flaps so Im assuming the little elastic strings will stop that. I havent picked any up yet so we'll see how that goes. Here are the pics from the 3rd test fitting with adjustments to feedback.

Thanks Noah! I followed your build thread so I appreciate the feedback and the advice