Viper

From the caption: "Galactic travelers, smugglers, and other assorted riffraff fill the main hall of pirate Maz Kanata’s castle." My guess is a former Stormtrooper now gone freelance.

TK 20000 requesting 501st access http://www.501st.com/members/displaymemberdetails.php?userID=14822

Say hello to TK 20000 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited! I have done 3 troops so far and loved it. Now I need to get some pics ready to apply for EIB...

Thank you everyone! I wore the armor at Celebration VI and I had a great time! I applied for 501st membership a few weeks ago but have yet to hear back from the GML. I want to get my application in for EIB as well, but I am being held up by even getting into the 501st. I will also apply for Centurion once I replace my gloves. There are a few things I need to improve: 1. After lengthening the shoulder straps, the shoulder pieces pull the elastic out to the side. Gotta figure out how to secure that. 2. Add a second snap to my suspender straps at each end (one kept popping off). 3. As mentioned above, heat the butt piece up and remove the flare, both on the sides and underneath. 4. Glue down the black trim across the top front of the helmet. It kept falling off. I've found several troop events coming up in my area, so that is very exciting!

No kidding! Plus they are only $24 this week.

Yeah that gap is pretty bad. But looking at the shoulders, I have a lot of room to move the back piece down and still have the shoulder straps overlap the back piece. I should at least be able to halve the gap doing that. I am really pushing the height limit on this armor I think. But the rest of the gaps don't seem too bad, right? Guess I gotta go buy some more snaps and 2" elastic. Ugh I've spent so much money on snaps. I wish I could go a month back in time and tell myself to just go to Tandy and get a 100 pack of snaps. I would probably tell myself more things too.

Made it!!!!! A few minor issues while wearing it the first time. A couple things needed a tad more glue. But it felt pretty good overall!

Well I've been working hard trying to get this ready for CVI. The helmet is complete, inside and out. I finished my padding and got my fan installed. I had to put it behind the vocoder because it wouldn't fit behind the teeth. I guess my head is kinda big. I got the arms done. One forearm is tighter than the other, but I will fix that later. The torso is painted and strapped. The belt is done. I made the belt and the holster from scratch. I even had to dye the leather! The drop boxes are missing because I decided to close the backs now rather than later. The way things are going, everything but the gloves should be up to Centurion quality. I am using nomex gloves with the ABS hand guards at the moment, and I know both will have to be changed before applying. I have to replace the straps over the shoulder with white elastic, but I'm going to remeasure them first before I make them. I tried the torso on and when I move, the chest piece keeps pulling above the ab piece and won't stay down and over it. All in all, this is what I have left to do: 1. Close the thighs and add finishing strips on back. 2. Add velcro to back of shins. 3. Add knee guard. 4. Add ammo belt. 5. Strap thighs to cod piece. 6. Glue drop boxes to belt. 7. Clean up leg joints. 8. Mount the Aker and iComm to the inside of the chest, figure out best way to wire them. 9. Replace shoulder straps with white elastic. 10. Get a case and helmet bag. This should all be doable by the 20th, right? I won't have a blaster with me, but oh well.

I think you are misunderstanding what they are saying. A recast is often done off a suit that they bought themselves. So let's say I buy an ATA suit. If I made molds of those parts and then started making my own parts, that would be what they are referring to. And often the recast parts are from cheaper, lower quality materials. It's the equivalent of buying an iPhone from China. It may look like an iPhone, but you know darn well it has GameBoy parts inside it. And they are saying sell it on eBay AFTER building it. The biggest problem with current eBay sellers is that they are selling poor quality, recast, unassembled kits in high volume. This would be one person selling an assembled kit for cheap and I assume the listing would explain everything that has occured with the suit so as to not mislead the potential buyer.

Have gotten some more done. Got all my parts trimmed and ready for assembly for the thermal detonator. Had to buy a 10' condiut just for a 7 1/4" long piece lol After test fitting and then having a nightmare of a time removing the endcaps, I cut notches into the pipe for easier removal. They are still tight and won't need to be glued though. All done! Also got the belt assembled. Haven't closed the backs of the ammo boxes yet, but when I try for EIB I will. Still need to rivet the sides of the ab and kidney plates and make & mount a holster but once I do that, the head and torso are done!

I have short black hair so it shouldn't be an issue. Also I believe requirements allow it. When I painted the inside I made sure to get between the fins so they are nice and dark.

Inside of helmet. There is also a ring of velcro around the bottom for battery packs, etc. The round pad is just an experiment for the moment. Gonna make a bigger one plus several more for the front, back, and sides

tkboots.com. Excellent quality and great price! They run slightly big. I wear a 10 or a 10.5 shoe and I ordered a 10 (they only do full sizes) and they fit very well with insoles. Thanks! I am hoping to have it done for Celebration VI. I am hoping to join the 501st and get inspected while I'm down there. I masked the area with tape and then drew the outline of the trap and then drew slots on the tape. That way I could correct it if necessary. After that, I took my dremel with the cutting wheel and went straight down from above until the cut was almost the length of the diameter of the disc.

Well I received my armor last week and have been obsessively working on it. Here are some progress pics: Just like a kid at Christmas: This was a little overwhelming to look at Here is my trusty dremel mounted to a metal shelf I started getting my feet wet by trimming some of the larger pieces Then some smaller pieces Then I got to work on my bucket bath time! Did some strapping After that I started painting the helmet. I did the inside flat black. I didn't do the sides yet in this pic b/c I put E-6000 over the cut bolts to cover any sharp ends and it had to dry. Notice I made the rear vents functional. I have a feeling I will be happy with that decision. Then I got to work on the outside. I decided to paint everything. After the traps, I hand cut some templates for the blue vents Here it is after painting The painter's tape didn't leave clean lines and a lot bled through the edges so I had to sit for a couple hours with an exacto knife and carefully scrape away the excess. Here is the mostly finished helmet The ear pieces aren't trimmed perfectly, but hey it is my first time Since then I have added velcro strips inside for mounting fans and padding. I bought industrial velcro. I like it a lot because the hook side isn't scratchy to the feel. The glue on the back is extremely strong too! I used headliner material to make my neck seal and had a ton left over so I started making padding out of that. I am an extremely picky person and I want the inside of my helmet to look really professional. I also got a couple squirrel fans and 9 volt switched battery holders. I was very heavily inspired by James' post in the "What's in the bucket?" thread. His helmet is so nice inside. I just need to get a couple of those Imperial stickers for the fans lol. As for the progress on the rest so far, I made my cloth belt and have all parts trimmed except for the arm and leg pieces. Will post more pictures as time goes on! I got my TK boots in the mail this week and they fit so well! I am gellin' in them and loving it!