emile1138

They need to be flat. The belt has 45s in it, but the cover strips should be flat to match the molded detail in the armor. That's just my opinion, but I believe this is true for approval as well.

All my cover strips are flat at the tops and bottoms

NE is for sure Nostalgic Empire. I've contacted the maker himself and he confirmed this. What's up with this?

Yeah, the ears assembled in the pictures are the "fixed" longer ears. Which cover strips are you referring to?

I'm going to be mounting the lenses directly to the foam, then adding another thin layer of plastic or something painted a different color to contrast the black, as a border around the lenses. This is all purely for looks. I'll be figuring out air flow and such later... Right now, I'm just worried about getting it to look good. I'll worry about functionality as I go along. I've got a few Ideas on mounting fans right next to the lenses.... But that's for another time I'm shooting for basic approval. I'm not interested in the upper levels of approval. That's why I lined them up the way I did

Made some more progress on the helmet today... Decals applied to the frown: Ears have been attached: Some foam trim detail has been added to the inside of the helmet, as well as the s-trim. However, there is a problem. The addition of the ears and the s-trim have added too much length to the bottom of the helmet, and now I can't fit my big noggin throught the bottom of the helmet... I'll be removing the s-trim and trimming up the bucket-hole (<-LOL), then adding new s-trim when it's big enough for my head. So for now, enjoy the pictures of the inside of the helmet so far, ignore the s-trim, as it will be changed soon: Looking good so far!

I've seen them mounted on approved costumes with the inside corners of the drop boxes mounted two different ways. In line with the inner corner of the first ammo box on the belt (like mine, pictured above), and in line with the outer corner of the first ammo box on the belt. Is there only one way to do it? Because with what I've seen, they could go either way... Plus, that's kinda how the belt looks in the CRLs... I've since mounted the kidney to the back plate (not pictured). I made sure to mount it with the nook at the bottom, as I've seen pictured in other build threads

Why, thankyasir! I can't take full credit for the idea though, a HWT buddy of mine does the same thing with the Sandy loop in his backpack

NICE!!

Those were the lines I was referring to yes, but listen to Locitus before listening to me. I'm sure he knows better, lol

You're going to want to seriously trim up those biceps for two reasons: 1-The return edge is fine if you want to leave it, but it will fit and feel much better if you sand down the return edge to a minimum, keeping a little bit of return edge for aesthetic purposes. 2-I can tell you right now that the top of the bicep is going to stab the crap out of your shoulder (if you wear it at the proper height, that is). No joke, try it on, hold it in place so it doesn't move, and try to move your arm forward. If it hurts, sand that sucker down. If not, then you'll see what I'm talking about later when you try to wear the armor...lol. Great progress so far! I'm watching your work!

Yeah, that's the reason for posting that picture. I ripped it apart, sanded it down, and it took two guys (four hands) to glue it together as close as possible, to get the least amount of gap between the cap and back... It's still not perfect, but it looks good enough to help me sleep at night!| Thanks! The plan is to tear apart an Aker and hook it up with an iPod shuffle with the 40 minute Stormtrooper radio chatter loop running out of the TD while trooping. When it's finished, I'll post a video of it running.

It's a Don Post helmet... That explains a lot...

Thanks! I was beginning to think my thread was invisible. I haven't been getting any feedback. But thanks for the kind words!

Got a little more work done! Ripped apart and re-glued the cap to the back. This time I made sure to get MOST of the gap gone. It's not perfect, but it looks MUCH better than it did: Also painted the inside of the helmet with Plasti-Dip. It makes it look good with a nice matte black finish on the inside, and the texture is fantastic! A hard days work on the jolly old Death Star... Trooper Curt decides it's time for a coffee break... More to come!

Looking awesome so far! I'm a huge Halo fan, so this thread will be watched very closely... Keep up the good work!

Today's progress... Finished up the belt! Notice anything strange? No? That's because you're not supposed to! Oh, what was that? You want a Garrison business card, you say? Oh, well allow me to grab you one OUT OF MY FUNCTIONAL DROP BOX CARD HOLDER: You can't even tell the difference. It still sits flush when closed to look identical to the other non-functional drop box: Also, I finished the snaps and straps for the "shirt" portion of the armor. Fully fitted and wearable! As always, more to come later!

So here's today's fun progress... Got the big pieces trimmed up: Got some snaps set up and installed in a few areas: And now I'd like to take a quick moment to show how AMAZING the detail is on this NE armor, by holding a few pieces up next to another type of armor (MTK, I believe). The MTK armor is on the left, my NE armor is on the right: Aaaand the shop floor... If you think this is bad, you should see my clothes! This stuff gets everywhere... More to come!

I can't go to Scotty's, I have to work And I don't have those parts done yet... I'm searching so I will have them when I DO need them, lol

It is a bit long, but that's because I barely trimmed it at all from how it came. It's still "Approximately 7.50in.", so it should be fine according to the CRLs. I've seen a few guys getting approved in these without trimming the detpack AT ALL, and if I try to fix it, I'll end up with ugly glue marks where the button plate was before it gets shifted over. So overall, I'm not too worried about how it looks right now...

The problem is none of that is white. I was under the impression that there was not supposed to be a gap on the sides of the body, in-between the ab and kidney plates. It was recommended to us to use either more of the plastic material from the armor, more white canvas material, or white elastic. We want to go with white elastic, but I'm not sure where to find it...

I've made a little more progress, but sadly, I haven't been able to post to the WIP here lately. Regardless, here's my progress so far: The legs aren't pictured completely above, but they are done as well: And the thermal detpack has one cap glue in on the left, and the right cap is not glued. There is a bungee cord attached between the two caps, so I can open and close it like a container when needed without losing the cap. This will come in handy for granola bars, fruit snacks, and extra batteries during long troops and comic-cons: More to come!

Hey guys, I'm currently working on a TK build with a buddy, and we both have no idea where to look for the elastic most guys will use to fill the gap on the sides of the armor, in between the ab and kidney plate. We don't even know what the best material is, nonetheless where to get it... Any and all info/help is appreciated. Thanks!

Ah. I didn't see the "Denmark" there... You make a good point, lol

Excellent work on your E-11! I'm very impressed! Mine was just slapped together just to have something. But if I get another one, I may be contacting you to do a commission to assemble a more screen accurate one like yours. If you'd be up to it, of course And thanks Mark. You'd have to see it in person. I think I really messed up those ears. I'll have to show it to you sometime