So finally got the tools and supplies I thought I needed to start out Friday night. (I now realize I'm missing somethings.) Spent some time yesterday reading through a few build threads trying to get a solid idea of how to best approach this. And finally spent most of the afternoon/evening today getting started and trying to make some head way. I was hopeful and enthuzed. Everything started out great. But... then things started going bad when I got to the glue. I'm feeling pretty defeated right now. You'll see in a sec. Here's the my progress so far in photos...
Unpacked all the pieces, got all my tools and supplies ready.
ANH Stormtrooper Kit by nolawill, on Flickr
I couldn't help but get excited as I was eyeballing all these pieces.
ANH Stormtrooper Kit by nolawill, on Flickr
I decided to start with the forearms, and thats what was suggested, and it seems that others have started there as well. First thing I noticed was that a lot of folks remove the return edge on the forearms. Made a lot of sense too, since it would make it easier for my hands to slip through went putting them on.
Cut-off return edge by nolawill, on Flickr
Below is after sanding the edge some to get nice and smooth.
Smoothed Forearm Edge by nolawill, on Flickr
Here's both forearm pieces with their return edges cut off and the cut edge sanded some.
Return on both forearms by nolawill, on Flickr
Ready to size it up to my arm. I'm pretty slim dude, so I can already see that I'm going to be trimming a ton off of these. This is probably going to be a recurring trend on this build considering my size.
Sizing a forearm by nolawill, on Flickr
Got it sized up, feels comfortable, I move around in this pretty good, and got my lines marked and ready for cutting.
Cutting Lines on a Forearm by nolawill, on Flickr
First of the long cuts. Seeing that pandatrooper used scissors on this part, and also since these cuts will be concealed by the cover strips I figured I'd be good cutting these this way.
Cutting a forearm piece by nolawill, on Flickr
So everything up to this point had been going great. I had no trouble sizing the forearms and trimming them down. I even heated the forearms some to try and bend them a little more to fit my arm. Now, the keep in mind the time between when I started cutting to the time that this next photo was taken was probably a couple hours or so. This is where things started going sour for me.
Attempted forearms by nolawill, on Flickr
As you can see here, I clearly need some magnets or bigger clamps or something. The cover strips are not sticking. Maybe I tried gluing to much at once or something. I don't know.
Not sticking by nolawill, on Flickr
As if that wasn't enough, the glue was getting pretty messy in the process as well. I got that stuff all over the forearm pieces. I'm really hoping I haven't screwed these up permanently. I kind of gave up on them and they're drying now. I guess I'll see what they look like in the morning. Is there something out there that's useful for cleaning off excess glue? I tried wiping it with some paper towels while I was gluing them, but that just seemed to smear it around more. Like I said, I was not doing well.
Messy Glue by nolawill, on Flickr
Not feeling super confident about the next pieces - or even having to try these pieces again. But I've committed myself to this, and come what may, I'm going to see this through. I'd really hate to waste my money by giving up, or irreparably ruining my kit. Got another busy work week this week, so I may not get back to this until next weekend. We'll see. Maybe I'll have built up more confidence to give it another go by then. I don't know. I need to go watch a star wars episode or something. That'll make me feel better....
