Dday

There should only be one TD panel, maybe he included one from ROTJ or something, I can't really make out the details of the second panel. Or maybe an extra one got dropped in...

My first suit had a big problem with the bells rotating to far back. With my TM suit I decided instead of putting the snap plate in the ridge indention right in the middle, but rather put it just forward of the ridge. Now my shoulders never rotate backwards, it's amazing what a little different placement does.

The function of a sniper plate and the actual use are surely different! If it were truly plasteel armor it wouldn't be glued on, and likely to pop off by kneeling on it

For the TD, you do have to paint it grey, but I am not sure the exact shade. If you search around for the TM builds, look for the Geaux Saints build thread, there are some pretty good pictures of the TD on there. You can get a general idea of the coloration. Do you have two TD panels, I see two in that picture.

Don't be scared of the RT, it's probably fully trimmed from the get go, you will just have to do some final trims to fit, but you can get moving right away. Sometimes it's best to just dive in and look at everything, like Tony says. Open it, look at the pieces, hold them together, and just start to understand how they all come together.

I found from photos that the trim spots are basically the flat back of the shins and thighs. Do a slant or curved cut. Once I did this, it really helped my mobility, I can go up and down stairs with no problems. Just don't step really high as the edge can still dig into the back of your knee. These cuts will fix both problems. I don't think it is a screen accurate cut, but I think it's a must for trooping so you don't end up walking like frankenstein.

Hi Chris, The thighs and shins should be 20mm wide, and the backs of the shins 25mm. The arms are 15mm wide. As for the lengths that depends on the armor you are wearing. What I did was just to check build threads that used it to see their placement. Basically you go from the top of the seam to the bottom. Some pieces will have a edge clipped top/bottom and some will have a slant cut. Just make sure you end your cover strip before the ridge on the bottom for the legs. You don't want your cover strip to cover the seam on the ridge. http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/19340-tms-anh-hero-buildtm Here is a good build thread by Troopermaster where you can see the cover strips in their lengths. You can't go wrong by using a TM build for reference. Remember, this is a hero suit though, so don't copy the helmet or the holster attachment... unless you are making a hero as well...!

Isaac, yes, I have the bra hooks in the back. I decided that I wanted to do semi-original strapping. So I went with the brackets in the body and the straps/hooks in the shins. The hooks and straps in the shins make the seam not so solid, but that is just the way it was in the films, so I'm ok with that. It's only semi original strapping as I didn't use the glued on strapping for the rest of the armor, but rather snaps to hold the rest down. Paul, can I get that in my FISD Kudos?! Lol, just kidding Sean, well spotted. I ended up going with snaps inside the bells to hold the biceps up, this makes a shorter edge on the outside and brings it up considerably so that the bicep actually comes in under the strap on the inside. I'm going to be changing that around before my EIB/Cent submissions to stop using the snap and make a set of hooks for the inside of the bicep to hang it on the elastic strap, just like the original suits had. This will make the outside edge longer, and get them closer to butting up. Part of my problem as well is being 6'6" and having longer then average arms. So there is 1/2 an inch here and there between pieces that the gap will never go away. Patrick, well spotted! When I was painting my frown, I painted the entire tooth from the middle going out, this makes the frown a bit fatter then the originals, which makes the frown edges looks odd and in order to match the rest of the frown I painted them in like that. What I should have done was start to taper the frown at the second tooth on each side. Maybe one day in a fit of accuracy I will modify the frown to clean the taper up. To everyone posting, thank you for your praise, it is well received.

Thanks for the praise though. I owe a lot to GeauxSaints build thread, questions to paul and the rest of the forum, their photos and posts and every little scrap of material on here.

Such a pain Eib/cent require guns! I could almost submit right away... well at least EiB since I still need some rubber gloves for centurion.

So remaining left to do... Doopys resin build, lightly scuff the boots for centurion, add ABS hooks for the biceps, rubber gloves. So likely Sonnenshine will have a new order form me for another set of hand guards, since I don't think I can remove my current ones form my gloves without ruining them. I can give it a try though..

So I got my TM suit, 1.5mm, very nice stuff! Great color, flexible (I can even sit down in it, which is amazing!) and really durable for trooping. I built it in stealth mode, it took me a few weeks and about 12 hours to complete it over this time. While not the fastest, I feel pretty good about how long it took. I built the suit to go for centurion, and as far as I can tell the only thing I'm missing right now is completing my doopys and getting some rubber gloves. These are easy fixes, just down to a little time to get it sorted before I submit my eib and cent. So without further ado, the photos. Comments, criticisims, thoughts, are all welcome. Just remember, I cry a lot. So who really wants to make an old man cry?

I have the same problem with my shins. So I"m looking forward to seeing if this is 'working as intended' or what we should do to negate these effects.

Final touches n my TM kit tomorrow, first troop on Saturday, photos and submission for EIB and cent to follow shortly.

I enjoy the painting as well. Some times the straight lines can be a pain in the tail, but not nearly as bad as the ears.

Looks like someone went as a TK at least! Was god, otherwise you'd be contending for who had the best one!

were you punching through concrete walls? What were you doing to cause it to rip in half?

Juny, kids see a basic costume and see the most amazing thing ever. It doesn't fill out in our minds though. In a pinch you can check eBay.de there are a lot of costume quality setups there for under 100 euro, you know jumpsuit with detailing and a helmet. You can also find that at any costume shop in the states. As far as getting a full costumed member, surely follow up with the gg. I just joined so am not in touch with anyone really, first troop will be nov 3rd at a sic-if convention on spangdahlem. There will be at least 12 GG storm troopers there, it might be worth your while to swing by and talk to some of them. You might get someone to stop by.

In regards to the S-Trim. Thinner of the two edge are used to attach to the helmet, with the other curve on the inside of the helmet, right?

To make it easier.

Are you still in the window to open an eBay/PayPal claim? If they are not responding I would open a claim for your money back. Once that is done, order a new one. The good thing, basic approval does not require a weapon, so you can at least get your number w/o worrying about the weapon just yet.

Be careful when you order your RT. Not sure when but cover strips might be a requirement for centurion. You can have rob trim to account for this from the get go, will save you some time and you get the extra strips for covers so you don't have to buy extra abs.

He needs to replace broken pieces. All I hear about them is they never reply.

I tested the theory and it really works great. Now if only I could get the paint to not bleed through...

Tony, I know the feeling about the ears. I just finished mine and I'm not happy either, but it will have to do. This is my second armor build and my third helmet build, it's still frustrating as all hell and makes me insane when doing ears. Maybe next time I'm in the UK I can drive over to Paul and do watch him trim up some ears!