The5thHorseman

Congrats Brian! Don't worry about this 2 years long build, it's better to take your time but do it correctly rather than rush it and make regrettable decisions. Now make you garrison proud and start tooping when you get the occasion.

Quite logical, congratulations!!

Looking good Juan, really good!! I don't know if you can apply with two helmets though. You might have to choose between the two of them which one you're applying with. I personally prefer the RS one as i find the green layer underneath the white on the CAPW a bit off to me, too dark, not olive enough. It's maybe due to the pictures' lightning however. I guess it's the Leia's escort, background trooper on her right.

I'm using Chrome with Win7, but i'd be surprised if it was browser related. Maybe this is a 501st privilege?

It's possible. The option is available just above the text zone when composing a new PM:

You might haven't read it entirely. The neck opening is trimmed in last, once the faceplate, cap&back, and ears are assembled together so you can remove just what needs to be trimmed. Also, to keep the neck opening as tight as possible to avoid being too much visible from underneath view, keep in mind that the neckseal will hide a part of the bulky ABS, so don't have to completely remove it.

Have you read this thread? Because mostly everything is covered in it. http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/28633-howto-ata-helmet-build-hand-painted-details-pic-heavy/ Same about the ears: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/29238-my-helmet-ear-tutorial/

Congratulations Ian! Centurion is next And i'm glad the CRL has finally been updated with a more understandable phrasing.

The outside diameters aren't suppose to be the same circumference. I'm having hard time finding a decent reference pic from an original Sterling though, i guess we will have to wait for Aaron or Someone else to chime in. But from a template perspective, here's how it should be: And on a Doopy:

The Outside Diameter of a real Sterling spring seems to be 28mm according to this thread, so you wouldn't have sacrificed too much if you had kept the gluing tab of the rear cap lock. However, with the OD of your pipe being too large of few cm, i wonder if that rear cap lock will work as it's supposed to. I mean, the OD of the rear cap lock is 41.3mm and your pipe's OD is 40mm so... not much of a difference.

Contact German member Kai (TI 6815). I send you his address by PM.

Compared to all the incredibly engineered blaster build threads around, yours reminds me of the good old easy days ! Very nice and efficient job so far. Those hinge screws for the folding stock look kinda big though, they should be almost flat once tightened. And about the spring for the trigger, did you check it can acutally fit inside the hole you did in the trigger group? If no matter the spring you try the trigger's always pushed back, it's maybe because it can't fit in or you can't get the spring aligned into both holes.

I don't think so. Personally nothing shocked me when i saw your pictures, just the broad shoulder look a Stormtrooper should have. The thing you could do would be to shorten the strap that goes from the right bell to the shoulder bridge in order to reduce that gap between the chest plate and the top of the shoulder bell. Indeed, you can also identify them like that. But the "flare thing" is just easier to explain for me and gives the same result.

Basically to identify the shoulder bells, the flare at the bottom of the middle ridge indicates the left/hand one: Left shoulder bell: And indeed it's not the backplate overriding the shoulder bridge but just the elastic band that is too loose. Not so useful then .

Looks pretty perfect Brian. As expected! I wonder if you backplate isn't overriding your shoulder bridges though, at least on the left side. It might be something to look out for during the next suiting up. Also, did you ever get your answer about which shoulder bell is which? Because as all the other pieces of the armor, they are designed to fit one specific shoulder better than the other.

Haha, that's true! Just be careful while removing the button panel, i had to do it too in order to re-trim it and nearly cut my thumb in half with my blade....

Well... It's been a long time since this mistake hasn't been done but unfortunately you've glued the main buttons panel upside down.

I'm afraid your blaster disqualifies you from EIB at the moment. You will need to do some work on the T-Tracks or maybe wait to have finished your DVH kit. Basically you need to cover that middle row of holes on the right and left sides of the blaster and grind off the lower t-track on the left side and replace it by a row of holes. Also you right side alignment between the kydney and abdominal plates doesn't seem straight. I don't know if this will matter for approval though...

Congratulations sir! I hope your son is applying on the MPED too

Extremely nice set of armor you have there Nate! Well done. This proves that all the informations are around here, and that with some search you can absolutely build a Stormtrooper armor up to the higher standards on your own. Your armor should be a no-brainer for EIB (just try to upload a pic of your helmet's left side before Steve reviews it), however for Centurion you can improve few things. First you will need some flexible handguards with chemical gloves. Then, along with the drop boxes alignement issue already mentionned, your belt should be set higher on your abdominal plate, it should be right under or slightly covering the ab buttons: Also, these ab buttons should be trimmed at squared angles instead of rounded like you did: And on the belt, the end caps should be glued close to the edge of the belt: These are very minor things, so once again, congratulations!

Hi Jason and welcome. Armor scuffing/weathering does not make your ANH armor ineligible for Centurion. It's even better as most of the stormtroopers you see on screen have a battle-damaged look. And as Derrek said, you can use B&W newspaper, moist it, and then rub it against your armor's edges to make a light an easy good-looking weathering. Make them free float at the back for both. There's no need for velcro at this location, the elastic bands are enought to keep them tight with the back plate and you will avoid possible trouble with ANH Centurion. No, just make the drop boxes removable. There are dozen of ways to do that and it's quite easy when you think about it. e.g: once the elastic strap is looped around the belt, instead of riveting it to the inner drop boxe, just use a chicago screw or just a screw and a nut. Paint them for both ANH and HWT. The only rivet left unpainted is the crotch split rivet. As for the drop boxes, fasten your holster to the belt in a removable way: pop rivets and snaps, chicago screws...

Beautiful armor! Well done

1) It doesn't matter, but i think you'll have a better grip using the B option. Just be sure to leave an excess of around half an inch where the two parts of the trim meet so once compressed it place it can stay in place by itself 2) Satin black Edit: About the "disaster ear", here's how i would trim it if i were to attempt fixing it: - And once the trimming done, i would reinstall the ear and the two top screws and then force the curved section to get closer to the cheek and screw it again, without being afraid to tighten it hard (3/ on the picture).

Do you apply the glue like said in the instructions? On both surfaces, wait for 10mn until it feels dry when touched, then clamp together? I bet you do, but just in case... Also before trying again, you can try to fill the recesses in the shoulder bridges with ABS tabs in order to increase the gluing surface for a better bond.

Best looking AM helmet i've seen so far. Congrats!