LeMaxim

If ever there was a proper time to quote the genius that is Wile E. Coyote, this is it. "Brilliance. That's all I can say. Sheer, unadulterated brilliance!"

Nice idea. Might follow you on this one. Thanks for sharing!

*drool* Man that's a sweet lid.

Great armour! Looks fantastic. Itching to get back to mine.

Nice. Very nice pictures.

So. I have to take a break from the build for a few weeks. Going on vacation to Hungary and Ireland. Hoping to meet some Hungarian and Irish troopers and expand my 501st circle of friends. I'll also take the opportunity research the tube stripes and the rest of the build while on my travels. (As it turns out 16 mm seems to be the most common tube stripe length... but I'll get back to that.) I had hoped to be able to send in my application to join before leaving. Things take and should take time. I'll make it nicer when I get back instead. So new plan is to have my armour and application finished by the end of September. A colleague of mine gave me these to keep busy on my vacation. It's actual paint by numbers books. Nice change. Well. Cheers for now. See you back here in mid September. (Any Hungarians or Irish troopers who want to meet up. Please PM me.) Cheers!

Sweet mother of Blasters! Nice build! Love the weathering. Well done!

According to some scriptures mixing materials is a sin but that doesn't apply here. I'm currently building an RS PVC and I distinctly remember reading about rhapsodyred99's "too shiny - turned Sandtrooper" comments while researching the materials myself. At that time I thought it was a very strange thing to do. I wanted the idealised "just stepped out of my memory" look of the Stormtrooper. But the more I build and research I get more and more in love with the beaten up, weathered look of the screen used props and TM's 1mm prop build is one of the most beautiful builds I've seen (I don't have the link for it available now but I reference it a lot in my own build). Don't get me wrong, I love my PVC armour and I'm very happy with my choice. In the future, however, I might go the same way as rhapsodyred99 and turn it into a sandy in order to go more towards true prop and get myself a ABS/hips combo. Oh. Yeah. Mixing materials is actually in the DNA of the screen used armours. All this being said I don't know how I would feel if I had gone with the ABS from start. I might have felt I missed the dream-white colour. I also think that PVC would have been a nightmare to use on screen as the plastic would no doubt reflect any light source and make a proper mess for the film crew. So I feel that ABS is more accurate but what we see on the screen is much whiter than the material actually was. Heavy lighting and post processing considered. This is my layman's guess. There are different whites in ABS and from what I understand you can get a crisp white too. So it's possible to get both ABS and a more idealised look. Either way you are in for a treat.

Thank you very much! These are excellent pictures and are very helpful. Cheers!

So I might not be crazy then. Good to know. I thought most stones had been turned and every crevice measured already. Nice to find slightly unchartered territory. Maybe time for a call to those with original helmets at hand to take out the measuring sticks. I've asked RS what they have on this. From what I've seen it seems they too have a shorter and wider base of their stripes. At any rate. I might as well dig a bit more here to make it look nicer from start. Oh. Haven't heard of those. Would you mind sending me a PM with their contact info? Also, if you don't mind, could you possibly take some sample measurements of your stripes?

Cheers! That would be most excellent and helpful.

My head hurts trying to figure out what to do with the tube stripes. I'm still not happy with the result and shape of mine. I've bought some tape to make proper stencils now and did some paint tests on a scrap piece. Seems to look nice. But the more I look at reference pictures and read it seems the 13/16" (20.6 mm) measurement used for PandaTrooper's stencils look too long and thin. Looking at this reference picture from the TKCaleb Archives I feel that given the distance-from-valley-measurments of "roughly a standard pencil's width" I'd say that the tube stripes look roughly the size of two pencils in width. This, by my measurements should add up to roughly 14-16 mm instead of the stencil proposed 20 mm. In the picture it also looks like the stripes are as wide as the space between them. Pandatroopers stencils put the stripes at 3/4 of the space size (i.e. 3 mm stripes and 4 mm space). I know this is nitpicking and that there are some optical factors at play here but I cannot find any definitive answers apart from Pandatrooper's stencil. I have already gone overtime (from original plan) with this build and I'm considering to do the stripes one more time so I might as well invest some more time in getting it right. I just cannot get the "too long, too thin" feeling out of my head about my current stripes and the stencil ones. I'm assuming that there has been a few exact measurements done on screen used helmets (such as the above) but I cannot find any reference to it. The only things I currently have supporting my feeling are Locitus' comments in this thread the many references to Trooperbay's work on stripes (chiefly concerning the correct colour codes) and the fact that his stripes are shorter. Anyone out there with the measurement of Trooperbay's stencils? I would be very happy for any pointers in either support of Pandatrooper's stencils (20.6 mm) or the shorter 16 mm variant. Pandatrooper's stencils are pinned so it's would be an easy thing to just accept as is... but I feel there's something I'm missing (apart from sleep). Any thoughts?

Very Nice! Kudos!

I might have made them too long. Difficult to measure in a bend. I was, however, going for 13/16 (i.e. roughly 20mm). I'll check again to make sure, but I also get the feeling of maybe "too long". How about the rest of the helmet details? Kosher?

Hmm... Now I got all confused. Maybe I trusted the measurements discussed in PandaTroopers stencil thread too much. It says 13/16" and I've tried to keep to that even if I don't use the stencil. As I was redoing my left side yesterday I got a nagging feeling of "maybe they should be shorter" There's probably a quite exact measurement for this but tapatalk search leaves a lot to be wished for. I'm curious how the length and my current look relates to the basic / EIB / Centurion levels.

Yes. You're right. I noted that. I scaled the printout for 13/16 but in the end I painted without stencils and didn't use them. My stripes are roughly 13/16.

And what a great set of eyes FISD is. Cheers Troopers! Anyway. I guess the universe felt I needed another lesson in humility and patience. Live and learn. Progress update for you to check on while I get to my carbonite sack for the night. After input here and on the local garrison forum I decided to try my fortune with the q-tip-toothpick-method to try to clean my tube stripes. It would be an interesting experience and if it didn't work out I could redo it from scratch. The right hand side looks promising but the left went all chippy and I ended up redoing it from scratch. Yes I know. Trooperbay stencils. I guess I just have a need for self punishment right now and It's as they say "Stubbornness is a virtue." Or was it patience? I forget. I guess I wanted to try the hard way once again. It's frustrating as hell and very rewarding. If not anything else it's a fun experience. Here you go: Right hand side. Fairly happy with it. Not perfect, but that's what hand painted gets you (unless you are good at it). Left hand side: The left hand side... Well... it needs to be corrected too and I feel it have a better starting point than the previous try. Letting the paint dry for the night. I also did the back panels of the helmet and made the frown frownier. Hows that for a frown? Any more painting tonight and I will go Joker on this. "Why so serious?" *lipstick smear smile* Cheers!

Thank you Mathias and Steve. You are absolutely right. I'll redo the stripes (easier than cleaning them) and give my bucket a proper frown. I guess the paint fumes go to me. Looking at the pictures again I realise I held back too much. The stripes are too wide too for my liking. I'll post updates tonight. Cheers!

Thank you Glen and Mathias. I'm sorry for not thanking you for your input before. I've been hard at work and want to show some progress. First of all. There will be updates with more detailed goings on later. This post will be more of a show and tell where I'm hoping for some guidance and feedback. I have been trying to finish my bucket. There are some things I want to think more about later (ears for one) but I have things coming up so I will not be able to build for a while so I'm hoping to meet basic approval in a near future and revisit the build for EIB and Centurion a bit later. Anyway. Bucket-post. After having some difficulties with painting the abs buttons free hand I decided to try masking tape. Had some issues with that too. So when I got ready to paint the bucket I was not entirely sure what way to do. I've followed Pandatroopers ATA Helmet build for a concise and step by step helmet assembly. It contains paint-guides and he also made a nice template for the tube stripes. I managed to cut the template out nicely on masking tape. I don't know what happened next but I was unable to get it fitted nicely. In the frustration that followed I decided to try a bold move. To go completely freehand. Considering the wonkyness on the bucket I felt that freehand might actually match the bucket better. This was, however, a decision I had prepared for. Prior to painting I had let a scrap piece of PVC sit in a glass of white wash to see what happened with it. I even put some paint in it. After 36 hours the piece was still intact with no discolouration from the now grey white wash. So at this point I felt confident that I would be able to clean of a mistake without damaging the bucket. So using my Humbrol paints and one brush I set out to do paint. For most parts I'm happy with the result but I probably need to touch up the tube stripes. (the two back panels are not finished yet. After a big boo-boo on one of them I decided to at least use masking tape to get straight lines.) So. Here I put it to you. My almost fully painted bucket. Apart from using masking tape on back panel and some slight touch up on one tube stripe this is the result of freehand painting. I have relied heavily on the TKCaleb reference gallery and Rogue Troopers Frown gallery for the painting. Please comment and let me know how it will fare as a basic / EIB / Centurion bucket. Any input helps. Closer-ups: Thanks for looking.

Coming along nicely.

Well done! Looks good. At this rate you'll finish long before me.

So. No comments? Good to paint? I got some comments on the local garrison forum which basically said: "Ears could be trimmed down more but looks nice and should work. Go for paint!" I think I'll save ear trimming until later mod-run and in preparation for EIB. Otherwise I'll obsess over them a few more hours.

It's a new D-ring that is more "real deal" than the one from the kit. I found a few while going through trash at work. Should be easier to work with. Have no chance of testing myself yet so you'll be first to try. Will post it to you today.

Right ear, lenses, petal foam, mic-tips, and chin strap added to bucket. I'm keeping in the tradition of keeping it on classic assembly before I let my imagination run wild and start modding. Build - troop - mod. Todays achievement unlocked: Right ear. I'm not as happy with the right ear as I am with the left. I feel it a bit to the large side and not as snug as the left. After spending time looking through screen shots and other builds I feel it's at least within tolerance. Seeing the ear as part of the whole makes it look better too. I guess I shouldn't obsess too much. I leave it to your discerning eyes. Should I let my files and hobby knife rest for a while and get started on the painting of the helmet (and the rest of the build) or are there things I need to attend too? Input is greatly appreciated. Ready for paint?

Excellent! I look forward to follow your build. To answer your question. Yes. The middle part shall be removed. Check this FISD thread for some references: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/18522-e-11-real-sterling-build-blastercore-40/ (by veteran E-11 builder TK Bondservnt 2392) And the reference pictures: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/gallery/album/40-sterling-l2a3-mk-4/ It will simply be difficult get the handle in and the stock folding if the support piece in the middle is left.