LeMaxim

Thank you again Francisco. I soon will need to put all this into practice so your input here is much appreciated.

Hi David, Thank you for your kind words. Really made my day to hear my build have helped someone out. I'm trying to show every step I do, but sometimes you just get into it and forget or are unable to take pictures. We'll see how it turns out. My OP seems to have maxed out in length but I will update it in an appropriate way as soon as I've figured out what that means. I'm also planning to make a summary post so write down my experiences and thoughts. I hope my pictures of the untouched kit have given you a look into what to expect. As for your questions. The “bubbles†you refer to are actually artefacts from the original sculpt. (Disclaimer: The below information about the RS armour and related information is based on my own research an assumptions. They might not be all correct but reflect my: “As far as I knowâ€-knowledge.) Many (possibly most) parts of the RS armour comes from original parts used in the first movie (ANH), they are even endorsed by the original sculptor Brian Muir, so many of the oddities are actually in direct heritage to the armours used on screen. Not all parts are original. Some have been added / sculpted / fixed later. As far as costuming goes RS seems to be the one armour that has the most direct lineage / completeness from the on screen armours of ANH. Recently (this weekend) eFX revealed their collectible that seems to be a contender to RS in terms of direct lineage from ANH suits. They are, however, made to sit on a mannequin and is not (at least license-wise) meant to be a costume (read about it here). As you no doubt have seen there's a lot of “wonkiness†in the RS suit and as another trooper said, about another item, it's not a lego-build. So just keep in mind that your suit will have inherited some of the original oddities. There are armours that are fan sculpted and seems to be easier to assemble as they take on a more idealised approach to the armour. I know too little about this so I recommend you to look at different armour builds and see for your self. I opted for the RS suit due to the lineage of it. If I were to buy a new suit again I would also first check with Troopermaster . He's UK based too (EU = no import taxes = sweet!). He is very knowledgable, active, and helpful here on FISD and have created suits that blows my mind away (Exhibit A). (You can find him a few posts up in this thread.) As for the “shiny-ness†of my helmet. It is as shiny as the rest of the armour and I'm afraid my iPhone photos in my dark flat doesn't do it justice. It's very white and shiny. RS ABS suits are more off-white which is more screen accurate than the more idealised PVC sparkling white. My very own amateur guess is that you wouldn't want anything as shiny on a movie set as the PVC one as it would probably sparkle the heck out of every shot with all the heavy lights that's usually on a set. Therefore I think the screen used armours look much whiter than they actually were. (And seeing that the movie have been special editioned a few times I guess some post-processing have made the movie ones much whiter too.) By this I don't mean that ABS is less white, there's many kinds of ABS and some are - as far as I know - as shiny as my PVC. TM have some ABS that is just as white as my PVC from what I've heard. Hmm... This turned out longer than I had originally thought. As for your final question. No. I have no plans of sanding the bubbles. I might have had a passing thought about it at one point, but it passed very quickly. The more I build and study armour I more and more love the bumped and bruised look of the original suits with all their charming imperfections. I hope this adds some light to your journey. Please feel free to ask me if there's anything else I could elaborate on or show. And finally, on a more personal note: Where about in Sweden are you from? If you haven't registered on the local garrison's (The Nordic Garrison) forum (link) yet you should do it as soon as possible. Introduce yourself, meet the gang (maybe there's a trooper near you), check out all the different costumes there, join in as a supporter to get first hand experience with trooping. etc. etc. (You can find me there too. Same nick... so far. I just started this journey but there's plenty of helpful people with loads of experience both here and on Nordic Garrison. Looking forward to make your acquaintance in person later on. Cheers!

Cheers troopers! I found a pair of round plier pliers (probably not what they are called) and will try to get some bend. Otherwise I'll add some stab-protection as per your examples. So heave duty screw driver for folding and the pliers for final bend. Tonight I'll get on with my build. TD, belt and initial torso trimming is on the menu. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

Not sure what VHB is but if you are patient while bending the tracks you shouldn't need additional adhesive. Ah. Yes. I read in another thread that you had scored a deactivated Sterling. Sweet deal! That would be a no-no in Sweden as you would need licence and all manners of security measurements to even own a deactivated one. To make it into a e11 display piece would not fly. Trooping with it would probably even be a criminal offence. At any rate. Congrats on your score. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

Thanks! Sounds easy enough. A picture would, however, be helpful. Did you manage to get a nice curvature on the legs or was/is it enough to flatten them down? I guess it will make sense when I'm actually there but I'm afraid that the legs might tear into the under suit, or worse, if they aren't curved. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

Earlier this week I got the remaining pieces from RS. TD control panel and split rivets. Updated catalogue posts (td, extras) to include them. So now I have everything I need to complete my armour. Comparison between the RS split rivets (nickel coloured) and my find at the local shoemakers shop. I was initially surprised at the RS rivets as I had gotten into my head that all of the 7 split rivets should be brass. Echo kindly offered some calming clarity to the situation off-thread so now I have two sets of rivets to chose from. I still feel more comfortable with the brass ones. Eventually I need to find out a good way of splitting them into place. Any troopers out here with DIY tool-tips for splitting split rivets?

Thanks mate! To try to answer your questions: Bending. I started inserting them in the front and then basically wiggled the back in. I would however, as I wrote, to do the other way around. Start inserting them in the back and fold forward. Then shorten the over-shooting t-tracks in the front to easily bend them into place in the front. I have not tried this but would do it like that if/when doing it again. Two things to keep in mind. 1. Depending on the size of your vent holes you might want to shape the tracks to make entry simpler. I did an arrow-ish shape (see above pictures for reference). 2. My receiver body is in metal so it wasn't a problem to aim the heat gun directly at the track and body. If your body is on plastic it might soften together with the track. Flatness. As of now I feel they are secure and flush enough to skip glue or similar. I will, however, revisit this before the end to see if I'm still satisfied with the way it looks. If I do anything I will just reheat a bit and reshape. I don't see a need for glue now. Hope this explains sufficiently. Let me know if you have any other thoughts or questions. My build have been delayed a bit on account of receiving my armour. Building armour now. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

Right you are. Makes so much sense. I had an excess of cap rivets by my estimates. RS sent me a bunch of them and now the amount makes sense. Cheers! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

Right. I did not even think about that. Cap rivets it is then. Thanks for the pointer. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

Cap rivets you say... not blind rivets? Hmm... I guess I have enough cap rivets... I'll have to look into the rivet situation of this. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

After beating my OCD into submission I managed to add rough drawlines as per Troopermasters suggestions. “Rough†is the keyword in this as the general wonkiness of the belt is too much for my OCD. Heeding to Troopermasters, and other more experienced TK-proppers word, I decided to use the force and go with the flow. I'm sure this wasn't the flow I was looking for... Some field triage later and the disaster was averted... - Getting cut and shedding blood while building armour. - Achievement unlocked. Check! I soldiered on and behold! We have a semi-finished belt (Rivet covers are just mapped our for dramatic purpose) Realising I didn't have all the tools necessary for riveting I went on by trying the belt out by way of magnetic force. Seems about right. I'll pick up the remaining riveting tools while I get the paint thinner.

Thank you for adding more light to this Paul. This would add about 2 mm on each side in length from the Billhag diagram leaving the total length of the belt at 444 mm. Roughly. Does that sound correct overall? Also. Where would you recommend the placement of the rivet? The Billhag diagram sets it at the half distance between the edge and the last box, and this is what the RS indentation seems to follow. From your comment on Locitus build and your own belt that I referenced I would guess you more go for a 3/4 distance from the box (i.e. 30 mm) / 10 mm from the edge. Am I correct in this analysis? Thanks again for chipping in. I'll be sure to check your offerings for my future projects. Cheers!

Thanks! Time to get cutting!

From your initial unboxing pictures it looks like we have the same colour on the TD pipe. Considering the quality of the RS kit I'll go ahead and assume they are exactly the same and matching the screen used ones. I got mine semi assembled, holding clips installed, and never even considered having to paint it. It checks out by my initial research. The only thing I have thought about painting are the screw heads as they are black in the reference picture here on FISD. So. In short. No.

Nice to see. Thanks for sharing.

Ok. So my idea to keep to a few simple items I figured that the belt wouldn't be to much of a hassle. Then OCD and confusion kicked in. I'll try to step by step this. Ok. Considering the heritage of the RS armour I wasn't worried about anything being off, but in my research on the belt I reread the CRL update mentioned in the April 2013 FISD newsletter. Ok. So. 1: Width between 70 mm and 83 mm. 2: Not wider than the plastic part. 3: White or off white. Check, check, check! From earlier readings I knew that the edges (right and left side) of the plastic belt required some more research but the top and bottom should be offset from the "boxes" by 3-5 mm. I knew I read it somewhere and started to look for confirmation. I found this the below picture in the Lucas Film Archive - TKCaleb and would find many references to it in my continued reading and work. Finally I found the source of the "3-5 mm" notion I had. It was in one of my reference builds where Locitus helps a friend to build a RS armour. As I remembered it was one of Billhag's many diagrams. Excellent! Confirmation. Or so I thought. I then started reading the context of the post and got increasingly confused. I won't quote the entire discussion but Locitus had used the indentations in the belt to drill and rivet the canvas belt to the plastic portion. TrooperMaster pointed out that the placement was wrong. Troopermaster further referenced the indentations as possible being artefacts from the moulds rather than markers to follow for riveting. Hmm... So. Now I got really confused and started to feel my OCD creeping back. In order to keep my sanity I started to use the Billhag diagram to map out how I should trim the belt and see where that leads me. I started by using my trusted metal ruler as a 3 mm distance as I had done with the abs buttons. As it turns out the boxes flare a bit unevenly and it didn't work as I had hoped. No surprise there though. As an alternative I taped the belt to the floor and just pushed the ruler against the row of boxes and then let it slide off. This left an offset of around 3 mm that I penciled in. Due to the uneven flaring and placement of the boxes this gave me a belt that was 90 mm wide on one side and 94 mm on the other. I decided to live with that for now. Following the Billhag diagram I ended up with edges like this one: As it turns out the indentation on the RS belt is spot on according to the Billhag diagram and left me with would be belt of 44 cm. So. Relieved and increasingly confused I tried to understand what Troopermasters comment really meant. Looking for more reference pictures I found three (apart from the one above) that were of special interest. Two (1, 2)from the ANH Blu-ray detailed screen captures: There's plenty more where that come from but they both point to the same dimensions of the Billhag diagram where the ends of the belt is roughly the size of the bigger spaces between boxes, i.e. (38 mm / 1.5"). To understand Troopermasters comment more I looked at one of his great builds. SW1's TM 1 mm weathered ANH armour. There I found this picture And based on my work I made my own reference shot: From what I can see all four belt versions (RS, TM, Billhag and screen captures) are very exact and the comment about the rivets being miss placed actually was more about the edges being to long. I think that the rivet covers of the RS might be a bit large too. I measure roughly 20 mm on top and 30 mm from edge to edge of the mould flare. Testing different placements I found that they should cover the rivet (in the indentation spot) no matter if it's placed centre over the it or more towards the edge. This is nitpicking and my OCD really gave me a hard time with this. I also took some pictures of the infamous "black dots" on the canvas belt and the indentation (middle one, but the edge ones are similar). It would seem the indentations is meant to be used as rivet guides and not, as I've referenced earlier in my build, a confusing artefact. I don't think this belt-investigation really offers any new insights into the finer art of armour building, but I wanted to share my experience with this detail and the confusion I got myself into. Maybe it is on interest to someone. The discussion between Locitus and Troopermaster was held about a year ago (2013-07-28) and it's quite possible that things have changed since. I now, however, feel more confident in my belt trimming mission. I will leave the actual trimming until tomorrow as it is late night here and to allow for more experienced builders to flag me down for any reconsiderations before I make the cuts *edit: Troopermaster offered some insight into this below so read on if you plan to use this as some reference.

Well... I try... Want to build so I won't have to redo things for EIB and Centurion. Thanks for keeping an eye on me. (more updates and OCD relapse to follow soon)

Any comments/pointers on my helmet question in previous post? Update: Abs buttons Taking a break from cover strips and the trimming-dance I decided to tackle something smaller and much more straight forward. Abs buttons. Since the general wonkiness of the original suits is growing on me I decided to tone down my OCD a bit and just go for it. Abs of the Empire's finest. Wonkiness included. Buttons plates untrimmed. There's a lot of extras here. Like a glove. Heavily referencing the JoeR picture archive and drawing from memory of all buttons I've seen here on FISD I started “measuring†for a nice, authentic looking, fit. From all the pictures I concluded that the plates should be trimmed to, between edge-to edge and halfway between buttons and edge (i.e. roughly 3-5 mm as with the belts). I decided to go with the halfway alternative as it seems to be the more common in the screen used references I'v seen. I started by measuring the plates. And went on to draw cut lines. I drew the lines on both plates by using a 3mm thick ruler. This method gave me this to work with After first trimming I ended up with this Imaginary straight lines and all. First test fit Not completely convinced I decided to cut some more off. Looks about right to me. On to painting! Paints - Check! Brushes - Check! “How do I clean the brushes after?†*checking Humrol webpage* “Doh!†*facepalm* Right. I'll get some paint thinner/cleaner tomorrow. On to other parts.

Sweet looking blaster!

Updates and question time. First of. Split rivets galore. Since they were missing from my initial shipment I kept an eye out for split rivet source here in Sweden. Just as I was about to throw in the towel I found plenty at my local shoemaker (as I mentioned before). Now I just need to get washers and figure out a way to get the rivets split and folded nicely. Not there in my build quite yet so I'm not researching rivet-bending-too much right now although pointer are welcome. Prof. (These are just 7 for one armour. The bag contained enough for a small squad. ) Update. After a weekend of curing (I was away) it was finally time to check my right shin. Looked and felt good so I quickly jumped on the left shin and started the trim-dance. Fit, measure, tape, fit, measure, mark, fit, tape, measure, trim, tape, fit, tape measure.... Left shin turned out to be less obvious than the right one. I didn't take any pictures during the trim-dance as they would offer no insight, consolation, or sense. Close to the end, just before applying too much E6000 and the front cover strip, I took one picture of the front and the back. The back shows, albeit blurry, to where the back sides outer piece overlaps the inner one if I try to make it fit my lower leg without slacking too much. I need to trim quite a lot there before I install elastics with hooks and cover strip. For now I'll save it as I did with the right side one so I have material left if I need any saving towards the end when everything has been test fitted properly. E6000. E stands for excess. While the left shin was curing I started to tackle the right thigh. I'm not sure I started from the easy side... but my reasoning still feels sound. “The shoe is connected to the shin guard, the shin guard is connected to the thigh guard...†The famous right thigh Trying it on I have no pictures of it, building while home alone, but the thigh really presents a challenge. I can almost wrap the outer part 75% round my thigh. I had thought: “Hey, I'm roughly clone sized (between TK model and Boba Fett in length and size) this should fit without too much workâ€. Need to rethink. It's, however, very rewarding to feel I actually have to work to make this fit nicely. *happy thoughts* After a night on the timing dance floor with the thigh I decided to put it away before I took a bite out of it. Thigh questions: Should I consider it normal that the upper part of the thigh stabs me to tears if I try to raise my leg towards 90 degrees? How much should I try to taper the thigh towards the shin? Enough to keep a straight line, i.e. almost to the point of just being able to slip over my knee? When the E6000 cured on my left shin I quickly donned my under suit and boots and fitted the two shins. They are, as mentioned, still with excess material and just taped in the back. Sorry for the poor image quality. Let's call the style artistically flattering, but I hope you get the, well..., picture. Feels good to have one section semi-finished enough to wear. Still wearing them as I'm typing out this. It's getting warm and I feel a lot of “I think I need some trimming thereâ€. So. The big question. I'm hoping to start with my bucket this weekend in an attempt to up the cool of my build a bit. I've been checking out Pandatrooper's tutorial for the ATA helmet trimming as some sort of official base line even though it's not the same make. I've also checked out several other builds. From what I can see it seems the rough trim I got from RS is very much to the point, so to speak. I cannot decide If I need to trim more or if it's enough to just sand and remove the roughness of their cuts. Any input and suggestions into this would be greatly appreciated. A> B> C> D> E> F> G> H> I> J> K> In picture F I did a small pencil-marking of where I want to round of a bit but apart from that and the general “roughly 1 inch above the eyes†in K i don't know what more to trim (if anything). There's also clear markings after the upper fastening rivet on both cap'n'back and faceplate (visible in A, D, I, J). I'm assuming I can trust these to be the correct spots for the rivets ant that they aren't confusing artefacts from the mould process as is the case with the belt. Shall I flag myself green for the helmet? #Lessons learned this session. - E6000 is forgiving but excess of it is bothersome and should be avoided. - Magnets shatter easily if not put together mindfully. And it hurts. - At some point you just have to put the ruler down and just cut.

Glad I could help. I find it surprising that there's no "In this box you should find theses parts"-list. Especially considering how thought through the kit is in respect to supplying extras and variants to select which way you want to go with the kit (I.e. TK, TD, stunt, hero, ANH, ESB, ROTJ). Would relieve some of the confusion and frustration of not being able to quickly identify and check received items. I had some issues with this so I speak of experience. It's quite overwhelming, mostly in a good way, when you get the box and start laying out the pieces.

From top (if I remember the order correctly. Answering on phone). Desert Trooper sniper plate. ESB hand guards Two sets of "button/rivet"-covers for the plastic-canvas belt.

So. There I was, filing and cutting away on my kit, and suddenly I had a great idea for my TK number. Look and behold! It's still available. I was trying hard to not have any favourites before the armour was done. Now I just have to hurry up. No. I'm not telling what number. === And to general build news. Been away for a few days but my right shin seems to have turned out ok. I'm now braving the other cover-strip related pieces. I also made a nice find. It turns out brass (looking) split rivets are readily available at my local shoemaker. Apparently they are the ones using them in Sweden. The shoemaker didn't know exactly what to make of my odd request so he just offered me a bag at a reasonable price. Bought enough for a small squad of TKs in fear that they would magically disappear next time I might need some. For what it's worth for other Swedes. Split rivets are called "klyvnitar" in Swedish. Anyway. Back to my post.

Looking good!

It's interesting how things evolve... As I started my journey to TK-hood I wanted everything perfect, seamless, and sparkling white, but as my research went on and finally getting started on my own kit I now really appreciate the bruised and bumped the quick and dirty. It's funny how things evolve. Really love your work here.