tkrestonva

According to starwarshelmets.com, the original armor/helmets was made of High Density Poly Ethylene (HDPE). A few helmets used in close-ups (such as those worn by Han & Luke) were made of ABS, but everything else was HDPE. You can find the answer (and a lot more)------------

Since it's FX - a kit that's one of the easier to assemble in that it requires no trimming, sanding, or painting, it can be done relatively quickly. However, 7 man-hours seems very ambitious, especially for someone without prior experience. If you need to assemble the helmet as well, I'd say it's highly doubtful. 15 - 20 hours is more realistic for someone with no prior experience to assemble an FX. It sounds like a short-notice armor party with your local garrison is your best option, keeping in mind that the purpose of an armor party is to help you assemble your armor, not assemble it for you. If that's not possible, you may have to either take some time off from work, or sacrifice some sleep to get it done in time.

The natural weathering does look good, although I guess I'm going to be the lone voice of dissent when it comes to the tape. Do you ever get fan questions - from children in particular - on why a stormtrooper has tape on his armor?

Big project in the works? Happens to me as well, but in cycles. Some months are exactly like you described. Others are get to work late - try to look busy during the day - leave work early. Each has it's advantages/disadvantages.

Looks good. One small nit - ANH stunt is 2 rivets on the belt, as opposed to the 4-rivet Hero-style belt, but it shouldn't affect EIB at all. I did the same in order to provide extra support for when I have my blaster holstered, which is most of the time since I normally troop with a DLT-19 as my primary. I love the E11! Is it a scratch-build? Sterling SMG conversion?

OK, thanks. I'll be going with the black dual-seed tray, bent-frame, ANH-style pack. Still, it's good to know either is acceptable. Pics of my pack coming soon.

I'm finishing up my HWT build, which I'll be field-testing at my next troop on October 24th - Air & Scare at the National Air & Space Museum. Hopefully I'll be applying for HWT EIB soon after. Regarding the pack, the EIB requirement says the following: Desert Backpack, styled after the ANH sandtrooper packs. They are comprised of two main boxes (aka Seed Trays), that are the approximate width of the backplate, correct bend on frame. Strict screen accuracy is required! While not every Sandtrooper in the film had a backpack, we feel that this level of commitment and overall design of the character should be attained. This also means taking no personal liberties such as LED lights, etc. Much like the stormtrooper armor seen on film, all ANH sandtrooper packs are different in the details but all share the basic attributes. My pack is based on Pack #2, with the gray details of the HWT - as opposed to blue details of the sandtrooper. Thing is, the screen caps we have here look nothing like any of the 5 sandtrooper backpacks. The thing that sticks out most to me is that the screen caps show a single-box construction (vs a dual box on all ANH packs), and lack a circular dish on the lower right corner (once again, all ANH packs have this feature). So which one is correct?

----------- Cheap, effective, and can be made to be completely contained within your helmet. I buy them by the handful.

Great job with the build, the FX kit looks really good on you. It doesn't look like the holster is attached to the belt. I don't see any snaps/rivets and there is a bit of the holster straps showing above the belt. Also, I'd cut the butt. It's an EIB requirement (vice a 501st requirement), but it makes it look better/more accurate.

If you read the assembly instructions that come with the FX kit, they tell you to use the 3-inch wide plastic strips that came with it as belt material. Don't do it. Get yourself one of these belts instead: -----

I assume you have an FX kit. Ditch the extra ABS strips - or sell them to someone who needs the extra material for shims, etc. Have someone sew you a heavy canvas belt. Much more accurate, and it can be made to your exact specs. Like Gos said, hot glue. Lots of it. Or better yet, get rid of the FX helmet altogether, they're rapidly falling out of favor in the 501st. Besides, if you're built like a typical 14-year old, you'll look like an absolute bobblehead in it. Many who are upgrading out of the FX helmet go with the MRCE, but there are lots of other options as well. Spend some time here researching helmets, and soon you'll have a good idea of what might suit you.

Can this topic be pinned? At some point soon I'll be in a position to upgrade to a more accurate kit, and I'll want the boots to go with it.

Pezza - holy crap! My jaw literally dropped when I saw that! I would totally get one of those for display - amazing!

That's pretty much how I feel about it. That happened on a troop I did this past weekend. An adult male who looked like he was in his mid-50s, after spending some time chatting up one of our female TKs (which of course he didn't realize), actually said "thank you sir" before leaving. There are actually some troops that our female troopers (TK or otherwise) generally stay away from, due to the likelihood of receiving unwelcome attention from overly-enthusiastic female fans. Our Beachstreet USA troop is probably the best example. Most of the time the general public can't tell who's in the armor. However, there are some troopers who, costume or not, ooze femininity without even trying. I've seen fan reactions ranging from "OMG - you're a girl!" to "Hey, wanna party with us later on?" When the attention happens, they typically just shrug it off. Afterwards, we all have a good laugh about it. One of my favorite photos from Beachstreet USA. Dangerous work, but someone has to make the Empire safe.

My warning alarm is buzzing very loudly right now . . . I'd be very skeptical of this. Just looking at the comparison photos, you can easily see the loss of detail between the TE2 and what he is selling. For instance, the ab buttons in the third photo are almost completely faded out. The difference is especially obvious in the forearm side-by-side photo. Proceed with extreme caution.

Aside from the usual housecleaning, weekend errands, etc. . . . Yesterday - Trooped the Lego Star Wars Visual Dictionary release at Borders Bookstore in Fairfax, VA. Fairly small troop (5 troopers, around 50 or so fans). Still, this was a good tuneup for the big dance in a couple of weeks, that being Air & Scare at the National Air & Space Museum. I'm on the far left. The other TKs from left to right are TK2718 (Bluehentrooper) and TK5625 (tiepilot1138). Today - Headed to Party City to get Halloween costumes for the kids.

There are at least 2 different RT Mod armor build threads, along with loads of pics of RT Mod helmets in different threads. I own an RT Mod helmet, I believe it's his Mark 4 version (he's up to Mark 5). I wear it with my FX kit, and I've got closeup photos of it in my EIB submission thread. -------------- Overall, it's great. Exactly what the stock FX helmet should have been. My only real complaints is that the vocoder is a sticker (as opposed to being painted on - easy to fix), and the gray earcaps aren't as prominent as they should be. I modified mine by removing the gray lens strip and Hovis that come with it and replacing them with green Stunt lenses and speaker-Hovis. When I get around to it, I'm also going to remove the vocoder sticker and paint it as it should be.

Those do look pretty good, although you may have to rub the insignia off the right arm.

Good job on the RT Mod, and congratulations on 501st acceptance. RT is definitely the preferred option for the big guys IMHO.

Interesting!

Seems like a good idea, especially if you're going for something other than ANH EIB. Not sure how hard it is to implement, but it sounds good. I'd also toss in Stormtrooper Commander and Heavy Weapons Trooper as their own categories.

Thanks for the corrections, we do our best to maintain accurate information and updates are always welcome. Some assembly photos of your Stormtrooper costumes would be absolutely fascinating. Also, care to head over to New Member Introductions and tell us a bit about yourself?

Wow!

'Classified Record' is typically used for members whom are no longer active with the Legion. Current Legion policy is you keep your TK# for life, even if you no longer own a qualifying costume and/or haven't trooped in years.

If I'm not mistaken, the E-11s used in ANH were working Sterling SMGs, and they fired blanks (hence the muzzle flash) during the combat scenes.