tkrestonva

Many MRCE owners end up tearing down and rebuilding the helmets anyway, so in addition to being in your price range you can still have the experience of building it up yourself. There are a ton of good tutorials here on how to do this. Not only is the MRCE in your price range, it's readily available. Google "Master Replicas Collectors Edition stormtrooper" and take your pick of vendors (including eBay).

Congratulations, and an excellent choice.

Yeah!! How about adding a post to the GT board announcing the good news, kind of as a lead-by-example nudge for the rest of our garrison TKs? We have at least three that are only one or two mods away from EI. Congratulations!

To my knowledge, Laws isn't available yet, so that leaves AP and TE(2). I believe they're both about the same size. How big are you, i.e. weight & build?

Although I've since migrated to all-glue (with the exception of the backs of the shin armor), when I did use Velcro, it held up fine. I just didn't like the bulk it added. The key is to make sure whatever you buy says "industrial strength."

Most people would say snaps are more secure than velcro, so I'm surprised by your predicament. Maybe the problem is you have too much tension in your strapping, in which case slightly longer straps or straps made of a stretchier material would help. Still, the velcro I do use is industrial-strength velcro, which you can get at Michaels, Jo-Ann's, Home Depot, etc. It already has a sticky back surface, so no glue is required. If the snap plates are glued on, it depends on the type of glue he used. Assuming he used ABS cement, I've heard freezing it helps to weaken the bond, after which you carefully pry it apart.

That being the case, how did the actors & stuntmen get the shins on? Did they simply leave them open in the back, like the trooper in the opening scenes of the Tantive IV raid? If not, how do you keep them closed? There is no way I could push my size 12 feet through the shins if I glued them front and back. Mine are glued in the front and velcroed in the back, and even then I'm really straining the bond to open them wide enough to get them on. Everything else is glued both sides, so I guess I'm doing pretty good getting my suit dialed in.

If you have access to a scalpel and a metal straight-edge, you can use the score/snap method for doing very precise lines. Trauma shears should do for fast work, but it's harder to get precise cuts using shears. A lot of us wear black Nomex flight gloves supplied by Smitty, so if you have direct access to a set in theater, so much the better. If you do a search for FX chest mod, the topic (along with a lot of before/after pics) should pop right up. As far as the thigh mod goes, it really depends on your specific needs. Do you need the thighs tapered? Do you need them trimmed? Do you need to open up the notch at the bottom? The mod details will depend on your wants/needs.

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Welcome aboard. I love how more and more TKs are incorporating EIB characteristics into their initial 501st qualification builds, the quality we're seeing here is great!

It's a bit hard to tell how many T-tracks you have on the E-11. Nonetheless, you're looking really good, Tom. I think it's safe to say Garrison Tyranus now has it's second EI TK.

Outstanding work, Pablo. You've definitely got a set of armor that's worthy of your amazing E-11. Congratulations, trooper.

In most of the firefights you can also see muzzle flashes. It's especially obvious in the screen caps caught at the instant a trooper is firing his weapon.

Thanks all for posting the screen caps, I just scored a new set of reference photos. Love the details!

I'll be a good weekend, like Christmas and your birthday all rolled up into one.

Yes, definitely interested.

It's more about girth than height, and any armor can be made to fit just about any frame. 175lb is about mid-range from what I've seen. There's a trooper by the name of Bigturc who is about 6'4", he wears AP. His photos are posted in the gallery, if you take a look you'll get some idea as to how that particular armor will look on you.------------

That's a pretty cool variation.

Look here. http://www.tonybarnett.plus.com/shims.html Instead of using velcro on both sides, I used glue on one side of the calf shims, and on both sides of the bicep shims.

Ditto, except for the rivets. I used glue instead.

To get you started on your search, a preassembled TE2 is considered one of those "higher end" helmets.

Congratulations to all of the expecting fathers! Sleep now, while you can.

Thanks for posting that! My elastic-secured ABS handguards are always sliding out of place, it looks like I've just found the solution.

Yeah! I now know what to do with my FX when I finally upgrade out of it

Most of the buckets we see around here are Stunt version, which may explain why you expected to see different teeth, lenses, etc. Still, kudos for recognizing the lineage to the MRCE. Definitely an excellent find.