PanzerKraken

So it looks like they are releasing a basic white version now, is it the exact same mold? https://bleedingcool.com/collectibles/star-wars-the-first-order-black-series-hasbro/

Yea the high performance enamel is what I meant with the pro stuff, heard lot of folks say its great stuff. I've heard so much good about Montana Gold, used it once and it didn't go over well on me but I'm sure its a bad can, it was spitting globs of paint randomly onto my work.

Yea I'm not a fan of them and especially the 2x line I've had ton of problems with for different colors/projects. I've had folks recommend their pro line paints though, more expensive in the shiny chrome label cans that folks claim is so good, but don't nkow if anyone tried it on a FOTK. I've painted lot of kits before but never touched white and so many stories I've seen about ppl having cracking problems with how the FOTK is built. I just keep lucking out in finding a source to get my armor auto painted by a pro so almost giving up and just want to get out rattle cans and go at it. I know of course probably best course to go is to just start painting test pieces of plastic/armor and see the results.

I never had good experience with the 2x Rustoleum in the past with other paint jobs so guess I'm kinda leary on it. I've had folks recommend the Rustoleum high performance series of paints though, anyone ever use those on armor?

Are folks getting their armor professionally painted or doing it themselves with rattle cans? I've basically reached the point that my armor is about finished, just need to get it painted now to finish it finally and not sure what route to take personally. I know lot of folks use the rustoleum cans themselves but question the durability of it with trooping. If I seek an auto paint shop to do it, I'm possibly gonna get stuck with a huge bill possibly, but a longer lasting paint job.

Got my paypal dispute refund, they never responded to it nor any message I tried sending via FB for weeks

So a source for proper front rubber straps and buckles that go up the chest was never found? These are the parts im missing on my vest from Diversity Props and he's apparently gone awol and have had to file a claim as it's been almost 6 months with no straps. He showed them to me and promised to send them, never happened so I got an incomplete vest kit.

It took them several months to get me my FOTK Heavy trooper vest, and even then the quality is pretty poor IMO, lot of scuffed material on the webbing and what looks like stains? No idea but hope it cleans out, some wiping with water is not getting the spots out. They told me my vest was shipping and then about a month later when I asked for an update, I was told it wasn't done yet. Took several more weeks and then more weeks after for shipping. And of course, 2 main components of the harness are missing, I've been asking now for more than a month. A month and a half ago I was told they would ship the missing parts right away, never happened, asked for an update couple weeks later and was told that they needed to check, no replies now.

Got it linked here on my google drive: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fjA8g8V_11SU8aVrrGeNFErIkgkzS-oj/view?usp=sharing Marked in red where I'm wondering if I can trim more off, especially under the arm areas as it's really tight and I can't even put my arms down, I can't imagine this with the biceps on. Also that it just seemed to sit a bit high cause my helmet is practically sitting on the chest plate and I can barely see forward, Im almost looking slightly up

So finally got everything assembled roughly and doing the test fitting of everything now to see what needs final trimming and adjustments. So right away the arms around the yoke and pits is way too tight, even without bicep armor on, I can barely put my arms down so need to trim parts of the yoke and the chest plate down to give me some room at least. Also to remove some of the return edge near the shoulders to get the chest to sit a little lower as well. I feel like I can trim down a whole lot around the arms but also not sure how much return edge is required or should be had. Near the shoulders of the yoke on some FOTKs i've seen big return edges, while I've seen a couple that look to have almost none. From the CRL there is no clear guide to this and I don't want to cut off too much or like with a normal TK is it pretty lenient for fitting sake? From other pics it makes me wonder, is it fairly common that most FOTK's have very little ability to look down? I'm used to wearing my regular ANH TK and I can move my head fairly well but so far in my FOTK I can barely move an inch without the bottom of the helmet hitting the chest top. Feels very restrictive visual wise compared to a standard TK.

These things

Yea this was a discussion I was looking for as I'm starting to trim my ab boxes and was worried on getting them super flush or if they were supposed to be filled since the crl pic is clearly paste filled from the texture around where the boxes join.

This that's the ANH stormtrooper drop boxes part of the crl

So I see in some people's build they seam filled the ab boxes that are attached around the front of the armors ab plate. While some leave them floating with a tiny gap? Is that right you can go either way? Best way to try and get these boxes flush? The CRL seems to indicate that they don't need to be seam filled

Thank you, see they do seem to have one, but I recently ordered from them something else and wasn't too pleased with the results and still waiting for them to send me missing components that I waited over 5 months for. I rather not 3D print another one and not sure if the heavy scaled version will fit on my print bed, the standard F-11D was pushing it's limits already

Yes been going through it, great resource thx! So below is what I was talking about, so you did do an overlap to join the two parts of the thighs, you then sanded it to make it look more like a return edge? I've seen folks cut both sides to try and join them flush for the seam which seems like a nightmare on this kit and cause of the curve, so was hoping to do something similar to what you have done!

Are those available somewhere? Or you custom made those?

So these are a pain, it's just lot of plastic with no real guidance of how they go together and no lines on one side at all so trying to figure out how to get the cuts right now these. About the assembly, overlap is allowed on the inside for connecting them, the outer seam can be a glued shut overlap or must the two parts of the thigh meet flush on the outside? From some pics the thighs almost look just like overlapped plastic as well. Reason also being that I was told that overlap seams was ok for approval as long as glued closed and tight. These are a pain and just want to get them glued together but that curved seam is a nightmare.

Anyone offer the Heavy F-11D in it's properly scaled up version? Few vendors I found with resin kits all just added the stock to the F-11D but didn't scale it up by the extra 15-20% it's supposed to be like Phasmas. Yes I know about the print files, but I don't got the time to print and build another annoying 3D kit, I already built the 3D F-11D and got so much more to do and the printer is going to be out of use for other projects for some time, so looking for another source of a correctly scaled F-11D Heavy if possible.

So trying to start working on my belt, not sure where to trim exactly on these boxes (using the KB kit), and seems I cut both sides and them connect them somehow? What are the dimensions supposed to be on these boxes and for those that are multi parts (black and white for example), how big should each side be?

I can get a KB kit, but was still looking at all possible routes to go. It seems there isn't a FOTK kit out there that doesn't need paint then? I'm just used to my regular TK which never needed paint, and is so much more durable than my painted armors that constantly need repainting and touch ups

Does the KB Props kit look good without painting it? How does the color look for matching an anovos helmet? Trying to research some choices and wondering all I got to do and which direction to go.

So I replaced some parts and am upgrading my old mon cal TK. One issue that I still have that is kinda baffling us, is my backplate isn't sittnig against my back, it kinda just floats and if I lift my arms or from the side you can see inside the back of my armor and see that it's not sitting on me. Tried tightening the straps from the back to the kidney plate, but that causes issues with the backplate getting caught on the edges of kidney plate when walking or making things worse while moving as it slides out or behind the kidney plate. Want to maybe try tweaking the shoulder straps to see if they can pull it closer to me, but still think it could be an issue with the mon cal back armor being smaller than some makers? Does anyone do any strapping or add anything to help keep the backplate up against their back and reduce back gap?

Do you just keep trying to deflect from the conversation? All you have done is complain about anything I've said without actually getting involved in a dialogue or offering input. This is bordering on harassment at this point. Again why is the helmets not being worn? Jes is a face character, then why is there an exception being made that no other costume is allowed to have? ANY other legion approved face character costume requires that the costumer attempt to replicate the look of the character's main attributes, so why is almost every femtrooper running around with no bucket and not even attempting to look like Jes? If anyone does Mara Jade for example, they need to replicate her hair. We had a trooper here at Disney who was not allowed to march in his Dooku costume at an official event cause he didn't have enough hair from his balding. Facial scars and features have to be present via makeup. Hair must match, etc, its common amongst legion costumes. Bo Katan can go bucket off, but is required to have the proper hair and accessories, same should apply to Jes simple as that. If you are a generic femtrooper, bucket on like the rest of us. If you are Jes, then you should be required to mimic her features like every other face character no? Because of one event where a squad leader said it was ok to promote females joining, now all femtroopers are going to be exempt from rules that apply to every other legion costume now? Slippery slope when you start making exemptions for handful of members. We have countless members who are female who are in costume and required to wear buckets, and many who aren't covered up and they promote the legion just fine every day for over a decade now, so why is legacy exception needed? All our many female TK legion members should be going around bucket off? No because they aren't Legacy Armor?

Used to use Underarmor heatgear, it was all black except the logo which was behind the thigh plate anyways. But now their new heatgear pants have big white waist band that is hard to hide so looking for replacement as my UA is getting kinda beat up