mikedwelle94

Make it into a Shock Trooper, Mark. You know you want to.

Yes sir it is. It's a B-grade cast which is missing the charging handle and has a few minor imperfections, but it's still a highly detailed piece which I'd recommend if you're looking for something cheaper. Thanks!

I took the elastic out of the shoulder bells and got some shots with the new rifle yesterday. I just moved into a new place, which is a bit smaller - so I have to figure out how and where I'm gonna work on finishing this armor. It'll happen though.

You absolutely nailed it, man. There's so much more personality in a helmet like this versus a clean one. Looking forward to seeing how you do the rest of your armor!

I would like to know as well. I have a Hyperfirm DLT-19 that doesn't fit in the crate.

Freakin' legit. [emoji106] Sent from my SCH-R530U using Tapatalk

A good friend of mine wants my help building her a trooper. We decided to go with the Nova Sentinel, which is a black trooper with silver stripes. The thing is, we're not building from a kit because we're poor and we want to stretch our creativity. We're using plastic sheets and plastic trash bins. For the smaller detail pieces like the abdomen plate button panels, knee ammo, and shoulder straps, we're just going to get those from ATA. We want to use a heat gun to shape the plastic into the iconic Stormtrooper look. We aren't going for 501st with it, but we want to get as close as we can to making it look right. I was thinking of heating the plastic, then pressing flat objects against it to create the raised areas. She has another method in mind but I can't wrap my brain around it. I have a spare ammo belt and a set of handplates so we don't have to worry about forming those. I found my old eFX helmet and have given it a new set of earcaps and a paintjob so that takes care of what would have been the hardest part. Our goal is to have her in a finished suit in time for this summer, so we can troop together at all the conventions. If this is a crazy idea, convince me to stop now before we get too invested in it. Otherwise, I'd love to hear suggestions on how I should go about this!

Thank you sir! I used Rustoleum Gloss Apple Red, but I've gotten a few comments saying that the game's red appears to be a bit darker. I'll be needing to apply more blackwash to my red parts. Sent from my SCH-R530U using Tapatalk

Ooh, I bet you could get some broken or poorly pulled parts by asking some of the vendors who sell armor here. Once you gather enough parts for a full suit, you can create your Death Trooper costume ​

My plan: - Trim all the forearm ridges down to 15 mm, strap to biceps, and pad the insides. - Take about a half an inch off both sides of the abdomen plate, and slightly bend with heat. - Install chinstrap in helmet, Plastidip interior. - Wear balaclava to hide hair - Weather fabric belt - Apply light black acrylic wash to thermal detonator and handplates - Remove elastic straps from shoulder bells

Sorry if this sounds morbid, but I'm pretty sure if any government found out about people with special "force" powers, they'd be kidnapped and experimented on, and most definitely killed afterwards. They would never be able to live among us

These are CAP-W forearms but I imagine they're pretty much the same. I'm definitely not comfortable with removing any of the ridges entirely, but I'll trim as much as I think I can get away with, then strap and add padding. Would you happen to know off the top of your head the minimum width allowed for the ridges? Sent from my SCH-R530U using Tapatalk

I think I'll just do away with the straps entirely. After looking through some ROTJ build threads and EI/Cent apps I see what you mean. The strapping is an easy fix. However, my arms are insanely skinny, and I can only trim so much before I lose the raised ridges to lay my glue on. I'll pry the pieces apart and work on it. I'll make some light weathering happen on the fabric belt. Thank you for your reply and attention to detail

Thank you sir! I'm having people tell me that my armor is too big on me, and some are suggesting I use a heat gun to shape it. I think I'm gonna trim and pad a few more areas and take a new set of pictures - I'm too afraid to ruin my plastic with heat. Sent from my SCH-R530U using Tapatalk

I figure posting here will give my stuff a little more visibility. What I've done is build a Stormtrooper to ROTJ specs, paint some parts red, and weather everything. Most of the parts are ANH-based, with the only true ROTJ parts being the fabric belt, the kidney/butt, and helmet, all of which came from TM. FYI, it is accurate to wear an ANH thermal detonator on this costume. It's also accurate to not cut the teeth out These are the pictures I'm sending in, unless someone points something out that needs correcting. I wasn't the biggest ROTJ expert going into this, so I'm hoping someone with an eagle eye will tell me if anything looks weird.

And here are the final application photos! Just waiting for the green light from our LMOs, then I'll be sending these in along with all my reference pictures.

I'm sharing the link to my Photobucket album, containing multiple shots of each of my costume components for the CRL. http://s996.photobucket.com/user/TK-421/library/Shock%20Trooper%20CRL%20photos?sort=9&page=1 This is the one picture I managed to get before my u-trim started falling off. It's a little blurry, but you get the idea.

Subscribed and eagerly awaiting progress shots.

Exciting times indeed. Would have had app photos posted tonight, but the rubber trim on my torso plates decided it no longer had any business staying where I placed it. So that'll be my project for tomorrow afternoon. Photos tomorrow, promise! Sent from my SCH-R530U using Tapatalk

Trimmed the chest plate to look more like ROTJ: Also did a little shaping on the thighs And finished the belt assembly. At this point, the costume is complete and ready for submission. I've sent the CRL photos to Darth Aloha, so I'm just waiting to hear if they're up to snuff. I'll share my application pictures in a few hours.

TK-80494 here. I've been around the forums since 2013, but I only recently got approved in January of this year. I learned the hard way that the most important thing you can do while waiting for your kit is RESEARCH. Read, read, read, and when you get tired of reading, read some more anyway. I went into the build feeling overly-confident but relatively ill-informed, and my kit suffered as a result. For example, I trimmed too much off the sides of my plastic belt, and I used a spray chemical on some of my plastic that wound up making it brittle, causing it to crack and crumble in a few places. My armor is one of the rare red ABS Magmas from ATA, but after ruining a few parts and not being able to afford to keep buying replacements, I decided to make the best of a bad situation and become a Death Trooper. The only reason I'm approved now is because of the patience and helpful advice of folks here on FISD, and the Spec Ops detachment. If you manage to eff your kit up beyond repair like I did, the path to the 501st is still open to you thanks to the Death Trooper option. Just keep in mind that trooping opportunities for that kit won't be as frequent, for reasons I shouldn't need to explain. So I'm well on my way to completing my second kit, an Imperial Shock Trooper, which I'll be able to wear at any event. This one is going *much* more smoothly than my first, now that I really know what I'm doing. Just make sure you're doing it right the first time. Death Troopers are cool, but it shouldn't have to come to that when your original intention was a clean TK (or in my case a shiny red TX)

Thanks for sharing that link guys. I just sent payment for one.

So I suddenly have some spare cash after Pick 3 drew my number straight. So now I'm in the market for a DLT-19. Is Hyperfirm still making these? Sent from my SCH-R530U using Tapatalk

If you're going for Centurion, you should get a new ROTJ thermal detonator kit from either TM or CFO. The one you have should be good for basic and EIB. And I'm interested to see if the Anovos kit can be constructed with overlaps instead of cover strips, which is also a Centurion requirement.

Thanks for the advice - I'll see what I can do about this after work tonight! Sent from my SCH-R530U using Tapatalk