maxsteele

I have direct experience in the "super glue vs e6000" debate. I had some small gaps in my finishing strips on my biceps. I used superglue to close them. 5 months later, I realized my biceps were too big and I had to take them apart. If it had been straight superglue that I used, I would have had a problem taking them apart without damage. Fortunately for me, it was superglue over e6000, so when I did pull the pieces apart, I was able to scrape away the e6000 that the superglue was dried on top of, and take apart my biceps nicely to cut and re-glue them with e6000. e6000 is great stuff, holds well, and comes apart when you want it to.

Tim, you want to take the return edge out of the molded edge on the wrist side as well.

When you're done, the shine will be completely gone. I used a can of regular acetone to remove it. Before: After: It took me about 45 minutes - hour of scrubbing to get all the polish off each boot.

http://www.501st.com/maps/index.php

Updated main post with proper left / right helmet photos showing painted screws and rank bars.

My opinion, I think they look pretty good. Pretty close to the bass Amsterdams I bought and painted white.

I think you're jumping the gun a little. You should really decide what type of armor you want, choose a vendor, and get a set delivered. During that time, you can look at other people's builds who also are building your particular set to get an idea of how it all goes together. Then once you get your set, make a build thread and questions like what to build first will be right at home there.

Yep, sorry for that confusion. I was trying to get everything consistent on my EIB pics. The full body shots I took before I painted the rivets on the ab/kidney and thigh. Hence the close ups out of armor showing those painted. I was hoping that would be ok for submission photos. The helmet I can easily re-take photos with the painted screws and rank bar, but doing a complete suit up again just to show that I have rivets painted was a little too much at the moment.

I think I found it! They have it in their gallery under the label "Spacetrooper". ----------

I was looking at Far Away Creations' web site, and I don't see anything listed where they make any type of TK armor. Have you received any photos showing what their TK armor looks like, or what it's made out of?

Those are the rivet covers for the belt. You cut them to fit. Funny enough, you can see them in both of the pics you posted for the button plate examples.

Thanks Steve! You just pointed out that those pics of my helmet were from before I painted the screws white and put the rank bars on my helmet! It was late when I posted these and I missed that. I'll take new pics of my helmet tonight and replace those.

You will end up with 8 holes total. 4 for the left side of the frown, and 4 for the right side

Name: Ron Lenzi TK ID: 42430 FISD Forum Name: Maxsteele Garrison: Cloud City Garrison Armor = NE Helmet= ATA Blaster= THG Props Height = 5' 10" Weight = 170 Boots = Bass Amsterdams painted white Canvas belt = TKittel Hand Plates = NE (ABS) Electronics= N/A Neck Seal = Darman Holster = Mosi (Marc from Cloud City Garrison) Front Left side Left side arms up Back RIght side RIght side arms up Action Bucket Off Left side detail Right side detail Ab Detail Cod - Butt plate attachment Interior Strapping Belt Holster Attachment Sniper Left Side Sniper Right Side Thigh Battery Pack Left Side Thigh Battery Pack Right Side Thermal Detonator Back e11 Left Side e11 Right Side e11 D-Ring Neck Seal Helmet Front Helmet Left Helmet Back Helmet Right Helmet Hovi Detail Helmet Green TInt Lens Thank you for your time and consideration!

You want 4 teeth per side.

11 bumps is the left forearm, 12 bumps is the right. Curve at the elbow end is the left arm, straighter at the elbow end is the right arm. You have the curvy pieces identified correctly, but need to swap the molded indent pieces. Line the pieces up at the elbow end and cut off excess on the wrist end. Don't cut the molded indent piece, cut the other piece. I'd also be curious to see what AM pieces look like when they're put together before cutting them to fit to see where the extra lies on each side. I would suggest getting one more opinion on this, as I'm basing this on my own research and the NE armor kit I had.

Any fitting of pieces is pretty simple to do once you understand the technique. The forearms and biceps take a 15mm cover strip for the front-facing cover strips, which means you will always cut them to be 7.5mm on one side and 7.5mm on the other. Once that is complete, you can tape the two pieces together, then wrap it around your forearm / bicep until it fits the way you want it to. Find the mid-point across from the cut in the front, mark the top and bottom, then cut the extra of each piece off. Now you have a place to put the other cover strip and the pieces fit to your arms. The shins and thighs should be 20mm for the front cover strip (10mm on each side). Then the same as the biceps / forearms - wrap them around your legs, get them to a comfortable fit, make sure the thighs and shins follow the conical shape of your legs so the bottoms are brought in more than the tops, then find your back lines, mark, cut, and put in the cover strips. I used 15mm for the back cover strips on the forearms and biceps, and 25mm cover strips for the backs of the shins and thighs. I completely closed my thighs, and used industrial velcro for the shin closures, open side facing inward.

Through research, the majority of people use 2" white elastic. I have seen mention of using 1 1/2", but I do not know the differences you may encounter between using 1 1/2" and 2". I used 2" and installed 2 snaps on each strap. Using 1 1/2" you may be limited to one snap if you wanted to do two.

I'm on the west coast, only 10:55pm here. One of the reasons it took as long as it did for me to build my kit - I only really was able to work on it after 10pm.

For the correct direction of the kidney, see if your armor kit follows this identification:

Oh those ears.... I rough cut them with my scissors first. Then I broke out my dremel with a sanding barrel. I started shaping the ear, a little at a time, then I put it up to the helmet and saw how it fit. If there was a piece on the ear keeping other areas from touching the helmet, that's where I would sand down some more. I did this over and over and over until I got the fit I was happy with.

Hey Chuck, I was looking back at Centurion builds, and I noticed Anthony (Redforce) had left the built-in shim material on his NE kit, and he installed the snap where you have your #1 marked:

(posted in wrong thread - sorry!)

TK-42430 reporting for duty to Cloud City Garrison! This was probably one of the longest build threads I have seen on these forums. I checked, second checked, and triple checked myself on this entire build. I had some mistakes (cracked ab plate! Noooooooo!) and was able to overcome them and finish! Big thanks go out to Steve and Mathias for their extreme patience when I was panicking and didn't know what to do next. You guys really kept me moving forward! Thank you to all of the NE builders who commented on here and gave moral support with the solidarity of us all having the same kit. Special thanks to Anthony for having the first NE kit to achieve Centurion and giving me a direct kit reference when getting my measurements and strapping finalized. This is turning into an awards speech. . I know I'm not mentioning everyone here, but I do want to thank everyone who helped me on this incredibly daunting journey from non-crafter to 501st member. For those who have been following my build for help, please feel free to send me a private message with any questions you have and I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability.

Thank you very much! I'm beyond excited!