[Introduction and questions about accuracy vs. customization]

DOH! I usually double check by scrolling up, and I didn't scroll far enough

 

 

Welcome, RYAN!

Thanks! And no worries.

 

Okay now to the topic... sounds like you have a crazy new hobby on your hands. If you get good at it, people will be begging you for parts of this and that and sculpt this and that...

That's the hope! A long road to walk before I get there, I'm sure. But I'm looking forward to the journey!

[Introduction and questions about accuracy vs. customization]

Welcome, Scott!

Thanks! Though, I'm Ryan. longboard8 is Scott.

 

Within these walls we have several preferences -- the prop-style accuracy ("I just walked off a set") and the screen-level accuracy ("I just walked off the screen") and the idealized accuracy ("I just walked out of your memory"). So nothing you are proposing is new or wrong.

That's quite a relief to hear!

 

As a group, we set our standards as best we can on what we know of screen/prop accuracy, including a lot of the "wonky" (being an official term) and asymmetrical aspects, which, trust me, do not look as bad or obvious as they sound, and in fact add some character to the suit. Personally I like the bump in the eye and the imperfect direction of the mic tips, and the imbalance in the traps in back, and the mis-sized calves, and the six rivets on the left but one snap on the right, and the.............

I completely understand. I have a ton of respect for the folks that strive for complete prop/screen accuracy and without that amazing attention to detail, this community and the greater replica prop community wouldn't be where it is.

 

Perfect prop/screen replication just isn't what inspires the drive for my own planned projects. My inquiry above was to suss out whether or not that approach was okay for this community, or if accuracy trumped it. Based on your reply, it sounds like the sort of deviations I'm talking about are "okay."

 

And who knows? Once I do my "idealized" armor, I might well set my sights on doing a screen accurate set or two!

 

Also, before you invest in vacuum forming materials and a machine and all that, you do know you can get a 501st approvable kit from other fans, right? And you can choose to get more idealized versions if the wonky-ness bothers you. Just a thought. What's important is that it Fits You. Just visit our Getting Started section... which I like to think you have...

I do indeed! I don't just want to have a set of armor, though. It's important to me to have a set of armor that I crafted myself, from scratch. Even if that means it ends up being more expensive and more time-consuming to get a result I'm happy with, all of that effort is part of the experience I'm after.

 

Fortunately, I have a very understanding wife.

 

If you do endeavor to vac-form your own stuff, BEST WISHES TO YOU! I really admire and envy anyone who can sculpt anything even vaguely close to the originals!

Thanks! I don't imagine it'll be a particularly fast process, and I expect a lot of trial-and-error failures along the way. But, that's all part of the fun and the learning experience!

 

By the way, bubble lenses are harder to see out of, considering visibility is poor to begin with.

Yeah, I've seen a lot of reference to this and I fully anticipate this will be my own conclusion as well, based on some limited experience looking through different lenses to date. (I didn't a little ninja-modding to an off-the-shelf Vader helmet, which included replacing the stock rounded lens with flat plastic inserts for just this reason.) All the same, I like the look of the bubble lenses more, so it's ultimately going to be a balance between how much vision is impaired vs. how much better it looks in-person.

 

Thanks for the response!

[Introduction and questions about accuracy vs. customization]

Good original post, but its this really your first post?

As far as I can remember. I don't think I ever registered before today, since the prospect of actually starting to build my armor had always been "sometime in the future..." until recently.

[Introduction and questions about accuracy vs. customization]

In the interest of trying to better clarify what I mean, I knocked this together from the reference images at Star Wars Helmets.

 

 

I'm not so much talking about picking an ANH Hero element for this piece, a ROTJ element for this piece, and so on; I'm talking about making each element exhibit attributes from any of the various incarnations. 

[Introduction and questions about accuracy vs. customization]

Hello! 

 

Man, I can't believe this is my first post here. I've been lurking Stormtrooper-related forums and sites for the better part of a decade and a half, yet haven't posted on any of them until now.  Weird.

 

Anyway, I come with a question! For the aforementioned decade and a half or so, ever since realizing that making Stormtrooper armor was a thing people could and did actually do, it's been on my long-term project to-do list. In the last few years, I've been slowly making actual progress toward having the workshop environment necessary to bring that goal to fruition (owning a house rather than renting an apartment helps!). Shortly, once I finish up a small home renovation project, I'll be starting work on an in-house vacuform setup (all necessary parts have long-since been acquired, just need to put it together!). I've also been trawling threads over on theRPF wherein posters have been scratch-building their own bucket molds, which has been inspirational beyond measure.

 

As I've been formulating my plan for constructing my armor, a single misgiving has been brewing that I wanted to ask the community about. Namely, how heavy an emphasis is placed on screen accuracy versus a tolerance for customization?

 

I realize there are many for whom the goal is complete screen accuracy and more power to those folks if/when they achieve that goal! For my part, I'm more interested in creating an aesthetic (and, possibly, functional!) "best of all worlds." As an example to that end, asymmetry in the helmet is something I would try to avoid rather than duplicate. In general, my build plan has revolved around considering each of the four major TK types (ANH stunt, hero, ESB, and ROTJ) and pulling the "best" elements from each. However, I worry that doing so would somehow ostracize me from joining the collective assembly of white armor enthusiasts in the 501. Are these fears unfounded? Are there others that have been accepted for 501st membership with similar "optimized" armor builds? 

 

Thanks for sharing so much phenomenal information and continuing to be an unparalleled information resource!