Dark CMF

Congratulations Hideki, and welcome to the ranks of EIB!!! Looking great!!!

Congratulations Michael, that's a beautiful Incinerator... So much so that it makes me "THINK" that I'd like to have one someday. Nice work!

I've SEEN TKs sit down. Truth be told (as my armor is only about five months old), I've still been too frightened to try it myself, but I DO have original strapping which is purported to make it easier to do so. OMG... I just had an epiphany!!! I may be making some very minor alterations to my construction!

Patience is indeed, a virtue. Now that you've got your kit, you'll come to truly understand that. LoL It took mine about a full month to arrive from December of 2013 to January of 2014. As for the lack/delay of communications, I believe that Doopydoos is basically a family business of sorts. They are probably the number one sole provider of E-11s to the Legion's Troopers, and they also do a good deal of other business. If you ever look around their site, they are not just an E-11 shop. I mean, they make those E-11 kits there and sell Care Bears, too. Looking at their inventory and different lanes of business, and the fact that they appear to be a small operation.... I'll go back to an old Army saying: Either your work is good, or your paperwork is in order, but not both.

Greetings Matt, and welcome to the FISD!!! Well... You're in the right place - in more ways than one: FISD is THE Stormtrooper place, and you posted your introduction in the "Getting Started" section of the forum, so this is where you start. I typically link to this section in the introductory responses. Go and have a look at the "Advanced Tactics" section (EIB and Centurion). Each build there will list the armor type, and the ht/wt of the trooper making the request. That will help you to get a good idea of which kits fit different body types better. That's the best way for you to get started, based on what you're asking right now. Once you start to get a feel for which kits might fit your body type best, you will start to figure out some follow-up, more specific, questions that you can ask. Again, welcome, good luck, and remember that research is your best friend at this point in the process! Feel free to ask questions as you go!

This is absolutely brilliant, Tony. I'm in awe of it. Just love it, love it, love it!!!! It is all of the electronics that will be in my armor, but contained in the helmet with better switch solutions!!

Great looking build Tony. I don't see anything that hasn't been mentioned so far - and that isn't much at all. The paint job is absolutely beautiful. Kudos to your painter! Good luck!

Looks good overall, Pelayo! The only thing not already mentioned that I see that might be mentioned is the alignment of the split rivets outside of the shim, as opposed to directly across from each other. Good luck!! Truly awesome to have another RT-Mod Hero preparing to join the ranks of EIB!!!

As promised, moving on to the S-Trim installation. This process is really very simple - for the most part. LoL. The S-Trim is a little more stubborn about being put in place than I expected. Perhaps others will not have the same experience, but I am certain that it is very snugly installed on my helmet. To start, as with the fan, I removed the old neck trim from the helmet. Here you can see both pieces of trim, the original inside of the S-Trim. The S-Trim is actually longer than the "regular" flat trim, which is a good thing - so it will have to be trimmed. After fighting it into place around the perimeter of the neck opening, I am left with the overlap at the vocoder. I put the trim opening in front, because the bottom of the vocoder is far less likely to be visible to the viewing public than the back of the helmet is. This also allows the black color of the vocoder to provide some "cover" for the possibility of a gap in the trim. If the opening were in the back, the gap would reveal the white of the helmet instead of the black vocoder. Installation completed, looking at the face of the helmet. Current view into the bucket with S-Trim in place. One other alteration that I did make was to put a bit of Velcro on the back of the very end of the fan bracket to attempt to keep the fans pulled as close as possible to the bucket. I've never felt that I have a particularly large melon, but this does make it more difficult to get the thing on and off of my head. LoL Up next (within the next few weeks or so, I suppose) I'll be installing the Environmental Amplification System which will allow me to hear outside of the helmet much better. That's not normally a HUGE issue, but with the fans running - especially both of them at once - it can get a bit difficult to hear what's going on out there. Thanks for checking in!!

Okay, as I alluded to earlier (MUCH earlier) this morning, last night I set about the task of installing my recently received Echo Fan Mount System and the S-Trim that was generously donated to me by fellow FISD great guy, and Star Garrison member cm325i. Let's dive right in, shall we? This is how the bottom, back of the bucket looked when last we checked in on it. This fan did an "okay" job for me. Were I living in my native land of Chicago, this would probably have been fully sufficient for me, but since I am (and expect to remain for eternity) a resident of the southern portion of the United States, it just wasn't keeping my bucket clear of lens fogging or providing enough circulation. As a result, I upgraded to one of Echo's fan kits - available here: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/24372-fs-helmet-fan-system-echos/ So to start, I removed my previous fan from the helmet and set out my supplies, and I can't lie... It was truly cathartic to be working on the TK again. Here is the fan kit, one fan at each end of the bracket, each with an individual battery box and switch so that they can be independently operated. My bracket is personalized, which is not a standard kit. The personalization is available as an optional service. Here, I have placed the Velcro strip for the back of the helmet on the foam, and gathered my sticky-back Velcro to complete my task. A quick test fit with the back Velcro attached, this way I could determine where else it would be prudent to apply the Velcro for the most secure installation. In this picture. You can see that I placed the hook Velcro just outside of the battery wires on the foam backing. After that, I put the loop Velcro pieces on the hook pieces, to ensure that when I put it in the helmet, they will be lined up properly without lining the full interior of the helmet with the "fuzzy" Velcro. Remove the backings from the loop pieces for installation, and install it! Next, the battery boxes have to be placed. You can see in this picture that I have put the hook Velcro on the back of both battery boxes. The one on the right has had the Velcro in the center cutouts cut at the sides, and pushed into the box, to prevent the batteries from getting sticky. Here, both battery boxes have been prepared for installation, which will proceed in the same manner as the mounting bracket. Put the loop Velcro pieces on the hook Velcro pieces. Then install the batteries in a location that won't interfere with your ability to wear the helmet. I did a test fitting with painter's tape prior to installing the Velcro. Once the bracket is installed and the batteries put in place and connected, you are ready to operate the system. If you look just "below" and behind each battery, you can see the switches for the fans. One on each side, to independently run them. A good look at the personalization on the bracket. Echo does a very nice job with this kit, and I do highly recommend it, if you're in the market for fans. Up next, S-Trim installation...

Scott's adventures continue to astound and amaze the world!

Ah, if you look a few posts back, you'll see that both Tolo and Charlesnarles have the same fan set up that I do. It is Echo's Fan Mount System, available in the ongoing sale runs section of the forum. Mine is personalized, so it has my TKID and Forum name on it. Theirs are plain, with an Imperial Cog in the center only. The fans come mounted on a foam-backed acrylic band with individual switches and battery boxes and fit quite nicely around the bottom of the helmet. My brackets are Velcroed in place.

Seeing as how I did indeed do some interior upgrades just last night, this seems like an appropriate place to share them - even though the same ones will be shared in two other spots here within FISD as well. LoL. Here it the current state of the interior of my bucket: ------------ Straight into the helmet. ---------------- Closer view of the face area. ------------ Looking at the bottom, back of the bucket. I'm going to have to take a new picture without my mic cord interfering with the view of the Echo Fan System bracket for sharing in his sale thread. LoL

Greetings KoLiEbRiE, and welcome to the FISD!!! As Tolo said, Troopermaster ™ makes a beautiful ANH Hero kit. As Ian said, those things. It is indeed quite possible to get the items that you need in Australia!

60% of this process is 100% waiting.

I feel like such a slacker... Curse you, Facebook posts!!! Congratulations, Star Garrison brother!!!

Thanks for checking in, Art! Oddly enough, I plan to update the thread tomorrow, with some electronics and S-Trim installations that I did tonight. The S-Trim is, of course, one of the Centurion requirements. As for the notch, that should be along within the next month or so. I'll be hosting an Armor Party and plan to do that work then. My new goal is to have my Centurion completed before a big annual event for the Star Garrison in March. More to follow soon!

Antici........ SAY IT!!!! Saw it performed "live" - in Europe no less. Awesome stuff, of course. Bonus, bonus points if anyone can name the sequel - AND, where it took place!

Apologies. I guess this is what happens when the rif-raf gets in. LoL

Yep, I agree with Andrew completely, you can still trim both the front and back of those shin pieces to get a better fit, because it looks a little bit wide for the cover strip. I'd just cut the extra tall piece down to match the shorter piece at the top, and cut the bottom up to match the higher piece for the up/down overlap. When it comes to material for the shims... First thing, make sure that you have even spacing on both sides. You shouldn't have "A Shim." You should have "shims." If you only have one, you'll have either your abdomen or your kidney plate offset to one side a bit and it will be difficult to fit. I'm just pointing that out because you specifically said "I'm going to need a shim." Okay, now on to the material. If you don't have any left over after trimming your cover strips, you have a few options. You can go to the Bay or Amazon to look for an ABS sheet of appropriate size, or you can go to Lowe's or Home Depot and buy yourself some of the plastic sheets that they have there for making signs. "Yard Sale" or "Open House" signs, etc will all work just fine. You'll simply want to get ABS paste (extra ABS and Acetone) whipped up to make them smooth when you get done.

Yeah, Rob.... I'm with Veedox on this one. I'm not sure what the delay is with TM. He's a great guy to work with, very responsive, and he offers a Hero bucket. Have you attempted to contact him and not heard back from him yet? Perhaps somehow you didn't have the correct contact info, or did you actually have contact with him and there's some other sort of delay? Having said all that, dependent upon your size, RT-Mod also offers Hero buckets, but keep in mind that it is sculpted to 4% larger scale than screen-used armor. So, unless you're a bit on the taller/larger size, it may look a bit wonky if partnered with standard sized armor. I can also tell you that Rob's armor list for 2015 is already full, so if it is an entire armor kit that you want, it will be a substantial wait. Seeing as you're near the UK though.... TM would be my first choice if I were you.

You'll have to excuse Ian's passion for the vocoder.

ROFL. I considered it very briefly, but wasn't sure about the protocols for such things, seeing as how the last was started by Daetrin. LoL

Congratulations, William (and Mrs William) - and a warm welcome to Meredith, too!!

Honestly, I think you did a really nice job. The thing that stands out to me the most are the pins on the front of the Hengstler. As Vern said, you had fun, and you created a nice, Troopable blaster too!