Dark CMF

Too true, gentlemen. LoL

Busy month, June! Excellent coverage and awareness brought to the teeming masses of TKs, yearning to be informed. Thank you, as always, to the staff. Excellent work!

Before heading to bed, I decided I should share another picture. After getting the belt together (and confirming that the snaps don't hold it for squat) I decided to throw on my upper body (minus gloves) and have my wife take a "test-fit" (ego boost) picture. Here it is - the belt is not snapped on in the photo, and since this picture was taken, I felt that it just looked "naked" without painted ab buttons, so the paint is drying right now. LoL.

Oh, Ed... One other difference that you'll typically see (and it could be viewed as a "sculpt" difference by the un-knowing) is the low-set of the brow trim. Of course, that is in the build, and not the sculpt.

Thanks, Bill! I've got a mission (Troop) on the 19th. So I'm a TK Cadet on a mission now. LoL. Got to be ready for that one.

Wow, Aaron! Looking incredible. You're going to have to have that thing publicly certified by some authority as a prop, and carry paperwork stating as much. Beautiful.

Aaron pretty much covered the differences. The only thing I can think to add is the number of screws in it. During assembly of the helmet, a Stunt helmet has three screws on each side, one at the bottom of each earpiece, and one each, above and below the ear bumps. A Hero helmet only has two screws on each side, as it omits the screw beneath the ear bumps.

Sean, the covers were separate pieces that I had to glue on the belt.

Thanks, Ian. I'm actually aware of that thread, but did manage to miss the drop box elastic measurement previously. :/ Thank you. Successive belt builds will be correct in that regard. The corners, I've seen both approved - granted, when the measurements are cut correctly. LoL. If it needs to be adjusted, it will be an easy fix, really. Just a quick snip with the Lexan scissors. The Velcro is going to be used in conjunction with elastic on the right side. Glen, thank you. I'm not going to lie, that heat gun scares the bejesus out of me. I'll dig into that research before I touch that thing again. LoL. Steve, thanks. It feels like it's moving quickly until I remind myself that I'm hoping to troop in two weeks from well, right this very moment. LoL. When I think about that, it feels as though I still have tons to get done.

Looks quite good to me! Well done.

Looking good, Bill! I'm hoping to be just slightly behind you in submitting my submission pics. Job well done on the build though! Approval should be a simple forgone conclusion.

Aaron, I haven't seen any issues with that yet. It makes some sense, I suppose, to do so - or at the very least to include some allowance for the curve when you place the rivets. I suppose that if you simply drill the rivet holes a little bit larger, that would allow for a little bit of slack to be taken up as well. If it becomes a problem, I'll just be happy that I have used E6000 during this build, I guess. From what I can tell at the moment, it appears to be fine. At any rate, on to the assembly: In order to begin/finish assembling the belt, I have to put the drop boxes together. I began by drilling the rivet holes in the back of the inner drop boxes that come with the kit. Next, I cut the elastic to size, and fit the elastic over the rivet for assembly. Then, I placed a washer over the rivet on the inside of the drop box, and popped it. Once the elastic pieces were attached to both of the inner drop boxes, it was time to break out the E6000 and assemble them. Waiting for glue to dry - yet again. LoL Preparing to put the snaps on the canvas belt. Snaps in place on the front of the canvas belt. Snaps in place on the back of the canvas belt. Clamping the canvas belt in place to mark the location for the belt retaining snaps on the abdomen. In hindsight, I'd advise doing this prior to assembling the torso, because marking the right side and putting that snap in isn't an issue. Marking the left side, not so bad... Putting the snap on the left side - that's going to be a little more complicated than the right side was. Right side snap marked. Moving on to placing the drop boxes: In order to ensure that the drop boxes are aligned (or as nearly as possibly aligned) with the ends of the belt, I set my metal ruler along the side of the belt. I then placed one drop box on top of the other, along the face of the ruler. Next I marked the location for the hole in the elastic, and marked which side it was going to go on, to avoid any issues with the markings not matching up when I actually started to assemble the pieces. I drilled the holes in the canvas, and placed the rivet. I placed the elastic on the rivet for assembly. After placing a washer over the rivet, I popped the rivet and the drop box is in place. Rinse, lather, repeat, and the canvas belt is ready to be attached to the plastic one. I taped the plastic belt in place to ensure that it didn't move anywhere during the final assembly phase. Rivets in the belt are attached in the same manner as the ones used for the drop boxes. All three rivets are set. The belt is very nearly done. Now, I'll put the rivet covers in place before moving on to attaching the holster after the glue is dried on the covers. Waiting for glue to dry - this might be worse than waiting on paint to dry... The glue has dried. Time to attach the holster. Using the straps (3/4" wide) to mark the 3/4" distance from the end of the belt where the holster will be attached. Holes drilled in the belt and the holster. Hardware in position for assembly. Fully assembled and ready to troop!! Well, the belt at least. That's it for the belt. I'm going to go and take a look and see if I've got any other pictures to share. I know that I painted the screws that hold the brackets in place, and I did take a picture of that. I also put the snaps on the right side of the armor for the belt and the one that goes in the top corner of the ab plate. As always, thanks for following and commenting. I've really got to get some snap plates (female) assembled and get the strapping underway. Outside of that, all I have left is the thighs. Strapping coming soon! (at least as long as Kellan Stormtrooper accepts sleep as a basic human condition again. )

Sigh... This last week has obviously been a very slow one with regard to my TK build. Why, you might wonder, is this the case? I'll tell you why: Kellan Stormtrooper has decided that going to bed is for Bothan spies or some other lesser life form. At any rate, it has clearly not been on HIS agenda this week. Not before 11 pm, anyway. That means that I don't have much time to do anything besides put on my torso and think about shoulder straps and building the belt. So when I found some time to grab the camera and some tools, I dove into the belt. (Be forewarned - mistakes were made.) But here come the pictures: Laid out all of the stuff that I'll be using for the preparation work on the belt. As helpful as he usually is, Feliks was indispensable during the belt building process. He was up close and in your face with the quality control measures that he typically employs - but he still allowed me to make that one mistake (that I know about so far, anyway). Marked the locations for the rivet holes to be drilled. Ends cut, Feliks approves. Here's the mistake... I found a great reference for cutting the corners (TrooperMaster himself) giving measurements that he uses, and I inverted them. :::facepalm::: It should be 10mm across the top, and 13mm down the side. As a result, my angle is a little bit off, but it still looks pretty good to me. Feliks approves, so I'll give him the "Happy Gilmore" on this one... "Where were you on that one?" Just a quick alignment test, to see how it should look (more or less) when completed. Drilling the rivet holes. Making sure that the hole is the proper size, and that the rivet does fit. All rivet holes drilled in the plastic. You can see that I marked the locations of the boxes on the canvas, to make sure that I align it properly no matter which way I've got it facing at the moment that I'm working on it. You can also see the two marks for the holes for the snaps to be attached. Taped the plastic to the canvas, and drilled the rivet holes through the canvas as well. Same situation, opposite view... Looking at the inside of the belt with the rivets in place. That's the prep work! The belt is assembled and the pictures taken and uploaded, but my battery is nearly dead, so I'm going to plug in and load those pictures later. More to follow!!

Psssst... Just throwing it out there: <--- Not a vet guy. Not even a TK. Just dive on in, brother. We'll all make sure that you don't implode.

I also was going to weigh in on the scope request... Oh well, it IS an armor build, after all. Looking great so far! Keep at it and you'll be a trooping Centurion in no time!

As everyone has said, there are a number of task-specific options available, and they all have their pros (amplification, static bursts) and cons (price, availability, preset sensitivity levels). At the end of the day, you've got to do what works for you at the time, even if that's being the strong, silent type until you can order the device that you really want to use. In the meantime, you've found a way to bridge the gap, so to speak, and I think that the ingenuity is pretty cool. I do wonder if you'll have feedback issues though, as walkies are prone to that in close proximity. I am a big fan of the Rom/FX personally, but as you've seen, there are multiple options available for this purpose. I'd love to see something like that, Eric. This community has no shortage of creativity or skill sets, that is for certain!

Congratulations, Centurion Hans!!! I'll just echo everyone else and say that your armor has this beautiful shimmer of "screen-used" to it. Man, it is beautiful! Congratulations also, as Steve mentioned, on the weight loss. Truly remarkable, and perhaps more impressive than your armor - though it is a difficult call which is ultimately more impressive.

Sometimes Derek, the object that you search for makes all the difference in the world. I'm with Ian.. Cut out all of that bubbly looking crap, you've done a good job of identifying the lines and drawing in where they should be cut. As for feeling like you're going to puke before trimming. Yes. I say it is normal. I didn't really have to trim much of anything, but I still felt that way. Now, I'm just like (snatching up my Lexan scissors) "I'm gonna cut this like it said something about my momma!" You'll get really comfortable with it really quickly.

I was headed to the bottom of the thread to post this one, the CRLs for higher approval state that no more than one ear bar should be painted black for ANH TKs. If I wanted to use my actual rank, I'd have to go ahead and make an ESB TK. :/ There's always the "next" one, I suppose. LoL Looking good, Terry.

[email protected] That one should work for you.

Truly, I appreciate this, Glen. Thank you.

Looking good, Ian! I'm actually planning on building my belt next, too. Keep up the good work, brother

Living in Michigan, you'd need to contact the Great Lakes Garrison: http://www.greatlakesgarrison.com for membership, and basic Legion approval. I don't believe that there is a way to be a member in multiple Garrisons, but you can always troop in events hosted by other garrisons, with coordination ahead of time.

For basic Legion approval, yes it will. With some extra work, it can be approved for EIB. It cannot be used for Centurion level approval though.

Very nice Tutorial, indeed! Well done!