Squeaky

not sure about the valuation but the autographs seem legit. and he has some pretty rare ones. a lot of work if these are real.

here is the RS helmet in CLEAR showing the fastener locations. this should be helpful for first-timers.

I will extend the frown and make it pointed. although I will not do the 'joker' smirk as seen on one of the originals agreed that the pinstripe is not a good idea unless you use the proper thickness. I will trim or hand paint. ears can be brought down a little more. I used the holes casted in by RS for the mics. although the hole location appears correct I need something to adjust the direction of the mics, I assume some bevelled washers can be used. I used TK-1650's reference diagram for the color selection.

had to move the build upstairs during the holidays to re-introduce myself to my wife and kids. onto painting... automotive pinstriping 1/8" for the border. applied after first coat of humbrol grey #5. corners are too tight to bend so the pinstripe needs to be cut. 1/8" is too thick so during the second coat I painted over the pinstripe to reduce the thickness and give the hand painted look. traps and tears. ears were harder to do but with a little trimming it will look better than this. Trooperbay templates for tube stripes and some extra masking. now this step is important. even if you think that the template has complete contact and no edges are lifted it is a good precaution to first apply a thin coat of white to seal the edges. let it dry. then apply humbrol Mediterranean Blue #48 Trooperbay templates for the traps and tears. used humbrol #85 Coal Black this is what happens when I don't do as I say and forget a base coat first. salvageable with more grey paint and a thin brush. not sure about the pinstriping idea because of the visible painted edge. I may remove it and hand paint it you need a round brush to properly paint the vocoder. #8 or #10 brush??? I had neither and all kits are a little different so I just took a close sized brush and cut a round shape with scissors to match the thickness of my particular vocoder stripes. finished painting... but may tweak more.

untrimmed ears. RS provided hand drawn cut marks. not sure if they are good for my assembly so I ignored them. no real way to explain this but just kept trimming a little at a time until the contour and thickness was correct. kept referencing pics of the originals. the ears have indentations for the rivets. they look a little off from my reference pics but I used them because I needed the countersink for the screws. installed the 'S' seal to determine the bottom trimming of the ears. screwed assembled. my eerie 'ghost trooper' test fit

good advice guys. back to the bucket. flashing on the rear half to trim. brow trimmed to length and installed to provide the offset from front face. some of the original brows did not extend to the back of the traps but I like it all the way back. forehead trimmed test fitted with magnets. gap between eyes and brow vary between "surprised" and "mean", I balanced it so I can lower it later if I want. lots of gaps on the lower tubes but to maintain symmetry this is how it is. one rivet for ears on each side rivet on bottom of ear. making sure its positioned where it will be hidden by the ear pieces. there is an indentation for the rivet on the front face provided by RS. I found this is too close to the tear and didn't use it. made sure that the ear piece will hide it. the gap on the right side tubes look way too big but the ear pieces will hide it.

elastic straps glued to shoulder bells. nothing fancy just sanded the contact surface, cleaned, glued and clamped.

the canvas belt from RS comes with the snaps to the ab plate already installed and the locations for the other rivets marked out. the location for the holster screws are also marked. front side of the canvas belt and where the snap heads line up/and hidden with the ammo blocks. indentation @ location for center rivet on ammo belt drilled hole for rivet and pierced canvas belt. set the rivets for all locations before attaching. would be interesting in hearing from others on the best way to pierce/drill a hole through the canvas for the rivets. I used a small drill but it didn't give great results. ammo to canvas belt riveted on. buttons glued on the hide the rivets. as shown on my page 1 a gap to the edge is set as per Han's suit.

3 factors influenced my decision to use a solid head split rivet to attach the ammo pack to the thigh: 1. there are no references in the FISD references that show the inside profile of the rivet 2. current CRL for ANH stunt states: For level three certification (if applicable): Thigh ammo belt must be attached to thigh with a solid head rivet or fastener in the upper corner and fastened to the lower thigh ridge. Standard pop rivets are not allowed 3. I did (incorrectly) follow another centurion build who used split rivets for his approved build. Germain, Thanks for clarifying that this wont affect Centurion approval. I may change this but the hole for the split rivets are too big for the solid domed/cap rivets. Not sure which inner rivet you are referring to.

25mm strips on the rear of the thighs. knee pack uncut edges trimmed to 3-5mm corner radius'd (too small) increased radius to be more visually accurate. holes drilled for split rivet assembled onto thigh

hey guys thanks for the comments. forearms trimmed, taped on the inside, sanded, alcoholed and glued. shins with overlap needing removal, gluing and clamping. sniper plate before trimming. The sniper plate is an odd fit. Only three small contact points. Applied liberal amounts of E6000 and clamped. Thighs required a lot of trimming. Applied E6000 to the few contact surfaces between the shoulder straps and chest plate. After 24 hour curing this proved to be not enough adhesion. Had to clean it up and start again. Cut scrap pieces to build up the valleys. Opted for a stronger adhesive since I don't need to reposition these pieces later.

Great start Diana Study the RS builds like I did. keep in mind that the RS kits are slightly different (your buttons are painted mine are not). don't worry about the rubber gloves, no one troops in these because of excessive sweating. you can but nomex gloves for regular trooping (rubber is for centurion approval). there are several pieces that don't seem to match up, this is well documented on other RS build threads. if it doesn't make sense then check other builds. Except the sniper plate that doesn't seem to fit on any builds

As mentioned the PVC is softer then the ABS. This shows that after scoring with an exacto blade the PVC bends instead of snaps. For the beginner this is nice stuff to work with. backside of coverstrip is sanded for better adhesion bicep is taped on the inside to maintain alignment and prevent E-6000 from oozing in. Bicep surface is also sanded for adhesion. Generous amounts of E-6000 applied to cover strips. Both biceps halves glued at the same time Nice clean seam on the inside once tape is removed. If you don't put enough glue then this is what happens. Not a big deal, just add more glue and re-clamp. shins done the same way

bought some gel insoles for the boots. these have a thick sole which should lift me up a little. I am getting close to the ideal 5'10" height of the original stormtroopers. (I wonder if there will ever be a higher level than centurion where troopers are the screen-correct height and weight ) the thighs out of the box has lots of extra material to accommodate bigger sizes. I drew a line at 9mm from the raised edge to allow for gluing the 20mm cover strip up front. lots of overlap in the back after the initial fitting. Will cut it down after fit test. also trimmed the front of the lower legs for a butt joint and the 20mm cover strips. the return on the top of the shins need to be trimmed down for comfort. some funny mismatching going on at the bottom but no worries since it has to be cut down to fit over the boots. First full fit test. the forearms and thighs are not strapped up so they are still sitting low. this is such an important step, I need to take my time to make sure the mobility, comfort and gapping is correct before cutting and gluing. its taken me six weeks to get to this point working a bit each night. i'd like to progress faster but silly things like work, feeding the children and washroom breaks are getting in the way

JETC bought the RS boots. --------------

There are some great builds documented on this site. pay particular attention to the RS builds, Each manufacturer is slightly different. Mimic a build that makes sense to you. As mentioned, start with the easy pieces to build familiarity and confidence. Pieces like the drop boxes and thermal detonator are less tragic to screw up than the helmet. I got my RS kit only 6 weeks ago, scared of the first cut, now I can't cut fast enough! Post your progress here and many will assist.

OK switching gears a little. decided to start the bucket. here is the RS bucket, bumpy cap, eye bump, wavy tears and all. starting with the teeth I took a dremel with sanding tube to sand down the top edge from behind. actually I found that this didn't work so well. kinda pushed the material around rather than remove it. tried different speeds as well. changed to the dremel cutting bit with better success. used a flat needle file for the edges. I see some have rounded edges but I see the original teeth more like rails between the upper and lower lips. sharp corners would give this effect. teeth done eyes are rough cut with the dremel cutting tool again eyes trimmed. RS does not provide enough material for a good return edge on the eye sockets. my only complaint so far. the view within

fixed the right shoulder elastic. had to pry the snap plate off. this E-6000 is strong but came off clean. great stuff. attached the right side ab strap

Thanks for the comments Tolo Mastercraft tools in every Canadian shred Horseman Biceps are taped to the shoulder straps, maybe if I use bicep hooks then the biceps will come down. Hot water sounds like a good option. Not sure about using duct tape Gazmosis The belt does sag. I am using the snaps in the ab plate from RS and the belt also had the rivets already set from RS. I will prefit the ammo belt before attaching it to the canvas

going to try out the Under Armour heatgear as the under suit. will have to black out the logos first test fit. the forearms are not attached and sitting too low. the shoulders are not trimmed and seem a little big. the straps should be shortened. the butt plate flares out too much at the sided. may have to move the brackets outward to bring it in. other comments?

oops. no wonder it is so hard to snap together

shoulder elastics these are the elastics that come from RS. I sanded the chest plate location where the elastic is to be glued to provide a good surface for adhesion. wiped the area with isopropyl alcohol to clean. applied E-6000 to the surfaces and clamped until cured (24hrs) applied E-6000 to the other end and glued it to the back plate. attached the elastic for the right side ab plate applied E-6000 to the snap plate also let it cure for 24hrs

cut the obvious flashing off the shoulder bells. trimmed the return edge. taped up the elastic straps for now. it's been mentioned that the shoulder bells are symmetrical but on the RS bells there is clearly a more bulbous side on each bell. after trying a few combinations its clear that having the larger bulbous side in front aligns the center ridge better with the biceps ridges.

cutting the 15mm strips for the biceps and forearms. forearms before trimming, lots of return edge that needs to go. test fit reveals a lot of overlap so I begin with trimming the raised seam on top. Allowing 7mm from the raised edge of each side to permit gluing of the 15mm strip. taping up the butt seam for now. strips will be glued after final fitting. the top of the forearms has limited trimming so I did that first adding some curvature to the inside top forearm for mobility. may cut more for screen accuracy later.

biceps from RS before trimming trimmed quite a bit of the return edge since they are not visible. I left some return on the top rear edge to give some thickness when my arms are bent. left ample room for bending, will glue strips and do the final trimming after everything is fitted.