T-Jay

@ Stefan (Turrican): Thanks for that trick . I only have shiny white wall color, but I will find a way to darken it a bit, so that it hopefully looks like the armor itself. Thanks again.

Update 04: - weathering boots and hand guards Those TK boots drove me crazy. Don't get me wrong, they look and feel good, but it is a real challenge to "adjust" the color with the armor . Tried the newspaper-method first and then added some dirty water. Some more newspaper weathering, but the colors didn't match. On the MEPD page I found a tutorial, how our "dirty guys" do weathering. So I tried a washing with water and acrylic black paint. Didn't work. If someone has an idea, please let me know. For weathering Karin's white rubber hand guards I used two layers of dirty water, which got partially washed off after they dried. This is not water resistant, but you'll need a damp rag to reduce or remove it. It looks quite good but has a slightly different appearance than the weathering on the armor, so I used this technique on a few other parts too. While doing this, I had some serious thoughts about a dirty Sandtrooper . Okay, the weathering chapter is completed for that display. Too much won't look good. Let me know what you think about it.

Okay, whoever did that weathering the first time will now get a 'thank you' and 'thumbs up' from me here . @ Stefan (Turrican): It simply fascinated me when I saw it on your armor the first time. It is really easy to do and looks interesting. Nice idea with these grease points. I remember you had mentioned them the same day, I just had forgotten...

Very good work on the ejection port . And with these woodblock carving tools you're going to rock this build!

Exactly what RainTrooper said. Just compare the helmet pictures and choose what you like more.

Hi Rob, here is the link to the instruction on how to build these biceps hooks.

Hi Germain, the newspaper-weathering comes from Stefan (Turrican). Originally I planned to leave my display shiny white - until the day I saw his weathered suit. That (and the earlier mentioned color deviations) changed my mind. Rubbing with a finger will not remove this and it is also water resistant, but can get removed with some mild plastic cleaner or with ultra-fine sandpaper. Yes, the shins are velcro closed. Paul suggested this after I had choosen the standard strapping. And I'm very happy with it.

Yes, the lenses got installed by TK-0000, because he simply has the smaller hands. If he returns from the detention block, I can ask him to come to Spain to assist you The truth is: this is a critical point of the blaster build, where your lenses could seriously get messed up! So take good care and work precise.

Hi Derrek, here are the pictures

Hi Ruben, thanks for your honest words! Much appreciated Regarding the scope lenses: These were a bit tricky to place. I carefully used super glue on the outer edges - but take care: less is more! And you don't want to see it after it dried. It did not react with the paint I used and worked fine.

Update 03: - weathering the armor People might wonder why an "idealized" armor should get any weathering at all. Well, some color deviations between armor, hand guards and boots forced me to do this. Weathering will hopefully conceal or at least reduce these. But first I concentrated on the armor itself. Decided to go for a weathering which I had seen on the TK from Stefan (Turrican). Old newspapers got soaked with water for a few minutes, then rubbed over the armor. This transferred some black ink and highlighted the edges. It was done on all parts, increasing from the helmet to the boots. It is water resistant, but can get removed with some mild plastic cleaner or with ultra-fine sandpaper. Enough words. Pictures: And the rear side: In case you haven't already seen it, here is the inside view with the standard strapping. I preferred this, because the original strapping has some visible screws in the torso. Unfortunately the camera's automatic mode changed while shooting. This caused some pictures to have warmer colors than others Any comments and critics are welcome. Please let me know, what you think of the weathering so far. Thanks in advance.

Wow, looks like a very good job on chroming these parts. And the eyes in the last picture look so real . Fantastic! Will you add some weathering later?

Hi Brian, I used standard metal drills for all small and medium holes. That worked fine. Sometimes you will have to free the threads from resin cuttings. Pilot holes are always good. For the bigger holes in the folding stock (11mm) I used a wood drill (see here in the middle of the first posting). A pilot hole was very helpfull to center the drill tip. Drilled with some speed but went down very slowly, so the drill tip scraped off the resin as you can see on my photos. Good luck!

Wow, that is scary: we both live in Germany, have about the same age and have children. We both did model kit building and aim for an idealized TK. We post pictures in "quadro-style" and have a wooden desk in the background . You also painted the helmet interior black and trimmed the eye brow to be parallel to the traps. Even the story at the beginning sounds familiar to me. So many coincidences, isn't that strange somehow?! You did a nice start (exactly as I would have done it). Following...

@ Derrek (Dday): Thanks man. This tolerance is exactly what I hoped for! Also very important to everything I change: out of respect to Paul's work this can all be undone! So if I want to go for rough screen accurate some day, no problem... @ Germain (The5thHorseman): Karin's white rubber hand guards are a tiny little bit whiter than the 1,5mm standard ABS. Planning to adjust this with minor weathering... @ Bone (Bone): The glove color can also be refreshed with some black plastic care for cars. It depends on what you have available and what brings the desired result - without transferring the black color to other things. @ Paul (troopermaster): Hey, happy to have the master himself onboard . And thanks for answering Bone's question in my absence . @ Germain (The5thHorseman): How much time do you spend watching these photos to always find some perfect evidences?! Nice work, man! @ Jason (Cantina Security): You are absolutely right. I could not imagine building this display with any other armor than Paul's!

Update 02: - rubber and latex (that sounds so wrong ) For a long time I worried about the latex hand guards but didn't want to replace these. Next pictures show you, why I finally did. But I still feel seriously guilty for tearing this masterpiece apart. Sorry Paul, hope you will forgive me . The pictures above are not meant to judge any of the gloves and handguards. And I'm not going to say that one is better than the other. It simply depends on how you want your TK to look at the end: screen accurate or idealized.

Thanks Germain! I am currently working on exactly that issue At least more white than the 1,5mm standard ABS. Don't know if it's the same for the 2mm acrylic capped ABS with gloss. Will hopefully soon post some progress...

Update 01: - medium brown box arrived In January 2014 I started research on the boots and placed an order at TK-boots. They had some delay and put me on a back order list. So it took half a year and a visit at a German customs office to finally hold them in hands. Regarding the color: these boots are so shiny white, they even make the armor (1,5mm standard ABS) look off-white. Troopermaster's acrylic capped ABS might not get this problem (cannot confirm). But the elastics are even whiter than the leather. So there is no way around some weathering here - in one of the next updates.

@ Ian (Sith Lord): I also masked the gap at the ears to avoid this color-fog. Yes the last 8 pictures show the helmet with a later added weathering. Thought it wouldn't be noticed. How could I ... @ Nick (Darth Niob): Thank you very much for your assistance and help, to make the right choice at the end. Hope we will meet again soon. But pictures of the completed display are still far away... @ Bone (Bone): Uuh, I hoped nobody would ask this. To be honest: I cut a pair of old black socks in shape - of course these were washed @ Germain (The5thHorseman): Just wanted to keep the thread in the familiar look . Weathering was done by myself and I saved it for one of the next updates... @ David (illusionz_09) and Cory (Motion): Thank you guys. Indeed Paul did a great job on the helmet - and the whole armor. I just try to optimize it a little bit.

Alright, the thread for the ANH Stunt armor has just been uploaded. Here it is...

Hello there, last year I started my research to build a life-size stormtrooper display. After 8 months of investigations, discussions, emails and phone calls, I decided to go for the ANH Stunt TK from Paul (Troopermaster). As I had no experience in building armor and was afraid to mess up this expensive prop, the order got placed for a fully finished TK. The waiting time was used to start building my E-11 blaster. Just 2 months later the big brown box from Paul already arrived - and he had done a fantastic job! That was a nice day! Let's skip unboxing and go straight to the helmet and the modifications. Grown up with the original trilogy, my TK has to look a bit more like what we believed to see on the screen, as what the high resolution pictures revealed some decades later. The statue simply needs to look good - even on close distance. Of course this is not everybody's opinion - but it's mine. If the trimmed eye brow is wrong, it can be fixed by simply turning the inside out... Later I decided to paint the interior of the helmet. Chose PlastiDip black spray paint because it can be peeled off (if necessary). It looks so much better (to me) and has some positive side effects: - No more light can shimmer through the thin vac-formed ABS, which keeps the inside very dark and that makes the green lens look really black. - It also gets even harder to see the wearer's eyes behind the lens. - If you watch the back side of a TK, many times you'll be able to see straight into the helmet. The black interior then is an advantage. I'll also use a balaclava for my TK display to avoid seeing any skin or mannequin parts. Will continue with the next steps in a few days. As always, please feel free to leave any comments, critics or advices. Thank you.

Hey Dennis, you've got a nice blaster and after adding the parts from Blue Snaggletooth it even got better! Just wondered about the recoil spring. As far as I know, there should be only 11 coils visible when it's installed Is there no pin at the front sight? And no ring on the end cap? (hard to tell by the angle of these photos)

Okay Germain, I thought about your comment and started working on a separate thread for the armor. Will have it online in a few days and keep you updated here.

Hm, not sure if I should make a thread for this, as the armor has been fully finished and completed by Troopermaster himself. During the ordering process at the end of last year, I was just too scared to mess up this high-end prop. Of course I already did some optimizations & supplements and took several photos of each, but I don't want to bore anybody here (in case such threads already exist). And I don't know where exactly to post this (as it is not a complete build).

Hey Aaron, don't worry about the tooth. If you later add some weathering to the helmet you could eventually cover (or conceal) that discoloration. You did a good job so far - also on the bubble lenses! Haven't seen this before.