Haribon72

Let's paint the Ears. We decide to paint the ears first and then install them later. Its easier to paint them seperate rather than on the helmet. I purchased a punch set to make perfect circle as stencils. We want to use a quarter of the circle to get clean curves.

I'm sure Michael will be converting the ANH holster to ESB shortly. Very easy to do.

Awesome! Don't worry so much about cracking. I was worried mine would crack and start breaking, but its been good so far. I really like the use of the paint bucket and I must try that someday on other costume characters i'm working on (i.e. Mandolorian armor). Great find and use. Let me know what spray paint you used. Last February, I used this paint.

Awesome shim work. Waiting to see if this works for you!

Wow! Great job on the boots!!!

Ammo pack for the thigh. Done. We're going to heat bend the ammo pack this weekend. We don't want to bend it now because we still have to clam shell the thighs on Bingo. Okay.. have a great evening (or day). To be continued . . .

Best way to cut it off. 1. Solid surface 2. One by four wood 3. Sharp utility knife 4. Patience (take your time) Burr the edges and sand. Done.

Let's work on the sniper knee. I'm going to leave 7mm at the top of the knee. Adding more cut out areas to give it a movie look.

This is the ABS cement i'm using. It came with the kit. You can buy this cement on Amazon: WELD ON 771 ABS (make sure its MILKY color). Note: This cement is strong with a cement odor when wet. After it dries, the odor is gone. After applying it, it takes about four hours to cure and set. Overnight is best. If you need to remove or disassemble an armor piece, you will be using a chisel and light hammer to separate the cement bond. I like this cement because it will hold better than E6000 (also I can't stand the smell of E6000 - even after it dries).

Glue the cover strip to the inside (don't forget to sand it down before gluing). Once you finish gluing the lower legs together, the armor will need to set overnight. Again there's no cover strip to the front lower legs. We are creating a clam shell for Bingo to put his legs into so we can get a nice measurement before we trim the back of the legs (lower and thighs). That's the idea to my method. Ready for the clam shell fitting this weekend.

Sand it down using our home made belt sander. We saved our cut out piece to make our 20mm cover strip for the inside only!

Next, we're going to cut off the front part of the lower leg to make a 20mm butt joint. I'm starting from the inside again because it has a clean line for measurement. We want 10mm on each side.

Sand off the debris

Next, remove the return edge of the top of the armor. We don't need it. Use a strong utility knife for cutting.

Cutting. Measure from the top of the ankle to the bottom of the knee. Mark the armor and cut all of the bottom off (following the old curvature). The distance between Bingo's top ankle and bottom of his knee is 12.5 inches. (The actual distance was 13.0 inches but we removed 1/2 inch more for the TK boots clearance).

The legs with 10mm edges, I will use them as the left lower leg. The legs with 5mm will be the right leg (with the ammo pack).

Lower Legs This how I build them in preparation for fitting. This is the same process as the thigh assembly. This is how I identify the left and right lower legs. The CRL shows a bigger return edge on the left leg. Here are two legs (side by side). One is shows 10mm One shows 5mm.

Re-use the cut out as an inside joint cover and backing. Glue this piece only first and let it set over night. Sand off both sides of the cut off. Make trims on the ends if necessary. Glue, clamp, magnets, and let it cure overnight. Continue the same process on the other thigh, finish it up, and call it a night. I used blue painters tape to keep the ABS cement from leaking to the front of the thighs. Right now there is no cover strip to the front. There's a reason to my method. Bingo wasn't around this evening. So we'll continue the thighs this weekend.

Finished look after sanding.

If you don't have a belt sander, this is a great tip. Lay your plumber's sanding tape onto your cutting mat and tape it down like this . . . This is going to help smooth out your straight edges. Sand your armor = side to side. Take your time and go slow then speed up your sanding when it feels smooth.

Next, remove the bottom return edge. We don't need it. Mark with a pencil and then cut.

This is the removal pic and sanding portion. SAVE YOUR CUT OUT! We will use it as an inside joint cover. Note: I'm sanding just the 10mm surface (front and back). We want to ensure our ABS cement will have the strongest bond.

You can also use shears to cut straight edges. I bought this one from Home Depot.

Next, I want to cut the front thighs. I'm marking the inside of the armor instead of the outside because I want to get a precise measurement. NE has a clean line inside so I can get a 10mm edge after cutting it.

Here's an example of a finished inner thigh cut (sanded down after making the cut). Notice I blended the cut into the inside return edge of the inner thigh. This is what we want for now.