AsBlondeAsLuke

Thanks so much for the feedback. Glad to know we're not alone with struggling with the ears. We actually get to do another helmet as soon as this one is done, so we get another chance to get this thing right. The helmet pictured above is a Scootch bucket. We're going to work on the RS helmet next. Can't wait actually. All the final pieces of the RS kit came in today. The best surprises seem to come in brown boxes with customs' slips. Woo hoo! Smaller gloves. Thank you Rob at RS for finding me smaller gloves. These are the ear pieces for my RS bucket, (which I haven't started yet.) Love how clearly the lines are marked where you cut. It's like "ears for dummies." And, my undersuit is finally here! All one piece, eh? Guess once you are suited up, you are committed. Don't even think about peeing. And, the neck seal arrived today. Seriously, best day since Christmas. One thing I noticed right away, though, as soon as you combine the neck seal with the helmet, (gasp), it gets hot in there. No more cool ventilating breezes coming out the gaping hole in the bottom. Fans. I need fans. And, a haircut. I'm not wearing one of those bala-whatever thingies. Hot enough here in Cali without adding to the heat.

Hey All- Thanks so much for the feedback. We took off the ear in question to see if we could reverse it, and/or replace it with one of the spare ones we have. Doesn't look like any of the others are going to be a better fit. We sanded right down to the "line" on the ears, which was probably our fatal mistake. No matter what we do, or which ear we choose, I don't think we're going to get a better fit. I think we just cut it wrong to start with... Those ears and tubes are just not becoming one with the Force. So, we've decided to order a new set of ears and start over again.

Aw, Ben, you're not the bearer of bad news. If it's not right, I'm happy to change it. That's what having a build thread is all about. I think it might just be my lousy pics throwing things off. I'm pretty sure I have the ear pieces on the correct sides because they wouldn't fit on the other way. I have a second set of ear pieces since Scootch provides two sets, but the other set also has a gap when matched up. Husband and I are thinking if we need to we can order a new set of ear pieces and sand them less to try to get them more flush. But, from reading other build threads I get the impression the ear gap is a characteristic of the ANH Stunt? Another pic. As they say when you are stepping onto the subway, mind the gap. Thoughts?

Thanks, Kyle. Appreciate the support. OK, headed out to the beach soon, so I'll try to get as many pics up as I can before we go. First step today was trying to figure out the placement of the brow line. We used this as the reference picture and there's definite leeway in the brow height. Plus, after talking to Kyle and Brian at the GGG event on Friday night, Kyle pointed out the main way to tell the difference between the two of them was the difference in height on their brow trim. Here's what we decided upon. We wrestled a lot with the ear pieces trying to get them to sit properly. But, from all the build threads I've read, everyone else goes through this, too, so we're not alone. And, no matter what we did, they didn't want to sit quite flush, which is apparently normal for the ANH Stunt helmets, as I understand it? Just part of the charm? Here's the final gap. Is this alright? Or, does it need to be redone? Filled in?

Finished off the helmet tonight and got it ready for painting. Will post the detailed thread pics tomorrow so the collective wisdom can help spot errors. Our cattle dog immediately fell in love with the newly assembled helmet. Proves everyone loves a stormtrooper. As if there was any doubt.

Thanks Daetrin! I'm really enjoying the process as we go through it and learning more than I thought possible. Looking forward to being able to help others one day when they start their builds.

Thanks, Scootch. Absolutely loving the helmet (as you can probably tell.)

Oh my... Just busted an eye clamp laughing... And now, I'm blind. Thank you for that, Tolo... No, seriously, I am going trooping with the clamps on my Scootch bucket. This is a good look for me.

Oh, you just wait, Tolo, everyone will be wearing that look soon.

Ah, Walter. No worries about your chin. Nobody sees it without your bucket on anyway. Thanks Tolo and Steve for the clarification on the chest and backplate. So, the focus this week was on the helmet. I've been afraid to touch the RS helmet since the material feels thin. It is probably just me and my paranoia but it feels like it is going to snap in my hands. So, Cousin Walter suggested I get a Scootch helmet and work on another helmet first before attempting the thinner RS one. Hmmmm.... an excuse to end up with two helmets? Sure. So, I ordered the helmet on a Sunday and it arrived already on Wednesday. Thanks Scootch! My little one seems insistent on modeling these things right out of the box. Here he is wearing the cap of the Scootch bucket. Here he is wearing the faceplate of the RS helmet, the day the big boxes arrived. There is a definite difference in "heft" between the two buckets. Non-Star Wars husband actually got excited about the new helmet and started working on it right after dinner. I tried to contain my shock so as to not scare him off like a shy Ewok on Endor. Watching assembly videos, since we didn't have much of a clue on how to assemble the thing. Thank you TrooperBay Mike. (He is working on a "Move Along Helmet" in his video so there are some slight differences. We also used this reference photo.) Time to bust out the Dremel. My husband said he's had it for years and hasn't really used it. I said: "See, husband? Isn't this a great hobby?" He scowled at me with a look worthy of a bounty hunter, and said: "I have a hobby. I surf." (Hah. I surf too, but it doesn't mean I can't love a galaxy far far away.) Anyway, it looks like he is slowly getting a second hobby. I exposing him to a whole new world. I was amused that the Dremel is called a tool for the imagination. I thought that was appropriate. Dremeling out the teeth Still need to file the teeth. After reading other build threads on helmets, we both liked the "Twinkie" shaped teeth. I also read a build thread saying the original look/intent of the teeth are to resemble the jagged jaws of a Great White Shark. (We've actually seen these out surfing, but none with their mouths open, fortunately.) So, my question is how "perfect" or how "ragged" should the teeth be to achieve this shark-look? Cutting the ears using our curved Lexan scissors. Cutting the angled curves was a huge pain. We cut wide and left plenty of room for the Dremel. We then sanded them to remove the rough bits. No pictures of that since we were both so busy sanding, but it was memorable for the amount of noise it made. Our dog went running upstairs and hid from the ruckus. Dremeling out the ears. So many plastic bits starting fly up that husband starting singing: "Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow." Probably the only snow we'll see in Gilroy this year. Not sure if I married him for the stunning good looks or the witty sense of humor, but he's a keeper. These are the ear pieces after being Dremeled. Next step will be to drill in the requisite three ANH Stunt screw holes. Hmmmm.... not sure I'd pass Imperial Inspection yet. But, we're making progress.

OK, I have a question. How do the bottom corner and sides attach? Is it a clamshelled using Velcro or left open and held together using elastic?

Been busy over the past couple of weeks. Before we left for the holidays, we finished up the arms. On the original sizing, they were too big. So, we sized them down again. Been doing that with everything. Trimming everything just a little at a time, and sizing the pieces down a little at a time. Will probably still end up padding some of the pieces out with foam or something to make me look bigger than I actually am, but for now I'm just trying to get the armor small enough to fit. We headed off to New York for the holidays, so no building got done. But, woo hoo, snow! A big treat for us surf bums. Back home again and back to building. Decided to tackle the thighs next. Gah. So huge. Could fit and a girlfriend inside these things. And, husband runs off to go surfing. But, it's cool. My shoulder has healed enough that I can finally CUT stuff. I attack the shins. The next day, cousin Walter comes over, husband agrees to stay home from surfing, and we actually end up building for almost nine hours. It is the greatest day ever. Walter's much further along than me. Gah. I'm impressed. He sets to work helping me get caught up. Makes him the best cousin ever. Walter trimming down the shoulder bells. We tried to figure out the RS strapping system. We decided to put it aside until later and went with Velcro for now. Walter said the strapping system would probably be better in some places, but since I'm not that big and won't put a huge amount of strain on the pieces, I'm not going to bust the armor open. I showed a picture of a friend running in their armor and told my end goal was so I could run in my armor. Everything had to fit perfect AND not fall off. Working on the backplate. Walter came up with this ingenious system based upon watching his friends do detailing on their cars and motorcycles. Rather than tracing everything out by pencil, he uses the purple tape instead to mark where the work needs to be done. It is much easier to move things around than erasing pencil marks. Trimming down the shoulder straps. We had purchased 300 and 600 grit sandpaper, but Walter brought over even better stuff that he uses as work. (I think he called it plumber's sandpaper.) It was far superior. Time to take a break. The fun part about having a cousin who appreciates Star Wars is that I finally have someone who can appreciate my colllection of vintage movie cards. Granted, I'm showing my age here, but I've had some of these since 1977. Probably should get a better shoebox. I think that box goes back to the 70s, too. Back to work, checking the fit of the shins. Attaching the pieces together. Adding in velcro. Test-fitting some of the pieces for the first time. Husband said I had the biggest smile on my face. Hey, it's a happy moment. A lot of work to be done, though. Everything still needs to be sized down. We have ordered a heat gun online. Need to figure out the melting point of the RS armor. Double and triple-checking things against the costume requirements on the 501st website. Have to admit it feels like a big puzzle trying to figure all of this out and find all the pieces you need. Comparing my RS helmet against Walter's Scootch helmet. The RS helmet seems so THIN. I still don't want to touch it. Put it aside for later. By the end of the day, we had what looks like a dead stormtrooper on the kitchen floor. (That's Walter's helmet.) Still a long way to go, but made some good progress.

Fearful? (knees knocking in terror) Uh... just a bit. Oh, there will be plenty of questions.

Mathias, ah, I thought it might be something like that. More accidental changes than intentional. Walter, awesome. Would love to get the help on the build. Could use all the help we can get. So, I had good news from RS Props. I'll admit that I whined back to them about my oversized Wookie gloves. They responded back immediately and said while the gloves are supposed to fit loosely, they are definitely not supposed to be THAT big. They offered to send out a new pair in the smallest size they had so I could get a better fit. Nice of them to be responsive. I'll probably just set them aside in case I decide to go Centurion or something, since everyone says the rubber gloves burn like the sands of Tatooine during a troop. But, it is good to have them, nonetheless. Realized after this weekend's build that we didn't have quite the right tools to get the job done. So we headed out to our local massive hardware store to get even more stuff for building armor. More cutting tools. The ABS plastic is proving tougher to cut through than we anticipated. We decided upon this knife set because it has many different blades, including some curved ones. 300 and 600 grip sandpaper for all those rough edges. And, my undersuit still hasn't arrived. (sigh) But, Champion makes something similar to UnderArmor and they have it a whole array of sizes. I found this at Target, and like everything else right now, it was discounted for the holidays. Should work nicely for the fittings until my undersuit finally shows up. So, apparently a butcher glove is useful for not cutting through your hand. I want to start doing my own building soon and I know my coordination is a bit off due to my shoulder surgery. I figured this item would be a "must have" for me. (I came very close to cutting off the tip of one of my fingers while chopping onions on Thanksgiving. Husband suggested I stay away from knives until my dexterity improves.) When I asked about a "butcher glove" at the hardware store, they gave me blank stares. But, Amazon.com offered a whole variety of them. I guess I'll know soon if the thing actually works or not.

Ah, that explains a lot. Thank you. I think I should start referring to you guys as the "fountain of collective wisdom." So, forgive me if this is a stupid question, but why did they bother changing the suits at all from movie to movie? I mean, why move the holster from the left to the right and other such changes?

Hello everyone- Thanks for all the advice. It is all very helpful. Maz, Mrs. Kain may come over to the Empire yet one of these days. Never thought I could get my surfer dude husband so interested in a Star Wars project. He keeps insisting it is only because "he likes putting things together" and this is "an engineering challenge." Yet, all he has been talking about lately is putting this armor together and how we're going to get it down right. And, now he says we have to invest in the right set of tools in case we want to build a second set of armor once we're done with the first. Seriously? I just want to get one set done. Steve, Good to know about those gloves. They look pretty horrid. I was thinking of cutting off the squishy handguard piece that is glued to them and putting them on something better fitting. I will look up the Nomex gloves you mentioned. Alright, so today was a research day. We went to the Star Wars exhibit at the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose. Amazingly, the husband last two hours there. That's almost more than the sum total of time he spent at Celebration in Orlando. (I left him home when I went to Celebration Europe.) So, yes, two hours. There is hope yet for those of us married to folks who just don't seem to love a GFFA as much as we do. I was amused by the "mini me" clone trooper next to the stormtrooper. But, seriously, they couldn't put a full-sized clone trooper? And, the caption read: "Stormtrooper. Episodes IV-VI." Huh? Which is it? Episode IV. Episode V. or Episode VI? If they were going to show movie props, then it would have been much cooler to show the transitions the iconic armor went through over the course of trilogy. It is the most recognizable symbol of the movies next to Darth Vader himself. Who doesn't love a stormtrooper? It was very helpful to see the assembled armor up close because now this whole "return edge" business made perfect sense. We could see all of the places where there are return edges and how it adds strength to key areas of the suit. So, this was interesting. Look at the seams on the forearms. No cover strip. Are those required, or do they just make building easier (more forgiving with regards to cuts not being perfectly straight?) The gloves were some kind of canvas material, and definitely not rubber. On the way out, I drooled over this original movie prop Stormtrooper blaster. I don't own a blaster yet, but a girl can dream.

Steve- Thanks for explaining about the return edge. Good advice about reading up on RS builds. I just used the search engine so I could scope out just the recent RS ANH builds and spent the evening reading them. I found yours and it was incredibly detailed and helpful. I see I'm not the only one perplexed by the mystery of the randomly long right forearm. Good to read about all the strengths and weaknesses of this particular armor. Keith- Thanks for the encouragement. We're headed to the Tech tomorrow (Star Wars exhibit) because I believe they have a stormtrooper suit as part of the exhibit. Husband wants to study how the pieces fit together. Considering he is not a Star Wars guy, (he lasted three hours at Celebration VI), I give him credit for the interest he's shown in the project.

I'm Diana. I've never wanted to be Princess Leia. I always wanted to be the stormtrooper that shot Princess Leia. The two big brown boxes arrive at the beginning of November. I gazed adoringly at my new armor, but couldn't start building. I had shoulder surgery at the beginning of November, so in the beginning, I simply peek at the armor and spend a great deal of time on FISD reading. Well, there it is. All nicely packed. It sits in a box for weeks. Husband is away traveling in Europe, Europe and a few more places in Europe. He promises to help with the build when he gets home. Husband finally arrives home. And, brings chocolate. It's very sweet. He always is. But, I don't want chocolate. I want to build armor. My son happily takes all of his chocolate and mine, too. We finally unpack the boxes. There is no packing list. Sigh. We stare at everything in confusion trying to figure out all these mysterious pieces. Did we get everything we ordered? Well, there is no way of knowing. We ordered... armor. We got... a whole bunch of... pieces. RS emails to say my neckseal and bodysuit are on backorder. They later email to say the ears are missing. (And, by later, I mean, much later. Beginning of January.) Again, packing list. Is there a paper shortage? I'll send them some. We might lack water in California, but we do have paper. From the time I placed the order to the time it arrived on my doorstep in Gilroy, it took four weeks. Not bad at all. Oddly enough, they accidentally included the molds for the hand guards with the gloves. (You can see the in the picture.) Eh, OK. Thanks? Of all of the pieces, the holster is my favorite. It has this amazing leather smell. The gloves are... a cross between something you would wash dishes in and use to clean up a disaster at Chernobyl. They are sized for Chewbacca, and flop around on my hands like a useless extra appendage. And, despite how huge they are, somehow, they immediately began to make my hands sweat. Ghastly awful things. Screen-accurate, though. The boots look nice. But, they are also much too big on me. Wish they did fit. They're beautiful boots. I bought the "strapping kit." It seems crazy expensive at the time, but so was the kit. It made sense to not have to spend time running around having to find these pieces and focus on building. As it is, there are a ton of little pieces. I double-bag everything so nothing gets lost. The kit comes with "plastic adhesive.", I read hear on the boards the stuff is useless. I toss it out. Oddly enough, the ab buttons come pre-painted. I open up the next box.... Ugggh. The helmet. I was expecting something different. Not liking the helmet. It feels like it can snap in my hands. I expected the material to be heavier and more substantial. I put it back in the box. I'll deal with it later. I feel... overwhelmed. We have no basement, (it is California, after all.) Our garage is husband's manly man gym, so most building will be done in the kitchen and family room (center of activity in the house.) In between work sessions, the armor needs a safe home. After reading the threads on storage, I decide upon the 55-gallon Stanley chest. It's huge. You can't fault the storage capacity. Despite how big the box is, I'm not sure how to get all of the armor pieces to fit in there. It all seems like a huge jigsaw puzzle and I don't know how they go together. I'm so afraid the armor is going to break if I handle it the wrong way. However, after more research, I decide to put the smaller arm pieces inside the bigger arm pieces, and then the same with the legs, etc. Everything fits easily. Day One of Building. First step was figuring out right and left forearm pieces. It helped to know the right outer forearm has 12 dimples and the left forearm has 11 dimples. Although, I don't get why they can't actually just label these pieces. Me and my crazy ideas. That is my husband, in the photo. The buff, swarthy one. Using the Exacto-blade was frustrating, so we switch over to the curved Lexan scissors. By "we" I mean that I make helpful suggestions and my husband is doing all the work. I'm right-handed and my right arm is still out-of-commission since the surgery. However, I'm full of it. Er, full of helpful suggestions. So, I do all the research and he does the heavy lifting. Cut faster, honey. You're doing a great job. (Actually, it's frustrating not being able to do any of this yet, but I'm grateful my husband is willing to step in and get the armor started. Without him, the pieces would still simply be sitting there.) We finish quickly and moved on to trimming the biceps. Questions: Why is the bottom piece on the right forearm so excessively long? Also, what is a "return edge?"

Thanks all for the great advice. This is very helpful and has given me a good idea of where to start. I actually took everything out of the box yesterday, and I think I may have even identified all of the mystery pieces. "Ah, not an Imperial cup holder. It is the cap for the thermal detonator."

So, my big box arrived today from RS Props. Everything I need to do the build is there, including the helmet and strapping kit. I'm not sure where to start. Do I try to do the most difficult parts first and save the easy parts for last? Or, vice versa? Helmet first, body parts last? Staring at this big box of plastic and feeling intimidated. There was a little triangular piece and I couldn't even figure out which part of the body it goes on. I've been doing my research and my reading, but I'm still feeling overwhelmed. I feel like I'm going to break something if I handle it the wrong way, so most of it I've left in the box untouched. Could use some advice here. Thanks.

Thanks for the tips for new troopers section. Very helpful.