Jim13csulb

Thanks for the words of encouragement! Im sure it will as I have found the kit to be pretty straightforward. I did find that the kidney and butt plate had alot (like a ton) of extra material. I didnt figure this out untill I tried fitting it all together and needed to take about 4 inches off the kidney on both sides to make it fit to my abb plate. If you follows the videos MTK has and take a look at some ATA builds youll be fine! Do you have a link to your MTK build? Id love to take a look!

Nice Job! Its coming along nicely, Im currently working on an MTK kit as well, and Im loving every minute of it! Im eager to see how your build progresses!!!

Hey everyone, I wanted to also make a quick post here about the left bicep. As you can tell from the picture earlier it does seem to be a bit larger than the other. I have set out to fix this, the first thing I did was measure the circumference and learned that each had within 1/16 the same, meaning that they were the were simply shaped differently. Know this was pretty obvious as the left has a oval shape to it while the right had a round shape. So my thought was simply make the left more round like the right. So with my heat gun and alot of patience I was able to get it to a rounder state. so it is looking better, but not 100% yet. To be honest this is the only frustrating part that I have had so far. But no worries I will get it all sorted out. Im getting ready to head out right now to purchase a mannequin to put my armor on, so hopefully a little later today youll see a pic of my new mannequin!

Hey Germain, Unfortunately the rivet on the sniper plate is going to be taken out all together, as I should of simply glued the sucker on there. I noticed my left bicep was larger as well, it is a piece I believe is derived from a ROTJ tour suit, but Im going to try and make it fit me a little better! Once again thank you so much for the input!!!!

Hey there Adam, Yep my helmet kit had the 5th little inlet that could be cut to make a hole.... but I didnt cut it out. I dont think we are supposed to. Im not sure if its something wrong with the mold, or its on the original or what, but I just put some paint over the top of it and acted like it wasnt there at all! -James

Test fitting some stuff together Its coming along! Any comments would be greatly appreciated! I have since adjusted the Right shoulder bell to sit a little closer

Started test fitting pieces together. This is my lower half.... Then I threw on part of the top. Please note that nothing is connected here, Im literally just holding it on And some of the top armor

So next thing I would like to share with you all is my thermal detonator thingy..... my kit came witht he PVC pipe and white bits to assemble it, however there are no clips to hold it to the belt. I knew this coming in and I am pretty crafty, or at least I tend to think I am.... so I decided to make my own. I first went to Joanns..... they didnt have craft metal..... went to michaels.... didnt have craft metal...... went to home depot, and they had aluminum. I picked up a piece that is 1 in wide, 28 in long, and 1/8th in thick. I thiught it was a bit thick, but its all they had. Later in the day I went to target with my mother and stumbled acrossed some metal rulers. These arent the one with cork on the back but were some sort of "trendy" new recycled ruler thing. I bought two.... they are a hair (1/32 or 1/16th) bigger than an inch, but they will do. As well they are a bit easier to bend and had a rather cool looking metallic color to them. SO heres the build First was to take off the numbers with some goof off, as well as get the intial bend in the piece Then I made the second bend at the top, I decided to use the thicker piece of aluminum to bend it around. sorry about it being a little blurry, I didnt notice till after I took it then I cut the ends and sanded them to get any burs off. Then went ahead and screwed it on with some lock washers inside Lastly I assembled the entire thing! Unfortunately the left side looks a little larger, so im going to have to go back and fix it.... but not to shabby for some rulers....

Thank you Mathias!

I just noticed that this is not in the "build thread" how can I move it or get it moved? And thanks MTK your kit is amazing! cant wait for that neck seal!

Next on my list is to get the bucket completed! Pre trim Trimmed the top of the face and the sides of it! Then trimmed the top/back. I used the little S shape that I saw to trim it out. It was kind of faint but it was there enough Then out came the teeth and eyes. I am very handy with my dremel so I used that for a majority of the trimming. Following some other build threads, cutting the teeth from the back was simple. I must say that I really like the "twinky" shaped teeth similar to the pandatrooper build, so I went with that route. next came rivets on the sides, I used two one on the top and one on the bottom..... later I had to drill one out as one bottom one interfered with the screw for the ear Next I started to get some paint down! Put the mic tips in... I was kind of unsure about where exactly they go, I think I got them right, but then again what do I know lol Mouth mesh, I put this in with some hot glue. Later I cut quite a bit off as it was scratching the bottom of my nose. Then I stuck my ears on... I didnt take any pictures of this but it was a long process. I read somewhere that an experienced builder can do an ear in about 20-30 minutes..... let me just say that it took me quite a bit longer... heck alot longer for each ear.... I am pretty happy with how they came out tho! Stuck my decals on, the lens is in and it looks pretty good. I must say that I mess something up though because apparently one side of tube stripes has an extra one.... and I couldnt get that one to fit.... so now they both have the same amount of stripes.. I then bought a set of padding used in a military style helmet and stuck it in. I have now replaced the round pad on top with a very thin pad from a ghetto bike helmet, now I have a better field of vision and its is much more comfortable. And I completed it for now...... dont mind my brothers finger in the bottom right hand corner..... hahahah Im happy with how it has came out and I cant wait to start trooping with it. If you have any questions, comments, or want to yell at me for messing something up.... please let me know!!!!!

PACKAGES ARRIVE! and The fist set of boxes contained a few items I needed. Ones fram amazon with a parachute bucket, snaps, and all that good stuff. The other is from trooperbay and has my canvas belt, abb/kidney rivet things, some elastic, and the gloves. The second as you can tell is my boots! These come from tk boots and were not A quality, however when you put them on the slight warping at the top is not visible due to the shin armor, so a great find! However I must say that I wish I knew they were going to ship out from Anaheim, CA as I intern at Anaheim City Hall for the City Manager's Office and could of picked up the package from the supplier and not had to pay the shipping cost, but owell. I now have a few more items on order..... my neck seal from trooper bay and a few other nik naks. Also got the template to make my holster! woohoo!

Hey everyone, so this uploading photos thing isnt working out to splendid for me.... However I have been taking pics all along the way. Heres is what the armor looked like when I first got it Christmas morning I first began by trying to assemble the arms, I went about this by following the online tutorials of Trooperbay's website! they were a great help. Unfortunately there is a bit of a gap in the videos between trimming the abb and torso and actually assembling that section. If im not mistaken he states that his computer crashed and lost that section of the tutorial, but not to worry its a great help even missing a few parts. I did not take a picture of the arms, I was to excited and totally forgot! I was literally running around the day after X-mas with the forearm pieces on. I felt sooooo cool! After that I went on to the shins, I heard that they were going to be a bit tricky, but I think I managed to do pretty well on them. It looks a little off in that pic, but not really off too much in person. I did however make my first mistake here..... I used a split rivet to hold it on there. Im going to have to get approved, then take it apart, fill the hole and put it on with glue to get my EIB certification. I then did the thighes, but I did not actually finish them untill the rest of the pieces were trimmed and all that. I was unsure of how to fit them to me properly so I simply taped them in the back for the longest time. I moved on to the torso.... Got this puppy all trimmed out and ready to go! This is such an exciting project, and Im so happy to finally begin my mission of joining the 501st!

I wanted to chime in here, I bought one of his ebay auction kits. Its a spectacular kit! I have also made a few purchases from his site trooperbay, which arrived super fast! He has always responded very quickly regarding any orders! MTK is great!!!!

I might be wrong but I believe it was filmed in burbank. Ill check and post what I find.

Hello Everyone, I am very excited to begin documenting the progress of my TK armor, but before I jump right into the armor Ill tell you a little more about me. My name is James and I am from Orange County California (Anaheim area, you know... Disneyland, Anaheim Ducks, Angels Baseball and all that good stuff). I am currently a full time student getting ready to graduate from California State University, Long Beach where I study Political Science and Government. I have been a huge star wars fan since I was much younger and have always dreamed to become a member of the 501st, but untill recently that was no more than a dream. Now to the armor.... I am excited to announce that I am the proud new owner of a MTK armor kit!!!!! I purchased the kit about a month before christmas, but had to wait till Xmas untill I could actually open it up. As of right now I am about a week into the build. I seem to be making decent progress and I anticipate trying to keep this updated as possible. As I mentioned before, since I have already begun the build, I figure that the first few posts and images will be more of a cluster and later it will seem to progress along. Feel free to leave me any hints or tips, or anything for that matter as help and recommendations is always encouraged! Thanks, James It appears all the files I have are to large to upload via the forum attachment capabilities.... I guess I will have to bust begin posting on a photo hosting site and simply use the link. So untill I am able to get that up and running just think how spectacular it could be...... then divide that in half, and then that again.... and thats probably where Im at! jk UPDATED PHOTOS:

Nice Job Matt, Its looking good. I too recently bought one of these kits, I know he had 4 available about a month ago, im guesing you and I were both 2 of the buyers! Unfortunately I am also having a slight issue with my biceps. One (i believe my left) is quite larger than the other. I have not fixed or changed anything yet as I am still putting it all together. I bought it, but couldnt open it till Christmas Day.... Nice Job so far!