IronTusk

501st access please. TI 51412 http://www.501st.com/members/displaymemberdetails.php?userID=17239

Thanks for the answers! I cut it as close as I could with the construction. I pretty much only had enough space to screw the face and cap pieces together so its not like I went crazy with the trimming. Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

For those of you who either have, have had, have tried on, or just know, are ATA helmets smaller than other makers? I have an ATA and my head barely gets in it. I know they aren't supposed to be enormous but I don't have that big of a noggin and I have to put mine on very slowly and twist it just right. It folds the tops of my ears down and everything. From pics I've seen of others' helmets, the openings look a lot bigger than on mine. It'd be nice to have a little bigger helmet that isn't so tight. Any insight is appreciated! Thanks! Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Looks great! I can't wait to spend a lot of time grinding my mag housing out once I get my new magazine in the mail! And I mean that without sarcasm lol. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

That sounds like a good way of doing it. Since mine are mostly intact and I'll just have to fill in where the paint pulled up, I'm just gonna fix that spot and leave the rest. If it comes to not getting approved because of that area, I'll redo them but until then I'm just gonna go with it. Thanks for the advice! I'll get pics on here when I get them done.

Well I bought the Model Masters French Blue because there was a color guide on here saying to use it, so I wanted to be accurate. I know I could probably go with any similar color and be alright, but if someone says, "I used (fill in name of product) for this," I usually try to stick with that exact thing since I know it's been used with good results instead of taking a chance.

I think I'll take it back to exchange for a new bottle. I shook it for a few minutes. Then I read to stir it, so I did that for a pretty long time and it was still like water. The jar looks old compared to the other ones I got, so no telling how old it is. http://rs129.pbsrc.com/albums/p230/tgreen1386/Mobile%20Uploads/photo8_zps0899b7d8.jpg~320x480

Alright. I guess I'll pick up some paint thinner tomorrow and take em off. The mineral spirits did take off quite a bit of it, but not all of it. Should that paint be thick like the other Testors paints? Didn't know if I should take it back or try to use it again.

Here's the other side. It has a couple stripes where the paint pulled up, but it fared much better. http://rs129.pbsrc.com/albums/p230/tgreen1386/Mobile%20Uploads/photo7_zpsc14f5cbe.jpg~320x480?t=1392957297

I used some mineral spirits on the spots. It helped, but it's not 100%. The uneven stripes are the result of paint coming off with the template when I removed it. They were on there pretty straight. I think my paint might have had something to do with it. The gray and black I used were pretty thick and the french blue for the stripes was pretty watery. Testors' website said to stir the paint instead of shaking it if it was thin or watery. i stirred it for quite awhile yet the consistency stayed the same. I figured I could use it and just do a few layers to get the color even. When I pulled the templates off for the tear and trap stripes I didn't have any trouble at all with bleeding/coming up with the template. Obviously I have to even out the stripes along the bottom where the paint pulled up, but do you think the faint blue between the 11th and 12th stripe will be a problem for approval? http://rs129.pbsrc.com/albums/p230/tgreen1386/Mobile%20Uploads/photo6_zps28986ab8.jpg~320x480?t=1392956985

Hey, I painted the tube stripes using the templates from Trooperbay and when I removed them, I had bleeding and paint coming up. On a couple spots where there was bleeding, I, like and idiot, used an exacto knife to scrape away the paint instead of just using my fingernail, which I soon discovered worked great. The couple spots that I used the knife roughed up the surface a bit and now the blue doesn't want to come off. Should I just find a paint that matches and cover it or is there a better solution? Didn't know if anyone had run into this or a similar issue that required painting some white on the helmet. Thanks for any help you can give! I keep trying to upload the picture from photobucket, but FISD is telling me I'm not allowed to use that link, so I'm just posting a link to it. Sorry for the inconvenience. http://s129.photobucket.com/user/tgreen1386/media/E20FF811-30AC-4BCB-B646-F52518CBE00C_zps5msy3u6p.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0

Thanks for the link! Here are the pics I was trying to upload.

After turning my dremel on and off about 400 times, I managed to get the ears done. Maybe. Do you guys think these are acceptable? I've seen similar gaps on other builds so I thought I'd go with it. But if you guys don't think they look very good, I can always break out the dremel again and go to the second pair if I have to! Also, the website won't let me upload any pictures. Is there a way around this aside from posting links? https://bay177.mail.live.com/att/GetAttachment.aspx?tnail=0&messageId=ffa0d8e7-96c3-11e3-87a5-00215ad823d4&Aux=4|0|8D0F8E7E94113D0||0|0|0|0||&cid=280d34cf17bc83ab&maxwidth=220&maxheight=160&size=Att https://bay177.mail.live.com/att/GetAttachment.aspx?tnail=0&messageId=cf24e00f-96c4-11e3-baf1-00237de3ede0&Aux=4|0|8D0F8E8B7155690||0|0|0|0||&cid=280d34cf17bc83ab&maxwidth=220&maxheight=160&size=Att

Well, I screwed the cap and faceplate together and I can tell that with a little trimming around the bottom it should go on my head fairly easily. But once I got it on, I discovered a new problem. I pretty much can't wear my glasses with the helmet . I have some older glasses that don't stick out from my face as much as my current ones do, but it's still really close with those and I'm worried that once I install the green plastic lens, my glasses are either not going to fit or are going to be against the lens. Anybody else have this problem? Also, do ATA helmets run smaller than other makers? If so I guess I might have to get a helmet from someone else and hope that my ATA armor will fit me when I get it.

Thanks for the advice everyone! It's very much appreciated!

Sorry, attached a few photos but they didn't load.

Hey, everyone! I'm a new member to the website and a hopeful future 501st member, after I get my armor in 7~ months :/ Anyway, I received my helmet a few days ago and have been hard away at it with no issues as of yet. Until now. I've been reading thread after thread, over and over on here the last several days and have been following the steps all of you have so graciously laid out for newbs like me I got to the point of screwing/riveting, depending on personal preference, the faceplate and cap together and everything seems to line up well and look like what I'm seeing on others' builds, but when I clamped the two pieces together, I tried to put the helmet on to make sure I'm not making the opening too small and it does seem small. Like scraping my face small. And I wear glasses, so that makes it even worse. Is this commonplace for everyone? Does it "straighten out" once they're actually attached? I would really appreciate anybody's response, as I'm kinda at a stop on my build since I don't want to move forward if I'm doing something wrong :/ Thanks!