PGHtoolman

Progress update: Snaps and straps done for Back Shoulder ridges trimmed to size Belt ammo plastic part trimmed to size Right thigh trimmed to size Left thigh front trimmed and glued Too much work going on to take pictures last night

I took my neck size and added a half inch. Same as a dress shirt neck size if that helps.

I used what Eric said, Testors Semi-Gloss Black #1139 -----------

Progress report: new snap plates glued on back, kidney and butt biceps fixed and glued shins glued right thigh trimmed and glued everything will need a cover strip glued next. No photos to show, but trust me it made a huge leap forward. As fast as the build is now going there will not be much time for photography. I will come back and take detailed photos of the different sections and explain how it was done.

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/26301-ne-helmet-build/ I can’t recommend this thread enough, its a great place to start

Put second and third coat of paint for tips and chin. Used a new Model Master Semi Gloss Black instead of the Model Master Classic Black that I used on the first coat. The rank stripe might need to be a little bit bigger what do you think?

Today was the day I decided that I am going for the off the screen vs off the set. I know with my armor the way it is I can not get to centurian and with the investment I have made so far, I am ok with that. I have gone with the painted metal buttons for the ab instead of painting the raised ones. It looks more realistic to me and if I could ever find real ones that look like these for some sort of sound effect I would do it. This is my first attempt you can see that I earned the nickname "Toolman" honestly look at the third one down on the right side. LOL After doing some filing the hole a little I got it to look better.

I have been having problems with a pain in my side, just knocks the wind right out of you. It got to the point that food was over rated. For now when I eat if it is not healthy I try not to do it, also I drink about 200 - 230 oz of water every day. I have been to a bunch of different doc's and even fired one. I am 5'11" and have gone from 263 in July to 227 as of this morning. Working on my armor and helping out at events is the bright days of my month where I don't think about any of the problems, family, work. Maybe nothing is wrong with me and its just my body saying "Enough is enough, if your going to become a TK you have to take better care of yourself". Helping out at a couple of parades and three Steel City Cons has shown me that this is not the physically easiest hobby I could have signed up for. I'm glad I did. P.S. E-6000 is your friend if you need to resize things

Funny part about putting the shims on the kidney, I have lost enough weight that the shims might have to come off. I know that I am going to need to redo all of the arms.

When I got my armor I received two left shins, within days of getting them a new set was on the way. That left me with plenty of extra material to make the shims for my kidney and the color matched. My strapping might look a little odd, I knew I needed to take 2 1/4" from some where I just couldn't figure out where. I assembled the back, kidney and butt with all of the snap plates 2 1/4 from the edge to make it easier to look at while on me and make it easier to move the piece to look and see how it needed adjusted. Now that the back is finished I will put everything where it belongs.

Thank you for your service and I am not talking about military, five girls........WOW. I thought three were tough. If you look you will find a bunch of new AM 2.0 builds that can guide you on your way.

You did an awesome job!!

Sir yes sir

Sure can

In the discription it say "The molds used to create the helmet up for auction were created from a helmet that was cast from a screen worn bucket." So he made a copy from a copy of a screen used bucket. That sounds more like bucket inbreeding to me.

now that you got the right answer, I wanted to post this for a couple of days USE A HAMMER!!!

I will have some updated pictures soon. Working with my advisor and an armor master from Garrison Carida we made awesome progress last night. The back is now done, needed to cut about 2 1/2 " off the bottom and the wings that went under the arm over the kidney are gone. The chest needed some minor molding with a heat gun to get it to lay back on my chest enough. My homework before we meet again after the holidays is to get more snap plates done and my garters for the thighs.

Your a little short to be a stormtrooper aren't you?

Thanks for the support guys, I will keep you updated. My plan is to be finished and approved so I can march in the Pittsburgh St. Patrick Day Parade.

I have been side tract by life the past few months, but am getting back on track. My advisor and a few other TK's from Garrison Carida are going to give me a hand to finish up. I will post up photos as the work gets done.

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/forum/41-imperial-commissary-px/

501st Member[501st] 208 posts Location:Death Star (the side that didn't blow up) Name:C 501st ID:3059 501st Unit:Star Garrison Posted 15 August 2014 - 12:57 PM To help with the new AM 2.0 Helmet build: The problem people are having is the aligning of the bottom holes but it's not difficult to do if you use this little trick. Because the back of the helmet is a wider tube, exactly the same as the screen helmets and the front tubes are smaller, there is large gap between the joining region which is covered by the ear piece. The ear piece should be mounted exactly as designed via the two screws and then rivets or bolts used to secured the front and back pieces, but these are not visible, they're under the ear pieces. Once the left piece is mounted, and all of the holes are drilled, the lower tubes on the left side will not line up, nor will the hole on the bottom of the ear piece. To keep tolerances very clean and tight and bring the lower side tube regions together, they will need to be pushed and it's a very tight fit. Sometimes having two people helps. The way I prefer, by myself, is to carefully take a thin phillips head screw driver and run it through the outer side of the ear cover and then through the hole in the lower edge of the back piece and then through the hole in the left side of the lower edge of the front plate. Something like a shish-kabob. Now, once the screwdriver is pushed through, the builder needs to carefully push the pieces together while very slowly and carefully pull the upper handle of the screw driver towards the bottom and it's important that it's NOT JUST THE SCREWDRIVER pressure but also someone pushing all three pieces together. Once the holes line up, carefully remove the screwdriver while keeping pressure on the pieces so they do not move, and the second the screw driver is removed, place the bolt into the hole, run the nut down and slowly tighten. Once everything is assembled, the builder can add a little ABS cement along the edges to add some strength. You'll immediately see that when everything is tightened, the helmet will become incredibly tight and very, very rigid. The measurements of the ear pieces will be almost dead-on to the original screen helmets but the strength will be much greater. Also, the inner edge of the tube is much, much deeper on our helmet and the other one piece (back and dome) which others are forming are extremely shallow and they look odd when being worn. Just too much gapping and you can see too much of the wearers head. On our helmet, the builder can leave the inner tube edge wide or they may carefully trim the edge making it shallower. I'm sorry for the problems with the assembly, perhaps building to such a tight tolerance was not a good idea but I just hated to create something which wasn't extremely strong as conventions can be hard on helmet as do packing and shipping. I do believe the tighter build tolerances really helps to make a higher quality and stronger helmet.

My goal once my build is as far along as yours is to use this to line the box. http://www.joann.com/licensed-fleece-star-wars-darth-vader-in-blocks/11220399.html#q=star+wars&start=3

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Stanley-24-Gal-Mobile-Chest-029025R/203710098?keyword=24+gallon+tool+chest This is what a lot of TKs in Garrison Carida use, they can get everything in there but the bucket.