Rystan

Yes, they do. from: http://starwarshelmets.com/original-ANH-Stunt-Stormtrooper-armor-helmets.htm

Awesome job! Great details! Only problem I can see is you mixed up right and left labeling the pictures

Butt and cod trimming: Butt plate pre-trimmed: Looking at other reference photos such as this one (and given the shape of the untrimmed piece): (I pretty much keyed in on the lower left set as it's got the size & shape for both front and back visible.) So I started by removing the entire flat section: and just cleaned up the corners and smoothed in the transition of the side return edges: Cod pre-trimmed: I marked off where I thought the cut should go (again based on the reference image): You should be able to faintly see the pencil line. I first tried using a compass, but without a flat surface to pivot on, it proved frustrating and unsuccessful. What I eventually found that worked was to use the overworked roll of masking tape I had laying around by setting the roll of tape over the peak of the cod, sliding it up so that the outside of the tape was where I wanted the cut to go and traced along the curve of the tape onto the ABS, like so: Now, once I get the sides of the abs, kidneys and butt plates trimmed, I'll be set to drill the holes in the sides and bottoms of the pieces for the necessary snaps & split rivets. (To my fellow in-process builders: Here's one of the places where it makes sense to know before hand if you're going for EIB/Centurion to avoid extra work later on.)

Time for some torso fit pics thanks to the assistance of my older son: First up, just the abs, kidney & butt.. Front: Left side: Right side: Behind: The abdomen piece sits just about at the bottom of my rib cage and the cod is in fairly tight on the jewels. The kidney is aligned to the top of the ab plate with the butt coming directly below that. Everything seems like it's in the right place, although there's quite a breeze on the backside that'll take some getting used to. I've got overlap between the kidney and abs so some trimming will have to occur. The only question I have is: how snug should the ab plate be to the body? Once I know that, I should be able to map out the cuts on the sides for the abs and the kidney and then extrapolate the carve-out at the bottom of the kidneys to determine the sizing of the butt plate. Now with the chest and back added on: Front: Left side: Right side: Behind: Now this is where it gets interesting in terms of questions re: trimming. The overlap of the chest/abdomen seems like the chest is too high up. Where should the neckline of the chest sit? In the pic I'm pretty sure it's right up on the neck below the Adam's apple. It feels to me like it might need to be down lower near the top of the sternum? This will cover up more of the ab plate and bring the bottom of the chest down closer to the front button panels. There's an abundance of overlap in the shoulder bridge area between the back and chest as well. I know that whole area is going to be underneath the plastic shoulder straps and connected via a cloth strap, so most of it can/needs to go. Any advice on where the chest and back plate should be cut at the shoulders? On the sides, the chest and back are taped together for now (and I know when finished there won't be any connection on the sides between these two pieces but the lack of trimming at the shoulders was causing them to flare out without it), and there's definitely an overlap there too. Should there be? And if so/not, I'm assuming the back plate would be the one to get trimmed? On the back side, there's overlap of the back plate and the kidney plate, and I know there shouldn't be. Trimming anything off the kidney would raise the butt (to keep the top of the kidneys lined up with the top of the abs) and that doesn't really seem like an option (recalling the breeze discussed above). Trimming the bottom of the back seems like the answer, but again before I know how much to take off the bottom, I need to know if the top of the back is in the right spot. Where should the top of the back plate site with regards to the neck? Anything else anyone see that I should be aware of?

Looking good, Bryan! Glad to see you've started strong. I'm almost to the point of taking the helmet screws out of the bag on my own build, you'll save me a few minutes for sure.

Thanks Ian, the pictures in the original E6k heat thread were enough to sell me on there being a legit problem. Seeing as I don't foresee myself being able to replace my armor any time soon, I figured it was safer to err on the side of caution on this one.

The shins are great and definitely left & right as promised! Once I had the shins in hand I was able to figure out a sure-fire way to tell them apart. I wrote up documentation in a separate thread here (http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/28321-sure-fire-am-20-shin-identification/) to allow future/current builders to avoid having to read my whole build thread to find the info. Hope it helps!

P.S. for any of the other AM 2.0'ers out there who still haven't determined whether or not you've got duplicate shins, this should help make the determination. MightyTank prompty and professionally handled the mix-up and distributed correct shins to those who notified him of the situation.

The highly useful tutorial HOWTO: Assemble AM armor shins ---------------- by RogueTrooper is great, but due to recent changes in the AM armor the method used to differentiate the left and right shin greaves and their A & B parts is no longer accurate/applicable. The previous method of identifying the shins was to use the location of the molded/integrated back cover strip. As the tutorial pointed out, the integrated cover strip was on the wrong side from where it should be, and thus caused many builders to put the shins on the wrong legs. As such, the integrated cover strip was removed from the mold (Note: I'm not affiliated with the AM manufacturers, just using my own assumption for it's removal.) So this method no longer works. In addition the tutorial describes the natural contour of the human shins/calves and uses that to confirm the correct leg for the shins to be situated on. The new AM molds "have been belled out / widened at the ankle to fix an issue with previous AM version". (source: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/26954-fs-am-armor-master-kits-are-back/) With this widening the natural contours of the calves is still present, but I know as a new builder I stared at them until I went cross-eyed and couldn't really "see" the difference. Okay, enough backstory, picture and identification time: All parts laid out to match tutorial layout: Untrimmed front view of taped left & right shins: Quick, which is the left and which is the right? If you can tell from this angle you've got a better eye than I do for the differences. Now let's take a look from a different angle: Notice anything? I did: (If this is common knowledge, I hadn't run across it before. And I don't know if this holds true for any other versions of AM, or any other armor manufacturers for that matter, so your mileage may vary.) Armed with this knowledge, the previous picture with identification lines: Now, seeing as I had the good fortune to receive duplicate left shins in my original shipment, it was easy to play "One of these Things is not like the others": So from this, the 45° side goes on the outside and the 20° angle goes on the inside. Now that the left and right are correctly identified, RogueTrooper's instructions covering assembly can handle the rest.

My posting of updates has fallen slightly behind the build progress. Mainly because if I want to get everything finished in time for Fan Expo Canada on Labor day weekend, I need to get my butt in gear and build progress takes precedence over writing about building. 14 days until I leave might be possible, but it'll take a strong push (and hopefully very few mistakes/mishaps) In order to try and finish on time I put together a punch list of everything I have left to do to make the kit wearable/501st-approvable. Yes, the clipboard came out. That's page one of 3 btw. I tried to break everything down as small possible without completely micromanaging myself and also make sure I didn't forget anything. (On that note though, I stopped the list at like 165 items and realized when I got it printed out that I forgot the Thermal Detonator so it's more like 175 to go now.) Yes, I've got my eye on EIB/Centurion but that will likely come later as there's some key items left to purchase/build: e.g. E-11, latex hand guards, etc. Like everyone else, the limiting factor will likely be gluing/drying time and too few clamps. I have about 15-20 and it's not enough. Every time I had a pair of spare clamps this week it went towards affixing the multitude of snap plates to armor: And so on... On the snap plate side, for any of my fellow current builders, I'll show some detail of the process. There's been reports of the metal of the snaps melting the armor when the E6000 cures (http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/21449-e-6000-snaps-heat/) The common wisdom is to put tape over the back of the snap. Most seem to suggest duct tape, but that sounds like a lot of cutting to get small squares (cause ain't nobody got time to cut out tape circles). I opted instead of duct tape to use electrical tape as the width of the tape is already the right size for the snap plate so it only took a cut across to get a square the right size: I also rounded of the corners of each plate to avoid snagging on under suit or anything else once affixed using scissors and a sanding block. I also test snapped each male plate to a female strap to make sure that none of the snaps were loose prior to gluing them down. Between the tape and the male snap back, the plates don't fully set flush with the armor, so I attempted to use a hair dryer on high to attempt to get them to sit a little flatter. It didn't work all that well, but the For Sale sign ABS was thin enough that they have a little bend to them so after clamping for a day, they sit "okay". More updates to come, but it'll have to be later.

Thank you MightyTank for posting this! I'm sure the instructions you posted will help with the assembly. The changes that have been made to the AM 2.0 armor definitely seems to have addressed many of the complaints people have had with the AM armor of the past. Thank you for the hard work, I can't wait until I've got mine assembled fully. So, taking a look at the botton picture in this post (http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/28115-fuumantroops-am-armor-build/page-2#entry357306), is this how the bottom of the ear should look? Or should it sit closer to the bottom opening? It sounds to me like we're all suffering from new parent syndrome and being too gentle with our new "babies" when we might need to give it a little tougher love to make sure everything makes it to the tighter build tolerances. Thanks again! (P.S. I just checked and my shins have been delivered today, so thanks for that too!)

Hi Steve, I'm probably going to have to pick up some finer grit sandpaper to make any further progress on smoothing it out. Using the return edges from the arms should have helped with keeping the colors the same, but I have been wondering if the acetone altered the color during the melting process? An issue also could have been the brush I used. I'd read that the acetone can eat the bristles of certain types of brushes, so some of the color difference might have come from the colored bristles of my brush (I did lose a few bristles into the paste while applying and had to pick them out, so I probably wasn't using the right brush). I'm holding out hope that sanding is enough. The lesson I learned here, which I should have known from previous drywall spackle jobs is that "less is definitely better". The more you slather on, the more you have to sand off. Hi Romen, thanks for the vote of confidence by asking for my advice. There's many more skilled builders on here than me. I think the left ear is a pretty common problem for all of the NE/AM helmets. I haven't gotten to the point of installing the ears yet, but in some test fits I can definitely see that it's going to be a hurdle to overcome. I commented on someone else's thread yesterday (http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/28277-2nd-am-20ne-helmet-build/) about the ears. My suspicion (and what I've been reading on the other AM builds of those who have gotten farther on the bucket than myself) is that while the ears came trimmed, it wasn't necessarily trimmed to the point of a "perfect fit". You might be able to trim a bit more to get it to fit better. I know at least one person went back to troopergear to get an untrimmed left ear to see if he could get it to fit better starting from scratch. I don't know if it was successful yet or not. I've also seen a bunch of screen captures from ANH that show that the ears didn't fit perfectly there too, so it might not be a huge issue? My other suggestion would be to look for inspiration among the EIB & Centurion requests forum. Which isn't to say do what they did, or use any of those pictures as your own build target (I have a feeling our armor is always going to be in a state of tweaking...almost there...) and we're being judged on screen-accuracy, not necessarily what others have done. But they should at least show what's possible to accomplish. I know I've looked specifically at the [NE] & [AM*] threads for inspiration, but I've noticed that you probably won't find very many people who kept the NE bucket for the higher ranks. Most of the NE armor threads went with an ATA bucket. I did find this (http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/27326-tk-31426-requesting-anh-stunt-eib-status-ne/) from May of this year, but he is missing some pictures and his EIB is still pending. I personally don't want to bog their threads down with questions, but it might be a place to start looking and then reach out to the individuals with specific questions. Everyone I've seen here is readily helpful.

Now that looks like a fine right and left shin! Mine should be here by Friday. He sent just the right, not both, correct?

I picked these up today too and am going to see how well the work to wrap future pieces (http://www.walmart.com/ip/Velcro-Reusable-Ties-Black-4pc/17617478)

SUCCESS! It's rather ironic (coincidental, thank you, Alanis Morrisette!) that my first finished armor piece, left forearm, is completed on: (Yes, I'm a southpaw) Success on the right forearm too! everything on the troublesome seam is laying flat and ready for cover strips. All the pieces are likely going to be getting a Goo Gone bath due to all the masking tape used in the process.

Thanks Ryan! When deciding what boots to buy, I also noticed a lot of Centurion concern re: the Bass Amsterdam boots. I eventually took a leap of faith on them when I waited almost a month with no response from TK Boots. I know there is at least one Centurion with them: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/27699-tk-32627-requesting-anh-hero-centurion-status-ne125/ (There might be more, I just started at the top and kept opening threads until I found at least one)

Yeah most of those pictures were from days ago and I waited until I had it figured out before posting. [emoji6]

Helmet progress (and possibly where I made my job more difficult than it needed to be...cause that's never happened): Took the Dremel sanding head to the teeth from the inside until an opening big enough for a needle file from my newly purchased set was opened in the center of each tooth hole. I know some of you will be shocked that I didn't take an in-process picture at this point, but here's what the teeth look like trimmed: Some of the edges appear like they could be more trimmed, but they only really show up from the camera flash and aren't noticeable until you're within kissing distance. If they need to be filed further, I should be able to do so without problem. Next up, masking/protecting the outside surfaces so that I could spray paint the interior black: I tried to keep the tape as closely to the edges as I could get it, although it dawned on me about half way through that overlap into thin air was okay and even if I was a little short in places, almost every exposed edge of the helmet is either covered by trim, the ears or is otherwise not visible inside the cap. Then came masking the interior of the face: The goal was a perfect seal on the edges of the eyes and teeth, but as it's mostly covered by lenses or mesh, if a little overhang of tape caused a spot to be left white, not a big deal. Off to the great outdoors for a few coats of spray paint: Once the paint dried and the tape came off, there was a few spots where the black bleed under the masking tape (probably could have used the frog tape I bought for the boots for this), but a quick wipe with some acetone got the paint off without trouble. Now here is where the process went south. I decided I wanted to use ABS paste (http://www.whitearmor.net/fisd/HOWTO:ABSpaste) to hide the seam between the cap and back, like here (http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/28001-am-3-piece-helmet-vs-others/?hl=abs+paste#entry354022) Reusing some of the return edges from the arms, the acetone from the boots and an empty vitamin glass jar (see, I learned a lesson about acetone eating things...especially considering that's the whole point of the ABS paste process) Cut the ABS isn't little strips: Added the acetone (just enough to cover the slivers) and waited until it's runny. Where I could have (and should have) done better was to mask the area off with tape before applying the paste. After lots of sanding: Still more sanding to go...and I'll likely be forced to paint the whole thing white in order to even out the color.

The Tip of the Month from the August 2014 FISD newsletter (http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/28239-august-2014-newsletter/) might help.

I think that's more of a problem for you than anyone else around, especially if you looked like her

Yeah, although I think when they trimmed them, there might have been a little room for further trimming (because they don't fit perfectly as is) which might still lead to confusion. But I think part of the rite of passage for a TK regardless of their armor manufacturer seems to be the ear trimming!

So the secret? Well, that was the answer for one of the pesky forearm seams: Ironically, this was the forearm that I needed to tear apart and re-glue once I figured out the "trick". This was the less pesky one. The trick seems to have been: a) a line of tape down the seam. clamps on both ends. c) wrap a metric ton of tape around the middle pulling as tightly as I could without ripping the tape. d) magnets...(although my love affair with magnets is coming to an end...likely going to go from doubling them up to 3 or four per bundle as they're not really pulling the ABS together, just more holding it in place.) Waited 24 hours and took the tape off. Left forearm is now curing with outer cover strips on both sides (YAY!): Got my hopes up that the right arm was going to play nicely, but nope: * For those of you used to previous versions of the AM (or NE, among others) the molded ridge on most if not all of the AM 2.0 armor pieces have been removed at this point. (I'm under the impression that this is a good thing, see: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/25603-tk-31198-requesting-anh-stunt-centurion-status-ata108/page-3#entry327644) This makes the assembly more difficult because it's not just measure 7.5 mm and cut from both sides and glue to a relatively flat surface. But without a molded ridge, you're working with a multidimensional/3D curved surface. Back to what I "figured out", when I pushed down on the seam, I noticed that now it wasn't even sitting flat and there was a couple spots where it was overlapping every so slightly. After grieving the loss of time wasted, I decided the correct course of action was to pull the seam and start over. So after peeling, scraping and sanding dried E6000 from everything, I was determined to slow down and get the surface of the seam to sit as flat as I could with before grabbing the tube of glue. As I mentioned above, since we're dealing with a multidimensional curved surface, the answer is not a straight cut between point A and B, but rather some sort of curved cuts to get the final forearm to sit flush and flat when pulled together. Since I'd already confirmed that my wrist end opening and elbow opening were at the circumference I needed them to be, I had to be careful to avoid removing any ABS from either of those ends. Armed with a box cutter, I would push the two pieces together looking for any places where the inside seam edges came together too much or prevented it from laying flat, carving it down where necessary. I repeated until I was happy with the seam. Here is what the seam looked like while I was gently holding the two ends together: When pressure is applied to the face of the forearm seam, it lays flat and was ready to get the inner cover strip added: Notice the distinct lack of moar tape needed to keep everything flush and happy. Hopefully tonight the outer cover strips can go on this one and I'll be ready to move on to other pieces armed with new knowledge.

Thanks Bryan, glad my ramblings are useful to someone else besides being just a confidence booster for me to finish.

So happy I asked the question...I've got lots of useful info from there!

That might have been the case in the past (re: untrimmed ears), but not since the run in July. These are as they came straight out of the bubble wrap.