mjrose927

I am 5'8" and roughly 185lbs.

I hope it is ok to ask this question here. I am in my basement right now working on my TK build. I ordered some abs sheets some time ago to use as cover strips. Apparently, I ordered the wrong thickness. It looks like I got 2.5mm thick sheets. it is too thick to follow curve of armor. My kit looks like it is 1mm thick and what I have been using up to this point. Does anyone know a place i can order abs for cover strips quickly? Or know if what store or type of store may have it in stormtrooper white? I have an FX kit so I have been using the plastic belt that came with kit, thinking I had enough. Desperate to find solution. I have already cut calves to put together with cover strips instead of overlap method. Maybe I am not using best search method here, but having trouble finding any threads about this. Thanks, Michael

Thanks for this! I have it bookmarked. I am trying to work to EIB guidelines from start. But I will be happy just to meet my goal of wearable armor by May 17th.

I was planning to put return edge on my butt and ab plate after separating them. This may help with the back plate overlap. As you stated I won't worry about overlap at this point, but from the pictures in the links above, it does look like the FX back plate is a little long under the O II. These links were helpful. Thanks. I want to get torso fitted so I can order belt to get that started.

EDITED TO ADD ARMOR INFO: 1. First/last name: Michael R. 2. Future Garrison/Squad/Outpost or local area: Great Lakes Garrison 3. Armor maker: FX w/ TD from Trooperbay, TD clips (bent) from PandaTrooper 4. Helmet maker: AP 5. Cloth belt maker: Kittel 6. Neck seal maker: Geeky Pink's Phantastic Gaskets 7. Boot maker: Caboots 8. Interior strapping (optional): Me 9. Blaster maker (if applicable: N/A 10. Gasket maker (if applicable): N/A 11. Height (optional): 5'8" 12. weight (optional): 185lbs 13. TK type (ANH Stunt/Hero. ESB, ROTJ. TFA etc.): ANH - Stunt 14. Name(s) of any Trooper(s) who significantly helped with your build. - In person, Al Tong on multiple occasions - Facebook: James Anderton, Dave Araujo, David Ashcroft, Vern Beezer, Rebecca Beiderwell, Sha Sha Chu, Rat Ferrell, Jose G. Garcia Jr, Jeff Leone, Nicholas MacNeil, Teresa Nuthall, Dave Tinsley, Mike Souza, Tim Waychoff, - Forum: See below I haven't posted in a while, but since my last build thread I have moved into a new house and have setup a work shop. My new years resolution is to get my kit built before Motor City Comic Con in Detroit at end of May. My current goal is to get everything but bucket wearable. If I can get bucket done too, then all the better. Yes, this is an FX kit I bought back in 2003 and just had life REALLY get in the way. I am considering this my practice build for a better set down the road. I am currently building it with cover strips and as much EIB as I can. However, as stated my goal is wearable by comic con. Here is my latest status: I have forearms and calves done except for rear facing cover strips and they need reshaping with heat gun to align better. Biceps are done except they are oblong the wrong way. If search on same, you can find original post. I wasn't sure whether to do thighs or torso next. So, I picked torso. Here are my current questions for torso: I am ready to get my torso pieces fit and assembled. Here are some pictures of pieces on me. I am looking for the following:1. Is the top of the ab plate supposed to align to top of the kidney plate?2. I have seen some build videos where the back plate ends at the top of the kidney plate. Is this the case? If so, what do I need to do?3. Item 2 kind of plays into next question, that the kidney plate looks tall? Is it sitting at correct height? 4. Where should the top of the butt plate rest with respect to my body? the bottom of my back? where top of typical pair of pants sit? It looks like it slipped down a little during picture taking in a couple shots.5. Do i need to reshape the O II back plate? it seems to curve in at 45 degrees when it wraps around to front of body at bottom?6. I feel like the front breast plate is obtuse or flat. Should I shape it to be more form fitting? Or should I wait to do any shaping until after I have it together.

I am looking for help with my TK armor build. I found an old post from when I first started working, and started adding to it. However, I have not seen any responses. I am wondering if my post isn't seen because it is too old? Do i need to start new post or do I have old one hidden or not public. I want to get my armor wearable by Motor City Comic Con in Detroit at end of May. Thanks, Michael

I am ready to get my torso pieces fit and assembled. Here are some pictures of pieces on me. I am looking for the following: 1. Is the top of the ab plate supposed to align to top of the kidney plate? 2. I have seen some build videos where the back plate ends at the top of the kidney plate. Is this the case? If so, what do I need to do? 3. Item 2 kind of plays into next question, that the kidney plate looks tall? Is it sitting at correct height? 4. Where should the top of the butt plate rest with respect to my body? the bottom of my back? where top of typical pair of pants sit? It looks like it slipped down a little during picture taking in a couple shots. 5. Do i need to reshape the O II back plate? it seems to curve in at 45 degrees when it wraps around to front of body at bottom? 6. I feel like the front breast plate is obtuse or flat. Should I shape it to be more form fitting? Or should I wait to do any shaping until after I have it together.

Ok.... it has been a while. I am determined to have from the neck down completed to wear by Detroit Motor City Comic con May 17-19. I was chatting with a some members on the FISD facebook site, but it occurred to me I should come back to the forums.... So, here I am back again, but this time bound and determined. I know I can't submit with FX bucket, but I would at least like to be able to wear what I have done and get live feedback from the pros. Since my last post, I have started on my calves. I had to trim these down about 1/4in. To maintain the original armor shape at bottom, I used painting tape to make a template and move the whole edge up the leg and trim from there. Here are pics after I completed trimming. This gives me clearance between top of armor and bottom of knee cap. It may need to be trimmed some more, but I want to wear as is before cutting any more. I plan to use a 20mm cover strip on the front and a 25mm on the back. I understand that I do not need to use this method, but I want the practice for future suit upgrade.

It has been some time since I posted. Here are my initial completed biceps. This is what an FX armor kit looks like with butt joints The issue I have to fix at some point with a heat source of some kind is the shape of them. They are oblong in the wrong direction.

Ok. Slowly getting all the front joints glued together. I came to the realization yesterday that I do not have enough ABS sheets to put my armor together. The FX armor came with 4 4inX18in (approximately) sheets of 1/16th inch of ABS. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to look or what to use to find same thickness and where at least one side is glossy like my armor? I just started looking online but I am not seeing sheet with the smooth glossy surfaces. I even went as far to try to contact the person that I got my FX from, but the email is dead. Suggestions? Advice? Please! Thanks, Michael

I am doing my best. I have given up on the idea of getting this done by Halloween. I am going to take my time to do it best way I can to make it look as good as I can. Below is picture of one of my becep pieces with the butt joint on the front. Issue I am having with both biceps is the shape. The oval shape is 90 degrees off. The short side of the bicep is front to back of my body instead of inside to outside of arm. I would like to reshape this to fit and look better. Has anyone else had this issue with FX or any other kit? I don't think it was because of any weird assembly I did. Any thoughts? I was trying to find links for heating parts to resahpe them. i am very nervous about this because I don't want to deform them, just reshape. Appreciate any input.

Well, last night I glued the front side of both biceps together. I will say to all newbies doing this for the first time, I highly recommend using E-6000. I had to re-glue them twice. The first time I mislabeled the halves. The second time I accidentally glued the left sides upside down. I will not make those mistakes again, but so highly recommend the E6000. Here are a couple pictures of them drying clamped together: I bought the 1/2" x 1/16" magnets because I got a good deal on 100 of them. I have already cracked 3 of them last night. They are more powerful than their durability. i will be looking at getting the 3/4" x 1/8" ones to use for leg armor.

On Sunday, I was cutting cover strips for my bicep pieces. Yes, I realize that FX is normally an overlap assembly. I want to use cover strips because it will give me about 1/4-1/2 inch more circumference so I can use the normal coverstrip width in the back or minimize how wide it has to be. The second reason is it give me more practice building the armor for the next set when I get more accurate set. My question is: What is best way to cut the coverstrips? I have some large pieces of ABS that came with my kit that were supposed to be used for the belt. For the first pair of coverstrips I cut, I scored the ABS with a carpet knife and then snapped the plastic. This gives me a nice straight edge. The draw back is that there is a slight raised lip where the plastic was scored and snapped on the opposite side. It was a pain but I was able to take some very fine sandpaper and buff off the lip. Is this normal? Is there a better method to cut the coverstrips? I know me if I attempt to use scissors, I don't think I will cut a nice straight line. Am I using the wrong tool to score? Is there a better method or tool to cut with? Thanks in advance.

I decided that I should start a build thread to document what I have been doing and keep all my build pics and questions in one thread. As the subject suggests, yes, this is a FX build and this is not an old thread. For those who haven't seen my other posts, I bought this suit back in 2005. I started doing a few things on my kit at the time and then life and some hardships got in the way. Now I am re-energized to get this thing done. In the last few weeks I have been painstakingly building the arm pieces. I am working on the forearms and the biceps. I have been fitting, measuring, tweaking, rinse and repeat. I am 5'8" and about 180 pounds so I have been trying to get the pieces to fit comfortably. After attending a trooping event at the Clawson Library, a couple members let me inspect their armor up close (thanks Mayhem and Derek). So, I made the following tweaks: On FX forearms on the inside half, the armor curves back toward the arm muscle as you get closer to the elbow. Forearm tight on the widest part of my arm, so I cut the scoop back at the peak to remove the curve back to arm. Before and after: The next thing I did was shorten the length of the forearm about 1/4 inch. I did not remove any of the features on the arm. I made the dimension from the last indention the same at both ends of forearm. This past week I have been working on the biceps. I forgot to take pictures of those yesterday. Unfortunately, I forgot to take before pictures so I will only be able to show the result of what I did. Thanks to all the troopers in the Clawson, MI area that was at the Star Wars Rebels event this past Saturday. I appreciate you guys there letting me ask questions and inspect your armor up close and personal after the event. Special thanks to Mike in TK who answer most of my questions that day! What a great birthday present to be able to surround myself with so much Star Wars!!! NOTE: Hardest part of this whole thing so far is putting the first time putting the blade to a piece of armor and committing to a cut. Subsequent cuts not that bad. Watch that first step. It's a Looloo.

Are there more tutorials or threads that discuss or show these type of details? I have been looking for examples of this type of discussion. Have i just been looking in the wrong place?

What is wrong with CABoots???

Any updates on this project?

Well, this weekend with a huge amount of trepidation, I did it. I made my first trims to arm pieces. My first attempt at scoring a curved surface was less than stellar. I did not get it to work the way I wanted. I was only trying to take off about 1/8 in. I stopped messing with it when I realized it was not going to work. So, I got out my sandpaper and spent 30-40 minutes to sand the section to my pencil line. it was a pain, but was able to recover from my mistake. Learned what not to do and after than had much easier time going forward. I will try to post pictures later. I was hesitant to glue anything because I am concerned about pieces interacting with other pieces and comfort on my arm. On the forearms I plan to glue the front joint at the right movie dimensions, but I am thinking with my Popeye like forearms I am going to need a 20mm cover strip on the back. Should i just velcro the the cover strips to both sides for now until I wear it a few times to see how it feels wearing it for a couple hours? If that is the case, can a person get approved or troop events with rear facing cover strips double velcro? Another question I have is about cover strips. If I glue the front cover strips on the biceps and get the corners of the cover strip rounded nice, then I decide i need to shorten the bicep 1/4in. I imagine to do this would be with a dremmel wheel on a nice straight line. Then carefully round the edges of just the cover strip again? Or do i just velcro everything for a while until I am sure of fit of armor so I can make adjustments more readily?

Can you give some reference dimensions of length there? I will probably start at least half the distance of what you post, but it would be good to have a do not or should not exceed dimensions.

@DizzyStormtrooper: Thank you for your post. Cool looking armor finish. Would love to see that in person at some point. Your diagrams will help me with the midsection pieces. Right now, I am struggling with what should be the easier pieces like the arm pieces and calves. The shin/calves are too long and dig into my knew caps when I try to walk. I thought about trimming about a 1/4 to half inch from bottom , but I am afraid of loosing too much of the look of the details. I was also planning to use the butt joint method on the calves to get more diameter without having to use a wider shim in back. I just want to get it to fit the boots right and not tear up my knee cap. The forarms are also a little snug and thought about using the joint method again here even though FX uses overlap design. Again this would give me 1/4-1/2in more in diameter without having to use a wider shim. I have read to use E6000 to assemble and I was planning to use it but i was under the impression that using this would allow to separate the pieces later if needed. This does not appear to be the case. Should I use velcro for now and wear it a few times before doing final gluing? Thanks, Mike

I have been scouring the forums here and online looking for how to fit armor to ones body. By that I mean, I have am 5'8" and about 180lbs. I have seen numerous posts and videos on how to put the pieces together but nothing on how the pieces should sit on my body or fit. I have an FX set that I thought initially I would have to do a ton of trimming down. Apparently, I am more stocky than when I first bought it. The forearms are very tight and frankly a little oval in shape. I am I do not know how to fit them to me if they are too long or if I have to leave them to get the proper armor detail. They look the hardest to modify. The next piece that I thought would be fairly easy to start putting together would be the biceps. These seem to fit better than I remember originally when I first opened the box. Again, the concern i have is the length on my bicep and how tight they should fit to the bicep. If I have to shorten them, which side to I remove material from? what is best method to do so? Cutting? Scoring? dremmel? After looking at the biceps, I thought the calves/shins would be next easiest. These pieces seem to be a little long because they dig into the bottom of my knee cap. I Another issue that might be contributing to the length issue is the shape of these as well. The edges on each side of the clam shell do not seem to follow the same curvature. I read online where people have used boiling water to soften the abs to shape it. I thought if I taped the 2 halves together under stress with the parts lining up how i want, then the heat would allow the parts to soften and better conform, but then I am not sure how they would soften. I really want to do this on my own, but I have a lot of questions on sizing and fitting it to my body. If anyone can link me to a good reference material or contact me through the forum to meet up for coffee in the northern oakland county in the Detroit area, i have a lot of questions and really would like to try to get this done before Halloween. Thanks in advance, Mike