Templar726

I love the Mickey Ears bucket that Laserbrain has so I wanted to try one on my own as a side project while I wait on all my armor items to arrive. Not to step on any toes I ran the idea past him and he was very supportive. Cool guy and great bucket! So my plan is to take a cheap off the shelf Rubbies that I had sitting around and deconstruct it. Put in better lenses, frown mesh, mic tips, and then repaint the whole bucket after building a set of ears with a dome cap. I plan on doing it for around $25 total. Here is a forced perspective picture using my dogs little hat of what I want it to look like when I am done.

My drop boxes had no back so I used a tutorial from The5thHorseman to make my own. Here they are fitted and then drying with the aid of two stir sticks and heavy mug.

AP helmet just came in to replace piece of junk Rubbies place holder. I will be converting the Rubbies into a Mickey Ears party trooper bucket. This AP helmet is awesome. Kinda snug going on but looks great. Next steps switching out the mic tips and adding inner mesh in back of frown. Then it is padding, chin strap, Rom/FX installation and a couple of fans, This part is going to be fun.

Can any of you guys tell me if the Striker TK-4416 resin kit is worth buying to add on a Hasbro E-11? Thanks

How do I get in touch with Echo? Thanks

I have been looking high and low for the split rivets for the side of my armor. These will not be functional just for accuracy. Can someone with some expert eyeballs tell me if these split rivets from and EBay shop will be correct size once installed? The EBay auction is 251283662584. Thanks

It looks awesome. Great job.

Clips. I figure the screws and clips will be hidden when trooping. Just the tops above the TD will show. I will get a pic of them on the suit to show how they hang.

Thermal Detonator (TD). Used a piece of electrical PVC that was pretty close to the specs and attached the pieces from my kit after spray painting the tube section. I drilled in to belt clips to hold it on the canvas belt. I also added a snap in the center of the canvas belt and then attached the other end of the snap directly to the armor. My hope is the TD will not pull down or sag the belt. It is a heavy rascal. The clips are off of two garage door opener remotes. I am not a master of metal bending but may reattach some better looking clips in the future. Or go comlink grappling hook?

Should I cut this on a straight line right here or leave as is. I have tried to look at other builds but I am not sure what to do. The other end is flush and looks good.

Forearms went together pretty good. Overlay method with Velcro on one side. Put padding inside to hold em snug. I do have one question about trimming the ends. See next post.

One of my two major screw ups. When I had to adjust the sniper knee forward I had to remove the rivet that looked so good painted white. After some cussing and pounding I got it out and re riveted. Now I have a big ole hole...Not so good. My plan is to use Tamiya Putty white to fill in the hole, let it dry, and touch up with some paint. Is this acceptable for a repair?

The sniper knee gave me fits! Every time I got it together and tried it on it would impact my knee and upper thigh armor. I decided to reattach and tilt it more forward. This works as far as fit and no snags but it looks a little wompy and does not line up perfect. I am afraid it will have to stay like this so I can troop in it. Is this to crappy to keep like this or can I slide by? If you think this side looks bad wait till you see the other....

The thighs from the front. Used the overlap because that is how they were constructed. Sure wish it was a better suit of armor but it's my first and I had no clue as to what I was buying. I really plan on going with something better the second time around. At least the bucket I am going to built will be a quality kit.

In case you were wondering what bathroom stall place holder boots are they are simply old boots, I attach some cut off work pants, then place them in the bathroom across the hall from my office. They effectively turn away all potential users. Its like having your own private bathroom. Trickery trickery!!

OK, here is the armor so far on Charles 2.0. Please ignore the helmet and boots. Boots are bathroom stall place holders and bucket is a cheap Rubbies just for the display. That helmet sucks.

bzb Thank you sir. I am going to figure out a better way than the Velcro setup. As you said it would it has started to peel from all of my trying it on to size. I will use the two pieces on the armor but join them with an elastic band.

Holster attached. I think it is close to where it should be. Now do I paint the rivets to match the belt? Can't really tell from screenshots plus I'm colorblind.

Thanks. I will look them up.

Inside straps. I joined the whole section using splints. My plan is to slice one side straight down and use flex strap to hold it closed. The other side will stay solid and I plan on putting in the rivets from the screenshots if I can find the right size. Every hardware store I go to does not have them. If any body has a good suggestion I am all ears.

The belt. I heated it and bent it using the paint stir stick method. Added female snaps on the back and matched them up with snaps on the canvas belt. Canvas belt attached with snaps to the armor. My only concern was that the canvas belt hangs down over the butt plate. I had to run Velcro around the edge to hold it up. Hope this works. I did separate the butt from the kidney plate and used big pieces of Velcro. I just left the smooth glossy side facing in and did not peel it off. aAgain, looks kinda jacked up on the inside but from the outside it looks cool.

Charles 2.0 with Bennie Beard and chest and shoulders. It all seems to be hanging correctly. He does not have on the slick under suit just some black cotton so it is a little bulky but overall I think it is OK so far.

OK I need some input here. I went all strap building crazy before I read much. Do the inner straps at the shoulder have to be white? I was thinking black looks better because you cant see them against the under suit. Switching them out for white would be no problem but if black works I will keep them the same. I am planning on trying to join my Georgia 501st so any advice is more than welcome. I will add the little plastic wrap around strap to hold the bridge firm. Front is glued and back is floating with just velcro right now. Here is the inside. I added a black side strap to hold it all in place. It is high enough you can't see it against the under suit. I hope.

Shoulder and forearms were already trimmed. I cut small pieces of ABS and punched snaps through them and built the inner snap system like I have seen on other builds. They seem to hang together at a nice level and I heated a small piece to make a hook to grab the forearm strap. When I was wearing it they kept rotating. You will see that on my shoulder connector there are two snaps. The second one holds the shoulder up closer to the bridge and looks better. Looks sloppy from the inside but looks OK from outside.

Charles 2.0 completed and ready for armor. But first to scare my wife by placing him all over the house. She hates Charles 2.0