MoSc0ut

He, he,....Twinkie teeth.... There are dozens of different reference photos to use if you like that one go with it. I used the "Dave M" helmet referenced here: http://bit.ly/StarWarsHelmets_ANHstunt but there is also a ton of great photos in the reference section on FISD. Enjoying the build, keep it up!! [emoji2] Jim - TK50899

.......if one knows or has the equipment to perform such a task! [emoji51] I've used JB weld on steel but how does it hold up on aluminum? Are the other industrial adhesives that adhere well to alum? I also like the idea of hidden screws to assemble pieces to the tube then you can dress it up with epoxy putty "welds". It wouldn't be terrible difficult with the mag well on the side facing the rear but the from side might be different. Maybe the front fits into a slot and the back is secured with a screw that is hidden by this piece: Jim - TK50899

Looks pretty good! The last thing is that you'll want to square off the corners a bit. I used a hobby knife and the needle files some more until they looked like this: Not quite square but a bit less rounded if that makes sense. You're in the ballpark just a little more fine tuning and you'll have it. Jim - TK50899

I'm liking the idea of an aluminum kit. More durable, lighter, and if it comes to federal and local laws it can't be mistaken as a firearm upon close inspection. With steel I think that there is a fine line that would be getting walked on and could be trouble, especially with the current [political] state of affairs here. Plus it's easier to machine and you could crank them out a bit faster! [emoji51] Perhaps a "hybrid full kit" using some of those awesome original parts and some aluminum replica parts???? I'm just over the moon watching this come about. I'm sure you'll do well with the popularity of Star Wars going nuts for the next couple of years! Some of the new Rogue One variant pieces could also be a gold mine, just saying.....[emoji6] Jim - TK50899

Shoretrooper is my next kit I'd like. I think the wife is only going to tolerate one more! [emoji23] Might as well be this awesome kit! Jim - TK50899

It wasn't meant to insult, you are correct and I see what you meant now. Agreed, we are putting the wrong lenses in. The monocular has one convex and one converse lens the M38 has two convex lenses. Combined with multiple prisms there's a whole lot of flipping and flopping going on before the image reaches the eye. As mentioned earlier by the time you found the appropriate prisms you could just buy a real M38 for the cost. Jim - TK50899

And to add to what Kman said they are all pretty much the same when it comes to assembly. Unless you do a commission all you are going to receive is a Big Brown Box (BBB) full of vacuum formed plastic parts that need to be trimmed and fitted. Don't be intimidated if you have limited skills, just contact your local Garrison and research the heck out of these forums and you'll be trooping in no time! Oh yeah, and expect to spend between $800-1000 when all said and done. (Boots, Blaster, storage box, and all the little bits and pieces you'll discover, quickly add up!) Jim - TK50899

They are actually installed in the weapon correctly. The small lens is the objective lens and the big one is the viewing lens. In the real world they were designed for tanks and antitank guns in WWII (large caliber applications) so for it to be on a small caliber weapon, like a sterling smg, which would gain no advantage from a scope (effective range of maybe 200m, if you're lucky!) you would be correct! That being said, an "E-11" is from "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....." So who knows what it was used for there!! [emoji51] Jim - TK50899

That's awesome! For only $26 how can you go wrong!! Does the place you bought them from still have any left?? Lol! Jim - TK50899

The advantage to the snap plate method is that you can take the whole "clamshell" torso apart and store it in a smaller box. I personally like the traditional strapping method and having one larger piece but ultimately it's up to what you want. There are many good suppliers for each piece you're looking for. I made my own brackets and loops for the strapping and also my own belt. I did that because I have the equipment and, thanks to my mom teaching me, I can sew! Jim - TK50899

Amazon might be a bit faster but mines at the low, low price of $Free.99!! [emoji12] Jim - TK50899

I have like 2' of it doing nothing in a drawer. Do you want me to send you a foot of it? PM me your address and I'll drop it in the mail tomorrow! No charge. [emoji16] Jim - TK50899

Check out Walt's Trooper Factory too. I'm 5'9", 165 lbs, 32-33" waist. He only has a 6 week turn around on his kits, one of the fastest in the biz! Search Walt's Trooper Factory on FB and join the group. Their armor is super durable and the brightest white! Customer Service is amazing and he's an approved armor maker! You'll be building by early Sept. (Maybe earlier). I just got my Expert Infantry in mine and after 1 tiny tweak I'll be submitting for Centurion. Check out my build thread for detailed pictures of their kit. http://bit.ly/jimsstormtrooperbuild Jim - TK50899

My drop boxes are, literally, the exact same, as they came from the same molds. Don't glue them together until you attach the elastic to them with the double cap rivets (if you're going the "Centurion ready" route). You can get the rivet sets from justjoseph63 here on the FISD and they're cheap and since you're on the east coast you'll get them fast (he's in Florida). He also does the latex hand guards if you want those too. With the TD you'll find one cap fits much better than the other. I had to do a lot of sanding on one end to get it to fit well, and that only happened after I did a water bath to soften up the ABS so they'd slide on better. I did a pretty extensive section on the TD in my build thread. If you'd like more detailed pictures and measurements let me know and I'll snap a few for you. As for scoring, I always use a pencil to draw my line first, it wipes right off later. Then the trick is to do the first score line fairly lightly. It's much easier to maintain a straight line that way. Then repeat it two to three more times, following the same score line with only a slight increase in pressure each time. I learned this the hard way and have a couple places where my blade "wandered" on me because I was using too much pressure, too early! Jim M.

Thank you pewpewpew I appreciate the compliment! I'm sure you will. I followed the advice of several folks on this forum and built it with the intent of it being Centurion ready that way when I'm ready to submit it is already good to go or very minor adjustments to get there. I'm here to help if you have questions and so is just about everyone on this site! Have fun with it! Jim M.

I thinned down the Admiral Grey and shot it through my airbrush so that it matched my traps and tears on my bucket. I have a local hobby store that sells the correct Humbrol colors if you can't find it close or for a reasonable price. Some shops online were charging $12 plus shipping each! Also ignore the dark blue color in the chart above, it is no longer acceptable, French blue is what you want. I think I spent around $7.75 on ALL THREE colors that you need. I can run over there and pick them up and send them to you. Send me a PM if interested and they'll be in the mail Monday. I'd call it an even $10 to cover shipping. I am in Oregon so it'll take about three days or so to get there.

I just got the message today that I made EIB!! There are only a few things to make slight adjustments on and one of them I was already planning to fix. 1. The elastic that joins the chest and the back the top of the armor. It has been pulling out to the side and bunching up on me. It's a little too long and it also is canted toward the rear which makes a larger gap between my shoulder bells and chest. 2. Take off most of not all the return edge on the bottom of the shoulder bells so they sit closer to the biceps. This will take like 42 1/2 seconds to fix! 3. Here is the big pain in my rear bit. The tops of the fore arms are a little too big so I have to take them all the way apart and make taper them down a bit so that the top of the forearm is closer in diameter to the bottom of the bottom of the bicep. I had originally used E6000 here but when I boiled them to reshape the ABS and they fell apart I re-glued them with CA glue. [emoji45] 4. My drop boxes are not quite to the edges in the picture. They are on loops of elastic like it is suggested. On the left side it is very tight against one of the snaps that hold my belt on and always slides in as I move about. I am going to tack it in place with a couple of stitches of thread and that should fix that! I'll work in on these few things in next couple of weeks and then it's all new pics and submission for Centurion! All really minor fixes and except for the few pictures I didn't add originally to the post, it's a first time go! Jim - TK50899

Speaking of our predictions in how long it would take to assemble our armor. I thought mine would take a week instead it was more like 6-7 weeks. Jim - TK50899

Took me about 6-7 weeks of constantly plugging away at it. There were a few times I had to walk away from it for a couple of days just so I could breathe, do some research and refocus. When I felt it was becoming "not fun" or frustrating that was a good indication to me that maybe a small break was in order. [emoji16] Jim - TK50899

Okay. I took a closer second look at your pictures and you have definitely NOT trimmed too much. Here are the pics of mine for reference. The bottom front of the cap and rear of the face, on mine, barely overlap on one side and not at all on the other. The bottom of the ears cover that. If you have too many layers of ABS it's really hard to get the S trim on too. Also as far as trimming goes I used the same trimmers you have for the rough cuts and the "score and snap" technique. My rotary tool was only used for "fine tuning" followed but 220 grit hand sanding. That being said I did my teeth by sanding with the rotary tool from the backside then cleaned it up with the needle files. It was super quick and it turned out excellent in my humble opinion. Jim - TK50899

On one side of mine there isn't much between the back and face either!Remember that the ears will cover up some of that so you're not necessarily in trouble just yet. As for the brow, when Walt n crew rough trim it it's not necessarily even so that may explain the extra material on one side vs. the other. I used what is known as the "Dave M" helmet as reference for my build and also watched (many times) the Trooperbay videos on You Tube before and during my helmet assembly. This was my first time building too and was very nervous about each and every cut. As for the screws the heads are too small as far as being "screen accurate" is concerned. It has absolutely no bearing on any level of approval. If you use them it will be perfectly fine, so don't sweat it. I just went the extra step because I was at the hardware store picking up screen for the Hovi mic tips and thought, why not, and bought the 6 I needed. I hope this helps. I'm going to take another look at those pics of your bucket and if I see anything wrong I'll pipe up again. *REMEMBER, nothing about original Stormtrooper armor is symmetrical and the helmet is a little off center one direction. It bugged the crud out of me too until a more experienced member put my mind at ease too. Feel free to hit me up with any questions. I've got a pretty good archive in my head on where to get you answers on this forum. If I don't know it I can point you in the right direction. Jim - TK50899

Emma jump over to my build thread and see how I did it. Mine's a WTF kit too! I'm in the process of having my EIB application reviewed but Celebration put it on hold for a bit. [emoji4] http://bit.ly/jimsstormtrooperbuild Jim - TK50899

Hey it's your fans to do with what you want. I'm glad you're making it work for you! Jim - TK50899

Love it! It gets to be addicting, in a good way. I've stuffed my battery in the chin now. It also keeps my helmet from tipping back, which I think I've said. We did a movie in the park event, The Force Awakens, Friday and the Seattle Seahwaks and Seagals showed up! It was nuts! I thought at one point we were going to get totally mobbed but we survived. [emoji16] Jim - TK50899

What is your store/seller name on eBay? Trying to find your listings and not having any luck. [emoji52] Is it vmusicstore ? It looks like your stuff but with the warmachineinc and t-shirt gun stuff I'm just not sure. [emoji846] Jim - TK50899