TK bondservnt

welcome to the dual EIB brother!

the scopes you point out on the tantive IV are all m19's. the top section of the scope on the M38 is exactly 1" long... so the T Track section is about 3/4 of an inch long. you can tell that it's GINO style profile T TRACK because it has the curved lower profile. the M38 in the sand trooper photos shows also that the T Track was placed on the M38's at the front AND the rear. as shown in your photo below: and the m19 design with only T Track on the front you can clearly see that karin's knuckle cutouts are on the above photo, as well as the fact that the wires are thin, and not large looped shaver wires. you can also see that the T Track does not allow the holes under it to be seen, so all your blaster replicas that show holes under the T Tracks all along the barrel clearly shows that your T Tracks are not wide enough. if you look closely you can see that the T Tracks are tapered to fit inside the holes by cutting off their width! and you can also see the power cells on the mag well have silver tips!! also if you look, you can see black bicep/shoulderbell elastic on the sandys... if anyone wants this feature on their very own blaster... I can make it that way...

matt g acts like he worked in the film and not andrew. it's very clear to me that AA sculpted the forming bucks using the clay sculpts as a guide. without reverse casting them. this is why he claims to have sculpted them. now he never claimed to have done the original theme, but he modified the shapes for undercuts and assembly processes. something that you could not get if you just reverse casted the clay sculpts. he had to add material to the arms, and legs to make the overlap seams, which were then cut off and butt joined by the LFL assembly team. you can clearly see AA has added standoff height to the mould bucks to get the material to form deep undercuts and tall shapes!

it would not be hard at all to pour silicone into a part to make a mould, there are thixotropic silicone putties that can be placed inside somthing like a forearm or thigh to get the inside... that's not hard to do at all. it looks like these people have done it the right way. 3d scanning is not the exact science you might think. look at all the LFL attempts at scanning. they had the money to do it the right way but the process of doing 3d makes the designer want to "clean it up" and that's the reason why it does not work. look at the LFL thigh power cells as an example. they ruined the scan, and the resulting injection moulded part by attempting to make the thigh one piece. the MRCE helmet is a great example of changing some part of a design for many reasons. first of all the MRCE was mirrored, and then the undercut was enlarged to allow large heads to fit. the small padding was used for the same reason, to make it fit larger heads. since these 3d scans were used to show the process of how to ruin a replica I don't see any reason at all to be concerned about the SI armor in this case. heck man! this armor has the potential of being our coveted ANH true derived suit!!!

lookin really good... wonder where you got that holster though... it looks like a gundark skin. only thing I could suggest is attaching the chest plate to the inside of the AB plate to bring it lower by about 2" if you did that I'd say it's a clear pass though!

it looks like a small piece of T-Track, like on the grip front fins.

the only problem that I had when climbing stairs was the fact that my thigh backs opened up. so my next mod for fixing that is to add snaps and position the velcro so that my thighs can expand to allow my leg to be raised with my knee up. movement is key to the fitting process. not just having a tight fit. you don't actually want it so tight and close fitting that you can't move. the thing I like to do is have the power cell thigh plate overlap the shin, and the knee plate to be just at the tip of the V in the thigh. making the shin gap too large on shorter troopers can make stairs impossible to climb. on a troop last year we had to climb stairs to reherse, and a ramp to mount the stage... so walking, and climbing stairs is key to leg fitting! thanks so much john... yeah... it's fun to be able to climb stairs!! your kit looks very well trimmed and laid out!

currently I use tapered rake tracks. I could consider on a build by build basis to use a different type of track. if a customer didn't want the type of track I'm using, then I'd use a different kind? I am seriously considering making moving bolts. I have the inner barrel, bolt and inner spring so far, so there's just some redesign on my attachment system to make a partially moving bolt. having the inner spring made out of a 120v coax brass wire might not be strong enough for the paint to hold up. probably would have to use the rubber coated black wire for my springs on a "moving bolt" style of blaster. do you have casts of the end cap for the ROTJ? I really need that and the trigger group. I've had a couple people ask about the ROTJ parts I purchased from you. might want to make a small run? eventually I'll be offering aluminum tubes fitted with APEX parts, and I have 3 eagle hengstlers!!! does anyone have a line on 3 original scopes to go with it?

like trey said!

I used belting 2" elastic. then I have a velcro patch on the thigh with a snap plate in the middle. then on the abdomen plate I attached the elastic to the abdomen plate. of course if you wanted to, you could make a loop with a buckle and make it adjustable. attaching the thighs to the abdomen just under the belt line helps a lot to keep them up. put the attachments slightly towards the center of your body so the thigh straps are at a slight angle. each strap has a velcro tip and then a snap and then some more velcro. the thigh's placement for the snap and the velcro is not exactly at the tip, it's about 2.5-3" down from the top. this holds the thigh up, but allows the tip to push forward slightly as you step though the walking motion! test fit by using duct tape to hold the elastic to your armor AB, and then thigh. once you're satisfied with the distance and motion you can simply mark and set up your straps and snap plates. another thing I learned is that you can use leather to make snap plates very easy. just make sure that no glue touches the metal of the snap at all! the leather flexes and is strong! and allows a larger glue surface... when test fitting make sure that you walk, and walk up and down stairs with the AB plate, belt and legs on. it helps a lot to put the attachment to the thighs not at the direct tip, you'll notice that walking up and down stairs can be a major challenge if you don't test those motions during your test fitting. in other words... don't just stand there, walk and bend your knees high up to test the placement of the snaps and attachments!

I have found that if you cut off about 1/4" from the faceplate bottom you can have a little more room. the whole twist function of the helmet was the major reason why I opted for the AP kit in 2009. I would not cut the cap n back undercut... it's very noticable, but taking off some of the faceplate makes it a lot easier to put on, and off.

could be glue, but I like the helmet stand idea!

very clean looking!

ok now we need a tutorial on how to eat a burrito inside a stormtrooper helmet! nice tutorial mike!

I have the old doopy do's kit on hand and ready to build. metal sight rail, metal power cells on the mag well. metal D ring. heavy grade PVC tube and tapered T Tracks actually bent into holes. ------------

anything can be painted.

what a great addition to the detail for a sterling replica! takes a lot of the work out of my builds that's for sure!! just under 100.00 usd with shipping to USA!

that would look really sick with a beat up set of armor@!

I have also created another one of these just finished up this week, so far I've made 3 ANH version blasters. one london prop store ESB version. and an ESB greeblie stunt version. 5 blasters so far! here's some more photos showing a recent build.

tutorial videos rule!~

I say leave it like the originals were and leave it alone!

mike totally rocks!

AP!

let me know ryan and I'll help you put it together!