TK bondservnt

I can provide a charging handle? that's easy.

when you look at the facebook page that brian muir has created for "the dark side of SDS" he goes into a bit of detail regarding this. and it would be interesting to see the elstree bucks... those would be the ones that AA most likely used and then had to return. but most likely we'll never get the correct story. I agree that the current SDS suit looks a ton like the GF and AP bucks... perhaps AA just dropped a TE or AP suit into hydrocal and called it good. I don't support the SDS brand... or TE for that matter. when the original work that AA did he HAD the original moulds from the elstree set. but later on we see the problem with his re-introduction using some kind of found parts. it's sure that AA must have taken TE/AP bucks as his 'New source" it's interesting that MG has input on the design situatioin on the dark side of sds pages...and brian M takes MG's statements as fact. I for one don't believe anything that MG has to say either... but brian seems to take MG at face value. the interesting parts of the question for me are "who sculpted the ears?" and "who sculpted the sandy knee plate and the TK knee plate?" when you compare the clay sculpt that liz created, and then you look at the finished work using RS props as an excellent example you can see differences... so there was an evolution between liz and the final sculpt. the lines are not exactly the same... her excellent work must have only been used as a guide. from my observations the liz sculpt must not have been recast... but resculpted. I'm sure that there must have been several different bucks by the time ESB and ROTJ went into production. it shows in the CFO line as well... lot's of subtle changes! keep up the good work there my friend!

when you compare the AP belt with the cap belt or the ATA belt I have noticed quite a bit of difference. perhaps an RS props owner can chime in and give you the correct size. I'm glad you're taking the steps to upgrade this... it's one of those things I noticed right away on the ATA. dimes are the way to go for belt covers~! woot!

I doubt that JB weld will work with plastics... the heat generated during cure might warp the plastic. I have not tried it... so you might want to test the process on a part of scrap. no need to "draw me out" I love blaster builds! why do you have a hengstler counter on an ESB? usually we omit that part?

looks great! all you need is a resin bolt!

bondo is your friend here. the A2 designation with the LED port was not used in star wars... but you can simply cover it up with the above mentioned material... as long as you keep the texture correct the outside will be fine enough... the only way anyone would tell after that is the reticule is different in the range finder inside the scope.

just sculpt in bondo... get a resin m38 from doopy do and use that as a sculpting guide.

the game skins shown in the TKC thread are the same across all platforms... just the renderer in each game engine changes the output to the screen. my personal goal is to make the scratch patterns match the base render. the designers did not just wrap the design onto existing models... the base stormtrooper render is much different in shape than the TKC. but you'd have to have them side by side to compare. the TKC in the CRL is idealized, and the 501st has basically cleaned up the concept and pushes for a cleaned up look. look at it this way... if we idealized the sandtrooper dirt patterns it would not look as good as it does. if you look closely at the base render you can see just how complex the shapes are on the armor... the edges are rough and uneven to show a paint scheme that might remind some of warpaint. if we mask perfect lines like most people do... I personally don't like the look of clean lines on a TKC... but that's how mason created paul's armor... and that's how it hit the CRL. I personally like the rougher approach... but it's really apples to oranges... or however you'd like to put it. if we idealized the deathtrooper... how would that look? cleaner?

I've made a TKC helmet that is almost mark for mark accurate... the only difference being that I took out the jaggy elements of the squared off lines. the goal in some TKC paintwork is idealized on most people's builds... with toothpaste or latex used to replicate the scratches. I will dig out my photo comparisons here later today to show the dimensions I used. the front and rear widths of the line, as well as the scratch patterns can be replicated by simply using a brush and hand painting the patterns. most people just mask and spray paint... and that's the way you've done it here. I just figured that you might draw some ideas from looking at the detailed model skins. sure the game models are not idealized... and that's the nature of the paint on the TKC itself... it's not supposed to be 'clean' look at the way the game designers replicated the chipped paint on the design... just like the real helmets in our real world... chipped white paint over green base color... and dirt and wear. that's what makes the TKC fun for me to attempt to replicate. I'm glad that you understood my reasoning and I hope that you make some changes to your design as a result... but in the end of the day the goal is to have fun.

the eyeline is off... and looks like you've gone too wide. most people will just say "looks great" but it's hard to explain unless you have spent hours studying the design. the tip near the hovie is too short and the design is supposed to have a slight twisted angle right at the forehead. I must say it was hard for me to point this out after all your hard work... but I hope you will understand after looking at the photo below. after all this is about having fun... I'll add a photo to this post in a few minutes. see the difference? -------

loctite for latex on latex glove... even the regular 'pro' works fine... the non latex I've never tried... plus ~1 on this for me!

none of this is EIB. this is not accurate and if I were you I would not purchase anything from this person. sorry to say... but once you have seen the proper materials and design you'll see why I say this. please do not purchase anything from this maker. I know the original poster is joking around about this... but I didn't want anyone to take it seriously by mistake.

thanks to billy H

gotta love that cracked paint on the HDPE!

actually he makes points we can both discuss... he mentions allowing ridges on each side? so when you look at his responses closely he allows for both of our opinions as a judgement call. my point is that ridges are not always hidden on screen used armor... and that is the point he allows, at the same time he is accepting variance... he allows us to decide for ourselves. the goal is to understand the concept clearly,, not to make up absolutes where there are none. as usual debates have 2 sides... that's why I asked for his opinion. I have made armor with large ridge gaps, and made armor with no ridge gap. the variance being the only constant.

ah! I see it now! the glue from the inside has created a false ridge on the left hand side, where the inside elastic ABS glue has warped the form of the thigh, making it look like a ridge... heat transfer from the glue and elastic seems to have warped the entire upper thigh? while we have a ridge shown on the right hand side. is this correct observation paul? and it's not really easy to see from our previous photos, but your full size photo clearly shows only a ridge on the outboard edge! when I look at the photo below I see ridges visible on each side of the thigh construction? (sorry... had to point it out... LOL) ah the joy of photographic debates takes place on the RPF and on the FISD!!!

thanks paul.. the red line on the left is the left ridge and the red line on the right is the cover strip on the photo show the edges of the cover strip and you have correctly outlined the ridge with your yellow line. so with both colors we have the cover strip edge and the left yellow line is the cover strip and the right yellow line outlines the ridge paul has outlined if you look at my red lines and you interpret correctly- I should have done the outlines differently... one side is ridge LEFT and one red side is cover strip edge RIGHT I personally don't see how we prove your and mathias' point when the photographic proof shows the EXACT opposite. The Ridge on this particular set of HDPE painted armor clearly shows that the cover strip DOES not cover the ridges on each side. why do we take a photographic proof and still demand a cover strip that hides the ridge when this is clearly not the case? personally I don't make armor with this much ridge... but I don't think we have enough evidence to suggest that ALL the suits have cover strips wide enough to cover the ridge. The photo itself proves my point the ridges on screen used armor are all different widths. chris -this is a calm and quiet debate covering the aspects of this photo. my red line is intended to outline the cover strip as shown. and paul has done a fine job of helping me prove my point by adding the yellow line to show the ridge and cover strip edge. my little L shapes were intended to show the distance from strip to ridge. so how does this photo of screen used armor show hidden ridges? (personally I believe hidden ridges to be an "Idealized" element that we in the 501 have added to the lore, which I believe is not shown in the photo itself) an example would be the ear trimming on a helmet, or the eye trimming. we clean it up, and call it good, when we could accept wonky. thanks paul for adding the yellow lines, The red line shows the edge of the cover strip. and as for showing a "flaw" on the thigh... it's not really a flaw... it's how it was done in 1976. if paul would like to show how the thigh is flawed, I would love to learn how that fact can be established. have fun!

my point is that there is no one right way.

intentional? or not intentional... what is that? the fact is that the ridges exist and are seen in the film. we should not place our expectations upon a wonky assembly process. how can someone say "oh,,, that was not intentional" when in fact it's seen on more than one suit? sure. the RS suit can easy be a collection of parts from several suits. perhaps it's a collection of parts left over from the death star fall trooper... or the tuck and roll trooper. many of the suits were broken during stunts... so it stands to reason that the RS might well just be a collection of parts. interesting concepts here mathias... and I appreciate the polite and happy discussion here. my point is that we can't just have "one way" but many ways to screen accuracy. if foreamrs are constructed with no ridges then they won't fit people who have arms larger than 10" in forearm diameter so we have to accept differences in arm construction in the real world of 501st assembly concepts.

the photo provided above is from paul, and the RS kit is not the "end of all" understanding on the assembly of all suits in the film that's only ONE suit out of at least 25 suits built. in fact the RS suit was built early on in production and was used as a sandtrooper suit as well as a tantive iv suit. not all suits have the same construction method. the cover strip and the trimmings all varied. in fact the RS suit cover strips are not even square.. in the thighs the cover strips are tapered. I.e. wider at one end than on the other. personally I would approve suits with ridges and without. it's not rocket science... it's wonky star wars assembly concepts~! I like a little ridge to show.. and it is screen accurate. I would say that we can accept variance if we really want to be screen accurate.

posted above

I have seen photos from troopermaster that show the ridges on each side of screen used armor. here you go

each ridge should only extend 1/16" past the 1" strip. or less The Armor shown could be assembled with the ROTJ overlap method, which is why there is 1" on each side. but for the ANH style of butt join requires that the cover strip be that one inch. in the film some assemblies are different in size but you usually will want at least a little of the ridge showing on each side. I usually cut each side just a small amount beyond 1/2" and when the strip is added only a small amount is left shown

if you ground off the muzzle flat, and shorten the clip, this would be a direct copy of the MGC canadian C1 only other flaw is the end cap lug looks a little long.

one of the other ways to get accurate and sleek lines on armor is to use a handheld belt blade sander and simply cut the armor out with sheetmetal shears and then followup with the use of the blade sander. http://www.harborfreight.com/1-2-half-inch-bandfile-belt-sander-92158.html