wingnut65

Agreed that it looks a little too high. Seems to me also that the left ear area is where I used a heat gun to very, very carefully warm the area to better align with the front tube. Another question is, once you get the alignment close, do the ears cover the seam? Like Jason mentioned, the ears will cover any irregularities! Good Luck, Christian!

Agreed. What they said! I think I might have my dad's iron in with all his RC airplane tools, but didn't look too hard for it. The only time I could have used it, I solve with careful us of a lighter to soften a corner to re-align.

For my Second Act, I mean, Troop, I headed out of town to say ‘Thanks’ to justjoseph63 for all the support and answering my assortment of questions. This was really going to be a test for the modifications I did to my left shin and my boots! TK Troop #2 – Clermont Christmas Parade Last year, I enjoyed the Facebook updates that Central Florida’s Makaze Squad posted of the Clermont Christmas Parade and how much fun they were having. As I neared completion of my TK, I noticed that jj63 had signed up for the 2015 parade, so I did as well. It was great to meet another FISD member after crossing paths here for many months. The weather was beautiful, in the low 70’s (20’s C) and a light occasional breeze. We had a TD, jj63 as the HWT and two TK’s with me on the left. The parade was about 1-1/2 miles (2.4 km) long and my armor performed perfectly! Nice BFG, jj63! On this day, I realized that my TK was taking me places that I had never been before. After our parking lot suit up, jj63 and I were starting to walk the 1/3 mile (.5 km) to the staging area, jj63 said, ‘Let’s wait for Vader and escort him in!’ Cool. We waited and then these two Stormtroopers in Santa hats, lead Lord Vader down the bike path, past the marching band, through the cheerleaders and football players, to the 501’st float and the rest of the Legion. Thanks, Joseph. It was great to troop with you and I look forward to many more! Troop Debrief… At the end of the troop, I had walked well over 2 miles (3.2 km) and I had a no issues with my calves or boots. This last picture is right before we dress down and the boots and shins look great! Did I have issues, Yes, little ones that have now been resolved… ISSUE 1 – Shoulder Bell Snap White getting suited up, the person who was closest to me at the moment had a difficult time snapping my right shoulder bell-to-bridge snap. No matter how I moved to give more space to reach it, it couldn’t snap. It was either the second or third person who finally got it snapped. I also had this same snap come loose at one of my troops. RESOLUTION: As a first option, I have now put a strip of 2” x 3/4" (50 x 19 mm) industrial strength white Velcro over the snaps and stapled in place. At my last troop, I had no issues with this set-up and I was actually able to unhook it myself to dress down. ISSUE 2 – Chest Plate Snaps: If I lean forward too far, like when getting something out of my bin, my ab plate pushes up high enough that it forces the four snaps I have from my chest plate to my ab plate, to come unsnapped. This also happened when I was dancing at the office and at least once at each troop. RESOLUTION: I put a 2” square of industrial strength Velcro on both straps, covering the snaps. Now. it is easier to assemble the armor and there are no critical angles to worry about unsnapping the Velcro ISSUE 3: I am not satisfied with the amount of black visible in front of my shoulder bells. RESOLUTION: PiettLives showed me he had the same issue and just moved the snap locations. So, I pried off the original snaps and moved them over about an inch (25 mm) further to the back, which will push my shoulder bell further forward. NOTE: All Velcro is places so the pointy side is facing away from the black undersuit and the soft side facing towards it. Merry Christmas! 2015 has been an amazing year for me. I am proud to have become a member of the 501st Legion and now have two approved costumes that create smiles wherever they go. I am looking forward to 2016 and having more opportunities to serve the Empire and make smiles happen. I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday Season. Merry Christmas! And Happy New Year!

I agree. The alignments in the first picture looks correct.

Seems to me the alignment is more critical with the kidney plate to the butt plate. Those to together will show how the flair of the kidney plate blends in very well with the butt. If it is upside down, there is an offset in the alignment

I have them, but they are huge. I will get them mixed and fixed so I can post

Thanks. I have learned a lot of creative re-use and adaptive ideas since I started the costuming adventure. Gotta think outside the box! Congrats on getting your number, Jason! It looks great under your name. Now, go out there and start supporting the Empire! Glad it can help, Tommy! I've learned a lot from many other TK build threads. When I started this one, I hoped that i could provide some info, ideas and advice that could help other Troopers, and not be a boring build. Congrats on getting yours closer to the picture time. Please let me know if there is anything I can assist with. My company president's lip sync video challenge... I talked about it at the beginning of this post: The Dancing Stormtrooper!

Thanks for the approval. I hope it can help others. I'm thinking of also posting the bin handle idea as a separate post where others can use it, instead of the 2 or 3 troopers that actually read every build thread Fixing Shin Issues… While dancing at the office, I had problems with my shins coming up and over my boots. Not wanting this to be an issue during my first troop, I added some hold-down elastic and Velcro to my boots and shins. I used the last of my 2” (50 mm) wide black elastic and some new, 2” industrial strength Velcro from Jo-Ann’s. The pointy side Velcro was just peeled and stuck the straight to the elastic and pressed tightly for a while. I was out of E6000 and had to use Shoe Goo to glue the elastic to the boots. I placed these hold-down straps inside the front of the shoes with the Velcro facing out, towards the shins. Using pieces of plastic to protect the boots, I clamped them overnight. The soft side of the Velcro was just peeled and stuck to the inside of my shins. Let’s see how they hold up with my First TK Troop! TK Troop #1 – TGH’s Pediatric Rehab Hospital Reindeer Reunion! For my TK reveal and my first troop in it, I was fortunate to be able to Troop at the Tampa General Pediatric Rehab Hospital’s Reindeer Reunion for their annual Christmas Party. Our squad had a great assortment of costumes to share with the kids, including fellow FISD member mkjava in his officer uniform. (His TK is on order). I had to go festive for the occasion, although my candy cane was unloaded! FYI, my hat was made by sewing two dollar store Santa hats into one larger hat that fits my bucket. It is held on with Velcro dots that are easily removable. We had an excellent handler, Stef, who took almost 200 pix that night. This is my favorite picture of this sweet little angel with so much energy and an amazing smile. She was running all over and kept us all smiling and busy with high fives. This TK costume is going to be fun! This shot was shortly before we finished and you can see that my boots and shins aren’t talking to each other, again. Stef tried to pull the shins down several times, but still no luck. What’s Wrong with My Shins? The main issue might be my choice of boots. In an effort to keep the budget as low as possible to keep peace in my family, I chose Bass Amsterdam boots, which I have been informed are shorter than the TK and Imperial boots that are offered on FISD for twice the price. If I keep having issues, I will obtain more accurate boots when funding is available. So, only considering the boots that I am wearing, what is wrong? First of all, as I was dressing down, I found out the Velcro came off the elastic. The super strong Velcro adhesive just didn’t work on a fabric that stretched and moved quite a bit Second, I compared the bottom of both shins and found my right one to be a nice circle and my left one was a narrow oval. But they still looked a little off… I grabbed the measuring tape to confirm that my right shin, besides being too narrow, is also about 1/2” (12 mm) smaller than my left. These two issues were the main reason my shins kept rising over my shoes Fixing My Shins… I gave my left shin a nice bath in boiling water and let it soak, probably for about a minute. I kept rotating it in the pot to get as much as I could warm and flexible. Then a little pressure to get it to be round and hold it until it cools. This was a big help, but it was still smaller than the right one. The hooks I am using to close my shins work fin, I just need to add a little more plastic and move the holes further out. Since the shins have a natural lip at the edge of the back strip, I figured this would be an acceptable location to place a joint. I cut a 1” (25 mm) wide strip of plastic, beveled/rounded off the outside edge to blend with the existing lip and then glued and clamped it in place. I drilled new hook holes and used my magic super-secret seam sealer to fill in the gaps and make the new strip blend in with the existing lip. With the shin hooked together, the lip on the back is just a little more than the original. This extra space in the my left calf really helps! During my troop, it felt like my sniper plate was hooking under my thigh, I added 1” (25 mm) of foam inside the plate and painted it with black craft paint. With these changes, the shins were ready to troop again. Fixing the Velcro… The Velcro came off the elastic for the last time. I used super glue on the back and then a few staples and these will never come apart again. NOTE: This shows my boots after about 10 hours of trooping, just before I re-stained them. Tightening my Boots… My second troop was going to be a long walk and I didn’t want any possible chance for my shoes pop out of my shins. At Jo-Ann’s, I found 3/4" (19 mm) wide white Velcro One-Wrap, which is self-gripping, with pointy thingys on one side and soft thingys on the other side, so it can wrap around something and stick to itself. I cut two strips long enough to wrap around my ankle one and a half times. I also added a piece of industrial Velcro soft side to the front and back of the top of my boots. When put on my boots, I tighten the Velcro around my boots tight enough to take out any extra space, but not tight enough to restrict my movements. Then fastening the Velcro at the front of my boot to the inside of my shins, and I am good to go! It isn’t pretty, but the shins come down and completely cover these straps. Later, I’ll post an update on my boots to discuss durability… Now that I have my boots and shins all fixed… Let’s Go For A Walk! Who’s with me??

Welcome to the 501st, Jason! This is an amazing organization that will open new worlds to you, I mean beyond FISD, Mos Eisley and Tatooine... Great number choice. Thank you for your service. I look forward to a chance to serve right along side of you. A parade does sound good!

Congrats, Jason! It looks awesome! BTW, My welcome e-mail came in about 3 days after I was approved. I was surprised since that was also opening day of Celebration Anaheim. But, I agree with Tony, this week is not normal around the Empire...

What an awesome costume and amazing debut! The world was watching and it will forever be part of recorded history! Congrats, Ingrid!

To updates flowing as I have time, I’m going to post topics as I have them finished. I will cover it all, eventually, but if I miss something, please remind me. Selecting A Bin For starters, I have a small car with limited space to access the trunk. There is no chance I would ever get one of the standard-issue Imperial 50-Gallon TK Bins from Stanley, Husky or other brand, to fit into my trunk. And I don’t want to have to put my bin in my back seat and reduce the seating capacity of my car. At other troops, I’ve seen TK’s, Bikers and even Boba Fett using the smaller Sterilite 23-Gallon Footlocker. (Sterilite Model 1842) A friend let me test fit one into my trunk and it fit perfectly. I can even get two side-by-side into my trunk. The only issue is that my bucket will not fit in it, at least the way I am packing it now. After seeing the pix from Star Wars weekends with rows of black bins, I wanted to stand out a little. BTW, I love the U sticker on the right bin! (Photo from Makaze Squad's Facebook page) I went to Wally-World and picked up a gray bin. Technically, it’s called ‘Titanium’, but really feels like plastic! Adding a Bin Handle Since it is smaller and has small wheels, at one troop, I saw a trooper pulling his bin as he leaned over to pull it. The image on the bin looks nice, but it doesn’t show the person is actually hunched over. Since the big TK bins have a pull-out handle, I came up with an idea… I cut a piece of 1/2” PVC pipe into three pieces… … Added a piece of 1/4" rope through all three pieces… … Fed it through the vent holes in the bin handle area… … And created an instant extended handle in about 10 minutes. It could have been less if I didn’t have to go in the attic to find the right size pipe! Since this shot, I painted the PVC gray, but it keeps getting scratched. I might swap these out with gray irrigation pipe at some time… Stay tuned! There's more to come!

Yes, E6000 is the best way, at least for newbies. I followed the guidelines noted here and during my first fitting, my biceps would not stay in my shoulder bells. My elastic was so tight that I had to remove it and make longer elastic strap. Having it all glued in with E6000 made it very easy to swap them out.

Got in the car this morning and the radio came on to an NPR segment about Kathleen Kennedy. I'm resisting any spoilers, but this was an excellent story of who Kathleen is and how she got to where she is now. Kathleen Kennedy: From Standing In Line To See 'Star Wars' To Producing It Herself

TK 50297 Requesting Detachment Access TK 50297 Florida Garrison - Tampa Bay Squad http://www.501st.com/members/displaymember.php?userID=18619&costumeID=124

Yes, Sir. Will do!

The Dancing Stormtrooper! So the President of my company invited our 20 National and 7 International offices to a lip sync battle to Maroon 5’s song ‘Moves Like Jagger’ and asked them to send in a video of the staff dancing and singing. My office manager immediately sent an email to the staff in the Tampa office that Jeff would need to wear his Stormtrooper armor for this battle. Challenge, On! I was just about finished with fixing all the issues that PiettLives and I had discovered, but I still had to quickly add padding to the helmet as I posted, and I added a handle to my new bin before it was Showtime (info on that soon). I also had to quickly go buy black gloves, since my economy attempt was a flop. Also, I did not adjust the shoulder bell snap locations before this adventure. This was the first time that I had everything on, including the bucket. My lenses started to fog before I even made it up front to the reception area. A little spit and a rag and it would have to do. Let’s Dance! The video was very creative. Three of my co-workers danced with me while another recorded the video of us. The video started with staff reviewing a presentation board (insert in bottom of photo), which was removed to reveal me, drinking a cup of coffee. And then we start to dance... If I can get the videos edited together and posted, I will share a link! It was at this point that I realized I really had an issue with calves and shoes not wanting to stay together. They slid up several times during the dance movements and someone had to fix them for me. Taking The Pix Since I had everything together on my TK, I decided to take my submittal pictures. Note to self: I really need to fix those shoulders… With all the dancing, I also popped all four snaps on the straps holding my chest plate to my ab plate, which I noticed with a gap visible in my side shots. Everything went fine, until my co-workers said we were done and I had to take my costume off! This will show them! Actually, my GML requested I include an action shot photo. Not sure exactly what he was looking for, I just had to send him one of the Dancing TK, and then I included this one with a typical TK / Padawan pose. Battle Damage… I didn’t realize that I was moving my arms so much during the dancing, but somehow, my left arm kept hitting my blaster. I used some Meguiar’s PlastX polish to clean it off, although I probably could have used mineral spirits since it was just spray paint. APPROVED! After thorough review of my submittal photos, no changes were requested and TK 50297 has been approved! I also found out at our company Christmas party this past weekend, that out of the four offices that submitted videos, the ‘Dancing Stormtrooper’ won the ‘Moves Like Jagger’ lip sync battle! Wooo Hooo! This TK is ready to Troop! But First… Wrapping it up... Adding a Bin Handle and Fixing the Calves…

Thanks Coach! Bonus Secret – Filling The Gaps! It was noted early in my build that I had gaps that were visible on my cover strips. Mainly it was because I didn’t have the correct rare earth magnets for clamping my cover strips while assembling. I have a secret system to make gaps disappear… So, using a secret product that is found in many garages or homes, I was able to make the gaps go away. So, how does this look? You ask, what is this secret product? Don’t tell anyone, but it’s White Caulk! Squeeze a small bead into the gap, wet your finger and smooth it down. Wipe off any reside outside the gap area and let it cure. I think it is about time to go for a test drive!

Thanks, Jason! Congrats on getting your photos done. It is a great accomplishment to get from a big brown box of plastic to photo time! I'm looking forward to your update with your approved pix! I hadn't thought about fitting a pauldron into the assembly process. My only experience with them is snapping a few for others as we suit up. I can see where it could be tight. I'd suggest starting with getting just your helmet in place and comfortable so you can see out before introducing other obstructions. Also, I had to add two layers of padding on the sides to keep my helmet from wanting to wander right and left. I added the bigger block of foam in the to push the helmet forward and off my throat. Without it, I was getting jabbed right in the neck. Good Luck and fingers crossed!

Wrapping Up The Details… Frown Screen - The screen I used behind the teeth of the frown was some that I had left over from my Tusken mask build. I used paper to make a template of the teeth opening area and then cut the screen into two pieces to fit each side. A little E6000 and some blue tape to hold it in place overnight and the bucket is ready to wear! Latex Hand Guards and Rubber Gloves - Thanks, Karin I must give a shout-out and huge thanks to Sonnenschein (Karin), The Queen of Hand Guards. Since my goal is Centurion, I will need to have the latex hand guards and rubber chemical gloves. Several vendors on FISD supply the handguards as possible sources. However, our family vacation this summer was a European vacation that included spending several days in Vienna, Austria, where the Empire has Karin is deployed. I contacted her to see if our hotel was anywhere near her and it happened to be right in her neighborhood. I quickly made a purchase and she graciously delivered a set of her awesome stunt version hand guards and black rubber gloves to my hotel. Thanks again, Karin for living the motto ‘Troopers Helping Troopers’! No, I did not have a chance to shake her hand or give a hug, that will have to be on a return trip! Gluing the hand guards to the rubber gloves was easy and straight forward using the glue that Karin recommends - Loctite® Plastics Bonding System. I wore the glove and put enough glue on the hand guard to tack it in place. I then removed the glove and finished gluing the rest of the guard Almost Done! From opening the big brown box and washing all the pieces to this point has been about 2-1/2 months (750 km). With all the pieces ready to go, it was a good time to have a trial fitting. PiettLives is my local FISD Attaché and invited me over to make sure everything was in order. This is the first time to figure out how all these puzzle pieces go together, and in what order… First Fitting The photo is a little blurry, but it is the only one that really shows the height difference between the right and left thighs. That was issue #1. Issue #2 - My boots kept coming out of my calves. As they slid up, they hit me in the back of the leg and I couldn’t bend my leg. Also, Issue #3, as they slid up, the sniper knee plate went inside my left thigh. Issue 4 – my thighs still have all the return edges on the top and bottom. Ken recommended removing them to allow for a better fit at the top as well as eliminate the chance of having the returns bite me as I walk. Issue #5, I’m not satisfied with my shoulder bells and how much black is visible. Sides were acceptable. I didn’t have any padding in my bucket, but looking back at these pictures, I don’t think I even put my bucket on, that evening! For this fitting, I had just installed my calf elastic and hooks, but, I forgot to drill the attachment holes. That may have contributed to the calves rising too much. Also, this is when my shoulder bridge straps were just taped on with double sided tape and not re-formed to fit the shoulder correctly. Also, I did not have my TD done, yet. And that dangling cod snap... Ken mentioned the correct order to start putting on the costume so I can still bend and reach everything – 1) Thighs, 2) Shoes, 3) Calves, 4) Neck Seal, 5) The rest of it… I’ve found that if I put on my neck seal before my long sleeved shirt, the flap will stay concealed for a lot longer. And, get everything out of your bin and move to a level where you can reach them when you can’t bend over! Thanks, PiettLives / Ken, for the guidance and advice. Removing Thigh Returns To remove the returns, it was the same old ABS Routine – Score, Snap, Sand… Much better! Right thigh is done. Now, on to the left… TIP: Take All Returns Off! – I ended up with a scratch on my knee while wearing the suite and have gone back and also removed the returns on the bottom of the thighs! I never noticed the difference in length of the thighs when assembling them. Yep, Ken was correct! My right thigh is definitely taller than my left. Just to make sure, I measured both – 15” (380 mm) for the left and 16” (405 mm) for the right! I marked with a pencil the extra length that needed to come off the right thigh to look more like the left one. Then score the line… …Trim relief cuts… …And snap the plastic. I scored a line across the cover strip and inside reinforcing strip. I used a putty knife to get under it to separate the glue. Then a little trim off the top with the aviation snips. Cutting one layer of plastic at a time really made it easy. Then sand all the cut edges smooth and round the corners on the cover strip. Bucket Padding My company volunteered me to wear my TK for a lip sync/dance video contest for our annual end of the year wrap up meeting. I had almost everything done, except the padding in my bucket. Using the Bill Hag Foam Liner Template, I cut 1/2” (12 mm) foam into the shape of the flower and tucked it inside my bucket. Wrrooonngg! I got my head in, but it was sitting up so high that I couldn’t see out the eyes! In a rush to get it done that night, I cut up the scrap pieces of foam and glued them in my bucket with rubber cement. Not pretty, but for a temporary solution, this works! BTW, just found out that our office won the video contest. I’ll see if I can upload a video clip… Next Up, Fixing The Calves…

Thanks, Joseph and Tony. I don't think it is too much more work to set your sights on Centurion from the very beginning of the build and then Stay On Target! Stay tuned for a submission... Thanks for checking in, Mike. Being an architect, I am naturally a very detailed and graphic person. So, if I can make this thread easy to read so that I can understand it, then hopefully it will be able to assist others with their builds. Let me know if I can lend a hand when your BBB arrives! BTW, you can borrow my paints for the buttons, if it could help! I need to get this project wrapped up so I can go troop in it this weekend. I hear there is a new movie coming out...

And Finally, Painting The Tube Stripes I decided my first attempt at painting the tube stripes would be completely by hand before I ordered any masking templates. I found several templates that I could use, but decided on the Dave M style because for me, it looks like the front stripes are curved a little more as they turn towards the front. I scaled the stripes to be 13/16” (20.6 mm) wide and printed them out on cardstock paper. I used a metal straight edge and cut the ends of all the stripes to the same length. Then I used a sharp blade to cut each curved stripe! I also cut a straight edge 1/4” (6 mm) from the edge of the stripes for aligning against the face of the helmet where I taped them down on one side. I was able to get 13 stripes per side! Using a pencil, I traced the outline of each tube stripe I taped the ends of the stripes to be exactly 13/16” (20.6 mm) apart. I pressed the tape down as tightly as I could with my fingernail. I then started painting each stripe with a thin 000 paintbrush, making sure the stripes against the tape were straight. Done! However, it looks like the first stripe could be a little bit wider. Removing the tape revealed a few spots where the paint bled, but not really all that bad for a first attempt! I cut the end of a craft stick (Popsicle stick) to form a straight edge. Dipping it in mineral spirits, I rubbed off the paint that bled. I think the first attempt at hand painting might just be good enough! A little gray on the teeth and some mesh on the inside and the bucket is DONE! And Now Presenting, The New Wingnut! Still To Come – Fitting, Trimming and Wrapping Up An ATA TK!

Thanks, Guys. Countdown is on to get this TK finished... Let’s Start Painting… I’ve been a model builder for close to 40 years and it was only natural that I would try hand painted details. After all, isn’t it like riding a bike? Except for the need for reading glasses… Painting Buttons I started with the buttons to see if I still knew how to use a paintbrush before I tried painting my bucket. Using the Bill Hag Paint Color Template, I purchased from a local Hobby Towne, Testors No. 1597 Black and Testors No. 1138 Gray, but they were out of French Blue. So, when I bought my canvas belt from TrooperBay, I also ordered a can of Humbrol No 14 ‘French Blue’ from him. I used another Bill Hag tutorial diagram for trimming the button plates. These measurements worked well for me. My gray button paint test samples turned out fine, so let’s take some pictures of the process. I found it very easy to paint the button plates separately, before mounting them to the Ab Plate. Asking around and surfing, I found an acceptable button diameter is 7/16” (11 mm), but not going past the top of the buttton. Using a circle template, I used one size larger circle (29/64”) to account for the pencil thickness and offset from the template. On a couple buttons, I did not get the circle centered on the button on the first try. I just wiped the pencil off with my fingers or a cloth and tried again. TIP: Mark All Buttons First – Don’t mark one, paint it and then smear it all over as you mark another one. No, I did not do this, but I could see someone anxious to see how well they can hand paint. I marked them all and then painted them all. Once the circle is marked and acceptable… … I went ahead and painted it. The paint is thick enough that one good coat was all that was needed for complete coverage. Maybe it is just me, but the Humbrol paint was easier to work with than the faster drying Testors paint. I don’t remember it drying so quickly on past modeling projects. Once the paint dried, it was glued to the Ab Plate. Now with a level of comfort, I moved on to the bucket. Traps and Cheeks Following the lead of pandatrooper in his ATA Helmet Build Thread, I started painting the traps and cheeks by creating the black field with a crisp outer edge After painting each area black, the first was dry for me to cut in the gray, leaving a thin black line, about 1/32” (0.8 mm) wide. This is the same process used on the ear rank bars. I marked the vent lines with a pencil and then hand painted with a 000 paint brush. More Details I painted the vocoder to the edge of the ribs. I drilled holes in the dimples in the recess for the mic tips. I put a washer behind them set in a bed of E6000 to help reinforce the thin plastic in those areas. Using a wire stripper, I threaded the screw in far enough and cut off the extra length. Using a wire stripper, I threaded the screw in far enough and cut off the extra length. And Now… Painting the Dreaded Tube Stripes!

Sniper Plate and Other Small Details! The sniper knee plate was giving me some fits as to how much I needed to trim off to make it sit nicely on the calf. I trimmed to leave 1/8” (3 mm) and ended up with cracks in the return edge at the corner. This shows where I tied to add spacers and goop to fix the crack and fill in the void at the return to give a surface for glue. TIP: You don’t need to do this… I then posted the question about trimming the return and ukswrath confirmed that the return could be removed. So, I removed the goop and spacers and marked the inside edge for trimming. Then do the TK dance - Score, Snap and Sand… Add some glue and clamp it overnight and it is ready to Troop! Thanks for the help, Tony! I hope this will pass inspection! Shoulder Straps… While test fitting my upper armor, I had an assistant help line up my plastic shoulder traps, but they just weren’t falling in place. No matter how they were aligned, they still were aiming straight back to the guy behind me. So, they took a trip to the boiling water bath for a few. I only heated and bent the back half of the strap to force it to sit on the back plate. Here is the Before and After curves. For my first full fitting of my armor, I taped my straps on with white duct tape, so they could be adjusted by someone who knows. Thanks PiettLives, for the guidance. (I have three ribs on the chest plate.) When the alignment was good, I used blue tape to mark the location around all sides before the temporary strap mounts. TIP: Wear Your Armor To Align Shoulder Straps - Don’t just align the straps with the direction of the chest plate shoulders. There is a good chance they will come out bow-legged, curving around your neck, instead of straight over your shoulders! To give me a level place to glue these down, I added some spacers inside the straps. I curved this larger spacer. The blue tape will be the edge of the chest plate. You can see by the angle that they are not straight on the chest plate. TIP: Add Full Length Reinforcing – After reading how several Troopers have had their plastic shoulder straps break, often while in transit in their bin, I would like to take these back off and add a curved spacer to run the whole length of the shoulder strap for reinforcing. Two layers of plastic and a ton of E6000 should help strengthen the straps! Then add lots of E6000… … and clamp in place and let cure overnight. Wonky Left Bicep… My left bicep was painfully tight. It was hard to get it up all the way on my arm. So, since the water was already boiling, I worked on reshaping it. I soaked it probably a good 30-45 seconds and then squeezed it with hot pads until it cooled enough to hold its new shape. It took a couple times in the water to make a difference, although it looks like it still could use a little more rounding work, it feels much better! Calf Clips… I’ve heard of other Troopers mention that elastic on calves occasionally have a way of working loose, so, I decided to go with hooks to close mine, at least to start my Trooping. I cut 1” (25 mm) white elastic to 3-1/2” (90 mm) EDIT: 4" (100 mm) long and used a sewing machine to fold over and sew 1/2" (12 mm) reinforcing tab. I hand sewed bra hooks to the elastic so the hook was lined up with the end of the elastic. These were glued with E600 to the inside of the outer calf edge at 1” from top and bottom and then centered between each. I used needle nosed pliers to bend the hooks open more. Holding the calf in the closed position, I marked where the hook met the other side of the calf. I drilled a slightly oversized hole and used a countersink to clean off the burrs. Repeat for other calf. Technically, this looks pretty good. Now I just have to see how they handle during a test drive, I mean Troop! Next up, Let’s Start Painting!

Great idea, Ken. I can see how the exposed edge could still cause some scratching as it is installed. Thanks, Tony! I need to get this thread update on my progress so I can go out and play on the big day next week!