Sabyre

Hey Michael, Justjoseph63, put together a great list of items needed for completing a stormtrooper build. A link to his thread can be found Here. Also, look around some build threads for ideas. If you haven't already done so , read the posts in the Getting Started section. Once your white shinny armor arrives, start a build thread so every one can help guild you along and answer any questions you have as you go. Good Luck!

Time for a progress report. After my last post, I reatached the reformed back plate, did some more adjustments ( wasting more not so cheap snaps) and I think I now have the torso fit correctly. My next goa; was to get the arms hung. This started with hanging the shoulders. I already had the snap plates in the shoulder bells and the elastic strap to connect them to the shoulder bridge strap made. I made the elastic strap a bit long and cut the excess off after getting it attached. I suited up, held everything in place and had Mrs. Sabyre mark the elastics were they crossed. you can see the pencil mark on the white elastic. There is also a white mark on the edge of the black elastic showing were it lined up with the inside of the white elastic. I transfered the outline to the other side. I then measured 1/2 inch in and made a line. Then 1 inch in from the edge of the white elastic. This gives me my snap location. I did the same on the black elastic. 1 inch from the line up point and 1/2 inch in from the edge of the black elastic. After some really pis poor sewing, the snap was attached. NOTE* I am no seamstress. Seeing as I have yet to figure out a way to weld the snaps on, this will have to do. I then cut the extra elastic off at the line up line. This will put the end of the black flush with the inside edge of the white. Snap sewn to the white elastic. I did the same thing for the other side. Suited up and put the bells in place and they seemed to be right. I need to get the rest of the arms hung to do a final check. The bells were trying to fly up on me, once I have the strap that goes around the bicep on I think it should be good. After reading a few threads, I decided to go this route for prepping the shoulder bridges for gluing to the chest plate. I cut some scrap abs to fit in the recesses in side the bridge. I have read it is preferred that 5 ridges be on the chest plate, so that is what I will do. Add a little E-6000 Put pieces in place. Now to glue the shoulder bell strap on. I am placing the strap right next to the bottom of the bells. I have long arms, so my biceps will hang low. I measured 1 inch in from the outside edge. This will be how far in the strap is glued. After doing some test fits with the bicep inside the bells, I finally found a good length for the elastic. I placed a piece of tape over the elastic compressing the side closer together. This will keep the elastic from being pulled as it glues. Next was snap plates for the biceps and forearms. I placed these just inside the edges a little so the snaps or webbing pieces on the elastic strap would not be seen. They are also butted up agsinst the inside cover strip so the strap will be above the elbow bend while you wear them. Alink to a great tutorial on the correct strapping method of bicep and forearms can be found here. This is how I'm hoping these turn out. Now for something I played with for a couple days. Lots of research was done for this bit. The NE ESB hand guards are quite large. In a way this is good. I have good size hands and have a hard time finding gloves that work, so I would rather trim some than have guards that are too small. I know Troopermaster makes ESB guards. While I would love to have some, I worry about the color between them and the NE armor not matching, but more over I haven't the extra funds available at this time, so I'll try my hand at tweaking these. I didn't have my gloves at the time so I placed the guard on my bare hand and traced around it until it looked close to the same as the screen caps. This will be the left hand guard. I did the same with the right hand guard. This was a bit harder, as I am right handed and can't do much of anything left handed. After getting both of them marked out, I went back and did some more research. I wanted to make darn sure I was happy with it before cutting. After doing some more looking, I decided that I wanted to try taking off a bit less than I had planned. You can see on the left guard the difference between the original line I drew and the second line ( close to the bottom of the guard.) I set them aside for the night. The next day after work, I went and found me some gloves. This way I could check one last time with the gloves on before cutting. While wearing the gloves, It looked to me that the second line drawn was more correct, so I went to town. Here is the left one (on the left) after trimming. I tried it on and it looked about right. It's a good thing I double checked before cutting, that first line I drew would have made them way too small. here is how the left one looks with the glove on, after trimming. Here is the right one before trimming. I placed the left guard on top of the right and traced the cut line. Since tracing it like this doesn't give you the exact same cut line due to material thickness. I will cut roughly the thickness of the material below the line. Here is the right one after trimming. ( on the right.) Fit with the glove on. I didn't find any real good clear screen caps of the top of the guards. I read in a couple threads about the ends being bent in a little. I did find a thread in which Troopermaster had a picture of the ESB hand guards that he makes. Since he is know for being very accurate in his sculpting, this is the look I was going to make a weak attempt at recreating. A link to that thread can be found here. This is the picture Troopermaster posted showing his new hand guards. The ones on the bottom are the look I was attempting to match. I used the heat gun to heat up the sides right near and at the corners, then pressed them inward towards the wrist. Here is what I ended up with. Not a match, but for a dirty old welder/ fabricator with no artistic ability, I was satisfied. They will do until such time I can buy the real deal. Last night I decided to paint the ab plate buttons. Remember, i have no artistic ability, so I had to find a way to cheat. This idea I found in a couple threads, unfortunately I can't remember were I found it to give due credit. I used a geometry figures template and found a circle about the same size as the buttons. This one happened to be 3/8 inch. After many trials and errors, I finally came up with a successful solution of masking the buttons off. I cut off a small piece of tape. I placed the tape over the 3/8 inch hole. I laid the template upside down with the sticky side of the tape facing me through the hole. Then using a craft blade, I carefully cut around the inside of the template. Once the tape was cut all the way around, the center would pull out on the blade. I then flipped the template over and pealed off the tape. The tape can then be centered over the button. Do this a few more time and you have them taped off. I was just about to paint them when I realized I was out of mineral spirits. Had to move them aside till I could get to town to pick some up. Then I decided I would glue in my bicep hooks. The ones I had made a few posts back. Well, I pulled them out of the box and they looked good. Right? Right. Until I decided to test them and see how well they would hold. I barely put any pressure on them and they snapped. All of them broke, worthless. Sooo, back to more research. I found a thread, Bicep Hooks, talking about, well bicep hooks. There are three links in this tread. One of them was Locitus' build thread, were he showed how he made his. Heat the strips of abs, bend the end around a screw driver and form the other end to fit inside the bicep. WOW, sometimes you just have to K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid. This was WAY easier than the way I did it originally, took a fraction of the time and made a darn strong hook. Thank you sir for the lesson. New, better and stronger hooks. Hooks glued in and elastic straps glued to the hand guards. That's it for the night. Wasn't real sure what I was going to work on today. No mineral spirits, can't paint till I get to town and pick up more spirits. Glue still setting, can't test the arms with the bicep hooks till the glue dries. Then my phone rings, called in to work. That's ok, I stopped by the store after work, picked up the spirits and time to paint. Here is the after math. Now I'll let the paint dry over night and see how much bleed through I got in the morning, or after I get back from work again. Till next time, Thanks for reading.

Walt makes a kids armor, you would have to check with him but I believe it will fit up to 5' not sure if 5' 3" would work. Also Troopermaster I think makes a kids armor, you'll have to PM him for info on it. Hope this is of some help.

Hey Jayson, Your build looks great so far. As far as your questions: 16. When you put the s trim in, I started mine in the front behind the vocoder. work it around pressing it in tight. once you get back to were you started, cut about an inch extra. Then force it over and butted up to the other end. the pressure against itself will hold it in. no glue needed. Here is how mine looks. The pic is a bit fuzy, but you can see were the trim wrinkles a little on the edges on the front of the tubes from being pressed in. 17. The helmet fans. I got mine from Echo. Evilboy also makes them. 18. I got my boots from TK boots as well. I have ordered two pair from him. both times I didn't have t wait too long because I opted for the, What he calls, imperfect pairs. I have not dealt with Imperialboots or any other boot manufacturers for that matter, so unfortunately, I can't be of any help there.

Thank you for the kind words Walter. Your build has been a great help. Here is a little update from the past week. There isn't much to share and it seems I haven't really accomplished much, compared to the time I have spent and the aggravation caused. I started off by making that last snap plate, that I had forgotten and glued it in place. Now it is time to make the elastics for the enclosure for the left side of the abs and kidney plates. I lined the two up and clamped them to the table. This way I can double check the measurements between the two holes attaching the pieces. Here is the elastic I used for this and the strapping. I cut three strips at three inches. I marked a center line the length of the elastic, then marked the lines for the split rivet location. I placed my holes at the exact same spacing as the holes in the plates. In hind sight, I could have moved them in one to two mm, to account for the elastic stretching. Using my soldering iron, I melted the ends of the elastic and burned out the holes. I decided to go a head and cut out the kidney notches before putting the enclosure together. This way I have easy access to the notch on the left side, without having to fight around the ab plate. To avoid splits, cracks and tears, you want to avoid making and right angle cuts. I used a 9/32 drill bit, the same one used to drill out the split rivet holes, to drill out the notch area were the two edges meet. This will put a radius in the corner of the notch and not a right angle. I used the lexan scissors to cut the rest of the notch out. Now to finish the enclosure. I placed the split rivets and put tape on the outside to hold them in place. I clamped the ab and kidney down, lining up the holes. Put the elastic on. Added the strips I made on top of the elastic. Then using a flat head screwdriver, I pried the legs of the rivet apart till I had them far enough to hammer flat. Here it is after removing the tape. I then moved on to making straps and fitting this beast. Not an easy task. I didn't get any pics of this process, as I #1 had no clue what the heck I was doing. #2 Was getting way to aggravated to even think about taking pics and finally, I had to do a lot of guessing and adjusting as I went. I think I finally got every thing were it needs to be. Be sure to have plenty of snaps, I quit counting how many I messed up or had to remove to readjust straps. Anyhow, while fitting, I found that the back was not sitting right. I had it sitting the way I wanted while fitting with just tape, everything sets a little different with the strapping. I had to big a gap between the back and kidney. I noticed they ends of the back curve downward and prevent the back from sitting flush with the kidney plate. I marked out what I would need to remove form each side to give the bottom of the back plate a straight edge. I had to break out the heating iron. Instead of cutting away the corners of the back plate, I wanted to form them over to were I wanted then trim away the extra material. I was more than a little nervous about using this. I have read quite a few build threads that ended with good results, so I figured I would give it a shot. I practiced a few times with some old scrap pieces before moving on to the real thing. I don't have it in the pic, but I did end up covering the iron head with some fabric. The iron wanted to stick to the ABS as it heated up. Here is what I ended up with. The bottom edge is not perfectly straight, but nothing else on this armor is either. However, once strapped on it sets pretty darn good I think. On a side note. On a recent excursion to the, not so, local toy store I found the 31 inch TFA trooper my desk has been missing. That is much better. Now if I could just finish this build so I could clean the rest of the junk off of it. Little Sabyre also found something he was missing. Doing my best to raise 'em right. Thanks for reading.

A more experienced veteran may confirm or correct me, but I have read in a few build threads that 2 inch is acceptable. 2 inch white, is what I am using for my build.

Hi Shawn, I know exactly how you feel about not wanting to make a mistake. There are many great builds on here with a ton of information. Be sure to post pics of your progress and ask questions if you have any doubts, many helpful troopers here will give guidance. The nerves will settle a little after you make the first cut. I have yet to finish my build and I am still learning as I go, but would be glad to lend what little info I have if you need it. Good luck.

Trogdor, Thank you for the kind words. Now that I have returned to my old job, I find I have more time to chase after this long held goal. . I would caution you not to follow too closely to what I do, as I am still learning as I go. I don't want to lead anyone astray. Well, I finally got my pics from this weekends progress downloaded, so lets get to it. For starters, I had fully intended to use the original method to close the shins. Hooks and elastic. However, I have instead decided to steal a design for velcro closure I saw while I was reading Haridon72's build thread. His build was remarkable, and a great inspiration. I started out cutting a piece at 1 1/2 inches for each shin. I then cut two pieces at 1/2 inch for each shin. After roughing up all of the pieces, I glued the two 1/2 inch pieces together. I then glued the 1/2 inch stacks on to the 1 1/2 inch piece. this will leave me room for a 1 inch strip of velcro. I placed the clamps in place and set them aside to dry. Sorry for this really bad pic. I taped everything together for a test fit. I didn't get any pics of the fitting process, but rest assured there was a good bit of frustration and maybe a swear word or two involved. After taking a break, doing some more research and calming down, I gave it another shot and I think I got every thing to set about right. I got everything marked out and started trimming. I didn't take any pics of the ab and kidney shim trimming. It wasn't till I started to do the chest and back that I remembered to take pics. At this point, there isn't much to trim from the chest. I did trim some of the return edge that sits on my shoulders. Here is the rough trimming of the return edge on the outside. Again, no pic, I trimmed the same amount off of the inside (neck area). I will wait till I get it strapped up to see if any more return edge in the neck area needs to be trimmed. I then decided to trim up the shoulder bridges. I will not glue them on till after I have everything strapped. I started to try and measure out the trim line. After doing some research, I went with the eyeball it method. I think it turned out ok. If I am wrong please let me know. Here they are before trimming. One done. Both done. By this time, the velcro fixtures have dried. Time to glue them in. I didn't get good pics for this, for that I apologize. I will try to explain what I did. This pic is the left shin, so the half of the shin with the cover strip is pushed inside of the shin. I glued the 1/2 inch piece to the inside of the shin half without the cover strip. I lined up the 1/2 inch piece flush with the outside edge of the shin. This leaves 1 inch hanging out over the half of the shin with the cover strip. If that is too confusing, I will get better pics once the velro I ordered arrives and I install it. Now it's time for snap plates. I might have gone a little overboard with this, but I am squeezing a lot of person in this armor. I used 2 inch nylon, which is about 50mm, and cut it 35mm in length. I then used my soldering iron to punch holes in the webbing and burn the edges to prevent fraying. I am using line 24 snaps from Tandy Leather. When I ordered the snaps I also ordered the setting tools that went with them. Made the job a cinch. Here is one finished. Here is (what I thought at the time) the rest of them. I might have miscounted. Before gluing the snap plates in, I gathered up the nerve to attempt a modification I saw in Mutter's build thread. The left shoulder bridge on the back plate is at a terrible angle and didn't allow the back to set flush. I used my heat gun and reformed it to set more like the right side. The pics are not great, but hopefully you can see the difference. Now back to gluing snap plates. with the snap plates I'm using, a clamp will not put even pressure on the webbing around the snaps. I found a thread months ago, which I can not find now, where someone had made some pretty good gluing plates out of Popsicle stick. (some people call them craft sticks, I call them Popsicle stick. mmm, hmm). I can't remember exactly how he did it, so here is my weak attempt. I cut two pieces the same width as the webbing, one the same length as the webbing and one small piece to set in the middle between the snaps. In this pic, the piece is upside down, and the snaps will set on either side of the middle stick. This is the way it will set on the snap plate. After testing, the sticks are not thick enough for the clamp to set on the stick and not the snaps. So, I cut a second stick to glue down on top. this raised the clamp off of the snaps themselves. Here they are in use. Gluing the snap plates into the back plate. I only have so many stick jigs and clamps so, one part at a time. In the mean time I decided to glue the sniper knee plate on to the left shin. You may notice some glue that needs removing from the cover strip. I will do the clean up once all the gluing is complete. Back plate done. On to the kidney plate. Before gluing the snap plates on, I lined the back and kidney plates up to ensure I got the snap plates in-lined to one another. While that dries, I went on to lay out and drill the holes for the rivets in the left side of the ab and kidney plates. I did a bit of researching before proceeding with this. Basically what I did was to center the middle hole and space the other two hole an equal distance from the center. I measured 10mm from the seam (were the ab and kidney meet). I then measured 25mm from the top of the ab piece, 25mm from the bottom of the ab piece and this leaves 65mm from each hole to the center hole. As I learned in Dark CMF's build thread, be sure to lay out the ab first. then align the kidney and make the holes match. Reason is, if you do not have the notch cut out of the kidney already, it can throw off the holes in relation to the ab. Lay out from the top of the kidney, 25mm from top 65mm to middle and 25mm to bottom hole. 10mm from the seam. Line the two up, to make sure they match. ( the extra material on the kidney below the last hole is were the 22mm x 22mm notch will be.) Went ahead and drilled out the hole for the rivet in the cod. Then drilled out the rivet holes in the ab and kidney. Once the holes were drilled, I cut out a couple pieces, from extra cover strip material, that were 3/4 by 7 inches. I placed one strip on the inside of the ab plate over the rivet holes. I taped it in place and drilled holes. This will be used to place over the elastic holding the halves together. I repeated this for the kidney. Here are the two pieces marked out, so I don't mix them up. Back to gluing snap plates. I lined the butt plate up with the kidney and aligned the snap plates for gluing. I had two snap plate jigs left, so I glued the snap plates on to the shoulder bridges. Once the butt plate dried, I glued the snap plates to the bottom of the chest plate. Here is were my miscounting comes in to play with the snaps. I ran out of snaps. One plate short, so the kidney will get only one for now, on the opening side. More snaps ordered. Closure plates glued to the ab. Last but not least for this go around, is the belt. I measured 1 1/2 inches from the last box to the end of the belt. I marked a cut line approximately 3mm from the boxes across the top and bottom of the belt. To make the angle cuts on the ends, I measured 10mm from what will be the end of the belt and 12mm from what will be the top of the belt. This gives me the top notch. 10mm from the end of the belt and 12mm from the bottom, and this gives me the bottom notch. I cut the ends using the score and snap method. I used lexan scissors to cut the top and bottom lines and the notches. I then went back over the scissor cuts with the rottery tool to even them out. Here is the end result. I hope this didn't bore any one to death. If you spot any mistakes please let me know. Thank you for reading.

Here is the wok I did to the calves. I have them built already, they just need fitting, fasteners, and the sniper plate added. I haven't tracked down the hooks or elastic for the fasteners yet, so I just did the fitting and gluing the back cover strip on. I started out, with my under suit on, by placing the calf on and fitting it were I wanted. I then marked on both halves, top and bottom, to give me a line up mark. I then removed the calf, held it so the line up marks were aligned and made a mark on both halves directly across from the front seam. I then used a straight edge to draw a line down the back of the calf. I did not take any pics of the process I used to get my center line, I apologize for that. You can't really see it but here is a pic of the line down the back of the calf. After scoring and snapping this extra material off, I did the same for the inner half. marked the line, score and snap. I used sand paper to smooth out the cuts. I also used my dremel to remove the remnants of the return edge around the ankle. After cutting the cover strip, sanding the back of the cover strip and out side of the calf the cover strip will be glued, I applied the glue and strip. Placed the clamps and magnets and set them aside. Here is the ankle area devoid of all return edge. repeated the same procedure for the left calf. That is it for today. Any and all comments welcomed. Thanks for reading.

After a bit of an absence, I am now back and ready to pick up were I left off. Thank you for the kind words WhiteHammer, I see you completed your TK. It looks good! congratulations on the new digits! I am now to the part I have been dreading. Putting the torso together. After a good bit of contemplation over were to start and what order to go in, I decided to just grab a part start making and cutting. I started out with the cod piece. After test fitting and looking at some reference pics, this is how far I decided to trim. After trimming and sanding, I test fit it again, and am happy with the result for now. I will check this again after putting it all together for a test fit. I then moved on to the chest plate. Not much done here. I trimmed off the extra side pieces and trimmed a little out of the neck opening. The pics are not that great, but the shaded areas are what I removed. This is the small amount I removed from the neck. I just tapered it back a little so it wasn't digging into my neck. I will see if any further trimming is needed when I fit it all together. Here is the final result. Next, I worked on the back plate. After looking over a few builds and ref. pics, I think I had a good idea what needed to be removed from the back. If any one sees something I missed please feel free to chime in. Here is what I ended up with. Next was the butt plate. Again, shaded areas were removed. You can't really see the pencil make. Basically, all I did was remove the extra material from the sides. The final result. Last but not least, the kidney plate. This is the part that will require a little more attention. SHIMS must be added. I have tried a few times, I just can't squeeze this 280lb guy into a 180lb man's armor. Lol. I left the extra flashing on this piece. This will be the backing support for the shims. I also left the extra material on the ab plate. Once I fit them together I will trim it all down to match, so the extra on the ab will act as the shim on that half. The NE kit has the kidney notch molded in, so I will cut out a filler piece to fill that in as well. Here are my shims and filler pieces. Sorry, this pic is BAD. You might be able to make it out. After roughing up the backs of the shims, fillers and the outside of the kidney flashing, I places the glue, added clamps and magnets. After it sets up I will try and get better pics of the finished piece. The shims over hang a little bit on the top and bottom. However, I can fix this when I trim it up to match the ab. I have also done a little work to the calves. I will post them after I get the pics downloaded. Thanks for reading.

Thank you for the kind words. Good call on the Velcro. I recall reading this in a few build threads, but it slipped my mind while building the TD. I will add that after we return from our trip. Thank you sir

I couldn't stop myself and had to squeeze in a little work before we leave. No I have not become addicted! Who am I kidding, yes I have, but just a little. Any way lets get on with it. I decided to get the TD's done, since they are about the easiest and fastest parts to do. I'll start with a pic with all the parts. The belt clips came from Evilboy. Never mind the hard ware in the pic. after taking this, I was doing a little more research before starting and discovered I had the wrong size. The hardware in the pic is 8- 32 and I needed 6-32. I went to the store the next day and got the right size. I first put the end caps on to check the over all length. The CRL reads Aprox 7.50 inches. this one measured out to be 7 and 11/16, so a little had to be taken off of the tube. Aclose up pic is below showing the measurement. This means I need to remove about 3/16 of an inch. I marked the cut line using a square. I tried to use my protractor, but it would not measure that small. I used my curved lexan scissors to cut close to the line. After that I used the dremel to remove the rest. Once I got it all removed I ran it over a piece of sand paper I held flat on the table, in order to even up the freshly cut end. I replaced the end caps and remeasured. Now it is apox 7 1/2 over all length. Time to cut down the end of the clips. I laid the clips on top one another and made sure to line up all the holes and belt hooks. I then made a mark across both pieces at the same time. this will ensure they set evenly on the TD and line up with the control panel. I then used the cutting wheel on my dremel to cut the ends off. before putting them on the TD, I ran them across the sand paper on the table, same as the tube, to straighten the cut. I then put the correct screws in a piece of card board and took them out side to paint black. I left them over night to dry. Sorry no pic of them after paint. Last night, I put it all together. I started by holding the control panel on the tube and tracing a line for the clips to meet. Holding the clip next to the end cap and touching the line, I drilled out the first hole, and inserted the first screw. I then held the clip tightly against the tube and drilled the second hole and paced the second screw. The drill bit did walk on me a bit in all the holes and I had to ream the holes a little to get the clip to set where I wanted. I didn't get pics of this process, but with the holes reamed out, the screws will not hold tight. I placed a washer and a nylock nut on the inside of the tube, so this was no issue. When placing the second clip on the tube, I also held the control panel on touching the first installed clip. this was to insure, that both clips would be touching the panel regardless of where they set in relation to the previously drawn line. After installing the clips it was time to glue on the panel. I placed E6000 on the panel and spread it out over the entire piece. After lining it up with the clips and pressing in place, I put some rubber bands over it to hold it down, and let it set for the 24hrs. After it sat for 24hrs I removed the rubber bands and cleaned up the excess glue. Unless any one can see a mistake I have made, this is my first finished, cleaned and ready to troop part. Thanks for reading.

PM inbound!

Ok, it's time to share my mic tip solution, and today's progress. I will make the tips go from the one on the left to the one on the right. Here you can see how far the back piece must go into the mic tip. This is how deep the speaker is. Not quite a good match. The speaker needs to set twice as far in than it currently sits. Here is how it fits together now. To start, I picked up some 1/4 x 1 nylon bolts. The heads are quite thick and interfere with the speaker. Using the sanding drum on the dremel, I sanded about half of the head off. Then, using this wonderfull little bit, I started thinning out the walls of the mic tip until the speaker set far enough in. What a mess. Once I got the speaker to set where I wanted, I had to cut about a 1/4 of the inner rim off of the back. This allows the back to set in around the speaker connections. I then drilled out a hole for the wires to run separate from the bolt. I added some super glue to the bolt and glued it to the back plate from the inside. After a few minutes, the glue was dry and I could glue the back to the tip. I do not want this to be permanent, in case of needed repairs or replacement of speaker, so I opted to use good ol' E6000 here. I put a glob of E6000 on a paper towel and used a craft stick to spread it on the tip. I spread it on the rim of the tip trying to avid getting any glue on the speaker itself. After getting the back on, I taped it up and set it aside to cure. This morning, while I wait for the tips to dry, I soldered the new mic on to the EAS. Once it was cooled, I heat shrink-ed the connection and mounted it in the bucket. I then covered the speakers with foam and an old shirt. I did this following the example given by Skyminer on his EAS web site. That site can be found here. I also cut some foam to place over the mics. They are not glued in as they will be held in place by the lens. Here I reinstalled the lens holding the foam over the mics. After many test and different set ups, I finally decided the best pace for the speakers was right over my ears. This put them next to the mics. However, with the hot glue and all o the foam separating them, I get no feed back. I am eager to see how it works with the mic tips, but I will have to wait till my Rom/Fx arrives to find out. As of right now the EAS work great. Now it is time to install the reworked mic tips. I opened up the holes I drilled previously, to allow the bolts to be fitted. I also made a little room for the wires to set off to the side of the bolt and avoid being pinched by the nut and washer. I then installed the Echo fan system I got here. Last part I can install at this point is the s-trim. Now the bucket is closer to being finished. I still have to paint the ear screws, but will tackle that a little later. I will wait until very last to do the painting. Once I get the Rom/Fx, I can install that and then start all of the wiring. This will be my last addition to this thread for a bit. At least a couple weeks. We are traveling back home to Texas next Friday to visit family and I have a good bit of chores to take care of before we go. Soon as we return I will build the TD, and then start on the ab, kidney and butt. I have been putting that off, because that will entail ABS paste. I have been fairly lucky so far maybe it will continue. Thanks for reading.

I have heard nothing but good things about them. Thank you sir.

After two long work weeks, I finally had a little time this week to get back to some building. As stated in my last post, I am focusing on getting the rest of the bucket done. Installing lens and mic tips. The mic tips I am using are from HyTech Toyz . I decided on these, because I plan on trying my hand at using Ukswrath's helmet electronics design, which can be found here. As I am completely ignorant to electronics, we will see how it goes. Here are the mic tips, out of the package . They come with all the hard ware to instal them with bolts. However, the speakers are not deep enough in the tip to put the back plate and screw on. With that in mind I decided I would just glue the tips in. I will show some of this process a little later. First, I wanted to get the lens in. I started by cutting out a 2 1/2 inch by 15 1/2 inch strip from a tented grinding shield. Sorry, no pics of this, I did this a few months ago while finishing my ANH bucket. I held it in place and using the flash light on my phone to light up the screws behind the shield, I marked their location with a permanent marker. I then drilled out the holes for the right side. Placed the shield on the screws, and marked out the left side. I drilled them out and put it in place. I now have the lens in. I have not put the nuts on to hold it in, due to the fact that it has to come right back out for the EAS system installation. Now to install the mic tips. To start with, I drilled out a hole just about the same size as the wire connector on the tips. Since the connector is not round, and they have not invented the rectangle drill bit yet, I had to use a small hand file to open the hole big enough for the connector to fit through. Now, just slide it through. I used hot glue to hold the mic tips in, because I did not want them to be permanently glued. I had to do this a few times. The hot glue did not want to stick. Now for the EAS system. I got these from Skyminer. To start with, I removed the ear. I want the mic for the system to be directly under the rank bumps. This will be in the center of the two holes used for screwing the ear on. I found that a 3/8 drill bit was about the same size as the mic. You want the hole to be a little snug. Once the hole was drilled, I pushed the mic through from the inside out. I pushed it through till the back of the mic was about flush with the inside of the bucket. I then put a healthy amount of hot glue around the mic on the outside of the bucket. Then replaced the ear. Notice the ear screws are not yet painted white. I am waiting until I have everything in and working before doing so. Now I move to the inside. I carefully folded the wires on the back of the mic down, and placed a good bit of hot glue in to hold them down. As you can see the right mic is now in place. You will also notice the left one is not. I did all of the installation, and when it came time to fold down the wires, I broke one of the mic prongs off of the back. It would be best to pay attention to the direction of the wires on the back of the mic as you push it through the side of the bucket, and make sure they are facing in such a way as to bend and not brake. I ordered a new mic on line and it came in today. I will get to try my hand at soldering and replacing it this weekend. Wish me luck. That is all I have at this point. My fan system from Echo came in yesterday, so I have that as well to install. One of the mic tips fell off my wife's bucket yesterday. I am beginning to hate hot glue. After doing a little playing around with the mic tips, I believe I have come up with a solution to attaching them to the bucket once and for all. With any luck I will have some positive results to share in the next post. Thanks for reading.

Done

Awesome post Joseph, many new troopers will find this a valuable guild!

Hi Michael, Rob usually stays booked up a year at a time. You might check back with him towards the end of the year. His wait list fills up fast. Just keep checking in with him.

Time for a small update. I have managed to squezze in a some time to get a little more done on the buckets. After the grey on the ears dried, I used a fine line brush to paint the black outline on the ears and the rank bars. A few spots got a little messy and will require some clean up later. After I finished the ears, I moved on to the frown. Then, I outlined the vocoder area. After outlining, I switched over to a larger brush, and filled in the outlined area. I let the paint set over night to dry. This morning I used a tooth pick and mineral spirits to clean up some of the paint lines. Then it was time to apply decals. I did this following the procedure demonstrated in the Trooperbay videos. I started with the tears. Then moved on to the back traps. And finally, the tube stripes. My next focus will be on getting the lens, frown mesh and speaker mic tips installed. I will be working quite a few hours the next two weeks, so I'm not sure how much time I will have to work on the suits. I may not have much to share for a bit, but I will post what I do get around to. Thanks for reading.

I will keep that in mind when I get to that point. That tip is greatly appreciated.

After finishing up my forearms last weekend, except cleaning up oozed glue spots, this week I have focused on the buckets. After replacing the trap decals with the correct ones, I reassembled the face and cap/back. Then I turned to closing up the large gaps on the sides to assist in getting a good fit for the ears. Here you can see the gap on the tubes. I pressed the tube halves together, drilled a hole and placed one of the extra screws and nuts that came with the kit into it. Gaps closed up. They are not perfect, but it does make it a little easier to get the ears to fit good. The next two pics show how much gap I had to work with to start out. The back of the left ear was much worse. I could stick my fingers in the gap. Not pretty! Here is the result of about an hour of work on the right ear. I held the ear on ( no holes drilled or screws placed) marked the parts touching and a little at a time dremeled away what I had marked. I took very little off at a time, taking turns between front and back side of the ear. After getting a fit that was satisfactory, I drilled the top hole and placed the screw in place. I could then force the bottom of the ear into it's final position and check the ear's fit to the side of the bucket. After making more marks, I removed the ear and sanded a little more away to refine the fit. I did this a few times. Only after getting it to fit good, I drilled the bottom hole and placed the screw. Once the top and bottom screws were in place I drilled the hole and put the middle screw in. It's not a perfect fit ( that I so desperately wanted) but it is better than some of the screen shots I have seen. This is what I started with on the left ear. As I stated earlier, the back side is much worse. Almost sickening. I did this ear the same as the right. Again, it took me about an hours worth of work to get it, but I think it is time well spent. Here is the back of the left ear. It still has a little gap in it, but from were it started there is no comparison. Sorry the pic is a bit fuzzy. Now I am ready for a little paint on the ear. I started out by outlining the ear bumps with the grey. Notice the smudges. When painting two sides of an object you are hoding in your hands, don't set it in your lap after you have painted the other side. The mineral spirits had to be called on to remove a few smudges before continuing. Live and learn. After outlining, I went back and filled them in. I didn't get pics of the process I used on the ears, due to the lighting in my work area. I used a #2 pencil to mark the areas that needed grinding, with the poor lighting I could not get a good enough pic to show the marks I made. However, the process can be seen in a thread Gazmosis made here in much better detail than I could have put forth any how. Tomorrow, after putting the trim up in my daughters room and putting her bed together, I can move on to some black paint on the ears, vocoder and frown. Thanks for reading.

Congratulations on the big brown box day. I was as excited as a kid on Christmas morning on mine. From what I've seen from the rest of your thread and other posts you've made, it sounds like you will have no trouble with this build, and will be done in no time. I'm excited to see a Texas based female trooper build thread. Good luck!

One for me.

Those were great! Thanks for sharing!