Toothdoc

That pretty much covers my eye lenses. I'd do it this way again when I build another bucket. Next, which I kinda skipped over is my interior painting. Decided to just mask it up and go. I used some vinyl masking tape that I believe they use on auto painting jobs. I have it for my model aircraft. I prefer the vinyl tape on tight corners and around the periphery where leakage is most likely to occur. Then used a bunch of regular masking tape for the rest of the space. Don't skimp on tape! Be thorough and don't miss any spots. Check and re-check everywhere! Used a gray Krylon primer and then a couple of coats of flat black. No leaks and no overspray! Came out perfect! Kinda looks like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle to me! Ha!

Appreciate the input. This takes quite a while, but to me is worth the effort.

I decided on using some 6-32 sized nylon bolts to hold my lenses in place. These I had to cut to length to fit and make sure they didn't bottom out on the threaded inserts. Once all the JB Weld Plastic Epoxy had set, I used my clear lenses and installed them fully as if they were the final green ones. I wanted to ensure I didn't have any further lens tweaks prior to cutting my final lenses. I duplicated my clear ones by simply tracing them out on the provided green material and was able to come up with TWO complete sets of lenses! Great! Now I have a duplicate set if one gets scratched or whatever. Two sets! Yeah! Set into position Screwed into place for final install View from the outside Both secured and finished!

I've seen several ways and mechanisms on how to do this, this is just my spin on pretty much the same thing. I thought about using T-Nuts, but the ones I had on hand from my model aircraft hardware stash were too short for my liking. I went to my local ACE Hardware store and got six brass threaded inserts, instead. I glued these in the proper locations to pull down the lens for proper fit. This JB Weld Plastic bonder is a two-part epoxy type adhesive. Incredibly strong, fairly thick and viscous and tends to stay where you put it without too much slump. I DID have to hold my inserts in place to maintain their alignment for the corresponding screws. It takes about 15 minutes to set, then I added some additional to the brass insert area to just make sure it was well glued and pleasing to my eye. You can see that I placed some vinyl tape in the areas I thought I would install the inserts, prior to my helmet painting. Good idea to have a nice clean surface to adhere to if you can.

So the first thing I saw from what others had done that I liked was mount the eye lenses separately so they are essentially replaceable, like sunglass lenses. I did a lot on this mod so it was easier to do before the face and the back were bolted together and I had to work down in a hole. I got a couple of index cards and held them over each eye opening in the front part of the face. I used a pencil and traced each eye opening on the card stock. I then just eyeballed an approximate outer periphery about 4mm wider than the tracing. This would be a minimum of extra margin on the final lenses. Then I made a similar thickness sample lens from clear plastic sheet material. The clear works better to work out all the bugs and see better before you just jump into using the green stuff. I just cut out the paper templates and put them on the sheet plastic and used an ultra fine sharpie to make the lens, allowing for the tab areas in the areas shown below. These tab locations are the most important areas as they pull the lens down semi-flush with the pre-trimmed eye area. I've seen several others use four, five and even six different tab sites. I found them to be just unnecessary overkill.

Hello, Troopers and fellow wanna be (rookies)! This thread will detail my first ever build on any TK armor that will eventually be my initial submission for a TK number and 501st approval. I've decided on the Empire Strikes Back (ESB) variant TK because its my favorite of the three OT movies and the research I've done has led me to believe that the ESB stormtrooper is a better choice for a first TK build. My first efforts will be on the helmet. I want to get my feet wet with this aspect first and see how it goes prior to a full armor build. I am a pretty experienced scale R/C aircraft builder/flier and have competed at the national qualifier level. I have been modeling since I was in grade school and am also a practicing dentist of over 20 years. I am very comfortable working with my hands and with all types of instruments/tools and enjoy the detail work requirements. I've ordered a TK helmet kit from Dave Conklin at Dave's Darkside Depot at the recommendation of several new friends on Facebook and my own decision based on many hours here at FISD (with some SUPER people), the videos on YouTube from RS Propmasters, Ritchie Stormtrooper, Eric Dyck (to name just a few) and several others. My intentions are to achieve a centurion level build and engage in trooping in my local costuming community. I've never done anything quite like this or historical reenactment before and look forward to learning a lot along the way. I fully understand that when I put on this incredible armor, I WILL BECOME AN INSTANT CELEBRITY and get the good with the bad in all aspects and what that may bring. The current TK helmet version I received from Dave's Darkside Depot was a v4.5 kit. My intentions are to be photo heavy in this documentation and submit my successes AND failures fairly. After all, its in both that we all become better at our craft. I will be using my iPhone X and XII for my photography. I understand that some pics may look a bit distorted, but is convenient for me to document this way and I'm sure the viewers will "get the picture" of my communications. One last thing before we get into this, I encourage any and all "more experienced" troopers to be critical and constructively provide your advice and insights. Your mentorship has already been so invaluable in this process. I've started an initial thread on what came in the box. I'll post a link to those pics HERE.

Hey, Craig! Yes, Sir! I took those with my iPhone X. I wanted to get some great shots of what this AM v4.5 helmet looked like, especially for the rank beginner like me. A lot of photos here on the FISD, but don't REALLY give you a good sense of what you're actually getting. I was really blown away by the quality of these vacu-formings and the details and pre-trimmed stuff that Dave does. I couldn't recommend it highly enough for a new guy! I am told if I like the helmet, just wait until I get the rest of the armor! Most impressive as well! Just got a new iPhone XII today. currently moving my stuff over to it. I will post my COMPLETED photos here as soon as I get a chance and my phone frees up again. Hurry up, Phone!!

Appreciate your kind words! My goodness, you’ve been pacient! Hope it’s everything you dreamed of. I got my ESB decals from TB today. Fast service! Once they’re all on board and I get a chance, I’ll upload some pics of my almost completed ESB variant helmet. Looking good!

Thanks! I’ll be interested in seeing your posts.

Great place to be, David. I’m new as well and have had so many nice and encouraging guys offer their help. Good luck with your TK!

Congratulations! These posts and interactions are so valuable and great teaching/learning moments for us rank beginners. Thank you for the opportunity to get to see the processes. Best of luck!

Great posting here! Understand the frustrations. Strive for perfection knowing that you’ll NEVER really achieve it! Lessons to be learned.

Wow, Glen! Several nice ones in that group. That gives me some ideas. Thanks for all the pics.

Anyone have ideas and photos of their nice clean mesh (behind the teeth) installation?

AAAAWWWWEEEESSSOOOMMMMMEEEE! Please take lots of BBB photos and post. I’m committing to an ESB too. Painting my frown BLACK this morning. Do those commission builds come with an E-11 blaster?

What kind of armor did you get? RS Propmasters?

Looking forward to hearing about your experiences. Post lots!

Thanks, Shawn! Yes, I've watched his entire series several times. It was quite helpful. Just wish I could have offered him some critiques of his video techniques. Glad we have such friendly, helpful and experienced guys on doing this.

Hello, Everyone! I'm one of the newbies around here and if you've read my introduction bio over on the "NEW GUY" thread, you might remember that I'm on a personal quest to lose some weight and get healthier. The other day I met my first goal and officially hit 25lbs lost! My goal is to get to around 210-215 or so, starting from about 283lbs, just this spring. I'm just under 6' tall and of pretty stocky build. I think if I lose my gut and improve my physique around my chest and back, I can make this white armor stuff look pretty good! All this is just another incentive to hit my goals. I'm committed and excited to continue my journey and thought I'd reward myself for my first 25 lbs by ordering an ARMOR MASTER helmet kit (currently v4.5) from Dave at Dave's Darkside Depot. Dave sent a brown box right away, following my payment and it came pretty quickly. Since this was my very first order and all I've seen of these white plastic pieces was from pictures online, I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to receive. Dave's Darkside Depot came highly recommended by a friendly gentleman I met on Facebook. He told me that AM armor was cut generous enough for a bigger guy if I needed it to be. I had been doing my research and found the RS Propmasters guys in the UK and watched their entire library of build thread videos on YouTube. I just think it would be cool to just go hangout with those guys for a week and be a blast! I learned a lot there and I liked the idea of an authentic reproduction from an actual screen used armor set. But after a few Q&A sessions with my Facebook friend referral source, I thought I'd start giving the AM armor a serious look. I could find a few good threads to read up on, but some were outdated and didn't offer a whole lot of great photos on what this stuff was really like. So I thought I'd dip my toe in the water and take a chance with Dave's Darkside Depot and the Armor Master line and see for myself what all this was about. With this thread, I hope to document and give the beginner a good sense of what exactly this helmet kit is all about with some quality photo documentation. Let me say that I am waaay impressed with what I got from Dave's Darkside Depot. The v4.5 AM helmet is much better than I had hoped for! The quality is there for sure. I can't wait to get the rest of the AM armor (with my continued success in health goals) and work towards acceptance with the 501st, FISD and my local garrison. Hope these photos are helpful! This is my first attempt at attaching photos.

Greetings, everyone! I just wanted to make a quick post and say that today I received my first brown box from Dave Conklin at Dave’s Darkside Depot (on Facebook) that contained my recent order. My first item for my new adventure down this Star Wars trooping rabbit hole! I’m just getting started and reading everything I can find (here on the FISD forums) and watching lots of YouTube videos in doing my research. Since I’m hard at work losing weight for my eventual full TK armor build, I thought I’d reward myself for my first 25lb loss and get an Armor Master 4.5 TK helmet to start on! I opened the box and was immediately impressed at the quality of the ABS, the sharp crisp details and especially the thickness of the vacu-forming! These helmet components were vastly pre-trimmed and looked largely pre-finished except for cutting out the teeth, the assembly and the painting. I have to admit, I was kind of expecting a fairly flimsy pull with thin, fragile areas and a lot more trimming and pre-finishing to do before the assembly. Was I surprised! I’d seen several videos on basic helmet assembly, but it’s hard to tell just what your getting in quality from them. Let me assure any new prospective troopers out there that the Armor Master 4.5 armor kits from Dave’s Darkside Depot is A GREAT WAY TO GO! Although I can honestly only speak from the standpoint of the helmet alone, I’m confident that the rest of Dave’s product is on par with my new helmet acquisition! I’m glad of my decision and confident that the quality of the AM line is one of the best out there. Looking forward to my continued success with my health goals and my future ESB TK build. Newbies CAN buy in confidence!

Great dialogue going! Thanks for looking into putting something together. I never really envisioned a face to face Zoom meeting or something more visual, just a chat text session. But the visual meeting is more up to current technology! So, why not??? Just an aside, there seems to be a lot of good resources here if the user spends the time and effort to sift through years of conversation threads. Many, I’m finding are years old and have just suddenly died off. Don’t know how successful they may be to bring back to life after what may be years ago. Some of the technology related items may be out of date and old stuff now...

I can certainly understand and appreciate the challenges of that. Just thought I'd inquire about it.

Ive already asked several questions and have several quick replies. Everyone has been quite helpful and friendly! It's not that they don't get answered in time, its just an idea that if we had several people logged in together, a thorough Q&A session could be helpful. Maybe just faster and get to learn from other's great questions. Nothing like going to class, professor!

I’ve been doing my research and thought of something. Might this forum Support any way to host a Live Chat session from time to time with some of your more experienced members? I don’t know what you all may think about such and idea. Thanks to everyone who has been so nice, supportive and friendly, BTW!

And ESB TKs, right? I think I read somewhere that the ROTJ versions had a white sole. What were they thinking? Lol!