Chills

Very nice looking set of armor, Kyle. I think you did a great job with the shims on the sides. It's not easy to get that extra plastic to look so smooth. I only see one thing besides what Jay mentioned: the stripes on your rear traps should be closer to the bottom of the trap. I don't think that will matter for your EIB, though. Good luck!

Congratulations Lucho! Welcome to the ranks!! Great looking set of armor.

Thanks guys! I'm pretty stoked.

Woohoo!!! Thanks Steve!!! Yes, I definitely plan on submitting my Centurion. Regarding the back armor, no problem, I can adjust that. I think some of the overlap is because of my height, but I can definitely fix it so it meets Centurion requirements. The white has already been scraped off the split rivet on the cod. I need to take another picture and I'll use that one. As for the thigh strips, no problem at all. I used E-6000 to glue them on, so I can adjust them. I tried lining them up with the calf strips, and they ended up off-center. I'll get that knocked out. And thanks for the compliment on the shims and helmet. The elastic strap on the butt-plate is to help keep it down. In addition to having large legs, I have some junk in the trunk, so the plate sticks out some. During my first troop I noticed that the three top straps and the crotch strap didn't keep the plate in place very well when I walked. So I added the elastic, which come across my front, and holds it down quite well.

Its more than just cosmetic, it's molded wrong. The front traps don't have the proper size, and they should be indented. The tears are totally the wrong shape, the indentation should follow the painted part. The helmet looks too narrow, too. The area under the eyes is rounded instead of sharp edged. The sharp edge where the tubes meet the front (the line extending down from the frown) is non-existent, also. Here's a troopermaster helmet. You can see the difference.

I haven't seen the first one. Wonder if it's on YouTube....

Looking good! And yes, those gaps between the sniper plate and the shin are right.

Very cool. Good luck!

Good looking set of armor. Congratulations on attaining EIB!! Are you going for Centurion next? Is that the TM 1.5mm or 2.0mm?

Thanks Tony. LOL@chiney. Nope, no polish at all. That's how troopermaster 2.0mm capped acrylic armor comes right out of the box.

Thanks everyone. My fingers are crossed.... Good suggestions, Scott. Those are things I thought of, as well, but there's really no room to play with in the thighs or calves. Both are skin-tight. If I tried to get the front bottom thigh back, the top front would rotate out too far, and the top back would dig into my hamstring. Also, to get the plate on the greave to come forward I'd have to add shims to the back... they are tight against my leg, too. The back overlaps the kidney a very slight amount because I'm short (5'8" on a good day. ). I had to modify the upper shoulder sections of the back armor by heating them and bending them down a lot to get the piece to sit as high as it is. You can see on the side pictures (arms down) that they still float up a bit.

Thanks for compliment, Joseph; and your input is much appreciated. The thighs are a tough one for me. After years of mountaineering and backpacking my leg muscles are really big. I had to put in 1.5" shims on the backs of the thigh armor, because of how thick they are. Also, my calves are so big I had to use ever millimeter of plastic TM provided for those pieces. So, anatomically, my knee plate will always be behind my thigh; my muscle sticks out that much. Also, the uneven-ness is a result of that, too. I try to get them to be even, but there's very little space to work with between my legs, LOL, and one always slides. However, I could re-take the pics so they're even. Thanks for the advice about the paint on the cod piece rivet. For some reason I thought it had to be white. I do plan on going for Centurion.

Basic Information Name: Christopher Hills LegionID: 51114 Forum Name: Chills Garrison: Midwest Garrison Mandatory Information Armor Maker: TM Helmet Maker: TM Mic Tips: TM Blaster Maker: Doopydoos with T-Jay upgrade kit Optional Information: Height: 5'8" Weight: 180 lbs Boots Maker: TK boots Canvas Belt: gazmosis Hand Plates Type: Karin's ANH stunt handguards Neck seal Type: Darman Holster Maker: gazmosis Build Thread: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/31099-chills-build-anh-stunt-tm-armor/ PHOTOS:

They have some moves. I'm jealous of their mobility. There's no way I could dance like that in my armor.

I love reading these. Thanks for putting it together!

Agree with the others, that will work just fine. Make sure you use washers on the back, the rivets will rip right through TK plastic. Just one note, you don't have to rivet your holster to your belt, but you can. I opted to use Chicago screws and I'm glad I did. It makes transporting the belt easier since I can take the thick-leather holster off.

Yep, you'll have a bit of return edge on the bicep. The pencil mark is a good start place to cut. You want to make sure the entire part that curves out away from the return edge (the extra plastic from the molding process) is removed. If you look at the picture you can see where there is a bit of white between your pencil mark and the shadow for your return edge. You want to cut up to that.

I have large thighs and had to build some decent shims for my armor. To get Centurion you'll need to shim the gaps and use a 25mm cover strip on the rear. Like Sly said, you'll need to make ABS paste to join the shim to the armor. It takes some working, but the paste is a great solution to adding plastic to the armor. What I did is use two strips under the shim to hold each side in place. After multiple applications and sandings of the ABS paste I put on the rear cover strip. At this point it is only used for authenticity sake, and doesn't do anything to strengthen the armor. The ABS paste works as a weld, and is pretty damn strong. The front should still have a 20mm cover strip. Here are a few pics of my process: The shim being glued into place Early application of ABS paste (lots of trial and error on how to use it right) One side finished. The other is partially covered by the cover strip

This! Believe it or not, if you mess up there's probably someone who's also made the same mistake and a fix has been figured out.

I'm curious, how long do people like him stick around? Is there any recourse for his false statements for the 501st other than warnings on the boards? Newbie questions, I know; but I bet these people pop up often and I'm wondering how they are handled.

I like how they are communicating with us. They didn't just take our money and stay silent. The pics look really nice, too. I'm quite hopeful.

Looking great so far, Brandon. Your posts really have a lot of detail in them. Question: are you a fan of seams? I'll be watching how you do your ABS paste. I did a lot of trial-and-error when I used it on my thigh shims; trying to find the perfect way to apply and sand.

Germain has it right. For the wrist end of your forearm I recommend that you use scissors to cut where your red line is and then a dremel to take the edge up to Germain's blue line; shave just a little bit at a time. Also, don't forget to cut those edges off from the mold along the length of the pieces. There shouldn't be any curve outward; this will help when you're mating the to halves together.

That's the first thing that struck me: the three TKs on the front page all have different shaped helmets. I hope anyone who's not familiar with the 501st sees that as a big red flag.

Hi Jake, welcome to the forum. If you check out the 'Getting Started - Check here first' forum you'll find all the answers on obtaining excellent stormtrooper armor.