menschie

My back closure straps are very short, very tight, and the Tandy's never unsnap. Bullet proof! So, good call on those. About the thighs...got ya. That's tough. Arms are always going to be a bit tricky to bend, even when strapped correctly. Having your forearms too close to your hand guards definitely is going to hinder. It's all about where the strapping is connecting the bicep to the forearm. The strapping should be more on the inside towards your body, as opposed to right down the front of the two pieces. That will allow your forearms to actually come back on the bicep when you bend, creating more forgiveness and room. When strapped right, the gaps (large or small) won't hinder your movement, and you can opt for the aesthetic without having to worry (always opt for aesthetic anyway. ) Edge of the belt for reference Again, great job. You're so close!!! Exciting times!

Awesome job! Congratulations and welcome to the 501st. Great eye for detail and nice job on that armour! A lot of great advice! I have a couple cents to put in, as you look to lvl 2 and 3 and, more importantly, just getting the most out of your armour: I'd worry a lot less about the back neck line being a hair low, and butt plate being higher, and more about the back to kidney gap. Getting the gap to an absolute minimum improves the look exponentially. I'm 6 feet, so I have similar concerns to you, but it's not been a problem. Something that might help is getting some more flex in that butt plate, by removing all return edge completely, except at the top/kidney edge. I think you'll find that once suited up, with weight pulling on the whole thing and your cod to butt connected, it'll all be fine. If it was me, with the thighs, I'd undo the back cover strip, extend to 25mm for the cover strip if not already, and create a gap between the two halves, to eek out as much more room as possible. Then, at the edged not covered by the cover strip, I'd fill it with some ABS gunk. If you're concerned about strength after that, you can glue internal strips too. You've done such a beautiful job on that armour, I know you won't feel 100% good about it unless you've addressed that. Arms at your sides photo...a super easy fix is making the 2 arm gaps (bicep to forearm and forearm to hand plate) equidistant. You'll find it a LOT more comfortable too when you bend your arms. Looks like you need to shorten the strap or elastic from your chest plate to your ab plate. When you raise your arms it's coming up too high. If you don't shorten, you'll have people coming and pulling your chest plate out from under your ab plate on troops. Also, for sure Joseph or Tony will tell you to trim that edge off your ABS belt. Hope this helps a bit. Clearly you've built with Centurion in mind, and it really shows! Great job!

Hey Patrick! Fun getting to this point hey!? Excellent feedback so far, obviously! This feedback is going to help you get that little bit further right to the end, and it's amazing how much these last little tweaks will make your armour look incredibly better, and how much prouder you'll be when you hit your first troop. When you look at the before and after pics, you'll be stoked! A few things to add: I think you'll find your chest plate lays nicer across your ab plate if you taper the return edge of the chest plate a little more as it gets to the sides. Does that make sense? Also, the bicep elastic looks like it's much larger than 3/4 inch. Will look much better when it's the correct size. There's not a back shot, but those back --> kidney --> butt plate gaps should be as minimal as you can possibly make them. Looks amazing when done properly. You have large gaps at the kidney to ab connection. It almost looks like you've run out of ABS. Did you trim to the mold line, or beyond? Best help I can offer is totally geek out on your favourite Centurion application threads, comparing those photos to your own. Almost there! A tiny bit of work will get you very far from here on in.

Thanks, but they didn’t have them at mine.

This makes me very very happy ...

There are people on here with a LOT more expertise than I have! However, I did get there and I want to just give a tip synopsis of things that are valuable to me. These are tips for those just starting. Much of it can be found on here, but here’s what I wish I knew at the start, with my own personal spin on it, from experience or from a lot of digging in the forums. Of course, some things you’ll still have to figure out for yourself…I wouldn’t take that from you! A million thanks to the FISD community. I owe realizing the dream of proper TK armour to you all! Helmet: Don’t rush it. Everyone’s been looking at this helmet for 40 years, and when it’s not perfect it doesn’t look completely right to people, even though they can't peg quite why. The look and consistency of the original costumes was really quite amazing, overall. Things to hyper focus on … the eye holes and the teeth. Eye holes…I often see people not taking enough out, or crooked lines. Slightly crooked can be cannon I guess, in some examples, as some of those eye holes were a bit messier than others. Sand and look. Sand and look. Teeth…people often make them too long and too square. I initially used a dremel, and then refined with hobby files. Compare them constantly to the movie worn helmets. If you make your teeth right, your helmet will likely stand out as an amazing example! Return Edges: People seem to have a desire to keep return edges. This can create fit, shape, and wearability issues…plus it just doesn’t look “cannon.” Again, look for the screen references. The return edges are often much much smaller than we’d all first think, and often there aren’t any at all. For instance, people often want to have too much return edge on the top of the butt plate, or any at all on the other edges of it. This will give you “trooper dumpy butt” I call it. Again, screen reference and look at the best Centurion submissions. Bending ABS: I know some people use a heat gun. This is outside of my comfort zone. Too many horror stories. I did a lot of bending to get things where I wanted them to be. FYI, I was able to accomplish this by pouring boiling water from a kettle on the parts I needed to bend, and applying a plastic clamp for the weight to apply the bend force. When it was where it needed to be, or just past actually (it goes back slightly), I'd immediately put it under cold running tap water. Sometimes I had to repeat this process. This worked perfectly, on 1.5mm ABS. My Favourite Build Resource: Centurion submissions! The build threads were cool, of course. For me, the single biggest help were the Centurion Submissions. So much detail, and real life scrutiny of what you eventually want to have. Specifically, and this is really important, find submissions of your armour make (RS, ATA, etc.) with someone who is approximately your height and weight. That’s a huge help. Glue: I read a lot about E6000. I was unsure about it, as I heard about how bad it smelled and how long it took to cure. The smell does go away quickly. I couldn’t recommend it more. When you wear your armour, it will flex, and there will be times where it may be called up to really flex. CA glue does not allow for any flex at some points on your armour that have a LOT of tension. E6000 is a way safer route to go. Plus, if you make a mistake you’re not hooped. I can’t imagine using anything else. Also, people talk of 12 hour cure times. On anything that has a bit of tension in it you'll need to go 24 hours. Even then, I put it over a forced air heat register (in cold months). If you push short cure times you'll eventually get some separation. Not fun to go backwards! Cover Strips: I did not use interior strips. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it. It’s all about preference and comfort level. In my experience, if you do your outside cover strips properly, your armour will absolutely be strong enough, and you’ve just saved yourself an incalculable amount of work and curing time, in what is already a long and arduous process. When using E6000, it is VERY important that you glue right to the very edge of the cover strip where it touches your armour. You want some bleeding out. Most of the force is at the edges. When you clean the glue that has pressed out, if you happen to peel even a fraction of a mm from underneath the cover strip, you can expect your cover strip to come away at the edge at some point. For some people that’s not an issue...lots of people with cover strips that aren't consistently flush and in full contact. For me, I need to have my cover strip in complete flush contact. Better to leave a tiny bead of E6000 at the side edges of the strip, than to completely remove it and have separation. Strapping: Tandy snaps are the best. Reading other's horror stories, I'd go as far as to say essential. To keep gaps very minimal, keep the snaps very close to the edge of each piece of armour, and make the strapping tight. It will stretch and it’ll always seem like you’re making the strap to short at first. In fact, even then you’ll likely eventually make them shorter. I tried elastic strapping and I hated it. It flexed better, but the gaps were a mess. So, for back to kidney plate to butt, I changed to nylon/no stretch strapping. Nice and tight with almost no gap! I just used flexible straps from the chest to ab. Even those, make them shorter then you think you need them, or you’ll have issues with your chest plat ending up under your ab plate on troops. They’re expensive, but buy lots of extra snaps. Don’t be afraid to scrap and start again on strapping for bits that aren’t cutting it. Likely will be shortening at some point. Don’t use velcro for anything that has a lot of force, torsion, or will do any pulling away. The only place I have velcro is for my wide white elastic at the shoulder, from my bicep to forearm connection and for my shins. They work great in those applications only. Even then, use the industrial strength velcro and E6000 it to the ABS or to the strap. Don’t rely on the adhesive that’s already on there, especially on the strapping. Armour ABS Thickness: I have 1.5mm ABS. It’s extremely durable. I don’t worry about it cracking or breaking. I’ve felt others' 1mm ABS armour, and I'd be very nervous with it. Cutting your ABS: Score and snap is your friend! Again, it’s comfort level with how close your willing to go to the final line. Take your time (can’t stress this enough). A dremel to clean up a line and shape a little I think is very necessary. Then, I use a 180 grit sand paper to smooth, and finish up with an 800 grit to make the edge shiny and smooth. Boots: You can research and research, and the conclusion that you’ll come to is that Imperial Boots is pretty much it if you want proper high quality boots at the time I’m writing this. The good news is that they are really really good guys and they do an amazing job, and they’re worth the money and wait. On the wait … plan on getting your boots early. You could end up waiting almost a month for an ordering wave, and then another month for processing and shipping. Don’t be sidelined like I was for 2 months because I wasn’t proactive with this. On fitment ... I did the prescribed, order a size bigger. Out of the box they were a tiny bit loose. However, I put in gel insoles, still leaving the original insoles in, and they're absolutely perfect! Wouldn't have them any other way at all. Check out your local fabric store: You’ll be surprised how much of what you’ll need you’ll find there, and for cheap!! Neck Seal: Do not buy one that has rigid metal wire running through it. They’re a nightmare and you won’t even be able to look down while putting your armour on without breaking your neck. Buy a completely soft ribbed one only. Learn from my pain. Literally. On another note, does anyone want to buy a wire ribbed neck seal? Special price! Helmet Cooling: For helmet, like others, I highly recommend dual 5 volt blowers and a usb battery. You can get all of this super cheap on eBay from China. Will last hours on one battery. When the battery is new, charge and discharge it a couple times to make sure it’s not defective. You don’t want a lithium-ion battery lighting on fire when it’s next to your head! Seriously. Audio: Whatever audio solution you choose, it’s imperative that you have sound dampening in your helmet. All plastic surfaces should be covered. I used sticky back 1/4 inch thick x 3/4 inch wide foam. This should almost completely eliminate most feedback for most setups. If you still have issues, put a bit of foam inside your chest plate at the top, to prevent sound from coming up into your helmet (thank you BDWC for this tip!). Lastly, whatever audio solution your pick, it needs to have the static burst after you talk, at a bare minimum. FYI, I use an Aker amp and mic, and the TrooperTalk iPhone app. Blaster: You’ve spent all this time, effort and money on your armour. Amazing! Now don’t fall short on your blaster! The idea of doing your blaster right can be a bit scary, but you can do it. Actually, if you do it right it can be the most fun part of your custume to make! I did DoopyDoos. It’s an amazing resin casting, it’s cheap, the shipping is fast. They have horrible communication but they get it done. The FISD E-11 Blaster Reference thread is amazing and the build threads by Cable Guy and T-Jay were very important to me too. If you do your blaster right, then you really do feel like you’re back on the movie set in ’77…you’ve gone that last mile on your costume! Thermal Detonator Screws: What a freaking pain! Did you know that the planet earth pretty much stopped making slotted screws? And for good reason! If you do find a slotted pan-head screw, it’ll likely be a threaded screw—which means the only way to make it hold in the PVC is to glue it. So, after much much searching, I found a slotted wood/metal screw, but it had a domed head—not CRL Lvl 3 kosher. Again, dremel is your friend! I just dremel’d off the dome and made it into a pan-head. You can do this, or you can order 4 screws from somewhere in the UK and wait a month. Start to build with Centurion as the end goal! If you have Lvl 3 on your mind right from the start, you’ll easily get there. I notice that people who don’t start their builds this way, have a harder journey and seem to be a lot less likely to get there. Furthermore, their armour at the basic approval level can tend to be a little bit of a mess, because they've been lone ranger-ing it, and haven't been using Centurion submission photos as their go to. I'm guessing that those who start this way, most often have far better looking armour right from the start...even if they never progress to EIB or Centurion. Hope that something in here helps someone on their journey!

Q, Jim, Andrew, Jay and Shane ... thank you so much! Jay, you are the man! Thanks! I'll PM you now!

It was! Thanks bro! So stoked!

Colin Moreh 11626 Centurion Letter Joseph http://www.whitearmor.net/eib/certificates/11626-centurion.png

Woah! Thanks so much Joseph! So incredibly excited. What a long and amazing journey to get here!! Thanks so so much, to you, and to so many others in FISD who helped me get here. What an amazing community. It's an honour to be among the Centurion ranks! Those photos were from my EIB before I tweaked the positioning. I should have replaced those. It is glued now, and the current photos are the standard photos, which show that they're perfect to a ridiculously anal retentive level. Thanks again! Woohoo! Anyone have a couple Centurion shoulder patches that they'd be willing to part with?

Awesome job! Congratulations!

Thanks Dan! Appreciate it. Centurion application already posted!! Counter numbers ... you know it baby!!!

Colin Moreh TK-11626 EIB Letter Size Joseph Thanks so much! My pleasure, sir! http://www.whitearmor.net/eib/certificates/11626-eib.png

Thanks so much! Woohoo! And thanks for the amazing feedback!!! I've addressed all the feedback, taken new photos, and all the recommendations are represented in my Centurion application, which can be found here: Again, thanks so much! Super excited!!!

Name: Colin Moreh Height: 6'0" Weight: 165 lbs FISD Forum Name: menschie Legion ID #: 11626 Garrison: The Outer Rim Garrison 501st Member Page: http://www.501st.com/members/displaymemberdetails.php?userID=27514 Armor: ATA Helmet: ATA Blaster: Doopydoos with self-made mods Boots: Imperial Boots Canvas Belt: Imperial Issue Hand Plates: justjoseph63 (silicon rubber) Electronics: Aker M1505 with condenser mic, white iPhone 5 with TrooperTalk app, self-made dual 5 volt blower helmet cooling Neck Seal: Imperial Boots Holster: Darman's Props Photos: Front - Arms at Side Back - Arms at Side Left - Arms Raised Drop Box Alignment Right - Arms Raised Drop Box Alignment Ab Detail (no edge on ABS belt) Hand Plates Shoulder Bridge Back Shoulder Bridge Front Back/Chest Connection Thigh Pack Attachment Knee Plate Drop Box Back (drop boxes only look unaligned because of the belt not being worn...see side shots above for reference) Cod and Butt Plate Attachment Interior Strapping Ab/Kidney Notch & Details Wrist Side of Forearms Helmet Front Helmet Right Side Helmet Left Side Helmet Back Hovi Mic Tip Detail Lens Colour S-Trim Blaster Neck Seal Thermal Detonator - Back (Slotted Pan-heads) Holster Attachment Again, thank you very very much for your time and consideration! It’s greatly appreciated!

Hey man, a really good solution for posting photos is: Use Google Photos for free Make sure the photos you upload are all 1280x960 (emailing them to myself, on my Mac, with the "large" setting defaults to that resolution) Create a link for each photo that you can use in forums at https://ctrlq.org/google/photos/ Just literally place the link straight into the forum post. It'll parse it on the fly and embed the photo It's a tiny bit of work, but well worth it. You'll have great EIB submission thread with all your photos hosted. I know there are other solutions, but this is a solid one. Hope it helps!

The coolness factor with this build is ridiculously high. I love it. Great job!

Thanks for the kind words bud!

I heard back from IB. Super classy, and they're sending me a new pair of boots. To me, character trumps flawless, perfect, service. I'll definitely be ordering from IB again.

Yeah, please don't take this as me slagging them or anything. I'm sure they're amazing guys and 99% of the time things all work out great. Just giving my experience to the OP.

I ordered my boots on April 5th. Before I ordered, I kept checking back over and over to see if the store was enabled, so I actually ordered before they even announced the store was open--meaning, I was one of the very first to order in that wave. I finally got my boots on May 23rd. A couple days was added as I wasn't home one day when they tried to deliver, but still...that is a very very long time to wait. And that was with DHL shipping that was only a few days. Additionally, one of my boots is defective. I emailed them 3 days ago about it. Still waiting on a response. This is my first experience with them. Very expensive with shipping and duty. Extremely slow shipping times. But, as far as I know they're the only game in town.

Thanks so much! Pretty excited man!

I added the photos to the original post. Thanks!

Name: Colin Moreh Height: 6'0" Weight: 165 lbs FISD Forum Name: menschie Legion ID #: 11626 Garrison: The Outer Rim Garrison 501st Member Page: http://www.501st.com/members/displaymemberdetails.php?userID=27514 Armor: ATA Helmet: ATA Blaster: Doopydoos with self-made mods Boots: Imperial Boots Canvas Belt: Imperial Issue Hand Plates: justjoseph63 (silicon rubber) Electronics: Aker M1505 with condenser mic, white iPhone 5 with TrooperTalk app, self-made dual 5 volt blower helmet cooling Neck Seal: Imperial Boots Holster: Darman's Props Photos: Front - Arms at Side Back - Arms at Side Left - Arms Raised Right - Arms Raised Right Side Detail - Arms Raised Left Side Detail - Arms Raised Abdomen Details Action Shots Cod and Butt Plate Attachment Interior Strapping Helmet Front Helmet Right Side Helmet Left Side Helmet Back Hovi Tip Detail Lens Colour Blaster Left Blaster Right Blaster Detail Neck Seal Thermal Detonator - Back Holster Attachment Thank you so very much for your consideration and your time. I really appreciate it. Exciting times!!!

Thanks Dan! Means a lot coming from you! Your build thread was my go to!