Neb Sgird

Hey folks, what do you all use for weathering? I want to easily go back and forth from HWT to shiny white TK if/when I want to. Therefore, I want my weathering to be easily cleaned, hopefully with not much more than rag and soapy water. Any ideas? Charcoal powder maybe? Also, I was hoping to make blast marks, as if the my armor had taken a few hits. Any methods you guys use to bmake a sort of crater/impact mark on the armor? Thanks in advance.

Alright, now to specifics. I'm hoping to make this screen accurate on the outside, with all electronics hidden on the inside. This is going to mean a lot drilling things out to mount electronics, and then rebuilding it with green stuff., especially in the grip. This is honestly what I'm most scared about, as I've never worked with green stuff in my life. Electronics-wise, I plan to do "walking" lights, with the 5 LEDs firing in sequence to give the appearance of a bolt firing down the barrel of the blaster. The existing switch (with the ARS stamps) will be used to switch "modes" on the blaster. There will be a full-auto, single shot, and "stun" modes. Yes, the stun mode will be blue and will have a different sound effect. Lastly, there will be a display built into the scope similar to what Xirx did here. The Buddy (as I will call him until/unless he says I can use his name) thinks he can integrate a lot of the breakout boards common in other E11 builds into a single board that will be be less than 2 cm wide, so that it will easily fit in the barrel of the Doopy kit. If this works out, it will eliminate a LOT of the rat's nests of wiring also common to these kinds of builds. He thinks we can integrate the Arduino chip, sound module, and possibly even the LED drivers onto a single long and skinny board. Fingers crossed that it will actually work out! Questions I have so far: 1. What black paint does everyone commonly use? 2. Does anyone know where I can source a rechargeable 9 volt battery?

Hey folks! It has come time to post a build thread for my E-11 build. I promise not to let the thread die like I did my TK build thread (don't worry, I did get approved). This will be my trooping blaster, so while I hope to keep it pretty darn screen accurate, I also won't worry if the doopy kit is a few millimeters off in places. My main sources are the full DoopyDoos resin kit with Tino's completion kit. My buddy, who is currently studying electrical engineering, will be helping me build custom electronics for the blaster. He has the added advantage of still being in school, so he can get electronic components at cost (score one for me). The only experience I have with electronics has been in the music field (guitars, amps, soundboards, etc.), so his expertise will be invaluable. Maybe I'll even get him to register and explain things that I can't hahaha. I will be shamelessly robbing ideas and methods from several of you guys, including (but not limited to) @T-Jay, @themaninthesuitcase, @Xinx, and @skyone While I hope this thread will be helpful for others building their blasters, expect lots of questions from me! Even though I've read several good build threads and endlessly purused the reference library, I'm still feeling overwhelmed! Then again, I felt the same way starting my TK build and it all worked out perfectly. I'll continue updating this first post with my resources list, but here's what we have so far. Note that if I haven't hyperlinked a source, I have no idea where to get the part! Any ideas on that front would be appreciated. I won't be buying electronics until next month, the racing shirts ate up my 501st budget for this month. Basic parts: DoopyDoos full resin kit $55 Tino's completion kit, $65 aluminum rod (to mount LEDS to) Replacement stock cube and front sight, printed from files made by @themaninthesuitcase Black paint Silver paint (for weathering) Gold paint (for weathering) Too much green stuff, $18 Electronics: Basics: Integrated arduino/sound amp board (being built by "The Buddy") Microswitch (for trigger), $1 Rotary switch (comes with TIno's kit) Voltage Regulator Rechargeable 9 volt battery, $22 (pack of 4 and a charger) Lights: 5 RGB LEDS, $3 5 LED drivers, $5 .66" OLED display, $15 Sound: 2 3 watt speakers MP3 reader board, $1.50 Total cost (so far, not counting tools): $152 Tools: Two part epoxy glue Clay carving tools Dremel with plenty of sanding attachments in various sizes

Right, this was what I meant. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

I've heard it straight from Mark (AP)'s mouth that he added the large tab on the back to assist larger troopers in getting their bridges all the way to where there should be on the back plate. He regularly recommends that the back tab be lopped off. I'm sure having a symmetrical mold doesn't hurt on his side, either. The only other kit that I'm sure has the tabs as large in the back as the front is ATA. How many other kits have it? If this was a voting committee, I would say keep the requirements as is for basic and EIB, and add the requirement of no larger tab for centurion. Is there a consistent number of tabs on the screen-used bridges? Maybe we can use that for the requirement?

To risk totally hijacking @Jared's thread (sorry bud), this is the kind of thing that would be perfect as a centurion requirement. Just my two cents. To clarify for Jared, there is no rule in the CRL one way or the other on the big tab. I personally left mine because I thought it looked better with it (I think the 3 centimeters of length it adds makes the shoulder bridges cleaner in the back), even if it isn't ever visible on screen. I might chop it off later to be screen accurate, who knows.

Hmm, you may consider getting a more form-fitting shirt if that's the case. If it's getting caught up in your armor, it might be too flowy. If you want to keep the shirt, one idea is to rig up some kind of clasp system on the inside of your glove. You could you bra clasps like some people do in their shins, or velcro. This will keep your shirt from riding up your arm, if that's the problem. You're good on the drop boxes then. Must have been the angle. I look forward to your updated pictures!

Good work, you'll have your TK number in no time! This won't impact your approval, and this is the perfectionist in me talking, but why does the right helmet trap extend so far down? It looks a little weird peeking out from the rubber strip. i would think about removing the paint to the left of the strip.

Nice find Joseph. Any idea how much all the materials would cost (using the materials list included on the linked page)? I'm new to leather, but would be willing to give it a try if it saves me money.

I used chicago screws, hiding them between the square button pieces of the plastic belt. Makes it all removable if I ever want to dry clean the belt or anything.

Looking really good! A few minor tweaks, not all of them actually required for approval. More or less from top to bottom: It looks like you made the little elastic loops to hold your shoulder bridges to the back plate, why not use them? It will help the bridges from going everywhere in the back. It might just be your underarmor overlapping, but there seems to be a big notch in your right shoulder bell. Is this really the case? More detailed pictures would be appreciated what is the white I can see on your right bicep, in the under arm? If it is what I think it is, you should remove more material there. I can see mold lines along the bottom of both biceps. You'll want to remove more there as well. There should be no concave line along the bottom of them. Several of the covers strips on your arms are too long. They shouldn't extend farther than the piece they are actually attached to. You don't have to remove them to correct this, just carefully dremel them back. Your right bicep is strapped much lower then the left, you'll want to bring it up to match. Your back abdomen piece is set higher than your front piece. This is the most annoying problem I had. It won't affect your approval, but if you want to fix it, you can. I personally made a kind of latch on the non-rivet side to keep the two pieces in line. Your belt could be brought down some, ideally it should cover the the seam between your back plate and your butt plate. EDIT: Just went back and looked at reference pictures. I was wrong. Disregard. You'll want to trim your belt corners to 45 degrees It could just be the angle, but your dropboxes look really thin. How many millimeters tall are they? This isn't technically a basic requirement, but my GML still made me change it. It's a small one, so no biggie. The rivets attaching your ammo belt to your thigh should be painted white, similar to the screws in your helmet. If you want them, I can add pictures for any of these items that you might need. Let me know what you want to see pics of and I'll dig them up. You're really close, congratulations are in order for how much you've accomplished so far! Let me know if you have any questions on any of the changes I've noticed.

Ya, I think you'll end up wanting to cut some ABS pieces to size in order to re-fill the gap above the ridge and mix some ABS paste to act as glue and to hide the seams. Don't use epoxy glue, as it will be visible to the not-so-casual observer and will end up being harder to work with in this situation. ABS paste is the way to go because it is literally made from the same stuff as your armor, so it will blend in much better. Once you've sanded it back down (and I'm thinking wet-sanding with 1400 grit paper, then polishing), it shouldn't be all that noticeable. It's going to take some good sanding, and the back of your thighs might end up being more delicate than they otherwise would have, but your thighs are definitely salvageable. Don't lose heart, it will take some more work, but you could still make centurion! See here for more info on ABS paste:

Looking good! Should be an easy approval. The only suggestion (and this is more for aesthetics, not for approval reasons) I have is to even out the gaps in your arms. Your wrist gap is much bigger than your elbow gap. You could drop your forearm piece a centimeter or two to even them out. Now go get that TK number!

I noticed in your gallery that you plan to close your drop boxes with flat covers. Note this section from the CRL: "Drop boxes must have full inner drop boxes to close the back. Flat covers are not allowed." This is a centurion requirement, so for basic you're fine, but this is one of the simple things that is pretty easy to get right the first time, and will save you the stress of redoing it if you want to go centurion later. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

I just want to bump this back to the front page because it's a lifesaver! Just printed the front sight housing, as I carved mine up a bit too much trying to release my doopydoos housing and the sight itself.

I should add, yours isn'tnearly as bad as my biggest boo-boo. I was building my snap plates, burning holes in vinyl strapping with a solder iron, and ended up absentmindedly letting the iron touch my breastplate for a few seconds. Right smack in the middle of it too. I was sickened by the smell of melting ABS. Still haunts me. But with a bit of ABS paste, some good wet sanding, and Novus 1, 2 and 3, you can hardly tell it ever happened!

That gouge looks too deep for Novus. I would start with 800 grit sandpaper and wet sand it, moving up in grits to 1500 before moving to the Novus polishes. Don't sweat it too much though, it will buff out. As for the arms, it's important to note that nothing about the stormtrooper is symmetrical. That, in my opinion, is what makes it so aesthetically pleasing! After they are fit to your arms, no one will notice that they are actually the same piece twice. I love my AP kit, I'm sure you will too!

Hey all, I've had a crazy year or so, amongst which I'm now an approved TK! I'm building my E-11 build soon (maybe I'll start a build thread and link to it here), but it is slow, meticulous going, so I'm finally going to go ahead and print this off and let you know how it looks. I'm actually liking Gilbert's find more than the models I had found, so that is what I am going to print. Stay tuned, as this is finally going to be converted to a build thread!

The originals were not cut (they were in Rogue One and you can tell the difference. They flap around quite a lot), but I believe cutting it is approval for basic, as long as it is hidden by the belt. I'm not sure about higher approval levels. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Just curious, why did you decide against plastidip? If you go with enamel paint you'll be sacrificing the sound absorbing benefits of painting inside your helmet. I only really bothered plastidipping the inside of my helmet to the avoid feedback from my mic, otherwise I would have left it white. Again, just wondering. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Looking good! If you have access to a belt or disc sander, that's the easiest way to wittle down the boxes. You can grind it all evenly that way. I didn't, so I CAREFULLY dremelled and then used sandpaper once I was closer to my line. It's easy to get carried away with the dremel haha Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Walt's Trooper Factory also does kids kits. You can find them on facebook too Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

The cover strips themselves will help hide the imperfections you have going there, id say you're good to go as is. Assuming you're using E6000, you can always tear it off and redo it if you end up hating the end result. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Second the straps/hooks combination. If one fails, your whole arm won't fall off To my knowledge no. No one will care what the inside of your helmet looks like, as long as your lenses are dark enough.

I second the AP untrimmed version. Really helps you get a feel for the ABS before you're making cuts that actually matter.