Neb Sgird

Woohoo! That untrimmed kit brings back memories...I loved building mine. We're all here to help!

Good to know about the trimmed kit, I wasn't sure what you were working with on that front. The bend in the clips isn't required for approval, it just helps keep the clips from scratching your armor. That said, I didn't buy the clips from Mark, but from Joseph here on FISD and they came pre-bent. If anyone in your garrison (hopefully you're already acquainted with some of them and have helped spotting, its almost as fun as being in armor) has access to a simple vice, they will be pretty easy to bend once clamped in.

About the thighs, they are looking pretty good, but if you can manage it, try sizing them with the cod piece also taped to your body. That way, you can make sure the tops of the thighs aren't knocking against the cod. You basically want a minimal gap at the top of your legs while still not allowing the pieces to touch. They look a little low in the picture you posted, so sizing them with the cod will likely help you figure out how high they'll sit on your legs as well. I let my hooks sit in boiling water for 2-3 minutes (I waited for the ABS to start looking a little (keyword little) floppy) before pulling them out and bending them against a ruler to get 90 degree angles. EDIT: Just thought of something else. Does Mark provide set strips for the hooks with the trimmed kit? I got the untrimmed kit and cut them out of the extra ABS he provides for making cover strips, etc.

Take your time, and we're here for any questions you might have! I just finished my AP build a few months ago and couldn't be happier with it. I'll be applying for Centurion once I have my E-11 done, AP makes it easy.

Yep, seems to be. Here's a view of my thighs. The lower swoop is to make room for the cod piece, the outside should be higher. AP makes it easy to match up which one goes with which. I highly recommend labeling them on the inside with dry erase marker (if not sharpie) to avoid confusion in the future.

I trimmed my upper thighs to be pretty tight around my actual leg, and left the lower thighs looser, padding it with foam to keep it from wobbling on my leg. I think they turned out great. One note on the thighs that hasn't already been mentioned. In the picture you posted asking if this is how much you should take off, be sure to take an equal amount off each piece of the thigh. in other words, measure how much overlap you have, half it, and trim the back of each piece accordingly. Also, when in doubt, round down. If you're feeling a little iffy about how much you're taking off, take a little less off than what you measured, test fit, and cut a second time if need be.

Yes, the arms are symmetrical. No, the legs are not. So careful there. Ya, my lenses are pretty dark, but that's a good thing. My fan battery has an LED on it and you can't see it from outside the bucket. It's basically as dark as if I'm wearing sunglasses. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Good luck with your build! I'm loving my AP kit. I might be late to the game, but I have Darman's neck seal with the velcro. It's nice because if you end up sending him slightly incorrect measurements (mine is a little small) you can still make it work. It just gives you a few millimeters of leway that the zipper wouldn't. Plus, it's just easier to get on and off. In regards to the undersuit, keep in mind you can have logos as long as they are hidden by your armor itself. One thought. You'll want to buy new material for your lenses. I got this and cut it to the necessary dimensions. One shield is easily enough for 2 lenses, so if any of your future garrison buddies need some, you can share it around. The piece provided by Mark just isn't dark enough.

I am still pending as well. Any word on the script fix?

TK-56730 requesting 501st access! https://www.501st.com/members/displaymemberdetails.php?userID=26739 edit: Alpine Garrison, thanks!

Gotcha. I planned to make them swappable/removable with Chicago screws anyway (going HWT eventually), so no biggy!

For centurion status, does it matter what style holster I use? I have an E-11 holster, as well as one specifically cut for an SE-14R. The CRL only mentions attachment method as a requirement, not the actual cut of the holster. Both holsters are the correct proportions to the armor. Pics can be provided if needed. Thanks!

Alright, time to find out if this thread is dead or not. I've been distracted of late by my actual kit (build thread here) and just recently started thinking about bucket audio again. So. Developments. With the retirement of TKvoice (may it rest in peace) I've switched to TrooperTalk (which is fantastic). The weird thing is, now that I have everything installed, I've noticed that I actually have great volume out of the phone (the sound loops out of the voice work just fine), but that the audio coming my microphone is about 10% as loud as the loops. It's not the app settings (I have the sensitivity as high as possible), so I'm thinking I just might need a new mic after all. Anyone have any mic suggestions that are proven to work with the iphone 4s? Here's my current setup... Phone: iPhone 4s running TrooperTalk 2.0 Splitter: Battery Powered Mic Adapter for Apple devices (https://www.converso...es-battery.html), Mono-to-stereo adapter Microphone: Olympus ME-52W (https://www.amazon.c...mpus microphone) Speakers: Ukswrath's hovi mic tip speakers (http://www.whitearmo...l-accurate-tips)

So I should mention something. I’m going to Disneyland next Wednesday with my little nephew. He LOVES Star Wars (we got him a Fisher Price Millenium Falcon for Christmas. He loves it). He used to say that Darth Vader had to be a superhero because he wore a cope. Can't argue with that logic. So my goal is to get the bucket done before I leave for California in order to score some favorite-uncle points. That said, it’s crash course time! First off, I finished sanding the teeth and eyes. I found this great sanding sheet that is super flexible. I rolled it up and was able to get it through each of the teeth in order to sand out the left-overs from my files. Worked like a charm. Note on the popcorn; go see Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2. So. Good. Next up, I positioned my padding. I’m using army surplus padding and it’s working pretty well. I just put in some industrial Velcro in a long strip so I can re-position them at will. I’m still trying to find the perfect fit, but this is what I’ve settled on for now. My wonderful wife studied theater design in college and specialized in 3D miniatures. Needless to say, she has a much steadier hand for painting than I do. Beyond that, she claims it is soothing. For my part, I found it extremely stressful. So I was more than happy to delegate painting to her. Even with her far superior skills, we did end up making a few goofs. I found that go-gone on a q-tip was perfect for taking off the enamel paints for a redo. What do you guys think, is the grey too matte? I do plan to re-gloss a few sections of the helmet (probably with automotive gloss) once done, opinions? I’m still working on getting the lenses and frown mesh in. More on that tomorrow!

I’m back! Sorry for the delay, but I was focusing on…other things! Yup, I just graduated with my BA in Political Science. Woot! Now on to bigger and better things, being an Imperial Stormtrooper! I’m sure my educational background will help me integrate better with the local population in order to subvert rebel terrorist plots. Anyway, now that I have free time on my hands again (working and studying, both full-time, is not fun guys), it’s back to work on the TK, and this build thread! In my very-little free time, I made all my snap plates for the internal harness system. I went the nylon webbing route, as they will be more flexible, easier to replace, and (I'm told) more durable (?). I used a solder iron to burn the holes for the snaps and cauterize the ends so they don't unravel. I tried to use the tool pictures (a dritz snap setter that I got at WalMart) to no avail. I ended up buying a pin-and-hammer set that worked much better. I highly recommend the Tandy line 24 snaps I bought, they don't come apart easy! As you can see, I’ve made some great progress on the bucket. I’m really proud of what I’ve done on the ears! I think I’ll leave them be for now, the existing gaps are good enough for me. I may return to them later. I’ve also improved the eyes and teeth. What do you guys think? My fairly uneducated eye thinks they look pretty good, although I still need to do a final sanding on the teeth. So far I've just been using a sanding block, which of course can't fit in there. I also started painting some. The AP kit comes with this nice little decal sheet. I’m using the tube stripe decal, but will be hand-painting everything else for better accuracy (I’m Centurion-bound, after all, and want to do it right the first time). I found the decals provided for the tube stripes barely fit on on the cheek and almost clashed into my ears. Is this normal? The above picture was the first time that I’ve looked at my helmet and said to myself “man, that looks like a Stormtrooper!” I’ve installed the hovi mics (These are Ukswraths’ speaker tips, which have great volume. More on audio later) and the internal padding. I might tweak how the padding is, I’m still getting some side-to-side shifting when I turn my head quickly. Suggestions? My current padding is 3/4" surplus army helmet padding. To paint the traps, especially the vents in the back ones and the tears, I’ll be using the decal sheet as a stencil. Makes things easy! I think you can actually find Mark (AP)’s sheet somewhere on the forums as a download to do exactly this. I have a question on the lenses. AP sends you a film to be used as a lens, but I don’t think it’s going to work very well in my case. What solutions have you guys come up with? Cut the film into a more specific shape to glue directly onto the eye sockets? If so, what glue did you use for that? Any and all ideas are welcome, as I’m a little bit at a loss on what to do here… I'm excited to really dive in full-throttle. Don't expect bi-monthly updates like there have been so far! Happy May the fourth to everybody! But remember, don’t celebrate too much. Can’t let those Rebels feel the taste of victory… Bonus picture of my wife being her normal beautiful self a few weeks back.

I thought for sure this thread was dead and buried. Good to know I could help some fellow future troopers!

Yep, I have needle files and have been using them some for the teeth already. I started with my dremel (yes, with a flex attachment) from the inside of the helmet, then figured I would finish it out with the files. The teeth are still rough-cut, I haven't used my finest file yet, is that what you mean by "clean them up," or do I need to actually reshape anything? Take out more material anywhere? Also, great suggestion for the eyes! The plastic is thin enough in that area that it shaves really nicely with the knife. Expect eye pics soon, I'm pretty pleased with them. Man, I'd forgotten just how supportive this community is. I feel like I should quote and respond to each of you! Just know I appreciate all the tips and support. Expect many more questions as I role along!

Awesome Christine. I just may order what you did, it looks great! And just as important , for a still-poor college kid like me, cheap! Great comparison too, that's just the sort of thing I was hoping to get out of this thread.

As you can see in the above post, I started trimming up the helmet. For the teeth, I did something that I think is a little unconventional, but ended up working pretty well. I took a dremmel sanding bit to the back of the teeth. I'm not sure this method is for everyone, and you have to be really careful, but I feel like it worked for me. So. First question for you all: how do the teeth look? Should I take some more out for any of them? Also, what's the best way to trim the eyes? I've gotten as close as I dare get with a dremel, can't really get in there with scissors, and filing is going to take forEVER. Any ideas?

I got the untrimmed kit, so the first step was to rough trim everything. Took me a few hours using lexan scissors and score-and-strike with a box-cutter, but I got it done. It was nice to have the practice of cutting without the risk of screwing something up irreparably. So it may be counterintuitive, but I would recommend getting untrimmed if it’s your first kit. It’s also nice to have the bigger scrap pieces of ABS in case you want to practice with a dremel or something. Here it all is rough-trimmed… I decided to start small, with the thermal detonator. There’s a lot of good walkthroughs on this (ukswrath has a great build thread and goes into depth on this particular piece), but I wanted to share a couple things I did special. I used painter’s tape as a template to know exactly where to trim each cap to. I trimmed each piece to 3/8” (the length of the screen-used caps) and trimmed to the tape line. I did something pretty similar with the panel piece. The PVC tube Mark sent me is slightly long, I need to track down a band saw to trim it a little, and then the TD piece is pretty much done…

Well, it's finally time! Time to start the infamous build thread. My goal with this thread is to maybe answer some questions that noobies like me might have, while not getting in the way of the probably-better advice that's already out there. Obviously, a lot of these questions will be my own, hopefully you guys can help me through this. This will definitely be a slow-burn, at least at first. I graduate with my bachelors in April, so that's going to be my main focus, but once I'm done with school I plan to really bang this out. So my big brown box came in on March 3rd, which, incidentally, was the same day that my wife and I decided it was a good idea to wait 12 hours in front of Best Buy for a Nintendo Switch. Ya, we're weird. About 3 hours into the line, I got a text from my sister saying my box had arrived. I had it shipped to my parent's house, gotta love unstable college housing situations. Speaking of which, you might notice several different workspaces, since my one bedroom apartment is a bit cramped. I’ll be doing some work at my parents’ as well. Anyway, I ran over to fetch it and couldn't resist; I ended up opening it in the line. Sure, we were surrounded by Zelda nerds, but everyone was impressed none-the-less. PS I'm new to all this, let me know if you the pics don't load for you and I'll edit the post to get them to work...

Thanks for the great help so far guys! Hopefully this will end up helping more than just me. With that in mind, keep the ideas coming! Chris, that seems like a great option for European troopers. Any idea how much shipping actually is with them (approximately, of course)? I can't imagine it would be that much, but want to be sure before I order, as they don't tell you.... Why delete something that is informative? I got more out of that thread than anything else on this topic I could find, before starting this one. The more information, the better, if you ask me.

I just got my AP box last week (expect a build thread shortly) and am in the last stages of sourcing everything I need. The AP kit, of course, comes with U-trim for the bottom of the helmet, which must be replaced for Centurion (which is, of course, the goal). In my research, I'm struggling to find a source for helmet S-trim that isn't an armor builder or Trooper Bay. Basically, I'm thinking local hardware store. Problem is, I don't even know what I would ask them for, besides maybe showing them a picture of what I'm after. The best thread on the topic I've found so far is this: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/35568-correct-s-trim-for-my-anovos-helmet/ Problem is, it's basically a comparison of all the armor makers. Anyone know what the stuff is actually called? I know it's sealant for windows, windshields, etc, but can't seem to find google keywords that brings up the right thing. Any help would be great! EDIT: This is what I'm after, but, being in French, it's not super helpful... http://www.comptoirducabriolet.com/joints-glace-et-pare-brise-pour-cabriolets/1220-joint-glace-et-pare-brise-26336.html

De que es esta armadura? No lo reconozco.... Pero bueno, según los fotos que pusiste, parece una mezcla de estilo stormtrooper y mandalorian (o sea, Boba Fett, etc). Me parece tambien ser mucho como el "dark trooper." Si me puedes dar mas pistas en cuanto de donde viene esta armadura, quizas puedo ser más util jaja. Tienes pensando entrar al 501st con esta armadura (Está bien si no)? No creo que será posible.

Did you end up liking that scope? Looking to buy one myself