Tee-Bowls

Requesting Access! ID- 25005 https://www.501st.com/members/displaymemberdetails.php?userID=32068

I wish! I am making progress so that's a good thing. I'll be making more progress tonight but I figured I'd post what I've done recently. I'm finally moving on to the lower limbs. The shins have already been trimmed ahead of time so it was a matter of sanding and gluing/added velcro. Here they are glued on the outside. I have them overlapping outside over inner. I also have white velrco on the inner part of the shins so I can put them on/take them off. Then came my worst nightmare. The THIGHS. I've had bad luck with my thighs, in fact the thighs are a major part of why my ANH Stunt armor wasn't approved. So its now or never. I set them out to work on sizing and have everything labeled. I then decided to take from the bottom of the thighs so that I wouldn't lose the width of the thigh. (I'm 5'4 so I needed to take quite a bit off). I took off a little more than 2 inches of plastic off the bottom of the thighs. I used a compass tool to keep/trace the edges so I could try to keep the same lines. I lined up the tops of the front of the thighs then tried to trace and create the swoop for the back of the thighs. Here are all the thigh pieces together. I'll be working on fitting and gluing soon. Finally the last major bit of trimming was finished and with it the last large scrap pile! I'm waiting on a new longer belt kit from Darren/JAFO to clear customs and I should be painting a large portion of this armor soon. I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. My plan is to try to get it finished before it starts to reach triple digits this summer and I won't be able to paint. Expect another update very soon!

So did a lot of small things this break, however I did get a lot of work on the hand-plates and forearms! First step was to attach the rail greeblies in the center indentation. It was then time to grind down the clip greeblies. I sanded them down and used my heat gun to get the correct shape ( a hammer worked well for shaping). Once the right shape was achieved the greeblies were glued down. I also added Velcro to the inside of the forearms (not pictured). Added the velrco to the hand-plates so they attached to the gloves. Of course I had to try everything on with gaskets. I also started working on the biceps. Up first was drilling out the pill holes. I hope to keep making progress before it gets too hot to paint in the garage. Look for much more in the next update.

So a small update incoming. I got back to work on the butt plate snaps. I cut 3 inch nylon straps to connect the pieces. The snaps are glued inside the ab section. Here it is hanging down. I did try to heat bend/flatten the piece to fit better. Here are some pictures of me trying the torso part on so far. I still need to do the TD and cut /heat bend the yoke to fit better. I'm not too happy with the want the butt plate is hanging so I'm going to be add more place for a sturdier connection. I know things will fit better with the gaskets and undersuit on too but I couldn't resist. when working on a project for so long it feels good when things start to come together. I'll keep working. Plan for a large update or several small ones in the next few weeks. Next week is Spring Break and I'll be home from work and hope to have more finished.

One more time lol. How does it Look now? The black tape is closer to the clip now and I think I've straightened it out now. Here is a photo I took (Before i adjusted for the picture above so go off that one) and compared to the references you've made. I hope I'm getting closer with this. I knew it was going to be a hassle and really appreciate the feedback and help! I also got back to work on other armor parts today. Got the cod attached. I did try it on to see how it fit. I started out working on the butt plate as well. The trim lines to make everything a little bit more even. I then tried to add the ANOVOS cutouts. I started to add the snaps for the belt connection and for the ab plate connection. I feel like things are getting accomplished and I'll be able to get even more finished soon!

From the looks of it I need to add more of the Matte Black which is a lot easier than trying to remove it!! Is this a better line? It'll be off the inner portion of the tape. (Ignore the very bottom it curved weird for some reason) I figured it would be best to wait to add the remaining paint until after I have a solid line down. I'll be moving onto other parts in the mean time.

Thank you! I'm going to use a Matte Clear coat when it's dry so expect pictures of that soon! Thank you for the warning about the Matte picking up marks. I'll be extra careful. So last night I received my cans of Rustoleum Matte Black (I forgot to take a picture of the can) and decided it was time to add the black stripe to the Executioner Helmet. Here is some of the pre-paint tape job. The Back of the helmet. The Front of the helmet. I used Electrical Tape so that I could try to mirror the curve as best as I could. I also used some plastic bags to help keep everything covered. After sanding and setting up it was time for some paint! After the first few coats of paint! Finally left it to dry over night. I'll be checking on it later tonight. Then it'll be clear coat time! It feels great to see some actual progress! It feels like it's more worth it! More updates coming along soon!

Thanks guys! Physical Therapy takes up a lot of my time nowadays (Plus my 25th birthday last Thursday), but I was able to get some work done the past few nights. First off my wife decided to get me a little "Inspiration" for completing my build and gave me this awesome Sideshow Collectible First Order Stormtrooper. And while I started out with a normal pose. However I couldn't help myself and finally decided on this. Beyond that it's finally getting warm enough over night to paint some items so I thought I would try painting my Executioner Helmet. I tried over the summer and it was too hot and then winter hit and it was too cold. Originally I used Montana Gold Shock white. I had already given this helmet a primer coating with Montana Gold primer and 2 coats of the shock white over the summer. This second attempt was to see if it would work out better in cooler weather. I'm not sure if it can be seen in the pictures but the paint left a "fuzzy" texture on the helmet that needed to be sanded off. I then went to my normal rattle can paint, Rustoleum Primer/Paint in Gloss white and the difference is night and day. It looks much better now in my opinion. Now the garage I was/will be using to paint does not have the best light sources. I'll be taking better photos later on. One question for the Executioner helmet. Is it a matte black, or combination of matte/glossy. Like If I put a clear coat over everything do I need to tape off the matte or is it alright to cover it all. I can't remember . At any rate I'm going to start working on other pieces as well. I saw the information about the new CRL and I'm going to need to figure out if my ab boxes and such need to be changed.

Well the finish line was pushed back further than I expected. Not long after this post I fell down the stairs at work and had to spend 3 months in a knee immobilizer and on crutches/in a wheelchair. I'm in physical therapy and now able to work on my armor again so I'm chomping at the bit to get finished. Since I cant work on the thighs and legs I figured it was time to go back and work on the cod and ab sections. I trimmed and sanded down the cod piece to where I felt it was close. Then came working on strapping to attach the cod to the ab sections. It was at this point I remembered I had to melt the nylon around the edges before the cut piece unraveled and became useless. Now before for my ab sections I had magnets installed, and these weak magnets ended up snapping and falling out. Which was a blessing in disguise because I did not like the weird gap they created. So instead I went with white industrial strength velcro. Now everything sits more flush. In this photo you can still see some of the damage left by the magnets. I forgot to take a picture of the attached snaps to the cod. I'll be working on getting the cod and butt plate attached and ready soon. I've been bitten by the armor bug because I've been stuck in a bed all this time and I've had time to watch all things Star Wars. I've ordered a WTF set of First Order Snowtrooper armor and joined Blizzard Force, and I've got all of Sean Fields amazing Shoretrooper and Tank Trooper files so I'll be 3D Printing those. First up to finish are these two armors. I'll get done with all of these projects eventually!

Congrats on finishing! It looks amazing!

So last night was a semi productive night. My gaskets are stuck in customs so I'm not going to be able to I finished sanding and gluing the spats. All they need is the clip greeblie and a way to keep it fasten closed. Then came the shins. I have such a fear of the leg parts because it's what ruined my ANH build. I was so worried about messing them up i had already cute them after i sized them incorrectly. I was still in the ANH mindset and thought the shins connect in the front and the back when they instead connect on the sides. However I think it still turned out alright. I took 1 1/2 inches off the tops of the shin pieces. They miraculously came out the way I wanted them too after I realized my mistake. Right now i just have them taped together. I'm still on the fence about the curve vs not curve. The Front of the shins. The Right shin. The Back of the shins. The left side of the shins. The inner sections. The Front of the shins without my legs in them. The back on the shins minus my legs. I'm much happier with how these shins fit. I know I'll have the gaskets and knee plates so I'm much more confident in finishing them off. I can actually walk around with them on. I just hope I didn't trim too much off. I'll be moving onto the thighs ad hopefully finished with sizing and trimming very soon. I can see the finish line. I just need to keep pushing!

So this weekend was spent finishing off the ab section. I'm making large amounts of progress and I should be able to finish up soon. Here is the filled ab section. I had to build false boxes to fill in the gaps, and then used Epoxy Putty to fill in the remaining spaces. I had to create a separate back plate to fill in the large gap across the back I had. On this back plate I glued magnets to help with taking the abs on and off. A full picture of the ab section. Still needs sanding and painting but progress is progress at this point. Up next are the legs!

Time for another small update! Over the past week I purchased a First Order Pauldron from heartstopper85 via Diversity Props and received it on Saturday. I was on the fence about getting it but I saw it and knew I had to jump on it! The Pauldron. It has magnets already installed but they aren't the most powerful so I might switch them out. I also decided I wanted a better connection for my lenses so I thought I would go the Chicago screw route. I'm not using the lenses that go with the KB kit. I tried to heat bend them and I snapped the pair in half. Instead I'm using lenses from VaderPaintStudios. I did split the lenses but some glue was added and It all worked for the best. The installed lenses. I think it came out pretty good, and if I even need to change the lens it won't be difficult at all. I also attached the kid plates to the ab section. I plan on filling those gaps and getting the magnetic closure for the ab section done soon and then its cod,butt and the torso assembly for the most part is finished besides the belt. then come my biggest obstacle. THE LEGS . The legs have always been the most difficult portion of any armor for me. Hopefully I won't run into any problems, but being 5'4 wearing armor designed for someone much taller always leaves you open for them to arise. At any rate! that's it for this update! Right now I'm focusing more on finishing the TFA trooper and then I'll go back and finish the TLJ-E parts.

That's not far off from what I did do. I had already glued some inner strips in way back when, and it was also one of the problems I had trimming the curled sections off. After quite a long time I was finally able to successfully trim down the curled edges! I glued all the end of the Chicago screws into the back of the ab boxes. The attached Ab Boxes! I've been so hung up on this section and now that I've broken through I'm planning on making major progress! Tonight I'm going to work on finishing the Ab/kidney connections off and getting the cod piece and butt plate attached. Or I'll jump down to the shins just for fun. Is there a difference between the Curved shins/Thighs and what would be considered for approval because the CRL doesn't say anything curve or non curve wise.

Not great but this is more of a reason to get more work done! After a few weeks of sickness from everyone in my household, I'm finally able to get back to work. Up first was the belt pieces! for the most part they are trimmed and ready for sanding. So I'm hung up on the ab section. The piece I have has bad edge curling, and I don't know how to flatten it out without causing problems for myself later. I tried to glue in supports to connect the ab to the kidney plates before I noticed. This is what happens when I just try to match up the pieces. I think I might need to heat bend/flatten it out? I also don't like how much the ab plate over hangs compared to the kidney plate. At any rate, I have a deadline I made for myself, and it's coming up soon so it's making me work on my armor almost everyday and I'm making small amounts of progress.

Ah alright, I'll just use velcro for the forearms and it'll be more screen accurate and easier to take on/off. For the ab boxes I misread the section about the seamless connection with the ab/kidney sections. I'll just glue and secure the ab boxes and make sure they are flush to the ab plate. It's time for a small update. I took pictures of the filled in yoke sections, the 3D printed parts for the Executioner's axe, and the new helmet electronics I received from Tony/ukswrath. Here is the TFA yoke section that I've filled in with EP-400 Epoxy Putty. I've also trimmed this sections down to fit better with the chest plate and the gaskets on. Here's the filled in TLJ-E yoke. It's filled with EP-400 as well, however I haven't fit/cut this like I have the TFA section. Here is my box of 3D printed Laser axe pieces, The dowel for the handle and the aluminum bar are not shown, They are in a different box. If anybody is interested ina build thread for this let me know, and I'll start one. Finally for this update I ordered and received a FOTK speaker system, V2 fan bracket, and the Audio system from TOny/ukswrath. I'll be putting it all into my helmet over the next few days. If I can get everything in comfortably and working properly I'll be adding this to my TLJ-E helmet and eventually my TLJ helmet when I order it. I still feel like I have quite a bit of work to do but I hope to have everything finished soon.

Thank you! I hope I can keep it up! I want to be finished before October.

I am back! At least on the forums. I've been working on my armor but I've put off updating my build thread because I was making progress and didn't want to stop to document, then the procrastination never ended (plus a wedding and honeymoon). At any rate with the confusion over the CRL for Captain Cardinal I decided that getting 501st approval was more important to me right now. I did however months ago get the Executioner parts from KB, and decided to make a TFA/TLJE and once I get another helmet a TLJ trooper. I then started working on finishing off the TFA helmet (Minus the lenses). I trimmed all of the new pieces since I already had some experience with the TFA parts it went much faster. Around this time I started to focus on building an SE-44c and F-11D with Germain's amazing files! I'm using Simplify 3D for my slicing software and a Creality CR-10 for printing. 3D Solutech Black,White, and Silver 1.75 PLA for filaments. I won't post all of the pictures here, but if anybody is interested I can make separate build threads. I also picked up the new KB forearms and the TD/plate. The finished SE-44c. The only thing missing is the holster/screw plate that was painting at the time. Of course I had to see what it was list to hold if with the gloves on because I'm "slightly" impatient. And of course I had to get a photo with the unfinished helmet on. I have not finished the F-11D yet due to some electrical problems but this is where I am at with it currently. I do have the flashlight attachment working, just working on getting the red LEDs working/installed. I also printed off all the parts for the Laser Ax from files from Clint. I don't have any photos of the parts right now, but again I'll be more than happen to post a build thread if anybody is interested. Moving on I did eventually install the lenses into the helmet. Please ignore the dirty Kitchen, If my wife knew i took a photo like this she would never let me live it down. Next up were the new and improved 2 piece forearms! I haven't decided if I'm going to glue the pieces together of use some sort of velcro attachment to the inner sections to allow me to take it on/off easier. Up next are the biceps parts. The back of the biceps. The Front of the biceps. Once again i had to try some parts on, and I'm glad I did. I know I'm not wearing mu under suit and gaskets and the biceps are falling, but I realized I needed to trim the length of the biceps down thanks to my shorter limbs. I also worked a bit on the spats ahead of the rest of the legs, nothing major just some light trimming/fitting. I then figured it was time to work on the new helmet. Cut out the lenses. Cut out the mesh holes/teeth and sanded everything back (ignore the snapchat text box it was the only picture I have of it right now). Next up was gluing the Yokes together. The TFA yoke/backplate. Then it was time to glue the TLJ-E Yoke/Back plate. For both back sections, I've filled in the seems and sanded everything down. I've also cut the yoke down more to fit. I started to line up all the ab boxes and drilled the holes for my Chicago screws. A Little unrelated to the build but I picked up A BB-8 Droid from Target that will make a perfect little stand-in until I create my own! I worked on sanding some parts and finishing of the TD plate trimming. I also glued the little greeblies to the chest plate. I trimmed down the ab boxes to the ab plate and this is what I'm currently working on. I'm going to get them glued to the screws, and filled in so when I paint, it'll appear seamless. In the picture below it's just some painters tape holding the boxes to the end of the screws. Of course you need to have some fun while working on this so why not take a fun selfie! If you notice anything that seems off or have any questions, tips, tricks, fun comments,etc, go ahead and post them! It feels good to finally post some of these pictures so I can get back to work without the pile getting larger!

When I built My ANH armor it was pulled in HIPS (High Impact PolyStyyrene) and while it has better details its harder to cut and has little to no flexibility to it. So you get more detail and less durability with it. Honestly now that I'm working with ABS I don't think I would ever go back to HIPS. Just my two cents for what it's worth.

After a mixture of recovering from surgery and the holidays, I've finally found time to update this build thread! Up next for trimming were the spats. Then came the Chest plate. The Back Plate. The TD parts. Before Trimming I tried to understand the back connection. Moving onto the yoke/back connection pieces. Finished the AB plate and Kidney plate. The Cod and butt plate were also trimmed. I did get my Cardinal Gloves in and they look great against the painted hand plates. After my back surgery and that whole ordeal I think I'm going to be putting a hold on Captain Cardinal. I'm going to move onto being a regular FOTK and save Cardinal for later. I haven't been able to join the 501st with my ANH armor and I'd rather get in first and then make a Cardinal later.

So time for another update! I was able to get all of the extremity pieces trimmed! Also I plan on painting in sections. When I did my ANH I did two larger groups and I ended up messing up on my first batch so bad that I had to repurchase the parts again. Anyway I learned a whole lot about using rattlecans to paint and I think I'm set. The only reason I painted the hand plates was because they are pretty much their own section. They attach to the gloves and nothing else. My sections are going to be Arms, Chest, torso, belt, legs, and helmet, in no particular order. Here are my trimmed Kneeplates. The trimmed Shins. I went back to work on trimming the forearms. I'm still a little confused about the side sections but I'll figure it out. Here are the trimmed thighs. I was lucky enough to have KB draw on the correct lines for more accurate thighs when I picked up my armor so it was a lot easier to trim. I'll be working on the Chest/Back/Yoke area next. I have to wait for my gaskets before I get into sizing and trimming again.

I did order from Gio however I haven't received anything about boots since I ordered them. I'm also going to contact KB about the boot armor again. This past weekend was extremely productive and I hope to continue this throughout my build. I started on the forearms. I cut out the top parts of the forearms with no problem. I cut wrong already on the weird forearm connection pieces, however I was able to glue it back together. I'm going to check the other build threads on here to see if anybody was able to get them cut/glued properly. I moved on in the meantime to the handplates. I also decided that as I finish pieces I'm going to paint them instead of trying to paint a large amount at once. Quality control issues have made me wary of painting in the first place. Here are the painted Hand plates! I need to add velcro and paint in the black details but other than that they are ready to go! Up next were the shoulder bells! Here are the trimmed shoulder bells. I have to glue these two parts together and the shoulder bells will be ready for painting. Final part I was able to work on this weekend was the biceps. I was able to trim a lot of the extra plastic off and still have it fit better than my ANH biceps. While I figure out the forearms I need to move ahead to my next part. I might work my way from the chest/back down. If you notice anything or have any helpful tips they are always welcome!

Yes I received the notice as well! However I can't get my tracking to work. Oh well I guess it'll be a surprise! More good news! Saturday was my BBB Day! Since KB Props is local there was no shipping and hence no need for a real big box. So here it is! Everything spread out! I didn't get the Phasma boots parts. I'm going to message KB a bit later for them, However I'm going to do both parts in case it turns out one way or the other. I also received a new helmet from him as well! Here it is with the old helmet. Both Helmets together. A comparison of the two helmets. I'm excited to get to work on my armor! I'll start on the Handplates and forearms soon!

I got my tracking number as well!

Thank you for the tip about the boots! I just ordered the ammo pouches so I'm making progress! Need to order: Boots (CrowProps) waiting to hear back Ordered but waiting on: Armor (KB Props) Cardinal Gloves (Imperial Boots) Gaskets (Geeky Pink/Teresa/Soulart) Cape (Geeky Pink/Teresa/Soulart) Canvas Ammo Pouches (Trooperbay) In my possession: Helmet (KB Props) Holster (Dan) 3D Printed SE-44c (Germain's Files) 3D Printed F11-D (Germain's Files) Undersuit (stormtrooperundersuit.com) Belt Kit (JAFO/Darren) I feel like I'm making progress but I agree Jonah it's hard to do anything without having the armor. I don't think I'm leaving anything out from my list but if I am let me know lol. I don't want to overlook anything and then need it.