SofusSnake

Looking good! I really admire all the know-how and craftsmanship of the people here, this looks like it can hold its own against more professional/mass produced stuff, too. Latex has a tendency to melt or become "sticky" or tacky when heated, like Gary said, but some types of natural rubbers/latex also will also "rot" after a while, becoming less solid and perhaps even crack or crumble, depending on usage (for instance, skin contact, sweat, areas with a lot of movement, etc.) I would be extremely careful after each use to check on wear and tear and, perhaps look into preserving it with some sort of coating, like Gary said.

I'm trying to save up for this one, but.. Ah.. I dunno if it's this site that has gotten the best of me, but the inaccuracies are kind of annoying me now. I used to be like "whatever, it still looks pretty accurate." but now, after seeing it side by side with the accurate parts... It's waaay cheaper than a real one, though, which pretty much trumps everything. (And I can't be bothered getting a doopy without a functioning folding stock.) Question: Is the safety tip a plastic cap that slides over the metal muzzle, or is it the muzzle itself, painted orange? Could be useful to know if I'm transporting it or trooping in public areas.

METAL GEAR!? It can't be..! (Also, great job! This will be a helpful reference when I eventually get my own AP kit, for sure!)

I just learned today (well, technically yesterday) that due to some overlooked and really unfortunate muck-up, I am in a bit of trouble, money-wise. It's not any serious trouble though, like health-wise stuff or legal issues, phew! That would REALLY suck. It's just one of those unforeseen "all my money has to go elsewhere than towards fun stuff"-deals that, I guess, is called "adulthood." But as you may understand, "disappointed" doesn't even begin to cover it, and I will probably not be able to build a TK, let alone buy a kit, any time this year. I was hoping to perhaps save up some cash for the project from the yearly vacation money my job pays us in the beginning of june, but now it seems like the entire month's pay plus the extra money is going bye-bye. A bit of a bummer, i might say. (All right, that's an understatement, it's horribly depressing, to be honest.) I was really looking forward to having a new hobby, but I guess I will have to join you guys in on the fun some time in the future instead. Thankfully I did not order the Sterling airsoft gun I was thinking about buying the other day, for my "Waiting for the Big Brown Box edition Blazing Blaster Build" project. Really dodged that bullet, huh? All work and no play from now on, I guess. Just thought I'd share this with you, my fellow Imperials, to let out some frustration and let you guys know. Not sure if i will remain very active here or not, my morale and mood is pretty bad right now, and I'm not sure if hanging about looking at awesome stuff I can't really do myself will help on my already crappy mood. But just in case I take a really long break, I just wanted to say that it's been fun reading up on building and fixing and tweaking- and getting to know some of you just a teeny tiny bit. Hopefully I will come back stronger, and perhaps even more prepared, at a later time. You have been most helpful and welcoming, this truly is a wonderful detachment. Thank you. - Sindre

Hahaha, this is great! I like these sort of things regardless of which "universe" it's from, and when people manage to pull it together and act naturally, it's just great. Thanks for sharing, Tim! Kind of makes me want to do something similar in the future. Perhaps my boss will be kind enough to stand behind the cash register at work for a small video.. (I work in a grocery store, I can picture a LOT of confused people, bwhahaha.)

Sorry for being somewhat late to the party, but; I suppose the weld seams could be dremeled down, and repainted/oxidized? Besides, from the pictures on evike.com the welds don't look THAT terrible, I've seen worse on actual real-life automatic rifles. You could think about filing down the grip so that the roundness and markings are a bit more accurate, it's just a tad too square because of the gearbox configuration inside. A lot of people, like myself, probably don't like the non-working/clunky plastic resin folding stock of Doopydoo's version much, considering the amount of praise real metal blasters get on these forums, both mods and scratch-built. Besides, if one should choose to go for a resin blaster, one would probably have to redo the whole thing to ones own particular liking/detail awareness level anyways. In my opinion it's better to have the up-close heft, look and weight of a proper metal version you could put on the wall for display, than a brittle resin blaster or less detailed rubber version, even though the dimensions may be some millimeters off. Kids won't be scrutinizing it with their rulers and laser meters anyways. This probably is a very good alternative if you don't have your own mill, bandsaw, CNC machine, laser cutter, or 3d printer, as is required to build a realistic scratch-model. Also; these things can, after all, be dropped and banged up and get a realistic weathering effect instead of cracking into a billion brittle pieces.

Haha! I love the fact I'm not the only one with a "happier" take on the frown, as evident in my avatar. Still, to do it in reality takes a lot more guts!

Terribly sorry to hear about both of you. I wish I could help, somehow. Recover soon! Live to fight another day, as they say! Also, Celebration, ah... well, as much as I wish i could have been there, I'm stationed way too far off on the outer rim to even think about getting a transfer permit or even an off-world shuttle, but still sucks to have missed it.

I'm surprised noone has mentioned "The Trooper" yet

Even with people saying that this is objectifying of women and whatnot, what if some women actually want to wear this? I say, go for it. It may not be approvable, but if people buy it, they probably want it. Now, from a canon, practical design-aware point of view, I think the Legacy female armor is a better alternative if you want to be an actual 501st stormtrooper. But wearing this just for fun and to be a bit sexy, I'd say it's not really up to US to decide what our female members should or shouldn't do. We're not the highest authority on other people's decisions NOR their interests, and especially NOT their bodies! This really is no different to me than girls (or men, i don't judge!) getting some sexy pants or a bikini (or any kind of outfit) for the sake of showing off, having fun and getting some attention, being proud of who they are, but it's still THEIR decision to do so. We don't go around saying to people "Don't dress up as slave Leia, it's immoral, even though you want to, you're just showing off, etc." either.

You're right, i checked it out on the interwebs, it looks a bit different on other pics. It was hard to find, since most people use a variety of regular helmets, it seems? I may have a friend that's interested in wearing the legacy costume as well, i hope she decides to do it, it looks really cool on you guys.

Nice pics! Are the helmets for this kit bigger? Looks like it, but it might just appear so because of the neck/shoulders being less "bulky" or square on the female uniform?

It says that these are funtasma boots near the bottom. I would never have spotted the seam if it weren't for the fabled stormtrooper accuracy of the people on this forum though, well observed, T-Jay!

Hey guys, I was wondering if anybody had some wreckage/badly pulled/flawed helmet components (faceplate and back - not ears) from an AP helmet, and perhaps were interested in sending it to me for cheap, i was curious about fitting electronics into it and I'm not sure about spacing etc. I can pay the shipping if needed. :-) This is NOT for trooping, but rather for measuring and to get a better grip on how much room there is inside a helmet like this for batteries and gizmos.

Wow, that piece looks absolutely fantastic. Is this particular one resin or rubber?

I've seen this kit before too, from the photos it looks good and quite detailed, especially the face plate of the helmet. Far from being an expert, the impression I have is NOT to buy from any people on ebay when it comes to armor, but on the off chance that this is someone that the 501st or FISD know of, i guess it's safe. A lot of people lie about armor being "501st approved/ready." But I guess you'll have to await the verdict of the rest of our merry batallion, to be honest.

Wow, this is really impressive! I want one! Sadly I'm not experienced enough with anything metal workings related. That demonstration video at the end made me grin like an idiot. Just a small question though, in theory, one could choose to weld the bits together and then grind the weld lines flush to the barrel, right? Just seems a bit more solid than just screws, etc.

That's actually a pretty good idea! But we all know who would win, though, am I right?

No problem at all, dude. I think you should get some pencils out and draw, too Stormtrooper art is always a hit.

WOW! That's lucky, congratulations! I enquired about boots april 19th but i was just days or (even hours) late I guess, there were none left by the time i asked. Oh well. I'll just have to wait for the new batch!

Wow! I was really sceptical at first, since a lot of people take short-cuts when improvising these sorts of costumes (and I'm an anatomy/gore realism geek thanks to art school,) but man, it turned out WAY better than expected. You really did a super job on the painting, and even the mask fit eerily well into the open helmet, like it was made using the death trooper art as a reference for these kinds of costumes. Had to scroll through the con pictures twice just because they looked so cool, that TD looks genuinely frightened, lol. Are you SURE it's just a costume? Haha (Btw, does anyone know who that sith Twi'lek is? Wow. )

Is anyone aware of cases where people have recreated some of the (quite possibly extremely non-canon) Extended Universe troops, or even Old Republic/Jedi Civil war type Sith troops? For instance, Remnant/New Empire troops such as the Rocket, Swamp and Shadow versions (Not the black TK mold version, but original sculpts/productions of the slimmer ninja-like version as seen in Jedi Outcast.) Note: I have already seen the Commander, Incinerator, Skytrooper and Death Troopers here on the forums, but these seem like just variations over classic molds as opposed to original sculpts. What I'm most interested in is more if someone has created "proper" quality versions of Extended Universe/Lesser known armors.

Nice! I think the paint job looks just great around the edges. I really like the idea of putting a zombie head inside, especially if it's got half it's face torn off and pieces of armor shrapnel embedded in the head. Kind of makes me want to get an extra bucket and abuse it with some shotgun shells or a blowtorch to make something similar, hahah.

For this i used Photoshop and a tablet. Took about 3-4 hours or so.

Thanks, man! I guess it's not too accurate on the helmet side, nor anything else, but like i said, it was mostly to explore the concept. (Also; Stay away from those Off-World Colonies, it's bad out there!)