Astyanax

Experts, keep me honest here: As a relatively new researcher, what I think here is that either of these kits CAN make you Centurion approvable. It all depends on how well you finish them, since they seem to come unfinished. They seem to have all the necessary elements from the CRL, so a good finishing job SEEMS to make you Centurion approvable. As for resin vs. rubber, resin will be easier to clean up, glue and paint. Rubber will be less so. Resin will feel more "real", but rubber will be more durable. With resin, the details will be more sharp, more crisp; with rubber, more "soft". Resin can easily be cut, shaped, and dremeled. Rubber can't even be sanded. I see a lot more resin on these forums than rubber. I would not share a Centurion-approved blaster with my kids. That's why I grabbed a Rubie's for practice. For my money, I'd go resin. Good luck! Bill

Hey guys: I'm struggling a little with the back plate, but I think I've solved it, and it looks good!. Need 1-2 more days to paint and post. In the meantime, here's this tidbit: 8. FOOTWEAR Cost is a huge factor here, but I didn't want to go with plain white tennis shoes either. Shoes for kids are expensive! And plain white seems to be a bit out of style. So I settled on these white dress slip-on shoes (not boots) from Payless: Here's the link: http://www.payless.com/boys-dress-slip-on/67491.html?dwvar_67491_color=white#q=boys+white+dress+shoes&start=1 They do look quite nice. The soles are white, not black, but I'm cool with that. I know, they're not boots, but again, this is about cost. Add some white socks and we're good. Online cost is $20, but I had them shipped to the store, which saved me the shipping cost. Also, there are MANY Payless coupons out there if you look around. I got them brand new out the door for $18, including tax. The material is faux leather, which will be easier to clean. Hope that helps! Bill

2. WEIGHT I know that real trooping doesn't really lend itself to heavy blasters, but this thing is crazy light. I wanted to add a little weight to it, so that at least when my son carries it around it looks like he's packing. So I had this craft modeling clay lying around. It's Sculpey, wax-based, which means it should never dry out. That's a good thing, because you dont want a rocky gravelly sound in there when you shake it. And here you can see that I filled both halves as much as was reasonable. I even jammed some clay into the interior of the inner barrel. A chopstick came in handy. After that, I screwed the halves back together. It was a little effort, but I was able to secure the screws. I only added one pound of clay, but now this thing seems REALLY HEAVY! Maybe too heavy. Consider that in your own builds. In the next day or so, I will deal with holes and seams. Bill

1. BARRELS First and foremost, I took that 150-grit sandpaper and sanded off the Rubie's logo from the rear part of the barrel. Then, upon close inspection, I could see that the Rubie's Rebels blaster has little indentations where the barrel holes should be. It occurred to me that I could drill those out on the one side and use a piece of PVC pipe as an inner barrel. At this point I carefully removed the screws and separated the two halves. There are only holes on one side. My Dremel came with a griding tip that fit the holes perfectly, so I went for it. It did melt the plastic as I went through, however the plastic solidifies instantly as little shards that you can break off. A very light touch with the round sanding tip to smooth it all out and I was good: The barrel holes didn't line up with each other perfectly, but that was the nature of the blaster's manufacturing. They look good in the end! Next, I had some 3/4" PVC pipe lying around, so I cut a 6" length to use as the inner barrel. Unfortunately, there's a screw in the way inside the blaster that prevents the barrel from fully covering the front hole, so out came the Dremel and I cut a notch in the end: For more details about how I dremeled out the barrel holes and PVC pipe, check out this post. After that, I painted it satin black and used silicone to attach it to the side with holes. I just laid a thin bead of silicone above them. This picture doesn't do it justice; it actually came out quite nice! There's about 1/16" of separation between the two barrels. I also drilled out the barrel opening using the dremel grinding stone, about 3/8" diameter: Next up, weighting down the blaster! Bill

0. TOOLS & MATERIALS SPRAY PAINTS So after much research, I landed on the following finishing paints: 1. Flat Black Paint/Primer: This is my base coat. I needed somehting that would stick to plastic, and a flat back is a good base coat for other paints to stick to. 2. Satin Black Paint: This is the main base color for much of the blaster, mostly the Hengstler, magazine, trigger areas. It's also a base coat on which to add... 3. Hammered Metallic Black Paint: There is some controversy about this, but I've decided to go for 1-2 light coats on the base metal parts, such as the barrel and stock. I'll be masking to make this all happen. In addition, I want to take a stab at weathering and details, so I'm using the following brush model paints: 1. Gloss Black: This is for the hand grip, which is made of plastic. 2. Silver: This is for weathering on the overall blaster. 3. Gold: This is for weathering the scope and scope mount. (I couldn't find bronze, but gold was close enough for this application.) 4. Gunmetal: This is for painting the exposed bolt on the side. All of these are completely optional, of course. I want to challenge myself! ADHESIVES 1. Superglue: It has helped hold a couple parts together in a pinch. I like the gel as opposed to the liquid, because it doesn't leak everywhere and bonds really quickly. 2. Bondo: This is for filling gaps and holes. I like the single part #907 in a tube: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002JM8PY 3. Silicone: I also needed a strong bonding agent that wasn't time sensitive, something I could "massage" a little before it sets. You can also use E6000 if you have it, as it's almost the same thing. OTHER I'm also using the following: 1. Sandpaper: 60/80 grit (for the top t-track and bondo), 100 grit (for the bondo), and 150 grit (for smoothing out Bondo'ed areas and for sanding off the Rubie's Logo). 2. Wax-based modeling clay (Sculpey): I bought a pound of it to fill the interior of the blaster. The gun is very lightweight, and I wanted to make it a bit heavier. 3. A Dremel: This thing is worth every penny. $40 gets you an awesome cordless kit: http://www.amazon.com/Dremel-7700-1-15-MultiPro-7-2-Volt/dp/B002BACCDA 4. A short piece of 3/4" PVC pipe: For the inner barrel! 5. Masking or painter's tape: I used frog tape, because it's thinner, leaves a sharper paint line, and removes less paint when you peel it off. 6. Black Sharpie and Silver Sharpie markers: Very optional, I did this to add some fake "3-D" definition to the exposed bolt on the right side. 7. Parchment paper: Yes, the cooking kind. Being silicone-infused, it really helps setting sticky painted objects onto parchment so that they can dry. Okay, next comes everything I've done so far... Bill

Hi gang: As I continue to work on my Foamtrooper armor for kids, I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to do some research and learn some skills while making the Rubie's E-11 prop blaster look nicer. I don't believe in making smaller blasters for kids; I think full-size or near full-size looks best anyway. I also like the Rubie's blaster because it looks slightly more "cartoony", but without compromising the overall silhouette. Sure, the T-tracks are a little bubbly, but darn if it doesn't have a Hengstler counter and a mag receiver and magazine! And even a molded D-ring on the end. It's based on the "Rebels" TV show, and even the stormtroopers on this show have the more bubbly-looking tracks. Maybe we should call it the E-10, since it pre-dates ANH? So here's what you get when you buy it: It's a little expensive on Amazon, but hunting around on eBay should be fruitful. I'm not going to go nuts doing every little detail, but I think I can do a few things to make it look much nicer and certainly at least good enough for kids. I need the painting practice. In fact yes, I do realize this is all "lipstick on a pig." But it's an exercise in learning some new techniques before I work on more worthy models, and it makes my kids happy. Plus, it's quite 501st approvable, at least at the first level. By the way, first thing I did when I got this was paint it black so my kids could play with it. I would not do this next time. In a few moments I'll catch up to where I am now... Bill

Thanks for the kind words. For the bucket, I'm going to use TK-409's example of the Rubies mask with an astronaut helmet, and rounding out the base with a styrofoam wreath ring. Total cost: $23. Back plate coming in the next day or so! Bill

Opinions vary, but I say it's worth it. This thread has more details: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/30831-anovos-tk-armor-preorder/

That may be, but putting down tried and true armor makers is not exactly the best way to endear them to the fan base. It smells like mandated company line.

Ah, thanks for the clarification. I hope that's it. I've got high hopes in Anovos.

No, they're talking about plasteel.

My favorite part is this: Bootleg???? You hear that Troopermaster? You hear that Trooperbay, AM, ATA, RS, etc? You guys are dirty bootleggers. What's worse about this statement is that it is an elitist way of saying anything not Rubies, since there's no other licensed product on the market yet (that I know of). Anovos doesn't count. They got nothing yet. I hate this...but.... it also, sounds like they've been coached to be a little disdainful of everything that's come before. I'm not ready to blame Anovos, but it sounds like what David suggested, like it's PR talk, like the "licensed" part is supposed to carry more weight than it has in the past. So, maybe (here comes my hopeful side), we should be looking a little deeper into Lucasfilm's intentions, rather than Anovos'? Does Lucasfilm want the best quality troopers walking around? I bet they do. In fact I am betting with my wallet that they do. I really hope so. But sadly, it sounds like open season on everyone else. You have to admit, "bootleg" is a pretty aggressive term. Sorry guys, that kinda raised my hackles. Bill

7. CHEST PLATE Click here for the upper left chest plate template pattern (1.27 MB JPG) Click here for the upper right chest plate template pattern (1.26 MB JPG) Click here for the lower left chest plate template pattern (1.41 MB JPG) Click here for the lower left chest plate template pattern (1.41 MB JPG) (these are model's left-right) Hey all, sorry it took me awhile to get here. I went through a few versions trying to get it right. Let's dive in: As you can see from the patterns, the chest plate is broken into four pieces. I did this so that you can print them all out, tape them together, and use that as the template for cutting out the foam. It won't quite fit perfectly on a piece of 12" x 18" foam, so I just made sure I got the bottom portion on there. If the straps come up a little short, it's no big deal, because this chest armor is two layers. ONE SPECIAL NOTE: I have added extra material to the shoulder strap length and to the side attachment points. I also added an inch more of height than I thought I would. This can all be trimmed back at any point. Every kid is different, so it's better to have more material that can be cut off during fitting. I am sure I will be trimming! I will point it out when the time comes. Some of the pics below show versions before I added extra material. After I traced and cut out the entire pattern, I repeated the process for the TOP HALF ONLY onto the thicker (6mm) foam. This is to give the "pecs" a little depth. This is where I was able to give the shoulder straps a little more length as needed. After cutting this out, I glued the pecs layer on top of the main layer using just a thin layer of white glue. I waited overnight before moving on. I realized this armor should be shaped just a little, prior to finishing. It's not a flat plate, but rounded to fit the contours of the body. The shoulder straps are also bent to go over the shoulder. I found that when I covered the whole thing in glue, trying to bend the foam caused cracks, which were impossible to cover. Nope, the plate had to be shaped, hold that shape, and be finished completely after it held it shape. This is where I had to accept the fact that I needed the heat gun. Trust me, you need this. You can get the cheap $22 one at Home Depot, because I had the heat cranked up to its highest setting. A hair dryer just does not get hot enough, but you're welcome to try before committing to the heat gun. You might want to practice on scrap foam first. I held the chest plate around a 5-gallon bucket and then went over the whole thing with the heat gun, taking care to keep moving, to not getting too close (4"-6"), and making sure it got soft enough. It gets very hot, so be careful. I made sure the foam developed a bit of a "sheen", which told me the foam was hot enough. Each time I heated an area, I laid it around the bucket, moving on to the next quadrant. I had to do this 3-4 times before it would stay down around the curve when cooled. If you get too close and it starts to turn brown and bubble, back off quickly and wait for it to cool. You can sand the bubbly surface that developes with fine grit sandpaper. Because the upper part of the plate was very thick, it did seem to help heating from underneath, helping to get that thicker layer soft enough to relax around the bucket. I also needed to curve the shoulder straps. So again with the heat gun, I got it nice and soft, and then held it with my hand in the right shape for a few seconds while it cooled. Again, I needed to do this 3-4 times, and it took a lot of heat because of the extra thickness. (Don't worry, this is not as hard as it sounds. This is my first try using a heat gun! The trick is to go slowly and take your time. It's easier to reheat something that didn't quite work than to repair foam that was overheated!) After I had the full curve in place, I secured the chest plate to the bucket using four pieces of double-sided tape. This helped it maintain its shape while I applied the finishes. Once I had curves that I liked, I began finishing the chest plate while still stuck to the bucket. Not only does the bucket give you something to stand up the piece vertically, but it also helps it keep its shape while I applied the hard shells. Three coats of white glue, 2 hours between, followed by three coats of gloss enamel, about 10 minutes between. Once again, the enamel stayed sticky, so 10 minutes later I finished with three coats of glaze, 10 minutes apart. This last step is quite optional, but I decided to caulk the point where the "pecs" plate joins the main plate, just to ease that transition just a bit. I think it looks better. We're done! I have updated my "tools & materials" post to include the bucket, heat gun, and sandpaper. I will not deal with any kind of strapping just yet. Need to get the back plate done first! Bill

Is PVC more or less expensive to produce than ABS at that thickness (0.09")? Wondering if they're cutting corners with the material for cost reasons, or really trying hard to put out a superior licensed product? This part of the updated FAQ really got me excited: Any thoughts?

Okay, let's break this down... Most plastics are completely inert in water, and they will be completely unaffected in the rain. That's why PVC and ABS are primarily used for plumbing. More important are the other components. Do you have sensitive electronics in your helmet? Do you have any holes or other entry points for water? If not, your helmet interior is probably fine. If so, don't even think about it. You probably have ear gaps and such, so shake those out when you're done and try to get the nooks and crannies to dry out so that mildew doesn't form later. Next, consider your strapping. Most of the standard strapping materials will be fine, including nylon and velcro. It's conceivable your straps might loosen up a little with water, but if your rivets/snaps/screws aren't loose to begin with, I wouldn't expect any issues. Next, what about your bucket's paint and glue? E6000, ABS paste, silicone and CA are going to be fine exposed to water. Most enamels, lacquers and such will be fine as well. Not much to worry about there. You didn't white glue and watercolor your bucket, did you? Next, what about decals and stickers? If stickers, I would worry. Stickers are just paper, and can really get messed up in water, depending on the material. If decals, I would only worry a little bit. Most are probably fine, but they might be weathered off if the rain is heavy. Be gentle with the helmet. Your TK needs a scarf. Painted-on details will probably be fine. Finally, think about visibility. If you're walking around in the rain wearing your bucket, you might have a hard time seeing, especially if it's a Hero bucket. Hope you have a handler or are prepared to wipe often. Maybe you should test in a cold shower. That all said, I'd still try to carry an umbrella. Which would look really funny and cool and get you a few photos snapped. A small one could fit in your holster or pocket. Is it too late to spray paint a white Imperial cog on a black umbrella? If you don't want the umbrella and you don't have holes into the interior of the helmet, I'd not worry about it. Even worn off decals can be replaced easily. Go for it. Overall, I'd say it's not a big worry if it's a rare thing. Just get it dry ASAP after you're done trooping. THAT ALL SAID, I reserve the right to be overridden by any pros here who have had real rain experiences. All my knowledge here is based on the natural properties of the individual components. Bill

I ordered one. It will be my first build. Fingers crossed!

Working on the torso now. I had to drop my first attempt, because curving the foam after coating with glue caused cracks! Guess I'll have to bend it using heat and get it to stay that way before finishing.

Ah yes, ABS paste. I have just learned about that. Helps the color match up, doesn't it? But it still raises the question: Even though gaps are "accurate", if you use it to fill them, do you run into 501st/EIB/Centurion approval issues since you've removed the "accuracy" of the gaps?

Hey guys: As I wait for my first armor to arrive (Anovos -- fingers crossed), I've been reading and reading and rereading here. Lots to take in! While I've been working on some foam armor for my son, I came across the fact the good old fashioned white silicone caulk can really help with seam problems. It's flexible and dries glossy. And dries slow. And can be easily removed and cleaned up. And has adhesive properties. The list goes on and on. Now, with kids' armor, 501st approval and all that stuff doesn't play a factor. But with real armor...I'm thinking caulking might be a godsend for people with helmet ear gaps. So my question is...has anyone tried to use caulk to repair any seam problems? I know this is an automatic no-no for Centurion, because it is not accurate to the original film concepts, but what about EIB or at least generic approval for ear gaps? Just curious if this has ever been considered. Thanks! Bill

I'm doing exactly the same thing. I started a build for a kids' TK, and I'm including patterns/templates. Hope you like it! http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/31324-tk-jr-astyanaxs-foamtrooper-kids-armor-project/ Bill

Thanks guys for the kind words. This has been a really fun project so far. Hopefully you won't have to go through as much foam as I have trying to get the finishing right! Bill

6. HAND GUARDS AND GLOVES I very much enjoyed this step. I'll start with pictures and then comment accordingly. So this picture above is just to show that the gloves came with card inserts. Using them to separate the cloth layers really helped with hot glueing the hand guards on top. That said, any piece of cardboard will work just fine. Cut open that cereal box or action figure packaging! For this picture above, I test fitted the hand guards on my son's hands, had him make a fist, and drew a line to help mark things for glueing. Glue within these areas. You don't want to get glue into the areas where there are fingers, because that will inhibit finger movement. The good news is the hot glue stuck really well. And here above you see the finished product. Not much to say here, except that I left about a half inch from the edge of the cuff for these particular gloves. The shirt sleeves are long enough to overlap the gloves with the cuffs of the shirt, but still stay under the hand guards. It turns out that my hand guards are too large, but there's no way I'm changing it. It really adds to the "adorable" factor to keep these large. You purists out there will want to scale down my hand guard pattern to maybe 80%-90%. But you don't know the meaning of cute if you do that. So, thanks to all of you who have read this post so far and have been so supportive. Here's a picture of my son Vincent with all of the armor pieces so far. There's not a lot of black showing in the joints. Vincent swears he has lots of good freedom of movement in the arms, so I'm optimistic I'm on the right track! (He's very excited, even though I suggested he smile less. ) By the way, the blaster is a Rubie's "Rebels" E-11 stormtrooper blaster, so far sprayed in just black primer. I'm pretty sure I'm going to recoat this thing in metallic black, and finish some of the details in silver brush paint, as well as just a little drybrush weathering. But more about that later. I do not subscribe to the notion of having a "kid-sized" blaster. A full-sized blaster (or as close to it as Rubie's gets) once again adds to the "adorable" factor. (Yes, by the way, the shoulder bells don't stick on the shoulders because they're yet not attached to anything. My little trooper is holding very still so they don't slip off. ) Enjoy! Bill

EDIT: The below content happened as I was learning about using glaze over the gloss enamel. If you've been following along, this is old hat. But here, for posterity... I had another setback with finishing. The gloss enamel that I switched to doesn't want to dry fully! It gets sticky and tacky and stays that way, probably due to the fact that following the instructions and spraying multiple light coats a few minutes apart, at 70 degrees and below 60% humidity, doesn't really work in real life. So why did my hand guards and forearms dry so perfectly and why are my biceps and shoulder bells giving me so much trouble? Oh yes! I added extra Glaze on top of those other pieces! Turns out the Rustoleum Triple Thick Glaze is acrylic based, which means it can nicely overlay the OIL-based gloss enamel with a glossy shell that is not tacky. I sprayed 3 medium-heavy coats and the sheen returned with no tacky-ness. The good news is that I now have a final solution, regardless of spraying technique. The bad news is that I have to buy several cans' worth of THREE different finishes. My "Finishes" post above has been updated accordingly. The bottom line? As metioned and repeated above, for every armor piece, I am now brushing on 3 coats of white glue with 2 hours between coats. I am following this with 3 coats of Plastidip at 10 minutes between coats. 10 minutes later I am following with 3 coats of gloss white enamel at 10 minutes between coats. And 10 minutes later I am finishing with 3 coats of clear glaze at 10 minutes between coats. I will point out here (as elsewhere) that humidity makes a difference. If you I this all with a humidity below 50%, it seems to dry much shinier. Bill

5. BODYSUIT In coming up with the right kind of undersuit for my son, I had to weigh these requirements: 1. Low cost. 2. Two pieces (you know, for bathroom breaks and such). 3. Thin material, so it doesn't get too hot. 4. Tight material. 5. Easy adhesion with hot glue. 6. Shirt must have a turtleneck (I'm not doing a neck seal, but you don't want skin showing) This ruled out sweater material, as well as sweat pants and sweat shirts. After much research, I landed on these items: Leveret Solid Turtleneck 100% Cotton (6-14 Years): $10.99, free shipping w/Amazon Prime The shirt is slightly large for him, but quite workable, and shrank just a bit in the laundry. The material is just cotton, about as thick as a T-shirt. Youth Sports Form Fit, Ankle Length Compression Tight: $18.00 w/free shipping via Amazon Make no mistake, these are spandex COMPRESSION pants. I liked the really thin material; it's extra stretchy, so it hugs the body. If your kid doesn't like tight clothes (mine does), consider something else. The material is very smooth. The price was a little high for my taste, but I quickly saw that I was going to have to pay a few bucks to get something that was solid black, light, and tight. Seasons - Theatrical Child (Black) Gloves: $7.50 including shipping via Amazon These gloves are made of a pretty cheap, thin material. I needed smooth, non-"sweater"-like material, so that the hot glue would hold the hand guards tightly. I would like to have had longer wrists, but I think the shirt will still be long enough to cover nicely. This is another reason to go slightly large in the shirt. Zan Headgear Nylon Balaclava: $5 via Amazon Prime Add-on EDIT: I just added this as a necessary item because the helmet rides up too high in the back, exposing some of the back of the head. This cheap balaclava made it look more intentional. This will also be extra helpful if you intend to go with a mask only. You now have a fully dressed ninja. Bonus! Next post: I attach the hand guards! Bill

4. SHOULDER BELLS Click here for the shoulder bells template pattern (1.75 MB JPG) Sorry it took me awhile to get this part posted, but I wanted to get it right. The pattern comes from copying TK-409's pictures almost exactly. The trick is definitely to cut this split rounded shape, and glue the inner curves together. What I was trying to perfect was a better method for glueing it together. The secret? Hot glue in an INSIDE cover strip. As you can see from the many pictures, I started by drawing a straight line down the middle of the bell template. Then, I glued the INSIDE cover strip from the base of the shoulder, up to where the inner curve starts, and then stopped there. Just do a half inch or so at a time, or you'll get the angle of the strip wrong. After this was done I drew another pencil line down the middle of the cover strip with a pencil as shown. This helped me align the curve as it came together. To do the curve, I pushed/pulled the inner curved edge of one side and hot glued it a little at a time, aligning the edge to the pencil line. Build your curve on just one side, using the pencil line as a guide. Again, don't glue more than a half inch at a time. It's okay if it's not perfectly smooth, the outside cover strip will cover errors. After I did one side, I completed the other. This was easier, because I didn't have to line up the curve with the pencil line, but rather the already-glued other side. Once the inside cover strip was glued and the curve of the shoulder was completed, I clipped off the excess from the strip and then glued the OUTSIDE cover strip over the seam. Again, only glue a half inch or so at a time, waiting 10-15 seconds between each part, so as to keep the cover strip laying down nicely. Then, after the requisite glueing and painting and glazing and caulking (I followed the finishing method outlined above), I was ready to put the elastic strip in. Painting caused the corners to flare up a bit, but I didn't mind this. I cut a 5" piece of one inch elastic, and hot glued it to the inside of the shoulder bells. We're done! I will use velcro or elastic to attach the shoulder bells to the torso, but not just yet. Next post, I'll be talking about undergarments. Bill