Kredal

Ahhh, some serious trimming needs to happen! I trusted the original cuts on the AM armor too much in some places. I never took a knife or scissors to that plate. Looks like I need to. Yay E-6000!

The shoulder bell is a quick fix. Resewing the snaps can be done tonight. The belt... Geeze, you people are never happy! It's too low, it's too high! I'll see what I can do with it. (: Any idea for the sniper knee?

Thigh straps done! I got impatient and superglued the snap plates in. Don't tell anyone! First, I cut triangles out of the back of the thigh plates to get back full motion (or close) on my knees. I got 2" black elastic, cut it down to about 18 inches, put on my new duty belt, folded the elastic bands over it, joined the ends, and held them on to my thigh armor while holding it in place. Made marks on either side with a pencil, and transferred those marks to the inside by eye. I then punched holes in the elastic with my trusty soldering iron (which I really need to get a new tip for, after all this melting elastic), put in female snaps, attached those to snap plates, marked where they should go on the inside, and then glued them in. Woo! Then I PUT ON EVERYTHING! For the first time, I was wearing the whole kit. I asked my lovely wife to take a few pictures, and she said we should go outside to take pictures. Um, ok. (: And my action shot: My across-the-street neighbor came over while we were out there, and asked where I got it. Told him I made it, and he was blown away! I didn't have the heart to tell him it wasn't screen accurate since the rivets weren't painted yet. (: OK, one issue, dunno if it's the way it's glued on, or my abnormally shaped leg, but the top of the sniper plate digs into my kneecap something fierce. Is there anything I can do about this as is, or should I try to re-glue the knee to be more outward facing? I'm not even sure how to go about that. Anyone have this issue before? Thanks for the follow-up on the screw painting. Since it's highly recommended, I'll do it after I get in the lock nuts and put them on. I had another screw pop out today, so I really need to do that. Horray for Amazon Prime! So excited to have been able to take the pictures today, though! (:

In other strapping news, I just dodged a HUGE bullet. I've had a couple of the tiny nuts spin themselves off the screws, so I was going to loctite them all on. I had the genius idea of Googling to see if Loctite is hard to clean off ABS (if I spill some while trying to get it on the tiny little screws, I didn't want to dye my armor blue)... Turns out, it reacts HORRIBLY with ABS, making is super brittle very quickly. Soooo Not gonna do that. Instead, I found a 100-pack of lock nuts on Amazon for $3.65, and got 1-day Prime shipping. Whew. Again: Don't use Loctite anywhere near ABS!

Cool, I'll paint at least the chest ones then. Maybe not all the back ones, since they're only seen on-edge anyway. We'll see. (:

I've got an Imperial Officer cap on order from Anovos... Whenever it gets here, I'll be wearing it when I don't have my bucket on for whatever reason.

The heads of at least the chest plate bracket screws are visible... fairly prominently along my ribcage. That's why I ask. (: My bucket screws are already painted, so I'm good there!

That's just like... your opinion, man. (:

- Small files for teeth and eyes - hole punch set for belt and holster - drill bits from 1/8 to 3/8" for various things (the 3/8" one is used to countersink by hand snap attachment points) - model paint brushes, humbrol or testors paints of the right colors, mineral spirits and testors paint thinner - soldering iron for punching holes in elastic straps - heat gun for reshaping ABS, melting ends of elastic straps (I have a soldering rework station that has been amazingly useful for this)

As far as painting goes: I know: 6 rivets on the left side Thigh ammo pack rivets Screws on TD (black) I'm not sure: cod rivet? screws on return edge strapping system?

Yup, male snaps are very spinny. The few that I made with the normal backing plate that gets crimped inside spin like crazy. As long as there's no vertical play, you're fine. I noticed in your pictures that you're using stacks of like 5 magnets in one place. Is that just because they're hard to separate? You should look into making magnet sachets like Khazid and I. They're SUPER helpful and easy to work with. There's a post in the Tutorials section about it. With the 1/16 magnets you're using, I'd recommend putting two in each sachet. Edited to add: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/31701-how-to-assemble-magnet-sachets/

Invisible Trooper says hi! Had all of my hard armor pieces together in one place for the first time since I got the Big Brown Box. My, how things have changed! Everything is strapped together except for the thighs, and everything is painted except for the various rivets. It's (almost) alive!

I may be able to help... The AM2 kit comes with loads of rivet covers. The bottom set is what I used (it comes with 2 of these sticks), and you just cut squares around the circles, and glue in place. The other ones may be for a different type of trooper? I have no idea. There's also a different belt that has recesses where the rivets go, instead of just dimples. Maybe the cut-out-squares are for that? Anyway, I can drop one of these sets in the mail for you, and they'd get there in just a couple days. Let me know if you're interested. Send me a PM with your address if you are. (:

From the post about the TD: "I had some phillips head wood screws laying around, so I used them. I might get flat heads later, but these will work." I've already picked up the right screws, I'll be putting them in soon. (And also moving the clips so the coverplate of the TD is more angled out, and not facing my back so much. I've got about 3/4 of an inch to play with there, and the original screw holes will be covered by the brackets still. If my helmet is tilted to the left, it's only by maybe a degree. With how oddly shaped the whole thing is, I don't think anyone will even notice that. I was more concerned with getting the "angry" look... any difference in eye height will be negligible, I think. In the meantime, more progress! I made bicep clips: Once the glue dries, I'll reshape the stick it's on to stick out more... Just a little heat inside will do the trick. I made shoulder straps! I cut the strap so there's just a liiiiiiittle bit of play in it without anything attached. With the bicep in place, and my arm in the thing, it should be somewhat taut, keeping everything in line where it needs to be. If not, I can remake it. (: I finished up the snap straps to go from the shoulder bells to the shoulder elastic. Can't try that on until the elastic bands inside the shoulders are dry... Just elastic bands on the back shoulders, and I'll be exactly where I planned to be tonight. Yay!

This is the perfect forum for this! I think you'll like the NE kit! Troopergear makes great stuff!

Zara, it looks ok to me. I would start by drilling holes in the front-most dimples on the back of the helmet and the faceplate, and sticking screws through there, and seeing if everything stays lined up. The plastic is way stronger than blue tape, and will pop apart if you let it... use the screws for force, Luke! Have you glued the top and the back parts together yet, or is tape holding them in place? If you look at this picture, and try to get this sort of view on both sides, you'll be doing good. Notice how the back piece lines up with the tail end of the trapezoid on top. Get those pieces glued together before worrying about the faceplate. Make an Imgur account, if you have an iPhone or Android, there's an app you can use to upload pictures, then you can share those here. I use the "Large Thumbnail" version for all of my posts.

So on the CRL for ANH Hero TKs, the very last entry is: Stormtrooper Laser Sword (Rise of the Empire era) For 501st approval: The TK Laser Sword is accurate to what is shown in the illustrations within "Star Wars Insider - Issue #85" and "The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia". For level two certification (if applicable): The Laser Sword has a red colored blade. I have found exactly one saber that is white with these details for sale, and they wanted $1400 for it. Er, yeah, not gonna happen. Does anyone know of a site that can make something that looks like this, and then paint or powder coat it white?

I looked on Centurion apps for the proper snap placement, and it took me to the bottom of the first page to even find someone who used the big sew-in snaps, and I copied they way they did it.. Most of the suits were done with the standard Dritz snaps holding the shoulder bells on... and Chris's was done with the bells attached to each other across the back. I'm fine with this tiny bit of inaccuracy. (: It looks like I sewed it on differently too... I looped between the holes, where the pictured suit went from each hole to outside and back. Hopefully my way will still hold. (It should, there shouldn't be too much force on that snap.)

MTK is fine quailty, you can check it out in the build threads. Seems to be a pretty good kit. The reason it's not listed here has to do with some history and possible bad blood with the site, the possibility that it's recast (that the maker assures it isn't) but anyway... if it's actually an MTK kit you got on eBay, you're probably alright, and it'll make a fine suit of armor for you!

No pictures because I'm a slacker. Got the plastic shoulder straps gluing to the chest. I put 4.5 ribs onto the front, which allows for about 3 ribs to free-float in the back. I'll glue on the thin elastic bands tonight. Got all of the elastic for the arms cut and normal snaps placed. I still need to sew in the big snaps for the shoulders. Tonight! (: I still need to make the bicep clips, and use them as a guide for where to glue the shoulder bell bands... Guess when I'm planning on doing that? After all that will be thigh fitting and trimming if needed... Not tonight, probably. (:

Glue won't affect any certification levels, as long as it's not visible from the outside. All it will do is make it impossible to take the helmet apart again, if you ever want to make any other changes... I say go for it, if it will make it look the way you want it to!

For removing E-6000, I use my fingers, fingernails, and scrap ABS sticks. Never anything harder than the plastic (so no knives!)

I think the single snap plus belt will be enough to hold it together, but I have extra snap plates if I need to add a couple more. (: This morning I cut down the plastic shoulder straps to the bare minimum around the rungs, and glued (super glue!!) little strips of ABS inside the first three rungs on the front to give more surface area to attach to the chest plate. I'll be making that attachment tonight or tomorrow probably. We're back in the workweek, so the build will slow down again. Cause that's how it works! The next major step will be attaching the shoulder bells to the shoulder straps, that'll take another person to get the measurements right, and then from there I'll be able to see how long to make the strap from the bell to the bicep, and if I need to cut anything from the bottom of the bell. (bell bottom, get it?) Then test-fitting thighs, possibly cutting from the top edge, and adding double snap plates to the front of those, then making really long straps to go up to a black duty belt I picked up at the surplus store... And then pictures for basic approval! Get that ball rolling! It sounds like it's currently a pretty quick process, better get it done before everyone gets their Anovos kits. (: I also picked up kevlar helmet pads to put inside the bucket... so I need to do that still. No biggie there, it'll just keep my head from swinging around... That's more of a "nice to have" though, and won't affect my "certification" levels. SOOOO CLOSE!

Shoulder straps! I used two snap plates side by side on the front shoulders. I know the left shoulder "should" be permanently attached, but I'm not ready for that much commitment just yet. Let's take this slow, ok? Anyway, I laid them out side by side on the bench, made marks on them so I knew which two went together, and which edges were facing, measured the distance between the centers, and used the now-familiar soldering iron to stab through the elastic straps. Oh! Back up! I had one shoulder taped at 2.5 inches, and one taped at 3 inches, so I decided to go for 2.5 inches on both sides. I think that'll work right. So I said "2 inches on the front, 2 inches on the back (glued down) and 2.5 inches in the middle. Good enough." I set the front snaps in 15mm from the end, like I've been doing with all my other elastic straps, and made a line 2 inches in on the elastic, and used that to position the front snaps on the armor, and glued them down. You can almost see the V in pencil I put on the snap plates. Once they had set for about 6 hours with the strap still attached, I was confident enough to remove the strap, and reposition the clamps. Hopefully this move doesn't bite me later with a loose snap plate. I covered the back 1/3 of the strap (up to the 2 inch line) with blue tape, and liberally applied E6000 to the face of it, and stuck it in place on the back shoulders, and used 3 clamps per side to hold them down. Overkill? No idea, I've never glued fabric before. So that's sitting until tomorrow. In the meantime, one of the butt snaps came undone. Like, the backing of the male part slipped free of the snap body. I'm all out of male snaps too, so that'll take another visit to Michaels. One of the screws from the body strapping system came undone too. So, my second repair will be unscrewing each one individually, and applying lock-tite. That'll be a fun night. Here's a random picture of the Sugru blobs over the split rivets. Not much to look at, but why are you looking inside my suit anyways? And here's a milestone I wasn't expecting to hit! I killed a bottle of E-6000! Luckily, I have more (and only 4 more snap plates to glue, inside the thighs, FSM willing.)