Kredal

Because I'm not a tiny person, I'm adding 5mm to all strip measurements so they don't look super skinny on me in comparison to the rest of the armor. So the front strips on the legs are 25, and the back are 30.

Tony, that makes a LOT more sense. (: I just couldn't visualize how to get it in that position for some reason. Duh. Anyway, got the first thigh's inside supports gluing for the day. Pictures of it all dressed up with blue tape trim, before cutting. You can see how much has been tapered off the bottom! I can fit it over my foot now, but not sure if I can with my boot on. Probably not. (: I do see where people get dinged for wearing bell-bottom thighs. That's what they felt like before I tapered the back. Now they are much more fitting, and quite stylish. (: Front: Back: Inside from the top: Inside from the bottom: And all glued up with magnets! There was PLENTY of scrap from the front and back to add inside and outside strips just from what was leftover. I know to end the front strips above the molding at the knee end. Back is the same way?

Too many "K" builds going on at once. (:

At this time, nobody. I expect Anovos to release it commercially as the movie gets closer. The kit looks like a huge pain to build though.

Aaron, you're the right shape and size for the Anovos costume which is still on sale as a kit. You'll have to put it together, but it comes with almost everything you need. There's a huge thread in the Hard Armor subforum about it... Check that out.

OK, before I do anything stupid and permanent, is this the correct thigh for this leg? Also, with it taped where it is, the top is tight, but the bottom is super loose... Like, I can get it on over my boot. Should I cinch up the bottom more, or is that OK? Sorry for the sucky picture, I've never taken a selfie of my legs before. I know I can't taper the outside edge because of the raised section that goes under the cover strip, but can I taper the inside (inseam) area, or should I leave it straight down? I couldn't find too many pictures of AM2 thighs from decent angles to show how to fit them. So, um, help?

That's why I'm posting this build thread! If I can help other people out, then I'm giving back to the community!

Yup, go with what you know will work. Skimping on the $200 to get this, at some point down the road, and then not being able to fit in it without serious modifications? No bueno.

Yup.

Alright! Helmet is DONE! (ish) First up, the inside: I used white Sugru to hold in the lenses and the mesh (screen door repair patches cut to size). I put a few dabs of sugru on the corners of the eye holes, pressed down the lenses, and used two more chunks in the top corner to hold in the eyes from the inside. Then I put rolls of Sugru between the teeth, and pressed in the mesh, and dabbed another couple spots of it around the edges. I took a little bit of the leftover cloth from making my magnet sachets, spread superglue all over one side, then flipped that over onto the indent for the mic tips on the inside, and pressed it firmly in place. That got sort of hot as the glue reacted with the plastic. Maybe that's what people were warning about with the metal rivets and snaps? Not E6000 but actual superglue. I could see that causing problems. Anyway, I added two layers of that cloth, and let it dry, then drilled through it again with a really fast drill setting, and very little pressure.. cut through just fine, didn't catch any fibers. The other side looks just like that, but couldn't get a good picture in light. Anyway... attached the mic tips, tightened down the nuts until the mic tips stopped moving around, and placed the mesh inside. I haven't attached the mesh with anything other than the force of the mesh trying to expand. And... Tada! And the full picture: Your skill in costuming has increased! (76)

When I went to put in the mic tips, the plastic inside the recesses where they go is REALLY thin. I'll need to reinforce that with some superglue cloth (poor man fiberglass) before putting them in... Otherwise, they move around and crackle, and I don't trust it.

Yep, I painted the insides white... http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/19910-correct-hovi-mic-aerator-tips/?p=309707 I just made them all gloss black rather than going for matte or satin, since that's what I have, and I think it looks good.

Didn't get the mic tips on tonight, but everything is painted! And the mic tips for good measure: They don't seem to fit flat on the indentations on the faceplate... I'm guessing just drilling the holes in the right place and tightening them down is enough to keep them aimed the right way? In order: screw, mic tip, faceplate, washer, lock washer, nut?

I haven't tried anything yet. (: The AM2 ears are still rattling around in the Big Brown Box. Heating up one bump might be possible, we'll see. I've got two sets of ears, so worst case, I melt down one bump, don't like it, then I can use that ear for testing out the whole re-molding over ATA ears. It was Walter who used ATA ears on an NE helmet... you can see the color difference, but the size seemed way more comparable than mine does, which is weird. I thought NE and AM were the same mold? *edit* also, I do need to push out or fill in the extra teeth in my helmet. So that'll be fun too. Heat gun is gonna get a workout! *edit 2:* http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/30165-scorchers-am-20-hero-first-build/?p=386070has a great idea of grinding off the MIDDLE bumps and replace them with a bondo bump. Color doesn't matter since it's all painted grey anyway!

I've got two sets of AM2 ears, but they all have 4 bumps. Since I am doing a hero build, that doesn't work. So modding one set of ears to be 3 bump would be the fix action... I bought 2 sets of ATA ears because they have the 3 bumps, and someone else who had made an AM Hero build had used them. I'll have to go back and see what ended up happening with the size of the ears on their build... But yeah, making casts of the ear bumps out of plaster or something will give me more creative outlet, and will be just one more costuming thing I can say I've done!

So random question... The ATA ears are way small for the AM2 helmet. I saw someone else remold their ears from a 4-bump to a 3-bump by taking an impression on both sides, heating up the bump area, and pressing the ears in until they were shaped properly. Would that be worth trying to get a set of AM2 ears to have the hero 3-bump look, so the ears would actually fit the helmet? It would hide the top of the curve where the back meets the front, extend all the way down to the bottom of the helmet, and would be the same color of white. Downside: it *could* be considered recasting... (boo, hiss) What says the community?

Tube stripes are the devil!

I put in the bubble lenses that came with the AM2 kit (for Hero purposes)... they radically alter what things look like outside the helmet. It's no wonder stormtroopers can't hit anything! I'll try taking a picture through the lenses to show what the world looks like from the inside. It would probably help if I had padding in the helmet so my head didn't wobble around so much. I'll get to that. (: Yours looks good so far! How are you planning on doing the painting? templates or decals? or just freehanding everything? *edit* ha, you posted the actual painting while I was typing this! Whoops. (: I just realized how much smaller the ATA ears are than the AM2, as well... I might end up with a full ATA bucket at some point.

The beauty of AM is that all the pieces are already trimmed down to a return edge... Keep that, or don't, as you want. (except for the forearms where you don't keep it.) The edges that get joined together should be trimmed to fit you. Basically, put one side inside the other, squeeze them until they're a good fit for you, make sure you can take them off over your arm or leg or whatever by attaching them with blue tape, then make pencil lines in the middle of where the pieces meet. Cut there, or a little bit bigger than there, and keep sizing until it's comfortable, and you're still able to take off and on the piece. At least, that's what I've been doing. (:

I cut that little corner off the back side on both sides, and the trim fits in really well! No pictures though... not until the ears are painted, mic tips are painted and installed, and eyes and frown mesh are in. Tomorrow, maybe?

Ears are on! That was easier than I expected. There's still some gap, but that just means it's authentic. (: Now, as far as trimming goes... here are the bottom ear posts. Do I cut the front and back to match up with the bottom of the ears before attaching trim?

So helmet is put together. Waiting on Sugru from Amazon to put in lenses and teeth mesh. (tomorrow!) To answer your question, assuming you mean black trim, absolutely! Which tells me that probably wasn't your question. (: If you meant trimming the plastic, most likely. Here's pictures of the bottom showing where the back end sticks out (in?) a lot further than the faceplate. Once I get the ears trimmed and placed (remember, I'm using ears that didn't come with the kit, so they aren't going to be anywhere close to a perfect fit), I'll trim anything that needs to be trimmed to make the opening a continuous line all the way around, and then add the black trim to that.

Going around the belly, you're supposed to be fully encased in plastic. Skinny guys (and gals) can do it with just the plastic that comes attached to the ab and kidney plates. Bigger troopers need to either buy bigger armor (like AM2) or add extra plastic to the sides, and blend it all together so it looks like one solid piece. Some kits come with extra plastic for this, some don't, and you go to the store and buy For Sale signs made of white plastic, and use those, plain side out, to make the armor fit better around the bellah. I don't know about the RT ears, sorry!

Quick list off the top of my head: Front traps are too small, tear and trap "vent" lines are all perfectly straight, not matching the shapes of the areas, tube stripes are wrong color blue, too low on the tubes, and perfectly parallel, mic tips look way too long, grey mouth is either weirdly painted or wrong color (depending on what movie you're trying to emulate), front mask is a really soft pull, vocoder paint doesn't match the curves of the vocoder itself (just a trapezoid painted on), there's no black trim at the bottom edge, S-shaped or otherwise... I'm sure other people could see more. I'm new at this too.

Awesome armor, and great build! One comment I have is that the cod looks sort of untrimmed, with the outward facing return edge around the leg openings. Other than that itty bitty detail, this is a costume to emulate! (In my non-501st, still building opinion.) Oh, one other thing that might get dinged, the right calf armor (without the sniper plate) looks like the rear cover strip is attached to the inside piece. I'm not sure if that's a bad thing or not, but it might be. Wait until someone with some flair speaks up before changing it.