Kredal

There's a forum dedicated to people making runs of things, mass-producing them for sale. That's where you want to look. (: I think you may need 5 posts total before you can post there though. Make a post in the "welcome" forum, maybe comment on a build thread or two, and you should be good to go. Also, take a look at EIB and Centurion request threads that all specify who made their armor, to see if you like the looks of one kit or another. That's important too!

Hey Dimitri, welcome! The first post in this thread is constantly updated, and has contact information that works for everyone. I'd advise you to email a few of them, asking the same bank of questions, like total cost for a kit with a helmet, what all is included (some include Sandtrooper parts, some include Hero ears and lenses, some get you just enough plastic to do outside cover strips, some give lots of extras), what their shipping timeframe is, what the shipping costs to New York are, etc. When you get the answers back, decide which one you want to go with, and then put in an order the way they want you to. (: Then go down and look at the "for sale" section to get parts that don't come with the kit (usually neck seal, gloves, boots, fans, etc...) By the time everything comes in, you should be ready to build your armor! Best of luck to you!

Wow, ok, this is a long list, so settle in. Ready?<br><br> 1. Wrist end of the forearms.<br><br> That's it. Any other return edges you remove are completely optional, and for your comfort only.

My big sexy torso is why I don't have a TFA kit at all. ):

Since I'm making the TFU trooper (see the bottom thread in my sig) it will take me longer to build it, since I'll be painting and attaching LEDs and ruining a perfectly good helmet! (:

Little update: Sent Walt clear acrylic sheets at .060 thickness. He did one pull, and it broke into pieces when he tried to cut away the scrap plastic. Hrmm. He's drying and will temperature control the next sheet before pulling, and let me know how it goes. He said the pull looked great, but then it died. I may have to go back to the drawing board if this doesn't work. :/ I have some ideas, but I won't be able to test them until my Anovos kit arrives anyway.

So something that I have heard other people doing that seems like it would work well: Cut off the old belt AROUND the rivets, leaving the rivets, cover bits, and glue alone. Cut and glue strips of ABS to the back side of the plastic belt, between the raised sections. Drill holes in those bridges, and rivet the new TKittel belt to them. Maybe glue the ends of the plastic belt down onto the new belt to keep it curved, but all of the strength of it will be on the bridges. I haven't tried this yet, but I will be doing it on my Shadow Trooper when it shows up.

We were asked to come out to a Movie Stop for the release tomorrow, by the same regional manager who got us to come to Gamestop for the Battlefront release last November.

Psst- Zhongvader is Imperialboots. (: If you email them about prices for bigger feet, they will work with you. I've got size 13 boots, and they fit great (I'm normally a 12.5 W)

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/35086-ukswraths-anovos-tk-buildis the thread you're looking for!

I've got the original strapping in my kit, and most of my troops are 4 hours long or so... Really haven't had a problem with them. Well, ok, I've had exactly two problems with them, that happened within a single troop of putting them together, where the plastic right next to one of the screw holes cracked along the return edge. I put in a little shim with some E-6000 there, and no problems since. (: I'm not exactly a screen-accurate individual either. Now, my next kit will be using snap plates, but that's for completely different reasons! The Velcro holding the shins together isn't visible except from a single angle if you do it right. The outside is still covered with a cover strip, and you can keep the Velcro on an inside strip, so that when the sides are joined up (assuming they're trimmed properly) it keeps it all out of sight. Of course, it's all up to you, but you did ask for opinions!

My shins are closed with Velcro, and I've got the shiny red badge. Hope that helps. (:

The side rivets center points are 10mm from the edge, so the heads will appear closer. Start your measurements on the ab side, 20mm from the top, and 20mm from where it turns into the cod. Then centered between those for the third one. Then transfer those points to the kidney, lining up the top of the two parts.<br><br><br><br> The cod rivet, if you make an imaginary circle from the bottom edge, following the contours as well as you can, that rivet is centered in the circle. If that makes sense. (: the butt snaps, measure 20mm from the edge, then 20 more mm for the two hole centers.<br><br> Keeping the belt lined up with the ab plate is up to you. The problem with magnets there is that the belt will be trying to slide the magnets apart under the weight of the holster and blaster and stuff, and that sliding is the direction that magnets are weakest. But sure, give it a shot and let us know!

Little update. The first wireless receiver I tested the code with was DOA. So, getting a replacement from Adafruit. The code works well though, as long as the hardware is functional. (: Just have to press the button for about half a second for the receiver board to pick it up. Good enough. And still, considering that probably 99% of the time, it's gonna just be blue, the whole system is probably overkill. (: Walt checked on buying plastic, his supplier was going to make him make a full order of the frosted acrylic, to the tune of $3500. Um, yeah, I'm not gonna pay for that. So I've got a quote in with a local plastic supplier who doesn't mind doing small (one or two sheet) orders, and cutting them down to size. I can buy 2 sheets, cut them to fit in Walt's former, mail them to him, and pay for return shipping of the finished plates, and come out way ahead of the $3500. (: If I can't, I will DRIVE the sheets to him, and come out ahead! (: I'm still waiting on the LED strips I bought wholesale from China, and of course the Anovos shadow armor. But given how quickly everyone seems to be getting the white armor, it may not be as long as expected!

Yeah, I will most likely use the same battery for both helmet accessories. There's not much of a need to use the Arduino to control the fans. They're on regardless, so if anything, I would just pipe the power through the bus pin on the Arduino... same as the lights. Oh, and I'll edit this post so I don't fill up the page with my posts that don't have anything to do with building. I'm talking with Walt of WTF to see about pulling the clear/frosted plates I need, so I don't have to take the time and expense to do my own casting and molding and forming, and worrying about being called a recaster, and all that. Hopefully he'll come through for me. (: I don't have any sort of working relationship with any other armor maker who could do that (AM2, where I got my first kit, does runs in bulk, in a factory-like setting...)

Tony, you're making marks on the outside of your armor with Sharpie? How do you take those lines off after they've served their purpose?

Hey, that's funny. You're getting an AM2 without a helmet from the same run that I'm getting a helmet from! Got shipping info on it today!

https://www.facebook.com/james.baker.9615 http://501st.com/members/displaymemberdetails.php?userID=20566 That's all I have to go on. (: Internet sleuthing at its finest!

TK 10149 was just approved today with his first kit, and his Facebook profile picture is wearing an Anovos bucket. My intuition says he's the first approved Anovos kit.

TKittell for a new belt. The Anovos plastic belt should be fine, I have no idea how it is to remove it. Wait for Tony (ukswrath) to get to that point in his build to see how to do it!

Alright, first version of the code that's going to go on the Trinket is at https://github.com/kredal/shadowtrooper There's not much to it yet, but it's there to play with.

Slight change to the lighting. Rather than use a potentiometer to adjust the colors/patterns/whatever, I found this at Adafruit, while ordering two Pro Trinkets. I bought two of them along with two remotes. The two recievers will be attached to the Trinkets in the bucket and chest plate, so when I hit a button on the remote, it'll affect both sets of lights. I bought two remotes to take one apart and wire up the buttons (maybe, no clue if this will work as expected) to the ab button plate, possibly with hall effect sensors and a magnet in a glove. I really don't know about that yet... worst case, I mount one of the remotes under a belt drop box so it's accessible to me. I dunno yet. (: Well, I *WAS* going to upload the code I have written so far to github, but it's down right now. Whoops. I'll get it there soon. Of course, it still hasn't hit silicon, and I'm missing the controlling bits, and I have no idea yet how many LEDs will be in each section, so it's full of best guesses and commented out things.

I got the first part of the costume in this morning! TKittell's awesome canvas belt, dressed up in silver! I also got a plain white belt that's going to be used for my Stunt TK (waiting on a new AM helmet for that), but anyways, I can't recommend this guy enough. If you've got an Anovos kit, you really need to do yourself a favor and pick up a belt from TKittell. You can go here to see all about them and to make an order. http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/19803-fs-white-canvas-belts/ Seriously, what are you waiting for? (: Aaaaaanyway, I started work on the light programming last night, I haven't actually put it on an Arduino yet. That'll be Soon.

Congrats! Getting your TKID is just the first step... Feel free to make changes after the fact, to make it more accurate and awesome. ID should come in a week or two. (:

Uh oh, already have followers. Anovos, where's my shadow armor? (: I guess my next step is going to be making sure the lighting works. I've got some other strips that I can mess with in my current TK, just to see how the lighting works... and I have to work out a system of getting all the wires leading to the different plates through my undersuit, in a way that's also removable so I can wash the suit. I've got an Ironman shirt that has a velcro'd in cloth channel leading from the Arc reactor to the battery pack, I think I'll do something like that, but on a much larger scale. I can have wire hookups poking through the suit under each of the lit plates, so as I put on the armor, I just click in the hookups. Power and ground will come directly from the battery pack, and each individual plate can have its own data pin on the Arduino, so I don't have to worry about chaining things. Lit sections: - Left shoulder - Left forearm - Right shoulder - Right forearm - Chest (directly connected, no need to channel it, since the power supply and everything can live in the chest plate - TD (a wire connected to the belt, threaded right next to one of the TD clips should work. Caulk up the hole to make it watertight again) - Right knee plate - Left calf - Right calf So what is that, 9 pins? Plus one more for a pot wheel or button? Hey, a Trinket has plenty of pins, works off 5v, and is small enough to stick directly to the battery with Velcro or something. Making an 8 pin wiring harness (to connect everything not chest-based) is pretty trivial. Got that sorted at least. While I'm waiting for the armor, I can get that programmed up in a morning or two, cut holes in a supersuit (what I call my undersuit, thanks Incredibles), and start getting the wiring done in preparation. Oh, and if I wanted to get REALLY fancy, I have some 2.4GHz transmitters that I can use to wirelessly connect the helmet lights with the body lights, so if I want to change colors, I can do that everywhere, and not have red around my whole body but blue in the bucket. Takes another Arduino-like device up top, but they're cheap. (: That'll take some extra programming to get right, but it's workable.