Kredal

In Tony's build thread, he posted pictures of the kidney plate and one of the biceps that looked "droopy" for lack of a better word... like it was still soft when it was taken off the form, and allowed to melt further as it cooled. Have any other Anovos builders noticed this? If so, just on the same parts, or on different parts? Have pictures?

ANH is what most everyone was selling (kind of like how it seems like 90% of Vaders are ESB)... it's just the most common. I decided to go Hero though, since I wanted to be a good guy dressed as a bad guy doing good. So I'm like Han Solo in a borrowed Stormtrooper uniform!

I've got an Anovos Shadowtrooper kit on the way, but I'm going to be doing something very different with it. I don't know how many people picked up the Shadow kit at the super cheap prices they were asking for a while, but I was one of them. I don't want to get confused with Darth Vader when I wear it, and all black is really boring. So instead, I'll be turning it into one of the Shadow Stormtroopers from an old video game, The Force Unleashed. It's mostly silver and grey, with blue lights shining from under some plates, and through others. (No, it doesn't include the light saber on the belt as seen in this picture, unfortunately) So: I had TKittell make me a silver belt (his standard awesome TK belt, but with a cover layer of silver cloth that's supposed to be for ironing board covers.) I've got black Imperial Boots on order, that I'll be painting grey, and adding the burgundy stripe up the edge. I've got plenty of LED strips on order (60 LEDs per meter, individually addressable.) They'll usually be programmed to shine light blue, but I plan on having a potentiometer wheel or pushbutton setup to change colors, become rainbowy, stuff like that. Any Arduino code will be posted here, too. I plan on cutting out the cheek stripes to have blue glow from inside shine out. Same with the eye sockets and mouth. Because it's all black plastic, painted silver, the glow should only come from where I want it to. Keeping it from shining out the neck may be tricky, but should be doable. The TD on the belt is made of clear plastic, and shines down onto the butt plate. An acrylic tube will do that pretty easily. There's also a strip of LEDs behind the thigh ammo plate on the right leg that shines onto the leg. The calves, forearms, and shoulders are going to be the tricky part. Because the armor that I'm getting is black, light won't shine through it. My current plan is to make single-use molds from the Anovos plates and making clear or frosted versions of those plates. As soon as I get a usable pull, I'll be destroying the molds, and I really don't expect the Anovos plates to survive the encounter either. No worries about recasting for me. I won't end up with more armor than I can use, it'll just be clear instead of black at the end of the day. So, I'll take those clear plates, paint most of them silver or black, as needed, and let the light shine through what is still translucent. (the indents, top and bottom edges on the forearms, the bottom edges of the calves, and the sides and bottom edges of the shoulder bells. According to my calculations, at half brightness on the LED strips, a 5000mAh power supply should last about 4 hours of trooping. Having my handler carry around another battery pack will outlast any troop I've done to date. This thread will document my build, and with any luck at all, my completed TFU Shadowtrooper. (which may end up being only the second in the Legion, which would be cool.) The CRL doesn't have pictures up yet, but it's here, for what it's worth.

That was me... linked below, should be on page 11 or so. I used a hot air gun from a soldering station to heat up the ABS, then push it out as much as I could... which wasn't enough, so I filled the last bit with ABS paste, and sanded it down until it was smooth.

Trim everything on the lines provided... and then get rid of the return edge on the wrist end of the forearms and the ankle ends of the calves. That's a good start. (:

It amuses me that the helmet on the front of the instructions is NOT the one that they've sent out to customers.

Not a veteran, only built one kit so far... But my two cents: Following the directions will get you base approval for the 501st no problem. It's missing a bunch of stuff for higher level certs, but that's ok for 90% of troopers out there. The only thing I really don't like is the use of CA glue. It's going to lead to a lot of frustration for first timers, if they misalign something like the shoulder straps and have no easy way to fix it. (I know I did my shoulder straps twice, and my sniper knee at LEAST twice... and the cover strips on the back of the calves, because I put it on the wrong one... E-6000 saved my bacon plenty of times, is what I'm saying. Now, anyone who is here and wants to go that extra step will probably toss out 90% of the velcro, do it all up with snaps, put white elastic straps under the shoulders straps, add in the three rivets on the side of the ab plate, get rubber handguards, and clean up some of the paint on the helmet... But I could see completed builds over a weekend with superglue and the provided parts, which is kind of amazing. Not saying they'll be sized exactly to the person wearing it, but it'll be together and more or less troopable!

There should be a layer of plastic film protecting the ABS. If you pull that off, the dust and dirt should go with it. Also, it's immensely satisfying to pull off the plastic film!

I hate to be that guy, but no, it isn't fine for base acceptance. The CRL says 2 fasteners on the base level... (there actually isn't any Level 2/3 notes on the holster portion) Holster is made of black leather or leather-like material. Holster is worn on left side of belt and is attached via two leather or leather-like material straps to the belt from behind instead of front.No loops cover the outside of the belt. The holster is affixed with only two fasteners at the bottom (one per strap).The fasteners may be rivets, snaps, or Chicago screws.

Congrats on being the first build thread! Now everyone is going to follow you, so no pressure at all. (: Hey, wait, you have an ATA thread open too, don't you? Now you've got TWO sets of armor to build! Get back to work!

I've got a Shadowtrooper on order that I intend to make a Force Unleashed Shadow Stormtrooper, complete with blue underlighting, and some clear panels (where I also learn how to vacuum form plastic!) So that'll be something to watch for in June or whenever they send it!

So, things we've learned today: - Helmet looks good. Not great, but totally wearable as-is for everything except for the most picky. - The trim on the bottom of the helmet is actual S-trim, meaning it'll be good for higher level certification. - The TD is separate parts, so you can build it with the metal clips all the way to the outside rather than the promotional pics showing them lined up with the control panel. - The holster is held on with Chicago Screws, so can be modified to Stunt no problem (and looks like a really nice holster, too!) - The cover strips are pre-cut. That makes it really easy to get the right measurements, and not worry as much about cutting your fingers off... It also means no inside strips. Did I miss any super useful info?

Yeah, what kind of weirdo notices those things? Oh, wait...

First unboxing pictures: https://www.facebook.com/groups/838545079553903/permalink/974184559323287/?comment_id=974187295989680&notif_t=group_comment_reply (should be visible to everyone)

I'm not sure how saying that customer reactions to Instagram pictures constitutes a trainwreck. I am by no means an Anovos apologist, but if people start getting kits by the end of January, I'll be happy. I'm expecting my Shadow kit by about June, and it sounds like they're on track for that. Having metal molds for their vacuum forming makes me VERY happy, since that means they are much less likely to break or get deformed between pulls, and they can keep churning out plastic as fast as it softens. I really think a lot of the delay here is due to the big mouse in charge, asking for changes to things to meet their safety requirements... never mind the fact that everyone is going to be taking dremel tools and razor blades to it all, and hopefully not losing too many fingers in the process!

I did all of my armor building in my garage... of course, in Canada in the winter, that might not be an option for you. I really didn't mind the smell of E-6000, but your mileage may vary.

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/11538-the-various-types-of-armor-and-where-to-find-them/is the thread you're looking for. Even though it says it's from 2010, it is actively maintained, and all of the email addresses there (probably) work. Email the ones you're interested in learning more about, asking for things like what's included, what the wait time is, and what the total cost including shipping to [location] is.

Troopergear (AM 2.0) makes a kit run every couple months, so there really shouldn't be more than 2 months of waiting involved in getting a helmet or a full armor kit from him. That's way less time than folks have been waiting for their Anovos armor! Also, there are already tons of AM 2 build threads up, so you can see what it looks like. Nobody is really sure what the Anovos kits look like yet. (: And yeah, a two month wait is FAST in the world of Stormtrooper building.

Phil, AM 2.0 is great armor if you're bigger than the average stunt actor in the UK in the 70's. Some of us carry some extra weight around the middle, or in our arms and legs, and the extra big plates that Troopergear supplies are great for us. The armor is very high quality, very nice pulls, with a ton of detail. It also comes with the different parts you need to make a sandtrooper, if you're in to that sort of thing.

Nobody is making a "sickly high profit" off of making kits, or even ready to wear costumes. It's really expensive to get into the armor making game, and there's a huge upfront cost. <br><br> Anyway, if you're on more of a budget, you could look into becoming an Imperial Officer. You can make a good costume for that for about $400, and the most expensive thing there is the boots. Plus, people dressed in plastic LOVE trooping with people with soft costumes! You can help out with handling. (:

I personally had very little luck putting snaps directly on the armor using the normal snap backs. For the two to hold the belt on, I used 1/8 inch rivets, with tiny washers on the inside of the front snap piece to hold it in place. If you want to use the regular snap back pieces, countersink the plastic there a little bit so the post sticks through more, and has more material to curl around and hold the front on.

The pictures that Anovos has released of their belt setups look like Chicago Screws holding the holster on... they're super easy to remove! Unscrew the screws from the inside, and everything comes apart. No drilling required! So, assuming they were good about how they opened up the holes in the cloth belt, it should be really easy to hide that there were ever holes there to begin with. But we won't see that until someone gets their hands on a kit and makes the first modification.

To make the stunt helmet into a hero helmet, you have to replace the ears with ones with 3 bumps, so the one less screw is taken care of with new ears. You have to fill in one tooth, and repaint the whole frown smaller. You have to replace the lenses with bubbled lenses (which is where I stopped with my kit) and then you have to reform the whole thing to have a wider base that makes it look like the plastic was still pliable when it was pulled off the mold. (: It's waaaaay cheaper and easier to replace the cloth belt. (:

Hey Rick, I'd recommend AM2 armor for anyone a little thicker around the middle. Given your height, you will have to trim some (ok, probably a lot) from the tops and bottoms of various armor plates, but AM has plenty of extra material around the outside to cover you up without having to shim. His contact info is in the first post in this thread. Good luck!