Kredal

One thing I noticed that really has nothing to do with your Centurion app is that your undersuit is bleeding purple on your armor. Mine does the same thing, and a really easy fix is using a paper towel with mineral spirits on it, and wiping down the discolored areas after a troop... gets it off everywhere except right on the edges of the plastic. That should help to keep you nice and shiny!

Except it really isn't.... This is an AM 2.0 chest from the most recent run. Very different than the version he's holding up above.

To remove excess E6000, you can use your fingernails or a trimmed stick of ABS, rub along one end of the glue patches, back and forth next to the cover strip until one piece curls up, then grab that and pull. If you have little "islands" of glue, just keep rubbing back and forth with an ABS stick. It won't scratch the armor, and will (eventually) get up all of the extra glue. Don't use anything harder than ABS, because then you would run the risk of scratching it up.

Yup, that's the old version. The O II box on the back is much bigger than it should be, and the chest lines are much more crisp than any other armor. The new version is good for Centurion, I specifically asked Steve (Gazmosis) before taking pictures to submit for it. You should try contacting Troopergear and seeing if you can buy just the chest and back plates from him, which would keep everything exactly the same color... and like I said, the new plates are good enough for Centurion.

Show us a good picture of the chest and back. If it's an AM 2.0 kit made after (I think) March of this year, it's good. A lot of people with older kits get ATA plates as replacements. His email is in the "where to find armor" thread, and he has great customer service. I got my Hero ears from him! The color is just a shade darker than the AM kit, but isn't noticeable in most light.

I used the big circles on a stick, and cut the squares out so they just baaaaarely were bigger than the circles. They're raised enough that if the front "good side" of the rivets is on the front of the belt, you can position them pretty much anywhere under the circle and it'll be fine. That way you can move the covers out to almost the edge of your belt. You can see the size of my rivet covers on the first post here... http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/31848-kredals-anh-hero-build-am2/page-7

Another couple steps on the path to Centurion! First, I replaced the elastic straps on the clamshell side with regular straps. I made the space between holes 22 or 23mm, so there's a small gap between the front and the back.... It's squished down to nothing with the belt on and tight. Speaking of the belt... I took off all of the snaps I had added to the ab plate to hold it on, and replaced the holes with ABS paste. And then I added two new snaps about a half inch below the old top ones, using the rivet method. The old holes will be under the belt, but after a little sanding, they should be all but invisible anyway. (: And with the belt on... Tomorrow, I'll paint the new side rivets and the screws on the chest strapping white. Then pictures on Saturday, maybe? Fingers crossed!

Helmet halves sliding around? Tape them! Blue tape on the inside and outside will keep it steady a lot better than magnets will. But you have to tape both inside and out so they're fighting against each other.

Measure the sections under the strip again, preferably where they're touching... It looks like your cuts are bowed out in the middle, so you end up with way more than 5/16th on either side. It looks like the issue is mostly on the bottom/inside half. At the wrist, it has a straight cut, and then a major curving outward. Clean up that edge, make it straight, and then cover it again with the cover strip, and I bet it'll look better. (: Also, have you removed the return edge on the wrist end? Do that before gluing the arm together completely, so you make it small enough that your hand just barely fits through. You might be able to make the corrections on the opposite side, I'm not sure with ATA. Someone who has built that kit should be able to tell!

The Aurabesh in the Centurion ribbon says "FISD" Congrats! (:

I really hope you're able to get 25253 as your TK number. (: It would be the letters YYC when translated to numbers!

First Imperial Stormtrooper Detachment.... AKA this site. (:

Hey Steve, it looks like I'll be the first person putting in a Centurion app wearing the new AM2 chest and back. Does it look screen-accurate enough with the new mold now? Hopefully that doesn't impede my application!

Joshua Ward 44678 EIB Letter

Thanks Steve! I've also gotten rid of the extra teeth on my bucket, and repainted the frown. I've done a bunch of other fitment changes to the whole suit of armor to make it fit me a ton better. I'll be getting all new pictures for the Centurion post (which I'll be making soon!)

Questions/Advice: 1) Thighs. Arienh has deceptively short thighs. We have (since the pics) adjusted the belt that the thighs hang from. Should we add a 2nd thigh strap at the sides to help position the thighs better on her legs (or maybe even a rear/3rd strap)? If the thighs are getting too friendly with her in one area, but still low in the front, I would retrim the offending areas so they can be pulled up more in front. Do that, and the single strap in front should be enough. 2) Thighs. The Thighs seem to angle 'in' at her knees (as if she were bow-legged). Would placement of sticky-backed foam in places aid with this problem, by forcing the armour to sit in the correct position? Trimming and slimming down the knee-end (by taking off the back cover strips, and recutting the back at more of an angle) should solve that. But do the trimming from question 1 first. That may be all she needs. 3) Right thigh. Ammo pouches. Are they sitting too 'high' at the front of the thigh armour (see side on pics)? Ammo belt is fine. 4) Left Shin. Sniper Plate. Have we connected it too low? It seems to like popping under the bottom of the thigh armour. I'm not sure how the TD sniper plate is supposed to be connected, so can't answer for that. When I pulled my thighs up, it solved the problem with my knee plate. (: 5) We have padded the Bucket. But Arienh cannot look down once it is on. The bucket hits the chest armour. Is this just a case of 'too bad you have a small head and short neck"? I can't look down in my bucket either without bending at the waist. I look through the teeth holes to see if there are any small people in front of me. 6) Chest armour. Arienh has 'parts'... that force the chest armour to not sit flat on the Ab section. If I push lightly right in the middle of the bottom of the chest armour, it all sits flat even horizontally. Would it be wrong to place a small bit of velcro between the chest and abs where they overlap to assist in having it all look 'right'? It all looks fine to me. The chest armor is really good at hiding 'parts' Adding velcro to the ab-chest connection will just make the top come away from her neck more, and result in a big gap at the shoulders, most likely. 7) Shins. They both twist on her legs. Even just 1 step causes it to happen which in turns causes problems with the sniper plate, etc. How best to fix this? Snaps on the boot 'tongue' area and inside the shin, or less evasive - Velcro on the front and rear of the boot and inside the shin at the same locations? We're considering doing the Velcro. Velcro on the boot tabs and inside the shins seems to be the fix action for this. I think that is all the questions I had about the above pics. I do have 1 question concerning the Bucket and painting. I have looked around and found (on FISD) a pic showing the Humbrol paints that I need for the bucket. The pic was posted back in 2012, and I just want to make sure I am getting the correct, up to date colours (in case anything has changed). The colours are... Humbrol #5 (Admirals Grey), #14 (French Blue), and #21 (Black). All are gloss. Is this correct? 5, 14, and 21 are right. Sorry for the stupidly long post everyone, and the plethora of questions. We know this armour won't ever be SWAT/Centurion level... but it doesn't mean we don't want to do a good job with it. So all your help and answers will be greatly appreciated. It's looking really good already! Shame you'll be making it all dirty! (:

I feel like soon I'll be ready to retake ALL of my EIB pictures, and start that thread over. I thought I was ready... I had no clue. LOL As Illidan would say:

Extra teeth? What extra teeth? For comparison:

Looks good.. I'd get rid of the return edge at the elbow end... looks very tight on your arm. And welcome to the armor bite club! (:

Now that I have my TK number, I can share how I came up with it. (: It spells out "GHOST" on a phone, since my other cosplay obsession is Ghostbusters.

I know a lot of us probably got asked to take pictures doing random jobs as part of the the GISHWHES scavenger hunt. Here are the pictures I was asked for, that were taken during my first troop, at the Virginia Zoo. Share your new jobs since the destruction of the Death Star!

Your brow trim is fine. Basically, if you're at the back end of the traps, you're doing good.

I ended up with another void in the teeth, so I added a little more ABS paste, and jammed it down with a stick of ABS, rather than trying to paint it in with a paintbrush. So, letting that dry for another day. Whee! In other news, I got some fitment changes made. My new goal is being able to move as well as the Trooper in the middle here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqpaOzOMwz0&feature=youtu.be Today, I ripped off the shoulder cover plates, cut off an inch of elastic (including the snaps) and added new snaps to the end, then put on the core armor so my wife could determine exactly where the plastic strips should go. She did pencil lines all around the front, so I could glue them on properly. Now they float much more in the back, and should not be in any danger of coming out from under the elastic. (getting them into the elastic may be a new challenge, but we'll see). I'll trim off any chest armor that's showing off to the side of the shoulder straps once the glue is dry. I also worked on pulling up my thighs. They can't get any shorter, but I can get them closer to my cod. So I cut off the return edge on the insides, sanded down any sharps, and shortened the straps that hold them up by about 2 inches. Here's the elastic that I cut off. At this point, I have shortened up EVERY SINGLE elastic strap on the armor, with the sole exception of the left side clamshell... which I'll be replacing with non-elastic strapping soon. I'm also going through snaps like they're going out of style. If someone tells you to buy twice as many snaps as you think you'll need... listen to that person. If I had to do it over, I'd buy snaps in bulk from Tandy, and not 7 at a time from Joanns. (: And now the leg selfie, showing the new location of the bottom of the thighs, my new skinny calves, and the fact that the sniper knee can't get stuck under the left thigh anymore! Yay! My wife noticed that there's a gap in the left thigh, that's kind of visible in this old picture... So I glued a little shim inside that will hold them together, and also be white underneath... and I'll also be trimming the outside edge down to where the inside edge is, so it's a continuous line. That should look pretty good.

Yup, AM armor. You're still going to have to shim some, but not as much as if you went with one of the more screen accurate suits. I'm 240, and reach the very very end of the non-shimming size bracket with AM2. (:

You want to cut even amounts off the front and back, so the cut and cover strips stay centered properly. If you cut both pieces on that mark, you'll keep both halves the same size, so the armor will stay symmetrical. If you just cut off the overlapping portion of one side, your cover strip would be either way too far forward or backwards.