JawaJoe

Very nice. I like the white edge on the teeth. I thought about trimming the eyes a bit more, but I like the look of it now, so I'm going to stop messing with it. Maybe the eyes and ears will get trimmed a bit more in the future. I like that there are these subtle variations between individual helmets, yet they can all be "accurate".

That probably is violating some terms of the site, but I'd be very tempted to buy for a reasonable price. The soft goods would be too small, but I hear they're not that great, anyhow. I thought about buying the Anovos armor and selling the factory-assembled helmet, but...waiting sooo long again? I don't know.

Post some pics of your lid? Before I forget, I wanted to thank everyone here at FISD! Y'all helped me get this bucket built so it looks nice. Figuring out how I was going to paint that tooth took me a while. The left side (as you wear the lid) fifth tooth is little more than a dot of grey paint. This just seemed like the most logical way to paint it based on the surfaces provided. I was tempted to airbrush the teeth and vocoder, but chose to brush it for three reasons: 1. I actually like the brush marks in the paint. 2. I wanted slightly uneven edges on the teeth. 3. I hate cleaning enamel out of the airbrush. The black border on the ear ranks is tad too thick, so I'll probably paint some more grey on those to thin up the lines. The more I look at it, the more I'm tempted to pull off the decals for the traps and tears and paint them by hand. My success (as I see it) in painting the other features has made me cocky. Also getting the itch to buy the full armor now. Or, I could buy the LEGO UCS Millenium Falcon for $800. Either decision would probably result in an extended stay in the dog house. My beautiful wife can only take so much of my geekery. Kid starting college next year, car payments, mortgage, yada, yada, yada...

Just about done. I need to Plasti-Dip the inside yet then properly mount the lens. I did cut the ears down a bit, but liked the look of the thicker ears, so I stopped at the point you see here.

I couldn't wait for the weekend. I had a few hours free tonight, so I decided to trim down the ears. After about an hour of cutting, sanding, and filing, I'm happy with the right ear now. I just need to clean up some of my pencil marks. Now, I have to move on to the left ear. I'd like to post an image, but I'm out of space for posting images.

QuartZ, The screws with the kits are the correct type and size now. I don't know if they've made the change on the factory assembled units. Here are the unpainted screws from my kit:

Thanks for the tips, troopers. I'll remove those ears next week and try to get them to fit better.

Hi, David. Good to see I'm not alone in uncharted waters here. I've started putting the bucket together. Sorry, no pictures of the assembly. I figure everyone here has seen it a million times already. I will post a picture of the assembled tips, though, just so people can see the revised tips. The completed tips look pretty good. The larger mesh is much better than what Anovos was shipping before. I was disappointed by the amount of flare at the bottom of the tubes on the rear portion. I reduced the flare a bit by holding the offending corner in boiling water for 30 seconds or so and then gently bending the plastic back. The ears, I feel, were trimmed too much at the factory. Granted, this is my first TK assembly, but after fighting with these ears for days, I still have a real nasty gap on the right ear. There is a radius on this ear which wasn't present on the left ear. I was able to trim the other side to get it to fit quite nicely. The right side though... I'm going to complete the helmet with these ears, but I may see if I can order some replacements from one of the other vendors supported by the FISD. This must be done in time to hand out candy on Halloween! I am using the supplied stickers for the helmet at this point. If I do the ear replacement, I'll probably pull the stickers and paint the details. A word of warning, I had a thin spot at the bottom of the tube on the face which probably cracked from flexing during assembly. I know it was not there out of the box. The crack will be hidden by the S-trim, so I fixed it with some CA. The helmet shouldn't be subjected to much flexing any more, so hopefully the repair will hold.

LBB (little brown box) day finally arrived! My Anovos TK helmet kit orderd in August 2015 is here in August 2017. I'm not going to bore everyone with unboxing photos. Anovos appears to have taken some advice from 501st members during product development. Interesting things about the kit: Pre-trimmed ears: I'm sure these will require further trimming. This is the part I'm most concerned about dorking up. Speaking of those ears, the screws for the ears are the proper countersunk screws, not the flat screws Anovos had on the original factory-built helmets. Larger mesh for tips compared to what I've seen on earlier Anovos factory-built lids: Also comes with hero grey bubble lenses and stunt green flat lens. The padding is black, six-piece ACH type padding. My goal is to have a nice looking lid to display in my office. Who knows how long that will take me. I'm sure some of you troopers could have this done in a couple hours. Woz

Ignoring E=mc2 for the moment. IMO, no, you would not see the ship following. We see things because our eyes take in the light that is reflected from an object. The photons will not bounce off the ship moving at 2x light speed and be propelled at more than that speed. Where would that extra energy come from? Realize that the photons would need to be traveling toward you at three times normal speed in order for you to perceive the ship as "normal". Slower than that, and it would have a pronounced red shift. Even if the photons bounced back toward you at 2x the speed of light, you would never see any of the photons, as they would be moving at the same speed as you. Now, my question is: where do all these photons go? Do they stack up at the front of the ships? What is the mass of a photon? It's gotta have mass, because it has energy,...right? But the mass of anything would be infinite (theoretically) when traveling at the speed of light, but, light as we know it has no mass, otherwise we'd all be sucked into a "light hole". Right??? Shoot. My brain hurts now. Thanks. I thought my day off would allow my brain to rest, but no. You gotta go and ask a question like this.

Good laughs for a Monday! Thanks. The Fed Ex driver was probably thinking, "Another one of THESE guys...every time I deliver one of these Anovos boxes" I liked the cameo by the "buckets".

Umm...the color on the frown is totally wrong. You'll never make EIB.

I'm really interested to see what some of the veterans here can do with the helmet kit when it starts shipping. I think the method of trimming the teeth and painting the frown will go along way towards improving the appearance.

"This is probably the best stormtrooper helmet available out there." What the seller says could be true...from a certain point of view. Where exactly is, "out there"? The seller's ktchen?

Remember, Frank is used to working on these sorts of things as props, where volumes are high and timing is tight. While the score and snap method is just as quick - if not quicker - than using power tools, it is much more physically demanding. Score and snap for eight hours, or use power tools for eight hours? I know what I would choose.