Ruthar

Wow, thank you very much for the kind words! Nothing more to it than a lot of practicing!

Congrats, Joe - well done!

Great! I'll give that thread a follow then.

Yep! Boxes are correctly labeled. The trim lines look good, too. I also left a bit of extra edge so that I had enough room for trimming/shaping. Good work! For the shins, because there isn't a lowered region to join them (as the Anovos has), I overlapped them so that the seams are facing the back. This way, the build looks a bit cleaner from the front. It's not required, but just something to consider. I also sanded down the top overlapping edge so it curves slightly downward against the bottom piece, giving the illusion that it is connected with that shelf technique. Hopefully that makes sense to some degree!

Thank you for the kind words, AJ! If you have any questions, feel free to post them right here or send me a message.

Thanks, Andrew!

Thanks so much, guys! First outing was a lot of fun. Got a nice shot with the boss: And managed a really neat picture that I like a lot - the three generations of troopers!

Very happy to say that the TFA TK ensemble has been approved! Making a few final adjustments this afternoon (which I'll post up soon) and then heading out for a weekend of The Last Jedi events. Enjoy the film, everyone!

Thank you, Tony! Your Anovos TFA thread was a huge help!! And thanks for sending the pill hole fabric so quickly, too!

Thank you, guys! Can't wait to put some miles on this one.

Submission Photos With all the building and strapping now complete, it's time to kit up for some photos! Big thanks to my garrison mate Sean for helping out with the iPhone photography! Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr

Strapping Chest-Back-Yoke Connection To connect the chest, back, and yoke sections, I just used a couple strips of industrial velcro. 1) Inside the chest plate, install 1" strips of velcro at the sides of the bottom of the chest plate. At the very top of the chest plate, install a pair of triangular cuts of velcro as well. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 2) The triangular cuts at the top of the chest plate line up with triangular cuts of matching velcro upon the yoke section. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 3) Here's a picture of how the yoke and chest velcro works - I pulled the pieces slightly apart so you can see how things line up. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 4) On top of the lower outside edge of the back plate, there is a 1" strip of velcro that matches the inside strip of the chest plate. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Abdomen to Belt Snaps Finally, the last thing to do is install a few more snaps to get the belt to sit properly. 1) Glue a pair of 1" nylon snap plates just outside of the rivets on either side of the cod connection elastic. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 2) Through the innermost layer of the belt (just the nylon layer), stamp in a pair of snaps that line up with the snap plates you just installed. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr The rest of the belt should sit tight enough that no additional snaps are needed. The back of the belt should sit snuggly atop the upper edge of the posterior plate, so no snaps or velcro are needed there (as long as your belt was measured tightly enough against the abdomen/kidney armour earlier in the build). If not, feel free to add another few snaps or some velcro along the lower edge of the abdomen armour - no one will see anything beneath the belt, so you have a bit of freedom in attachment technique. With that, we are done with the necessary strapping. Now to suit up for the full complement of pictures!

Strapping Gaskets Installing the gaskets is very simple. The marvelous gaskets I received have a 1" strip of velcro at the top and bottom of every piece, so all I did was install a matching strip of 1" velcro into the edges of the armour to hold them in place. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Knee Plates To strap the knee plates to the gaskets, I used Tony's method from his TFA Anovos build thread. 1) Cut out two strips of scrap ABS. I round off the corners to keep the edges from snagging on the gasket material. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 2) Using a heat gun, bend the plastic into the same shape as the interior of the knee plates. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 3) Drill a pair of holes into the ABS plates wide enough to receive chicago screws. Then, make a mark on the gaskets that line up with the pair of holes in the plastic. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 4) Install the ABS plates through the gaskets with washers and chicago screws. I used a trio of washers between every layer to try to not allow the screws to tear through the gasket material. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 5) Install a piece of industrial velcro onto the surface of the ABS plates. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 6) Press the knee plate against the velcro to hold it in place. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr

Strapping Cod To strap the cod, I filled in the two notches at the front bottom of the abdomen plate with some elastic, installed some snaps, and let the cod hang with the ability to move around a bit. 1) Cut out a 4" length of 2" elastic. Then, mark off 1" on each side. At 1/2" from each corner, punch a hole in the elastic. Also, create two 1" x 2" ABS plates, round off the corners, and drill out holes that match up with those punched in the elastic. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 2) Use the ABS plates to create holes in the abdomen plate. Line up the edges of the plates with the open edges of the abdomen cut outs, then drill the matching holes. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 3) In the center of the elastic, install a rear-facing snap. Then, using rivets, install the pieces together in the following order: rivet head, abdomen plastic, elastic, ABS plate. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 4) Using a rivet gun, punch down the rivets to hold everything tightly together. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 5) Install a pair of 1" nylon snap plates on the cod piece that match up with the snaps in the elastic sections. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 6) Snap the cod piece in and you're ready to go. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Posterior The posterior plate will be attached to the bottom edge of the kidney section using a pair of 3" elastic strips and snaps. 1) Install four snaps through the posterior armour through the holes previously drilled during the assembly process. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 2) Cut out two 5" lengths of 3" elastic. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 3) Install matching snaps along the lower edges of the two 5" lengths of elastic. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 4) Finally, install four 1" nylon snap plates into the lower edge of the kidney armour that match with four additional snaps at the top edge of the 5" elastic strips. These eight snaps will join the posterior to the bottom of the kidney section. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr

Strapping Abdomen In order to better keep the abdomen sitting in the correct place, I decided to rig up a suspension system for it. 1) I used a trio of picture hangers in tandem with a set of suspenders to hold up the abdomen piece. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr. 2) The teeth of the suspenders fit nicely into the picture hangers. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 3) I glued the picture hangers against the top edge of the abdomen armour with some super glue. One at the center of the back (on the first magnet support) and two at the front equidistant from the center line. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 4) Once dry, the picture hangers and suspenders do a great job at holding everything up. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 5) The suspenders, however, were too long to be effective (even when tightened all the way) due to how high the abdomen must sit. So, I folded the straps up and clamped them to get the right length. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 6) I carefully took the suspenders off and measured the distances between the clips and the end of the "Y" (it ended up being 11" from "Y" to clips for my size). by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 7) Finally, I cut out the extra fabric and reattached the suspenders to the appropriate lengths. [picture needed] Shoulder Bells 1) To strap the shoulder bells, start by installing a 5" length of 1" strap with a snap that matches each snap on the aluminum shoulder panels. Each strap should run through the slotted holes on the sides of the yoke. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 2) Slide the shoulder bells beneath the tabs. Mark hole locations on the straps as well as a mark on the shoulder bells to indicate where the matching snap plates need to go. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 3) Install upward-facing snaps on the shoulder straps at the marks made in the previous step. Be sure everything is where you want it - if you use snaps, you won't be able to slide the straps out of the yoke slots without cutting the straps. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 4) Install four 1" snap plates into the shoulder bells. I use just a bit of super glue for this and let the glue set for a few minutes. Once the plates are in, snap them to the straps and you're good to go. by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr

Strapping Thighs and Suspension Belt 1) I decided to hold my thighs up the same way as I do on my OT TK - with a suspension belt. I went out and got a cheap stretchable belt at a nearby department store. Then, I used 1.5" nylon webbing to create a pair of loops to affix the thighs to the belt. (Do excuse my terrible sewing machine technique - it's a work in progress! ) Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 2) Create a pair of double snap plates using 1" nylon webbing. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 3) Glue these plates into the front centers of the thighs. I found that an inch inward from the tip of the thigh's front was a great spot. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 4) Next, put on your undersuit as well as the suspension belt. Pull the thighs up to meet the loops. Then, use a piece of painter's tape to mark where the top of the thigh sits upon the loop. This allows you to lay the loop strap at the proper height during the next steps. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 5) Line up the loop strap centered over the snaps with the painter's tape flush with the top edge of the thigh as we previously marked. Mark the holes for the snaps that match the snap plate and install them. Now, the belt and the loops can hold your thighs in place. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr

Strapping Shins To close the shins, I installed a strip of industrial velcro along the inside seam. 1) With a bit of painter's tape, mark off where the overlap occurs on the inner piece. This shows you where to install the first layer of velcro. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 2) Install one side of the velcro on the outside of the inner piece (against the painter's tape edge). Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 3) On the inside of the overlapping section, install the matching sister side of the velcro. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 4) Test the closure to ensure that it holds the shin piece closed. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Spats 1) To affix the spats to the shins in a way that both keeps them in place and prevents them from scratching against the shin armour, I used two strips of velcro placed against the front edges of the spat. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 2) I then lined these pieces up against the shin itself so the spat rests just below the ovular cutout at the base of the shins. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 3) To close the spats at the sides, I installed velcro between the underside of the greeblie and the indentation across the open gap of the spat. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 4) Here are the closed and installed shins and spats together: Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr

Strapping Handplates Now it's time for the last part of the build - strapping everything to fit the wearer. First up is the easiest part - the handplates. 1) Install a large square of velcro into the backs of the handplates. The gloves I got from Stormtrooper Undersuit already had velcro sewn into the backs of the gloves to match. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 2) Simply press the plates against the matching velcro on the gloves themselves. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 3) According to the CRL, the vinyl decal should line up with the forefinger, so make sure that is positioned correctly. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 4) The finished pair. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr

Final Details Belt Finishing Touches 1) Now that the paint is done, it's time to affix the right side hanging boxes. JAFO's belt comes with two lengths of elastic and a pair of nylon plates. Poke two holes through the first/outer rubber layer of the belt and slip the elastic through both the belt and the nylon then back through. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 2) Using a good dose of super glue, glue the nylon plates down against the boxes to hold them in place. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 3) On the inside of the belt (between the first and second layers), firmly tie the elastic down with a double knot (or whatever kind of strong knot you prefer!). Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 4) Install matching velcro to hold the plastic panel to the larger rear pouch. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 5) Firmly press it against the pouch and in place. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 6) Time to glue down the faces of the front boxes. If you have a little wiggle room, I would recommend installing a shim to get the faces to fit more tightly. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 7) Run some super glue between the edges and push the box faces down tightly for a good seal. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 8) Install the faceplate to the second, large box. A good spread of super glue will do the trick. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 9) Center the faceplate against the box and press it down firmly and hold for a little while as the super glue sets. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 10) All the belt components are now complete! Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr

Final Details Vinyl Decals With the painting now out of the way and the armour dry, it's time to move into the final few detail components before strapping. Up first are the vinyl decals. I didn't see any decals available for the KB Props kit specifically (you can find decals for the Anovos and Jim Tripon's FOTK's on Trooperbay), so I just cut out my own. I bought a roll of adhesive vinyl at the craft store and started cutting away. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr The following is the list of decals that I came up with after a lot of tedious measuring: Thermal Detonator 6 5/8" x 1 5/8" rectangle for the large rear rectangular section two 2" circles for the end caps Forearms two 7/8" squares for the front forearm boxes two 1 7/8" x 1/8" elongated ovals for the top underside detail four 1/2" x 5/16" rectangles with angled sides for the upper backs of forearms two 1" x 1/8" elongated ovals for the front top edge detail two 3/4" x 1/8" rectangles for the front "coin slot" detail 1 3/4" circle for the back plate circle two 3/4" x 1/8" elongated ovals for the handplates 3/8" square for ab box #3 7/8" x 1/8" for ab box #6 When I have some time during the holidays, I'll probably put all these into a vinyl cutter and stamp out some sheets if anyone else is interested. But, for the time being, at least this list will get you by! Here's what they look like installed: by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Gaffer's Tape Along with the vinyl decals, there are some details that need to be put on with black gaffer's tape. 1) The end of the thermal detonator cap that sticks out should house a 3/4" band of gaffer's tape. Simply loop it around the base of the protruding cap with the seam hidden in the back. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 2) The slots in the biceps and the shins need to be backed with some gaffer's tape. Tear off some lengths of the tape long enough to cover the holes from the inside. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 3) Then, in the center of each of these strips, place a smaller strip of gaffer's tape with the black side facing up. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 4) Then, stick the larger square face-down inside the armour with the smaller black square filling the cut out entirely. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 5) Do this for the biceps, both shins, and the center chest cut out. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 6) For the pill holes on the chest, we need to add a strip of mesh for accuracy. You can get an order of the perfect fabric from @ukswrath- he has a sales thread for it right over here. Thanks for sending that over so quickly, Tony! Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 7) To install, we are going to use the same technique with the gaffer's tape, but this time we will use a larger outside strip to accommodate both the smaller gaffer's tape strip as well as the pill hole mesh. Then, just tape it down against the set of holes just like all the others. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr

Thanks, guys! It's definitely fun enough that I'd do it again! Maybe a bit of a break after this one, though.

Thank you! I'm glad you find it helpful. Definitely the latter - my kit was delayed a bit because of problems with the white ABS, so I told him pulling it in black was perfectly fine as you have to paint the kit to hide the seams anyhow. It's definitely a difficult but fun build - I hope you enjoy yours as much as I'm enjoying this one!

Painting Gloss Painting With the primer down, sanded, and ready to go, I pulled out the cans of white gloss. I used Rustoleum 2x gloss white. It took another 6 cans of the gloss paint to cover all of the pieces. As before, I began with a semi-coverage initial coat followed by a second light coat to finish the coverage. Here are some in-progress shots of those coats: Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr After the first two coats, wait about 15 minutes for the paint to be dry to the touch. Then, sand the surfaces with 1500 sandpaper to remove all of the small particles that may have found their way into the paint. Sanding between these coats of paint will significantly help the effectiveness of the gloss at the end. Once the sanding is finished and the parts are debris free, proceed with the third coat. I go a bit heavier now with this third coat as we are hunting for a glossy finish. You can see the pieces begin to shine now that the paint is applied more heavily. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr At the end of the third coat, sand once again with a very fine sandpaper (I moved up to 2000 from 1500 for this last preparation phase). Remove any and all debris once more before applying the final, heaviest coat. During this fourth and final coat, I use a headlamp to hunt for any imperfections along the way as well as check the effectiveness of the gloss. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr After the final, heavy coat, leave the armour undisturbed for a handful of hours to start the drying process. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr After 5-6 hours, I moved the parts inside to dry in a more controlled environment. I wouldn't suggest moving the pieces much sooner than that as the paint is still quite receptive to markings and blemishes while the undercoats are still drying. Here are some final shots of the painted pieces after a full day of drying indoors. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr I suggest leaving the pieces to dry for another few days if possible. Maximum paint adhesion on plastic is achieved in 5-7 days (according to the Rustoleum can printed directions), and there is a whole lot of paint (12-13 cans total!) on these pieces, so just be patient and let the pieces settle before any major handling.

Painting Sanding and Surface Prep Now that the construction is behind us, it's time to move on to painting. Before I started spraying anything, however, I spent a good deal of time sanding away any and all imperfections and getting a nice, smooth finish to the armour. I started with 80 grit sandpaper to take away any of the larger blemishes - scratches, scuffs, residual glue, etc. Then, I moved on to 220 grit over all of the parts for a nice, uniform finish. The sanding really helps take the first coat of gloss off of the plastic which will aid in paint adhesion. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr After the sanding was complete, I gave each piece a bath to get all of the residue off of them. Then, I set the parts out on the workbench to dry overnight. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Priming Now that the armour is ready, it's time to dive on into the spraying. First, I set up the garage for painting by covering the tables and floor with plastic sheets as well as moving things out of the way. I suspended the round armour pieces (leg and arm pieces) to allow for easier painting as well as propped up the remainder of the pieces in various ways to enable me to get all the edges, corners, and detail pieces with the spray paint. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Next, and possibly most importantly, is the ventilation mask. There will be a lot of paint happening and the fumes can get pretty brutal (even in a well ventilated space), so I would highly suggest getting a pretty good ventilator for the process. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Now it's time to add the first coats of primer. I used Rustoleum 2x flat white primer for this build. I started with a relatively light coat first (quite a bit of black still showing through(, then proceeded with a second coat for full coverage, and finally a third and final heavier coat. It took about 6.5 cans of the primer to cover all of the pieces. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr At the conclusion of the final coat, I let the parts dry for 30 minutes. The Rustoleum primers tend to dry nice and quickly with a recommended handling time of 20 minutes, so you're pretty safe if you wait for 30. After the 30 minutes were up, I used 800 grit sandpaper on all of the surfaces to get a nice, smooth finish that was ready to receive the gloss.

Additional Details Handplates Our friends over at KB Props forgot to send me my handplates initially, but they were super fast in sending me a set. They came in white, but I don't mind - everything is going to be painted (soon!) anyhow. 1) First, trim them out. There is a very clear line on the KB kit that shows where the cut should be make. I enhanced it with a sharpie to ensure I made the right cuts with the Dremel. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr 2) After the initial cut and removal from the plastic housing, I spend a little time with the sandpaper to get the edges nice and clean. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr And that's it with those for now! A Quick Note on Fitment The next big section of the build is painting the kit. However, before we dive into that, I want to pause to make a note about fitment. I definitely recommend testing to make sure everything is fitting as intended right now as you don't want to be making more large scale cuts after the armour is painted. The only thing I had to do was to trim down the upper back of my thighs to make some room for the posterior plate to sit (the pieces were overlapping and hitting quite a bit thanks to my shorter stature). I marked them up and trimmed them accordingly to get that all to fit. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr Definitely take the time now before moving on to painting to make sure everything fits and works - it would be a real pain to have to paint a second time due to incorrect armour fitment down the road! That Being Said... With that being said, we are done with the overall assembly of components and are ready for sanding, priming, and painting! Here's a shot of the collected pile of pieces so far. Untitled by Taylor Goodson, on Flickr