drunken hutt

TK26173 requesting belated access please http://501st.com/members/displaymemberdetails.php?userID=23783

Apologies for neglecting to update this thread in almost a year. I was placing all my attention into the local garrison thread where the bulk of my updates where being posted. Well, I am happy to say that as of 22 February 2017 I was officially approved by the 501st Southern Dewback Garrison in South Australia as a TK ANH Stunt. My ID is TK26173. I've done one troop so far (at a shopping centre supporting a charity) and it was a very enjoyable experience getting to put smiles on peoples' faces and high-fiving kids who were ecstatic to see Star Wars characters in real life!

A caulking gun was used to insert white Silicone filler beneath the cover strips of the forearms. This was the first time I'd used one, so there was much fun to be had After this I used a combination of T-Cut, Turtle Wax and Novus grade 2 plastic polisher to bring back the ABS shine after the initial sheen was removed due to wet rubbing with sand paper to remove the glue and Silicone stains. Biceps have been assembled and Silicone also inserted underneath the cover strips due to some small gaps that I couldn't managed to flatten while clamping: Currently I am working on the shins and going through the process of trimming and cutting coverstrips for the front areas. Like many guys here I will clamshell the back using white velcro, while making sure that each side correctly overlaps the other. Hopefully pics will follow soon.

Forearms have been assembled using the cover strip and butt joint method. I personally preferred the look of it over clamshelling. Cover strips have also been placed along the inside for extra support. Super glue was used with clamps and 10mm rare earth magnets to fasten the adhesive drying. 1200 wet grit was used to smooth the pieces after foolishly getting super glue stains all over them. I will need to trim the forearms a bit more once I finish and fit the biceps on, as that will tell me how well both sets of pieces fit together. Here's your's truly with the forearms on: Obvisouly they look big, but I plan to make the forearms tighter fitting by placing foam inserts inside, plus I'll be wearing the gloves when the trooping happens. And you never know if I'll decide to do some weights and beefen these arms One issue while glueing one of the outer cover strips on the below forearm was that as I was applying the strip one of the forearm sides slightly overlapped the other one, meaning the strip was glued downwards at an angle. This has created a gap beneath the bottom half of the strip, as circled below. My attempts to glue the strip down have failed, so I have asked the local garrison for their advice and it has been suggested that I use either silicon sealer, white acrylic or white bog filler. My only concern is that these fillers will be a different tone of white than that of the armour itself, which has a grey tone to it. I do not want the filler to become too noticeable, where it may be evident some patchwork has been made. I was thinking I could perhaps heat the scraps of ABS i have into a putty like substance to fill in the gap, but I know it wouldn't be as strong as the commercial grade sealants. Any thoughts on what to do?

Before I trim off the returns around the wrists and elbows, can I confirm the forearm pieces are even on the correct arms? I don't believe they were labelled left or right before I started cutting them unlike the lower leg armour.

Apologies for the lack of updates. I have not made as much progress as I would have hoped due to committments and study eating into my free time, but here is what I've done so far: The AB panel piece is trimmed and sanded using sanding belt (leaving 1/8" i.e 3mm around the edge) Trimmed and mostly sanded the knee ammo piece and ammo belt Rough trim of the forearms, lower leg, bicep and shoulder armour Forearm armour further trimmed and rough fitted. Due to my scrawny arms, I have a lot more plastic to remove! And that's where I'm up to One step at a time with no time frame for estimated completion. Because the forearm pieces are quite big relative to my arms, does this mean attempting to use the butt-joint method would be impractical, even after trimming more and getting rid of the extended corners?

If you can, try to avoid ebay for all armour you're interested in buying as it is a lair of recasts, fakes and dubious quality.

Thanks Mark, now when I think about it, I should find out exactly how much space to leave around the other parts too. I'm sure there's a page somewhere on the forums with the info.

So after 4+ months of waiting for AP's TK armour to be built with his new molds I finally received it late this week in the mail [emoji2] Big Brown Box Day: And here is everything unpackaged: Under the advice of the local garrison I bought an Ozito rotary tool (an Australian competitor to the Dremel) to trim the plastic. Because I'm new to the whole assembling/ constructing business I'm going to be taking big baby steps and start with trimming the smaller pieces first, like the ears and shoulder straps. To avoid any nasty mistakes I'll bring the larger pieces to the local armour parties/ shed nights to get the experienced troopers to help me work on them. I'm just about to start trimming the AB buttons and I noticed that there are three large buttons contained in squares: Does anyone know what these three buttons are used for? I haven't been able to find them in the CRL. Cheers.

Ah, now I see. So that's why they're not already built in. Makes sense now lol.

So you mean the TD has the AB buttons already built into the Abplate?

As a newbie I will be following your thread closely[emoji2] . Hopefully I'll receive my armour from AP very soon as well. Also, I was under the impression that the AB buttons were built into the AB armour? This does not seem to be the case.

Bump. I would like to know the answer to bogan25793's question if anyone can. Thanks.

This makes a lot of sense. You have helped me narrow down what to look for. Cheers.

As you can tell from the topic I'm not particularly trained in the art of fabrics, which leads me to the following question: Given that the undersuit for the TK requires 'black non-textured material', I'm wanting to know how one identifies any sort of clothing material as lacking texture. Whenever I feel a piece of clothing I always notice some unique kind of texture to the fabric (e.g. roughness, silkiness) so I suppose in the context of the CRL 'texture' means something different, as technically all clothing has some form of texture to it? I suspect I already know the answer to the question but I would like a definitive response to what has been causing me some head scratching. The undersuit I plan on eventually buying will be used with the ANH Stunt kit that I've recently ordered from AP.

I would love to see this appear in the CRL if it hasn't already. I think this may become my second costume after I build my TK ANH armour.

That gives me a better idea of what to look for when my armour arrives, thanks. I suspect I will need to get a feel for my armour first before I appreciate what to look for.

What exactly is a return edge?

Did you measure your waist with the armour on first before deciding what size canvas belt you wanted?

I see. Good info. I think out of this list i'll focus on acquiring the garter for now; ive seen at least a thread or two where someone has been selling their own. Mark hasn't told me of any other non-armour parts i need to complete my cert 1 ANH Stunt build so i think i'll wait till i get my kit and so what's with it before getting anything else.

I've just discovered this thread and I too have recently placed my deposit with AP for the stormtrooper helmet, amour and gloves/holster combo kit (ANH Stunt). Excuse my ignorance, but I was wondering, what is the pupose of ordering the ANH hand Guards, O2 Clips, Bifercated domed rivets, Garter belt, Piping for thermal detonator, S type stripping and Humbrol Paints? (the bolded items.) I would have thought some of these items would come with the AP kit, like the hand guards, rivets and piping (when you say piping you refer to the those grey strips on either end of the detonator right?) I ask this because if you acquired these items separately from the AP order then it means there are more items for me to obtain to build my kit than I first thought. I was under the impression the AP kit included everything I needed to build the armor on a basic level (minus the undersuit, canvas belt and boots of course). Sorry if i've befuddled you with my inanity

Thanks. I was aware of this, but I wasn't sure whether the blaster from Brett needed any work done to it. I currently plan on buying my blaster from him.

Was the E-11 you got from Brett already 501st certified straight out of the box?

That makes a lot of sense, but why isn't any of this mentioned or suggested in the CRL for the TK helmet?

I have yet to purchase my TK ANH Stunt armour and helmet, as I am still in the research phase, but I was wondering whether there needs to be something placed behind the frown/teeth area as all images I've seen of people wearing the TK helmet show darkness where the teeth have been cut out and not the wearer's skin. In other words, how is it you don't see the wearer behind the cut-out teeth? Is it that dark inside the helmet?