Haso

Hey mate, I'd check out reference pics and see what col our they show (I don't know how to add links via tapatalk). Personally, I'd lean towards replacing with silver, only on the assumption that these don't show on reference pics or the CRL. Sent from my HUAWEI G510-0251 using Tapatalk

Some other last minute bits & pieces... I decided to not get submission pics today and concentrate on a couple of other parts that I want to have ready. Ab/kidney brace support - I installed some braces to give some extra support for the torso armour, but especially to lift the ab/cod & kidney/butt sections and keep them tucked in a bit more under the chest piece. This was to help keep the ab armour under the chest armour. I put a single snap in the centre top of the kidney piece to attach the back of the brace, and then super glued two plastic brackets inside the ab armour, through which I looped each side of the front braces.... I also installed a black pencil case in the chest plate to hold phone/licence/keys etc on me. Again I just used a couple of snaps to attach it... I plan to get some kind of voice system which will likely go here, and at that point I'll revisit my storage and maybe put a couple of smaller pouches in the back plate or something. I'll worry about that when I get to it. I'm also assuming I can use the snaps I've installed in the chest for future voice installation. Gotta say after test fitting this rig it feels really good and tight, sits well and definitely brings up the ab under the chest and the weight of the storage bag brings the chest down over the ab. So this seems to work really well. The braces are just some that I had lying around that I had from a costume party a couple of years back. Lastly, I trimmed the large plastic rectangle tab off each shoulder snap at back, to make this part more screen accurate (I've still got to give the cut edges a quick sand to tidy them up and get rid of the pencil line)... Submission pics planned for next Saturday, which I'll do with another recruit who plans to get their pics done too.

Shin Twist adjusted... I've put some padding in both shins and this is how they are looking now. Twisting has been hugely reduced. I've heard it mentioned before that the AP shins are a bit funny in that you can either centre the bottom or top of shins, or compromise between the two. Anyhow, I think I'm pretty much right unless anyone thinks otherwise?

...Shin twisting issue now fixed by glueing a strip of 25mm thick foam around the top of each shin. Hopefully I can get some good submission pics tomorrow.

Some last minute pre-submission pics, any glaring issues/feedback? I'm planning to have the wife take submission pics tomorrow... Me with my happy face: I've since put some padding in the right shin to try to stop the sideways movement. Both shins are also snapped to the boots to keep them over the boots and help prevent sideways travel at bottom.... I wanna cut off the large tab from the shoulder straps, more accurate I believe, should this be ok?...

Hey mate here's some pics of what I've done with a small ABS tab glued to the kidney side to help tuck it in tight. This might explain it better than words. I've slightly bent it to follow the contour of the kidney/ab pieces. I placed a small tab here so that it's hidden by the belt and avoids having to paint it black/cover with black to hide it. For the kidney > ab rivet connections, I went with elastic and made the join super tight (the two halves slightly overlap by a mm or so), to allow this side to stretch slightly as I put it on and make a tight seam; and have gone with nylon for the snap connection on the other side as I don't want stretch, just to have it connected tightly. ---------

I'll take a pic of the kidney>ab tab I've got in mine when I'm home from work tonight. Sent from my HUAWEI G510-0251 using Tapatalk

Looking good so far mate. Any pics of fitting it? Sent from my HUAWEI G510-0251 using Tapatalk

Interesting to see how this'll turn out....(if only my missus even liked Star Wars, that'd be a start...) Sent from my HUAWEI G510-0251 using Tapatalk

How did you go with the oval issue of your kidney/ab? With less return edge, is there room to trim more off the sides and therefore pull them in more as well? Sent from my HUAWEI G510-0251 using Tapatalk

You could try gluing an ABS tab to the kidney. This tab then tucks inside the ab plate, pulling the kidney in towards it. It's a method that's commonly suggested. Sent from my HUAWEI G510-0251 using Tapatalk

In saying lifting up the forearms it would be more accurate for me to say if you can close the forearm/bicep gap... which may mean lowering the biceps slightly too. Sent from my HUAWEI G510-0251 using Tapatalk

Looking good mate. I'd perhaps lose some of the return at the shoulder bell bottoms to pull them in a bit more. Forearms lifted up higher too. But great work so far! Sent from my HUAWEI G510-0251 using Tapatalk

Also, to widen your calf could you perhaps widen the cover strips to spread the armour pieces apart further (bearing in mind to keep proportions consistent, your GML could chime in here). Inner strips might add strength to this too. Sent from my HUAWEI G510-0251 using Tapatalk

Hey mate the front cover strips on your thighs go down too far. They should end just short of the ridge at bottom and not go over. Good on you for putting it out for feedback. Sent from my HUAWEI G510-0251 using Tapatalk

Where's the respect for Imperial property these days? Lol. Sent from my HUAWEI G510-0251 using Tapatalk

Your ab and kidney fitting looks good to me how you've got it. I also found if after you've fitted the strapping, and the kidney flairs out, to glue some scrap ABS tabs to the kidney, so that they tuck behind the ab piece, that should pull the kidney piece in. But what I can see, it's a good fit. Sent from my HUAWEI G510-0251 using Tapatalk

Hey mate about your bottom thigh ridge alignment, I had the exact same issue. I was scratching my head thinking "what happened here?". I took an offcut of the ridge from the trimming I did on the thigh and used it as a shim inside the ridge. I glued one end first (can't remember if I used superglue or E6000, I think E6000 only because I did it when gluing the inner strip as well), then the other end after a day. It does look messy but I wasn't sparing on the glue here. I used clamps however possible to keep the shim in place while the glue cured. On the outside it looks like this..... You could fill the gap I guess, but I'm going to leave it as is unless I need to. A word of warning, I did use some water treatment before glueing but try to avoid it if you can. I got this kink on the underside of the ridge through trying to bend in the piece sticking out while doing the hot tub treatment..... However, I used a normal iron, a pillow case (between iron and armour), and a piece of aluminium strip which I heated with the iron and then against the plastic (again both with and without the pillow case in between) and managed to get the kink to this.... I'll leave mine at this for now and come back to it if it bugs me. It's the inner thigh side and the underside of the ridge so not really noticeable. Moral of this story - try to use glue and clamps to match them together and not the hot tub. I hope this helps. Good luck!

Good tip with the cappacino mug.... I'm doing my shoulders this weekend. Sent from my HUAWEI G510-0251 using Tapatalk

Hey mate with your leg backs and the bottom ridges not matching I had the same issue. Since fixed. I'll post about it here when I'm home from work tonight. Sent from my HUAWEI G510-0251 using Tapatalk

Bucket lenses Just wanted to share how I fitted my lenses so that they are nice and tight in the bucket with next to no gaps between lenses and the bucket. I think of it as a hybrid method: 1) Use Trooperbay's dark green lens strip, here: https://trooperbay.com/costuming-accessories/dark-green-lens-material 2) Use TK 1636's helmet clip method, here: Because the Trooperbay lens is a thicker one piece plastic strip, I found that I needed to cut two separate lenses* from it, then I could use the helmet clip method using superglue. If you've painted/plastidipped your bucket already, peel/clean the paint off the areas where you'll fix the clips, so that they glue to the plastic directly. I shaped the individual lenses by getting a hot iron and pressing it on top of the lenses till I could slightly bend them - a little at a time till they follow the bucket's curve. Place a towel between the lens and iron, and do one lens at a time. *Trooperbay has a video showing how to mount these lenses, but I tried it, and much prefer the result I've gotten from cutting lenses and fitting clips because the lenses fit tighter against the bucket. This is the result and I'm really pleased with how it turned out (and yes that is one meaty chin strap attached to the ear screws, don't know why but I decided to fit a 38mm elastic piece for a chin strap - it works though).

Lol alright! Takes someone in Canada to find a place about an hour away from me in Melbourne! Gonna check it out when I'm home tonight. Thanks. Sent from my HUAWEI G510-0251 using Tapatalk

Some good news, Mark at AP says he can send some more ABS to get those 25mm cover strips. Yeah!

That's great mate, thanks for that. I'll be in touch when I'm home from work today. Troopers helping Troopers.

And in other news.... My thermal det. It's about 190mm long, so as it's an AP one, I had to trim the panel down a bit to shorten it across. This was actually the very first part I put together, thinking it was going to be easy. Yeah right.... My gloves. I got the hand guards from Trooperbay. I ordered the plain rubber handguards because I wanted to get a real rough finish on these. Added some weathering on them as well, by accident actually, the black scuffing comes from the newspaper they were laid on while the paint dried. I glued them to stock black heavy duty kitchen gloves using the two part Loctite super glue (the one that comes with the activator pen). It worked great. I was trying to emulate the way they were made back in '77, with paint bits cracking and chipping off. Thigh ammo plate - I've just cut the curve in each corner, and haven't fixed this yet. There is a slight curve on it already but it should just bend around the thigh pretty easy I'm hoping. I was also hoping to acquire some cap rivets but I haven't found any yet, so I'm leaning towards split rivets/washer to fix it. Belt: I've gone with the snap connection for the plastic ammo belt to canvas belt, so that I can interchange the belt between an ANH and ESB in future. Also, it makes it easy to disassemble if I need to. The holster came from Mark / AP, but I had to trim it down in order for the blaster to fit further down and allow the strap to reach over the blaster handle and into its snap stud. I did this with a snap/scoring knife, with a fresh blade fitted. It was pretty easy to do, but needed to be done carefully. I used the Trooper Man holster plan and followed that for the shape of the holster. Next few days I'll start posting up arms, legs, torso and bucket pics.