ScaryGuy

As promised, here's a shot with the Master Replicas LE helmet:

Today the approval photos where taken. They have been submitted to the Dutch Garrison.

I did some test fitting with my storage box. I managed to get everything inside using this order: Forearms are put into shins, shins into thighs. The biceps are lowered into the shoulder bells. I put them upside down in the box. The top of the thighs go into the shoulder bells to keep them in place. The TD is located between the thighs. I can use the opening in the biceps to stuff some soft goods. The torso parts are stored separately in the box, each one is put inside a pillow slip. Back plate is first, then ab plate. Shoes are laid flat on the bottom. Kidney and butt plate are next (still joined together), final one is the chest plate. The belt goes on top, I have to bend the ammo belt slightly to get it to fit. Shoes are covered with some foam. Then there is still enough room for the helmet.I use a motorcycle helmet bag to protect it. I also put foam around it to keep it from sliding too much. So everything fits nicely in this box (170 litre / 45 gallon). If you use the bracket system then this box will be too narrow to fit the entire torso in one piece.

Congratulations!

Photoshoot is planned for this weekend. Since I still haven't received the soft goods from Anovos yet, I bought some rubber gloves. They are Marigold Industrial G17K heavy weight gloves G17K. These are very nice! Very thick so they stay in shape and give a smooth appearance. Much better than kitchen gloves. I had two sets of latex handguards fromJoseph. The pure white ones are glued to nomex flight gloves. I also had a set of painted hand guards from his first run, I glued these to the rubber gloves. I used the same procedure as the nomex: I used some carboard to shape the gloves, put E6000 on the hand guards, attach them to the gloves and use painters tape to tighten them around the glove. Next day I removed the tape, but this also removed almost all the paint from the hand guards . So using painters tape on painted hand guards was a bad idea . I removed the hand guards from the rubber gloves. This was easier then I thought, the E6000 is not as strong on rubber as on nomex. Here's how one of them looked after removing the tape. I removed the remaining paint and repainted them with regular acrylic paint. Not sure how long it will last, but if it stays on until centurion approval I'm happy with it . I think I might order another set of pure white hand guards. After the painted had dryed I covered them with a thin plastic layer, then glued them and wrapped them with tape. This time they came out pretty nice. Some small areas need a bit of touch up.

Yesterday I completed my helmet. The crack in the right ear was fixed and I reassembled the helmet. I also made an elastic chin strap. I used a snap to close the elastic in the middle. When trying it out it felt like I was constantly being force choked by Darth Vader. So I shortened one of the pieces and made a new longer one. Now the snap is on my right cheek. When trying to mount the S-trim one of the existing cracks opened again, and a new one appeared. The edge is really fragile on the Anovos helmet. I reinforced them with abs pieces glued with CA glue. Then some abs paste to fill the crack. For now the helmet is completed. I think I will look into some kind of fan system for cooling. Today I received my storage box. It's huge! Fortunately it still fits on the rear seat of my compact car. I have to squeeze it through the door opening. I think the Stanley 190L wouldn't have fit through the door. So tonight I started gluing some noise isolation foam inside. The weather was good so I could do it outside. A new type of glue (Bison Tix) but yet another awful chemical smell. I think I can get everything including the helmet inside the box, but I will have to unsnap all the torso pieces. I think I will use pillow covers to protect them from scratching. Time for a photoshoot!

Well the mainboard stands didn't hold with E6000 either. I guess the surface is too small for the glue to hold. Another issue is that the stands where too long, there was quite a gap between the lens and the helmet. So I removed them together with the abs pieces and replaced them with M3 t-nuts. I used pliers to bend down the sharp edges. I repainted the frown. A little less sharp than the Anovos airbrush paint but that gives it the hand painted look. I also painted the edges of the frown. Getting that right was a bit more difficult then I thought. I also removed the lump on the top of the front plate. I started reassembling the helmet. The crack in the right ear fixed with abs pasta cracked open again. So this time I reinforced it by gluing an abs piece behind it. So the final helmet picture have to wait for the E6000 to dry. I continued on the helmet padding. Originally I bought some foam helmet pads through aliexpress.com. However they where too thin. I used them all in my helmet (temporarily with painters tape) but there was still a lot of room. I remembered ukswrath doing the cleaver type foam padding for accuracy. I found a template in the tutorial section. I copied it to 20 mm foam: It's held in the helmet with a few velcro pads. This works much better and is accurate too! Almost there! I also started thinking about how I'm going to store the armor. I read about the Stanley 190L but it's quite expensive over here (134 euro) and also very big. Not sure if that's gonna work with my small car. After some searching I found the Iris Powerbox 170L. Much more reasonably prices at 67 euro. It's a little longer then the Stanley, but less thick: 495 mm x 500 mm x 1035 mm. So I orderd this one. I'm gonna glue noise isolation foam to the sides to protect the armor.

What I don't understand is why Anovos is considered to be evil because they have copied a RS suit, but it is perfectly fine for RS to copy an original film suit. So they can be considerd as recasters too. RS is also making money on the Star Wars brand without having a license. But apparently copying from LFL/Disney is ok. Is it illegal for Anovos to copy a design on which they own the license? I agree that if some makes his own sculpt and someone else just copies it, it's just wrong. But in this case RS is just as guilty as Anovos in my opinion.

Yes, I took your advice on this. I also read people used mineral spirits to remove the paint. I had to translate this and I thought it is called terpentine in the netherlands (white spirits in the uk?). I tried it and it didn't do anything to the paint. So I bought the humbrol thinners. Like E6000 it has a nice smell to it :-D.

Now I can continue to focus on the helmet. Here's wat I have to start with: The helmet was disassembled pretty easy. The right ear had some more CA glue. When trying to get it loose a small crack started but it came loose without further damage. After removing the neck trim I noticed two other cracks in the edge of the helmet. I glued some abs pieces behind them and used abs paste to fill them. Since they will be hidden by the neck trim I don't have to sand it, same goes for the right ear. I cleaned up the edges of the eyes. I cut larger parts with an exacto knife, then used 180 and 240 grit to sand it. The paint on the frown was removed with Humbrol Thinners. I took some effort to remove the paint, a lot of rubbing with a q-tip, but it came off. No paint killer experience this time . For the lens mounting I used some old computer mainboard stands. I cut most of the thread, just enough to glue it on to a small piece of abs. Then I glued them with E6000 to the helmet. I cut two separate lenses with my lexan scissors. When fastening the screws to the stands the stands came loose. The glue I used wasn't strong enough. Tonight I glued them with E6000. Hopefully this will be strong enough. Otherwise I think I have to try CA glue.

I continued on repairing the knee ammo belt. This time I used several thin layers of abs paste. I let each layer dry for an hour or so, sand it with 180 or 240 grid, clean it, then apply the next layer. With each layer the gaps became thinner until it was flush. Then I wet sanded everything again up to 2000 grid and gave it a novus polish. The knee ammo belt came out better then the first attempt. Discoloration was less and no visible cracks yet. So I glued the area to the thigh with E6000. After a day of drying I noticed a new crack . I guess abs paste just isn't flexible enough. When attached to the thigh it has to curve a little. So I widened the crack and used some more abs paste. I didn't remove the ammo belt from the thigh, I thought it would be best to fill the crack in the curved state. I think this finally solved the issue: Because the knee ammo belt came out better then the first attempt, I decided to give the kidney plate the same treatment. I removed the discolored areas. Paste, sand, repeat ... Well, I stopped taking pictures after four layers . Here's the final result: Now moving along with the helmet ...

Making the abs paste a bit thinner certainly helped getting those air bubbles filled. I had to appy two layers of paste to get the holes filled. The second time I made the paste a little thinner with some more aceton. Although it is smooth there is still some slight discoloration. On the ab plate it's only slightly visible, on the kidney plate a bit more. You can still see the pattern of the cracks when looking up close. Could be caused by the novus polishing I did between layers. The yellowish colour could be caused by that. But since most if it would be covered by the split rivets I decided to leave it as is. I drilled new holes and took some pictures outside. Ab plate Kidney plate Right thigh Knee ammo belt Then I mounted some new split rivets. I painted them with a metal primer before mounting them. After placement they where painted in a matching off white color with regular acrylic paint. I applied two layers with both paints. After the rivets where mounted I could glue new snap plates with E6000. Finally I could glue the ab plate buttons on And mounted the knee ammo belt Today I spent some time on fitting the legs. There are still some pressure points when wearing them. I used velcro to glue some foam pieces in front of the knee and the inner side. The front pieces are to avoid the return edge pressing into my knee cap. The inner pieces are to hopefully avoid the shins from rotating. I noticed it happening when walking around. On the thighs I also glued some thin pieces of foam to keep the return edge away from my knee. On the left thigh I glued a thicker piece to avoid the thigh being pushed in by the holster. I also enlarged the gaps at the back of the knee in the thighs. I cut them before half way to the return edge, but I needed some more space. Unfortunately the cracks in the knee ammo belt have reappeared. I guess it's because of hammering in the split rivet. I was in doubt if I should just leave it and only fix it when the cracks become bigger. There's a reinforcement plate behind it, so it probably won't crack. But it kept bugging me so tonight I removed the split rivet and started scraping out the cracks. After the first layer of abs paste To be continued!

Congratulations! Now go get that EIB!

I'll make a picture for you when I do some more fitting tests.

Thanks Pat! Yes, it's the master replicas limited edition. I think it will look off, since the MR version is much more white than the anovos armor color.

I hope I don't forget pro-tip #2 when I start on my helmet . Good advice!

Thanks Kalani, I got the same advice on the Dutch Garrison forum which I have been granted access to. I made it thinner and applied it to some of the parts. It was easier to apply then my first brew, so fingers crossed.

Thanks Twan! Working hard to join the ranks!

One thing I noticed is that when I apply the abs paste I only have a very short time before it turns solid. Does making it thinner also keep it longer fluid?

Today I spent a lot of time on sanding. After evening it out with 240 grit, I continued wet sanding it with 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000. Then I used Novus 1 to clean, Novus 2 to remove remaining scratches and to get to shine back. Then finish with Novus 1 again. This worked pretty well, the abs surface was smooth and I got the shine back. I still have a bit of issues with the abs paste. Somehow I keep getting these air bubbles inside the paste. After sanding they appear again. I don't know if anything is wrong with my abs paste (too thick / too thin?). Most areas in which they appear will be covered by split rivets, but there's one area on the ab plate that is a bit more visible. I'm probably trying to get this too perfect. It's only visible if you look closely at the abs. It also on the side so mostly covered by my arm. The ammo boxes. The hole is a bit translucent bit it will be covered by the split rivet, so no issue. The thigh still has a hole after sanding, but since it will be hidden by the ammo boxes I'm trying to fill it again. In the kidney plate the damage is slightly visible but most of it will be hidden by the rivet. I still see some small cracks near it, so I think I have to use some more abs paste on it. The middle hole on the ab plate looks ok, will be hidden by the rivert. The top one had a lot of air gaps near the edge. So I reapplied some abs paste. The area is getting thinner here, so I can't keep sanding it forever.

Congratulations Kalani! Nice work on the helmet too. I'm curious to see how you are mounting the fans in the helmet.

I started sanding the abs paste areas. I used 180 and 240 grit to remove the excess abs paste. When it was flush I noticed small gaps in the area where the large hole was. It looks like there is some air trapped in the abs paste. I applied some more paste so I can sand it again. The kidney plate even had a larger hole where the abs paste was still soft. I glued a reinforcement piece on the back with E6000. Some glue came through the holes. I removed as much as I could but maybe the remainder reacted with the abs paste keeping it soft. The ab plate came out pretty good. At least it has a decent edge again. Still also some small air gaps. More paste (picture is a bit fuzzy) Now waiting for the abs paste to dry again.

Good job on repainting the entire helmet, respect! I don't have enough faith in my painting skills to try that yet. I will only repaint the frown. Btw Chris, I e-mailed Spalding and they sent me the M3.5 screws in an envelope with regular mail. I received them today. Thanks again for offering to help me with those.

After measuring the shoulder elastic length it was time to glue the shoulder covers. I also finished the shoulder straps. I fold the elastic for extra strength and to avoid pulling the snaps through the elastic. I glue the edge of the folded area with some E6000. I have no sewing machine so this seemed the easiest solution. I glued some 6 mm elastic to the back plate. They will hold the shoulder covers down in the back. Here's the result of the shoulder covers. Since I'm a small person there is only a small gap (10 - 15 mm) between the chest and back plate on the shoulders. So I glued the covers with 6 strips (including the large one) to the chest. This way the cover has equal length on the chest and back I'm pretty much done with the strapping. The white shoulder elastic is really short. There was just enough distance for the shoulder bell snap. I also made some biceps hooks for extra support. Now I have to find some time to start sanding the abs paste repaired areas. Then there's still work to be done on the helmet.

Hi Erwin! Feel free to PM me if you have questions.