jason10012

My belt from TKittell was waiting for me in the mail box when I got home. I ordered an off-white color for the TD. It was wrapped up in some plastic to protect it during shipping I removed it to take the picture, and I especially like the attention to every detail. Now that I have the canvas part of the belt I can get to work. I made sure to leave this note on the belt that TKittell had placed on it until I had it secured in the middle to the ammo belt so I wouldn't put it on wrong. First I folded the belt in half carefully so I wouldnt snap the plastic liner that he installs between the layers of fabric, then using my ruler I measured the halfway point creating a center mark where the center of the ammo belt will mount. Using a soldering iron I burned a hold through the belt and secured the ammo belt to the canvas belt using a pop rivet. I made sure to use washers on the back of the belt to help secure the rivets. Now that the center is secured I taped the ammo belt to the canvas to keep it straight and aligned, then I put on my compression suit and my torso armor pieces and after rubbing the right side male snap on the abdomen with a pencil I held the belt in the center, using the rivet as a guide, I pressed the belt onto the snap in order to make a mark. Now that I have the location of the snap I burned a hole through the belt with the soldering iron again. I took off my armor and set a female snap into the belt. I rubbed a pencil onto the left male snap on the abdomen and then put my armor back on again, after snapping the right snap into place I pulled the belt tight and making sure that there was a little bit of overlap on the center ab location, pressed the belt onto the other snap making another mark and then repeating the same process set the other female snap. I apologize for not taking pictures during these steps but its pretty straight forward and I was just wanting to get it done. I then for the last time tonight put my armor back on and attached the belt to ensure it was correct. While I was at it I attached my arm pieces and took some better pictures with all the views. Left arm spacing side, I think this is the first picture that shows my shims that I had to add right arm spacing back I still need to do some final trimming and fitting now that I have everything completed and I'm hoping to meet up with someone in the garrison one final time this weekend to get any final fitting suggestions and submit some better pictures to my GML so she can let me know what I need to fix prior to me doing the weathering. Now that I have the belt finished I just need to do one final thing. the center squares that hide the rivets. I cut them down to 1" square and glued them on and clamped them down.

I just wanted to take a moment and say thank you. Your thread has been invaluable during my build along with Ukswraths.

The last update for the day was to place some high density foam behind my left thigh and some to the front of my left shin in order to help keep the diamond plate from sliding underneath. I taped the foam in place first to ensure that I had the thickness correct and I had it in the right location. A couple of the things I've learned through my build that I'd like to point out is that if you think its hard to separate earth magnets try doing so with a touch of glue between them. I made sure to clean them off before stacking them after that. Clamps....if I'd only knew when I started how many I'd really need. I started the build with 10, now near the end I have 64 and could still use more. My garrison mates at Alpine have been the biggest help being able to attend a couple armor parties and just having those extra hands to help hold and size my armor. I'm still hoping for one final armor party to meet with them for some final adjustments with my armor on before I paint it. I'm looking to get my approval mid June if everything continues as it is now. I still need to get my pauldron and I havent ordered my pouches yet but I'm on the waiting list.

As my canvas belt will be here from TKittell tomorrow I wanted to make sure that my ammo belt was ready and that all I had to do was attach it. Using this diagram I found on FISD I trimmed it in preparation of mounting it. Next up was to finalize the elastic connections between my biceps and forearms

Well its been a few days again since I updated my build but I've still been doing everything I can to finish it up. While I was working on it I managed to find a new mascot on ebay and I had to get it. Its exactly what I'm building including the white pauldron and I havent seen many like them Now that I have a sergeant to watch over my build progress its on to what really matters the build itself. I still needed to do my thigh support system so thats where we'll begin today. I picked up a belt from a local thrift store, and a pair of belt supported suspenders from walmart. I learned after building the support system that I needed to hold the belt up as my thighs kept pulling my belt down and in turn my thighs. I glued in snap plates on the upper part of my thighs to begin. I then took some of the nylon webbing and folding over one end made a hold using my soldering iron and inserted a female snap. I connected the snap to the plate in my thigh and put them on making sure to mark the location of the snap plate on the outside of the thigh with painters tape. I pulled the webbing up and looped it around my belt and using more painters tape marked the length I needed. Next I undid the snap and made another hole and inserted a male snap just above the female one used to snap into the thigh. Now comes the fun part, I needed to mark the location of the female snap while my thigh is on. This was fairly tricky but I managed to get it done. This is how it looks. I left a long bit at the end in order to have something to grab onto when I took off the thighs. Next up was to sew on the snap plates for the shoulder armor. I marked the center location of the webbing while I was setting the snaps in to connect my back can chest pieces. In order to know how long the elastic needed to be to make the connection from the shoulder to the webbing I needed to put the torso on again. First I put a female snap into some black elastic and snapped it into the snap plate on the shoulder, I then put my torso together and hung it from a hanger. I held my shoulder armor 1/2" from the webbing and measured the length of the elastic then cut it and burned the edges with a lighter. Last step was to mark the location of the sew in snap plate and then sew them in. The sew in snaps I got from walmart and they came with the chrome and black colors. I used them how I did to help minimize them being seen. Shoulders done, biceps next. Bicep hooks. These were far easier than I had anticipated and I'd been putting it off. I had some left over 15mm cover plate material that was about 3" long. In order to make the hooks I held a lighter under the plastic about an inch while holding it with a pair of pliers. I did this near my kitchen sink with some cold water running. I kept moving the ligher back and forth until the plastic started to bend on its own and then carefully I bent it over into a 45 degree angle and then holding it I ran it under the water to set it in place. I did the same thing with the elastic by putting a female snap into one end and snapping it into the remaining snap plate on the shoulder . Next was to measure down into the bicep and cut off the elastic and glue it in place. The connection from my biceps to my forearms are left. I took some sew on velcro, hook side, and sewed it onto more elastic that was approximately 6' in length. The remaining elastic I plan on gluing into the biceps once all the other connections cure. This way I can adjust my forearms and take them on and off easier which will also help when I'm trying to put on the kit. As a sandtrooper my ab buttons are slightly different. Although the CRL says it can either be a 3 or a 4 button the higher levels call for 3 buttons. My AM kit came with 2 plates, one of which I gave to LoveMonkey as hes trying to reach Level 2 certification in case he needs it. I trimmed this down and glued it into place. I got another present in the mail the other day as well. The power supply to run my fans. For size comparision I plan on running 4 fans inside my bucket similar to Ukswrath. I'm still working on setting it up and I'll take pictures of my set up once its done and I can confirm it works and is hidden but the plan is to hide the push button switches inside my chest plate near the left edge so that while suited up I can reach the buttons easier to turn them on and off. The battery pack will be mounted inside my chest plate as well making sure to leave room for 10w voice booster audio system and ICOMM (although I'm not 100% sure on the ICOMM yet if I actually want it). I plan to use 2.0 USB cable from my chest plate to my bucket for an easy connection. On a side note I've been testing the power supply hooked up to a single 5v fan and as of this post its ran for 15 hours and its only drained half the power from the battery. I plan on estimating the run time divided by 4 to get a round about number of hours that I will be able to run all of my fans. I know it wont be completely accurate but I'll at least have an idea as it will vary depending on if I'm running 2 or 4 fans at a time. Now the last pictures of the night, and I apologize for my mirror I know its kinda hard to see but you can get an idea of my progess. Belt will be here Monday so I can finish that up. I need to put some foam behind my left thigh and some in the front of my left shin to keep the diamond plate from getting stuck behind my thigh and then do some final fitting and adjustments then start making it dirty.

Oh how I know the meaning of "you're trying to reach the higher levels but at some point you'll just be happy for basic approval" that I've heard from a few garrison mates. I ordered my armor exactly a month ago today and I probably still have at least another 3 weeks to go as I wait for my belt and pauldron which I ordered today but I wont be able to order my pouches I'll need till next week. I'm hoping to have it all before I start to weather my armor but if not I can always do it after. I don't have many pictures tonight I feel that most of what I worked on tonight didn't need to be documented. On to tonights updates , I assembled my torso armor and finally set the final snap on the cod strap and while I was wearing it I marked the center location on the shoulder straps so I can sew in the shoulder bell snaps, which I had full intention of doing tonight until I realized that I did not have a needle in which to do it lol. Oh well I'll stop at walmart on the way home tomorrow. The biceps were finally fully enclosed and I removed the clamps and cleaned up the glue and realized that when I tried to put them on, because of how I need to do a twisting motion, the 15mm cover strips weren't enough to hold them closed and one of them popped open. Thankfully I still have all my scrap abs that I've cut off so I cut inner cover strips for them and glued them in on both sides of the biceps as well as re-glued the cover strip that didn't hold at the same time. Once I can actually try them and make sure they fit correctly I plan on getting some CA glue, and if needed some zap a gap, to make sure they don't pop open again. Its something I'd like to have on hand anyways in case I have to make any in the field repairs as well. Because of the issue I had with my biceps I also plan on adding inner cover strips to my thighs as well. Next up was to tackle my thighs and do some final fitting. I ended up cutting an additional 1/2" off the left thigh around the back and about 3/4" off the top center. For my right thigh I ended up cutting about 2" off the back of the thigh as this was about the same amount that I'd cut off the left one. As always I made sure by checking multiple times before I made any cuts and I was wearing my compression. I also double checked how they looked while wearing my torso pieces as well. While I was doing the trimming I took off all of the return edge along the bottom of the shins that I'd left, it simply had to go if I wanted to actually be able to walk and I was getting an armor bite from it. I'd previously trimmed down my left shin about 1/2" along the bottom because it was too long and while fitting my left leg tonight I feel that it looks good and its the right length. Now I did run into an issue while fitting my shin. The diamond plate bites/rubs into my knee cap. I've added 4 spacers behind the plate already to get it off my knee but I don't know if I can add more or if I should just pry it off and lower it on down on the shin. If anyone has a suggestion I'd love to hear it. Here are some pictures to help see what I'm talking about. I actually don't have an issue with how close the plate is to my thigh when it comes to walking

I haven't gotten any wash cloths yet but I've managed to get my hands on a couple brushes and the paint colors that LoveMonkey used to weather his armor and contacted the same garrison member SL-0096 who helped him do the weathering. Our GML can be picky as you've seen with the gaps on my ears but at the end of the day it just makes us all look better. I'm just trying to minimize having to redo it as much as possible haha

I just want to take a second and say thanks for making this thread. I've been following it for awhile now and I changed my whole fan setup because of you and couldn't be happier.

In order to do the shoulder strapping I taped on the ridged shoulder bridges as if I was making as stormtrooper. I did this because I had originally sized my torso with these shoulder bridges so I knew that if I taped the bridges on with the big ridges and 3 smaller ridges onto the chest piece that i had an even 4 ridges on the back piece. Now that I have the distance I need I hung up the torso and rubbed some pencil lead onto the male snaps located on the chest piece and then took the shoulder straps and pressed it onto the snap making a mark so I knew where I needed to put my next snaps in. In the picture I've already used the soldering iron to make the holes but you can still get an idea of how I did it. Now this is a little out of order but before I glued on the inner strapping for the right side male snap I had to take a picture with my bucket. I still need to sew in the snap for the shoulder bells and figure out how long that strap needs to be. While I was working on all this strapping I also had to remove the lower shoulder bell snap plates I'd glued in yesterday because I wasn't thinking when I put them in and today I realized that they were going to be too low and that I needed to raise them which I wouldn't know until I wore my shoulder bells with my biceps, thankfully I'm using E6000. Now that my torso is mostly complete too I can also do some final fittings on my thighs to make sure that I have them low enough that I can walk but still high enough that I look good. I also need to glue in the snap plates for the suspension system to hold them up. If all goes accordingly I should be able to finally wear all my armor at the same time by the end of this week and not just a piece here and there. I've also ordered my belt from TKittell, and paycheck permitting tomorrow, I will order my shoulder pauldron and at least 2 of the ammo pouches I will need for basic approval, hopefully I'll be lucky enough to be able to afford all 3 to emulate the TD I'm wanting to do if I ever want to try to reach SWAT. And for any of you that could potentially be reading my build thread that are already at the SWAT level my hat is off to you. By no means is that even a remotely easy task to attempt to recreate the weathering that was seen in ANH on any specific trooper.

Another day, another post full of updates. I finally closed up my biceps after cleaning off the glue from the previous side. Another 24 hours and all of my armor will have been sized and now I just need to do some final trimming to length. Now I knew it was only going to be a matter of time before it happened but it finally did, while trying to get some earth magnets unstuck from some glue I managed to slice my thumb. Thankfully I have bandaids Now time to finish up the strapping. First I taped the sides together so I could determine the length of the interior strapping. As you can see in the photo I've also installed the split rivets. This is how I did all the strapping lengths. First I set a female snap into the strapping and snap it into one of the snaps. I pull the strapping over to the other snap and then using a sharp center punch poke a hole in the center of the corresponding male snap, cut the strapping about an inch from this snap and then remove it. I then make sure to use a lighter and melt the ends to prevent fraying. Using a soldering iron I poke a hole through the strapping and then set another female snap and then reconnect it. I didn't forget the cod plate split rivet while I was putting in the side rivets. Again none of these are functional just there for screen accuracy even as a sandtrooper. I still need to paint the 6 rivets on the side of the ab and kidney white but the one in the cod piece does not get painted. Now that the left side strapping is done I still need to finish up the right side. I'm making the male snap on the upper abdomen functional. I marked the strapping location so I knew where to glue it into place and making sure that it lined up properly with the snap I glued it in.

The end is starting to appear in the distance as I cut my biceps tonight, which means I have trimmed every piece of armor other than my ammo belt, which I will do once I finally order my belt from TKittell next week. Besides now that I'm going TD I need to determine which ammo belt to use. Started the day with yet another troop, surprise surprise. Yes Alpine Garrison gets a lot of requests for events which is something I love. Started home and on the way got a text from LoveMonkey that he was going to do an impromptu armor party this afternoon to help another cadet with somethings our GML had noticed. So ran home, ate and left for his house with my tote full of armor. I didn't actually work on my armor but we looked at it and discussed some changes or things I should do but so far it looks like I'm on the right track. One of the things LoveMonkey suggested was the same thing Airborne Trooper said was to add snap plates on either side of the butt and kidney pieces so that they wouldn't flare out. So after making more snap plates it was a simple mark and glue them into place. I plan on making the 3 split rivets on the kidney and ab pieces NON functional so I'm simply going to put them all in, as well as the one in the cod piece, and then make more snap plates for those areas to close my armor. I like being able to completely break my armor down like some of the members of my Garrison. It will also help once I build my backpack to allow it all to hopefully all fit inside my tote. Working on the biceps was the same as all the other pieces up to this point. I put on my compression gear and grabbed the tape and off I went. Its taken some time to get them to fit properly and its a big reason up to this point I still haven't finished them. I have to twist them to get them on and off but they fit fairly snug with little gap and maybe if I need to I can give them a hot water bath to shape them more into a round shape I will later. Here's what I cut off Now that everything is cut, its also time to glue on more snap plates, 2 for each shoulder bell. I've also had to remove the diamond plate for the TD and using some of the extra abs for the cover strips I've had to make a stack of 4 strips to angle the plate so my knee doesn't hit it. I've also glued on the front and rear cover strips for the biceps which I'd already had cut, thankfully I have a decent amount of clamps. I need to finish fitting my thighs and shins for length and add the snap plates onto the thighs so I can attach them to a waist belt, add the snap plates onto the biceps, once I finish closing them, and make the biceps hooks. Reattach the diamond plate and glue on some 1" black elastic between my biceps and forearms and I should be good to finally put on all my armor for the first time. I've already sent a message to Trooper1 on the MEPD boards for my pauldron which I plan on ordering next week hopefully. Belt from TKittell will be ordered next week as well which will leave my pouches and the paint to make my armor dirty. The goal is definitely within reach just a little farther .

Oh I've already started looking at pictures of the TD I'm doing, the Docking Bay 94 v2, the harder one to see haha

Still going strong up next was to fit the 2" white nylon webbing to my back plate for my shoulder connections. I took the webbing and I cut it in half and then tapped it to the back piece and then using the chest piece I draped it over my shoulders and made sure they lined up. I'm not too worried about the length at this point just that they match up with my chest piece. After making sure they looked right I marked the inside of the back plate for each strap and then removed the tape and glued them in place using the marks as a guide to ensure I put them back in the right locations. Sorry I know this picture is a little blurry but you can get the idea of how I did it Before I glued them in I cut off about 1-1/2" off the end of each strap to use as a snap plate on the chest piece. I added the snaps using the same method as before.

Onward with the build, now we have droids to find! I haven't worked on my build in a couple days, one day due to donating plasma and the other was yes another event. The event this time was for the microsoft store as they were raising money for make a wish. I've made a fair bit of progress today as I took the day off of work because I had to much vacation saved up and I needed to use some but it came at a perfect time. First I removed the shoulder bridges that I had already glued on, They came off pretty easily by just sliding a razor knife between the seams and gently prying them apart. I then cleaned up the chest piece and removed any remaining glue and then it was on to the next step. I had to repaint my bucket as well, those pesky black strips in the rear traps and the tears had to go if I wanted to be a TD, so out came the paint and it was easily covered up with a couple coats. I also managed to get the ears sanded down a little flusher with the tubes and got them remounted on the bucket before I repainted it and took more pictures for my GML but I'm sure the gaps will be just fine now. I put the bucket in another room so the paint could dry just to be safe and kept going. I got the elastic for the biceps glued in as well as the diamond knee plate for the left shin. Now onto the fun part, the interior strapping and making the what feels like thousand connections. I started with the butt and kidney pieces and lined them back up with my original marks that I could still see after gluing in the snap plates using painters tape to hold them together. I then using my soldering iron melted a hole into some 1" wide black nylon strapping material. This is the same material I used for the snap plates. After making the hole I placed a female snap together and carefully hammered it onto the webbing. I then snapped it onto the center snap and pulling it down and using a sharp center punch marked the location of the opposite male snap. Next I cut the strapping about an inch below this snap so I would have a pull tab if I ever needed to unsnap the parts and using a lighter melted the ends to prevent fraying. Back to the soldering iron to make the next hold and then placing another female snap into this hole I repeated the process. This is how I did each connection for the butt to kidney, kidney to back as well as the chest to abdomen connections. I also made sure to make an additional female snap so that I could use the male snap in the upper abdomen area functional in closing up the torso sections.

lol TD's are just cooler period! Yes I will admit that when I started this whole journey I wanted nothing more than to be a stormtrooper because they are so iconic, but as you troop more and more as a spotter you get a perspective that to me was invaluable. I've been able to see how each and every person interacts with a sandtrooper and hear all the jokes about looking for droids and when you get some TK's with a TD its clear how much a TD truly stands out from the sea of white, even without a backpack so ultimately I had to switch. Now for the record I still love those shiny whites and maybe in the future I'll come back and actually build one, as they do have some privileges that some of the other costumes dont but to me those are minimal and just wasn't worth it.

Ok just a quick post for anyone following my thread. At this point in my build I have done everything to reach centurion level as a TK. I'm still in the process of sanding down the seams to smooth them out after adding the required shims to my kidney piece and I will post pictures of my progress when I'm finished but from this point on my build will be TD-Sandtrooper and no longer TK. In order to accomplish this I will have to remove the shoulder bridges that I've already glued onto the chest piece but that shouldn't be too much of an issue as I've been using E6000 for my entire build. I will try to keep both threads updated as I've started a build thread on MEPD as well, this will be the primary thread but I plan on using the other thread as a place to ask questions relevant to a TD. Here is my Thread on MEPD: http://forum.mepd.net/index.php?showtopic=14554

Onward we go. I got the ab buttons trimmed and now I just need to paint and glue them onto the abdomen. I took out the plastic belt and wrapped it around the abdomen and made a mark on each side where it would sit behind the plastic and be able to hold up the belt. I still need to order the canvas belt but I've been waiting till I finally got an accurate measurement, which I now know is 49", yes I'm a little round . I took out the drill and then added the male snaps. I also put in the side snap for centurion requirements. I plan on making this snap functional to hold the top half of the abdomen and kidney pieces together and the belt will hold the lower half. Next, double check the fit of the chest and back pieces while I have the shoulder bridges taped on. I trimmed the chest piece to match the width of the bridges. I also did this to help the chest piece sit flatter. Checked to see how much overlap there was on the back piece and then traced around the shoulder bridge. I plan on trimming down the sides a little bit on the back piece so they line up with the shoulder bridges better and so its easier to tie the small white elastic around the shoulder bridges. Glued on the snap plates to attach the chest to the abdomen. And then glued on the shoulder bridges to the chest piece. I made sure to use alot of glue because I didn't glue in any strips to the back of the bridges like I've seen some people do in their build threads. Now its time to wait for everything to dry again. I can see the end in sight with my build but it feels like a lifetime away still. I can also see why people only got for basic approval as well due the the increased amount of work to reach centurion but that being said I don't understand why every trooper wouldn't want to look their best and achieve the best standards they could. I still need to attach the sniper plate, buy a canvas belt, trim and attach the abs plate to the canvas, mount the drop boxes, build the thermal detonator, attach the elastic to the inside of my biceps and finally get my biceps rounded out more so I can actually wear them. My biceps in their current state, race track as its been put on here by everyone, wont work for me. I need to get them more rounded so they'll sit where they need to be.

Unfortunately the first piece I needed to use the ABS paste on was one of my ears. During the process of making the gap smaller on both ears I managed to put a crack on the back of the left ear. I tapped off around the crack and applied the small bead of paste onto the ear. I plan on waiting 24 hours before I attempt to sand any of the paste. Not because thats what I've read or even heard recommended but just something I'm doing to make sure the paste is fully set so when I do sand it I hopefully dont end up with any more issues. Now I did have to use paste on the shims for my kidney as well so here are the before and after pictures. Again I haven't sanded anything yet. Also as you can see in those pictures I have the holes for the split rivets drilled out. I taped the pieces together to make sure they lined up where they should. All the holes are 10mm from the edge where the kidney and abdomen meet. The top rivet is 20mm from the top and the bottom is 20mm from the edge on the abdomen. The center rivet I evenly divided between the two.

Ok back at it, couple days worth of updates so the next couple posts might be all over the place with what I worked on. I'm going to start with my shins. I finally got the front 20mm cover strips glued on as well as an inner cover strip along the front to give it some added strength for when I open and close them. I also managed to get the back trimmed to fit my legs, of course with my compression pants and TKboots on. I finally got the rear 20mm cover strip glued on and its currently waiting its 24 hr glue time. Also to note I did make sure that I glued the cover strips on so that the calves open up on the inside towards the opposite leg and I plan to use velcro to close them. Next up I needed to make some abs paste. I knew I was going to have to add shims to my armor from the beginning so I've been saving all of my scrap abs that I've trimmed off, I was just hoping that I wouldn't need the shims haha. So off to the local thrift store where I managed to pick up a small jar with a lid that seals for a whopping 50 cents. I then cut up some of the scraps and placed them in the jar. Based on what I've read here on FISD I picked up some pure acetone from sally beauty supply, Heres what the bottle looks like in case anyone is wanting to know. I poured approximately 1/2" worth of acetone into the jar on top of the abs scraps and using a wood stick, I also got at Sally Beauty supply, I made sure to stir the contents of the jar very so often and when I wasn't stirring I made sure the lid was on tightly. I kept stirring the abs off and on from friday night till sunday when I finally used the paste. Like usual I volunteered to be a spotter at a couple events for Saturday which included a Star Raising for a child at the Make A Wish center here in in Utah. I had never been to an event like that and it was quite the experience and very touching to be a part of, especially watching Lord Vader hand over a Light Saber to the young boy that had been donated from a local company and just watching the smile come across his face. It made me want my armor that much more. We were accompanied by Rogue Base and the Madalorian Merc clubs as well. Sunday and now were back at building armor. The paste has been mixing for 2 days and now its time to use it. This is how it looked when I opened the jar. I took a small piece out using the wooden stick and kneaded it between my fingers to hopefully reduce the air bubbles that have plagued a few others and got out my first piece that I needed to use on.

What did you use to Polish the armor?

I actually have two days worth of updates tonight I was just too tired from work and and spending the night sanding and cutting my armor last night to post any updates. I've been working on my thighs still trying to get another piece close to being done other than strapping and final fitment. I started with the thigh ammo pack clamping it down to a board and cut off a couple milimeters on each side. I then wraped it around the right thigh to see how long it was and if I needed to trim anything off the ends. Of course it was longer than expected and I ended up cutting about 40mm off each end. I also needed to round the lower corners so I took my thermal detonator tube and traced the outline onto the ammo pack and then cut it out. I then wrapped it around the lower thigh again and tried to hold it in place along one side to make a mark. I measured and the mark was approximately 10mm from the edge which I then transferred to the other side to make sure they were even. I then drilled out the first side trying to keep the hole centered in the raised edge on the thigh. I then mounted the ammo belt to the thigh using double cap rivets that I got from Justjoseph63 from his ongoing sales thread here, http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/34902-centurion-level-rivet-sets-for-sale/ To actually press the two sides together I just used a pair of adjustable pliers by first setting them to the widest opening pressing the rivets together and then switching to the smaller adjustment and repeating the process to seat them completely. Make sure to place some tape over the cap rivets on the outside of the armor so you don't mark them up. Now that I have the first side is mounted I wrapped the ammo pack back around the thigh and drilled out the location for the second cap rivet and installed it using the same technique. Now that the ammo pack is mounted I put on my compression pants and test fitted my thighs. I ended up cutting off about an inch off the top of both thighs to get them to not completely cover up my knees. I traced around the tops of the thighs with a pencil following the edges and then carefully used an exacto knife to cut along the line and then snap off the excess plastic. I only cut off about 1/2" of plastic at a time to try to make sure that I wasn't cutting off to much. Now that the tops were trimmed and sanded it was time to see how well I could walk. I held up the thighs with my hands and tried to take my first step and well I would be fine if I never have to bend my knees haha. After a quick review of some centurion applications for verification I cut out the back of the thighs as much as I dared and tried them back on. Good news is now I can bend my knees and walk but I doubt I'll be able to handle any stairs as I still cant fully bend my knees. Onward to my shins, this was just a quick and simple gluing the two halves together on the inner shim piece. After 24 hours I'll glue on the front 20mm cover strip and by Sunday I'll be able to double check my fitment marks I made at the armor party before I actually trim the back of them. While I had the glue out I also glued on the last three nylon snap plates onto the kidney piece so that once I finish with the seam lines, from the shims I had to add, I can start to work on my interior strapping.

That's definitely an idea to add the return edge and wouldn't be very hard to do, for now I'm not too concerned with return edges on the shims since the belt will cover most of the bottom area anyways. But the top edges are something I can come back too after I get approved to help make my armor look that much better. I will admit though I'm not looking forward to making abs paste and having to try to sand it down until its smooth and the seams are gone.

Well another day has passed and here I am posting the next piece of my build. I know its only been a little over a week but it feels like I've been working on my armor for an eternity but I know once its finally done that I'll miss every cut. So tonight I started with my thighs getting them closed in fully. Its not exactly fun to try to glue the pieces together by yourself especially with such a big piece of your armor but you quickly learn how to hold it while simultaneously managing to clamp both ends. I used tape to hold them closed on the front as well. I unclamped the kidney piece next and took it over to my table, and after verifying which end was up, marked out the 22mm x 22mm notches that I needed to cut out. Of course I know I need to still make the joint seamless but I figured it would be just as easy with the notches cut out. Continuing with the kidney I got out my ruler so that I could mark up the 3 rivets on the left side of the piece. I didn't drill the holes for the rivets as of yet because I wanted to ask the community here if it looks right first before I need to make even more abs paste for the kidney. The measurements I used are as follows: - 10mm from the edge to the center line where the rivets will be - 20mm from the top edge to the center of the top rivet - 20mm from the top edge of the notch to the center of the bottom rivet - center rivet I split the difference evenly between the top and bottom I haven't even tried to see if these measurements line up with the abdomen piece yet and I will check to see how it looks before I actually drill the holes and if I have anymore questions I'll post them. The last thing I did with the kidney piece was to glue on 3 of the 6 snap plates that join the back together. I have plenty of clamps that I could actually clamp both sides but I only have a few of the ones shown in the picture that will fit around the armor and return edge and hold the nylon plates down evenly. Next up was to return to the butt piece, I still need to attach the 2 male snaps. I measured the bottom to get the center and then held up one of the snaps and took my pencil and traced the inside of the hole. I then made a mark with a center punch so the drill bit wouldn't wander around as I started to drill and made my first hole. I repeated the process for the second hole keeping both snaps fairly close together, and yes that is a printed copy of the CRL underneath . I have to admit that at the end of the night and I'm working on this thread that I don't realize how much I managed to get done on my armor and at the same time I never realized just how complex a stormtrooper actually was. Like many I thought they were all the same, and now I catch myself watching any of the OT movies in freeze frame studying each and every trooper on the screen haha. I've also gotten word back from my GML about the gap on the ears, and after a few emails back and forth were probably going to meet up for lunch so that she can look at the bucket in person and let me know if I need to work on the ears more and reduce the gap. If she wants me to work on them some more then I'll make sure to post new pictures once I get them to where she wants. The other plus side of having her see the bucket is that I can get her blessing on my paint job and finally seal the paint so I wont have to worry about it anymore since I have been waiting on doing that until I got approved and my TK number .

Not sure if I'm wanting to go all out like tony, although his setups make me feel like a kid in a candy store and I spend more time drooling than actually working on my armor haha, I'm only planning on doing fans at this time but I can always upgrade later.

Well another day has passed and one step closer to being done. I managed to get my thighs glued together along the front and clamped up, and another 24 hour wait and I can glue the back cover strips and close up the thighs. I think I'll need to shorten them up but I'm not fully sure and I'll be able to tell once they're fully glued and cured. Now while I have the e6000 out I got the back piece out and glued on the 3 snaps so I can attach it to the kidney piece Next up was to glue the shims to the kidney plate Once the glue dries I'll still have to drill out the 3 split rivets, cut out the 22mm x 22mm notches, add the snap to the upper left side and make up some abs paste and make the joints where the shims meet the kidney plate disappear in order to reach centurion. Sometimes I wonder what I was thinking wanting to go centurion but then I remember its not really that much more and why shouldn't I look my best not only for me but for the 501st and my local garrison. Now that I have all the glue drying it was time to get back to my bucket and see if I could close up that gap on the right ear (as you look at the bucket) and as my CO suggested I do to ensure me getting approved. I got out my dremel and sanded the curvature of the ear piece to try to match the curve of the tube on the cheek more. I had to add a 4th screw on the right side to pull the cheek pieces closer together, again to help try to reduce the gap in the ear area. I also moved the ear down a little bit, which I've seen on numerous build threads, not because they had a similar issue, but because it was where the ear wanted to sit on its own which also helped to reduce the gap. This is what it looks like now, Here is the other side to use as comparison I can probably get it a little tighter if needed, I did send both of these pictures to my GML to see if the gaps are ok or if I need to close them up some more. I also sent an email to troopergear to see if I could get a set of untrimmed ears in case I have no other means of getting it to where they need to be in order to be 501st approved. In the hopes that I don't have to do anymore work on the ears I managed to work on the inside of the bucket as well. I cut down the screw posts that attach the hovi tips so that my chin wouldn't smack into them when I was putting on or taking off my bucket. I got into my 2" white velcro, leaving enough to close my shins, I took the rest and headed to my bucket. I ordered a 3/4" ACH helmet liner system off of ebay which arrived today. I got the center piece in and then I took strips of the painters tape, rolling them back onto each other to make them double sided sticky, I placed them into the bucket where I wanted or needed to put a helmet pad and then pressed one of the pads onto them. I continued this process until I got all the pads I needed to hold my bucket securely onto my head and in the right positions. Once I knew where all the pads were going I cut strips of velcro and attached them to the inside of the bucket, and to the helmet pads and reinserted them. I made sure that the pads had some ability of adjustment just in case I did need to move them a little bit later on as well. After all the fun with the ears and now the interior of the bucket I also had to drill new holes to mount the lens material because once I slid the ear down I had to drill new holes which now no longer lined up with the lens, yay. I also had to cut out a notch for my nose after mounting the helmet pads. I tried to make sure I would have enough room along the backside of the helmet so that I can install an Anker battery pack to run a couple fans and switches. I'm sure I'll need some fans to help keep the lenses from fogging up considering they were slightly fogging while I was fitting the pads. I did try to wear the bucket with my glasses now that its alot closer to being finished, but thats not going to happen my glasses push into my face and nose but I can live without wearing them .