Cricket

Hello Elmar! Yep, the shoulder bells of the RS kit are massive. I dealt with them here: https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/38416-crickets-rs-stunt-build-for-the-vertically-challenged/?do=findComment&comment=515911 Regarding the forearms, I was told to line them up at the elbows and cut from the wrists to even them out. It's a quirk of the RS suit. The shins! They made me crazy. The RS kit doesn't have a complete set of a left and right shin. I seem to recall that there is one 'complete' shin, and the other has a duplicate half... I don't know which one is which anymore. I ended up putting mine together with what seemed to fit to me. Maybe someone else can chime in here?

I've got a Hyperfirm for my EIB/Centurion submissions, and a Hasbro/Doopys conversion with electronics to troop with (because it goes pewpewpew with lights and the kids love it!). I've also got a Jawa Ion blaster with electronics (Lee Enfield conversion), and a T-21 in progress. Blasters are addictive!

Here's the link to ShaSha's build: https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/42868-sha-shas-wtf-anh-stunt-build-complete/?tab=comments#comment-574174 Congrats on your BBB day! Looking forward to watching your build.

I found a shortcut.... I ditched the drill entirely and make my holes by hand with a step bit. The ABS is crazy easy to make holes with no effort by hand. This is the one I use the most.

TRUTH!!!!! ^^^^^^

Hey Lindsey, I'm wondering why you applied the ABS paste all over the outside of your armor to attach your cod? I know it'll be hidden by the belt, but you could have kept things clean on the outside by applying the ABS to the inside seams. Just curious!

You look great! Awesome! About that thigh, can you share a few pics of how it looks when you're not wearing it? I'm guessing that your issue might have something to do with how it's trimmed at the top... and it's rotating to where the natural dip in the armor is occuring in between the thighs.

Congrats TK-21615!!!! You look amazing! Are you planning on submitting for your EIB? If not, you definitely should.

The WTF kit is smaller than the RS kit that I previously built. So my assumptions of cutting the same amounts and in the same locations for a Luke suit were way off. While the kit I have been building fits me well, I'm not getting the "Hero Luke look" that I was going for. Which is why I ended up buying new ab and kidney/butt plates. To me, I see that the Luke suit has a cut chest and back, but the rest hasn't been altered much. The belt sits high, and the ab buttons sit higher because the cod hasn't been cut down. The kidney and butt plates haven't been cut down. And the lower part of the chest flares out quite a bit. So off I go to assemble untrimmed ab and kidney/butt plate parts again! I ended up having to make new returns on the kidney and butt plate because the WTF kit has these as an 'all-in-one'. Thankfully, I've done this more than a few times before, and it took me less than an hour to make spiffy new returns on those parts using a heat gun. No pics because you've most likely seen that all before from me. Next, it's time to shape things together. I've got the back pieces gaffer-taped together before shaping. None of the parts have been trimmed in these photos. I wanted to shape the parts to a bit more oval-torso shape before making any trims for size. My goal is to get the halves meeting together on their own. This will result in less strain on the strapping and reduces likelihood of cracks on the armor. So much flare! I used a large lobster pot to boil water and was easily able to dip my full-sized parts into it. I avoid the heat gun for this because boiling water is much more forgiving and does the trick nicely. I don't insert the entire piece into the water, but rather dip just what I want to curve. So for the ab, I only dip to here: And the kidney, I only dip to where my hand is because I don't want the middle part to curve: It took less than an hour of dipping and cooling to get the halves meeting together nicely. Here's a nifty before and after: I shaped the butt plate a little bit on one side, but forgot to take pics of that. The flare on the butt plate doesn't need the kind of attention that the kidney does. I also flared out the chest piece as well on the ends a bit. The lower part of the chest on the Luke Hero doesn't curve around the torso very well, so I flattened the bottom sides of my WTF chest a little. This has resulted in the chest now feeling too wide when wearing it, so I'll need to shave off some of the the sides of the chest near the arms to fit.

Mr. Cricket bought a wireless mic setup for me a few months ago that I keep forgetting about! Thanks for the reminder... I will be sure to rig it up in my Hero lid as I get closer to the end of that build.

It hooks behind my ear, actually. The tape part is just to keep the arm of the microphone in place. The mic can shift around when you've got the bucket on, and I have yet to be able to readjust it easily without removing the lid. So a little bit of tape, and it's good for the whole troop. My battery is velcroed inside my helmet. It took a little bit of trial and error to find where it would work best for my head. It's secured vertically at the back of my helmet, kind of at the center back of my head. I think I chose that location because it balanced the helmet well in that spot and because it fit nicely there among the padding bits. Other troopers probably do other setups... experiment to find what works best for you! I'm still considering sewing together a white pouch to hide my amp in that I can wear on my belt. I like keeping it hidden on the armor, too. Not everyone may be able to hide an amp in their ab... the chest plate seems to be a popular (if feedback-prone) choice. haha! Thank you! I was running around during a break grabbing selfies with other troopers. Very surprised to find that my rubber gloves work well with my smartphone. Bonus!

I don't like balaclavas during warm troops because they just make me too warm. I like wearing a stretchy cap instead. I have to be more careful with tucking my hair away when I wear the cap, but it's doable. My preferred way to keep my hair secured when trooping is with a French braid. I tuck the end of the braid under at the base of my neck with a few bobby pins. The nice thing about a French braid is that you don't have to deal with the lump of the ponytail base interfering with your padding. See below. When I don't have time to do a braid, I pull it back in a ponytail, securing somewhere on the middle of my head. I have to alter the position of the ponytail so that the padding doesn't interfere with the base of the ponytail. When I wear a full balaclava, I can pull my hair back in a low ponytail and tuck it into my neckseal because the balaclava covers everything. I have done a French twist as well. But the lump of hair that the twist causes is sometimes as uncomfortable as the ponytail lump.

I do similar to what Luc and Pretzel do. Mic goes on, then balaclava (or head covering of your choice). I run my mic wire under the neckseal and down my shirt, with it exiting at the bottom of the shirt. The cord is more than long enough for this. I use a little tape to secure the mic in place. In this pic, I had moved the mic away from my mouth, but I usually keep the end piece taped much closer. I used to put my Icomm and Aker amp in my chest plate. I had issues with it giving me feedback sometimes, though. For my most recent troop, I relocated the Aker amp to my ab plate (think just behind the ab button box), and problem solved! I now can have my amp up fairly loud (best in crowded, outdoor, noisy troops), and I can be heard easily. Woo! I still can't hear myself very much over my fans, but I'm currently working on a better (quieter) fan setup that should solve that. Congrats on your progress! Almost there!

Yeah, that sentence is awkward... I built the patio furniture in less than a week. The kids took a little longer to put together. And I'm going to finally mention that your avatar pic with your baby BB-8 just melts my heart every time I see it. So much cuteness!

I always appreciate good c-section humor! When life throws unwanted things at me, I always try to find some sort of humor in them. I never had a choice about my c-sections (I was pretty upset about this) because both my kids were breech (my kids really wanted to be different even before they were born!). One of my Steven Wright favorites: "I'm addicted to placebos. I'd give them up, but it wouldn't make any difference." Thanks for the laugh!

I can't see them, either. All I see are logos for bilderhoster.net.

Yeee haaawwww!!! I opened the door this morning and discovered my replacement parts have arrived!!!! So much happy happy joy joy!!! I can finally recommence with the build. The clock is ticking for me because I'm scheduled for hernia surgery in June and I won't be able to do much of anything for a while after that. I had two c-sections with my kids, and built a patio set in less than a week (all by myself!)... Building and moving the furniture caused the hernia on my c-section scar. The patio set is pretty nice, though... and I now call it, "The Hernia Collection": Time to cut some plastic now!

Very jealous that you have access to such an amazing workspace. Looking forward to the weathering!

One suggestion is to wear your undersuit when test fitting your kit. Your kit will fit you differently when you're all compressed into the black gear! You'll be able to make the most accurate sizing this way. Whenever sizing a kit down, remember that you need to keep things in proportion if you want the overall armor to look balanced. If you're bringing the cod up, you'll also need to reduce the size of the kidney (cut from the bottom only!), and the back plate (also cut from bottom only!). After making these trims, you will find that you'll need to trim the chest down to keep things in visual balance. Try to keep the ab buttons in the center of your chest- somewhere just below your sternum and just above your belly button. Once you've got that locked in, you can then see where the chest plate would naturally line up. You want the ridge detail on the chest to fall somewhere in the middle of your breast. For me, I needed to trim the neck line (because the chest ridge line needed to come up, and the neck was cutting into my throat), the bottom of the chest (because it was sitting on top of the ab button boxes), and the sides of the chest plate (because it was too wide and my shoulder bells kept hooking on to them). As always, trim conservatively, and test fit, test fit, test fit!

I wouldn't worry about smoothing out the Dremel nicks until your build is pretty much done. If you must do it now, I'd opt for Novus 3,2,1. Smoothing it out with a small amount of acetone can work, but it'll leave a super duper shiny finish that you'll have to blend into the ABS. When in doubt, test on a piece of scrap ABS first. And don't stress too much on the details of the tops of those biceps. They will be covered by the shoulder bells, and no one will ever see them.

Hey Lindsey, good to see you back on the build! I've always seem to have understood that you should line up your forearms at the tops, not the bottoms. You're going to be cutting off or trimming the bottoms anyhow. And there's detail at the top that you want to retain whenever possible. Regarding the tapering of the forearms, it won't affect approval if you have cylinder-forearms. I tapered mine in so they don't rattle around on my wrists. If you decide to make them fit better, you would make any tapering adjustments at the back of the forearm, not the front. It shouldn't affect the front cover strip at all. About that return you outlined in the green square, a Dremel should be able to get in there. I used a large sanding barrel in there, and it worked great. Just take your time on it, and you should be fine. Keep up the good work!

This works for the silicone hand guards to get them to stick to rubber gloves. Less than $4 at Home Depot.

Congrats on your BBB day!! Love seeing another RS build underway. Post lots of pics, ask lots of questions, and have lots of fun!!!

My notches don't match my butt plate at all when not wearing it. My butt plate is wider than the kidney. But when I put my kit on, the notches and butt plate match perfectly. Some sort of freaky Imperial sorcery, I guess. Either way, the belt tends to hide it.