kman

I believe he is implying that any non-licensed armor is to be avoided. KB is not a recast. Neither is Jim's. Only FN is the problem, as I see it, unless the hang up is licensed armor, which has not been a real issue for the entire history of the 501st, since it simply didn't exist until Anovos came on the scene just last year.

Epic reading comprehension fail, LOL, my bad. Perhaps this is something that should be clarified in the CRL? Just a thought. All leather it is!

So in your opinion Anovos is the ONLY option for anyone to buy any armor from?

Thanks, Tony. I thought I read in a discussion thread that they didn't want mixing of pouch types, but I guess not, or it was wrong. I think I want leather on the belt (more expensive, but looks way cool!) and canvas on the pauldron (lighter in weight, save a little money).

I would read this thread before you order this armor: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/39048-fn-armour-worth-it-tfa-builds/ and http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/38117-clints-fnarmour-analysis/ Kevin Brice, owner of KB Props and a valued local 501st member, put an immense amount of time, not to mention blood, sweat and tears, into hand sculpting his very own molds for FO TK armor, to sell them to fellow fans. FN Armor got a set of his armor, and took it to a factory to use as a base for cheap knock-offs overseas. (and did a poor job of many of those parts, too) The ethics of the situation are quite clear.

Just go to Home Depot or Lowe's with the broken piece in your hand. Find the nail aisle, and look for (or have someone point you to) the finishing nails. Finishing nails look like this: Note the very small head on the nail, so you should be able to shove it backwards (head first) into your Hyperfirm (or the broken bit, is where I would put the side with the head) without needing a big hole to do it. Just buy the smallest box of nails (under a dollar) you can, which look like the right size so you can fit roughly half of the length inside the broken piece, without any risk of breaking through, and the other half into the blaster's body (so maybe 1/2 to 2/3 of the way through the broken bit, in length, plus the same amount going into the blaster body?). So if your broken piece is about an inch, a 1" finishing nail would get half an inch in each part. So perhaps a good length is about 1.5" long. You can probably get a little more for the part sticking into the blaster body, so I'd guess 1 1/2" is a good size (assuming your broken piece is about an inch). Drill a little hole right up the middle (from the broken area) of the broken piece. Choose a drill bit that's SMALLER than the finishing nail. It's relatively soft rubbery material, so the nail should be able to squeeze into a smaller hole and be nice and tight. Then it's just a matter of covering half of the nail with superglue, sticking it into the new hole in the bottom of the broken piece, and now you have a part you can stab into the blaster (with some more glue) to glue it back in place, this time with more support due to the nail inside.

The gaps on sides, between the ab and kidney plates, are fine for basic approval, just not EIB or higher. Shims make it look a LOT better, and they're not that difficult, so I definitely recommend them to anyone who needs them, but they're definitely not required for basic approval. The gap in the back could be an issue, however. I think the back plate can come down a bit, and the entire lower half of the clamshell should come up. The cod should really be crowding the manly bits. I don't think Todd is so tall that there should be a problem, once it's all fitted correctly, judging by the legs, unless he has an unusually long torso (way disproportionate to the legs). Moving the ab up will also allow the chest to go higher, so the shoulder straps aren't pulled so far to the front, and allow them to curl over the shoulders more naturally. (and put less stress on those thin shoulder straps, which are going to crack sooner rather than later if they're bent like that) Technically the shins have been built backwards. They're on the wrong leg. Reversing them would require changing the back strip so they still open to the inside, however, so unless that's simple (and E6000 was used instead of CA glue), it's not worth making that change, since it won't affect approval and only a handful of people can even recognize the problem.

AND NOW, FOR SOMETHING (NOT) COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: KMan's HWT side-track Well of COURSE I'm going to start Phase II before I've completely wrapped up Phase I... LOL

Thanks! Also, what Rick said. Is there a discussion thread I can look at? I don't want to buy any parts that aren't going to end up being accepted, if I haven't already. I actually plan to post a few questions and screenshots in a bit. There are some places where Tony's end product doesn't exactly match the screencaps, and I was wondering if a more-accurate pack would be turned down in the name of uniformity, or if that would be encouraged? Minor stuff, mostly, but still, the concept remains. For instance, some of the boxes have ridged outlines on the pack itself, the top square of the radio box seems more raised than the rest, and the top left box (with the 4 bumpers) looks to me at least an inch or two longer in the screencaps. At the moment this project is going to be going pretty slow, as I collect the remaining bits and bobs. The photo box is the biggest thing I'd like to upgrade, over the cardboard photo box, so that will probably take time to hunt down. Also the handiwipes tube. I may end up that route after all, but I can't help but think there's got to be something better. And of course I need the M40 pouches. Did I read correctly that you can use nice leather pouches OR canvas pouches (or pleather), but not a mix of both? I also want to finish my Centurion submission before I start mucking around with my belt and such, or adding the weathering/battle damage. Only a few things to do, but naturally they're the sorts of things that require a full weekend day to really get into, and those have been in short supply lately...

So, a thing happened on the road to Centurion. More to come. But it's a start! P.S., thank you again, Ukswrath, for your great (and detailed) HWT Pack Build Thread. I'm going to explore a few alternative methods/parts, but overall, I expect (and hope!) my pack will be extremely similar to this reference build. Link to CRL for ease of reference: http://databank.501st.com/databank/Costuming:TK_hwt

Blast away, pal, I'll stand nice and still. LOL

I put it in for the last troop I did (24 hour troop, so definitely a stress test!) and it did well, but I'm still working out final positioning details and how I want it hold it in place. The material used for the bracket is a bit floppy... it's great while you're wearing the helmet horizontally, but things seem to flop out of position if the helmet is held upside down, etc., so I want to devise a system to keep it in place more securely. Currently I just mounted the batteries with velcro, which seemed to do fine, but again, nothing is 100% final at this point. One is higher up in the helmet, vertical, near the helmet pads, and the other is sort of diagonal across the side. (the second battery now runs my ROM/FX since the Ukswrath setup only uses one battery for both fans) I'll definitely post an update once I have things dialed in.

One of these days you should post a write up of all these fantastic UK resources you keep teasing me about.

I agree, you've done a good job, and should have no problem sailing through basic acceptance and probably EIB. A few minor tweaks (repaint helmet frown, etc) and Centurian should be possible as well. I'm tall as well, and your armor looks just fine. Good job on the back plate, too, many people end up with gaps (especially taller troopers) between the plates, and yours is just right. Watch the thighs, I note in the first photo that one is higher than the other. That happened with me as well, until I switched to a garter setup that was permanently affixed at the correct height.

If you're going to reinforce with cheesecloth, you need to use the brush-on style, like Eddie shows above. If you're NOT going the cheesecloth route, the spray in plastidip works just fine, and delivers a lovely smooth finish. It's not thick enough to "hold" the cheesecloth, though. No particular surface prep is needed, beyond cleaning the surface thoroughly (I recommend rubbing alcohol so there is no residue). Light sanding/scuffing certainly wouldn't hurt, but plenty of people skip that and still get very good results. (I just cleaned with rubbing alcohol and called it good) Lots of pics of the spray process in my build thread, linked below.

Enclosed motorcycle helmets are strictly regulated and have a wide continuous panel that goes across the eyes, above and below, and curve relatively far to the sides, specifically designed not to impede your field of vision up down left or right. Definitely not small individual lenses placed relatively far from the eyes. Please update if you hear back from CHP, I'm very curious to hear what they have to say!

I don't think my method is all that different from Tony's, but I was fairly detailed in my conversion as well (including steps taken to fix things when I messed it up!). Build thread linked in sig below.

Considering you can get a ticket for having something hanging from your rear view mirror because it "obstructs your view" I don't think there is any chance wearing a Stormtrooper helmet would hold up. That DEFINITELY obstructs the driver's view.

Interesting. Daetrin wrote: "Jim (Philippines) - makes helmet/armor that are a bit smaller than ANOVOS. Fan sculpt." I'm not 100% clear on whether he's referring to the helmet, the armor, or both, with that comment. I can't speak to the helmet. Jim's armor is definitely built to accomodate a larger body. Anovos is definitely on the small side, by comparison. I've also personally been in touch with KB, who confirmed his armor has a larger size capacity than Anovos. (I'm too big for Anovos, so I've been looking at options for larger troopers) I'll contact Daetrin about clarifying his text. Bear in mind: Jim's kit may still fit you. It's a lot easier to cut armor down than it is to add to it to make it larger. My personal focus is on armor that will fit larger troopers, like myself, so I've focused less on smaller armor that won't work for me. Here's the actual sales thread where Jim's armor comes from: http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=245993 Note the following in the first post: Also note: (In the more recent pages of that thread, Jim has been telling people who are 6'2" that the armor should fit them) See also steamboatphan's build thread, one of the first builds for this type of armor: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/36799-jimmiraquois-first-order-stormtrooper-build/?p=486096 In it, he writes: And another quote from TheRPF thread: What I can assure you is that no one who is 210-220 lbs is going to stuff themselves into Anovos armor. So again, I'm comfortable with my statement that Jim's kit is bigger than Anovos. BUT, perhaps due to the different material, it may be possible to cut it down smaller than with the Anovos plastic. So I wouldn't necessarily rule it out. If I were you, I'd contact Jim with more information about your specific size stats, and see what he thinks.

It would appear Google decided not to play nice with others. https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/photos/BpsXCFeQLWE https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/picasa/u99nn8Zygzo

In for two, please.

Make sure your image is a plain JPG (or GIF, etc.) and not a "dynamic" link to a PHP file. Also make sure, again, it's not a dynamic link that has a "?" in the filename. Just two things off my head. For instance: ""http://www.mydomain.com/images/dynload?12223mypic.jpg" Good luck!

Not sure I follow you? JustJoseph posted just today that the order for the patches has actually been placed. Just have to wait for them to come in before he sets up the sales thread.

That's great news! Especially since I just ordered the first parts for my backpack yesterday.

BAM!