kman

Also, please correct me if I'm wrong, but in the second photo by the OP it looks like the sniper plate is angled up? My understanding is that it should be mounted level with the ground, so the "wings" to the sides are straight across when the leg is vertical. It meets up with the shin armor top ridges only at the edges, where it continues the line, visually, at a steeper angle. Like this:

I was going to suggest the FEM7 armor, but it's not approvable for the 501st so perhaps not. Great for other uses, cons, etc., though. I'm not familiar with the Legacy Era suit. I can say that in terms of getting your feet wet with armor building, the original Trilogy TK is probably the easiest build, and the most amenable to modifications for size, definitely compared to any of the First Order armor. There are some build threads by women in the forum that would likely be helpful for you. I'll try to recall some of them, specifically, but perhaps others can chime in as well. Meanwhile, there is a pinned thread here in the Tip and Tricks forum, specifically on modifying armor for women: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/18243-howto-modifying-armor-for-women/ Best of luck!

Oh, shoot, you're right. I don't know why I was thinking that the other leg was full length. In that case, yes, you'll likely need to rebuild the strip as we discussed on FB. Any sanding you do is going to be very fine, and you'll be trying to bring about a mirror finish, you'll want to be on the high end, for sure. It's a small area (just the actual thin seam between them, really, although realistically you'll probably sand a coin-sized circle) and you don't want to remove a lot of material, so I would probably consider starting at at least 400 and working your way higher quickly, switching to wet sanding for the higher grits, and then finally onto the Novus. I've seen Novus 1-2-3 do some pretty remarkable restoration, so I think there is hope. One other idea to consider. We're talking about a VERY tiny seam here, on a 20mm strip. It's barely going to be visible, especially if you flip the strip so it's down near your ankle and less visible. It might be worth trying this: Remove the strip as planned. Cut off the chamfered end so you have a straight-across cut, using a very sharp tool. Then sand that end so it's PERFECTLY flat: Tape a piece of high-grit (400 or even higher) sandpaper to a table, and rig something to hold the cover strip at a perfect 90 degree angle to the sandpaper, and sand the end perfectly flat. Then do the same for the new little piece that you're adding. That should give you a nearly perfect seam between the two pieces. You MIGHT even get away with using something simple like white caulking between the two pieces to make that seam really disappear. This is just speculation, but it might be worth a little experiment if you have enough scrap cover strip pieces left to give it a little try and see how it looks. (A couple 1" pieces could probably give a viable test) Not a bad idea to clean up and "make perfect" the ends of the actual cover strips by sanding the ends as described, regardless of how you decide to join them, though, because that can only help things.

Best recommendation is to NOT do any cutting of limb pieces (for length, and be careful with width adjustments, to) until the torso is fully finished, because it all fits together, and depending on the exact way your torso fits, you may find yourself moving the thighs up or down as a result. You won't really know how high they should sit until you have the torso fully strapped to your body, because the Ab and Cod often sits somewhat differently than expected once it's all strapped together with the back plate. Same story for the arms. Until you can get it all on, it's very easy t misjudge where a piece will lie. Cutting off plastic is very easy to do, now OR later. But putting plastic BACK, once it's been trimmed too short, is a serious nightmare.

I think cover strips of a different tone of white would REALLY jump out at you. Tom- Brilliant idea to swap the cover strips for left and right legs! It's a little more work, obviously, but frankly, that might solve the problem entirely without any further adjustments needed! Once again, E6000 saves the day.

All I can do is give advice based off my own experience, but I try to explain my own thinking. If you disagree, have at, because there's a zillion ways of building armor right, and mine is certainly not the only one. So here's my thinking: I'd recommend doing the torso first, because that's basically the part that is always going to fit the same for your body trunk, and there's really no trimming to be done, just fitting, possible shimming if you have a gut like mine, and possibly bending the shoulder straps (carefully! see my build thread) up so the back plate lays flatter on your back. Once the torso is fit to your body then all the other parts come into play, because how they lie on your limbs depends on a lot on exactly where the armor torso is laying on your body, and the limbs attach to the torso. So without the torso on, it's nearly impossible to know exactly how high up the arm the bicep needs to be, and once the bicep is on (in the right place, according to the shoulder cap which attaches to the top of the trunk armor), you can determine how the forearms fit and whether they need to be trimmed if you have shorter arms. I'm assuming your arms physically fit through the arm armor, and your legs fit through the thighs and calves. Once you see it all together, and on (with boots!), then you can see if you're going to need to shorten the shin bottoms, or perhaps do some small cutouts on the back of the shins and/or thighs at the back of the knee for mobility, etc. I'm trying to multitask at the office, so I hope that was clearer than mud, as I have my doubts. Please feel to ask more questions if I was less than clear about anything!

Happy Birthday, FISD, and thank you Paul and all the others who have made this such an incredible resource! This board has truly been instrumental in making my Stormtrooper dreams come true. Here's to the next 10 years!

I would shoot both of them messages to ask the makers directly, but IIRC from my last exchange from them, either armor would fit me (6'3", #220) but I was at one of the extremes of what they could handle. I'm definitely out of the range Anovos' armor can handle. I would be surprised if either armor is going to fit you, given your size. The FO TK armor is just not as well suited to being adapted to fit larger bodies as the OT TK was.

So the Anovos FO helmet plastic color is different from the KB armor's plastic color? That's good to know. I'm really really really trying to avoid needing to paint any armor pieces.

I think you'll want to split the cut among the two halves to maintain the proportions among the two halves, or else I can picture it making the cover strip run at a funny angle on the arm. That said, if the forearm is too long for you, most people trim it back from the wrist side (remove a "bump" from the ridgeline with the indentations) instead of the elbow side. All THAT said, I would seriously consider holding off cutting down the arms until you have the whole armor built up. How things lie on the body, especially the arms, usually needs all the pieces working together in concert to see how they'll actually work together. You need the biceps connected to see how the bend works, and the shoulder caps on to see how high the bicep should be, and the shoulder caps connected to the armor to make sure they're in the position they'll actually be in, with everything together. So that's my recommendation: Wait. Build the rest of your armor, first, to be sure. Trimming it now or later won't matter from a timing standpoint, in terms of overall build time, but it you end up more than you wanted how, once you see how it all goes together, you'll have a heck of a time trying to extend things back. Cutting off plastic bits is a drastic step that's hard to reverse.

Don't try to remove "just" the overspray, just take it all off. (or the majority, at least) Then repaint the whole thing. It's pretty easy painting. Just be very careful to paint a thin straight line along the top and bottom edge of each tooth, as your border, and then it's simple to paint in the rest of the tooth.

Just catching up on your build thread, Tom, I didn't realize you had one. Looks like you're doing well! As to the frown, I do not believe it's technically "required" for EIB (pretty sure I've seen an EIB application or two approved without that being done), but it's easier than I thought it would be (and I'm not all that good with a paintbrush) Removing and repainting the frown, while scary, really does add something to the overall look, and it's not nearly as bad you think. Just spend an evening in front of the TV with rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball to strip off the old paint, and get a nice thin brush (real hair) to repaint the frown. Pics in my build thread, or Gazmosis has the ultimate rebuild thread if you want to look at his frown paint job as a reference (that's how I did it!).

This graphic may be helpful. It was developed during the recent discussions of adding shim information to the CRLs. I don't know if they got around to formally updating the CRL text yet, but this was the final conclusion in the thread: Here was the discussion thread re updating the CRL re shims: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/36618-crl-change-discussion-kindey-notches-for-all-tk-costumes/

^^ Interesting. Did you disassemble the iSpy thing and desolder the mic and extend it, or completely replace it?

Hmm. My PrintrBot Simple Metal has a 6x6x6 build area, although there are upgrade kits for the X and Z axis available to bring it to 10x6x10. Think I would need to move forward with the upgrade, or could 6x6x6 do a reasonable job?

You might also want to check these two threads for a DIY fan install: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/36631-how-to-diy-usb-helmet-fans-no-more-9v-or-aas/ http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/37808-how-to-make-simple-dual-5v-usb-powered-fans-for-your-bucket/

This is looking nice! I look forward to seeing the final product. What sort of build area would one need on their printer in order to successfully print one of these beasts? And if you don't mind, what's the approx price being asked for the model files?

Wow! How do you hear?!?

I agree, nice job! Put a link in this thread, if you don't mind, once you set up a tutorial thread. All that said, I wouldn't want my eyes to perfectly seal against the helmet. The extra airflow from the the slots around the edges is pretty important on hot troops.

I agree, great job on that helmet! One question: That ab detail shot is a different set of armor. Not Anovos. Far too rounded. Was that accidentally included from a different set?

The adhesive on the industrial Velcro is decent, and will likely suffice for most. If it proves inadequate, though, the surest method is the non-adhesive Industrial Velco (sew-in kind) with E6000. Don't bother with E6000 on the self-adhesive Velcro, because the glue tries to bond with the adhesive, and fails. With the sew-in Velcro, the E6000 can soak into the cloth fibers and bond extremely well.

I recommend starting and stopping under the vocoder. Here's mine, mid-wiring job:

PLA can be built a lot stronger than I initially thought... but don't leave it leaning against the back seat of the car on a hot day!

The Play won't do ABS, even with the heated platform upgrade?

Wow, great work! I'd been planning to do something like this, but the sheer size was making be drag my feet. Procrastination saves me work yet again! LOL THANK YOU.