EmlanThane

Thank you! We'll see how this goes...

A quick question going back to the same issue I had with the biceps- the cover strip doesn't completely cover the joint- there is some minor flat edge visible on either side. Is this sort of thing acceptable?? I have two pictures, one highlighting the gap and the other showing a mock (not real) outer cover strip from the side.

I have baby hands.... how are these for gloves? Hard to find chemical gloves in medium these days.... https://www.amazon.com/Chemical-Resistant-Cleaning-Protective-Industrial/dp/B01MD0ZFQD/ref=sr_1_11?dchild=1&keywords=black+rubber+gloves+medium&qid=1590872800&sr=8-11 And for the E-11 blaster, https://www.etsy.com/listing/722047026/star-wars-e-11-blaster-rifle?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=e-11&ref=sc_gallery-1-1&plkey=096b96e5913b01370c3d119fbad2bd0ea9c9a150%3A722047026&frs=1 Is this acceptable? Not sure how to tell... Anyone know any reliable blaster vendors? I am not interested in assembling my own... I have enough on my plate right now as is While I await information on the biceps and forearms joint length here, I began trimming the back. I left minimal return edge on the sides (can I remove it all/should I remove it all to avoid cracks?) and left a whole lot of return edge on the bottom because I'm going to be using the bracket method to secure the torso. Similar trimming methods applied but my hand is getting bruised and battered from cutting thick plastic with baby scissors. Any larger and I can't be as precise with curves though. Bummer.

What happens if the cover strip is still 15mm but each bicep/forearm side is greater than 7.5mm? That is, is it allowed if the junction is thicker than the cover strip? My follow up question then would be how do you remove E6000.... my forearm junction width seems slightly variable (some points it is 15mm, others 20mm)... I am frustrated that I can't seem to get a straight line... Plus, for the bicep... I am afraid if I have to go down to exactly 7.5mm per side, the opening will be too narrow for my wider arm. Thank you in advance for help!

Hi! My name is Emma! I'm a long time Star Wars fan, cosplay fan, and overall hobby enthusiast. I'm a senior in college now, and I tried to start this project 4 whole years ago, way back in high school. I gave up- it was too difficult, it wasn't perfect. But I'm back with some free summer time because of COVID-19 and a determination to get as much done as possible to follow through on my dream to join the 501st. My build thread is here: I ask a lot of questions. Given, I still do a ton of research, but this isn't my strong suit. It's a big learning curve for me. I'm trying my best and any and all help is always always always appreciated. I'm on my own right now because there are no armor parties happening any time soon, but I'm excited and nerding out. Come follow this journey with me

Yes that is correct! No outer cover strip glued yet- the gap is still visible because there is only a cover strip on the inside! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’m not sure I entirely understand what you’re asking, I’m sorry. After I made those marks with the pencil I trimmed down to a 7.5mm thickness (that photo with the trimmed edge is not shown), then when I glued the cover strip I put it on the inside so it’s not visible. The second cover strip will go on the outside. Do you mind rephrasing the question or does that answer it? Thank you for the link to biceps info!

Last post of the day. Trimmed the biceps (usual comparison photos below) My brother is playing video games in the basement so I'll have to save the very loud fine-tuning with the Dremel for tomorrow. Lastly, I put what I /think/ is the right pairings of biceps next to each other. If they are labelled 1-4 top to bottom, then the pairings would be 1/2 and 3/4. It's so hard to tell. The biceps sort of have this outward curve that makes it somewhat better to tell which is which but also the edges don't line up very nicely... I'll have to do what I can with the dremel tomorrow and then pray that cover strips will mend all. Surely I'll get better at this as time goes on? One can hope... Felt like I've made some good progress in two days time!

It was hard to show the steps of the gluing process... it was all sort of a E6000 mess... I used some scrap strip cut to approximately 15mm wide and trimmed to to length of the forearm- I covered the strip in E6000 and in one fowl messy clumsy swoop, clamped both halves to the inner cover strip and quickly secured with magnets. I am a bit nervous because when I tried to bend the back halves to join each other, just to test, the front wouldn't stay even with all the clamps, and I had to readjust. Of course this is because the glue hasn't even dried yet. Perhaps I am underestimating the strength of the glue. We will see... I was told not to put any stress on any glue seal for 48 hours. I only have enough magnets for one forearm half at a time, so I cannot do the other arm tonight. I'll end out the day with some bicep trimming and maybe fitting with the forearm that currently isn't being glued...

Thank you ! When you say make a cut to adjust at least 1 inch, are you referring to trimming the back joint? Should I do that after I glue the inner cover strip on the front joint?

After a lot of trimming and trial and error I got the forearms halves to come together relatively easily for both arms. Here they are, in all their unfinished taped-up glory. The next step would be to glue some inner cover strips to the front, then to the back, then reshape with heat (?), then glue the outer strips. Did I get that order right? Can I use weaker scrap material for the inner cover strips? Here's a goofy action shot- I'm just excited to be working on this! No blaster to hold.... yet.... Next up while I await some feedback (seriously the help I receive on the forum is soooo appreciated, I would be useless without you all), I begin trimming the biceps. From my understanding the return edge on the biceps is pretty useless... Is the inner bicep with the indented oval on it the left or the right bicep? I have yet to uncover this information myself,,,,, maybe someone else knows off the top of their head. (Update: I believe the indented oval inner bicep is the left one)

Thank you, TKSpartan. That image is useful- I think I figured it out? They naturally align one way much better than the other way. Here's the fit for the right arm- the sides of each don't align perfectly (there's some gap) but the cover strip should cover it. I also plan on doing an inner cover strip for extra stability since I'm a bit paranoid. I was wondering if I can make the cut at the red line indicated below- is that allowed? The forearm is very long on me and prevents hand movements if I leave it as is.

Forearm time! I have been dreading doing some "serious" trimming for awhile. It contributed to me postponing this project for years. I decided to dive right into it. My progress is slow because I am all alone right now (no armor parties any time soon because of COVID) and without experience, but enough with excuses! I am trying my best and that's all I can do. I used scissors to trim the arm openings sand fine tuned with a Dremel. I plan on "scooping out" the upper inner arm (removing that return edge)- should I do that before or after I fit the arm halves together? I also removed all return edge on the wrist side of the opening, as is centurion-required (and also just more comfortable). I marked 7.5mm from the edges of the forearm sides to make a cut with scissors. I don't mind if it's not perfectly straight- cover strips will cover that, right? I'm still using the same ruler I used four years ago, lol! Here are some comparison photos of a trimmed and nontrimmed piece. It'll give you a good sense of how much I had to take off. For the rounded edge of one forearm, where where to measure 7.5mm is more ambiguous, I used clamps to hold the pieces in place and drew a pencil line where there was overlap excess to begin to make cuts. Not sure if the halves were matched up correctly but this was only approximate and I made sure to always trim less than the line indicated... Lastly, I am having trouble identifying left and right arms. Here is an image below, let's number the pieces left to right 1 through 4. Which goes with which? Is it 1/2 and 3/4 or 1/4 and 2/3? Any help is welcome, I am puzzled at this one. Based on fitting I think it is 1/4 and 2/3....

Here are the bottoms of the shoulder bells with a significantly reduced/almost nonexistent return edge. Used a Dremel and my Baby Plastic Cutting Scissors to take off the plastic.

So the article you referred me to suggests that I trim off all return edge on the bottom of the bells for accuracy. Is this correct? Should I go ahead and do that?

Last question for now- if the arm cover strips are 15mm, how much flat edge do I leave on each arm half? Can't seem to find this information easily. Would it be around 8mm per halve? Or does it not matter and I cut it down to fit my arm as long as it doesn't go under 7.5mm?

Should I make a cut where I drew this line? I feel like the front of the bells curve inward a little bit....

Alright, let's talk shoulder bell trimming: I haven't done any of this in a hot hot minute. So it was challenging to say the least. I don't see a lot of threads going over HOW they trimmed, just that they did. So my goal is to go in depth for the other clueless people who get overwhelmed with simple tasks like I do. I used my Big Plastic Cutting Scissors to make a bunch of intermediate cuts along a line I drew outlining the mold of the shoulder bell. The WTF shoulder bells have a pretty clearish indent where the excess plastic ends and the actual mold begins so I just made the leap and drew the outline very faintly. Then I used my Baby Plastic Cutting Scissors to cut along the pencil line. The intermediate cuts gave the plastic some relief, but it was still a challenge. I used my dremel to clean up some of the harder curves at the bottom of the bell. How's the return edge look? I haven't used that phrase in such a long time... return edge... Here's a comparison of the untrimmed and trimmed bells: You can see on the left bell above I missed trimmed a spot (you can still see the excess plastic at the bottom of the bell). I cleaned that up after I spotted the mistake. Trimming makes me so nervous! "Trying it on" just to be silly. From my understanding, regardless of my height there won't be too much additional trimming of the shoulder bells. Lastly, the finished bells. I repeated the process for both. My question is- how'd I do trimming? It's been a long time so be nice but I'm open to constructive criticism and am happy to do anything to improve. How do I tell which is left and which is right? I can send more pictures of both bells side by side later if that would be useful for anyone trying to help me figure it out. I might do a little more today... we will see. I'll have to do some research on forearm measurements and such before doing any serious trimming. I was also thinking about doing something simple like the hand guards, are painting the ab buttons... it's easy to feel overwhelmed by a daunting project! Lastly, I changed my profile pic. I was 17 in the last photo. I am 21 now. I have changed a lot (besides just shaving my head) and want my new profile picture to reflect my excitement for Star Wars and stormtrooper armor.

Here it is! The last type of paste wasn't working. I had to use the BBBcode (forum compatible) link. Anyway.... to start with shoulder bell trimming!

I am testing uploading pictures with imgur- here is a picture of my setup. I had to dig out everything from my basement. I've decided to start trimming the shoulder bells- they seem relatively straight forward, right? Right?? We will find out... <blockquote class="imgur-embed-pub" lang="en" data-id="a/z7eExLI" data-context="false" ><a href="//imgur.com/a/z7eExLI"></a></blockquote><script async src="//s.imgur.com/min/embed.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Well it's pretty cool to be back My first question is, it's been awhile since I've done any of this. I've done drop boxes, thermal detonator, most of the helmet (but I'll come back to it because I left off on the ears). I started trimming shins but stopped there. What's a good place to pick back up that's small and doable? Any recommendations (links to sources are also useful)?

Hi! So.... It's been a solid 4 years since I've been to this thread...I figured COVID-19 would be a great time to finally work on this armor some more! I will post more updates here. Wish me luck!

*Darth Vader voice* NOOOOOOOOOOOO!<br><br> Actually, no worries that is. I can unscrew it and see if I can adjust it to the other side. If not, I have a second pair of ears, and it was good practice. Thanks for the help though- I knew something was off when I was trimming, even though I had checked which ear was which beforehand. I guess I got it wrong!

**Ok first of all I switched from imgur to photobucket to upload photos and it is so much easier it's not even funny.** I managed to do more stuff today! Yay! The next three weeks are about to get absolutely insane (between Thanksgiving and Christmas break always is) so I'm not sure how much I will be able to do, but what I did do today I am VERY proud of. I originally planned on installing the eye lens, but the hardware store didn't have the 5mm-long hex/computer nuts I was looking for. I wanted to follow CTID and use putty sockets- it's a great idea! I will have to order them online! I cut one lens already and tried improvising with regular hex nuts, but the putty gets annoying without longer ones, so I will have to wait on that. Anyway, I began.... THE EARS!! ...Duh! .....Duh! ................................DUH! That's my dramatic music. Can you tell? I know, I decided to tackle one of the most difficult parts of the whole darn thing. Silly Emma After a preliminary trimming and hours spent watching tutorials, I pulled out the dremel and went to work. WEEEEEEEE! Here's progress 15 minutes in: And 30 minutes: To do this, I slowly sanded down the parts of the ear that were touching, to bring the parts that were not touching closer to the helmet (thus eliminating the gap). My dremel skills are improving. It was hard getting the ear to sit pretty flat on both sides, but once I got it where I wanted it (another 10 minutes after the previous photo was taken) I drilled the top two ear screw holes (after testing which drill bit size worked on a scrap piece). I had stopped sanding after I started to fear over-trimming. Another important thing: I marked where I lined the ear up so that when I put it against the helmet to fit it and assess where to sand down next, I was always placing it on the same spot. Another important thing: I did not sand anything without marking it with a pencil first! I used a mechanical pencil to drop down through the drilled holes and mark where to drill the same size hole in the helmet: Then I just put the ear screw that come in the WTF kit through the holes and tightened them with nuts. The third hole at the bottom I drilled last. It was hard to hold it tight because I couldonly keep my hand sooo close to the drill, so it is not as taught as I would like but it is the best I can do. I think it is okay. Here is the final product (I think...) From the back: And from the side! I will do the other ear if this looks okay, and then paint everything. Here are my two important questions: 1. Is there still too much gap? 2. Is it bad that the ear is tilted forward slightly? (Did I use the wrong ear on the wrong side...?) Let me know what you think!

I have returned... MWAHAHAH! Sorry it has been so long- school started to get really busy and I have barely any time to sit down and work on this. I did manage to assemble the helmet today. It's something! I used a 1/8" drill bit and 1/8" rivets to secure the back and cap and faceplate together (they were previously held together by clamps). It took a lot of pep talk to go ahead and drill and rivet. I'm hoping it will get less scary as I do it more Here's the front: Slightly asymmetrical but that's ok(?). The right: And the left/"problem side": You can see that I tried adding a 3rd rivet to close the gap here. That failed, so I had to remove it (which was not easy!). Adding the ears will close the gap. I have also begun trimming the biceps. Making the return edge consistent is hard! I will probably also resume the shins too. Yay progress! I hope I have more time in the near future to keep working on this