TK4205

Thank you Camp, for posting those. I hope I can keep up with demand. I've obtained the supplies to make more molds. I brought my degasser over the mountain today. It's a 200lb liposuction machine that I picked up used, real cheap.

The last pic, yes, those are fabric, called "Lame". Kit includes shoulders, knees and arms. I plan on offering matching neck seals once other kits are available.

Here is an arm piece.

The wife has taken over the sewing. Her sewing is better than mine. you can get on her list at [email protected] You can get my list for rubber gaskets there as well.

I'm not arguing about your source material. I realize that Disney supplied something. It's just that the something they provided is not what was on display in the TFA room. I might have an untrained eye, but I'm not blind. I believe what we have been given is a reasonable facsimile and that Disney will N-E-V-E-R give up the real plans. Here is some more source material: Notice the "duck bill", that is not as pronounced on the screen used helmet.

Looking foreword to you updates. It may just be the newness of the helmet, along with an untrained eye, but this helmet looks a lot like the ANOVOS helmet to me.

That's just not something I would be able to....what kind of boat?

I've used it on paint before, to bring out the luster. Good call, Brian.

How much in just materials? Paul and I lost track at about $300. It was such a hurried job. I know it depends on the materials too. Some people use epoxy, while others get away much cheaper with CA clue.

You can email me. I am very busy right now, but we could maybe work it out later. [email protected]

Glad to hear that, Paul! Happy to see ANOVOS stepping up and making these helmets right. Well, you know what I mean.

and here it is after transit authority gets done with it. ---------------

and here it is in a bucket -------------

I scratch built this setup ---------------

Same here. Warm too.

The ANOVOS helmet is flat white, but the new troopers look shiny in the trailer. I suggest repainting the bucket. What are your thoughts?

I have used Rustolium on metal yard furniture, with satisfactory results. I think we are having difficulties because of the plastic we are painting and nothing more. I find a lot of primer helps, but it seems like one shot is all you get. If I can talk everyone in to shooting Krylon Fusion, we will get a good coat and all look close to the same shade of white.

That's a good call with a lot of paint, but I had some alligator skin when repainting with rustolium on this very project. I ended up sanding/stripping a couple pieces. No matter how careful I am with rustolium, it just doesn't like me.

If It's something you can afford, I say go for it. We don't know how long it will be until a new fan built comes out and we don't know how long this kit will be available. With a little effort, this kit can be made to look sweet. I'm no fan of the helmet, but it's all we have at the moment...

I noticed that some folks (myself included) went with the rattle can Rustolium paint-primer-in-one. I also used the same brand of white primer to cover all the seams and fill any texture in my filler. I wet sanded the primer with 600 and then 800 grit, over the sink and rinsed thoroughly. You can feel the slick texture in the water and easily find spots that you might have missed. Your primer will feel like glass when you do it this way. I've used this method many times on styrene troopers. Had it been my choice of rattle can, I would have used Krylon fusion (for plastic). I should have gone with my gut. They were all different colors anyway. I would have shared this information at the start, but I was never given authorization to access the proper forum.

On Paul's helmet, only one side is flaring out under the lens. I also forgot to mention that Paul's bill fell off. It was the one thing I was able to fix back to the way it was. But I got to see something; The bills never did fit right. they had to build up an area with epoxy to get a good contact. They then used a different color of glue to attach the bill, which didn't work. This tells me that helmets were repaired after factory, else they would have used the same pink epoxy that they put it together with. I imagine that a lot more bills will be popping off.

Yes. Clear coat it. Use the same brand of paint, only clear gloss. You should be fine.

I think your helmet was a slow cure, Paul. Not only did it smell like it, but the helmet itself warped. It took a heat gun to line the seam back to epoxy it shut with the epoxy that came with the gaskets. The part that I could not fix is the part on the side that curled out and away from the lens. I couldn't heat that part without destroying the lenses. I would simply ask ANOVOS to replace it. Also, the rim of the helmet seems to have been trimmed out very poorly, with a jagged cut all the way around the opening. This has allowed little cracks to form around the bottom. I know it wasn't mashed. It's resin. Had it been mashed, it would have shattered.

On the bright side, I have more than 10 days to do it.

I've been requested to build another TFA. I have already built one and I should be just as good as anybody to ask, but if I charged even minimum wage for building this kit, I don't think anyone would want to pay 200 hours maybe more. So help me here with a figure for just work involved in this kit. Materials will be accounted for separately.