Madmartigan

Wait...did I miss something?? With that incredible TM build and the E-11 to end all E-11s and the tutorials and everything else, he was never official??? Dude! About frackin' time!! Get that EIB done! We need ya, man! -Chris

Mine should be here by Tuesday. I'll still have the painted Chelseas as my uber-accurate boots. But these will be nice when I don't want to stick out.

I have mine hooked up to Stomper Hovi speakers. But I'm considering trying to stick the standard Rom/FX speaker in one of the "pecs" of the chest plate as an alternative to see if I get more volume.

Welcome to the ranks!!

QFE! When I was getting my Fett together, he was definitely the gold standard that I was shooting for.

Looks great! Once you raise the ab, you might also consider adding short elastic straps from the inside of the top of the ab to the inside of the chest plate (about 3-4 inches up from the bottom of the chest) to hold that in place. You can find pictures in the Stukatrooper tutorial, or I can take some pictures of my armor later on. Congrats!!

Holy Shnikes, Paul! Why would you even need a modified ab plate? You can just bend the cod up to relieve yourself and let it snap back into place afterwards!! Bravo! lol

I have a shim on the inside of the thighs that holds the inside of the two halves together -- whereas the finishing strip holds the outside. My snap is right in the middle of that inner shim towards the top of the thigh.

Troop 2-3 times. The weathering will find you.

Never seen that either. I thought it should be pretty close to the belt. My boxes are maybe 1/8" max away from the belt.

I'm pretty sure that's the accurate way and between having the back to kidney and the chest to ab, it keeps either chest or back from riding too high. Good luck!

I think you look great! Once you adjust the shoulders, you should be good! Nice job! p.s. If you have chest to ab elastic straps in the right place and back to kidney straps, you don't really need chest to back. Don't think they had those in the movies, and I'm pretty sure when I followed Stuka and FBJs build threads, I didn't see them. My armor is fine without em!

the sloping U on the side is kinda weird and the emblem is a problem. Go with one of the first two. You can't go wrong with the Shires. Trust me.

The Dublins look nice from the pictures -- about the same as the Shires. The Shires are excellent boots and what I wear myself (along with several other troops who prefer painted over CaBoots). If you wear a 9-9 1/2 you probably want a 43. I wear a 9 1/2 - 10 and have 44s and they fit perfecty. Good luck!

I'm at a total loss. Can't get the damn things in without bending them every which way and then losing the mesh! Already trashed three attempts. Anyone got tips on how to make this easy? I thought someone had said they formed theirs over a socket or something. How do you cut them and then get then installed without it flying to bits??? -Chris

The quick answer is that the halves with sharp indents just away from the "shin bone" should be the inside pieces. The outside pieces are smoother as they move outward from the shin.

Allen, I had a similar problem, in that I've basically been an athlete all my life and have larger thighs and calves. I kept the strip size normal on the front of the thighs and calves (around 20mm), but built them so that the raised area that is butted extends a little wider than the strips. From any distance at all, I think they look fine that way.

Now there's something I never thought of! lol At the very least I could probably fit a pouch for a key and a money clip. Here I've been thinking it had to be in the drop boxes....

Also looks like you might have attached your thigh power pack too high on the left thigh. Ideally, the left thigh should look longer than the right because the pack is attached at the very bottom of the thigh. That would cover another inch or so on that side and the knee plate makes up some of the difference on the right.

I think they look great! You decide to offer these and I may need 2 sets!

It's a well documented error. Until resolved, Paypal states that all cash should go to [email protected] and will be funneled to the proper recipients.

How much lip/return edge do you have on the bottom of the shoulder bell? Trimming that down to about 3mm -- if it isn't already -- would help. I can't tell if your shoulder is pushing the bell out from your bicep or if the edge is too think to let them meet together.

Dave, I use Imageshack: http://imageshack.us/ Start an email here or edit your current one and open Imageshack in a separate tab. Then just upload the photos individually and copy and paste each link after you upload into the FISD email -- I tend to use the "Hotlink for forums (1)" format. Let me know if you have any questions. Looking good! Chris

From my first official troop. That's me on the left:---------

Dave, I'd definitely wait a good week or so before putting on another coat of the Professional Enamel. If you don't folllow the directions to the letter -- i.e. three coats about five minutes apart -- you risk the whole thing turning into an orange peel mess. One way to mitigate the risk of that is to wait a full week or two so that first coat is fully cured. You also have to make certain you are maintaining the right distance from the piece. The Rusto Pro stuff is temperamental to say the least. Took me two attempts on a TE2 helmet before I got it right, and even then there are a couple of places on the back that were not as glossy as I'd liked. Another thought is to go with a different paint. I think Mike just posted recently that he was experimenting with another Gloss White and had great results. Search through "TK-4510" for his posts from the past couple of weeks and see if you can find which brand. Is this the TE suit you are repainting?