A.J. Hamler

Terry-- I haven't corresponded with him for maybe two weeks or so, but I just got my armor from him last month and that's the address I used. He always responded in a day or so.<br><br> A.J.

Welcome, Veronika!<br><br> Check out "Cricket's" build. She's done a magnificent job of adapting larger armor to a smaller body frame. Lots of photos and advice in her build. You'll find it in the ANH Stunt build section.<br><br> A.J.

Helmet, Part II -- Bucket list Haven't had a chance to work on my kit this weekend -- went to my first troop as a squire yesterday! But last night I picked up where I left off, and decided to do some painting before I tackled the lenses. Now, I have to say it up front: I ain't no painter. I can barely paint a straight line which, unfortunately, happens a lot when painting a Stormtrooper bucket. With that in mind, I give myself as many aids and shortcuts I can come up with. Painting a room is easy, as there's a nice sharp corner at the ends of each wall. It's fairly easy to follow that with a brush because it's a sharp transition, usually 90 degrees. For most of the things you're painting on a helmet, however, there is no hard line or transition where the paint should start and stop. That is, the plastic tends to slope gently to another plane, so there's nothing to follow with the brush as in my room-painting analogy. I find that painting surfaces like that is easier if you create a hard line to guide your brush. I did that with a pencil by holding the tip at a 45-degee angle and just following the outline of what I want to paint. Above, I'm outlining the Vocorder, but I also did all of the teeth the same way. Regular pencil is perfect -- it's easy to see, and rubs right off with a fingertip. The next shortcut I took was to use the right brushes. A round-tip brush is perfect, especially for the round ends of those Vocorder sticky-up things. The brush has a nice round profile from the top, and it's good and flat from the side. I took my time with the painting, and everything came out OK. Not great -- I've seen some fantastic paint jobs some of you folks have done, and I'm sorely jealous -- but I'm satisfied it's the best I can do. After the paint dried overnight, this morning I laid out a towel to protect the front and flipped the face plate over and started on the lens mounting on the inside. I know some like to install the entire piece of plastic, securing it to the side screws, but I didn't want that whole big piece of plastic in there, plus I wanted more control of getting the lenses smoothly against the eye openings. Attaching it with the helmet or ear screws is too much tricky juggling for me. Checking other builds I've seen several clever ways of securing these, but I like Slyfox's way of using epoxy putty (JB Weld) and embedding some sort of screw post. I think he used computer standoffs, while others have used T-nuts. I opted to use plastic wall anchors, the type you can just screw into drywall. I also took a tip from Slyfox and only used two mounts for each eye -- he's right, you really only need anchors at the lowest spot of the curved eye openings on top and bottom. The screw will pull the lenses down and curve them to fit the openings perfectly flush. The putty really holds those huge flange-like threads on the anchors tightly, plus the plastic is easy to cut and size for the perfect amount of standoff from the helmet. I just snipped them to the right length with a pair of side-cutters, and smoothed the tips a bit on some sandpaper. Before embedding them in the putty, I first drove a screw into each to set the threading in the opening which will make driving the screws in with the lenses a bit easier. I mixed up a small wad of putty for each, pressed it around the plastic mounts and then set each in place in turn. Each time I pressed a putty mount into place, I took my lens templates (made of some thin clear plastic so I could see what I was doing) and pressed the lens down onto the still pliable putty mount. This pressed the putty flush with the edge of the eye opening. With all four mounts in place I headed into the house for some chow to give the putty time to set. When the epoxy putty had cured I did a dry assembly of the helmet. Now, if you've followed the builds here of anyone else making an AM 4.0 helmet, you know it goes together a little wonky. When I got the brow of the dome where I wanted it (about 1/8" above the ridge over the eyes on the face plate, I couldn't get the side tubes to line up; if I lined up the side tubes first, then the dome brow was way too low. Also, looking at the sides, there wasn't quite enough room to get the tube stripes on. Yeah, I know the CRLs say you can have anywhere from 9 to 16 stripes, but I didn't want to cut my decals and force them in. So I did some cutting. I started by trimming back each side "flap" of the dome/back (the AM 4.0 has a one-piece back now) by about 1/4" inch. Not much; just enough to check the fit. I could always trim more. Note above that I first drilled a hole at that sharp junction between the side and dome. You can see the difference in the before/after shots below. On the left is the original side flap, and on the right the new edge after trimming. As a bonus, the rubber brow trim strip would now sit flush with the back of the traps. A test dry-fit showed that the fit was much better, but the brow was still too low. I could force everything where I wanted, but I didn't want to put that much tension on the assembly. Instead, I trimmed the front edge of the dome about 3/16" in the center, tapered toward that holes I drilled at the junction of the dome and sides. Another dry fit and it was perfect -- no struggling to get everything to line up at the side tubes, the brow was right where I wanted it, and I gained some more room on the tubes for stripe placement. Before taking the plunge with the final assembly, I made one more trim. I absolutely HATE unnecessary sharp edges and corners. You'll see why later. So I cut the sides of the face plate to give them a nice rounding. After that, I trimmed those top corners, too. None of this is seen, of course, but it eliminates some sharp edges inside the helmet. God knows that between plastic edges, screw tips, nuts and bolts, electronics and what have you, there's already enough sharp stuff in there. OK, the point of no return; time to start fastening things. I opted to skip the screws included with the armor -- again, didn't want screws sticking out -- and decided to rivet the helmet together. Before starting I went ahead and applied the decals to the front traps as well as the rubber brow trim strip simply because I'm a cranky Old Fart and didn't want to mess around with them after the bucket was assembled. With the brow set where I wanted and clamped into place, and then the sides clamped to hold everything solid, I drilled a pair of holes through the flaps and into the sides of the face plate. The uppermost screw went into the outer round portion of the flap, while the lower one was just above the angle where the tubes start. Then a quick count to three, and I sank those rivets into place. There already wasn't too much of a gap there, but those rivets really pulled everything together nicely. OK, let's take a look at what we got. f In all, I'm very pleased with how it came out. Next, I'll tackle those ears. And after all the horror stories I've read about ears in the builds, I ain't looking forward to that. Oh, hey... remember what I said above about not liking sharp edges? Well, it seems traditional around here to post examples of the general carnage that building a set of armor can wreak on the body, so here's my first blood. Ouch. I did that on the bottom edge of the back/dome piece while trimming those side flaps. Damn. Added to that other scar on my forearm (a remnant of tendon surgery a couple years ago) the scar this thing will undoubted leave will have me looking like a junkie. A somewhat crankier Old Fart junkie. A.J.

Since I'm also doing an AM 2.0, I've been watching your build closely. Congrats on reaching the conclusion! Hope my build goes as smoothly as yours. (Oh, hey -- can I borrow your dad for a while...?) A.J.

Congratulations on both the build and your certification! I'm don't have height issues, but being able to see some of the trimming steps you did on your build will tremendously help me on mine. A.J.

Helmet, Part I -- Smile! Didn't get anything done on my armor yesterday and very little today, but I did start on my bucket. The AM 4.0 helmet is really nice. Very thick and heavy, and very nicely trimmed. The eyes are nice, the overall shape is smooth and unblemished ... heck the whole thing looks good. Won't know till I have it fully assembled, of course, but I'm thinking that the only real trimming I'll need to do on this is the opening where the S-trim goes. Since I got such a late start today, I figured I'd only tackle cutting out the teeth. Tools for this will be my Dremel rotary tool with a coarse-grit sanding drum bit, sharp knife, some needle files and maybe a bit of fine sandpaper. In some of the builds here I've seen folks do a lot of drilling into those teeth openings, followed by lots and lots of cutting. Looked like way too much work for this Old Fart, plus any opportunity to avoid cutting myself when I'm cutting by doing as little cutting as possible is a Good Thing. I took a tip from Eric Dyck's AM 4.0 build video on YouTube, and elected to simply sand the openings to eliminate most of the waste. To do this, I worked from the back of the helmet face. On the inside of the helmet, those teeth openings really bulge out, and the ABS here is a lot thicker than you might think. To open up those teeth, all you need to do is start leveling those bulges. It's as easy as that. With my rotary tool set low enough that I had plenty of control of the grinding process -- and yet still fast enough to produce the lovely aroma of hot plastic -- I started with the smallest tooth opening at one end of that beautiful smile and worked my way to the other. (Yeah, yeah -- it's a frown. I know that. But at this point it's easiest to work with the face upside down to allow the best access for my rotary tool, and from this angle it looks like a smile to me. And why the hell not? This guy knows he's on his way to Stormtrooper glory. He just can't wait for me to finish...) I didn't want to grind too deeply, so as a way to guide my progress I set a shop work light on the other side and got to work. As you get to the point where plenty of light starts coming through the thinning plastic and outlines the rough, rounded rectangular shapes of the openings, just move on to the next one in turn. By not going all the way through there's no danger of going too far and deforming the openings, and it leaves a paper-thin membrane that's easy to cut through in the next step. When leveled to my satisfaction, I shook out the ABS sanding dust and flipped the face over to the outside, resting it solidly on my workbench. Taking my utility knife and snapping the blade to reveal a sharp edge, it was a simple matter to just trace around the teeth openings with the tip of the knife and clear out the rest of the waste. There's still a lot of plastic flange at this point and the shapes of teeth openings are still rough, but just keep working the openings till almost all the flange is gone. And for the moment, he's still smiling at me. Now, I moved over to my needle files, and worked those openings to refine the shapes. I just keep working those files and continued the refining, occasionally flipping the face over and working from the opposite side -- that allowed me to work those teeth from behind at another angle. Also, I jumped around with my needle files, too. The flat one with the square edges worked best on the long, flat sides of the openings, while the triangular one really let me square those corners. The tapered file also helped get those corners nice and sharp. When I considered the teeth as perfect as I was going to get them, I folded a small piece of fine sandpaper and stuck it through each opening just to smooth those edges a bit. Not much, just enough to remove any sharpness or remaining flange or cutting pieces. I'm pleased with how the teeth came out. And while he's frowning now, I'm smiling. OK, that's it for today. Next up will be Part II of the helmet construction. Before actually assembling the bucket, though, I think I'll figure out how I want to mount the lens while everything on the inside of the face is still easy to access.

I completely agree with what was said above about how someone new here would be lost and overwhelmed with the amount of info, and with trying to find what they need. I'm that guy!! Using the search function as carefully as I can, I often end up with either nothing or a thousand results... neither of which is useful. When I do find info I need it's wonderful stuff, but finding it is an ordeal. Steve -- What was that Google search tip? Tell! Tell! A.J.

"It was fun to read all about your butt issues." Now there's something I thought I'd never hear. <g> Can you imagine what someone would think if they didn't know the context? <double-g> A.J.

Thanks, Art. I just checked out your build, and realized that's where I saw that "air relief hole" tip. Giving credit where it's due! Also noticed that you and I share the dreaded nit-picky affliction, constantly fiddling with things that are already just fine simply because we're never satisfied. An example is how I lightly fine-sanded each sharp edge of those TD pieces just trying to be a perfectionist. I've already made a mental note of how you've filled all the return gaps with ABS paste and will surely do the same (probably extending the length of my build in the process). A.J.

Thermal Detonator completed! This went together well, and I'm quite pleased. No issues at all. As I describe the steps I'm sure I'll be using tips and hints that I picked up here, and if I can remember where/who I'll give credit. However, I've looked at so many builds over the past several weeks that they've all kinda blurred together. If it's your tip I've used, by all means speak out and take credit. Since this is my first post of the actual build, I hope I do it right -- Too many photos? Not enough? I talk too much? Please, let me know! The first thing I did was drill an air relief hole in the TD tube. This is an example of a tip I found here, but can't remember who posted it. [Edit to add: It was Artshot's build.] However, it makes sense. Pressing the end caps into place can be difficult if the slight air pressure inside doesn't allow the caps to seat. Likewise, getting caps off after dry-fitting can be tough if there's a suction. I've just nestled the tube in my official TK-build carryall to keep it steady, and drilled a small hole smack in the middle. (The drill bit is 3/32", and I'll use it again later when mounting the belt clips.) It doesn't really matter where you drill the hole, as you can cover it later when attaching the button plate. And now, a tip of my own. The end caps can be hard to seat because the space at the bottom of the molded caps into which the tube slides taper slightly with the bend at the bottom, making it harder for the caps to go that last little bit and seat properly. To counter this, I tapered the ends of the tube just a bit. I first used a sanding block to bevel the outer edges of the openings, then a knife to bevel the inside edges. This results in a tapered rim on each end of the tube. Slipping the caps on is easy now (and easy to remove while test-fitting). My AM kit was nicely trimmed right out of the box, but the end caps were ever-so-slightly off-square. That is, the length of the sides wasn't quite consistent around the circumference. To correct it, I just used my knife to pare down the "lips" of the cap on the high side, and then slid the caps back and forth over some 150-grit sandpaper to level everything out. I checked the fit several times and sanded more as needed till the caps were perfectly square. While I was at it, I used some 220-grit paper to remove the sharp edges of the caps, as well as the edges on the curved button plate. Lastly, with everything dry-fit I measured, and it's a perfect 7.5" in length. OK, time to start some gluing. Now, a lot of you guys are gonna scream, but I elected to forgo the beloved E6000 for the TD build in favor of regular ABS cement. I've done a good bit of plumbing and have worked a lot with both ABS and PVC, and I felt I could handle the use of ABS cement for this part of the armor, plus the TD doesn't really involve fitting issues and I was confident I'd get it right the first time. But believe me, I will be using the easy-to-correct-screw-ups-E6000 when it comes time to fit the armor. I decided to start with the button plate, so first I scribed a perfectly straight pencil line down the side of the TD tube. Laying the tube on my workbench and using a piece of wood scrap allowed me to make the line as perfectly square as I could. I next lined up the button plate on my line, centered it on the tube, and penciled in a line along each edge to guide me when it was time to glue. Using the swab applicator in the cap of the ABS cement, I dabbed an outline around the underside of the plate, pressed it into place on my lines, and clamped that baby up. I bit of tape around the center helped, too. When the assembly was dry -- in only a few minutes! Take that, E6000! -- I unclamped it. Next, I used a disposable acid brush to swirl a small bit of ABS cement into the bottoms of the two end caps and slid them into place. Since I dabbed the cement around the underside of the button plate in a broken line, air escaping from my relief hole under the plate allowed the caps to slide home easily. To mount a pair of Ukswrath's fine belt clips on the TD, I first had to bend the straight part of the clips out of the way a bit to allow room to get my drill and screwdriver into the rear hole of the clips. They bent readily, and I can bend them back where they were when I'm done. With the assembly dry and solid, I masking-taped both clips into place per the Level 2 requirements in the ANH CRL -- "Thermal detonator belt clips are positioned with little to no gap between the clips and the end caps." Then I drilled pilot holes for the screws right through the clips (using that 3/32" bit from earlier), and tightened everything down with the screws. With all four screws in place I stripped off the tape and bent the clips back into their original positions, then did a quick check to look for errant cement or anything else that needed addressed. Everything seemed pretty good to me, and nothing needed fixing that I could see. Here's how everything came out: All that's left now is to paint the screw heads black and get to work on the rest of my armor. OK, hope you've all enjoyed my first installment. Next up -- I've decided to build the bucket. A.J.

Ok, I'm officially starting "A.J.'s O.F. AM 2.0 Build." So, why "O.F.?" You’re probably thinking I'm dyslexic and meant First Order. Nope. That stands for "Old Fart." Or, in keeping with ANH canon, I guess maybe that should be "Old Fossil." Either way, I'm probably one of the older noob armor builders and 501st aspirants you're likely to trip over. In viewing all my armor spread out in my shop, my wife noted how pleased she was that I'm enjoying my second childhood. That's nonsense, since I’m nowhere near finished with my first one yet so the joke's on her. In any event I'm certainly older than most of you -- likely old enough to say, "Luke, I am your father" to a lot of you and have it be accurate. Well, except for all the genetics, of course. I've been reading the build threads (and pretty much everything else around here) for several weeks now, and while my abject terror at making the first trim cut is no less than it was when I first started researching, I'm fairly confident that I'm as prepared as I can possibly be. To that end, as soon as I post this I'm heading down to my shop to get started. Before that, however, a word about TrooperGear and the AM armor. First, I'm beyond impressed with this stuff. In going through the many, many builds I'm stunned at how nice AM armor is. The preliminary trimming work is top-notch, the ABS is thick and shiny, and the look of everything is simply beautiful. I'd also like to compliment TG (does that guy have a name?) directly. His correspondence with me before purchasing was complete and packed with information. His responses to my incessant questions were speedy. When I ordered, he was more than willing to ship my BBB around my busy travel schedule so I'd be sure to be home when my UPS guy dropkicked the box from the street to my porch. (All UPS drivers deliver this way, right?) Further, when I discovered a crack in the helmet components -- probably thanks to Mr. UPS -- he quickly and without questions shipped replacements. In fact, when I emailed to verify that he'd gotten the photos I’d sent of the parts, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that he'd already shipped them. Also, I couldn't get started without saying just how awesome all of you are here on White Armor. Your willingness to help is nothing short of amazing, and there are no words for the value of the copious amounts of info to be found here. In gathering stuff for my build I’ve even bought stuff from a few of you -- Ukswrath, Pencap, Darman -- and your gear is not only great, but your communications back-and-forth before buying are just as rapid as your shipping. Outstanding! A little about me -- I'm a full-time freelance writer/editor living in Williamstown, W.Va., and have been in the publishing industry in one manner or another full-time since the mid-'90s . Before that, I was a radio broadcaster for a few decades. (The two careers actually overlapped.) I've been a Civil War re-enactor for 20 years, and have written two books on the subject of making authentic reproductions of wooden items from the 19th century. In that regard, I guess I'm not a complete noob when it comes to making exact copies of things from a long, long time ago. If you're not already bored, check out some of the things I've made and written on my website, www.ajhamler.com. Haven't updated the site in a while, though. Gotta do that Real Soon Now. Let's see, what else? My passions include my 4-year-old grandson Jed (who, naturally, I call "My Young Jedi"), gourmet cooking, hiking and a really good IPA. Oh, and I'm also an Old Fart. So anyway, if you’re still with me after all of that, welcome to my build! Next post will be the first item on my build list: the Thermal Detonator. A.J.

I intend to do my build EIB-ready, with a possible eye toward Centurion later on. Thanks for your tips! A.J.

Hi guys... I'm starting my ANH AM 2.0 build tomorrow, and will start a build thread at the same time. I've been reading builds for a couple weeks now and I think I'm ready to go, but have a couple basic questions before I start that I can't seem to find the answers to... 1) The first is, where should I start my build thread? There are a number of build threads right here in the "ANH (Stunt and Hero)" main part of this forum, and there are lots in the "ANH Build Threads" sub-forum to this one. So, which one is the preferred place to start my build thread? 2) Snap plates -- I see snap plates made with rectangles of ABS, and snap plates made with webbing. Is one method better than another? 3) For those who like the webbing snap plates, why does black seem to be the preferred color? I can see that for straps and anything that would be visible to match the undersuit, but I don't think I've seen anyone use white webbing for snap plates in any of the builds I've read, and I'm curious as to why. 4) Not everyone does it, but I see a lot of helmets that are Plasti-dipped black on the inside. What's the reason for doing this? 5) I haven't ordered my belt yet since I'm not quite at the point to take a measurement over the armor (although I will be soon), but I see that belts come in white and off-white. Which is the better choice, or does it really matter? That's it! Can't wait to get started. Thanks in advance. A.J.

I kind of figured it was a preference thing. <br><br> Thanks!

Anybody?

How about a shot of the inside of the helmet. Love to see how you attached the lens and oriented the padding inside the helmet. Thanks! A.J.

I've been looking at the archives and OT screen shots, and comparing to current troopers' helmets from 501st photos and the build threads, and have two questions about how the black brow trim on the helmet is cut --- is there any hard-and-fast rule about... 1)...how you cut the ends? I've seen them cut square/vertical, and I've seen them cut at an angle -- sometimes at the same angle as the back edge of that first trap, sometimes at other angles. If there's no rule, I'm assuming it's just a matter personal taste. 2) ... where exactly the end of the trim should be? In screenshots and modern day troopers and the builds here, I see it all over the place: even with the back edge of the trap, just beyond the back edge of the trap, somewhere between the middle and back edge of the trap, etc & etc. Again, any rule to this? Thanks! A.J.

Thanks for the advice guys. Yes, I've joined my local garrison -- I'm on the W.Va. side of the Ohio River, so it's Garrison Corellia -- and plan to "squire" at an upcoming event in March. Not only will that give me an intro to trooping, but I'll get to actually SEE a couple sets of TK armor in person. I imagine most beginners are in the same boat as I am, in that we're as familiar with the armor has can be had from films, websites and the fantastic build threads here, but have still never seen the armor in Real Life, so to speak. My BBB arrives Monday, but I doubt I can get started on it immediately as I have a couple trips planned and some work things to take care of before I can devote full attention to my build, but I will definitely start a build thread as soon as I do. For non-build-related random questions, though, where's the best place for them? As an example of the kind of random question I mean (the bathroom question aside <g>), can you sit down in TK armor? Sure, I imagine it might be difficult and probably uncomfortable, but can you sit without fear of breaking the armor -- the back of the cod and the front of the butt plate seem thin at the connection points, and I'd be afraid of putting any amount of weight onto that connection. Another random question -- why is my avatar photo so blurry? I use the same avatar on a couple other forums (fora?) and it's much clearer, but here it's blurry. I'm sure I'll change it once I have my armor built, but am curious what I'm doing wrong. Thanks! A.J.

As a new guy -- just got my TK Boots last week and my BBB is scheduled to arrive Monday -- I have tons of trooping questions, but I'm not sure where here to post them. This is a huge forum, with dozens of sections and topics. I've been using the search function for a couple of weeks but haven't found answers to all of them. The things I want to learn run the gamut from building, to painting, to basic trooping, to movie accuracy, to wondering how the heck you go to the bathroom wearing that stuff. So my question is this: Where do I post dumb noob questions -- do I try to place them in a thread in a specific section depending on what the topic is, or is there an anything-goes thread or section where I can post my dumb questions? Perhaps this "Getting Started" section is the right place, but I just don't know. TIA, A.J.

Just a quick follow-up. Got my boots, and the new 11E wide boots fit very nicely. I'll need to break them in, of course, which I plan to do while wearing them to work for a few days. Since I'm self-employed and work from home, my boss won't mind. A.J.

Hi guys...<br><br> Not sure if everyone is aware yet, but TK Boots now offers boots in wide sizes.<br><br> I just ordered a pair of 11E boots yesterday -- the first part of my kit!<br><br> A.J.

Hey, my first FISD post! What is commonly referred to as a Dremel is a rotary tool, and has been copied by many manufacturers over the years. The Dremel rotary tool is so standard that even the name "Dremel" has taken on the context of being the type of tool it is. It's not. "Dremel" is the company name and a brand name, not the type of tool it is, but over the years the name has become the tool equivalent of people using the brand name "Kleenex" as a generic term for tissues. (Something that Dremel's owners -- the Bosch tool company -- bemoan probably every day.) Meanwhile, a pneumatic rotary tool has the same capabilities as pretty much any Dremel rotary tool; it works the same way and does the same thing. The only difference between a Dremel rotary tool and a pneumatic one is that the first uses electricity and the latter compressed air. The only advantage of pneumatic rotary tools is that they are typically a lot more powerful, which won't give you any advantage at all when working with ABS. That power may come in handy if you're doing serious auto body work, but not for TK armor. An air compressor is a handy thing to have for a lot of reasons as it can power a wonderful variety of tools -- nailers, sanders, torque wrenches, buffers, and on and on -- so keep that in mind for the future. In the meantime, you will love a Dremel rotary tool for working with ABS, plus you'll find that it comes in handy for a bazillion others things in your shop (if you have one) and around your entire house. There are hundreds of different bits, attachments and applications it can handle. If you do decide to use one for working with ABS, you'll find numerous cutters and such that will work great. One tip -- if using a Dremel rotary tool for cutting tasks with ABS, keep the speed on the low side or you may melt the plastic. Get one. You won't regret it. Hope this helps. A.J.