BrianD

Ok, I have a new question. It seems my body type is going to need kidney armor shims. From what I read I basically put a backing plate and add an extension to the kidney armor plate to meet up with the ab plate. Then I make an ABS paste and fill it in, sand it down and polish it to hide the seam. Is this correct? Should I add 1/2 to the kidney and 1/2 to the abs? What i I have a large gap between the breast plate and back armor? Should I add an extension to that too? Should I use E6000 glue on the backing plate or should I use something a little more permanent? Thanks in advance.

Thank you for your input on the liner. I'll keep looking and post again when I find something that looks like what I want. Here is the latest on my build. I got the paint finished! I will hopefully get the lenses and mic tips installed tonight. I plan on beginning the trimming and fitting of the chest and back armor this weekend. I bought my boots from TKBoots.com so when they get here I can start on the shins. I didn't want to measure them wrong being that I don't know how the boots will fit up to the bottoms of them. Here is a new pic of my bucket.

Any of you guys have any input on the liner in the pics above?

I have just been going through the builds here and watching the build threads on YouTube from Trooper Bay and a few others. I did very little cutting so far. I'd rather have to trim stuff down after it's close to finished to fit then to cut too much off in the beginning. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Got a little more done and I had a few questions. I have trimmed out and glued all the arm armor. I have not fit it yet so it may still need to be trimmed some. I also got the screen in behind the teeth and got the stencils in to do the stripes. I was wondering which color should be used for the tube stripes. I have Testors brand paint. I got both the French Blue and the Blue Angel Blue. I am going for the stunt version now since I ended up using all 3 screws in the ears. Last (for now), does this liner look like it would fit and be comfortable in the helmet? I found it on Ebay. I am looking for something a bit more sturdy than the regular hard hat liner or plain foam.

Thanks. I tend to get a little OCD on these types of things too. After messing with the ears for a couple hours I finally got fed up and put them on. I'll likely end up pulling them and working them down a little more. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Thank you guys for the fast response. I need to still do the teeth screen, lenses, mic tips and stripes and then I need a good comfortable liner (recommendations gladly accepted!) and then the helmet should be pretty close to finished! Here it is as it sits now. Please let me know if there is anything else you see that needs to be tweaked.

Can anyone tell me if this ear gap is acceptable or should I trim it down some more?

Getting ready to finish the helmet assembly. I was hoping you guys could take a look and let me know if the alignment looks ok. Mostly concerned with the white gap between the top of the eyes and the black brow trim. Don't want it too big. I plan on installing the ears with only 2 screws so I will likely use a rivet to close up the sides that will be hidden by the ears once they are on.

Thank you! Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

Question... should the bicep armor have the return edges removed as well? I am thinking I should trim it off since I may need to open it up a bit with a cover strip. Maybe only 1/4-1/2 inch or so. Does it matter for approval?

Thanks guys. I will continue to update this thread and ask questions as I progress. I still have lots of questions about the rivets and strapping required when I get to the chest and back armor. I'm hoping to build this to at least the basic level of 501st approval if not higher.

They actually fit pretty well. They could probably be trimmed just a tad, but I'm a bigger guy (5'10", 240 lbs). I planned on making them as tight fitting as possible for me to still be able to fit my hand through. Is there a better way to fit them?

Thank you! I will add some definition to the vocoder tonight. I did test fit the arms. The back will need to be trimmed a bit but not much. Are you referring to the front leading edge? If so, yes I can afford to trim a little more off of it. Does it need to be thinner at the edge then it currently is?

So, this will be my first attempt and I am hoping to take my time and do it right. This forum has already been very helpful reading through all the threads. Looking forward to picking all your brains for the correct info I will need to finish this thing. Anyway, I began with the helmet which was a 3 piece helmet. I cut out the teeth and painted them. The top and back piece were giving me a hard time trying to line them up properly to clamp down so I hot glued on some magnets to use to hold them in place while the E6000 dried. Worked like a charm and the hot glue was really easy to remove. I used Testors model paints to paint the gray areas and I outlined them with black. I am waiting for my stencils to arrive to paint the blue tube stripes and the black lines in the tears and rear helmet traps. I started working on the forearms last night. I removed the front return edge and filed it down and installed the first cover strip (I also removed the tip of my middle finger while trimming it in half!). That's where I am at now. I'd love to hear any feedback, criticism, advice etc. that any of you more advanced builders may have. I have never built anything quite like this before. I used to build a lot of models as a kid but that was a looong time ago! LOL! Thanks in advance,