StrmTRPR85

That's trooper teamwork!

Alright who has a #2 pencil?

While I was at it I painted my ear bars as it is necessary to have one bar painted for centurion level approval. I found this interesting information regarding what ranking is "given" by which ear bar is painted. Not sure how truthful or how closely followed but fun to think of it as somewhat accurate so I made myself a staff sergeant

started on the vent lines tonight. I decided to completely freehand this, I used a number 1 synthetic brush Starting with the left side first and using the above picture from cableguy i went to work. Not to bad, I will clean up with a finer brush and some grey paint to fix the lines. Now that I'm comfortable on to the right! Oops too confident....once dry I'll repaint with grey and tackle it again. Moved on the the back traps The left side: Right side: I touched up my Hovi tips just a tad from installing the mesh screen. It simple pushes into place, and than I too a soldering iron gave it a quick poke where I wanted it to be and easy to install. Just a bit of paint touch to do now. I gently and carefully touched up the inside edge of the Hovi tips to give it more depth to it. Before touch up: After touch up: So far I placed my vent stickers on the bucket to get a general idea of where to paint my vent stripes. I think I placed them a bit too low and they need to be brought up the right side of the bucket more so than the left Right vent stickers placement: Left side vent sticker placement:

Not that far just yet....but I plan on doing those by hand as well. I'll be getting to those after this weekend

The black outside lines? I painted the black down first https://photos.app.goo.gl/10lAyUVSlmOREwOB2 Than I filled in with gray after drying. https://photos.app.goo.gl/pyx324pq4zHnYszB2 Did it all by hand, using synthetic paint brushes like these ones http://www.joann.com/real-value-brush-set-synthetic-white-taklon-round-3%2F024-flat-26/1650530.html#prefn1=type&prefv1=Synthetic Brushes&removeShipToHomeConditions=false&start=1

Thank you both for the feedback. I figured once I clean it up with a toothpick those lines will be thinner. Always pays to have a bit more to work with and tidy it up from there.

Did some painting on the bucket. I used the guide provided on the forums to source which type of paint matched Which has the following paint information: *note image is pulled from the above thread, it is not my own making* I was able to source all the Testors paint from Hobby Lobby. I also picked up a nice set of paint brushes. I used the synthetic (white) brushes as from reading what works best with Testors paint. I mixed the paint well with the brush and used before painting. First I started with painting the black outline on the mic tips, vocorder, trapezoids, and under the eyes Than I worked on the teeth I cleaned up some spots with a bit of IPA and a cotton swab. I was not worried about making everything neat and sharp as I will come back with a toothpick and shape the areas that bug me. After allowing 24 hours to dry and added a second coat to all the areas. Next was to fill in the trapezoids and under the eyes with the gray paint. I first started with using painters tap to give me clean sharp lines As you can see I had a bit of paint bleed under the tape. I decided I will touch up these areas by hand and I than tackled the remaining grey fill by hand. I think hand painting them came out much better than using painters tape and trying to give me perfect straight lines. Are my black lines think enough? I know I have a few spots to clean up.

Angle of ears looking much better now Left: Right:

You got this buddy! If you have questions on how to fix something give us plenty of pics and we will coach you through it.

Thank you Tony! It might have been how I pivoted the shell so I could sand down my glob of ABS (soon will try the suggestion of smoothing out with some acetone). I'll take a photo lesson soon and get the angles and lighting just right. Maybe even spring for some professional submission pics

Not as scary as making return edges right Cricket?

I will have to try that out. I only started with the 60 grit because I had originally laid on the ABS paste pretty thick and needed it to smooth it down but only in a smaller area.

Do you mean this front section? I trimmed that part down so that the seam would be covered by the ear

As promised pictures!!!! First I started with removing the two lower screws and pivoted the ears back to be in line with the trapezoid. Next I took a pencil marked what I needed to trim off, and took my exacto knife and slowly traced the line allowing me to score and snap the excess shell. A bit of ABS paste to fill the hole And finally after sanding with 60 grit and 150 grit. Still working my way up to 2000 grit wet sanding from here on but pretty pleased. Can I use the same paint white paint for the ear screws to touch up the holes a bit more or would it be better to make some ABS paint? I know I could have left it as it was and still got approved but I did not want to settle. Hope this shows that even if you mess something up anything is fixable! Just have to put a bit of elbow grease into and use the right sanding technique

Alright I repositioned the ears more in line with the trapezoid. Cut the excess shell that would have been showing with an exacto knife, drilled out the rivets and re-riveted and ABS pasted the holes that were showing. Just a bit of sanding and will be good as new. Pics to follow

Thank you Tony!

So have the trim cover the ear instead of the ear covering the trim? Should I look into duplicating on the other side to make it less wonky? Or let Tthe Wonky Awaken

Also titled as Hero Figured I would never look at that one since I was shooting for Stunt. Even though I do not think the ears matter between the Stunt and Hero

so if it covered the S-trim would that be a huge concern? Or better to just remove any questions and realign it

No troubles! Its always from a certain point of angle I just asked the same question about the gallery

Why isnt this pic in the gallery? Its the clearest view of where everything should be! I keep going to the gallery and reference pics but can only do so much with the angles and light provided

Looking at that pic I believe that may be the case. I'll align it with it further back and see how it sits than once home from work.

Do you mean I have the right ear on the left side? and the left ear on the right side? Wouldn't the ear lean forward if I had it that way?

This one I repositioned so the vent tubes lined up better, than drilled new holes and remounted it.