jeneyre

Thank you for the suggestions! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I found a diet protocol that's been very successfully preventing my migraines, so now they only thing slowing my progress are the messed up back, neck, and shoulder muscles that cause cervicogenic headaches. My crappy posture plays into this in a big way. I finally started up again using a little sensor that vibrates when it notices me slouching. I've been wearing it regularly in the fall, but it gotten out of the habit. And apparently my body had gotten out of the habit of having decent posture, tell my pain levels had made it that I could barely get anything, let alone armor building, done! Between the physical therapy exercises and that, I'm finally starting to do better. Until I overdo things... Or forget to use the posture sensor... Or both in the same day... (Hey at least it's not a migraine.....) Well here's my current headache. Besides my health, I had definitely gotten distracted by a number of soft costumes I was working on. My Admiral Holdo is finished and Rebel Legion approved, and I'm waiting on one part before I submit my husband's TLJ Poe Dameron. Oh and it was way too freezing cold and are unheated basement to work on my armor down there, not to mention I wasn't going to add poisoning by inhaling E6000 inside to my list of health issues... But my brain was also super focused on those darn kidney return edges and how how much I hated how they looked. I started playing with the the ceiling iron a bit yesterday and today. And then this morning I mistakenly started thinking that the cranky return edges would be covered by my belt and therefore wouldn't really matter. So I got a bunch more work done. I added the bracket and elastic to the rest of the back. And drill the holes for the brackets for the rest of the front. Then, when I was laying down and resting my back after slouching over my exacto knife while trimming pieces for too long, I started looking at pictures and realize that oh no those return edges are plenty visible just below the belt. And then of course I see another build thread where it looks like you can just Mount those brackets differently in a way that I could have gotten away without messing with return edges. But I figure my torso is probably short enough that I should have done the return Edge thing anyway. At least that's what I keep telling myself. So how bad are these return edges? I got them maybe a little bit smoother than they were before with the help of the sealing iron. I'm sure I wasn't as patient enough with the ceiling iron as I should have been. But on a happier note I coated the inside of my bucket with Plasti Dip yesterday. And in defense of my procrastination on this project in favor of finishing my Vice Admiral Holdo, the base of her dress's neck piece is going to be totally perfect as the base for my neck seal! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

(ohhhh here's an old post that I never got around to actually posting!) I'm starting to wonder if these chronic migraines are actually sent by bunch of Jedi or trying to keep me from finishing this... Looking at screens is definitely a trigger for my migraines so I'm having to balance posting and doing research and asking questions with staying away from screens and sitting on the couch or laying in bed with my head covered in ice packs. So if I ask any questions that could totally easily be found by searching the forums it's probably because I've tried searching forums or just can't deal with that much screen time at the moment. I'm also using speech to text so if I have any weird typos that I don't catch that is why. I think I'm going to try to install the lenses today and the neck seal because I'm thinking that having the dark lenses and the sound deadening inherent in the helmet will make it an ideal place to ride out my next migraine! And way more badass than my usual tinted glasses and Ice hat! Anyways, here is the current state of my helmet. I think I'm done with the paint and I'm going to wait a little bit to clean up around the tube Stripes, if you all think it's necessary, because at this moment I'm more afraid of messing them up then I am actually fixing them effectively. Actually who am I kidding I'm totally going to spend more time on that because it's something I know I can do to help looking at screens are reading more directions! I was really glad I had the templates from trooperbay to do the stripes. I know I could have made my own and managed it but I'm still in that phase of throw money at the problem when it comes to my armor so there we are. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm also using brackets on a wtf kit. Back and neck issues have kept me from making much progress since the fall, (combined with a couple soft costumes....) But I managed to add return edges to the kidney area. They are not pretty.... Need to post updates on my build thread! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well. . . Migraines and life have kept me from making much progress. HOWEVER, today I realized I could paint with my head wrapped in ice while sitting on the couch. Painting is taking much longer than I thought it would. Here's what I've done so far freehand. I ordered the hand painted effect stencils from trooperbay and will continue with all the stripes when they arrive. How much do I need to clean up what I've done so far? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you! I need to make the cotton cover, as I refuse to pay $5 for something I can make myself in five minutes. . . . And then I need to practice on scrap! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So, I wasn't having luck with the stuff I had on hand getting those return edges smooth enough to my liking. So, I did what I usually do with this build, and Amazon Prime a solution!!! The heat sealing iron http://amzn.to/2yte8rn was here when I got home, but I'm too exhausted from teaching today to start. . . Either that or I'm facing the usual stormtrooper armor thing of being worried about messing something up beyond repair and am delaying by reading the forums. . . Or both.

Forearms! Need to clear off the smeared glue. Will also likely need to add foam inside I definitely pushed the sinal small size to the limit! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That is fantastic!!!!!!!!!

Cover strips inside thighs now curing. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you! That's exactly what I needed to know! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A little more progress. Cover strips for my scrawny forearms. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Between prep for DragonCon, the start of the school year (I'm a teacher), and the start of the fall LARP season, I finally had a chance to do some more work on my TK. The butt and kidney pieces were connected, so I knew I'd have to add a return edge one I cut them apart to use the brackets from Mr.Nostripes. I boiled water in our biggest stock pots and poured it in the sink. . . And it instantly cooled too much to be useful. So I heated water in our widest pots, and dipped the edges. I used pliers to bend the edge. The edges are no where near as smooth as I want them to be, so I think I'll need to use another method to make things prettier. Iron? Turbo laser? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have small hands and found rubber gloves that fit on Amazon! I can dig up the link if you're still looking! Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

Hi from another first time builder working on WTF armor! I have the opposite problem with the return edges for the arms . . . Trying to see how much smaller I can make them! Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

I trimmed both pieces. The pencil line is the part that didn't have an edge. I trimmed 7mm from the ones with the edge.

The forearm pieces seemed absolutely HUGE compared to my forearms. I was worried that I'd need to form new return edges, and do all kind of ridiculous things to make them fit. I was not looking forward to that.The forearm cover strips are supposed to be 15mm, so I cut strips of painter's tape at 7mm. Yeah, I got rid of half a mm. I live dangerously. Actually, half of me thought cutting out a mm (1/2 on each side) was going to help the fit. The other half thought I would end up accidentally adding in that half a milimeter anyway. We shall see! I put the strip along the edge of the forearm, so I had a tape line exactly 7 or 7.5mm away. Probably should have gotten a picture of that. Maybe I'll remember on the right side! One section doesn't have a return edge. I only have two hands, so I couldn't take pictures of this in the process! I taped the side with two return edges, and the wrapped it around my arm. I lined up the section opposite the no return edge bit (the far left and far right parts in the picture below) I made marks where I wanted the edges to meet. I was able to reach inside and mark a line by tracing along the other edge. It actually seemed like there was a hint of a line from the mold there, too! After trimming, I think they're still fairly symmetrical. It was raining, so I couldn't go outside to start gluing with the E6000. Also, moving on to the gluing stage is scary. Also I'm scared that I trimmed it too much or something. Eek.

Here's the left ear before I put the correct screws BACK in. You can see that the countersink was too big, as it was made for a larger screw. Fortunately, the larger screw was actually correct for centurion level! Check out the bottom screw. . . The hole for the bottom screw, due to the countersink, was large enough that I was worried about gapping or pulling through. Below, you can see my little work around. Basically, I made a little piece, almost a washer, that fit inside the hole. This took a while, and turned out to be unnecessary! Finally, the correct screw is in! It actually took me almost an hour to get all the screws re-installed. It took that long the first time, too! The top and bottom screws are JUST long enough. I imagine I could have trimmed the ears a bit closer in general, but I am CERTAINLY not going back to do any more! What I found I needed to do was hold the nut while turning the screw with a flathead screwdriver. Once the screw threads caught, I'd hold the nut with a wrench. I couldn't get the washer to fit on all of them, though. Oh! Another problem I ran into was that some of the ear screw holes were too close to the washers of the rivets to use a washer with the screw and nut. Well, the washer couldn't lay flat. So, I actually trimmed some washers so the nuts could be flat! That also helped the screws to lie better on the surface.

I wanted to get it out of the way!

I'll tell her. :-) And thank your for the compliment on the ears!!!! Those aren't my gloves for trooping, they're my gloves for making sure I don't cut my fingers off! They're cut resistant gloves, which happen to come in black! Thank you for letting me know, though!!! I'll post a picture of the rubber ones I found when I clear off a space somewhere . . .

CORRECTION!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently I was using the right screws for centurion the first time!!!! That's what I get for not reading the forums enough. And not labeling all the parts. I'll put the correct screws back in tomorrow.

Ohhhh, and heyyy. Is it okay if someone had to use extra rivets to get one side of the helmet, under the ear, to sit right? and maybe accidentally drilled a few extra holes? (all covered by the ear) Asking for a friend. . .

I learned from Walt that ventilation through the teeth is critical. He mentioned putting fans behind the teeth, to blow out hot air from your breath. Definitely going to try that! Hoping my microphone won't pick up on the fan noise. If it does, I'll probably try to finagle a switch to turn that fan off alongside a switch to turn on my microphone. Maybe. If you have smaller than man hands, just order your cut resistant gloves online. The ones on the left, from a local big box store, were wayyy to big for me. I ordered the smaller pair online and they are perfect. Soooo, when you go to assemble your helmet, make sure to use the right screws. I *might* have accidentally used the silver ones on the left, not the correct brass ones on the right. In theory, this wouldn't have mattered, but I did a little countersinking of the screws, and did a little more countersinking than I would have liked for the actual, correct screw size. Oh well. *****CORRECTION!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently I was using the right screws for centurion the first time!!!! That's what I get for not reading the forums enough. And not labeling all the parts. I'll put the correct screws back in tomorrow.********** Everyone says that the ears are the hardest part. Well, I'm hoping that's true! If it is, I'm sure glad I got them out of the way. It's pretty rare, with a costuming project, that I don't meet my own quality standards. With the ears, I just have to step back and tell myself, "ear gaps are canon. . . ear gaps are canon. .." If you're anything like me, and those ear gaps are bothering you, do yourself a favor, and scroll through this awesome helmet reference. Type A friends, are you able to breath again? No? Me either. You want to exactly match the gaps on the "move along" helmet, now, don't you? STOP!!!!! You're not even done with the helmet yet!!!! MOVE ALONG TO THE NEXT PART!!! And I need to keep reminding myself that one ear higher than the other is also canon. . . . Oh, wait. Before you do anything, meet the best YouTube video series ever. If you are new to this website, it will be your new best friend. TK 1636's armor building tutorial on YouTube has been playing on repeat while I work. He's building for Centurion Level approval, which is my goal. Just watch this over and over again. Seriously. He is AMAZING.