CableGuy

Weekend bump. Enjoy. :-)

The thigh ammo pack also only has a small amount of excess plastic above and below the raised ammo boxes; Hope these photos help. :-) Dan

Well done for asking before cutting. You’ll need to leave some space either end for the belt attachment and button covers. See references below; ***Approximation only*** Whilst those type of diagrams are quite handy, I’d highly recommend checking out photos of the source material from the gallery; https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/gallery/ You’ll find all sorts of high quality photos in there, some of which I’ve posted below for reference. :-) Outer ends of ammo belt (in this case, the button cover is missing) Note that there is only a couple of millimetres above and below the 6 raised ammo boxes.

Hiya, Yes, the main discs of the ears still look a little thick. Personally, I’d consider trimming them down. Just from the pictures, and purely as an estimation, I’d be tempted to consider reducing the thickness of the discs by at least a third. (Only an estimate by eye-balling it). As another trooper also mentioned, the right ear alignment could be adjusted to better match the rear line of the trap. [emoji1303]

Good stuff, Stuart. I’ve had 17 troops with my RWA kit and it’s been great. An awesome, and affordable way to get into this hobby. Hope you enjoyed the videos. [emoji1303][emoji16][emoji1303]

Hi Caleb, Have you checked out the RS Propmasters YouTube channel? They ran an excellent series on how to accurately build their armour. They give all of the original dimensions of their suit - for me, this would be the best starting point. See if the original sizes fit your frame - if it does, that’s great and you have screen accurate sizes. If they need to go up of down a little, you can make adjustments. For the ab buttons, yours could still be trimmed down some more. It’s like that you can counteract the warping when you glue by using some strong magnets. If you want nice, straight edges, you could try the score and snap method. If you’ve not used that before, let me know and I’ll point you in the direction of a example of the process. :-) Best wishes Dan

Welcome aboard, Stuart. :-) When you’re ready, start a WIP (work in progress) thread on the UK Garrison forum and you’ll be assigned an armourer to help you through your build. www.ukgarrison.co.uk Any pics of your progress so far? What kit did you go for? :-) Best wishes Dan

Thanks, Mario. :-)

Hey troopers, Today, I’d like to run through some tips on ways to make a troopable replica Stunt TK helmet. The aim of my build was to make a helmet that looks closer to those seen in ANH back in ‘77, rather than how those helmets look now, over 40 years later. As we all know, the helmets on screen were used and abused by the actors/stunt team and this is clearly evident in ANH. Highlighted below, the helmets showed signs of cracked paint and usage markings. For those that don’t know, the original Stunt helmets were not white ABS (as many helmets are sold today). They were made of a khaki coloured material called HDPE. This was primed and then spray painted to get the final white appearance. This is why the helmets, when studied in closeups, have chips in the white paint showing the khaki plastic below. According to a trusted source, the process went something like this; 1. HDPE helmet primed oxide red 2. White primer added 3. Ears attached (unpainted) and helmet sprayed gloss white So, if one is looking for the closest appearance to screen used stunt helmets, the helmet has to be spray painted. This leaves a couple of options; Option 1; find a good quality HDPE helmet and follow the original methods Option 2; purchase an ABS helmet and fake the HDPE part For this project, I chose option two. Firstly, creating a “replica” helmet means studying the original helmets, such as how they were constructed and how they were finished. I’ve posted various threads about helmet alignment, brow heights, tubestripes and vocoders (which I’ll link at the end) as all of these elements help create a helmet that shouts ANH. For this build, I used a Troopermaster Stunt kit, 1.5mm ABS (not acrylic capped). After a rough trim, I could use magnets to hold the faceplate and back & cal together to start working on alignment. (More info on alignment https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/48293-anh-helmet-alignment/) At every stage, I use a free smartphone app to compare my progress with movie screen shots. (FISD gallery: https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/gallery/) With the basics of alignment in place, the helmet can be fixed together. Let’s take a second to look at the eyes. As below, the screen used helmets appear to have had the eye sockets cut out with a sharp knife. Unlike many “idealised” builds, they were not finely tuned with sand paper or Dremels - they had nice, sharp cut lines. Once the construction is done, the undercoat that will give the appearance of the khaki HDPE plastic can be applied. I was recommended Rust-oleum Painter’s Touch Fossil. Now, whilst the original Stunt HDPE helmet were primed oxide red, I haven’t used that part of the process - this is because, in this build, the Fossil colour acts as the primer. So, for this build the process would be; 1. Helmet sprayed Fossil green 2. Apply liquid mask 3. Ears added and helmet primed white* 4. Gloss white 5. Clear lacquer applied IMPORTANT STEP To give the appearance of paint chips later on, time to apply liquid mask. This was applied with a paint brush to areas where the screen used helmets showed chips or weathering. As below, you can see that the liquid mask has been carefully applied. This dries to a latex finish and is removed after the gloss coat has cured later in the process. White primer; * to get the masking fluid correctly applied around the ears, the ear caps had to be added before the white primer, otherwise, creating the screen used look around the ear caps wouldn’t be possible. Gloss white; Helmet now ready for hand painted details. :-) So, now the helmet is shiny white, spray painted just like the originals, we can move on to the hand painted details. As always, I used screen shots throughout to be as accurate as possible. Videos part 7 through 10 cover the helmet detail painting; Hand painted details More details on the vocoder can be found here: https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/48252-anh-tk-vocoder-examples/ For the tubestripes, I followed the process used by Troopermaster. Essentially, using masking tape (set 15mm apart), starting approximately a pencil width from the cheek, then using a curved template (made from offcuts of ABS) to mark the pencil lines. Each stripe should be approximately 3mm thick. Note the angle of the front few stripes - more details on that here; https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/44755-tube-stripes-anh-stunt-dave-m/ With the tubestripes complete, some gentle weathering can be applied. I used an off cut of rubber s-trim to mark the helmet, then used damp newspaper to give it a slightly used look. And there we are - a helmet built using original construction methods, painting processes similar to the originals, and hand painted details, with realistic weathering. The completed helmet can be seen here; Also, the build can be seen throughout this playlist of videos; Thanks for stopping by. Any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. Best wishes Dan

April bump for new recruits.

Hi Anthony, If you are making adjustments to the tubestripes, you could consider adjusting the stripes furthest forward. As per the below link, it looks like you’ve applied your tubestripes to the opposite cheeks, meaning that the front few stripes point more towards the eyes than towards the nose. https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/44755-tube-stripes-anh-stunt-dave-m/ This will come up if you go for the higher clearance levels. :-)

Hi Stuart, Welcome aboard. :-) Some great advice, above. We are lucky to have (in my opinion) the world’s finest armour makers based in the UK. As mentioned, at the top end you’ve pretty much got RS and Troopermaster. Both are exceptional, just in slightly different ways. Either will offer more accurate products than Anovos so your plan to purchase all in one go gets a thumbs up from me. If the budget is a little lower, check out RWA Creations and DA Props on Facebook. They both offer excellent value for money and great service. As Tino mentioned, my first suit of armour is RWA and I’ve been very pleased with it. Make sure you sign up over at www.ukgarrison.co.uk and myself or one of the other TK armourers will be happy to guide you to clearance. Any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. :-) Best wishes Dan

Welcome aboard. :-)

You are far too kind. I'm honoured.

Great job on the trimming. Looks about right. When you stick the button covers onto your new belt, just note that ideally they should not touch the edges. There should be a little gap between the button and the edge of the ammo belt. :-) A little like this, perhaps; Great work, Jonathan.

Hi Dixon, I’m not sure quite how slim you are, however, it might be worth aiming for screen armour sizes first and see how it looks on you. TM’s armour looks spot on when at movie sizes. If it looks a little big, you can then scale it down. I started with screen sizes and ended up removing just 5mm extra to fit my frame better. Here’s the biceps, for example.

Many congratulations, Dixon. That’s great and exciting news! :-) I don’t know why but I also find the arms a good place to start. If it’s any help, I’m documenting my Troopermaster build on my YouTube channel. So far, the helmet is complete and the arms are now done. :-)

Well done, Roy. Excellent work. :-)

The Doopydoos kit is a really good and you can achieve excellent things with it. Although Doopydoos are renowned for terrible customer communications, the blaster is great when it arrives. The standard kit is great and can be built and painted to be easily good enough for 501st clearance. If you want to take it to the next level, check out “T-Jay’s Completion Set” here on FISD. He has created a bundle of excellent upgrade parts that can be added to the Doopys kit, if you fancy it. Here’s an example of what I did with mine; Btw, I agree with Joseph regarding the return edge on the chest plate - looks good as is. :-) Dan

Hi Chris, I’d consider slimming them down a little. Usual rule of thumb is to have around a finger’s width gap around the part. As above, the original suits were a little more fitted. Especially take note of the gap around the wrist. The proportions of the parts look a little different at the moment, so I’m guessing either you are quite a tall trooper or the parts from this supplier are smaller. Slimming down the parts should help even out the proportions a little, as will reducing the gap at the elbow (moving the forearms up closer to the biceps).

Don’t be angry at yourself, Jonathan. Ears can be a real pain! :-( Anyway, I’m sure you’ll learn from that and get the second pair sorted okay. On that note, you could consider reducing the size of the new ones when they arrive, unless the WTF ears are designed on the large side? Personally, I’d be tempted to try something like this;

Welcome to the FISD, Chris. If you haven’t already, make sure you sign up over at www.ukgarrison.co.uk to start your WIP thread. Between the two forums you’ll have masses of info at assurance at your fingertips. :-) Best wishes Dan

There is a specific left and right ear so they should go the correct way (like the movie helmets). Here’s some more examples. :-)

Congrats, Jon!! :-)

Hi all Another little update. I wanted to find a way to get a really nice finish for the wrist end of the forearms. So, rather than scissors, Dremel or saw, I decided to literally just sands the whole edge with sand paper. Full details of the process in this 6 minute video; Here’s some finished pictures. I’m really pleased with the end result. [emoji1303][emoji1]