wook1138

LOL. Totally understandable! You are gonna love the troop!! Again, nice work on the build!

Congrats!!! You look awesome! You need to request access for 501st. Welcome to the ranks, trooper!

So moving around will be a challenge. That said, you should be able to go up a flight of stairs (it doesn't need to be pretty, just doable) and put on your own helmet. The important thing is that nothing is rubbing against you and causing discomfort. As for your cod and posterior parts - there does seem to be extra material there. This is an AM kit, right? Have you checked out Tony's build? I think he mentions something about removing some of this material. If memory serves, he keeps it on at first but then later in the build realizes he needs to remove it. Here is the link:

Looking good! Nice start.

I can try to answer some of this - maybe. The biceps - if you want return edge along the bottom, I would line up the bottom keeping in mind that the tops will be mostly covered by the shoulder bell anyways. I'll let an RS expert comment on the shins - I couldn't tell from the pics but my understanding is that there is no left and right to the RS shins, but I'm not an RS guy. For the paint, the grey does look rough. Did you stir the tin really well with a toothpick or something similar? If you have a grainy texture, this could be due to an old tin of paint. I had this issue as well. You may want to source a new tin from someplace new. I've never tried to sand this paint (I assume you are using Humbrol?) so I'm not sure how that would work. RS bicep. You can't see it in this image, but there is no return edge at bottom Your build is looking great, btw! Keep it up!

And more trimming. Torso and belt. Ab. There is no trim line at the ab to kidney seam. I put my cut line at the pencil mark. A lot of material to remove. I used the dremel and cleaned up with scissors. I rough cut the kidney along the pencil line. There is lots of extra material here if needed. I knew I didn’t need much and just trimmed off a bit to make fitting easier. Chest. Most of the trim lines were visible. I always trace them out with pencil. But I had trouble here. The pull was a bit rough here and at the shoulder bridges. Still doable. Rough area from the pull. Sized the ab and kidney parts and I only need 1cm from the edge of the kidney notch. Torso rough trimmed and sanded. I left a little return edge along the sides of the chest. The return edge along the shoulder tabs will help strengthen them. My left side had less return edge thanks to the dodgy trim line and me not paying close attention. Inner return edges are rounded so they won’t snag on things during fittings and what not. All torso return edges are about 10 mm to accommodate screws for original bracket system - but may reduce them a bit more once the screws are in. You really want to rough sand everything and make sure there are no sharp edges before the fitting and strapping process - this will prevent your undersuit from snagging and less chance of creating a tear in the armour. Belt and ammo belt took about one minute to trim. Turned upside down, scored the seam, used scissors to cut along the corners and snapped the edges off. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

More trimming of the AP kit. Shins Unlike the arms, there is a left and right to the legs. Shins are indicated as so. Since you will cut away that part, mark with marker. I use scissors for these cuts. I will rough cut with dremel but finish with scissors to get curves at corners. Sharp corners invite tearing. Unless you are good with the knife I really don’t advise the score and snap method for areas like this v Oh yeah, if you get confused about the shins, they are shaped like this. This is the left shin. Note the difference in the shape of the outer part (right side of pic) to the inside. The inside (left side of pic) has a tighter curve higher up the shin. Also, coverstrips will be 20mm - the seam will not be overlapping when you put it together. All sizing is done with the back seam (in my case) and most people will be good to just cut the front return edge down to 10mm each side. Thighs This is the right thigh. The inside part swoops down to avoid your... errr... bits. The right thigh also sucks. The return edge along the butt seam is not straight. I drew a straight line to act as a return edge. Trimming the front seam. The score and snap works awesome here. 10mm edge. When I cut the front seam I try to leave some extra material along the lower return edge detail. This will minimize the chance of a gap. This is the right thigh so it will be covered by the ammo belt, but keep this in mind for the left thigh. I forgot. Final trimming on shins. Ankle return edge completely removed. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ok, long time - no posting. So I thought I would post the trimming process for the AP armour. So here goes. This is of course for new people with no experience with trimming the AP kit. I'm not really talking about measuring for fitting, just the rough trimming (for the most part) Getting ready. I use a combination of lexan scissors, dremel, and score and snap with a utility knife. Picked these up. Bicep There is no left or right for the arms. They are the same. So the trim lines are pretty good for most pieces. Red in the pic. The green is the return edge for the butt seam that gets the coverstrip. The blue just separates the two halves. Inside bicep. I used the score and snap method here. I don’t like using this unless the lines are straight and flat. The knife can get away from you pretty fast and you can end up cutting your armour or at least create a weak spot for a future tear. I never score towards an inside corner - I'm not great with the knife and tend to overshoot the corner - creating a weak spot in the armour. Cut to the corners with scissors and snap the the edges. For the butt edge the is lots of material. I only need about 7 or 8 mm (15mm coverstrip) for my edges. Using the inside is great for seeing return edges Biceps rough trimmed. Butt edges not sized yet. Forearms Elbow edge. I left return edge only because the particular sandy I’m building has some return edge. I’ll reduce later to better match reference pics. Wrist edge of forearms. More return edge needs to be removed Wrist return edge needs to go. The inside of the piece really shows the return edge well. Shoulder bells before Shoulder bells after Don’t forget to clean up the little return edge along the side if present. Arms trimmed and ready for fitting. Return edge left where possible for screen accuracy sake. I removed all return edge for my TK build. But this is a sandy and they seem to have return edges. After fitting I reduced all butt return edges to about 7 or 8 mm for a 15mm coverstrip. Had to trim the shoulder bell return edge so I fit over the bicep better - not done yet in pic. I sand the areas that I will glue with coarse sandpaper. This helps the glue stick. Use E6000 - can't stress that enough. Cut some 15 mm coverstrips and sand the rough sides. There is a shinier side - this is the side that faces out. The other side gets the rough up with sandpaper and glued. Ready for assembly. Edges rough sanded and all corners rounded off. Got some gluing done too. Forearms got their coverstrips. The right arm doesn’t get a full coverstrip. And yes, that is the inside seam by accident. Too long of a day - good thing it is E6000. Check it out below in green. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

PS Speaking of the Gallery - you might find this of interest.

Check out the Gallery section on this forum or go to starwarshelmets.com for a ton of great pics. I love that RS helmet! I used to think the "sanitized" look was better - I now have a new appreciation for the "bumpy" look. Looking good so far!

It is coming along great! You are inspiring me to get something done.

Like Daniel mentioned, one inch is screen accurate. I originally used 3/4" as well but had to switch out to 1" to allow for some trimming of the elastic to fit around snaps and such. the 3/4" was just to thin to accommodate that. I don't know why so many builds refer to the 3/4" thickness as a standard. Looking good!

Looks good! Nice work!

For cleaning up and fine-tuning the trimming, I like to use curved lexan scissors. Leaves a very clean cut. Of course for small bumps and roughness, I still use the Dremel. Looking good!

As mentioned, when it doubt just ask. Good luck on your build!

It is looking very good. Nice work!

Hi Rodney. Looks good. I pics are a little fuzzy for me, but I can see a few things you might want to look at: You will need a holster. You are going to want to pull your shoulder bells in so they are almost touching your shoulder bridges. And you might want to secure the back of your shoulder bridges down with some elastic. In the upper pictures, you are wearing a Black Series R1 helmet (if I'm not mistaken), but there is a different helmet in the lower pics. You will have to use you built helmet for all the shots. Some of the stripe detailing in the tears and traps appear to be more ESB looking than ANH. I assume you are going for ANH. You have some return edge around your drop boxes - you may want to give those a little trim.

PS - it works awesome!

Yeah, I had to go the Amazon route as well.

Congrats on your BBB day! Good luck on your build! Before you cut anything, read through a few builds (if you have not done so already). Post lots of pictures and ask lots of questions. And most of all, enjoy it! It won't always be easy, but it will be rewarding. Oh yeah... a little OCD is a good thing

Your first parade!? I can't even imagine.

I have the exact same experience. I've actually just taken over for a handler and connected the sew-in snap (yep, #10) myself a couple of times. I put my gloves on after - I don't know if I could find the #10 snap and do it up with my gloves on.

Yep, what Luc said. I trimmed the wrists of course. I also trimmed the ankles so they wouldn't rub on the boots (and for a better fit) and I trimmed the top of the thighs at the recommendation of other troopers (and after my first big troop, I was very happy I did - most certainly a comfort thing). As for the top of the forearms - if fitting/sizing is not an issue, I would leave some return edge and see how it feels and looks. You can always remove it later. It is much harder to add it again

Congrats on BBB day! Looks like you are off to a good start. I’m just starting my second AP build. Let me know if you have any questions. I’ll be posting all my trimming in the next few days.

For the thighs, the large swoop goes to the inside of the thigh (and butt return edge to the front). And yes, the shins are the same for the RS kit.