Freduster

Alright guys, I feel like it's time for another massive post today. Since my lectures stopped two weeks ago I had tons of time to work on my armor, and with Power of the Force Con in Oberhausen, Germany around the corner (the event where I talked to a couple of 501st members and decided I was going to get an armor) I spent every free minute working on the armor. Sadly I failed to capture everything with my phone (in fact, what follows is a very small number of random shots I took in between), but anyway, here is what I got up to, sometimes supported by pictures: Carried on glueing all the appropriate parts together which usually made my basement look like this: Went on to the strapping: Which also made my living-room look like this: However, it turned out pretty nicely so far, so I tried to take some pictures with the parts of the armor that held together already: Finally, I would like to apologize to everyone who is reading this build trying to find some helpful hints because I really didn't take enough pictures with enough details However, I would like to point out three builds that were really helpful for me when I built this RS kit: 1. Build by @AsBlondeAsLuke which was an RS kit (like mine) and is also great fun to read, 2. Build by @ukswrath which is incredibly detailed and very easy to follow, 3. Build by @CableGuy which pretty much uses the same strapping system as mine and also offered a couple of interesting hints for building. Right now, I am waiting for a couple of other things to dry, then I will carry on glueing the thighs, and then all that's left is a couple of straps and the ammo belt. So stay tuned Cheers, Freddy P.S.: If you notice something I should change (hopefully it's not too late), hit me up!

Hey guys, gonna post some progress later today hopefully, but for now I have another question: is a male snap just the bottom of a snap button? Looks like one to me from the reference pics, but I wanted to double-check with the experts and if it is, is it being silver the only requirement for centurions (talking about the two snaps that go on the butt piece and the one on the torso). Cheers in advance, Freddy

Hey guys, I've got a problem concerning my sniper knee.. the ridge that it has does not align with the ridge on the upper shins at all. How did you guys (especially the ones with an RS kit) solve that issue?

And the next update was late again, I am a bad German anyway, finished my belt today: All it needs now is some time for the glue to dry, but then the good thing is finished I also carried on glueing the cover strips onto the appropriate places. New update maybe tomorrow Cheers, Freddy

Finally a visual update this time, and no new questions so far I went over the helmet again to fit the lens more properly and also to correct the way I painted the vocoder, thanks to @justjoseph63 for pointing that out again! And also yesterday I cut all the cover strips which was quite a tough work. It might have just been my lack of appropriate tools, but I ended up marking the widths of the strips and then went over the ABS, first with a needle, then with a razor knife. This worked pretty well but I still slipped a couple of times. Well whatever - just gotta use the other side of the strip for the front then This was before : And this is after: And also, yesterday the first cover strip was glued: Just a small step for the armor, but a big step for me Next update will probably follow on Friday or Saturday, don't go anywhere Freddy

Cheers for the advice guys, I'll get the inner strapping done first. Today the plan is to glue the biceps and forearms, so one question concerning the cover strips; I've seen in some builds that people round the corners, and some others keep the edges. How did you guys do it? And concerning the width: 15mm for all the arm parts, right? :D

Actually this could help out already. This is the picture I took last week, and so far nothing has changed. So this is the current state

I've set an alarm for when I come home later today so I can take a picture of the issue and then upload it here

Cheers, Eagle Eye! You're really doing an Imperial Attaché's job I should be ready to trim the thighs to the correct size now, only with the length trimming I'll wait until I have finished strapping and fitting the torso. That reminds me of yet another question: when I wear my arms properly, there is barely no gap between the hand plates and the forearm armor. Is that normal, does anyone have that problem as well or should I just cut away some armor at the back? Problem is, I currently have a really nice return edge at the back that I kinda wanna keep, and in the front I also don't wanna cut into the area where the bumps start

Question time once again: I know that the RS shin armor is the same for left and right, but what about the thigh armor? They don't look the same, but I can't really tell which one belongs to which side .. Any hints?

Thought I should share an update here today: helmet paint will be finished tomorrow, and I have decided to move away from the original bracket strapping and do a button strapping instead which seems to be quite popular with essentially every legion member I have ever talked to, so yeah.. onto some more trimming and glueing, and then I can finally go into strapping more which will be the final step on my way to becoming a trooper

And another question I'm thinking about spraying a layer of clear coating onto the helmet to protect the paint. Has anyone done this before or does anyone have experience with this?

And a little addition: do you guys have pictures of your own shin parts? I would especially be interested in the shape at the bottom and the back in general.

And another question! :) I did some work on the shins today, and I found a problem. I trimmed the back of the shins so far that they fit together which left me with a quite uneven return edge at the back. According to other builds this is normal for RS kits, so I'm not too worried about that. My question is about the exact length of the shins. I guess the knee should be visible completely, otherwise the sniper plate won't fit, but how long should the shin be? Does it have to cover the ankles? I'm struggling with fitting the shins over the boots as well :( on the other hand I'm scared that I'll trim away too much of the bottom shin. Help appreciated :D

Well I'm not planning to do that at any time, but thanks for the warning and cheers for the advice, I'll consider this information when trimming and fitting the arms!

New question: is the bicep piece worn with the thumb print to the inside or to the front? I'm asking because I don't want to trim away the wrong return edges

Cheers for the advice again! Hopefully the tiny return edge won't keep me from reaching Centurion... Concerning the bucket, the stupid metal inside the mic tips almost drove me into madness, but I did manage to get there in the end. When painting the tube stripes i did make sure there was a pencil width of space, and it might really be the angle of the picture. Now I am just waiting for the higher quality lens to arrive and then I can finish the helmet. Now this should boost my motivation again (if it dies down until then at all)

So it doesn't matter if the calf return edge is not even? That does simplify things a bit @hollowbodies I am going to cut down the biceps a bit more so they should fit under the shoulder bells easily. Another question: are the back plate and the kidney plate connected at all? I just trimmed down the return edge on the back plate and then realised I might have made a mistake there Good news, I finished painting the helmet! So I am making some decent progress, and especially with your help I'll be finished in no time

Yeah I saw that in your build Dan, the problem with the RS kit is that it doesn't have the same little ledge (if that's the right word) inside where the mesh rests once you've pushed it in enough, there's just nothing there .. that's why I'm struggling with it

Thanks for the replies guys, it really helps a lot to see how many people are reading my thread and giving advice wherever I need some, cheeeeeers! First update in a long time: but I did get a few things done Worked on the thermal detonator to get it out of the way, that's what I enjoyed about my blaster build - you can slowly see all the smaller parts come together into bigger units until they eventually form the final piece. Here is a picture: However I am stuck with a couple of problems. The first is the horrible shape of the RS parts. This is what my front shins look like at the moment: And this is the back: Eeeeeeeeeeer, help? Next problem, how do people install the little metal mesh thingies in the hovi mix tips? I've seen a couple of video tutorials about it, but none could really solve my problem.. And last, some (hopefully) better news I started to put together the arms! First fitting picture here: Does this look kinda alright? I am planning to still tighten the biceps and definitely the forearm, but does the rest look alright? Cheers, Freddy

After all the paint dried and I was able to glue the wood pieces together that needed to be glued, this is what the display looks like finished: I must say I am pretty happy with the result, but I had to add an extra wooden wedge to keep the blaster in an upright position. I think the mistake I made was that I didn't cut out enough wood from the front leg which left the blaster in a quite unstable position. However, if you guys are interested in rebuilding this amateur work, I would be more than happy to measure out everything exactly. My last update will be one with the blaster display and the little metal plaque that I ordered from a German Garrison member, so this wasn't the last picture

Right, next update! First of all, thanks to Dan and Joseph for pointing out the little thing I missed when painting the helmet, I went ahead and repainted them. Next up is the armor assembly, but for some reason I don't really know where to start I also asked RS Props for help and got a short document with a couple of hints, but nothing too helpful. What was the exact process you guys followed when building your TK? I also feel like the fact that I got an RS armor which is far beyond symmetrical and stuff isn't helping Also, does this setup look alright or did I accidentally put armor parts where they don't belong? Cheers, Freddy

Helmet update: got a LOT of painting work done tonight, and seeing the lid come together just boosts my motivation more and more First, I sprayed the inside of the helmet black; mainly because I really liked the look of helmets that were black inside: Then I did almost all of the other painting except for the little black stripes in the grey helmet areas and the blue tube stripes, but I'm sure I'll get this done soon as well Tomorrow I will hopefully get some more done - and in the meantime you guys can help me out I hope: I got a package from RS yesterday with my strapping pack in it, and it's got random numbers on the little bags but no instructions whatsoever. Also, I don't really understand the process of putting together the rest of the armor, does anyone have a good build or even a video to recommend? Cheers guys, Freddy out

Update time again! Managed to get some work done on the display while the helmet paint outside was drying. Drilled the 4 holes into the base plate where I wanted the blaster to sit in the end and the pre-drilled the holes into the legs. Afterwards I just screwed it all together and voilà: I am still going to glue extra backings next to the legs to stabilise the thing more, so expect another update soon

Perfect, I shall shoot him an email instantly.