Steaditrooper

Haha! I know what you mean. My next build will be a Sandtrooper. I haven't been approved yet and I'm already planning for my next one. Good luck with your build and have fun!

Screw holes and cutting the lens. Lining up the rough clear template I could see where the screws were. I marked them with a pen. I knew some the excess plastic might get in the way on the inside of the helmet so I marked some trim lines. Trimmed it away... I placed the clear template on the green face shield, traced it with a marker and cut it out. I drilled out the screw holes with a drill bit slightly wider than the Chicago screw. A little wiggle room for fitting the new lens. It sits quite nicely. However... That top left screw just won't go in. Hmm. Chicago screws have a hole all the way through. The Sugru squeezed up through the hole. What now? As I was trying to clean the glue out of the hole the whole thing popped off the helmet. Bummer. I cleaned the glue out of the hole and then glued the glue back on with other glue. E6000 to the rescue. Hopefully this works. I will see tomorrow.

Making the template. I cut up an old cereal box. I needed thin, flexible cardboard. I placed it behind the eye and traced the outline with a pencil. The screws sit half an inch away from the inside of the eye so I drew a line 3/4" away from the traced eye and cut it out. Using a plastic lid from a disposable food container I traced the cardboard template. I wasn't able to get all of the lable off the lid but I removed enough for my purposes. Cut it out. And here it is. ready to mark the screw holes.

Most of it is decals. There's no way I could have done it. My hand is too shaky. The ears took hours and then a lot of clean up. The buttons took a long time too. The frown was not that bad for me. Maybe on my Sandtrooper (please don't tell my wife I'm already thinking about doing this again) I will try to paint everything by hand. For my first build this was just too overwhelming.

I have started to work on replacing the green lens supplied with my armour with something darker. The face shield I ordered turned out to be a little too dark but that's ok for now. Following is my step by step process. First I decided where the 1/4" Chicago screws were going to get glued in. I cleaned off some of the Plasti Dip so there would be a good, solid surface to glue to. I can't remember who's build thread I saw this stuff on but I ordered a small pack from Amazon and am trying it out. I made sure it was under the Chicago screw and wrapped over the edge onto the top. I then pressed it into place and moulded it a little smoother. I temporarily screwed in the other side of the screw to make sure it was far enough away from the edge of the eye so it wouldn't overlap the socket and be visible through the lens or impede my vision. The bottom screws were on quite an angle so I levelled them out with more Sugru so the lens will sit flush. Now everything needs to dry. The glue didn't come with any sort of instructions so I gave it 24 hours.

You know when your mind is occupied with something you are really interested in and you can't seem to think of anything else? Well, I start to see what I'm thinking about in the weirdest places and in the strangest objects. A small waste bin I saw on the weekend (in a funeral home) made me think of thigh armour. Hmm, no cover strips.

My under suit is actually compression Under Armour. I was surprised that the Large top was a little loose on me. I have a new smaller top ordered and it should arrive on Tuesday. My pants are fine. Very tight in the leg. Right now I'm just cleaning up little things here and there and planning my helmet mods. Fans, padding etc. Painting screw heads if fun.

I hand painted my buttons without a stencil and just eyeballed it. Your stand alone blue button should clean up nicely with the second coat. It's the only one that stands out as far as the painting goes. The rest look great in my opinion. I also have a shaky hand and old man eyes. All the hand painting was tough for me. I'm sure your shoulder straps will be fine. I think I got lucky with mine. Lots of clamps really helped. I see you have lots of clamps. Could use a few more though...haha. I had a couple clamps on the back plate joining the two side while the front dried just to make sure it all lined up with proper curve and arch. I cut off the big flat bumps on the back of the straps before I glued them on the chest. I'm still processing TLJ too. The only thing that really stood out for me...SPOILER ALERT, kinda... was how easily the Force was used. Vader had to concentrate to choke someone. Even the Emperor had to gesture to make things happen. Wasn't the case for Old Ugly when he moved Ray around. Seemed too easy to me. No effort involved. No concentration. Not Force like. More magical. Totally rubbed me the wrong way. Lots of other great stuff though.

Really nice! Congrats on completing your TK. Hopefully your clearance and TK ID come through quickly.

I think your frown looks better. Subtle difference for sure but better. Buttons look great.

ewe ...I'll stick to Under Armour, thanks.

The only thing I own skin tight is my skin.

Congratulations! I hope to be there soon too. Great photos BTW.

Full shot with shoulders moved as far forward as they can go. I've realized I need a tighter top for the under suit. It bunches up around the chest/shoulders/armpits and overlaps the armour. That's not good. It makes the black look bigger than it actually is. I can really see it in this photo. Oh well. What's a little more money spent on the armour at this point?

Here is a pic of how far I moved the 2" white shoulder elastic in. The screwdriver points to where it used to be. It's about an inch forward from where it was. The snap was moved 3/4" toward the front of the suit.

Great work on the ears! I certainly didn't get mine that nice. I had to keep reminding myself that the screen used helmets looked very rough up close, especially the ears. I did two coats of grey paint on the teeth. I waited for the first coat to completely dry before adding the second coat. As far as the end of the frown goes, maybe a little further. Not much though. I think I might have taken mine too far. Time will tell for that. Enjoy the movie!

The bin is approximately 34" long x 20" wide x 11" high on the inside. I say approximately because it has slightly angled sides and recesses for the wheels. Also, the padding takes up a little space too. It is the same bin you've seen painted. Well, the smaller one of the two popular Husky brand bins. Most people can't fit their entire suit in the smaller bin. Helmet, blaster and boots travel separately I've been told. However I did see Sha Sha fit her helmet in the smaller bin as well. Her armour is smaller however, trimmed down to her size and her chest and back separate and stack inside each other for travel I believe. My front and back can't do that. I went with the smaller bin because it can fit in most cars. If not in the trunk then in the back seat. It is similar in size to the AP shipping box. At least the box I got my armour in.

After a bit of sewing and an outing I finished the interior. Everything is held in with Velcro so I can remove it easily if it needs cleaning or I just feel like a change.

Putting the taller brackets in the chest worked a bit to move the shoulders forward, but not enough. This morning I moved the sew in snaps forward until they were almost touching the chest armour and that did the trick as much as it could with the size of shoulders that came within kit. Looks way better. And no, I haven't taken photos yet. While looking at the new placement of the shoulders I noticed a rather large gap between my back and the back armour. I pulled off the 2" white elastic and re-glued it on tighter. I now need to shorten the side with the snap closure. I will drill out the snap from the elastic, fold it over once and install a new snap. Easier than removing the snap from the back armour. I will do this tomorrow afternoon and take pics once the glue is dry. Until then I will work on my armour bin. I got some Star Wars fabric the other day and quilt batting as a backer to pad it out. I got the small Husky bin from Home Depot. I painted the logo out until I decide what to do with this spot. There is actually quite a bit of room in this bin. Trimming and fitting the batting.

Took a break from everything to go see The Last Jedi.

Congrats Brien! Great news. You certainly have been helping me.

It seems like the longer brackets are working. I'm pretty happy about that. With the chest lower I have discovered another tweak I need to make to the Chest to Back connection. Just a little bending to keep the chest piece against my chest. Tomorrow I can make the bicep to shoulder straps and test fit it all again.

Ok. What's great about this forum is all the help one gets while building their armour. Also, when suggestions come it often makes one think about solutions that are right in front of their faces. Thanks Brien. Here you can see the size of the original tall bracket vs. the taller ones I made just now. I might be pulling that snap out after dinner tonight. It looks like the taller brackets have lowered the chest armour to the height I wanted it at. We will see soon.

I guess I'm using both now. Was hoping the brackets would do it but the chest is riding too high. I could sew longer elastic loops to lower the chest. Might be the best thing now that I think of it. Or I could make taller brackets. Hmmm. I do enjoy the problem solving aspect of all this. Luckily, E6000 allows me to remove the parts I don't want or need.

Happy Birthday Dana! I know what you mean about getting into a groove. Daniel has given some good advise re: return edges. You may find you won't want any in some places. I discovered I needed to remove some altogether while assembling and then discovered after I put the fully assembled suit on for the first time that I needed to remove more. Mostly for comfort. Some places because it was biting me. Ultimately it's up to the individual. What you want, how it looks and how it feels.