Hello White Armor! I am new to the forum and this hobby in general, although I have been hanging around here and researching builds for a while now. I finally took the plunge and bought a TK kit. Unfortunately, I did not heed the warnings on this forum about going with one of the vetted armor venders... A few friends and I ordered from the controversial TK Armor UK site. Now don't get me wrong, we received our order in a timely manner. All of the parts of the kit arrived to us undamaged. The kit looks decent for the price we paid. However.... After looking through some of the amazing build threads on this forum, our kit is definitely outclassed in several areas. The molds are sharp enough, and all the required detail is there more or less. But its little things, like the way the plastic belt is designed, and some angles that aren't cut on the thigh ammo packs, that are going to require much more time and effort to get these kits up to snuff. Also, despite TK UK stating that these kits were designed to fit almost any body size, only the shin pieces appear to be big. Everything else has little to no room to trim. I'm not overly large (6 foot / 200 Lbs.) but the thighs and biceps in particular are very snug. Our original goal after researching the 501st and all the available kits was to aim for Centurion right out of the gate. And while I am still a newbie to all of this, I feel that with a little (a lot probably) of help, and a ton of work on this kits and we might be able to still reach that goal. I know what you are thinking... "Sal, if you wanted to aim for Centurion then why did you cheap out?!" Short answer is I am very impatient and a little cheap. But... Live and learn. I want to take this as a challenge to make this kit look as good as I can. I will try and update this thread with photos of the kit itself, as I'm sure a lot of you are curious as to the quality. I have made some small progress and collected most of the accessories and supplies I will need for the build.
So far, I have begun the process of trimming the return edge on the forearm pieces, the thighs, and the shins. This has been simple enough, but now I am uncertain of what to do next... I don't want to trim any of the arm or leg pieces down length wise until I'm set on how the torso parts will fit, so that everything has a nice even gap.
Would it be wise for me to focus on getting the cod / ab piece and the kidney plate attached first so I can attach the chest, back and butt plate? I feel like this would allow me to get a better fell of the arms and legs. Also there is some significant trimming need for the kidney and butt plate for it to look anything like a respectable TK. I will post some photos tomorrow of the ab-to-kidney section, and the area I am thinking of trimming. I want to add the kidney notch, since I'm trimming that piece anyway, as well as shape the awful butt plate into something more workable. I'm chomping at the bit to get started hacking this thing up, I just need a little guidance Thank you for any and all help, and please forgive me if this is posted in the wrong place. Stay tuned!
