TheLorelei

Thanks, guys! Except for Frank. You rain cloud. See I was just gonna show up at Roddie's in armor and have him approve me on the spot... entirely kidding, of course. I'm not really worried about an approval deadline but I'd really, really like to have at least my bucket done by Sithmas. A Christmas TK just sounds so dreamy.

I'm baaack! Despite the beautiful sights and the fun and the delicious food, I was missing Smudge by the end of the trip. I've clearly got a problem. But I did get my Star Wars fix while I was out there, which was nice. So while I'm laid out with yet another sickness (travel does *not* agree with me), I'm strategizing. I had a pipe dream of finishing my armor in time for approval by the thanksgiving day parade but that's looking a bit challenging and I don't want to rush things. I mean I DO want to rush things, but I know I shouldn't. Probably. So here's The List (in no particular order, and with soft bits excluded): Bucket: -trim ears -polish -install lenses/mesh -coat bucket interior -paint exterior Legs: -heat form shins -trim shins -install shin magnets Torso: -install (applicable) strapping -trim ab/kidney connection accordingly -make belt to that size Arms: -heat form forearms -assemble forearms -glue handplates onto gloves Thermal Detonator/O2 Canister: -redo, shortening pipe (I will likely leave this til I finish the rest of my armor, as it's ok as is) General: -fill seam lines a la AJ -install strapping -outer cover strips -polish Really I need to order my 2" black elastic already. I'm not sure how I haven't yet. Without that, on days when I don't want/have time to stand over a pot of boiling water for hours, there's nothing to do but sit and agonize over ears. WHICH! I worked on tonight. The left one is now downright passable, if I do say so myself. The back is a hair gappy but not gappy enough for me to freak right this second. Maybe later, though. Who can say. My best right ear looks super lopsided, but fits fine when it's on because the right side of the bucket is also super lopsided. Oh well. The lumps are the beauty, the lumps are the beauty. Here's the top of the best-fitting right (but I overtrimmed the bottom back so don't go thinking I can use it. I have two MORE new pairs of ears in hand [plus an extra right due to shipping errors] though!) And there I am for now. It seems like everything is waiting on everything else to be sized - what a weird puzzle this armor is - but I know if I get the shins and forearms heat formed I'll have more gluing and resizing to work on, so I'll aim to do that tomorrow. Over!

Welcome! As a fellow new(ish) Garrison Carida recruit, I can confirm that it's nice to have your advisor assigned to you as a Cadet. I'm over near Philly as well, but I'm sure we'll run into each other sometime! Read up on stuff like everybody else said, and I look forward to watching your build thread when the time comes.

Hey Adi I haven't trimmed my kidney yet, and it's looking like I might not have to. I'm going to put my strapping in so everything can really hang how it's going to hang, and then decide. Are you absolutely sure you need to trim your kidney? A good bit of length can be made up for visually by bending the back plate's shoulder tabs downwards (by water bath) and the butt plate's lower tab upwards to curve under you better (if space allows). Just my two cents. ... Or wait, just my two Yen - my apologies for the delayed reply, as I'm in Japan for a few weeks hopping about, feeling close kinship with every Star-Wars-merch-wearer I see. I am appropriately labeled in our galactic alphabet in case one of these domestic Japanese flights should land us in another galaxy, worry not. Be back in a bit, and keep an eye on the Emperor for me 'til then y'all.

Ok, HOW did I miss those? Gazmosis' especially. Pinned and all. Thank you! Helped immensely! I still may have to order an extra set as I think I overtrimmed my second right ear but that remains to be seen. My third set should go swimmingly though at this rate. What a learning curve.

Thank you, Luc!! It does help! Been working away at them with much more success using that method (slightly modified in that I used some small axles instead of screws because that's what I had around).

You guys, this is the worst. Ears. They hate me. I hate them. I've spent hours on the right one alone. It's finally looking almost acceptable, but my goodness what a ridiculous lot of sanity I've lost to get it there. I'm going to try the compass trick to get the curve onto the left ear, but does anyone have any other groundbreaking tricks or tips on fitting the ears that they've been keeping under their buckets til now? Much obliged. Pictures once I hate the right ear less.

THE FORUMS ARE BACK THE FORUMS ARE BACK THE FORUMS ARE BAAACK! My goodness it's awful spending a day without them. Especially when I do something like this! Meet my flower child, Smudge. First I got his brow sorted out using just my exacto. I've taken to sorta whittling the plastic for general reshaping (wearing cutproof gloves) as it means I don't end up covered in white dust. I smoothed it a little more and then placed my brow trim. I marked the angle with a pencil and cut the trim with scissors while holding it spread open. Testing the trim... Thanks to gazmosis' tutorial I knew to trim the wearer's right side very generously to allow for overlap with the face plate. That does necessitate reshaping the side of the bucket to curve over the face properly. I used a heat gun (oh, the horror) and a thin canning jar. It took many patience, but I eventually got it lying along the face better. Nothin' a little ear can't cover up! I think. Positioning the face using magnets was super convenient and remarkably secure. Threw a few doubles along the brow and ears and adjusted away. When it got to looking good, I stacked a bunch more magnets on... ...checked the alignment a few dozen more times... ...and drilled a few holes to tack everything in place. It's looking pretty great to me!! More tomorrow. Ear work. Dun dun dunnn.

Ergh. That's a good consideration. I'm a little disappointed with how the caps are on there anyway, so I might disassemble and go down to 7 1/4". Yes, definitely!

Well it better be, Mr. Imperial Attaché! Just saw the news in the newsletter, congratulations!

Forgiven, it did look long, thank you very much for noticing it! I'd much rather you all keep me in line than sugarcoat things and let me end up with a subpar TK.

Gotcha. Thanks for sharing! Nice clean helmet interior you have, too.

I've also heard good things about Imperial Warfighters, also based in the UK. Ryan makes both resin and rubber E-11s and can be reached by Facebook messenger as well. I ordered my blaster from him.

Imperial issue.

Thanks, Tony! It's 7 1/2 inches, I promise. Maybe even a hair under. (Literally.) Of course it's quite possible for me to pop the pieces off and size it down if you think it looks too long. But take a look below first... It looks weird in pictures but I kept the caps to 3/4" and the gap between the caps and the control panel (?) to 3/4" and the overall length to 7 1/2" which left me with a slightly under 4 1/2" control panel (?). Speaking of looking weird in pictures, check this out. My boyfriend's new iPhone, unlike my oldie, has this optical zoom thing and look at the difference having that turned on makes in the perceived size. Nothing in these photos has been moved. So there you go. Maybe it looks like a more reasonable size in the last picture, Tony? Yeahh. It's a fun quandary. Pretty sure ShaSha trimmed hers on both sides, but Christine did not. I'm going to keep the front ridge the same in the interest of keeping things largely undisturbed. Thanks for the well wishes. Side note. The untrimmed shins are about the size of the trimmed thighs! Tiny TKs Inc.!