TheLorelei

Hahahahaha, this did give me quite a laugh. Thank you, Tony. Not much, apparently. Your "secret compartment" comment was hilarious, btw! It's not that bad! True. At this point it's just for my own sake (and Roddie's) which is nice to know. He's said end of January will be the end... so who knows. And hey, I didn't know you read my Carida thread! Agreed! And I didn't want to mess with this right ear because it really is quite nice, just too different from the left for my taste... so I dug through my reject ears and found draft #3 which was super slim and nice minus a little gappiness on the back which everyone has convinced me is totally fine. You all win! And thank you so much, again. I've gotten a smidge more completed here and there. The belt snaps are on! I opted for nylon snap plates instead of setting the snaps right into the ab because they'd be easier to move and it'd mean fewer holes in my armor. To install, I laid the belt over the ab where I wanted it to rest and taped the middle to keep it high enough while positioning. Then I put loops of painter's tape on the back of the nylon snap plates and pushed the belt into place. Carefully unsnapped, put a piece of tape along the top edge, folded the snap plate back, peeled the rolled tape off the back, smeared on some E6000, folded the plate back down, clamped it up, and I was done. Also, I'm pretty sure the ab buttons are on correctly now. Ha. But @ukswrath , you commented on @A.J. Hamler 's build that the vertical plate could use trimming. Is mine too big, too? The ATA buttons themselves are quite large so I could only afford to trim the edges a few mm more before cutting into the buttons, but I *could* take those mm off. Anyway I trimmed the belt rivet covers down to 1" squares and hollowed out the backs to accommodate the rivets better, then centered those and got them gluing. So now it's this; center belt height is negotiable pending final fitting and I'll secure it in the center with Velcro if that proves necessary. The side snaps are at a good spot for it to hinge around, though. And I have yet to clean up the glue seepage around everything. I also did bucket things. Like I said earlier I picked an old ear as my new right ear, so moved ahead with painting the bucket details. My general stance on painting seems to be "we'll fix it in post" which worked shockingly well with Testor's on the traps (cleanup with a toothpick). (I will, however, be masking carefully for the tube stripes.) The vocoder didn't work out so nicely - wrong brush for the job - so I'll be wiping that and starting fresh. Yay mineral spirits. See that little speck of black on the bottom edge? Plastidip. I'm back at it again with the plastidip, y'all! So glad I saved the dregs of the can. Even when it's all dried and gummy, a splash of xylol thins it back to usability almost instantly. Why did I thin said dregs? Because I found out E6000 never really stops off-gassing when heated and I have some exposed in my bucket from gluing the lens mounts in. How much heating qualifies as "heating", I do not know, but troops on hot days don't seem like "cooling" ventures, and I'm far from interested in being cooped up with E6000 fumes. Also, I touched up the inside of the bucket with some Testor's and while I believe enamels can fully cure, the jury's kinda sorta out on the advisability of breathing right next to those for extended periods of time, too. I decided to seal everything in with a couple coats of plastidip for my peace of mind, if nothing else. Turns out the lens mounts look even cooler and more integrated with the plastidip wrapping up from the rest of the face! The lighting was sketch so I'll post pics of that later. There's an armor party on Saturday where I'd like to get some major fitting done. Other than more painting and a bit of strapping to be made, I think the big things are getting the cod and sniper knee on. Yeah, I'm still avoiding that knee... *side-eye*

Yesterday I harvested my glued bucket face with much delight: Look at those lenses! *swoons* Then I moved one strapping connection point and glued down the kidney side of the elastic hinge (which is made of elastic glued to ABS strips like the ab/kidney hinge, but the ABS is on the bottom here). Aaand that's where the happy stops. I assembled my bucket to discover that I dislike the ears, the ears I spent so many hours on. They look different from each other. But how different is too different? Here we have our friend, Mr. Move Along: - sporting an eerily similar difference in thickness of the lower ears, and this chap in the front: with seemingly similar balance issues. You can see the right ear from even this drastic angle, while the fully visible left is quite thin at the bottom. And then Mr. Set for Stun (many thanks to starwarshelmets.com for curating all these!): which COULD be the photo angle, but still, the ears aren't identical. Lay it on me, y'all. Should I redo both ears? One ear? If so, which one? Are they fine as is? Specific suggestions greatly appreciated. Today I'll place belt snaps on the ab, start painting the cap, and do some fixing up of the belt rivets so I can glue the covers on. And yeah, I'll wrestle with the sniper knee, too.

I heard one! And that's tough about the cap color. It's nice that it's darker than the face but it does seem a bit too dark, at least in pictures. Have you taken it into different lights to see how the shade of khaki changes? Maybe that would help you decide.

Folks tend to recommend Darman: And there are others in the sales section, too. Or you could make your own!

Hang in there, Frank. Why hello, Sha Sha! Right, a skills blind spot I want to explore - that's exactly what this is. Good for you for making the fan setup! Did you use squirrel fans? Nice to know you're happy with just two (and oh my, how do they use no fans at all??). I haven't decided how many I'll use yet; I've heard having one on top of your head pointing down towards the back is nice for clearing gathered heat and humidity though. And I'm not sure how I'll like having fans blowing up my face so I'm anticipating a bit of placement testing and modification anyway.

Oh my goodness Rowan who let you in the house?? You're exactly right And thanks! I'm feeling the full effects of the 80/20 principle - stuck in that last 20% of work that's taking 80% of the time. Got everything glued as planned today though so that's something.

Thanks, Matt! With thinner lenses I would have used your Sugru method (but with epoxy putty, what I made the mounts from, instead). Since the lens material that came with my kit is so rigid, I made the mounts the proper shape so the lenses would be forced to conform, instead - they sit so nicely once all screwed in, so I won't be baking any lenses any time soon, don't worry!

Thanks Brad! Yeah, I'll wait and see. Or not see, if the fog is that bad. Fan placement is going to be interesting. But that's a matter for my electronics thread.

Glad you're back at it - nothing like some white armor to cheer a spirit Looks to me like if you took some of the return edge from the top of the ab you could gain some space to help close the gap.

Oven is an idea! I'm quite wary of using a heat gun. Fortunately they're lying peacefully now, at least: but if they rebel at some point (or I swap lenses) I'll give the oven a shot Thanks for the options! So yep, I assembled my eyes tonight. And I CA-glued some fiberglass screening (and a bit of glove) into my frown outline: and trimmed that down. Sliding the completed eyes onto the face was a happy squeal moment, to be sure. It looks like a real bucket!! I had to polish up some bucket scratches before moving further, though, so I spent a while sanding to 2,000 grit and then Novus-ing it up. The results are satisfactory. Smudge's smudge remains on his nose despite it all. (Insert nose/spite/face pun that I'm too tired to riddle out.) Tomorrow I'll use my heated workspace to E6000 in the eyes, frown, ab button plate, and new kidney-butt attachment points. Moving along!

Trust me, I tried. Whatever they're made of just isn't a thermoplastic. Heat (from seriously extended periods of time in boiling water, at least) has no effect whatsoever. They spring delightfully back into flatness when cooled!

Lens mounts! Those silly, dust-involving pieces that kept my whole bucket waiting for them! I chose this design because a) it looks awesome and b) I needed something with many points of attachment for the lens (more than the 2-3 Chicago screw concept) because my lenses were so thick and not thermoplastic. Y'all saw bits and pieces of making the mounts - I finished sanding them down to size, filled the edges, sanded again, and prepared to drill screw holes (an important step as you don't want the epoxy to crack as the screw forces it apart). I had cut out lenses earlier, otherwise I would have cut them based on the mounts. I held the lens on the mount and picked eight points at which to secure it, placing more Sharpie dots on the higher tension/curve area at the lower left. (I imagine these tension points vary from helmet to helmet depending on how you trimmed your eyes.) Since I had #2 screws, I used a 1/16" drill bit to make holes in the lens. I wanted these done before I drilled pilot holes in the actual mount for alignment's sake. Then I held the lens in place super tight and made my first pilot hole right in the middle of the high tension zone. This way, everything else takes its alignment from this spot. PSA: keep your drill bit at a 90° angle to your lens! Especially important when you want the screw heads to lie flat for aesthetics. You know, for all the people that will see the inside of your helmet. A look at how high the lens wants to float after the first screw is in: This is a stubborn, stubborn material. I'm glad I'll have as many screws in it as I will. (Also, this is clearly before I filled the edges and re-sanded.) Repeat the push-down-hard-and-drill thing just across from the first screw, get that screw in, and everything should cooperate much better from there on out. No need to put screws in every hole as you go any more. Next I took all the screws out, sanded the mount edges to match the lens edges where practical, washed the mounts thoroughly to get rid of that pesky epoxy dust, and let them dry while I tested my 3-part Novus polish on the lenses. It's pretty neat stuff. Still some hairline scratches, but I can't see snuff through the lenses anyway so potatoe, tomahto. Once the mounts dried I painted them black (no pics) and that's where they stand. Woo!

Great progress despite setbacks! Go you! The punch may have gotten bent due to hammering on the granite slab if you didn't put a buffer behind the leather would be my guess. @Grihm is our resident leatherworker and can likely weigh in on punch quality questions.

It's admittedly pretty obscure but if The Three Stooges is (are?) your thing, it's a must-see! It's run by Larry Fine's grandniece's husband. Delightful chap. Looks like it's closed through March for renovations but I highly recommend a visit after that!

We exist solely to infuriate you. *bows* What can I say - I wasn't willing to sacrifice the entire mount by drawing in false sanding lines in more artistic places. Alternate (also true) excuse: I'm really really bad at applying makeup.

Haha!! THERE he is! Your gif game is much stronger than mine. And wow, I never thought about "low brow" being a double insult around here for Stunts... them's fightin' words, Matt! Last night I worked on my lens mounts. Figured out a way to hold the shop-vac tube near the Dremel so it sucked away all the dust before it got everywhere so it ended up being much cleaner work than expected. A bit of putty filling to do along the edges before a final sanding and painting (of the edges only) but I held a lens in there and it looks great so I'm excited!! The one thing is there won't be any ventilation around the eyes which is something I've seen mentioned with great importance placed on it. I could potentially cut little notches so only parts of the mount are flush with the lens, but I've also heard people with as many fans as I'm planning on having don't really have lens fogging issues. Plus, baby shampoo on lens solutions etc. Basically I'm not worried. But maybe I should be. Lens mount trimming process was - place mount on eye, scribble with sharpie on high points, sand down with flat front edge of Dremel sanding bit, repeat. ( @TheSwede I may have missed my chance to draw eyes on my untrimmed bucket, but I did get to give it eyelashes, so there! ) Here's a before and after with the other mount: I'd say they're coming along well. I also made my thigh garter belt last night - a stripped down part of the belt I bought from work to use as strapping. Speaking of which, I am loving this material! Making strapping for the kidney-butt connection with it and it's soo rigid. Today is Cousins' Day Out so no work will be done but I may sneak some in tonight. 'Til then, y'all!

Shhhhh. You saw nothing.

So I've heard! (Haha) Thank you, Christine!! So much.

Hahaha. Look at that. Not having the ab attached to the cod, it's stupid easy to flip it upside down without noticing and since I glued that one on and covered it before orienting for the smaller side plate... Priceless. Thanks, guys. #wherewouldibewithoute6000 So when I finish my build I get to go back and delete all the stupid mistakes so they're not left floating about the internet, right? On the bright side, I think I'm developing a sense of humor about my fallibility. Probably about time I did that. *grinds teeth*

I made my snaps sit a little closer together so there was more spare webbing at the edges to hold them down. I'm sure it varies for everyone, though, and it's highly unlikely small spacing differences will kill your armor. Not sure on the leather - will wait for brighter minds to answer that one. Many travels for the paints! The things we do for our TKs. Grey looks good, but I think you'll want semi-gloss black (1139) as opposed to gloss. This was the most recent chart I saw, perhaps yours differs? The white seems tricky. Is it off-white?

Thanks Tony. Trimmed away it shall be. Did some things tonight - cleaned up ab button edges though of course the paint got dented up during gluing so I'll either retouch or wipe the darn things and paint them for the fourth time. Circles, y'all. I've NEVER been good at circles. Best I did on these was when I realized I could dab the paint on with the flat side of a makeup sponge wedge thing - that way it was only touching the flat surface which was circular so it made (roughly) a circle. Anyway, with those finally in place I prepared to put my belt snaps on the ab and then realized I'd prefer to glue single snap plates onto the front to drill fewer holes in my armor so I just set the female edge snaps in my belt instead. They sit behind the outermost ammo boxes(?) and I'm confident I'll be able to squeeze a finger in between the belts to snap them to the ab before velcroing the back closed. Hey, I guess I can finally install the other two belt-to-belt rivets now! I removed too many snap plates over the past couple days preparing for my new butt-kidney connections. Dozens. Ok, six, I removed six. But it FELT like dozens. Also I reshaped the butt plate and look how happily it lines up on the edges now! Sublime. Must finish trimming the lower edges of the butt plate too. There's much return edge yet. After sanding the kidney splice down for the nth time this evening and still running into those dark lines (I must have left pencil in there for real) I decided to file the whole deal out and start fresh-ish. Used my needle files to form a nice little trench at the seam. Not too deep, but deep enough to remove both sides (with pencil markings...) and a little depth. Then I acetoned down my ABS paste until it was super runny and drip-smear-poured it along the trench with a toothpick. I've had problems with bubbles forming in ABS paste in the past and I'm hoping this helps keep them from forming as I'm not globbing on layers of thicker paste, despite how globby it may look below. Oh yeah, gotta reshape the 22mm notch again too. What's that saying - Vader may work from sun to sun to sun (haha, look, a Tatooine joke), but a TK's work is never done? Yeah, that was it. Then I closed the evening by making a huge mess Dremeling out the insides of my hovi mic tips and drilling out little itty bitty holes for the little itty bitty speaker wires. But more on that in my electronics thread. Some time.

More power to ya on the painting! And sad to hear about TK Boots being officially done. :/ Sure thing about the paint, let me know. Michael's selection is a little weird, agreed. I imagine part of the difficulty with buying them online is the shipping restriction since they're flammable. Worry not, I made my local postal people dig out their big book o' mailing rules and know how to get it done legally. Also a local chain has the other colors, too, so if you want me to send you the blue I could send any others you can't get a hold of. The press is nothing short of magical. I have to lean into mine decently hard to get that last bit of tightness on thinner materials (like one layer of nylon) but for a perfect set every time... yes, so good. I also enjoy how you set the top part of the snap into the upper die before pressing - no room for error at all! Seems like the screen-used holsters were pretty thin too, but thicker is better for getting your blaster back in there on the run (or so I hear). I'm sure you'll have it all together in no time. (PS, using the press to put the snap onto the holster perfectly was so so gratifying.)

I want to. So much! But I'm beat. Tomorrow promises less exhaustion. *faint laughter heard in distance* But here's my new sniper knee, and perhaps now you can see why I trimmed it on an angle... ...'cause it seems to be asking for it. Here are my proposed trim lines - curve to the top vertical bit will be determined when I test fit it on the (proper!) shin. More concerned with the bottom edge ends. I think my only other option is to cut them way out where the bottom ends and flatten the bumpy upper plastic to match but I don't think that's quite practical. See how lumpy it gets right past there? It seems like I have to use that as my end point. N'est-ce pas? Also, I had previously treated my knee like an ear (oh the phrases I've typed in this build........) - like an ear, I say, in that I trimmed this bottom edge to fit the shin perfectly. It was delightful. However somebody mentioned the knee should be trimmed way up under the little ridge/bump/box things, which obviously precludes such lower shaping. Doesn't seem like too much left to me compared to screencaps, but my eye is certainly not as trained as it could be. Anyone else care to weigh in on it?

So exciting, and looking great! I bet the cod-butt strap will help. Love the rubber chicken rationale - and TELL me you've been to the Stoogeum in Ambler!! If you haven't, give me a heads up and we'll meet there. It's been too long. I'll get off work for, uh, official stormtrooper business. My thigh straps were a couple inches too long at first, too. And by "were at first" I mean "currently are". Cough. Back to work I go...

TK Boots is indeed closing up but they had some "less than perfect" stock on hand in small sizes a few months ago - did you happen to ask about those, or just the perfect ones? I have the imperfect ones and they're hardly (and I mean hardly) wrinkled. It does seem a shame to spend so much on boots you'll have to paint... sorry to hear the first try didn't fit, too. If you decide to go the Testor's route and find (like me) that you can get your hands on semi-gloss black, gloss grey, and gloss white easily in stores but have the dickens of a time finding French Blue, do let me know. Our Rust-oleum sales rep gave me a case of the stuff and I'd happily mail you a bottle. Troopers helping troopers etc. Go for it on snap plate pre-assembly! And if you get worried about using too many snaps that you may wish to reallocate later, just pre-make the nylon bits with holes in them. It's SO nice to have extras of those cut and sealed so you can throw in snaps (which, with our snap presses, takes mere moments ) as you need them. Double snaps most everywhere is the secure way to go. Not overkill, and not more of a pain than single snaps since you're doing all the same steps for singles anyway (cutting, mounting). I'm using single snaps down my arms because there's not much space there, not much weight there, and the biceps and forearms will be mostly staying in place on their own. Nylon vs elastic for strapping (not plates, but the long bits) is always a discussion but seems to come down to whether you consider nylon being *not* stretchy a benefit (keeps your armor where you put it) or a detriment (when flex is required, it won't be the one giving way so your armor may develop cracks). Pretzel's link on the rare earth magnets is good. Price-wise you'll likely find Ebay best - just beware the listings that ship from China, as I'm guessing you'll want them in less than a few weeks. There, now I've added my novel to your thread. Your BBB day approaches! I'm excited for you!