Infern0

Buckets off. Rest easy brother. Never met Dan, but his FB posts and Youtube videos have been a huge inspiration. It’s a sad day for the 501st.

Wow, the blaster looks great! It’d be a shame to hide that beautiful work, but do you have to do a mud coat on it to match the armor now?

I wonder if you could do something with rare earth magnets to mount the light… Maybe sink a hole in the blaster and glue a little bar magnet in there and then patch and paint it up, then make a little mount attached to the light with another magnet in it? Or you could just glue a magnet or thin strip of ferrous metal to the side of the blaster and paint it…

Nice!! I bet that was really fun. Armor is looking fantastic too!

A beautiful tribute to Jim❤️ He was the first person to welcome me to the first armor party that I ever attended (which was also my intro to the amazing people of the 501st). He embodied the true spirit of our organization: welcoming me in, sharing his knowledge of TKs and helping me with my build, and sharing his boundless enthusiasm for all things Star Wars. He will forever be missed, but I am so thankful to have met him and trooped with him the few times that I did. Peace.

Thank you as always! Every time I read these I feel inspired

Thanks everyone! Templates for biceps and thigh made up using my TK kit as a guide: Cut the pieces out of 1.5mm abs and started hot water treatment to form the biceps using a paint can as a rough guide: Thigh shaping comes next: Weather hasn’t been ideal for painting, but I’m trying to get all of the armor bits prepped and ready asap so as soon as we get a good day I can paint everything at once.

Well, I get bored, sometimes right in the middle of a project… and that can be a dangerous thing. I was watching video of the RS Propmasters guys who built Brian Matyas’ Remnant TK concept troopers from the Mandalorian, and started thinking it’d be fun to put one together myself. I settled on this dude because I like the combo of TK and Scoutie bits, and it looks like the most comfortable to wear. Since I’m already building a Remnant scout trooper, that will give me the cummerbund and chest/back armor. For the rest I’ll try to keep true to the found part nature of this costume and reuse or scratch build as much of it as I can, and get most of the rest second hand off of people. Here’s my plan for the rest of the bits: Helmet - Purchased from a garrison mate who had it sitting in storage mostly built… Can’t figure out the maker, but it has most of the details of an RS Propmasters helmet, with just a few slight differences and a slightly softer pull than RS does. Undersuit - Originally was going to go for a dark grey flight suit or grey shirt and bdu style pants, but for now going to use my TIE pilot flight suit from my Remnant Scout. I think that’s more in keeping with the Imperial-army-surplus-scavenged idea. Easy enough to change in the future too. Pauldron - Since it’s a different shaped pauldron, and worn on the wrong side, this is one of the few bits that’ll have to be bespoke. I’m going for it and have ordered the marine vinyl to make this myself. Shoulder armor - I already have a spare TK shoulder bell lying around for the right side, and I can easily enough scratch build a bicep piece for the right arm and the left bell. Gloves - Took a liberty here and went for fingerless leather motorcycle gloves that I bought new. MP40 sandtrooper ammo pouches - Purchased from Trooperbay. Belt/holster - This will be scratch built from leather and metal I have laying around, including the codpiece which I’ll build from some scrap plastic. I’m a little unsure what the blaster is supposed to be, but I happen to have a MerrSonn Power5 and holster for my imperial officer, so I figure that makes sense for this guy to have picked up an officer’s pistol somewhere. I just need to figure out the thigh strap. Right and left belt pouches - I have a cellphone holster I’ve used with my imperial officer uniform that will work for the left hand one, and I’ll sew the right hand one myself using duck cloth. It appears to just be a third biker scout pouch with a belt attachment. Thigh pouches - hand sewn using black twill from an old pair of pants to match the flight suit. Left thigh armor - scratch built using my TK armor as a guide. Shin pouches - hand sewn from twill to match thigh pouches Boots - I debated this a lot, and ended up buying surplus jackboots from Hessen Antique. I’ll be making leather cuffs to go over the tops, and possibly gluing some leftover white vinyl from my Scout boots to make the white stripe on the soles. Here goes!

Just read through your build, and it’s so darn cool. Good job!!! I can’t wait to see the next progression

If RS used enamel you might just be able to remove it with a fingernail and some patience too.

Kia Ora Shane! I spent 13 years living in NZ myself - mostly in Wellington. Been away for five years now, but NZ holds a very special place in my heart. Welcome aboard!

Thank you @justjoseph63! Already got the hex bolts sorted which I just randomly happened to have in the correct size: … and heading to Ace at some point soon to get the rest of the hardware for the folding stock and grip… but that’s for another build thread As far as the screw in the side greeb there… I have to be honest, I spent a good half hour or more trying to figure it out, and from the angle of the slots I’m not convinced it’s supposed to be a star head screw. It really looks like a super-stripped Philips head to me. The only other thing I could think of was that they used a five point star screw, which do exist, although not sure if they were around in 1979… Thoughts?

Thank you!!

Thank you Jim, and huge thanks again for helping me out with it!

First troop as a TK at a Make a Wish event with the Air National Guard 142nd. Armor held up pretty well despite having to climb into and out of a pickup truck twice (with the help of three other people)! Since I needed a blaster, I decided to try to finish an ESB promo pipe build that @MoSc0ut had very kindly printed the parts for and started for me back in 2020. I set myself the goal of finishing it to a troopable level in 48 hours (including paint dry time) which for my usual pace is unheard of… Monday: Pieces Bending and installing the printed t-tracks (ignore the bottle of umeshu in the back - this was a sober build). Assembly/filler primer on some bits + a few hours of researching placement for everything Tuesday: Pre painting Wednesday: Final pre troop (temp approved by our GML for one troop only!) (Ignore pup in the BG) Post mortem: For the short timespan it came together pretty well. Unfortunately I ran out of satin black and the closest thing I could get at short notice was semi-gloss, so the finish is way too shiny. Aside from a repaint/clearcoat, some printed bits need more glazing putty and filler primer, especially t-tracks and stock. The scope rail should be filled in as well. A few bits just need more sanding, but no more than a couple evenings worth of work at most. And as @justjoseph63 will know, I’m already looking towards my next ESB build with an original stock At the troop: