Infern0

Interesting see how cream colored your RS armor is. I guess it's not just a fluke thing then! I've been thinking on it a bit, and I've decided to paint my helmet, so I may try the automotive option. Unless you have any suggestions for a good spray color for buckets. I've heard Krylon gloss white, but also had mixed results with getting a really nice finish with Kryon in the past... ... or I may see if @CableGuy wants to finish the bucket for me at this point hahaha. For the ammo pack, I've sent a message out to Trooper Bay and WTF to see if I can get samples of their ABS. If one matches closely enough, I'll go with them, or else try to paint my RS ammo pack. I'm also debating trying to patch my current one up with abs paste and trying to make it work since I have to fix some holes in my abdominal and kidney plates anyway... So many options!

Here's what the ammo pack would look like on the thigh (in my crappy garage lighting):

Well, I sent the pictures to RS and the response was simply: “Unfortunately we don't have any control over the ABS we receive what our suppliers send, this is from 3 years ago. The batches can change.” Which I understand, and yes, my kit is from 2017, but this still seems like a pretty darn big change in color. I had ordered some spare hand guards from them back in September (so I could do both glove options - poly and rubber), so I pulled those out and while closer, they are also lighter coloured than the plastic used for the ammo belt and ears. I sent this picture to RS on Friday and asked about it maybe being PVC, but have yet to hear back... I also compared the parts to an Anovos suit and a clone suit from Imperial Surplus, and both were closer in color to my original armor than the replacement pieces. Any advice on what to do next? I'm assuming that the ear and ammo pack will never get approved without painting, and while I'm not opposed to painting my bucket, I'm definitely not going to paint my whole suit of armor just to match the ammo pack. I'll probably ask to return the bits, but not sure where to go from there. Maybe someone else who makes lineage armor is using plastic that is closer in color?

I didn’t even think about it being PVC... that would explain the slight difference in translucence and thickness too. We’ll see I guess!

Get the replacement bits from RS about a month ago, but ended up just slowly addressing the notes on my armor to-do list, and just opened up the package from RS to start on replacing the thigh ammo pack and work on the right ear on my bucket, and to my surprise, the plastic on the replacement bit is a noticeably different shade of white to the rest of my armor I had a mini freak out... and then wrote RS to see what they say, so fingers crossed they’ll have an answer. Otherwise, what... will I need to paint the armor/bucket to make everything match (don’t mind painting the bucket, but don’t want to have to paint the armor)? See if I can order the bits from another vendor who uses plastic that is closer to the rest of my suit? I could always try the old peroxide trick to lighten the plastic I suppose. Not sure it’ll work on this case though. Ok need to go take some deep breaths now

It’s looking pretty darn sweet! This will be such a good looking build when it’s completed. Where did you get your snaps from? I think I need to order a bunch for my TK.

If you ever need something from the US, PM me. Provided it’s not too large and you’re paying for shipping, I’m happy to see about getting it here and shipping it to you mate.

Roger that. Updated my todo list to reflect this. Thanks!

Not much to update yet. Waiting on an order of spare parts from RS so fingers crossed it'll get here soonish. Here's the list of everything left to do on my armor as I see it now (not including helmet): To do now: - Adjust padding that I added in shins (it was pushing the shin into the back of my calf) - Trim back tops of thighs to match the shape of butt plate better - Add little bits of padding to fronts of thighs to make them sit nicer - Replace thigh ammo belt with new ammo belt with corrected corners, paint new rivets - Add padding to abdominal plate to make it sit nicer - Loosen strapping holding butt plate to kidney - Glue pouch for phone and cable management system to chest plate (or maybe abdominal plate) for sound system - Shorten shoulder bell to shoulder bridge strapping To do after basic approval: - Remove top two rivets on ab and kidney plates, patch hole with ABS paste, sand and polish, correctly place rivets ~20mm from top, and midway between bottom and top rivetsas per reference, and paint rivets (most urgent) - Replace current left abdominal strapping with less screen accurate but more handy webbing and velcro - Remove ammo belt rivets and replace with snaps - Add snap to left shoulder bridge strapping to make it removable Not a ton to do, but I definitely want to do it right! I'm going to step back for a week or two and finish up some other projects first and then get back to it and get this thing done!

Cool! I'll put it on my "stuff to do once I get approved" list.

I may get some of this as well for my bucket seeing how well it worked for you. Also seriously considering doing the snap thing for my belt now too so I can go between ESB and ANH stunt belts. You're giving me some good ideas, thanks!!

It’s definitely slow and you’ll make a bunch of mistakes. All part of learning though! Your build is looking great so far, and I’m getting some ideas for stuff to change on my armor too!

Cool, glad to hear it! Good luck with your build

Thank you Glen! My main takeaway from this is that I have too much return edge on my abdominal plate. Once I get basic approval, I’ll plan on cutting the sides and top here, filling the holes and redoing my riveting/strapping.

Anything I should change @justjoseph63, or does it look ok to you? Hoping to order my replacement ammo belt and ear bits on Monday so I can get this build approved and trooping!

Man, there are some impressive lists on here! Currently only have an approved ANH ID. I have way too many in progress though: Star Wars: ESB TK -85% done ROTJ TR - 90% done Muftak - 90% done ESB IN Generic Jedi Other: Whiterun guard from Skyrim Mugen from Samurai Champloo - was complete, but needs fixing. ...and then there are a whole bunch on my wishlist that I have to actively work to stop myself from buying bits for. I might need help

Here ya go:

Thank you so much @justjoseph63! I’ll get the bells closer in to my shoulder bridges. Any tips for getting a nice snug fit? The Han rivet is unpainted but it’s hidden under my chest plate in these photos. I’ll have a play with it today to see if I can fix the massive overlap though... maybe I need to trim down the edges of the abdominal plate more? Thanks again sir!

So, I've come to a bit of a standstill with my bucket. The right ear ended up giving me a lot of grief over several days, and even though I was careful - so I thought - and read the excellent posts that @gmrhodes13 shared with me, as well as watched the RS youtube tutorial a bunch of times, I still ended up cutting it enough that it's too small now... The rest of the bucket has come together pretty well though! After drilling holes for the ears, I took the screws out holding the two halves together, and glued some scrap abs into where the gap above the left ear was: I know it looks a bit dodgy, but it'll barely be seen and is more there to hold the ear screws and patch up the swiss cheese drill holes. Next, I gave the helmet pieces a nice bath with dish detergent and water, and started on the eyes. I decided to go for something more sturdy than the screen accurate thin film that RS provides in the kit, so I purchased a thicker lens material from Trooperbay. First I traced the eyes onto some paper, and then cut out the lenses with an extra 1cm or so allowance around the edges. I opted to use Joseph's method of attaching the lenses with Sugru, which I bought from the man himself, and following his excellent tutorial it should have been pretty simple and straightforward - and with the left eye it was - but for some reason it wouldn't stick to the right lens and I had to redo it several times. In the end it came out pretty well, although didn't stick quite as well as I had hoped it would have. Finally, I riveted the two halves together and screwed in the left ear and hovi tips that I'd finished a few days prior. At this point, I'll have to do an order for another right ear and another ammo belt before I can do much more, so I tried on the rest of my armor to see if there was anythong else I'd need to fix that I could order at the same time. @Rat, @justjoseph63, @gmrhodes13, Please ignore: - The ANH bucket - Lack of holster - Loose right shoulder bridge But, do you see any other issues with the armor that might require replacement, or might get in the way of me getting Centurion at this point? Thanks! Thanks guys!

Nice to meet you Jeff! Hope to meet in person at a troop someday As Jim said, there are a bunch of PNW TKs, just haven't been many trooping most of this year. We can change that though

Thanks guys! Haven't gotten back to it yet. Ended up being a busy weekend and now the garage is under renovation so my workbench has been stuffed into the corner for the moment

At this point, it's past 6pm, so I've resigned to the fact that I won't get it done in time to get approved for the troop tomorrow. I'm still pretty happy with my progress and most importantly I've learned a lot the past couple of days. I'll keep trucking and still try to get it approved ASAP though, I'm aiming for Monday morning now.

Took out the rivet with my dremel and started again using nuts and bolts... Turned out pretty well all things considered I think! Not going to rivet it again until ears are done and ready to assemble too: The only thing worrying is a small gap on the left side below the brow trim, but I may glue a small panel in here and eventually abs paste over it to fill in the gap. Today has been about getting my head around the ear process, and getting the hovi mix tips ready. Between the forums, and the RS build videos I spent a good part of the day just watching. There have been a few choice words, but I'm actually pretty happy with how the left ear is looking. Could definitely be worse! Test fitting (don't mind the purple lighting): Also, Hovi tips after two coats of gloss white and satin black:

Full disclosure: when I said I'd started trimming the bucket back in 2018 before I started the build, I think I may have trimmed too much! I made the mistake of trimming along what I thought were the trim lines... and drilling holes in the dents molded into the plastic. If it was any other armor maker aside from RS I probably would have been fine doing this, but I was not wise to the process of RS's builds (and the fact that the trim lines and holes from the HDPE original don't work with the ABS replica), and hence I may be left with too little material to work with Regardless, before I started on the eyes and frown, I painted the inside with two coats of black Plasti-Dip: I masked off the area around the frown and eyes for easier trimming. Now, I've added the brow trim and am working on riveting the helmet together. I'm worried that I don't have enough material on the back to put all four rivets in... but I'm hoping at the worst case I can superglue some spare ABS to the inside of the back to rivet into, and no one will ever be any the wiser. Stay tuned, and please keep offering advice! @Rat has kindly offered to sanity check me as I go along, so fingers crossed we'll get there!

Thanks! Finished up the teeth. Will get to the eyes soon: Thank you so much! Hopefully you can learn something from my mistakes at the least