TKModder421

Thanks James! I see you're in Utah too? I picked up 6, 1/4" outer diameter threaded aluminum spacers and found black machine screws that I liked with the same threading at Ace Hardware and carefully bored wholes in the Plasticweld mounts with a 1/4" bit. After applying the black plastidip the holes were a little smaller so the spacers fit in there nice and tight, I was considering gluing them in but they were so snug and the lenses are already curved so there wasn't any additional flexing that is going to cause them to pull out (from what I can tell at this point anyway. I also considered the Sugru route like Matt used and they're both great options. I just liked how I was able to do additional sculpting to the Plasticweld to make the mounts look like a molded part of the eye sockets. If you have any other questions about it feel free to ask or even message me directly.

So after considering my options I decided to go ahead and apply the Plastidip to the inside of helmet. Later I'm going to attach velcro as needed for padding and eventually to attach electronics (fans, etc.). Ended up using a full can to coat the inside of the cap and face plate. I wasn't sure if I wanted to just go with just the bare lenses on top of the mounts or if I wanted to use the ABS I cut before to make rims around the lenses. They look pretty good like this. I decided to make the rims and just see if I liked it. I decided to paint them silver While that was drying I hot glued the screen into place over the frown and cut out an adhesive foam rubber border to hide the edges The next day I mounted them. I decided it gave it a more sophisticated look And it's all back together (minus the rubber trim)

Thank you! I appreciate it. Oh I’m sure I will be asking many more questions, lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Oh yeah I agree. I would probably fill them with ABS paste if I did. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah, I didn't even notice that the left one is off center until I posted that pic. Debating whether I want to drill again. If I do, I may put the holes a bit higher so they actually are above the trim. You can't tell in the pic but I did actually replace the screws, I just wanted to verify I had the right ones

OK perfect. Thanks Tony! Mine are virtually hidden under the trim unless you look at the right angle. Most of the screen references I've seen, the bottom screw looks to be around 0.25"-0.5" from the trim. So now that I've got the trim back on I was questioning whether I've got them placed wrong. Thank you for the detailed and invaluable build post btw, you are a master!!

I have a question about the lower ear screws on the helmet: 1. They need to be slotted flat top screws, painted white correct? And 2. Do they need to be placed so that they are exposed above the rubber trim? Will it not be Centurion if they are hidden or partially hidden under the rubber trim?

So I had taped up my helmet in preparation of darkening the inside with Plastidip and had already sprayed it with several coats of flat white enamel to add a whitening layer to the thin ABS before applying the black Plastidip when Matt gave me some good ideas of other good options to think about. He suggested applying velcro to the full interior. I really like this idea not only for ease of positioning of padding but also for comfort. I'm still weighing my options, but I think I may try a hybrid version of the two. Just gotta work through how I wanna do that. Helmet taped and coated with white enamel.

Haha, ok I guess that's now part of the plan

Oh dang! Yeah I like that! Looks like fans are gonna be a necessity. I guess I should probably try and consider that into my build

It was fairly easy to work with actually. Kind of like dry, thick clay, but it stunk. The instructions said to wear gloves so I heeded their warning. It was a little sticky with the nitrile gloves, but I just used a little water and it kept it pretty workable. And then after it has cured it still has a bit of flexibility to it. I considered using Sugru but I decided I liked the look of a mounting area around the eyes, wanted to give it more of a functional look I guess. I haven't even heard of lining the inside with velcro! I assume you mean line the inside with the soft "loop" side so you can attach the "hook" side to the padding? That sounds interesting (and possibly more comfortable). I was just going to reinstall strips of velcro, how the ANOVOS TK helmets come pre-built and possibly just supplement the padding that came with it. The thing is I've never done any trooping before so I'm not familiar with what I'd be most comfortable with, such as if I'll want to put things in the helmet, like fans or whatever. At this point I've already taped up my bucket and have applied a few coats of flat white enamel to the inside (for a whitening layer) in anticipation of applying the Plastidip. So hopefully that doesn't cause me any attachment issues regardless of how much velcro I put in there. Whoops! I forgot about that.

Oh yeah I agree about welding shield lenses! The lens that mine came with was the thick welding style plastic luckily so I didn't have to buy new lens material, I was able to reuse what it came with. Yeah thank you, I really like the way they turned out! I'm excited to see what they look like once I get it all darkened with Plastidip.

Haha! Thanks man! I'll be there ASAP lol

So I was trying to decide how I wanted to mount my lenses. It came built with the single long curved lens. I'm really not a fan of that set up or that look so after some research I decided to follow Spyder918's tutorial and make lens mounts out of Plasticweld. Here's his tutorial I used: https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/38963-howto-another-way-to-do-lenses/?tab=comments#comment-521839 here's a couple pics: I just kneaded the Plasticweld around the eye sockets and left them to cure. The next day I started sanding them down, using my dremel and 80 grit sandpaper. Then once I got it close to the right shape I used 220 to smooth it out and up to 400 and even 2000 to make it really smooth. The one on the left is rough sanded and the one on the right is unsanded. So once I had them sanded down and cleaned up the inside of the face plate a bit I cut templates for my lenses using scrap ABS and then cut down the lenses. I decided I wanted to fix the lenses to the mounts with screws so I purchased some 1/4" OD (outside diameter) threaded aluminum spacers and bored a hole in the mounts for them to be attached. Then drilled corresponding holes in my cut lenses. I may use the ABS templates as rims on top of the lenses as well. I'll just have to see how that works out. I then glued the lens mounts to the inside of the eye sockets using E6000. I haven't glued in the spacers yet. I want to black out the inside of the helmet with Plastidip first. TBC...

Thanks. Yeah, from all the reference I've seen all the ANH and ESB Stormtrooper variations have some sort of gap on the ears. I'm definitely not worried about it for higher level approval.

I wanted to change the angle of the ears. Here's a reference from a sandtrooper, but you can see the angle of the ear screws runs along the same angle as the backside of the temple trapezoid and the screws on the ANOVOS bucket do not. I also wanted to reduce the flare on the lower part of the ears, so they didn't stick out so much So I changed the angle and drilled new holes. It took me like 3 times to get it right lol, but I finally got the angle I wanted. I followed gazmosis' tutorial for trimming down ears to reduce the gap and getting them to sit right. https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/29238-my-helmet-ear-tutorial/ Unfortunately I didn't document much of the process, but here's a few shots of the new holes I set for the angle of the brow and ears Here's the finished ears, though I forgot to take a picture of the new angle before I disassembled it... The left side turned out better as it was more flush, but compared to how they were I'm happy with it.

Haha thanks! Yeah my first full build, I got my feet wet modding a pre-built Shadowtrooper bucket a few months before and have been doing a fair amount of research as well

So I mentioned this earlier, I wanted to repaint the frown and was really unsure if I wanted to change the tubestripes to be closer to the cheeks, but I had a little accident when I was attempting to strip the paint off the frown (due to not taking proper precaution, such as taping other areas - lesson learned) and got some thinner on the left tubestripe decal and it took off a big chunk of it. So I had my decision made for me, lol. I took precaution when stripping the rest of the decals. You can also see some of my tooth paint job. I applied new decals. Here's the new placement and the full frown repaint.

I wanted more flexibility with the placement of the brow so I disassembled the helmet and cut off the lump above the eyes. I then carved out the eyes and the teeth a bit more. I replaced the rubber brow trim and cut it how I prefer it to look

Thank you for the words of encouragement!!

K back to chronological order. Lol A few weeks ago I got all the rough cuts of the armor done I'm gonna have to make adjustments as I have pretty thin legs and arms. I'll be getting to that after I finish the mods to my bucket

Thank you! Haha, I'm still catching up to my current progress on this post... and because of a little paint stripping accident I had to replace the tubestripes and I did make that adjustment actually. And I agreed with you on the vocoder and decided to repaint that as well. In fact I'm working on that right now! I'm just having a little trouble with seeing brush strokes and slightly uneven paint. I don't want to start over because I like the lines, but I'm such a perfectionist. I may post these again as I continue the catching up the chronological order of my build. here's my new tube stripes and my mods to the frown And here's what's going on with my new vocoder paint job. In different light you can really see the unevenness of the paint though...

Inventory of all my uncut pieces and helmet (as it came pre-assembled) Here's some closer images of my bucket... I want to file down the teeth and paint them in. I also want to reduce the flare on the ears and carve out the eyes a little more I also want to replace the rubber brow trim. I want it to go all the way to the end of the trap and have the same angle. I also want to adjust the angle of the ears so the screws angle to the direction of the trap as well.

Alright, so I actually received my BBB several months ago and I've been documenting my slow progress as I started the process. I haven't gotten too far yet, so I thought I probably should start my build thread before I get any further. So far I've done rough cuts on my armor and have taken apart my bucket to make some mods for personal preference. I'm gonna go ahead and post some of my documentation that I've taken so far and get caught up to date on my build, then I'll continue to slowly update my thread as I progress. I'm aiming to get as high level of approval as possible. My armor is slightly large for me so I'm going to need advice on modifying to get it to fit right. Anyway, so here we go...

Thanks Joseph! Really?? That's good to know. I know they've made progress on improving accuracy, but I don't think I was aware that the bottom ear screws needed to be the flat V head style as well. I'll see if I can find some locally since I'm on the other side of the country. If I can't I'm sure I'll be ordering some from you! Thanks for the heads up!!