grimacingpeon

Doh! Right you are! This is what I get for working on it late at night after a LONG shift.

Thanks again for all the feedback. I was able to make a ton of progress on my day off today. My buddy came over and worked his magic on the helmet. The placement of the right ear had to be a little different but you can't really tell unless you look hard. I used the belt sander to work on a lot of the return edges and cover strips. Things are really starting to come together! I'm going to work a little bit more on the helmet, continue to try and reshape the left shin (as it still pinches pretty bad at the ankle), and then tomorrow probably move onto taping all the torso pieces together for a general fit.

Oh yes, that’s one of the next things I plan on knocking out. I’m at an impasse on the left side of the helmet. Even when I tried that method suggested where I tilt the helmet, I still could not bridge the gap between the front and back of the helmet. I fit the right side ear as best as I could and it turned out great. At this point I don’t know what to do with the left side. I will attach a few pictures below. The only thing I can think of is to form some sort of shim using ABS paste and try to bridge the gap? Also I think I might have to slightly reshape the lower “tubular” part of the face piece to tuck it in somewhat so that the ear will fit. A bit perplexed right now... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So I ended up trimming on the ear a bit the last two nights and decided to go ahead and mount it. It's by no means perfect, but I think it came out okay. You guy's weren't lying... its a PAIN! So before I move onto the next side, is there an easy suggestion for closing that REALLY small gap on the front lower curved part of the ear? It's bugging me even though the gap seems pretty small. If I shouldn't sweat it, are there any major adjustments I need to make? I know that I still need to countersink the screws and eventually paint them. Also, I'm not exactly sure where I need to cut the bottom edge of the ear so that it lines up with where the neck rubber trim will go. Any advice/constructive criticism is welcome. Thanks again 501!

Dan! Thanks for the feedback. I tried this and it did help a bit. The problem that I ran into when trying to completely close the gap is that the top of the face wouldn't allow me to rotate it much because it was in full contact with the "brow" part inside the helmet back... if that makes sense. I think I would have to trim more of the face above the brow but don't have much plastic to work with at this point. Either way, that certainly helped. I began trimming the left ear last night. You guys weren't lying... it's quite a tedious task, especially as a noob. Here are a few pictures of the progress I made. I think that the disc portion of the ear still needs to be trimmed more to bring it closer to the helmet (so as to not get that earphone look as previously mentioned). I also included a picture of the helmet next to a helmet that was gifted to me in the past that was allegedly used in one of the movies? It's fiberglass, for what its worth. It is what I was basing the brow line of this helmet off of. Thanks again for all y'alls help!

Awesome! That helps a ton. I’ve seen this before but couldn’t find it last night when I was browsing threads. I have a fiber glass helmet that was allegedly used in one of the films and according to it, the ear placement I would be attempting on this build wouldn’t cover the gap between the face and the back. This is a relief! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks so much for the feedback. It’s easy to get overwhelmed trying to navigate the various threads and hope that I’m headed in the right direction. I ended up having to give that forearm a hot water bath and still I’m going to have to do a bit of trimming LOL. I’m going to trim down all of the cover strips. I ground them down to a round edge that fit flush with the return edge on the eBay kit that I bought (which I abandoned in order to start on a good TK kit), so I’ll probably follow suit so long as it centurion acceptable. I’ll try to work on the helmet a bit more tonight and post some more pictures. I appreciate everyone taking the time to respond :-). Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Tonight I just spent a little time cutting out the remaining pieces of kit. I also temporarily fastened the helmet together with a screw/washer/nut on each side. I ended by working on the ears. I can tell this is going to be challenging to get everything to fit flush, especially since there is a gap between the bottom of the face plate and the back of the lid. To be continued...

I'm anxiously awaiting my boots so I can start trimming those puppies, hah! If I wore them at this point I'd probably saw off chunk of skin on the top of my foot. As for the cover strips, I was just going off the 501 costuming reference library for ANH stunt.

Giskard, Thanks for the reply! I tried tried tinkering with that a little last night and although the plastic comes closer together the tubular contour of the two pieces starts to angle away each other a bit more... so I’m not sure if the ear covers that difference in contour or not? I’ll post a picture later. Hopefully that makes sense haha. Thanks again. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hey all, I'm a rookie building my first TK kit. I just started the process of assembling the helmet last night. I started by cutting the trim lines of the face and back, then moved onto the eyes and teeth. As I was about to start drilling for the initial rivets, I noticed that the face and back don't have any overlap material to where the bottom screw of the ear could penetrate the plastic (I hope that makes sense...). I've attached a few pictures below and will also link the threat I started for the complete build. I'm not sure if this is a normal occurrence. I'm pretty sure I cut the trim edges exactly for the two helmet pieces? At this point I'm not sure if I should proceed or if I need to create a tubular "shim" for both sides to give additional structural stability and provide a place that the lower ear screw (or a rivet) can be placed. Any feedback would be most appreciated! My current build thread: Thanks in advance!

I ended up putting the shins together (thanks Commander Gree!) correctly and mounted the sniper knee plate... Now I've moved onto the helmet and I need some advice here. The trim lines were followed, but it doesn't look like there is enough (or any, really) overlap between the face and back to mound the lower screw of the ear... I'm not sure if that makes sense. I've marked with a black dot where I intend to put a rivet through on each side, but I'm not sure if I'm going to hit an issue when mounting the ear. Is this gap normal (at very bottom of helmet, where face and back have their contours aligned)? Is it entirely covered up once the ears are installed? Any feedback would be most appreciated!

It’s probably overkill but I think it will cover some of the blemishes that I have created and also a few pieces where the plastic was thicker than others that give the appearance of a run. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

MTK contacted me back and told me I had oriented them incorrectly. Problem solved! Good looking out. I plan on shaving the cover strips down to the return edges of the armor and then using ABS paste to transition everything. The armor will be getting a coat of automotive paint at the very end, so hopefully it will all come together and be aesthetically pleasing!

I had a day off from work and was able to get a lot done on the kit. I spent a great deal of time using a belt sander to smooth out the edges of most all of the armor pieces in preparation for fit. I was able to get encouragement from Xena (the puppy princess) throughout the day. Then I took some time using the hot water bath trick to reshape the left forearm. It worked a lot better for me than the heat gun did on a previous attempt. No deformations occurred! I finally was able to get around to assembling some of the armor. I was going to use e6000 since I've had some goof-ups on my previous build attempt, but I felt that I was proficient enough to use Zap-a-Gap this time around. I started with the forearms, which just barely fit using the 15 mm cover strips as suggested in so many other build threads. Then I worked on the biceps and thighs. For the most part everything turned out the way that I wanted, however there is a lot of excess cover strip that will need to be ground down with the belt sander. So I have 2 questions... - Is it possible to grind/sand a cover strip once it has been glued to have the tapered look that some people's cover strips have? - Do most people have to trip a bit of the inner/upper forearm to be able to bend at the elbow without pinching? Thanks so much!

I've gotten to spend a few hours over the weekend trimming more pieces. Boots are in the mail on the way from the UK. The game plan at this point is to start cutting cover strips and reshape the left forearm slightly. Hopefully I'll get to start gluing some of the pieces together during week. Here is an updated picture of what I've done over the last 4 days since receiving the kit.

Up early again this morning, doing some work on the shin guards and pre-assembled with some painter's tape. I'm going to use the belt sander for trimming up return edges on this go around. Now onto shoulder bells.....

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement! In response to what you said Gree, I am shooting for L3 (centurion) so any insight with regards to that process going forward is much appreciated! I went ahead and moved onto the biceps. So far I'm really enjoying working with this kit. Once again this is an MTK kit. I've purchased several other items in advance from Trooperbay.com. I've had nothing but good experiences thus far... The ABS is much thicker than the previous eBay kit, so I've had to modify my techniques. The ABS doesn't snap off as easily, so I'm scoring, bending, then scoring the "bend" mark on the inside of the cut. It's more time consuming but my lines are coming out wonderfully. Here are a few pictures. I've decided I'm going to keep trimming pieces before starting to assemble anything. I used Zap-a-Gap and Zip Kicker on the first kit. I'm not sure if I'm going to be using E6000 on this build or not. Since I'm shooting for centurion, I'd like to make it as pristine as possible and not have any glue-runs like I have previously.

So tonight I began by starting with the forearms. I trimmed all return edges at the wrist and took care of most of the return edge at the upper forearm butt connections. I used a belt sander for the upper return edges. As I used painters tape to see how things were lining up, I discovered that the left forearm has a different shape than the right (which I know is to be expected), but I'm finding it to be an altogether odd fit. It's tight at the upper forearm and large at the wrist... there doesn't seem to be much of a taper because of how the inner forearm bulges outward. (See pic) I'm going to need to trim more of the return edge, but can someone give me any advice here? I know there is plenty of room, but the shape just isn't natural at all on the left forearm... the right seems to be just fine. Here they are side by side... Aside from trimming more of the return edge, what else should I consider? Heat gun or hot water bath to alter the overall shape? Any advice is apreciated!

Hey all! This is my first attempt at ever publicly documenting a project that I'm working on. Long story short, I have a friend in the 501st who encouraged me to build a stormtrooper kit some time ago. Eventually I purchased a (super) cheap kit on eBay. Months went by and I finally decided to put the kit together about 2 weeks ago. I had never visited white armor.net and had never done any research on the matter, so I didn't know any better than to buy what I did. As I started sinking a lot of time into the kit and as I began to read more and more posts on this forum, I realized that I was working with absolute CRAP and certainly a recast. The ABS was warped in many places and was so thin that the zip kicker I was using would cause the ABS to crack and deform (even when used at a distance). I now know how much time and energy goes into making a proper kit, so I decided to start over completely... Just like the Empire had to rebuild the Death Star, here I am 2 weeks later and my NEW kit from MTK just arrived. Needless to say, I am chomping at the bit and am eager to get started. My goal is to have the kit completely finished and approved in time for Star Wars Celebration in April. I am sure I will have questions along the way and would much appreciate any advice/tips and constructive criticism. Thanks in advance!