MomoSS

I feel the same, I still have a lot to do on my armor. I'm trying to ramp up construction to high gear but its a daunting task and not enough spaces left to feel confident. Plus its an FOTK so its even more challenging and time consuming.

Progress Report - 9/1/20 Special deliveries today! My stuff from imperial boots finally got here! Here are the boots! Oooof...they got my glove order wrong. They already got the message and are sending me the proper pair...got a bad feeling it will be a month before they get here. Just in case, I went ahead and ordered a size small gloves through Endor Finders. The IB gloves kinda run big since their smallest size is a medium and I found they were more loose on my hands than I'd like them to be. So perhaps its a blessing in disguise. Also my gaskets and neckseal arrived from Sheev's Emporium. Looks great and feels comfy! Alright back to this pile of ABS on my bed. I need some feedback about a couple of things, as I'm not sure what to do from here. I think this is how the shin has to look, the front part overlaps the back right? I may need to put some shims on the inside cause theres not a whole lot for glue to hold on to. The other side will need a shim too cause it will be the same issue for velcro. Now if this is how they have to be there are some other issues with them. The greeblie space doesnt really line up between the two halves of the shin. The inside tops of the shin dont line up well at all. Only way this will line up is if I cut it, and maybe I can rebuild the return edge with some good use of a file. Now if I'm right about the shins, then the thighs will be done in a similar fashion except those will just be 1 piece instead of velcro together on one side. The thighs have to be STRONG as this is gonna be a high traffic and stress area of the armor. Cant risk velcro coming a loose on my thighs. I finally got around to trimming the back of the thermal detonator plate. I've seen people trim this a bit more but I'm scared to until I get further along with the abdomen armor. Also cut out the circle for the one side of the thermal detonator. Some time this week I'm doing to clean it up and glue that circle to it and then JB weld the thermal detonator to its plate. Alright, its time I go about trimming this edge. I'm not sure how much to take off though. I'm worried there will be gaps between it and the yoke if I do it wrong. It cant stay as it is though, it clashes with my helmet. I finally sorted out which boxes belong to the ab plate so I'm going to set these aside. The belt boxes are another matter entirely... I forgot to dremel out the details on the handplates so I will do that tomorrow for sure. My goal tomorrow is to at least get both shins put together on one side while the other awaits for velcro. If I have time maybe I can get the thighs in order too. 95% of the pieces are trimmed now so its time to get these pieces put together.

Progress Report - 8/31/20 Anovos bucket came in the mail, awesome! One less thing to worry about! Field of view is...lacking. I know some vision loss is expected but I feel uncomfortably blind wearing this compared to other costumes I've worn. With the armor off its not as bad. But with the yoke and chest plate on its soo hard to see in front of me. No wonder TKs cant hit anything! Maybe the chest plate needs to be trimmed down, or helmet needs some adjusting, cause the yoke is as far as I can lower it unfortunately and the helmet still has a tendency to rest on my shoulders. It's like my neck isnt long enough xD Got busy with the dremel today, heres some pretty holes. Not my first rodeo with the dremel Finally got around to JB welding these support brackets from Ukswrath! Trimmed the ab plate and back plate. Did a test fit and theres definitely a good 5" gap thats going to occur. Fortunately I think the thermal detonator plate will cover this up in the back. Also pretty sure im going to need to cut off the top of this ab plate as it comes up too high and then my bust causes issues with it. Calf pieces. Definitely some shenanigans going on here with stuff not lining up 100%. At least they fit around my beefy calves though! Need to make some system to open and close these cause just sliding them on is not happening. I really need a better workspace... but dont have one D: Still waiting for more soft goods to come in the mail too. Would be nice to see what some stuff looks like with the gaskets on. Really cant wait till the stuff from Imperial Boots gets here too.

Quick summary of stuff I've done so far: Obtained huge cargo box Trimmed and glued together the yoke Trimmed and glued together the forearms Trimmed and glued together the shoulder bells Yoke support brackets bent into shape and ready to be glued in Got some soft goods Cut out this thing on the chest plate and fixed the depth to make it sharper Trimmed spats Trimmed kneecaps Trimmed assorted boxes Trimmed cod Trimmed posterior Trimmed biceps Trimmed handplates Stared at this thing to try and figure out how it'll get mounted to my back Short people problems. I'm thinking about trimming the thighs this way. There, we are all caught up now! Tomorrow I'm going to focus on getting the rest of my armor pieces trimmed. Gonna get the ab plate done so I can figure out how long my FOTK belt has to be and I need to figure out which little boxes belong to the ab plate and which go to the belt and other places. Also gonna dremel some more stuff on the chest and yoke and get those yoke supports installed with JB weld.

So last month I made a build thread in TLJ FOTK section about getting started on a TLJ FOTK. But I guess it was my bad to think I would get TLJ armor with my TLJ helmet. KB Props armor is TFA by default even if you get a TLJ helm, so that brings about a bit of issues when its time to go for EIB and Centurion. [IE: Cods are different, forearms are different, thermal detonator is different, and probably more I dont know about] Speaking of EIB, theres this #1000 EIB thing going on in the FISD announcements that I think I want to be a part of. So I've decided instead of TLJ to go full TFA to see if I can reach this milestone before the window closes. I'm pretty new to all this but from the previous thread I've already been through the whole BBB moment and got the ball rolling with trimming stuff. I've been scratched by abs, glued my fingers together, and got pinched by neodymium magnets. I've even been burned by CA glue already and almost lit a paper towel on fire! All the great noob stuff ya'll missed! Plan is to look something like this guy by the end of everything. Not gonna have the heavy F11-D at the moment, and I may or may not have the pauldron when I go for EIB cause the window is closing pretty fast, and theres a lot to do! Also 2 rifles? Overkill maybe? Should have an SE-44C holstered I feel like. Guy is packing some serious heat and doesnt even have the ammo vest! Anyways, I'm gonna do like my other thread and list off equipment I have thus far. I'll be editing this to reflect updates on what I have and what I need to get. Parts List: -Hard Bits- TFA Helmet: Anovos (Received) Armor: KB Props (Received) Pauldron: KB Props (Received) Holster: R2Dan (Inquired) Yoke Reinforcement: Ukswrath (Received) -Soft Bits- Belt: JAFO Belts of the First Order (Need to get a bit further in fitment before I commit to a size) Pouches: TrooperBay (Received) Gloves: Endor Finders (Received) Boots: Imperial Boots (Received) Undersuit: StormtrooperUndersuit (Received) Balaclava: UnderArmor HeatGear Tactical Balaclava (Received) Rubber Gaskets: Imperial Gaskets Cloth Gaskets: Sheev's Emporium (Received) Neck Seal: Sheev's Emporium (Received) Harness: Geeky Pink -Electronics- Helmet Cooling: Ukswrath Comm System: Ukswrath Chatter Loop: Ukswrath -Weapons- Z6 Riot Baton aka "Whappity Stick": Force FX Black Series Z6 Riot Baton Hasbro (Acquired) SE-44C Pistol: Arsenal Studio (Received) F11-D Blaster: Arsenal Studio (Ordered) Heavy F11-D Blaster: Branfuhr Studios -Armor Storage- Chest: Husky 37in Rolling Tool Box Utility Cart (Acquired) As I've said in the other thread, this my first stormtrooper and this be exciting times! I hope I can pull this off in time to make it to that special EIB, if not. Oh well, it'll be fun anyway!

Oh, alright, I'll do that then! I'll resurrect this thread when its TLJ time!

Okay, been trimming as usual but I've been paying close attention to this thread here. The first 1000 to Expert Infantry status. This looks really appealing, historic, and epic to be a part of. And I'll admit, as a TLJ FOTK I probably wont make it in time due to not having the right cod piece; which was not an easy thing to obtain like I thought, and having to modify the thermal detonator since the KB armor by default is TFA. Not to mention I'll have to get the TLJ helmet cast up to spec. So I have made the decision for the time being to go full on Force Awakens and put TLJ on hold. Maybe I will make it in time to join this #1000 EIB bandwagon, maybe I wont. But the armor will get done quicker regardless! I WILL go back to TLJ later. Maybe I'll make it an executioner? We'll see... This build thread will probably need to be moved to the TFA section now? Eh, I'll leave it to the mods to decide. To get the ball rolling, ive ordered the next size up on my undersuit (hopefully this one fits!) and snagged an Anovos TFA bucket online. Ive also ordered a standard F-11D off Etsy made by Arsenal Studio that'll probably take a month to get here. Once I get the helmet and blaster I'll have everything I need for EIB status, will just need to get it put together. So we are now at the part of trimming thighs. I've cut out the default areas from the pull, but this is where my height comes back to bite me. Clearly this is for someone over 6ft Cant bend da knees, haha I knew it would be like this. So I have to chop off the tops of these by a good I'm thinking 2 inches. The bottom of the thigh protrudes past my knee in the front, and in the back its so long that my calf hits it. So a lot has to be trimmed back there. I'm going to lose the return edge though...is this okay? Or will it need to be rebuilt somehow? I'm thinking trimming it like this will be better. If its still too tall I may trim it further, but I also need to figure out exactly how these thighs are supposed to clasp together too before I get too far with them. Tomorrow I'm going to focus on getting the rest of my armor pieces trimmed. Gonna get the ab plate done so I can figure out how long my FOTK belt has to be and I need to figure out which little boxes belong to the ab plate and which go to the belt and other places. Also gonna dremel some more stuff on the chest and yoke and get those yoke supports installed with JB weld.

Another small update After closer inspection of my cutout I realize I may have been a little overzealous in cutting out this detail because it lacks the depth I've seen in others. This is what I'm talking about, mines doesnt look quite like this. The CRL doesnt mention that it has to have depth but literally every other FOTK I've seen has this depth so I need to fix this or it will bug the crap out of me! Went in my bag of scraps and cut some ABS together and used CA glue to rebuild the depth. It's not exact but I think some bondo will take care of this and make it blend in with the rest of the chest piece. At least I'm hoping. It already looks a lot better. Finally opened up the E6000 and clamped those extension things to the shoulder bells. I'll let this sit for 72 hours before messing with it, but i'll check its progress in the morning to make sure there arent any gaps. I finally finished a part! Well finished as in, its put together, it's nowhere near finished xD But its something I can put on, and I think they turned out quite well for my first pair of forearms. Still needs the greeblie clips but I'll put those on later. I also made sure the forearm top plate was not attached at the front. On TLJ CRL its not mentioned this is needed for centurion but on TFA it is. The forearms are virtually the same except the silver retaining screw on the picatinny so, just in case they forgot to add it on TLJ CRL I did it this way. Can always glue it later if its not the case. Also CA glue burns! I'm going to see if I can do some more chest plate/yoke work tomorrow.

Some stuff came in the mail today! Woohoo! Got my support brackets in the mail along with some Ukswrath swag. Thanks ukswrath! You're helping me out a lot, brother! Been following your build, definitely going to copy your yoke support brackets My belt pouches and undersuit arrived too! Unfortunately, the undersuit doesnt exactly fit right now...I'm a couple of inches too big in some places I'm hoping things will change in a couple of months as I slim down. I've been on a strict 1200 cal diet and lost 4 pounds so far...but this is what will make this build take a while. Dragon*Con is not happening this year, thats a big bummer! Had to get some Dragon*Con swag to feel better about it. Yeah, they are going virtual...but its just not the same! So after work I went at the yoke with a dremel and right as I finished it rained on me so there goes the rest of my dremeling for the day. Took a file to smooth things out but when putting in the support bracket it was a little stiff and wasnt really fitting right cause the bracket was so flat but the yoke is curved behind it on my kit. Took some pliers to the support bracket and carefully bent the body and the smaller tabs more and this helped tremendously! I was about to go at this with some JB weld but then I figured maybe I should wait till i get the snaps that go on these support brackets. So I'll be paying JoAnn Fabrics a visit tomorrow! I marked where im going to be cutting holes for the strapping too, this should be about right. I'm a noob but I'm aiming for EIB out the gate and doing come centurion prep too. Apparently this is a TFA thermal detonator. I penciled in some missing detail that I'll need to cut in later on but right now I'm wondering how I'm going to fix that huge hole on the side. After cleaning it up I'm thinking of slapping some ABS on there and calling it a day. Still waiting on my stuff from Imperial Boots, and got some gaskets being made too! Cant wait for another mail drop!

Alrighty, got some progress to post. I've been busy trimming and trying to see what pieces go where! Hand plates, pretty straight forward. I still need to drill the holes in the front of these. Kneecaps. Seem a little warped, maybe a little heat can set these back in place? Shoulder Bells and the little piece that goes behind them. Spats, these already seem like they are going to be annoying to put together. Got some alignment issues where I'm sure I didnt trim it down enough, but I'm not entirely sure where to stop. I need some good build examples to follow! Ab and belt boxes. At least I think. Theres a lot of these little boxes on this kit. I know the long rectangular ones are probably for the belt. I'll figure out where these go later. Butt plate. I left the top part there for the belt and ab plate Biceps, got some alignment issues with these. Might have trimmed a little too much on one of them. Cod piece. I realize this is TFA cod and if I want EIB status or higher I'm going to need a TLJ cod. Unfortunately KB Props doesnt make TLJ cod. Not sure where I'm going to find this piece right now, so this will have to do...or maybe I can pick up a TFA bucket to get EIB till I can get the right cod piece for TLJ. I also threw together one of the forearm pieces. I think I trimmed this correctly, at least I hope so... I know a long greeblie is supposed to go in that middle part of it, but I'll wait till the forearm is further along before throwing that on. Forearm is pretty spacious, but I think once I have gaskets and gloves on it shouldn't wobble about. The length is a little bit of an issue, but I think trimming the biceps would be easier than trying to modify this forearm. Still not done trimming, haha.

Looking good so far! Definitely gonna take some tips for cutting those vents out of the chest and helmet!

Welcome! Good to see another local TK here! I joined not too long ago. Maybe I'll see you in the Georgia Garrison soon

Did some more trimming and finally decided after cutting the yoke down like what I've seen on some others to glue the thing together. After sanding the 2 parts that would be mated I applied some Zap-a-gap Stuff is no joke, it bonds quick. This was like 10 minutes later. Trimmed around where my arms come out so I have more freedom of movement and bring down the ride height of the chest piece cause right now my helmet likes to sit on it which is no bueno for trying to move my head around and bad for line of sight. This is about as far as I wanna cut down on the yoke. I think I'm pretty happy with how it is now. Dont wanna trim into the shoulder too far cause I plan on getting those metal support tabs to go in between for the shoulders. Hopefully once the helmet gets padding and a hard hat liner it will all sit better and not clash so much. Need to start putting some other pieces together like the forearms, but I still need to trim those...man trimming takes forever and hurts ya hands!

Small update. Trimming pieces is a long process...but I did finally get around to installing that mattress topper inside my TK Transport Now I dont have to worry about armor getting scratched up, thats always a plus. The helmet is not gonna stay there dont worry. Just wanted to see if it would fit I plan to get a helmet bag for that when its further along. Speaking of the helmet...ran into a little bit of a snag. The mesh I bought for in between the teeth are the wrong size, dang it. At first I had no idea what I was going to do about it but after searching the forums for about an hour I think I found the mesh I actually need. https://www.themeshcompany.com/cgi-bin/sh000003.pl?WD=hexagonal&PN=4.5mm-Hexagonal-Hole---5mm-Triangular-Pitch---1mm-Thickness---Perforated-Metal-Mesh---Mild-Steel---A4-Sample-Sheet-451.html#SID=96 It's a size up from the one I have. And I double checked by measuring the hexagons on my KB helm, and 5mm is about right so hopefully this will match up with the helmet much better. Not sure what I'm gonna do with the smaller one but I'll hang on to it. Something may turn up for it...who knows? Over the weekend I had a little fun at Harbor Freight and manage to nab myself a belt sander, some small metal files, and 10 plastic clamps. Now I'm ready to glue that yoke together! I'm sure the belt sander will save me alot of time down the road. Still waiting on some soft goods to arrive. Overseas shipping gonna take forever!

Dont be afraid! I was hesitant about my first cuts too, big ol expensive kit with a lot of parts is intimidating I know. Just take it slow and steady, theres no rush. Theres lots of experienced troopers here to help you out and lots of resources here to check your work on I'm new too and I'm starting the beginnings of my FOTK as well. If you're not sure about cutting something, do research or ask. I just remember this rule: It's easy to fix something if you dont trim enough, its a lot harder to fix once you trim too much. So take your time, you got this!

Got my lexan scissors recently, thought i'd get to work on trimming some ABS. Got more soft goods on the way as well! Cant wait till they get here! First thing I did was cut out this chest vent with a dremel. Seemed easy enough. Thank god I didnt have to do the other method of cutting it out and inserting a resin piece like I've seen some people do on here. The pill boxes I'm gonna need to find a drill bit or something to go on my dremel to cut those out. I'll see whats in the dremel box but I know I'm missing a couple pieces... I decided to test fitment of back piece and yoke together and trim out the middle of the yoke like i've seen a lot of people do. It wasnt an option not to, there was no way my bust was fitting in there without cutting the middle lol I think the fitment of front to back is pretty good. I'm still deciding how to cut the opening for the arms though. They cant stay the way there are for sure, the chest piece ends up riding up too high and if I wear a helmet it will end up resting on the shoulders which is no bueno. This is how im planning to trim it so far from the build threads I've looked at. Any thoughts or adjustments? Excuse my totally unapprovable ninja turtles FOTK helm But I currently cant see out of my TLJ helm so this will have to do for now to get an idea how it looks. I already feel like when I get to the ab plate its gonna have to be cut almost in half cause its so long on me. I also feel like cutting off more of the yoke in the front, like the part that goes under my arms. Something similar to this. Would make putting it on ALOT easier too. Being short was a challenge already, but I'm not the skinniest of short people right now D: I'm working on that too! Dieting and walks, with some biking. Hopefully in a few months this stuff will fit better! Till then, more trimming...

Alright, busted out the dremel today! Took out the neck flash underneath the helmet enough to where I can put it on. I cant see a thing! I gotta cut these lenses out. Preferably without ruining them too much. Might need them to make sure the real lenses fit properly? Or am I wrong? Someone in my garrison told me I need to trim this some more. Now my head does technically fit through that hole but do I need to cut it say...this much? The helmet has some other work that needs to be done to it. All the greeblies on it look like this. I could take a dremel to it, but thats some pretty fine dexterity required to cut that without messing something up. Rather not use a dremel for this...maybe exacto knife? Theres some other flash I need to cut off but ones like these isnt really a big deal. Just dremel off and then go over the blemish with some spot putty i guess? Then theres the frown. Some good detail but a lot of pitting happened here. Theres even a little chunk under the nose plate missing I really feel like cutting some of this honeycomb out, especially in between the teeth cause its hard to breathe! But finding a replacement for the honeycomb might be an issue...I have no idea where to start there. Finally theres this hairline crack. I got some JB weld clear epoxy. I'm thinking just putting some on the other side of this should fix that problem right up.

So as I was doing my research I stumbled upon this thread from a few years back and this storage case is awesome! I decided I had to have it so I ran down to Home Depot to go get it! It sure is a lot bigger in person, I was starting to get worried it wouldnt fit in my back seat when I realized the trunk was gonna be a no go. But crisis averted! I'm definitely painting this thing white and pimping it out later on. I went ahead and moved all my armor pieces out of the BBB and into here. Much more spacious, though I still dont feel comfortable shoving my helmet in there. I also got my hands on some E6000 and ordered zap-a-gap off amazon as well as my boots and gloves from Imperial Boots. Starting to accumulate a bunch of stuff, though, still waiting for my lexan scissors... The wait and research continues!

Started my build thread as suggested. All future updates on my build will be there!

[EDIT] Switching to TFA FOTK since KB Props armor is TFA and finding the TLJ parts is a little difficult. I will return to TLJ later! Hey everybody, Momo here! I'm pretty new to this community, got cadet status for the Georgia Garrison not too long ago. I have aspirations to become an FOTK someday and a few days ago I got my big start with the Big Brown Box! Ive already ordered my lexan scissors off Amazon so im waiting for them to come so I can get started on trimming these pieces but I got a lot more tools and soft goods to gather. I need to keep my eyes open for Imperial Boots to start taking orders again so I can get my boots and gloves. Everything else will come with time. This is my first stormtrooper and I'm still learning the terminology of stuff and exploring this side of costuming...but hopefully one day I can join the ranks! This is the look im going for when its all said and done. I'm still deciding on pauldron color, but red is probably what I'm going to end up with. This is the aftermath of taking everything out of the BBB. Its a lot of stuff! I'm kinda worried about stuff not fitting right but some of these pieces are enormous xD I'm only 5ft but I'm not the skinny variety so fitment will be interesting. List of stuff for my stormtrooper thus far. Most of it is not ordered yet, but its good to have an idea of where I'm going for things. Research is still ongoing! Will edit post to reflect updates on Parts List Parts List: -Hard Bits- TLJ Helmet: KB Props (Received) Armor: KB Props [Only comes in TFA] (Received) TLJ Cod: TBA TLJ Forearms: TBA TLJ Thermal Detonator: TBA TLJ Thighs: TBA Pauldron: KB Props (Received) TFA FOTK: In progress Eventually I want a voice amp and stuff but I'll worry about that after I finish the suit. Fans may be a must though. I usually just rig a CPU fan in there but I might want something a little more professional this time around. I'll probably be adding more to this list later. For now this is all, updates will be slow as I'm not trying to rush this. Dont wanna make any mistakes, I am new after all Gonna take it slow and carefully for the best result! This be exciting times!

I got my kit from KB Props, they had a sale going on because they were moving to a new place. I'm not sure if its still going on, but I know that list filled up pretty fast. Thanks everyone for your support! I laid everything out today to do a more thorough inventory. A lot of stuff here... Greeblies, thermal detonator, a ton of little boxes, and big armor bits. I think the first thing I need to do is get me some ABS scissors. Thats what the folks at my garrison recommended for me vs trying to use a dremel on all this stuff. So I'm going to hunt for a good pair on amazon. If anybody got suggestions on a good pair or on other tools i'll need, im all ears! Once I get a pair i'll actually get to work on trimming the excess stuff off. Once I do that, things will be on hold for a little bit while I lose weight, obtain an undersuit, and get my boots and gloves and other soft bits. This wont be a fast build, I wanna make sure I get it done right.

Hey everybody. Name is Monica, but friends call me Momo. I'm a fresh cadet of the Georgia Garrison and currently stationed in Alpharetta, GA. Ever since the new movies came out I took a great liking of the First Order stormtroopers. After finding a good vendor I decided to pull the trigger. Well the day has arrived, I was quite surprised what was waiting for me outside today. The day of Big Brown Box has arrived! Oh boy theres so many parts! I'm not new to costuming but with this I have no idea what im doing xD Gonna search for all kinds of guides and tools, maybe when the world gets better, an armor party would be nice too. Looks like all the parts are here though if anything is missing I have no idea yet LOL. I have a dremel in the garage, but I think ABS scissors are the way to go for most of these? Need to grab em off amazon. I know I need to hunt down some gaskets, I also need to trim myself down a little bit. Its all overwhelming right now, but with the armor actually in my possession I'm much less likely to procrastinate now. I think for now though im going to box the armor back up and keep it safe in my closet while I collect all the other things and soft parts I need for the build. Need to find some good gloves and boots and follow a lot of other peoples armor builds. The long journey starts today but one day...I'll join the ranks of the First Order!