MintImperial

4th of October 2023 Test fitting with EVA cod & butt

18th to 26th of September Comfort modification EVA foam codpiece and butt plate Although I’d already separated the codpiece from the ab plate for increased mobility, it still hurt Tiny Trooper when she sat down. So I decided to replicate the front and back in EVA foam instead. I used the heat gun to help shape the pieces as well as treat the surface as I wanted to paint them later with acrylic. Used a Dremel to round off the edges. Used 2 coats of this flexible acrylic gloss paint: followed by 3 coats of this flexible gloss varnish: Not the smoothest paint job ever. But from a distance it looks good enough and the colour match is pretty close. After 2 coats of acrylic: After 3 coats of varnish:

15th of September 2023 Safety modification The cutest tiny thermal detonator you ever saw I really wanted to avoid metal edges and anything that could hurt the Mini Imperial. Plus, I don’t have the tools to bend and shape metal. So for the TD brackets, I used ABS, scaled to sized and bent with a heat gun. Then covered the surfaces with adhesive foil tape. I cut them down to remove the portion that is normally hidden behind the belt. These do not need to be functional as I will bolt the TD directly onto the canvas belt itself.

9th of September 2023 Sniper plate Accuracy modification Full-sized sniper plates are hard enough already. But I was particularly disappointed with the kid sized one as it just wouldn’t sit right at all. In the end I decided to slice and splice it to get a more user-friendly shape. Glued it back together with a lot of ABS paste on the back.

8th of September Cover strips & limb details

7th of September 2023 Comparing helmet sizes (helmet painting WIP)

Thanks Glen. I used that trick when I painted my own helmet using a stencil. Instead, for this one, I just very carefully etched back into the blue with a toothpick soaked in alcohol. It’s by no means perfect. But match better than what you see above. Will post more photos later.

6th & 7th of September 2023 E-11 Holster Comfort Modification This needed to be as flexible as possible, so I chose to make it in EVA foam rather than leather. I ended up using my prototype despite there being an extra mark left from penciling the measuring lines. Hopefully it’s not too noticeable. To create the different front & back leather effects, I first treated the front side with a heat gun to create a shinier surface. Then I blotted the surface sparingly with an acrylic gloss sealant. I may still go back and add more for an increased shine. For the rougher back side of the ‘leather’, I used my thumb to smooth the EVA surface and it gave it a kind of suede look. Rivets, etc. were just superglued on. Snap closure (scaled down to ligne 20) is a dummy. There's actually a magnet on the back with another one inside the holster itself. Tan straps are painted strips off the same black EVA foam. Everything is scaled to just under 80% of the accepted measurements.

5th of September 2023 Comparing armour: rough-cut vs radically re-sized for Mini Imp! Helmet proportions look strange but what do you expect?!

5th of September 2023 Adding ABS belt squares

2nd of September 2023 Helmet painting time again Nope. Left is even worse this time!

2nd of September 2023 Big comfort modification: My most significant change and the one I’m most keen to share in case it’s useful. The plan was for my Mini Imperial to wear her TK armour to school on Halloween. It needed to be easy to put on and take off by herself. No messing about with belts and thermal detonators and impossible arm reaches. So I did this: Split the belt in two and fixed the ABS portion to the ab plate and the canvas portion to the kidney plate. Front: The ABS belt uses Chicago screws in the traditional three places but they go straight through the ab plate. There’s no canvas in between. BUT THERE IS A DELIBERATE GAP! Later you’ll see how I attached the ammo drop boxes directly to the back of the ABS belt. Back: The canvas portion was made from a cannibalised B-grade belt. It’s actually two separate halves hot glued together where the canvas belt ends would normally overlap on the raised back panel. Each half has plastic support running along inside from end to end. Using hot glue to seal the canvas ends to prevent fraying, I cut notches to fit around the Chicago screws and hold the belt roughly in place. The whole thing is attached with Velcro onto the kidney plate. When it closes, it’s indistinguishable from the traditional closure method:

1st of September 2023 Tube stripe painting continues Yup. Not my proudest work. I think my paint was too thick. Found it very hard to control the brush stroke width. Never mind. This isn’t the last time I’ll attempt this. Will clean this off and make another pig’s ear of it again at a later date.

31st of August 2023 Helmet painting continues: tube stripes I dreaded doing this. Didn’t want to use decals so I had to hand paint every stripe. Judge the results for yourself later!

31st of August 2023 Trimming limbs And keeping the offcuts, bagged and tagged, in case I need to reattach with ABS paste sometime in the future. Think I went through three different rounds of trimming before all the arm & leg parts stopped hurting my tiny trooper. I didn’t document every cut and I’m sure you don’t need to see them.

30th of August 2023 Thinking about upper level details as I go along. Ab plate buttons WIP.

26th of August 2023 First test fitting The torso is the most forgiving in terms of leaving room for growth. As the straps and shimming will take care of any future needs. Except in one area: Growth modification: I deliberately chose to make an overlap of the back and kidney plates. Trimming this now will be very hard to correct later once she’s taller. Comfort modification: I decided to separate the cod from the abdomen plate to give a greater range of movement and allow my Mini Imperial to sit down. (I later found out that R1 TKs are already built like this.)

Well done, trooper. Not much more effort and you’ll be shooting at the highest level.

31st of July 2023 Begin helmet painting Am hopeless at painting the hairlines around traps & tears so I take a pragmatic approach better suited to my limited talents. Paint fat hairy lines first then hide them with the grey after. Then I only have to clean up the outside edge. Vocoders I can do. Well, at least not as shabbily.

28th of July 2023 The kit is about 80% of the adult size and comes complete with helmet V-trim & S-trim, 3D printed, scaled down HOVI mix tips, grey-green lens strip, scaled tube stripe decals, hard hand plates and Sandtrooper alternate parts. Size comparison (interestingly the kidney & butt plate is separated as per ANH style compared to the more ROTJ-like adult size plate): Rough-trimmed before sizing. (Excuse the messy floor.)

27th of July 2023 BBB Big Brown Box day and proof that this kit is two toys in one. Unfortunately the chest plate arrived cracked with the crack reaching all the way into the usable area. I’m currently holding it together with ABS paste, but it’s not a perfect solution and it’s already starting to give. I’ve requested a replacement plate, but I pressed on regardless as I had a birthday deadline to meet.

9th of May 2023 Pulled the trigger on a set of Walt's Trooper Factory kids TK armour.

Hi all. One of the happiest days of may life came recently when, on one of my own troops, my then 8yo daughter dropped in on me and, seeing other local 501st members’ children in costume, said she wanted TK armour to match mine. She is 130cm tall, about 4'3". This thread follows my efforts to finish the build before her birthday, which fell precisely on halloween. Although the build is retrospective, I’ll post the actual dates to give a sense of the timeline. It took me 2 years start-to-finish to build my ANH Stunt armour. I did hers in about 2 months. While trying to emulate Centurion-level armour wherever possible, I made a lot of special modifications myself to make it more comfortable for her and encourage her to troop. Hope it may be useful to anyone planning a similar project. Shortcuts to main modifications: EVA foam codpiece & butt plate https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/53984-mintimperial’s-“mini-imperial”-wtf-kids-tk-armour-build/?do=findComment&comment=771249 Splitting belt into 2 mounted halves https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/53984-mintimperial’s-“mini-imperial”-wtf-kids-tk-armour-build/?do=findComment&comment=771209 Front-opening shins & magnetic sniper plate https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/53984-mintimperial’s-“mini-imperial”-wtf-kids-tk-armour-build/?do=findComment&comment=771426 EVA padding at forearm elbows https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/53984-mintimperial’s-“mini-imperial”-wtf-kids-tk-armour-build/?do=findComment&comment=771663 Bicep hook replaced with elastic loop https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/53984-mintimperial’s-“mini-imperial”-wtf-kids-tk-armour-build/?do=findComment&comment=771661 EVA foam holster for lightness & flexibility https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/53984-mintimperial’s-“mini-imperial”-wtf-kids-tk-armour-build/?do=findComment&comment=771215 Reshaping sniper plate https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/53984-mintimperial’s-“mini-imperial”-wtf-kids-tk-armour-build/?do=findComment&comment=771247 Permanently attached thermal detonator https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/53984-mintimperial’s-“mini-imperial”-wtf-kids-tk-armour-build/?do=findComment&comment=772016 ABS brackets for thermal detonator https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/53984-mintimperial’s-“mini-imperial”-wtf-kids-tk-armour-build/?do=findComment&comment=771248 Padding for comfort & spacing https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/53984-mintimperial’s-“mini-imperial”-wtf-kids-tk-armour-build/?do=findComment&comment=771661

Not pushing in any way. Just wondering how long the certificate usually takes. Thanks in advance for this wonderful service. And that was fast! Much obliged.

Gregory, why aren’t you at your post? Looking good, fella. Almost ready for your TK ID.