firebladejedi

On my most recent build I have the following cover strip sizes.. Arms a mixture of 13-15mm on biceps and forearms. Thighs a mixture of 20-25mm on the front and 25 on the rear. Shins a mixture of 20-23mm on the front and 25mm on the rear.

Thigh pack for right thigh. Once trimmed out you need to make the lower side edges rounded. I trimed my thigh strip just a couple of mm from the boxes. You do not need much here. To trim the edges round use anything to hand. A spray can, your masking tape. I like to use a spent casing from a L21A1 RARDEN 30mm cannon that my brother liberated when he was invited to observe a live fire battle group exercise. When you are happy with your arc, trim and repeat on the other side. Remember that the strap needs to reach all around the thigh. You can either have 3 blocks on the inside and 2 on the outside or have it centred both are correct. I am going to use single head caps to hold this in place. Better charge up my Dewalt again..

So how are your abs? If its not stormtrooper related speak to Davina, if you are into white plastic speak to me. Ok so on to the ab plate buttons. TM now makes these in reverse, there is reason for that but I never read that thread. However I like all things as accurate as I can so I like what he's done. Trim your button plates as seen here, also check out those vibrant colours. Back in the day there was a lot of 'discussion' on what colour the buttons were and I have been using French blue since around 2008 as other colours popular in the past were too dark. If anyone needed proof of the lighter shade of blue used on the original armour check out these pictures hot off the press from the Lucas Archives. You cannot argue with that. Original ref pic When you are happy that you have your buttons trimmed get gluing. I like to glue mine and then paint them later.

That's about it for now, I'm going to have a cup of tea and a snack, and then get on with something this avo. I start nights today so have a while to get on with some more before work. More updates later stormtrooper fans.

The thighs are glued together but I have yet to do the thigh pack, that could be done today. Ok my shins, has anybody worked out what's going on with them yet? Both of my shins are identical and are made if I am not mistaken, remember I am not an expert, of the outer left and outer right parts. This is why they are so wonky looking from the front. When I put in my order with TM, he asked if I wanted any doubled up parts, and I told him to surprise me... there is another doubled part somewhere, have you seen it? Measure from the very top above the raised edge and drill small holes, just big enough to get the hooks through, 45mm down, 225mm down and 340mm down. You want to go in about 10mm from the edge of the joint so the hooks pull them in slightly when closed. While a lot of people add joining strips to the inside of the shins its not accurate. If you are worried you can run a bead of glue on the inside joint like I did. Again the elastics are just glued directly into the shins, try to match them up to the holes, but dont sweat it if they are not an 100% match.. The elastic with the number 4 hook sits about half way along the outer joining strip on the back of the shin, this will pull the shin closed nicely when worn.

I was asked about what glue I am using for thee elastic, well you guessed it I'm using Stelmax. Just slather the glue on the inside of the elastic and put it straight in to the armour part. It wont take long to dry. Then to copy the original look, splodge some more glue over the top of the elastic. A recap on my arms, one bell has next to no return edge and the other quite a lot. Also one bicep has little to none and the other a bit more, there is a theme here people. Wrist return had the chop too..

For the ab plate lay the chest on top and mark out where you need to put the brackets. TM had already added the Newey England snaps for the belt. As for the butt, again measure 50mm in from each edge and make your first hole, use the bracket to mark the next hole, again the middle bracket is centred. The brackets in the kidney just need to match the butt and upper back plate. Upper back plate just needs to match up with the kidney plate, the outer brackets will be about 20mm from the edge and the bracket in the middle is always centred and due to the way the armour is made it may not look like the armour parts match. Don't panic it will sit straight when finished.

Day X+II Hello there! Come here my little friend. Don't be afraid. Ok so lets call this day 12, I don't have much to update and if I'm honest if this build takes any longer I'm starting to get worried that George Lucas is going to change what a stormtrooper looks like, oh wait a minute.. So starting at the top lets take a little look see at what is going on. So the chest piece is finished, I have glued the shoulder bridges on using the stelmax, if you look closely you can see it has warped them a little in places. You want about 5 of the ribs on the chest here. I also spent a couple of hours measuring, drilling and screwing in the original brackets for the strapping. On the chest measure 25mm in from each edge and then drill the first hole. Use your bracket to mark out the second hole. The middle bracket is centred.

Well I better get my a very impolite person in gear and start planning for CE3 then

Thanks Mathias, when you are coming back to the UK, its time we had another catch up..

Day X+1 Ok so here is what I got up to yesterday, Bell elastic is in Bicep hooks made and fitted Wrist return edge gone - I used a junior hacksaw to remove it Holes drilled and strapping added to shins, knee plate glued to middle of left shin, I will complete the sides later Is there anyone here that has yet to name their armour parts? Steve and Wayne are screen accurate names but I went with Mark.. Until next time - please give peas a chance...

I'm going to stop for a late lunch while I charge up my Dewalt. So far I have still only used 6 out of the 7 tools featured in the picture. Back soon....

Check the fit and trim again if needed. This can be tricky to glue due to the curvature of the various sides that need to be stuck down. I'm using my fav white glue, that will prob melt my shin slightly, but that all adds to the original theme.

It may need trimming at the side. It needs to sit just to the front of the curve in the shin.

Knee plate. Check your reference pictures, this one shows where it site and how its trimmed. No rivets please, just a good splodge of glue will do. Mark where you want to trim, be generous, you can always tri it some more later.

These are next in line for the Stelmax treatment..

Ok so as promised, not that anyone is reading this crap, are pictures of my right shins. I decided to have them match up at the back, because at the front, the knee plate will cover the top of one, and the thigh pack can cover the other. I would like to think I will do the strapping and knee plate on these today, so I can finally say that something is finished. This build it taking forever, even I am getting bored reading all of these updates.

Day X So welcome back to Day X of this incredible build, while I've been hard at work this week the armour fairies have broken into fbj towers and have now completed my right shins ready for me to add on the sniper knee plate to the more left wing righty. I will do that while the glue is drying on my thighs. Still on my long list of things to do is; glue thighs, trim knee plate, thigh pack, shoulder straps, build thermal detonator, sort out belt including drop boxes and get this suit strapped. Then when all of that is finished I will start on the helmet. I have a hero helmet with this kit, as my first idea was to build an Han Solo replica. But that soon went out of the window when I got going and what's happening here is I am building a suit that will be a made up jumble of parts cobbled together with a hero helmet. I used to work with a guy that was a stormtrooper in ESB, and during numerous chats he stated that they often got to work and when required to get suited up made a dive for the 'best looking stuff' meaning that first in would get dibs on what armour was available. So my suit will look like that. More will come apparent with pictures. Yeah we all like pictures. While I fire up my photobucket account and take pictures of where I am at, remember X never marks the spot - and I X'd you first!...

Sorry I misread your question.

And the shins, with most of the cover strips glued on.

I really should have used a real camera for this thread, but you get the idea.. And I think it is going to rain again in the minute, its getting dark. I think I just heard a rumble of thunder..

No real updates for today, but a few pictures of the arms and legs as they are at this moment in time. Rest days this coming week are Wed, Thurs and Fri so I am hoping to get quite a lot done then. You can start to see the different return on the various parts. Each piece has been trimmed differently. Also the cover strips are all different.

Tie a knot in the elastic, loop over shoulder bridge and elastic internal strapping. Job done.

Ok I am about two thirds through this build now and all arms are glued ready for strapping. Today I have been making my cover strips for the legs. Not much of an update but I thought I would share this tip for making the cover strips if you do not have a long enough steel rule. To follow this you need to be smart on which strips you make in what order. 1 choose which strip you are making and measure how long or wide you want it. 2 tape it to a good clean solid surface for cutting, I used the kitchen work top. Its taped to hold it in place while cutting. 3 add another unused strip next to it so that your straight edge will be the same height for cutting. 4 use another long cover strip as your straight edge. 5 lightly run your sharp knife along the edge to make your cut. Let the knife do the work and run this over very gently and repeat until you have cut through. If you try to make your cut on the first run the knife may dig in and take a line you did not want it to. 6 repeat as needed - save the shorter cover strips until last and you may be able to use that steel ruler you have that was not quite long enough for the other parts. That's all of them now ready to be glued on. But I have run out of time for today, as I start work again at 5PM. I'm off to have some lunch. I'm having steak today, mmmmm steak.....

Ok we have time for one last picture today, a sneaky peak at the completed right arm sans strapping. I shall leave you with this while I have a snooze before tennis. I'm playing against a girl from the office, then straight off after that for another ninja class.. until next time you've been watching FBJ building his new TK from TM. TTFN.