SpacesNoTabs

Good catch

Added a couple drops of glue on the brow trim as suggested. Good tip! I'm looking at the tube stripes now. I'm going with the decals for now (don't hate!). I took the decals and temporarily affixed them on there. They barely fit, if at all. Here's pics of them on there, also with a pencil as if I'm not mistaken, they're supposed to be that width from the top of the cheek. Should I just attach them, starting as close to the ear as possible? Should I remove one of the blue lines or would that get me immediately discharged from the Empire?

Welcome to the journey! The troopers here are incredibly helpful so there is no question that someone won't be able to answer!

Hahaha well I'm glad it's wonky then!! I must get a little too caught up in trying to get it perfect to the point it stresses me out! I must look at the haphazard outfits everyone in the movies wore to chill out. And really, seeing my little boy and girl putting the bucket on their tiny heads and dancing around like monkeys reminds me to just have fun with it! Because it IS fun and this has been a dream of mine for years and I didn't think I could accomplish it but I am thanks to all you amazing troopers!!!

The right ear complete and... a problem. After hand-sanding for about an hour, I finally got the right ear to fit well enough. Decent gap on the backside, but it is what it is. My issue now is with the brow trim. Once I attached the ears and tightened them up, it appears that the faceplate must have shifted every so slightly to where the brow trim hangs just a little bit higher on the left side than the right. I'm worried that this is a bigger issue that will require taking off the right ear, somehow filling in my existing drill holes, and redrilling to ensure this doesn't happen! Please tell me I'm wrong!!! Further, the faceplate and back aren't snug together so the brow trim, particularly in the middle, doesn't want to stay up. I've been trying to think of solutions to this and haven't come up with anything good yet. Here are some more pics of the helmet on my cat's scratching post And is it just me or is this bucket very deformed? I know that they come out of the mold slightly deformed, but as I'm putting it together, I'm noticing how out of whack it is and hoping I haven't contributed to it!

Is the brow trim supposed to be held purely by the pressure between the face plate and back cap?

Thanks @Doggydoc! I did the right ear this afternoon. Took me like an hour of hand sanding. Almost threw the whole thing in the garbage haha! I got it on and it looks pretty good but it's affecting my brow trim height a bit. And my brow trim is having a hard time staying up too. thanks for the tips @gmrhodes13! Good call on doing the clamps. I'll try that next time.

What about the forearm sizing?

I got my first forearm "done". In quotes, because one of the cover strips is ever so slightly coming up so I need to glue that part again. But, I was concerned about the sizing once I put it on. It's big on my skinny little arms. Is this a situation where I need to trim some off each side and glue it up again? Is it more a matter of shaping? Or just padding it with some foam? Check out that big ol' gap!

Thank you for the encouragement sir!!

You got it! Are these helpful?

The ears! Oh, the humanity. So I got the left ear on, but not happy with it. It was pre-trimmed as I said, but of course once I put the faceplate and back cap together, it didn't quite fit so I had to do some sanding. I don't have a dremel and frankly, was worried I'd cut away too much anyway, so I just used some 60-grit sandpaper to slowly take things off. Every time I sanded one area, other things were off. So it took a while. This is the closest I could get it. I had to drill the holes again as the existing ones no longer worked. Please let me know any suggestions you have for modifying this. I tried adding the step to the ear and it helped though I couldn't quite get it enough to cover that step. And here's the inside where I attached. I got pretty close to that bottom rivet. Maybe I should have removed the rivet first. Anyway, all suggestions welcome! Will start on the next ear soon.

What do you mean by "slot" them? Do you mean expand the hole a bit if necessary?

Almost done with my first forearm and it's going pretty well thanks to all the tips above. Been working on the helmet. Pre-trimmed but I thought I'd show a few pics to ask if it needs any refinement. I riveted the back cap to the faceplate. I wasn't going to, but it was difficult to try and align the ears without doing that first. Also, riveting seemed like fun. And it was. Here's the riveted helmet with a cameo from my cat, Vader Left and ride sides Here's the left side where I'm trying to align the left ear. As you can see, the holes are pre-drilled and I only put in one rivet, not one at the bottom. If I hold the ear directly above where the pre-drilled holes are, you can see that it needs a bit of work. From my untrained eye, it appears that I need to trim down the curve on the front part of the ear where it's pushing up against the faceplate. Does that seem logical? Are you guys seeing any other issues with alignment?

Ok, well, I got two biceps done. Lessons were learned. But, I don't think I'll be happy with them until I get them just right. I didn't measure the cover strips quite correctly (I know, I know, measure twice, cut once!) so they're a little shorter on one than another. My plan is to fix it, but I've spent so long on these two pieces of armor, I wanted to shift to the forearms next to keep my motivation going! All of your tips and suggestions have helped a ton. Taking it a little slower, doing half a cover strip at a time per @ABS80 suggestion helped me to get a better fit I think so I'll stick with that method. Onto the forearms for now. I taped them up and tried fitting them (again, already pre-trimmed so not too much to do). The shape is definitely going to be a challenge as others have attested to! That, and I'm not entirely sure what it means for a forearm to fit well. Should it feel snug around the forearm or have some room? I suppose if I make it so there's some room, and need to have it more snug, I can add some extra padding. Speaking of which, three questions: 1. What are general opinions of doing inner cover strips? 2. When people talk about adding some padding inside the armor pieces, are they talking about foam? 3. If I end up getting the forearms glued, and the part by the wrist still isn't quite oval-shaped enough, is this something a hot water bath will help with or do I need to really make sure it's perfect before gluing it all?

Awesome! What is your helmet sitting on?

Thanks @TKSpartan @gmrhodes13 and @ABS80! Great tips and encouragement. I got this. I will try this out and report back.

I am both proud of myself and extremely discouraged. I am contemplating changing the name of this thread to "SpacesNoTabs shows you how NOT to assemble armor!" I thought I had finally complete a single piece of armor. One bicep. Took off the clamps and magnets and it looked fine at first but as time went on the cover strip started peeling away. I only left it for 24 hours so I realize I probably should have waited longer. But even then, it feels like these pieces simply do not want to stick. My biceps are ... well, about the same size as my 6-year old's, so when they trimmed it, there wasn't any like flat ridge left understandably. So the pieces join at an angle. That, and the plastic is thicker (which I like!). And no matter the clamps and number of magnets I put on there I just can't seem to keep it flat at the joint. I don't want to have to do it a third time! So frustrating. Sorry for the venting lol I just feel like I can't even finish a single piece! Here's an image of the bicep piece on arm and me feeling like a champion Here are a couple images of the whole piece And here is a pic of the cover strip coming off. And my hand (maybe hand model is in my future?) So here's the other bicep which I just taped together. Notice that the joints aren't flat but at an angle. Mark, you suggested that I should only secure a cover strip to one half at a time correct? Do you think doing this will make it easier for me to keep the joints flat with the cover strips on? I should have just followed your advice in the first place and not be impatient!

Thanks so much, gmrhodes, you've been super helpful! So for trimming that corner, should I just cut it straight across or maybe curve it? Is it under the shoulder piece so maybe it doesn't matter?

So apart from cleaning up then cover strips, we're the lengths ok? I've looked at various references and videos and thought I had a good size but then I see other peeps doing longer ones so I'm unsure! And does anyone else have as a hard a time working with these magnets as I do? Man, I must have weak fingers haha

Thanks! Unfortunately I didn't see all of your post before I did the gluing So, I glued the first side and i'm just not digging it. First off, I have dried glue all over the place. Secondly, the cover strip doesn't sit completely flat over the joint as you'll see in some of the pics. I agree the cover strips are rough. Do I just need to sand it? Kinda hard, now that it's glued! Also, the other side is so spread apart, it's gonna be another difficult one to glue together. Maybe this is where the hot water bath comes in? Could use some tips on that. Anyway, a bit discouraged because I feel like my first attempt really didn't go well, but that's how I learn! At least, that's what I tell my 6-year old. Mistakes are good

Here are a couple pics pre-glue. I am having a heck of a time keeping the armor flat where I join them so unfortunately the pictures are full of tape and clamps and magnets. I guess I'm just looking for confirmation that I'm doing this approximately correctly I sized it to my (extremely massive and powerful) bicep. The cover strips go from top to bottom and I clipped the corners off of them as I've seen in some reference images. Going to dive in the deep end and glue this sucker this weekend...

They came like that. I have very dainty arms...

Even though my armor is pre-trimmed, I still want to size it to make sure it's correct. I have one of the biceps and am trying to tape it like so many others do, but my pieces aren't rounded enough and create more of an oval kind of shape. Am I doing something wrong here? What can I do to temporarily put these in the shape they need to be so I can test it out?

Those are really good ideas about the clamping. I'm going to have to give that a shot