bantha hunter

Sorry boys! It was not an easy decision, but I fell in love with big guns and pauldrons. I would still love to do a TK at some point, but for now the dirt won me over. Ah, gotcha! You are right, I must have confused the CRL's here, because I only just noticed that the TK has levels in the CRL's and the TD does not. I could have sworn that the TD had tougher requirements regarding the gap for higher levels, but looks not to be the case. Thanks for the heads up!

Hey people! Full disclosure: I decided that this project is going to be a sandtrooper instead of a TK. I hope it's okay to continue asking a few questions in this thread, as most of the build is identical to a TK anyway. I just finished shimming my kidney-armor. I'm somewhat happy with how it turned out, but there is still a small gap between the kidney and abs-armor. It's just a few millimeters, but it is there. I'm debating whether to bite the bullet and add 1/2" more on each side, to completely close the gap. What do you think? Would this be acceptable for Centurion (If this were a TK, that is), or would it be a problem? Cheers!

Thanks for the warm welcome! I just posted my build thread over here: That was indeed helpful and probably saved me some time to look up how to post images. Thanks!

Okay, I have a confession to make. I'm in way over my head, but it's fun. [emoji3] My BBB from RS Propmasters arrived last week, and I couldn't be happier with the quality. I love all the bumps and irregularities of the original parts, and I honestly hope I don't screw this up. Getting into this hobby as a total newbie can be intimidating, but thanks to all of you guys (And the video tutorials that Rob from RS provided) I was able to collect enough info to start working on my armor. I'll take it step by step... Biceps and Forearms Those are the pieces that most people seem to start with. Cutting the biceps to fit me was relatively easy. I'm in no way shaped like a stuntman from the 70's (I'm 6'1" and 209 pounds), so everything has to be slightly wider and larger than what is considered "screen accurate". Luckily the parts that RS supplied have enough material on the sides, so I can work with that without having to shim anything (The kidney being the only exception). I also taped the forearms together. I noticed that the large opening of the right forearm seems to be a bit more oval, whereas the left one is more rounded. This results in the left forearm being a bit more loose than the right one. I think I read that this is considered screen accurate? Is there a rule as to how tight or loose certain parts have to sit? Right now my arm pieces can slide around quite a bit - I know that this is probably going to be no problem once the strapping is attached, but I can't bring myself to apply any cover strips before showing you a few pictures. [emoji6] Does this look okay to you? Now to my first screw-up... As you can see, I failed to observe the most important rule of crafting: Measure twice, cut once. The first version of the right forearm was too tight, but I had already removed too much material, so I decided to introduce a wedge-like gap to make up for it... It's narrow enough to be covered up by the cover strip, but I will probably have to shim it from the inside. Is this an issue when it comes to approvals? This way it seems to fit me quite nicely. The right Thigh - My Nemesis! Okay, now to my second screw-up. I thought my work on the right thigh was going well. Once again I had to build it with my own size in mind, which turned out to be no problem at all. The prototype fits me well, and I'm confident that it is just "thight" (hehe) enough without being uncomfortable. Sounds good, right? The problem with making the thigh larger is, that there is a very noticable "bump" on the back of the thigh. Maybe you know the little "flatted" area at the back that is there to but the strip on? In my case it was a good two inches towards the right side of my cut, so I could not use it as a base for the cover strip. This made the "flatted" area stand out like a sore thumb, and from the side it looked like an ugly bump that didn't seem to show up on the screen-used costumes (probably because they were cut differently). So what did I do? The most idiotic thing possible, of course. I took my heat-gun and carefully heated the bump and tried to push it in. The result is an ugly patch of dents that you can see in the next photo. Of course it didn't flatten out completely, and I feel that I have made it worse? Is this going to be an issue for centurion approval, should I ever go down that route? Maybe some ABS paste and sandpaper can help to smooth it out? (Disclaimer: The light in the photo makes it look much worse than it does in regular daylight) I also decided to cut off some material of the top of the thigh, to make the curves look a bit more like what I've seen on screen. I think this is not so big of a deal, but now I'm missing two inches of return-edge at the back of the thigh. Apart from the ugly bumps in the back, I'm happy with the look. I hope I didn't ruin it. That's it! My first post in this build thread. Mistakes were made, lessons were learned. I'll be back with more soon... More mistakes, probably. [emoji3] Cheers, Bantha Hunter

Hey guys! My big brown box from RS propmasters arrived last week, and I thought this would be a great moment to introduce myself. I can’t wait to share my (hopefully not too wonky) build with all of you! Cheers and greetings from Germany, Lukas