JSmails

For ANH? From doing my ROTJ Rubies there are really a lot of differences between ANH and ROTJ and the Rubies. Most all of them are nit-picky for sure, and your average passerby would never notice them. Especially kids. But living up to 501 standards is what joining garrisons is about. Here is a small list of differences between the Rubies, and an ANH suit. 1. The ridge around the armor pieces is only seen in ROTJ armor. Unless you are doing ANH/SE TD which is actually ROTJ. 2. Shoulder straps are riveted on. I don't know the ANH CRL that well. 3. Shoulder straps DO NOT have the flat piece at the ends. 4. The belt boxes DO NOT have the raised square button in the middle or on the ends. 5. Rounded shoulder bells. 6. ROTJ hand plates, not ANH. 7. Skinny belt. The ANH belt is almost as wide as the belt boxes, right? 8. Chest plate hangs too low because of the rivet and shows too much black at the neck. 9. Butt and kidney plate are connected in one piece. 10. The drop boxes are held by black elastic. Don't know ANH CRL that well. 11. Belt is plastic, not canvas. Can cover it in canvas. 12. Buttons are just black stickers. They aren't grey and blue. That is a list of things that I have seen different between the Rubies and an ANH suit. Maybe I am confusing Elite status with 501st approval. But that list I have made is definitely things that would be lacking for an ANH suit. Nit-picky? Yes. I guess. Here is the list of things he could change to make it an ROTJ suit instead of ANH. The list is much, much shorter. 1. Get an ROTJ helmet. Need to DIY as there really aren't many/any for sale. 2. Clip the rivet in the shoulder straps and replace with white industrial velcro. 3. Replace the drop box straps with white strapping. 4. Cover the belt in webbing or canvas. I am looking for the type of webbing for my own suit. 5. THE HARD PART, flip those ab buttons. 6. Change the ab buttons to 6 black, 3 blue. That's about it. The hand plate, the rib around the armor, the belt boxes, the skinny belt, the rounded bells, and the connected butt plate are all ROTJ. I'm just posting the reasons why I had to turn mine to ROTJ. There are just too many differences that I'd never be able to look at it and say, "Wow, nice ANH! Except for the ribbing around the armor, the bells, hand plates, belt, belt boxes, drop box straps, shoulder straps and buttons." It's just too deficient in the little details that make an ANH suit an ANH suit. At least, too deficient for me. Just my opinion.

Correct on all accounts! I've watched every TK scene in the movie, frame by frame, multiple times. The butt plate is all one piece. And my Rubies back plate is miniscule as you are saying. From the CRL, the belt is 2.5 inches. Like an idiot I bought the "full screen" version of the DVDs. I don't even get to see the TK holding Han's blaster. So that is the guy he goes after to flip him? The TK in the second pic down is where I got the idea to take the drop box strap out from the rivet toward the back of the belt boxes, and then down. Instead of just straight down from the rivet. If you zoom on that pic, you can see that is what is happening. Unfortunately I eyeballed it wrong and left a bit too much slack as the top of his drop box is actually touching the bottom of his belt. It's really cinched up there. Both TK's in the bottom pick, on the far left, you can see this also. Great screen shots!

Thanks for the great pics, Mike! Great captures too Nathan! Believe me, I've been pouring over my own screen caps time and time again. Notice the trooper 1 up from the bottom in Nathan's post. His ab plate is totally hosed. I think maybe the film negative is reversed, as he's holding his blaster in the right hand. Both of the TK's in the bottom pic are holding it left handed. Half of the TK's are holding left-handed in the pic above that, and I think ALL of the TK's on the death star are holding left handed. So I think the wonked-out trooper in that second to last pic must be a negative flip. Some of the "stunt" TK's on Endor actually had on a hiking boot of some sort I believe. One of them goes feet up in one stunt and the sole of his boots goes right across the screen. Looks like a hiking boot. Of course, they were in the woods. In the pics of the SE suit Mike posted, the straps are (white) riveted on. But in John's screen ROTJ (the top of the forum) it is clearly white velcro. One last thing that I have been really worrying over is the placement of the belt. In almost every screen shot, especially in the TK's lined up in the death star when Vader steps out, the top of the belt boxes covers up at least the bottom, offset button. I "was" going to do that with my belt when I had it unriveted. I was going to move it up just that little bit, essentially moving down the ab-plate, but I really didn't want to cover up one, or even two, of VaderDave's beautiful buttons. Anyone have any idea on the kind of webbing for the belt? Oh, and when is Lucas going to release the OT on Blu-ray? Just after the end of the useful life of the format, I am guessing, which seems to be his MO.

Thanks for the replies! ST, this is exactly why I posted. To me it looks good. Then I get a better set of eyes, or 3 or 4 or whoever looks at this post, to look at it too and see what they spot. Now that you mention it, those forearms DO look WAY too big. Not length as you say, but too wide around. I don't know what I'll do about that. I'm a bit leery of taking the heat gun to it. About getting the forearms higher, how do you all do it? Originally they were connected via elastic with the bicep. Is that what I should do? Just so they have some resistance to sliding down when my arms are down. The elastic is still in there, I'd just have to put some industrial velcro on it and in the bicep. Maybe snaps? Thanks for the advice all. Those pics would be great Mike! I have a ton of screen caps, but any semi-hi-res closeups would be great.

(8/3/21: Many pictures have been updated since originally being written in 2009. I’ve changed text to align with the newer pics in some spots and have moved all photos from photobucket to Imgur as required to get this WIP out of purgatory. Enjoy the updated WIP!) This is my story. I hope you enjoy it. All comments/criticism is welcome. My story is a typical story. I saw a "beautiful" set of LFL licensed TK armor and wanted it. I got a lightly used set off of Ebay for very cheap. I loved it. I just didn't like the fit that much. To find out how to make it fit better, I did some googling. That is how I came upon the FISD. Upon reaching here and reading how hated/disliked/inaccurate my armor is, I was shocked. It looks like a stormtrooper to me. And most anyone else. http://forum.whitearmor.net/public/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif I then read about the differences between the armors. And helmets. When I found out that my armor had its best shot at being ROTJ, and after reading Bernard's thread, I figured I'd give it a shot. IMO, there just isn't any decent way to turn this LFL armor into ANH. This is a list of what I've done and why. I admit it totally isn't fit yet. I need a new belt to hold up the legs, and I'm STILL trying to find suspenders for the ab and butt plates with ZERO elastic in it. EDIT: MAR 23rd... Thanks for the comments etc. Here is my updated suit. It looks a lot like the original pics I posted, of course. Here are the changes: I changed the frown to rounded on the recommendations. I added a holster. (thanks Bernard!) I tightened up the forearms a bit. I tightened up the calves also. I brought the drop boxes up a little so they are closer to the belt. And Rubies actually sent me the left thigh, so that is better also. As always, thanks for any comments and help. I would like to go ROTJ Elite if it is at all possible, so critiques are helpful and necessary! (EDIT 1/15/15:) (I have lost all of my old photos. Former website, former computer, forgot this was here, etc. etc. I will try to keep most of the original writing intact, but I'm taking new photos for the most part. Pardon the disjointedness.) Here is my full photo. Old then new. This was a Day 1 blurry photo with all Rubies original. Here is where I ended up. Here is the holster attached from behind with 2 rivets and the drop box higher than in the original pics. Thanks for any comments and help. Now back to the original post...... OKAY, OKAY, that's not the Rubies helmet. I am modding the Rubies right now, but I doubt it'll ever be as nice as the MRCE you see pictured that I modded. My link to that mod is below if you don't get to the helmet forum very often. http://whitearmor.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=6033 As you can see, that left thigh looks much better. You can see the buttons are flipped correctly. Yes, I actually cut into my armor. Here is a closer photo of that: Those are buttons from Vaderdave. 6 black, 3 blue according to my PM's with Bernard and his emails with John who has the original rig featured in the sticky at the top. It looks okay, especially from a couple feet away. At least it's technically "accurate". Though there are a bunch of wonky setups in the actual film. Next up is the top half. UNLIKE most everyone else you see wearing the Rubies, I've modded mine so that you don't have that TON of black under the neck. I did this by removing the rivets. Then trimming the straps. Then adding new, white, rivets. The straps provided with the Rubies don't have the flat part that you'd need for ANH, so ROTJ is a much better fit for them. I may have hiked this up a bit too high, thus pulling my ab plate a bit too high in order to stay under the chest plate. I may "let it out" a rung or two to show a little black under my helmet. Finally the belt area: You can see that I changed the drop box straps to white strapping instead of black elastic. I also covered the plastic belt in white canvas (though ROTJ I am learning "may" have been some sort of webbing? Any help where to buy?). I still need to paint the rivets white. I put white/industrial velcro on the back of the belt and on the backside of the straps. I am going to have to take some "around the world" pics when I get the strapping totally figured out. Things left to do.... I have an O2 piece on the way from Vactrooper. (THANKS!) I need to get a holster. Neither of those two are required in the Elite CRL. I do need new boots I guess. Anything else you can spot that I should work up? I am fairly certain I won't be applying for elite status anytime soon. As I said above, my left thigh is actually just a right thigh without the right knee boxes on it. It can look okay from the front, but it does look a bit wonky from the side as the undercut isn't where it should be. I have no idea why a previous owner didn't complain to Rubies about this. Especially if he paid full price. I did write them an email, and they said they'd send out a right thigh, no charge. It hasn't come and most likely won't. I have sent out another email, two I believe, asking to follow up on this. No response. What can you do eh? Another thing that gets me about the Rubies is that in all the pics online that I have seen, the promo pics have the buttons the correct way on the ab plate and the helmet is ROTJ with the black frown and no buggy eyes. I don't know how they went from that, to the suit they sent out. Correct buttons. Black frown. Non-buggy eyes. What happened? But I digress..... The button plate flip was the worst mod and I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone. If you do, cut with your hobby knife at a 45* angle. Not 90* up and down. It'll make putting it back in quite easy. Thanks for looking. Sorry for the long post. Any comments are appreciated. I'll have more pics once I get the armor back on AFTER I have a dedicated belt that won't slip and some better suspenders that don't creep everything up. Don't hold your breath though.

I am doing the exact same thing, though trying to get a little closer to ROTJ elite. I am coupling my Rubies with my MRCE that I ROTJ'd: http://whitearmor.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=6033 I'll post a build thread with pics in ROTJ tomorrow. Same boots though.

Let me know when you get the ROTJ T-track in stock Tony. I need to make an ROTJ blaster next and that'll work nicely. I already have your grip for it.

Thanks for your reply Scott. So just the white stuff from Wal-mart is good enough? It's good by me if everyone else is using it. I guess the boxes should "swing" a little when walking then? Thanks!

I need the white material for the drop down boxes. This is for ROTJ. I saw something like what I'd like at Wal-mart in the sewing section, but it seemed too lineny/linenlike (are those words?? ). I figured with that material the boxes would swing all about as I moved. Is this the way it was in the movies? I'm hoping there is a similiar strapping material that is more "starchy" so as to hold them in place a bit more. Thanks for any help! I guess I'll have to watch the Endor scene in ROTJ again to see if the boxes are just swinging about wildly as the TK's are running around chasing ewoks.

Thanks for the link. I was going to order off of ebay, but expected time is 2 weeks. BlakladerUSA has a store locator and I have a few suppliers around me. I guess I'll be getting these TOMORROW. Thanks a lot! MRCE is almost done and this will really pick up the pace.

I just got rid of my tube stripes today. Mr. Clean Magic Eraser as said above. Took about 10 minutes of furious scrubbing, but they come off and leave the nice glossy MRCE untouched underneath. It does get blue all over the place, but that wipes right off. I'm caulking my frown crack tomorrow. Definitely going to use your 1145 Testors over it after it dries a while. Thanks for the tip.

Today I went to Michael's. The only E6000 they have is clear. I am going to try a different hobby store tomorrow that I am hoping will have the white. Hancock fabrics also only had the clear. BUT if you need CLEAR E6000, both of these places carry the big tube of it for less than $4. I bought some testors paint and some brushes. I can't stand the remaining red stained bondo on the ab-plate. So I tried to see what some white paint would look like on it. I used Testors Glossy White. It covered the red/pink, but it's WAY whiter than my armor so it really sticks out. So that's a failure. How about sanding. Can I sand well into the ab plate (I think it's vinyl that the armor is made out of) to eventually remove the soaked in red? Is the color the same all the way through? If sanding is an option, do I just keep going lower and lower grit until it is smooth, wet-sand maybe, then just polish it up or something? What do you use to polish armor? ABS polish? What and where would I buy it? Is there a paint that isn't quite as white as the Testors someone could suggest? LASTLY, I had put some Krylon primer over the bondo. I obviously didn't do a very good job of taping, because the button plate has a VERY thin layer of pink-stained primer. I have been trying to remove this very thin layer to get back down to the plastic/vinyl. Any ideas on what to use? I tried the SuperClean and left it soaking in there for over 8 hours. I don't know if that is doing more harm than good. Still, the very thin layer didn't come off. The guy in the video (youtube) says to leave the plastic (models) soaking for 24 hours and it'll easily brush off. Unless someone has a different solvent fix, I'm going to try a full 24 hour soak. Anyone want to sell an ab-plate? This is a real PITA.

Not a problem! Thanks!

Mike, You know I am in. You can hold my payment for ESB until this fills up and I'll PPal you the rest of the money when you ask. Thanks.

Okay I got home from work and the plate had been soaking for about 8 hours. I scrubbed and scrubbed and most of the bondo is gone. Unfortunately in its place is a nice PINK hue. My button plate is a very nice shade of very light pink. If anyone wanted to offer up a button box, the L x W of the infected area is a little more than 4" x 3". Bigger would cover everything, and even a little smaller would help as I'd rather have mismatched WHITE instead of mismatched pink. Moving along. The button piece is still removable. I "should" be able to make that white and shiny again, right? What should I paint that with? What primer do you all recommend and paint, and whatever it is that'll bring the shine back to the piece? Lastly, I've never painted a piece like this before. Should I use a brush? It seems to me if I laid it down and spray-painted it, the primer would fill up in the ridges and around the raised button areas. Any help, always appreciated.

I see the website for Michael's, the craft store, says that E6000 should be purchased in-store. I guess I'll be swinging by Michael's tomorrow. After scrubbing the hell out of these pieces after their soak tonight. I should get white if I have a choice, right? Not the clear? Thanks for the help.

Thanks for the link! The Rubies is pretty flexible. It's not flimsy or anything, but you can bend the ab plate on itself, I don't know, an inch? Then it feels like it'll break. I'm slowly working the red bondo off by soaking the button plate in SuperClean. It's going to be a lot tougher to soak the front of the abplate in SuperClean just due to the size of the plate. I'll need a new, bigger container so I don't have to use so much. So far, the SC seems to be leaving the plastic alone and just removing the paint and softening the bondo. E6000 stays flexible? That's what I'll need I believe. Will it fill small gaps and smooth like caulk? Thanks!

I have no idea what the armor is made out of. It isn't as bright white as my MRCE. Close, but not quite. Where can I buy E6000 in white? I have used the Devcon Plastic welder before, but that doesn't dry white. Is that what you use to attach the button plate? Will Plastic welder work? Thanks for the help. I can give you some L x H dimensions of the box if that will help.

I hate to say, knowing everything I do now, but it is a Rubies TK Supreme that I'm trying HARD to make it look somewhat movie accurate. A button box is probably my best bet at this juncture. if i can get the bondo off, I may be able to use my button plate without painting. If not, a button plate covering the area would work best. If you want to part with it, I'd be more than interested and greatful!

Thanks for your reply! From my reading, the only armor that comes with the botton box separate is AP. Anyone want to PM me AP's details to see if he'll pull this or me? From what I understand though, he usually doesn't part out. I do a lot of reading here. Oh man, if I could get rid of the red bondo, at least I'd be back to square 1 and it really wouldn't look half-bad. Anyone know how to remove bondo from plastic? I have seen a Utube video with a guy removing paint from models with SuperClean. I am going to try that right now. Any help is appreciated.

Hello, I am doing an ROTJ mod a la Bernard. What a great tutorial. Now this is going to sound completely dumb, and looking back, it really is. I only know I need more sleep. I am in the process of flipping the chest buttons from ANH to ROTJ. I get them cut out and carve about and dremel in order to get a good fit. But there are some smaller gaps in spots. So I superglue the button-piece in place so I can better work around it. Then out of nowhere, I decide to bondo around the button piece to fill the gaps. There is some give to the buttons, as it was only superglued, and there was some cracking in the bondo. No idea why I decided to use bondo instead of decorators caulk. The caulk would fill that just fine I am guessing. On top of that, I just had to use my new "squeeze-tube" bondo I bought, and it turns out it is RED! I figure that's okay, because I'll just primer over it anyway when I paint the button-box. BUT I WAS NEVER PLANNING ON PAINTING THE BUTTON BOX! It became a necessity after using RED-f-ing-BONDO. Anyway, I am the worst bondo-user on the planet, and it is smeared about. I have sanded it pretty well, and if it were WHITE bondo, it would hardly be noticable. But no. It is red bondo. The only good thing to come of this is that now when the ab-button-box is removed the bondo has formed under it so it is a perfect fit to go back in. I can't even put it back in ANH-style. I figure I can now use the decorators caulk to put the button box in place. THEN I'll need to prime and paint the entire piece as I haven't found a color yet to match the rest of the piece by just painting over the bondo'd area. So if I paint the entire piece, at least it'll be uniform. Really sorry for the length of this post. So if you had to paint an entire piece, perhaps an ab-plate for instance , how would you do it? Some sort of flexible primer of some sort? What color for the main outer coat? Any sealant or anything? I know folks paint their MR CE's all the time, which is next for me (yikes), but those don't usually "flex" like an ab-plate will. I have put up a WTB in the For Sale section. Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Smarmy comments about the fix I'm in will be tolerated, but not appreciated. Thanks.