Tilheyra

I noticed that in multiple areas on my kit. Much of it was in areas that ended up being cut away as excess material. I can't tell exactly from the really close-up photo, but the one below it (showing the scratches) shows lumpiness in the excess that will be cut away if you remove all of the return edge.

It was a general warning to be careful and check the bottle, as you noted you will do.

Be absolutely sure there is no acetone! Acetone will eat away at ("melt") the plastic! Avoid acetone! When in doubt, don't use the chemical!

The thigh armor is coming along well! I have decided to keep the return edges at 5mm on the top edge of the thigh armor, as well as 5mm around much of the bottom edge, with the exception of a little bit extra for the area behind the knee armor (about 1cm in line with the front ridge on the thigh armor). This looked best aesthetically, but I have the benefit that I can cut this area down to 5mm if need be. After measuring and fitting a number of times, I determined the circumference of the thigh armor pieces should be increased by 2cm (this was rounded up by a few milimeters to give me some wiggle room). As such, there will be 1cm shims on each side of the thigh armor. As this creates 2 seams on each side, one seam on each side will be covered with ABS paste and sanded smooth. All edges I have cut will be sanded smooth once the pieces are glued together This increase in circumference is enough to allow my knees to fit through the bottom of the thigh armor, especially given the 5mm return edges at the bottom of the thigh pieces. My fitting also showed me that I can move my legs freely when wearing the thighs, so I have not concerns right now about my ability to walk in the armor! To make sure each side is aligned properly, I am gluing one seam of each thigh piece at any time, so this will take a few days before everything is glued. I'm happily chugging along here. It is nice to be building at a more relaxed pace than my previous builds!

For the equipment needed to complete a stormtrooper kit, Joseph put together a nice list of tools and materials (he also has lots of tutorials - see the post right above this one): The Original Trilogy stormtrooper and First Order stormtroopers have different nuances when it comes to the builds, given the different look of each, so make sure to look at build threads for the specific type of stormtrooper you want to build. However, the tools needed for either have significant overlap, so the materials list will be very helpful if you go the route of building your own.

Congratulations, Joseph!!!

I know there has been a discussion on the Legion forum about problems with mass emails, so I wonder if the system being used is not being picky with individual notifications.

I regret missing this call!

Perhaps it can be said that we now have picatinny rails in our sights!

I can confirm this, even thought I am 5 feet 9 inches tall. I had to try numerous times and be very diligent to get the chest and abdominal armor to remain overlapped properly while also getting the overall positioning right. My armor was built from a Walt's Trooper Factory ANH kit.

My mistake. You are in the right place for a build thread.

Welcome! It looks like you have acquainted yourself with the different areas of the forum, so have fun with your research and reading through different threads! The amount of information on this forum is amazing! I highly recommend creating a build thread in the ANH TK section of the forum (EDIT: This is the ANH build thread section of the forum - wrote before thinking). That way you can post photos of your progress and ask any and all questions you have as you navigate your build! Starting a build can certainly be intimidating, and we all have felt that at one point or another, so familiarizing yourself with the process is one of the best remedys. Plus, the folks here are super helpful, supportive, and together have a wealth of knowledge on everything stormtrooper (and costuming in general) so ask away! Also, CloseTheBlastDoor is a great name!

Another item I thought about recently was the presence of side gaps between the abdominal and kidney armor. The CRL currently notes side gaps between the abdominal and kidney armor, ideally, should not be present. L2 and L3 could require no gap. Some would not have to worry about this eliminating a gap, but others might. The Legacy kit comes with an extra sheet of ABS plastic for the purpose of englarging areas if needed. As long as this extra ABS continues to come with the kit, the bulk of the materials needed to extend the sides of the abdomen and kidney armor would be present, thus allowing those pursuing L2 and L3 to eliminate any side gaps. An added plus is that the armor pieces themselves have no extra detail in the relevant areas of the sides, so adding a shim, securing it with an interior cover strip, and concealing the seam with ABS paste would be the process for those who need that extra material to eliminate the gap. As can be seen in the statue and comic references above, no side gaps are present between the abdominal and kidney armor.

As a professor of communication, many of my lectures include memes as examples. Sometimes there are more memes than actual text, and sometimes the lectures are just memes!

Welcome! FISD is a great place to learn about stormtroopers and the similar parts for other costumes! You'll find plenty of advice and build references! Enjoy the journey!

Progress is being made! Both of the lower legs have taken shape and I navigated my way through the visible seam/joint on the front of the lower leg pieces! The bottom edges of each of the lower leg armor pieces need additional work. The right lower leg (the one on the left in the photo) did not line up as well as on the bottom edges as I would have hoped, so I may need to do some beding of the plastic here to align the pieces together. Also, the bottom edges of both pieces still have visible gaps. I will need to close these in some fashion while also maintaining the visible seam. Also, as I mentioned previously, I am thinking about trimming away all if not most of the return edges on these bottom edges to allow greater freedom of movement. Here's how the backs of the lower leg armor pieces look. The pieces easily bend enough to get into the proper alignment for closing them along the rear greaves, so I have no concern velcro will keep these closed. However, I still need to see just how much modifying is needed back here. In putting the pieces around my legs prior to getting everything glued, the pieces will not close around my calves, so I am considering either widening the rear raised greave with a cover strip (as noted as a possibility in the CRL), or wideing the upper portion of the lower leg armor with shims and ABS paste. Any widening will be done in the back. I figured I should also show how much material I am going to be removing from the current return edges. The dashed pencil lines on the right armor piece show how much width I would like to reduce, and trimming to the dashed lines would keep a 5mm return edge all around. The same will be done for the left armor piece. I am going to test fit my lower legs through these pieces again once the return edges have been trimmed to see how much the situation may have improved (better to remeasure before making any modifications). I was going to jump into addressing the bottoms of these pieces, but I recalled reading on numerous build threads (and my own previous threads) that it is best to work on the lower openings of the lower leg armor while wearing and using the boots one will be trooping in. Those boots are many weeks away from shipping, so I think it is best to set the lower leg armor aside until that time comes. I'll go ahead and move on to the thigh armor!

That will be awesome to get the troopers back out into the field! If you haven't created a troop log, here's the thread on creating one. That way you can post awesome photos of your troops here!

Would a waffle knit thermal shirt and pants work for an undersuit? Could be a simpler option when compared to having to produce something custom. Of course, the flaw in something off the shelf is the waffle knit shirts and pants have a different pattern of material for the collar of the shirt and waistband of the pants. Maybe a custom neck seal with extra fabric draping down would conceal the different fabric texture of the collar. Not sure at the moment what could be done with the waistband.

I only used E6000 to glue the cordura strap to the belt boxes and the plastic belt piece. The cordura straps are not glued to the cordura belt (Note: I used cordura, rather than canvas, as I built a shock trooper, as noted in the respective CRL), but I probably should to make a stronger connection. I made sure to scratch up the relevant spot of the belt boxes and plastic belt piece with sand paper to allow the glue to make better contact.

I constructed my own TK from the WTF ANH kit, and I also found some of the areas to be a little tight. By chance, do you have return edges around the openings to the top and/or bottom of the bicep? If so, that may be contributing to the issue (if the problem is when putting your arm in and taking it out). As you can see in some of the reference photos that Glen posted, the armor used in the film lacked return edges in many areas, including the bicep.

Although this comes with the caveat that I have never built beyond basic approval, I have had success with hand painting the black lines in the tears and trapezoids of the helmet using a paint marker. I did so because I had difficulty controlling paint on a paint brush for this fine of a detail. Although, I know different paints are discussed in reference to L3, so someone may have to correct me if this is not acceptable beyond basic. I am not sure where you are located, but if in the U.S. you should be able to find the paint marker below in the craft supplies section of Walmart.

If you need a source for the gasket around the chest, back, abdominal, and kidney/posterior pieces, this worked great for my shock trooper: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0B87SDCVK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1 It comes in a 26-foot length, which is enough to apply to all the pieces and have a few feet of extra material left over. I installed it so the wider edge (the edge with the built-in adhesive material) is on the interior, and the narrow edge is on the exterior (where it is visible). I then glued it all in place with E6000 glue. The built-in adhesive is not strong enough to tolerate trooping.

Is it just me, or is that thermal detonator shorter in length that the standard ROTJ trooper?

The level of detail of these game reference images is amazing! It's fun looking at the variation in overlaps between the pieces and the impacts left by blaster bolts!

Thank you, both! I've so far written the scripts for 5 videos, and I have identified plenty of other concepts to discuss in the future! I have so many ideas that the real hold-up to recording anything else is going to be the time I have to do it. It will probably be a while before I get a proper background, mic, and lighting set-up, but this will be a fun project to work on over time!