Lodril

So I've got some red balloon lights to put in the clip and the counter parts, they seem like they'll work great for that once I decide how to affix them... but I'm wondering about how people are diffusing the light. It seems like the three bars should illuminate like a solid red block, rather than just being three holes through which we see LEDs. Has anyone had any good method for making that look a little more professional?

Bolt Depot WAS great. They sent me exactly the hardware I needed, in a timely fashion, and they even put each type of screw in a separate baggie, clearly labelled with the measurements and number of screws, and they even grouped the little baggies in numerical order in the envelope! That made assembly a breeze, so I highly recommend them for anyone else in need of the 11D hardware pieces.

Bolt Depot seems great! I found everything pretty easily and placed an order... thanks so much for the suggestion! I'd tried Googling stuff on my own, but the first four or five stores I checked were useless unless I wanted to spend hundreds ordering everything in bags of a thousand, so I really appreciate the help.

I've got a great 3D printed kit for the rifle, other than that I'm missing the hardware pieces. Living in the US, I'm finding the various metric screws a real pain to source. I can find similar screws, but Lowe's doesn't actually list the head-size of the screws, Home Depot just doesn't have them, and everywhere else only sells them in the thousands. Does anyone have a good source for getting the screws I need for the F-11D in reasonable (or even specific!) quantities?

It occurs to me, as I toy with this concept for my own suit, that there's no reason to put the clasps on the inside of the suit. If the socket/clasps go on the outside, it should be a little more comfortable, and yet still hidden by the thermal detonator. I'd been contemplating this without clasps, and just putting the magnetic connections on the TD, but in my early attempts, it's been awkward to get it to close right, lining up the TD on my back. This approach with the clasps should provide a guiding mechanism to overcome that awkwardness, and maybe let me use the same magnetic pull to attach the TD as well.

So it looks like, after scanning through a bunch of screenshots, the only clear reference to the 5-point setup is the guy on the left, who actually has 7 sets of holes, but only three sewn in. The guys in the carbon freeze scene may have 5 sets of holes sewn in, or it may just be I'm seeing the same suit with the extra holes, but I can't find a shot clear enough to be sure... nor anything to establish anything for the others. There are some behind-the-scenes photos of the group sitting on some stairs, but I haven't found one clear enough to make a positive call on the handplates. There doesn't appear to be any uniform shape to the way the handplates were cut out, either, so that may help identify troopers between scenes if anyone else wants to delve into it further. Other than the guy with 7 sets of holes, the guy on the right in the shot above (one of the two man-handling Leia when Luke arrives) gets the clearest images in the movie, and he definitely only has 3 sets of holes. He's also the less production-weathered looking of the two, so I'm going to follow his example and just go with the 3 sets... that way, regardless of what was going on in the carbon freeze chamber or anywhere else I can't get a clear shot, I know it'll be screen accurate to at least this one dude. Three makes sense from a production standpoint, since (according to all the build threads I've seen) sewing these on is a pain. I suspect 3 may have been the default after they tried 5 on the first guy there and decided it was a pain. I'm not sure how it'll hold up to trooping, so I'll slip some Velcro under there for added security.

I understand where the five sets of holes are, according to 501st enthusiasts... I even found shots of the one guy who seems to have five sets of holes... what I haven't found are shots of a TK with all five holes sewn down, or for that matter, more than just the one particularly battered trooper who has the set of five instead of the set of three that appears to be all the others have. I can even understand how, at a trooping event, having the plates be more secure would be desirable. I just haven't seen support for it in production photos of the troopers. I'm already in the 501st, so I don't particularly care what the CRL says at this point, but I assume that in creating it, there was some research done that explains this 5-point connection, so I'm trying to figure out what they were looking at.

No. To be honest, I don't understand the 'build thread' concept. When I have questions, they're part specific, so I post part specific threads. I did so earlier (you posted in it), but it hasn't gotten much response. I don't really see why I would post pictures of, for example, the same helmet everyone else is doing when it doesn't help me or anyone else to look at that again when the real discussion I'm interested in reading is all hand plate related. There was discussion here, complete with references, so I hopped in on it, but I don't mean to derail the thread so everyone is welcome back over on my handplate thread if you wanna talk handplates. Or elsewhere. I don't really care, I'm more interested in sorting out the proper handplate arrangement than forum thread structuring.

I took his comment on 'different shapes' to mean they were cut out differently. While the mold appears to be the same, the cut of the outer edge appears pretty distinct on all of them. Also, does anyone have any better understanding of this 'star pattern' thing in the CRL? So far, it looks like most of them have two loops sewn in at the top, and then two loops on either side of the wrist... other than the guy who has a lot of extra holes, I haven't seen more than that in a screenshot, and his handplate's extra holes weren't sewn down. Nothing appears to be star shaped.

Very helpful images... thanks for posting those. It looks like at least the more arcuate ridge on the handplate always faces the pinky, and the straighter one the thumb, but otherwise they don't seem very consistent in the cut or attachment.

Research is the worst... it always just turns up more problems! The gentlemen at the link above, as well as others I've seen, set up the gloves like this: Note the more arcuate curve is nearest the thumb, and the placement of the holes. That curvature seemed awkward to me, so I wanted to doublecheck it, and sure enough I came across this: Note on the left hand trooper that the more arcuate curve faces the pinky, rather than the thumb... but also note the plethora of holes. It looks like he has 7 pairs of holes drilled into the handplate, but on three pair of holes have thread through them. His buddy on the right seems to be missing the extra holes. The guy on the left also seems to have a rivet on the top of his chestplate, a crack on the bottom, and his belt is falling off, so maybe he's not the best role model. Any suggestions?

Looks like there's some discussion in the build thread here, in case anyone else was wondering: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/33467-team-armor-build-ne-esb-in-northern-california/?p=440971

I'm looking at doing the satin gloves with the plates sewn on, because why not. I've seen the pattern of the holes, since someone helpfully posted that earlier, but someone else also mentioned that it was a major pain to sew them together. Is there any advice out there for getting these set up that way? Are there pics of how big the holes are, and how thick the thread running through them is supposed to be? Any advice on that setup would be welcome.

The clone is ok... the gauntlets look a bit big, which I think highlights the problem that will be inherent to any sort of 'finished' clone costume they sell. Since the clone armor is made from seamless pieces, the only way it could work is to make the armor baggy enough to fit a wide-array of customers. I'm guessing the default legs will look a bit like Bermuda shorts. Making a clone costume fit like it does on screen requires some careful planning and lots of Bondo and sanding. I'm curious about how they'll do the chest though. If the clone is sold as a kit, like the TK will be, it could still be fitted properly, but most of the kits I've seen have a chestplate that is just too narrow. That's caused by the limited size of the plat those pieces are vac-formed upon, but if these are being done on big industrial machines, they could cast something wider.

Well, looking through screenshots, I can find a couple where it looks like the notch is present on the left thigh, but I've never seen it on the right. It's hard to tell if it's present asymmetrically, but since there were only so many actual suits, my guess is that the notch was only on the left side.

Ok, I know there's a topic on this here, but searching 'notch', 'thigh', and 'notches' tells me there are no results, and I've flipped through several forums and still can't find the dang thing. Looking at the Lucasfilm archives in Photo References, I see the left thigh has a notch on the outside at the top, but it appears the right thigh is arcuate there. Should those pieces be asymmetrical, or are there some troopers who had the notch, and some who did not, and these are just thighs from separate suits?

I was imagining it curling in at the top and bottom, rather than just sitting flat across the face - so you'd end up with a bracket, rather than a flat piece. I think it'd look neater... but yeah, non-canon.

A random musing... I'm not sure I've seen it done, but should a cover strip have a return edge? It might match better, aesthetically, but it's early in the morning, so maybe my caffeine hasn't set in yet and either everyone's doing it, or it's just a terrible idea.

Ha! You know, it's stupidly obvious now that you point it out. Thanks.

That is handy... is there a key for the snaps though? The original thread also featured this diagram: Most of it's pretty self-explanatory, but I'm not sure what snap 2 on the bicep pieces is for. I also seem to recall seeing some use of snaps on the front of the ab plate for holding up the belt, which I don't see represented on that chart.

Awesome, thanks guys!

Oh, also, do the bumps on the two sides need to be mirrors of each other, or does it matter if bump 1 is black on the right side and bump 2 on the left?

In re the black stripe on the ear pieces... the CRL mentions that only one bump should be painted with the black stripe. Is it always the back bump, or could it be any of the four? I'm helping a couple of friends of mine, and it might be nice to distinguish the helmets somehow, if it's not at the cost of gross inaccuracy. We're not really trying for the 3rd tier full-donkey thing... 80-90% donkey is fine, but I can't find any clear references in a simple search and I figure someone here knows the answer without me having to slo-mo the movie scenes.

I've seen a few scattered postings mentioning proper widths for the cover strips, although that's not mentioned in the CRL. I think it was 25mm on one piece, and 15mm on another... but I can't find those references now that I'm looking for them. What are the usual width measurements of those strips on the ANH TKs for biceps, forearms, thighs and calves? (Head, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes!)

That's perfect, thanks! I figured that's what it was, but for some reason, none of the photos I dug up showed the snaps there.