ABS80

I improved some areas to more match the ANH, it doesn't mean I reduced any size by doing this. Mark

I never told you that, I said I reworked some areas on my original GF molds to closer match ANH, I didn't make new molds, but I correct myself my molds are not 1st but 2nd generation since they come from 1st generation TE pulls and not 4th generation. Again whatever shrinkage your talking about your post is misleading by making it sound like they shrunk by inches! Mark

Paul, You are misinformed as well, the AP is made from 1st generation ROTJ pulls not 4th or 5th like you stated. Please get your facts straights before posting false information. furthermore, depending on the products you use there's almost no shrinkage or very minimal impossible to notice the difference. Mark

You can use a mini hot glue gun not the big heavy duty ones, just hold lense in place and apply glue all around eye, the good thing about hot glue is it dries fast and fills the gap between the lens and rim eyes socket, it's easier if you detach the face plate, you can also use clear silicone that comes in a tube, it takes more time to dry so lens has to be held in place while it cures. But I prefer hot glue, you can always remove the glue and clean it up with some varsol if you decide to remove them in the future. Mark

The premarked holes on the AP helmet match perfectly, I use them all the time when building helmets. I didn't mimic a particular helmet I just went with a good balance and clean overall look. But if you want a really high brow and mimic a particual movie helmet then you need to reposition face plate, ears ect... I really don't know who stated the holes don't match, everybody who built them found the premarked holes to work perfectly. Mark

Sand more of the bump down or leave a small bump like most stunt helmet, but each have their prefference. Here's my AP I built, I sanded down most of the bump Mark

Hello Brain you beat me to it, Like Brian stated, the AP suits are not bluish anymore but gloss pure white ABS plastic, this only happened a few years ago with a small batch of plastic which had a blue hue to it, what happened is AP was stuck getting the plastic from a different supplier because the original supplier went bankrupt and was stuck finishing some orders with plastic from a new supplier which had a blue hue to it, Either armor is a good choice, the main difference being that TM is a very nice fan sculpt ANH replica, and AP armor/helmet originates from a real screen used movie armor and helmet. Not sure if TM uses ABS but AP are made of .80 gauge ABS so it's very durable for trooping. Mark

Like Brian stated Mark

Correct, thin ABS will flex easily without splitting. Mark

AGREE 100% those webbings are really bad, thats styrene for you, it easily splits and will become more brittle as it ages. The guy really doesn't know how to vacuumform and styrene should be very easy to form, way more forgiving then ABS Mark

Line up the front, just cut as close as the edge as possible on the outer parts of the forearms, the part that has the squares, then cut the inner part so both when put toghetr create a nice tubular flat finish NO LIP, then trim the back end. Here's a photo, please take note this was assembled using the easier overlap option, but it's the same for cutting the extremeties Mark

Forearms on the movie suits had no return (lip) just line up and cut up straight front and back. Better fit and way more comfortable. Mark

Here's a Sandtrooper helmet I just finished building for someone, he wanted lots of dirt. Hope you like! Mark

Exactly The AP Helmet will fit any size head no problem, like the movie original you have to put the helmet sideways and turn, just look at Luke and Han how they remove helmet, Harrison ford is not a small guy.

You need to trim or sand off more material to reduce bump, look at the original helmet you posted it barely has the lip around eye socket. Look at these AP helmets the bump is almost gone when trimmed properly, people tend to not remove enough material. Do not use heat! the point here is to sand down so you can still see that little bump just like on the movie original. ABS80