Mobus

I just went to the hardware store and bought wall plate cover screws like those used for a wall outlet or switch plate. They sell them in white and the paint seems to be really durable.

I will be there and also my son Ian both in TK. He's not signed up on here yet, but he is a 501st member.

So is the armor actually made from ABS? I was under the impression that it was made out of that weird hard vinyl stuff that Rubies makes their helmets out of. If it is ABS it makes it totally modifiable, just cut and re-glue to fit like buying any other used armor.

I bought my armor from 333trip on ebay last year and I am very happy with it. I don't know the lineage of the armor, but I will say he does a pretty good job and it is thick and durable stuff.

Man I just saw this. Mark I'm glad to hear you're on the mend. My family's prayers are with you for a speedy recovery. Get well soon! Mark

Those are for sure Disney armor. My wife and I are marching every day of every weekend and see them back stage and also all over the park and at the celebrity interview pre-show. When I inquired I was told they are fiberglass and are designed with adjustable straps to "fit" them to the wearer. Basically a one size fits all armor, Disney however only "casts" appropriately sized individuals (cast members) based on role. That being said the thighs are so big that when they sign autographs they stick their E-11's into their thighs along side their legs. Those are some thin troopers!

Agreed. Have you worked out pigment inconsistencies from can to can of the same brand yet? That is still my biggest irritant.

Gloss fusion is glossy if you know what you're doing. You put two good coats of fusion on, let them cure for 3-7 days. Then you wet sand the finish with 1500 grit, it should be perfectly smooth with a matte appearance. Then you buff it out with polishing compound. You will see yourself in the finish it will be that glossy. After 30 days apply a high quality, clearcoat safe (i.e. non stripping) wax. You're good to go. It's nice to have body shop professionals in the family to get tips and secrets from...

I just used this HowTo thread for direction (thanks Steve!) http://forum.whitearmor.net/index.php?showtopic=3176

Jackson 34-42 .040 shield. It's gas welders shield in a medium green. It's never shown through with flash even at close range. It's thin enough to cut with a good pair of scissors, but sturdy enough not to crack or crease. It's what I put into my MR-CE, and my wife's TIE bucket. Any welding supply house should have it, should only run about $15 for a full shield that will yield a few pairs of lenses. It has a crimped aluminum edge guard/stiffener all around the shield that you just pull off. Mark

Thank you all for the kind words. This site and all the great people on here sharing their ideas is why it turned out the way it did. Mark

Well, around a month ago I got one of these MR-CE's and got right to work on it. It's finally done and I'm pleased with the results. It was a full top to bottom re-paint. The frown seam was filled with plastic welder and sanded level. The whole front faceplate is basically one piece of plastic now. The mold lines were all sanded off. Teeth were enlarged greatly over stock. Ears were chopped to make them closer to the helmet. New brow and neck trim. New dark green lenses. And I can't leave out the great decals from Mark, they really set off the whole deal. Thanks go out to everyone that posted the great build up pictures and howto's on here On the left is an untouched CE, and on the right is the modded bucket without the trap / tear decals. Pictures of the completed bucket.

I was just thinking that one could probably do all of the cuts except the small wipers with a good sharp pair of Fiskars. If you hold the trim just right you can line it up against the wide part of one of the scissor blades and then slowly cut. It should cut directly against the side of the rubber because it's using the scissor blade pressed against the rubber as a straight edge. Then the cut down the middle where it's marked out by tape would just be a simple cut along the line. The cut to remove the scrap piece from the flat part would work the same as for the side pieces, just butt the flat part of the rubber against the wide part of the scissor blade and cut slowly. It should make a clean cut. I'll have to experiment with this, but it will have to wait until next week. I'll add updated pics if it works. Mark

If you have any high spots left on the back, carefully use the sanding drum to make it level. Take your time and be careful not to take off too much material. After you're all done you should end up with a nice 'J' shaped brow trim. The MR is on the right, and mine is on the left. The rounded part of the J gets tucked up under the dome and on mine is held in place with just the pressure from the dome against it. I found it goes in easier if the ears are off, but it can go on with them attached. The trick is in how you squeeze the dome. Compressing the left and right sides opens up the brow to insert the rubber, and compressing the front and back opens up the sides allowing the rubber in. Since I only have 2 hands I used my knees to squeeze the dome. The end result. I hope this info has been helpful.

OK, so from reading around I'm not the only one that ripped the brow trim trying to remove it from my MR-CE helmet. I was able to use an item available at most any Lowe's or Home Depot. "Door Bottom" trim. I beleive this item is around $12. This is the label on the packaging. It is a long piece of aluminum with the rubber trim packaged along with it. The rubber seal is all we will be dealing with for this. It looks like this. (mine has some paint overspray on it, otherwise it is totally black). Place some tape on the flat side to protect the trim from scratches. You're probably wondering how this is going to work at this point, read on. You will need to cut off the protruding rubber on both sides like this. Take your time using a very sharp knife and just run along the edge of the rubber. You should end up with a 'D' shaped seal like this. Next, trim off all the little wipers from the rounded portion of the rubber. Again, take your time. It is not necessary to make the cut extremely close in this step. It should now look like this. It has some left over bumps from the wipers. Use a dremel with a sanding drum to smooth out the bumps left over from trimming the wipers off. Keep the dremel moving around so as not to remove too much. You only want to level out the back rounded portion of the trim. After using the dremel I used some 100 grit sandpaper just to make the surface uniform. It is completely smooth only with a matte surface. Now line up whats left of your original brow trim with the new trim and use tape to mark out the new trim. You will need to carefully cut along this line so as not to cut through the front of the trim. Next you will need to cut the scrap piece off the back of the flat portion of the trim like this. I like using the edge of a workbench and slowly working my way across the trim almost like opening a letter. Cut carefully because this will be the top edge of the brow trim.

I used riveting's howto on thinning the ears, the pictures in there helped alot. http://forum.whitearmor.net/index.php?showtopic=3176

Thanks. I'm trying to keep up with the quality work everyone on here is doing with them. Just for reference I used Krylon fusion gloss white on mine, and the gray is Testors 1138. The black on the vocoder is just Testors gloss black (the number escapes me at the moment). The Fusion had a tiny bit of orange peel, but I wet sanded it with 1500 grit and then used polishing compound with a buffer and got a mirror shine out of it. I think as long as we all put on a couple good coats, no matter how they look it can all buff out in the end. I'd just like to remind everyone to stay away from waxing new paint for 30 days. Polishing and buffing compounds are one thing, but the distillates in wax can actually harm new paint that is still curing/hardening.

Many people slam the CE's in their stock form, but they turn out awesome with some work. It's like the ugly duckling turning into the swan. I just need to put in the mouth screen, trap/tear stickers and I can call mine done. Mine was a full repaint, ear chop, accurate sized frown holes, new lenses, new tube stripes, re-purposed house door trim for brow trim. Black car door trim for the neck trim. Re-cycled original hovis.

I use them in astrophotography to cool my CCD chips to eliminate dark current noise for long exposures. ----- These things pull whatever they can get, so the bigger the battery the longer the run time and the colder the temp. Efficiency of the units to cool is solely dependant on how well you can eliminate heat from the hot side. Unless you have an efficient heatsink (fan heatsink) on the hot side it will saturate and the cool side will become warm, not to mention I've seen an undercooled unit (read, no heatsink) desolder all its junctions and fall apart. Another tip I can offer is to silicone seal all the exposed edges on the peltier where you can see the junctions. This prevents internal condensation between the junctions which causes a drop in efficiency. Mark Sorry, I'm like an encylopedia of useless knowledge so whenever any of it can be used I offer it up. It's a side effect of being involved in WAY too many hobbies. So far I enjoy SW costuming the most. I'm involved in amateur astronomy, amateur radio (Extra class), and Jeeping (still have my built up Jeep).

The stock lenses on mine gave a distorted view too, almost like bubble lenses even though they were flat. That was my primary reason for changing them out instead of just tinting them.

There's a guy on ebay (toonman3f4v) that makes tube stripes proportionate to the MR-CE. Those are his stripes on my bucket. I inquired if he was going to make the traps & tears for the helmet and he said that he was planning on it and was working out the details of making them. If it doesn't work out I'll end up painting them on.

Agreed! While I'm at it I'll post up some progress pics. I'm waiting on painting the frown until I get the decals for the traps and tears so I can use matching paint. I masked off the original trap/tear details, but when I removed the masking tape (yes, the blue easy to remove kind) it took nearly half of one of the back ones off, so I'm getting vinyl decals. I'll most likely be painting the vocoder (satin black) this weekend. I cut down the ears so they dont stick out so far and added screws. Also added new darker lenses. I found some door trim that I re-purposed to brow trim by doing some precise cutting. The hovis are the originals. I removed them by grinding them out from the back using a cylindrical burr tip on my dremel. After they were off the helmet I ground out the remaining white plastic and epoxy in the back of them using the same burr tip. There is a nice ridge about 1/4" deep in them. I made circles out of black abs and bottomed them out in the hovi and filled it with plastic weld then I embedded a screw into them. I used some spare white ABS and plastic welded some squares in on the back side of the large holes in the recesses of the helmet and then drilled a small hole for the hovi screws. I hope to be trying out Stompers' hovis on it soon once I get everything situated. Filling in the frown gap. Plastic welder, spot putty, then primer. Also sanded down all mold lines on the helmet. More filling and primer First paint coat. Krylon fusion gloss white, followed by wet sand, then second coat. Polished second coat. Don't try polishing compound or novus on the original paint unless you don't want it on there anymore. Polishing krylon fusion is like polishing iron. Top angle view showing there are no mold seams or gaps Door trim re-purposed as replacement brow trim (looks better than original), the original got messed up during removal

The cut up door trim turned out quite well. Now all that's left is to put on trap/tear decals and paint the frown and vocoder.

I'm currently looking at re-purposing some house door trim by trimming off the parts I don't need. We'll see how it turns out.

I'm in the process of totally re-doing this bucket. I accidentally ripped the brow trim while removing it. Anyone have any replacement trim ideas, i.e. places to buy locally, or where to order it. Also, if anyone on here has some to sell, please PM me. Thanks, Mark