troopermaster

Unfortunately I couldn't get to MEM for personal reasons which was a real shame as I had been really looking forward to going this year. Glad you like the armour

Thanks everyone Here's a few more photos from a test fitting. It's so close to completion now, I just need to find the time to spray the DLT-19 and his new boots.

The AP's are very small and not screen accurate. None of the replica armours or helmets are screen accurate, maybe screen cast derivatives, but definately not screen accurate. The term 'screen accurate' gets thrown around too casually for my liking. Put an AP helmet or armour next to a screen used piece, then you will notice just how different they actually are....Rant over If you look at the photo Ghost has shown, you will notice that the GF helmet dome (shown from the front) tapers much more than it should. This is a classic tell-tale of the GF helmet.

It's not a GF, the dome is different. Everything about it looks AP, but the teeth look less prominent towards the end of the frown which suggest it is possibly an early vesrion.

AP and GF are two different helmets, though AP may have made a few helmets from the old GF moulds before making new ones.

Here's a comparison I made a while back...

Guys, I'm looking to buy a roll of green lighting gel for the lense material but so far, the last three rolls I have bought on ebay have been very very thin and not really suitable. I did have a roll that was perfect, not too thin, about 0.5mm where this new stuff seems to be a lot thinner. I am not interested in welders visors or anything like that, just screen accurate material. Anyone know where to get decent lighting gel from?

Steve, The link is showing up as an error for me. The image in Billys' post was done by me and it is a very simple and effective strapping method for the arms and legs. I designed it so that it could be put on before the main body armour which is just slipped on in one piece from the side. The braces keep the thin belt up in place because my thig armour was pulling them down, so they sorted that problem. Another problem I didn't like was the biceps pulling the shoulder bells away from my shoulder straps, making a big gap. With this strapping, the bells are on their own straps and attached at the back of the neck and the biceps have their own strap attched at the same spot. Really simple, really effective! I don't know if this is the image you were trying to show on the MEPD, but it is close to the original strapping, minus the long chest straps.

Uber accuracy! The original ANH hand plates were made from latex, not vacuum formed plastic like what comes with replica stormtrooper armour. I don't think there are any advantages of using latex over ABS, but if you are going for a screen used look, then latex is what you want. If you want a pristine set of armour for trooping, then ABS will probably be better.

Thanks for the kind words So the plastidip is no good huh? What did you try it on Peter? Luckily, I have some Magix wite spray handy

Well, I had to give it a go....didn't I I made some clay sculpts and took a plaster cast mould of them. Filled the mould with latex and Voila! ANH hand plates ready for paint. I have some plastidip white paint to try on them, but first I will leave them for another couple of days just to make sure they are fully cured. I poured these on Friday and left them in the airing cupboard above the water heater and they seem to be cured, though I am not sure if they should be a uniform colour when fully cured? You'll notice that the latex has shrunk about 5% so I may have to increase the size of the mould if the hand plates look too small when glued to my gloves. We'll see how it goes at the end of the week when I should have a finished pair of gloves ready to wear. Stay tuned!

The only place for velcro is on the back of your belt Elastic straps and snaps are the best way to go. Snaps are much better than velcro IMO and elastic allows you to move more freely, so don't use any webbing anywhere on your suit.

Excellent review Jez

Steve, You are a GENIOUS! Something so simple. I was trying all kinds of things and nothing. Boy do I feel thick now Thanks lads

Thanks for the advice, but I have tried that already and all I can do is pull it across the screen, not downwards. The tool bar is not locked, I checked that too. I am not the best with computers and it's very frustrating. I also checked the properties on the tool bar and a few things in the control panel without any luck....arrrrgh

Hi guys, I need your help.... My son has been messing around with my settings while I was asleep and now the tool bar which is normally on the bottom, is now on the side and I have no idea how to change it back. I have tried everyting I know and cannot find anything that helps. I am on windows XP. Please help

Nobody believes AA because he has lied so many times. I have met AA a few years ago at Memorabilia (05-06?) and he was a very nice chap. If I didn't know better, I would have swallowed every porky he spewed. He was a very likable and chatty, and told me lots of things about how he came to make the armour he produces. When I asked him why every peice of the suit had ROTJ tells he said " the moulds were made from vac formed skins" which were used to protect the original moulds. Everyone knows that AA had nothing to do with ROTJ and that the 'skins' were infact TE or GF armour parts, and I think they can be seen hanging in his workshop! It has been proven that Liz Moore sculpted the helmet and Brian Muir sculpted the body armour. Brian even told me this personally when I met him a year after meeting AA. AA simply formed the plastic and maybe assembled the helmets. I am not sure if he assembled the armour or if was shipped to the studios in vac formed sheets, but judging on how he assembles the armour he makes today, he really has no clue. You have been lied to just like everyone else mate. No-one is agro over it. It's just a shame he keeps on lying <_<

Mark, Don't fall for any of AA's crap. All the bumps show up in all the same places, on all the helmets. Some are more pronounced than others, but they do match up. The marks are 'in' the formed plastic and not 'on' them. If you took a mould of the inside of all the stormtrooper helmets they would have these bumps mate.

I think you will have a hard time getting paint to stick without some cracking. Just look at the original hand plates, paint flaking off everywhere. Good luck finding a suitable paint though!

Those suits are not from Star Wars. I think they were specially made for the ESB promotion and there is another photo I found from the same shoot in London dated 1980 (below). What is interesting is that these suits closely resemble ROTJ suits and they have the edging trim and bubble lense, something that wasn't seen until 1983 in ROTJ (apart from one trooper in ESB).

From early 2008 I have been using high gloss acrylic capped ABS which is brighter than AP ABS and the same as AA/SDS ABS. Not sure how it matches FX ABS though?

Almost done now with the new suit. I just have a few minor adjustments to make before we go to MEM on Saturday. I'll be taking lots of photos to show you guys which I will post on Sunday. Here's a sneak peek

You know, I just counted the helmets 4 times and kept coming up with 27. I didn't take into account the one AA is wearing Those sheets of armour are of the arms and legs. You would never get a full set of armour on a sheet of that size. The sheets look an odd size too. Looking at them, I'd say they are 8' long (which is common) judging by the 8 helmets lined up side by side (helmets are roughly 1' x 1'), but look about 3' wide, not the usual 4'.

7.5" total length.

Your right. There are helmets that have 3, 4 or 5 teeth cut out. Personally, I like the stunt helmets with 3 teeth cut out, like the one Peter Diamond wore when he was shooting at Luke and Leia across the bridge in the Death Star.