troopermaster

Nice one Chef Takes me back to the old days looking at your pics. I used the exact same process and materials....ooooh the smell of the gelflex I used an old microwave oven for melting the rubber. It was a lot quicker and easier than boiling it up, although it still stunk the house out! I found out that it was best to coat the sculpts with a layer of PVA glue to stop the air bubbles in the rubber. Without using it, it would bubble up when I poured the hot rubber onto the clay, leaving holes in the final mould. I used air-drying clay, not sure if your using the same? Good job so far and keep at it! -Paul.

I'm looking forward to seeing this completed mate Maybe you can PM John (stormtrooper) about the buttons but I am pretty sure they are grey and blue. I'm sure he will tell you and the proper configuration. *edit* I think you are using the tour suits for reference with the black buttons and not ROTJ.....there is a difference.

Oh dear The buttons are the same as ANH Bernard, not black. Just remember to turn the plate upside when sticking it to the ab plate and add the rubber trim. Don't forget to round off the top corner of the kidney plate too and use white velcro to attach the ribbed shoulder straps. Are you going to rivet the belt to the ab plate for uber accuracy? Don't forget that the ROTJ belts only have two rivets, one at each end with the centre one left out.

Is this skinny enough for you? PM me

Use snaps to attach the belt to the ab plate. It keeps it in place and stops it sliding around. Look at the pic below to show you where to put them.

Stunning!

I had some nice pics of the old suits before they were modified on my old computer. I will see if I can find them if I ever get it woking properly. I might have to get my contact at Disney to send me them again

Hold on, I will edit the pics

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Thanks for all the great replies Here's a pic of one of the prototypes for comparison. The latest version is the same size, only more accurate looking.

Interested

Congratulations on reaching Elite status Alex

After almost 14 months of work, I am proud to show off my sons mini stormtrooper suit. I originally planned this to be ready for his 3rd birthday, last October, but it has taken longer than I thought with real life getting in the way as usual. Now his 4th birthday is just 2 days away, it is finally completely finished....just in time

Nice to see your lovely suit again John. Thanks for sharing mate

Hi Rob Welcome to the forum mate!

Hey no problem fellas I checked out the RPB and I think all the posts have been deleted, but there are a couple on the ASAP board. Basically I started in 1999 when I first looked at the studiocreations site and thought "I can do that". Without going into too much boring detail, I made seperate body castings, filled with lightweight browning plaster and sculpt onto the castings. I thne used hot melt rubber to make the moulds and filled them with plaster of paris to make my first set of moulds. I formed these in 1mm HIPS as test pulls and then began the task of making them more accurate (which is what I am still doing ) I suppose it's just been like that from then on, always finding out new things and adjusting the moulds. Maybe one day we will have an ANH suit exposed so I can finally nail every single minor detail and also the strapping I'd be happy to answer any specific questons.

I thought it wouldn't be long before I was in the spot light All of my progress is/was documented on either the RPB or ASAP forums. I'm not sure if the topics are still there or not but they did show all my progress over the years. I will have a look around and see if I can find any links. Failing that I will add more info later on tonight. *Edit* I found one and will keep adding them when I find them. You might have to be a member to view the topics though. ASAP Mar 04 ASAP Oct 03

No proof shown as yet. Maybe one day......

The elastic straps on the shoulder bells were thin, somewhere between 1/4" and 1/2" though not sure of the exact size. If you look at the pics you posted, you can see where the bells are 'pinched' and that's where the straps are. If they weren't there, they would flap like wings You can just see the straps on Johns ROTJ suit that is on StarWarsHelmets.com

I thought I'd share this pic of my holster. I will be making some more in the near future

I have made four different versons so far. I have the sandtrooper 'cheese grater' style, two different 'T' back ANH style and the ESB/ROTJ style. I think that covers all of the ones I have noticed in the films anyway.

Wow, you actually know what no one has ever known about? So which real ANH suit have you been inspecting to find out about these details, or are you just using reference pics like anyone else? I am really interested to know because I have studied these suit's (from reference pics) for many years now and I believe there is nothing new I could learn about the exterior of the ANH suit's. Making claims like you are is typical of yourself. Let's just hope that your armour speaks louder than you do Here's a couple of pics of a suit I recently made, just for reference.

I would agree with that too, but I am not claiming my suit it to have any lineage what so ever. In fact, I am not claiming anything. I hope you do a good job of recreating your ROTJ moulds as there is not one piece of the ROTJ that is the same as an ANH, not one. Looking forward to seeing what you can produce and if you really know all the ANH details.

No training. I was always one of the best in my art classes at school and most of my family are artistic too, must be in the genes I had never sculpted anything before I started my trooper project either. I learned everything from the studiocreations website and bought the recommended book by Thurston James about moulding and casting, as well as vacuum forming. Studiocreations I started it in 1999 and it took me nearly two years before I pulled my first suit. From then on, I have been honing my skills and learning new techniques, as well as studying all the ANH suits and constantly adapting my moulds to be as accurate as they can possibly be.

Thanks for posting those pics Adrian. Those are the ones I was going to post, so you have saved me the job I have to agree with everything Chris has said. I could quite easily chip in to the armour history thread, but, it is about the original moulds that were made from real suit's and not my hand made moulds. I am looking forward to seeing what armour Gino turns out, but so far from that pic he posted, I'm not impressed.