troopermaster

Another showing the formed pieces just as RTA got them.

RTA TM Bare in mind that these are my old moulds and have been altered slightly since these guys got their hands on them. The main areas I changes were only the return edge which you can see is much less than the RTA, but it was the same before I altered them because people were leaving too much return edge.

I fear nothing. When RS came along I welcomed them with open arms. I even gave them missing parts to cast so they could make a complete suit and I would consider them strong competition as they have an original suit - not you guys. I don't care if you make armour - anyone can do that - what I care about is that you recast my armour to do so. I am going to show a photo of your arm moulds and a photo of my old arm moulds and lets play spot the difference.

In the words of my 8 year old Son.....SICK

Okay, I see where you are coming from now. I don't see any point arguing over on the Polish Forums as it is not going to change anything. The recasters have set up shop and are going to start selling no matter what I say or do. The point of this thread is to show what those guys have done and hope that no one will buy from them. I hope that if anyone does buy from them will not be welcome here or on the MEPD.

I certainly do and couldn't agree more Unfortunately I do not have photoshop anymore, so if someone could do the honours.....

The matter may be dead for you, but for me, it has only just begun. I can see that you are playing the diplomat, just as you said you would on the forum before you closed it. I don't know if the guys who commented about Poland were members or not, but there were at least a handful of them who had this opinion. I must stress that I have nothing against Poland or the Polish Garrison as a whole, but I do have a problem with some of it's members. And, whether Mariusz, Damian or whoever else is involved with this armour are members or not is irrelevant to me. What I do not like is how some of the members were showing this kind of aggressive attitude towards the rest of the world when the only problem I have is with the recasters - not Poland.

Loving the photos Rich I especially like this one. It's just crying out to be photoshopped on the Bespin steps with Lobot Looking forward to seeing more with your new ANH helmet

A few sketches and photos cleaning up their moulds does not change anything for me. Everything about their armour is TM based and does not look like any other replica or an original. The photos above remind me of AA's futile attempt to prove his innocence. All of the areas I did not like about my armour before I changed them are present in this RTA armour which was bought by Mariusz late 2010. Then he bought another set a few months after. Now, we see this RTA armour which is an almost corbon copy of his TM kit. My accusations are not proofless. Maybe you are not familiar with my work. I have spent the past 12 years working on my moulds and I know every nook and cranny, so for someone to show up with an almost exact replica and say they scultped it from scratch is an insult. Maybe you did try sculpting and gave up? Whatever the case may be, the RTA armour is cast from TM and anyone with two eyes can see that. And, anyone who was reading your forums will attest to your claims about the rest of the world not wanting any armour coming from Poland. It was like reading something from people with an inferiority complex, saying stuff like 'we' only drive around in a horse and cart and can't possibly produce armour. It was pathetic really.

He is selling on the Polish Garrison forums. I think the Garrison leaders are involved too. They are trying to make it out that world has something against Poland and 'they' will show 'us' I don't believe it is the first time I have been recast, but it is the first time I have actually seen proof. When I saw the YouTube video of them pulling the plastic I immediately recognised the armour and then Mariusz, the guy who bought a set of my armour.

Here a few comparisons of RTA and TM armour. See anything familiar? The next set of photos are of RTA armour parts. Anyone familar with TM armour will immediately recognise these parts even though they have been altered slightly. This is the work of our friends in the Polish Garrison. At the moment I know of Mariusz Stormowski and Damian Jablenski - both members of the MEPD and funnily enough both owners of TM armour. They are so proud of their creation that they even made a Youtube video but since I called them out they have removed it. After spending a year recasting me and making their moulds they have not bothered to take one single photo of their sculpting or casting process. Now they have even closed most of the public access to the Polish Garrison forum after they knew I was watching. I hope someone can prove me wrong on this, but I already know I am right.

Beautiful

You had me worried for a minute mate I'm glad you got the ears on alright and that that have covered the rivets, although I knew they would cover them all along Don't be affraid to trim the ears down even further. I would take an even amount off both side and see how they look. You can always take more off the bottoms and leave the tops as they will pull in with the bolts. Just don't over do it and take a bit off at a time.

Simple. The vac machine at Elstree developed a problem and the forming had to be outsourced. That is when AA stepped into the picture. For Elstree to form a handful of suits, the forming tools had to be made already. This was in the plastering shop and has been confirmed by Brian Muir. I don't doubt AA made several of the parts for the Stormtrooper armour, parts like the ab button detail, shoulder straps, drop boxes, etc...but there is no way he scuplpted or created the original look or forming tools. He never had the forming tools after ANH and told me himself that he used skins that were on the tools for protection. This is a total lie when you see his armour that is ROTJ derived and he had nothing to do with ROTJ so why would he have these ROTJ skins? The simple explanation is he used an AP suit to make his forming tools and one of his funky ribbed trooper hemets that was cleaned up and badly altered to look like an original helmet.

So how do you account for the six (or so) suits made at Elstree before Andrew took over the forming?

Nice work so far Rich. I just hope those lower rivets get covered by the ear caps. They look a bit too high up than where I usually put them which is where the lower end of the ear cap flares out as seen here on the original helmets.

Not that I have noticed. Do you have any photo evidence of this Shawn? ROTJ armour is not my speciality but I have yet to see any knee ammo straps riveted like how you have done. I see a lot of guys doing the same thing and it just looks wrong to me, so any evidence of screen used armour with the straps as you have them would be nice to see.

Good start Rich! Nice to see you using the LFL material as reference

I think the confusion starts when you start using other peoples suits for reference. You haven't really done anything wrong, just not done it how the movie suits are and that is the look we are all trying to achieve (hopefully). You attached the knee strap fine on the outer edge but, for some strange reason, didn't attach it the same on the inner edge of the thigh. If you had just attached it so the top of the ammo strap so it was flush with the raised border on the lower edge of the thigh it would have been fine regardless of how straight or wonky it looked. Instead, you opted to attach it half way and that just isn't right. If no one ever says anything then others copy you on a slippy, downward slope to inaccuracy. Next time you are unsure about anything, check the LFL archive photos and ask before you do something to avoid having to rectify later

Who ever said the ammo strap has to be level? As Mathias said, only use original armour as reference. Now Etienne has made the same mistake as you, Steve, and I am sure others will follow your lead. Most of you guys over think the assembly of these suits. You try to get everything neat and even when the original armour is far from it. Kind of like how MR tried to make a helmet symmetrical and it just doesn't look right. Same with replica armour if you try to get things too nice. That wonkyness and slapdash assembly is what give armour it's character. I am not saying to make a mess of your kit, just don't over think the assembly. Wonky is GOOD!

I use superglue too and it always does the job for me

Yes, that's right. Just don't try to go too narrow with the parts. Try and have a nice taper on all the parts (especially the forearms) even if they feel a bit too wide on you. I doubt the original suits were tailored to fit the actors and assembled 'as is'. If you make some parts too narrow they won't as good as they could, so best keep on asking the questions and do some test fitting before you do any cutting.