troopermaster

That's just like one of the neck seal I have. The bib needs to have slits cut in towards the neck so that it is shredded and will contour to the body. Evidence of this can be seen on some BTS photos of troopers without their helmets on and shreds can also be seen poking out from inside chest plates. The neck will have to be made much wider than on a dry suit. This is partly why I think they may have been made for deep sea diver suits rather than a dry suit which are very tight as opposed to the loose fitting deep sea diver suit.

No zipper and almost no bib for latex stunt neck seals like this - NECK SEAL The neck needs to be ribbed and the bib needs to be shredded to make an accurate replica. I personally wouldn't make a hero neck seal from latex, just the stunt version. I am sure there would be some hard core troopers out there just waiting to snag one of these.

I say "Go for it!" I've had a bottle of black latex sitting on a shelf for ages now waiting to make a neck seal. I beleive the original stunt troopers wore latex neck seals that were designed for deep sea divers or frog man suits. I have several of these but all are far too tight, and that's when I planned to make my own. But like everything else, I just don't have the time to make new things anymore. Give it a try. You are definaley the right person to tackle this

I don't think there is a store where you can buy the real deal. They went of production years ago as far as I know. The only way to find them is to continuously search ebay, sometimes for years, until a pair shows up. Even when they do show up, the brand name is no longer visable inside due to wear and tear, so all you can go by are looks really.

I can't say if they were painted or not. I used to believe they were, but I don't have any solid proof. Too bad SiMan painted his original suit. Here are a few pics from the LFL archives that look to me to show paint rubbed off.

I'm looking forward to seeing this built up. Just remember to take your time and enjoy the build, and take lots of pics along the way

I don't think the new SiMan helmet will be the new benchmark to go by. Every ANH helmet looks slightly different for one reason or another, and each has their own unique look. The original SiMan helmet will look slightly different sat next to the Brian R. and the Dave M due to how ther were assembled, tightness of the pull and the trimming. But each and every one should have the same pattern texture to some degree. The texture I was looking for on SiMan's helmet was the funny looking sctratch lines, not so much the big bumps. I can't say I saw the big bumps, but the fine lines were definately there. I've noticed that all original helmets show these finer lines, it's the bumps that seem to change. The ESB 'patch' helmet is the most bumpy of all the helmets I have seen, and I don't have a definate answer as to why it is so bumpy on that particular helmet. One thing is for sure though, they do seem to vary, so I would not say one particular helmet is 'THE' helmet all others should be judged by.

Like I said, I had to hold SiMan's helmet up to the light to see the bumps because it does look quite smooth. There is quite a distinctive pattern above the brow as seen here on Gino's V2 that I wanted to see on SiMan's helmet, and it was there very faintly.

It would be nice but far too much work to try and get the same pattern. I am far too busy to even consider it unfortunately.

Having examined the SiMan helmet personally and owning a Gino V2 bumpy, I can say 100% the bumps on the V2 match the bumps on the SiMan. I had to hold the Siman helmet up against the light to capture the detail, so it is there, just not as prominent as other helmets. In my opinion, all original ANH helmets will have the same pattern of bumps to some degree or another as it is part of the mould. I don't believe it has anything to do with flaking or bubbling paint. The bumps can be seen from inside the plastic so they must be on the moulds.

I'm guessing you have your biceps connected to your bells which would cause this kind of problem. The real ANH suits just had the biceps connected to the forearms and the shoulder bells just free floated, so no tension was on them really. But, some troopers did tape their bells to the biceps to stop their arms sliding down and Han had special hooks on the inside of his biceps so he could hang his arms from them. I think you might need to loosen up your straps so there isn't much tension on them which is causing your problem. The top strap of the bel should be very short so that the top of the bell touches the inner shouler strap. Another thing that might help is that you shorten the inner shoulder strap too. If that is too long then it is allowed to be pulled out more than if it was shorter.

The one on the right is definately more accurate, though not an exact match to the original trim, it is close.

I think it would be safe to assume that all the hardware on the ANH suits are present on the suits reused in ESB, but not on the new ESB MKII's. If you cannot see certain things then it's possible that area may have been modified before or during production. Any chance you can post up the pics of these suits without the snaps/brads?

I don't think there is any foam inside the shoulder bells and have never seen any evidence to support this theory. The real ROTJ bells are shaped slightly different to ANH and don't fit as close to the body as they used to. The narrower, pinched shape of the ROTJ bells are, in my opinion, what makes them bulge out like they are padded. Also, the thin elastic straps fixed higher up the bells and looser just stops them from flapping around rather than keeping them close to the arms as in ANH.

Also, seeing how this is an advanced costume section, I can't see any reason to have fake brads or any other fake pieces. Either go the whole hog or stick with EIB Just my opinion

Just remember these ESB suits are reused from ANH so the majority are going to be damaged in some way. The shoulder bridges are very fragile and probably the first thing to crack or snap off completely, so it's not surprising to see that many are held on with tape or riveted to get them though filming the scenes. The suit you can see the velcro on is an ESB MKII which has both sides of the bridges velcro'd to the chest and back. It's possible velcro may have been applied to some of the reused ANH suits, thought I would hazzard a guess it wasn't.

I'm pretty sure it was based on a Japanese Type 96 Light Machine Gun. --------

You are correct. 1 1/8" is the width on the screen used detonator clips (I have photo evidence).

Tell me the widths of both clips and I will tell you which is closest to the original clips.

First thing that leaps out at me is that you are wearing the shins on the wrong legs. They are not the same left and right if you look closely. Your left shin with the knee plate attached is a perfectly good right shin, just worn on the wrong leg. The other shin is made up of two outer halves, same as the AP or TE it was cast from. What I would do is completely remove the return edge on the top border of the shins and maybe widen the cut-outs on the backs. If they still rub then you will have to widen the backs by adding a shim or not fastening them so tight.

They come in various styles and the ones I have are tough SOB's. I use a thin chisel to start getting the legs spread, then use a hammer to flatten them against my vice. It can get very tricky in certain areas so be careful you don't damage any plastic if you try my method. I've since found some nice brass brads which have the same head size as the bifurcated rivets and I am using them from now on. Anyone else who is (or wants to) use brads, make sure you cut off the excess length of the legs so they don't protrude past the edge of the washers

Both sides of TM arms are designed to be butted together - no overlapping. The front joints of the forearms are flat and should be butt jointed, where the back joints don't have a flat edge and you can tailor them to fit your arm, same as the original ANH armour

Do you mean bifurcated rivets?

Loving the new pics

The ridge is caused by hot plastic hitting the cold mould, nothing else.