troopermaster

What you need to do is reduce the gap between the chest and back plate over your shoulder. You might need to trim some ABS away from the tabs where your ribbed shoulder straps are or the ones on top of the back plate if there is no gap and you are still having this problem.

Those are too small and the real ones are either brass or copper. I guess if you got the head size right it won't matter too much what they are made of since they get painted (on the sides of the ab anyway).

You've been listening to AA haven't you I've never seen any original helmets assembled with brads. I have seen AA use the to build his replicas though, but I personally wouldn't use them.

Here is a better photo showing the crotch area.

I think they used brads on the ab section too. I think split rivets are too heavy duty and very tricky to fit into the delicate armour.

1. Pic is from the LFL archives of REAL stormtrooper torso armour. 2. There's a BRAD holding the elsatic strap in cod cup and two male snaps on the butt plate (note size differences between butt and cod fixings) 3. Two snaps allow some adjustment as there is only one female snap on the strap. 4. Two male snaps on the butt plate and one female on the elastic strap. There are old style 's' spring snaps, not modern camping snaps. 5. No idea what your talking about

These are 'brads' I don't have any photos uploaded to show the screen used armour at the moment, but they are there for all to see in the LFL archive photos.

You won't see it on screen either. The real suits had brad holding the crotch strap in place, not a snap. They had two male snaps on the butt plate facing inside with one female snap on the strap. So, that's the way to do it if you want to go screen accurate

Get them pretty tight at the wrist. The real arms taper a lot and flare out at the elbow.

15mm or as close to that as your kit will allow.

Just so you know, the shin with the red circle is the LEFT leg and that is the one that should have the sniper knee plate attached to it, not how you have it now.

It looks like Mark was trying to do the same thing you want to do, but used the wrong kind of hardware. I personally would never use a replica for reference. If you want to make your armour look like it has original strapping you should be looking at the LFL archive photos. After all, those are the suits you are trying to replicate, not another replica. That's how people get it so wrong. They see something and copy it, then everyone does the same and think it's the right way to do it because so and so did it. If you want to buld your kit to achieve EIB then do whatever is necessary. I am not familiar with whatever the requirements are, nor do I care. Only ANH screen accuracy all the way for me baby

By putting the rives down the side and adding a few snaps, you are only doing half the job of trying to recreate the original strapping. Anyone who is familiar with screen used suits will be able to tell you don't have the original strapping fitted inside your armour so who are you trying to fool? If you want to put the rivets you have down the sides then do it. It won't make your kit look any better for doing it in my opinion. Like I said, I don't get it myself. Either have original strapping or don't.

A hero and stunt are two different helmets and use seperate moulds. A stunt can be made to look 'like' a hero if you are preparred to do the work or you can get a hero helmet or parts. PM me if you need anything.

None of the fixings you have are the same as the original hardware. I personally would just use your standard strapping kit. I honestly cannot see the point of going to the trouble of making it look like you have the original strapping inside only to use something totally different The original strapping works, so does the standard. Choose one, you must

Noel, If you had told me you were going this route with your strapping I would have included every conceivable part with your standard strapping. You want small 'S' spring snaps and brads or split rivets for the sides.

I see no difference on his arms compared to any other suit apart from him having two left forearms. This is a bit strange seeing how they are actually longer than the right forearms. You would have thought they would have used the shorter right side than the left. If anything, the forearms have been trimmed more at the inner elbow. You don't want to have much of a gap between your forearm and bicep, that's how you get the pinch. Keep the forearms up high, even if they overlap the bicep, that's how they are

John, There are no raised edges for the joining strips on ANH armour, only ROTJ. Lukes' armour looks to be the same as all the rest apart from the trimmed down chest and back plate on the lower edge. I would go with trimmimg the same as the screen used suit and not worry about about what your GML will say. If it's on screen then it should be acceptable with no questions asked! (just my opinion) I doubt you will be going for the original strapping with your BFA so no point in me going into detail there. Basically, not much difference from any other trooper build really mate.

T-cut really brings a shine to my semi gloss ABS armour. --------

Looking good Mathias! Try and find some silk glove liners if your hands are getting sweaty or drop some talcum powder inside them. Your back plate looks like it could do with being raised up a bit. You might need to trim away some of the tabs on the top of the back plate near the shoulders if they are preventing you from raising it at the moment.

A harness is so 'over the top' in my opinion. They are just not necessary and complicate things. Something simple like this below is all you need. ------

Here is my opinion on the original helmets: 1. ANH HDPE stunt and ABS hero (two differnt moulds) 2. ESB reused ANH helmets for the majority of troopers but new MKII suits and helmets were made (square frown) and seen in Crabon Chamber scene. 3. ROTJ helmet and armour made from casting an ESB MKII suit Essentially there are three sets of moulds - one for each film. But, the ESB MKII which was designed for the production never got much screen time for whatever reason. I believe these were supposed to be on screen but they didn't get enough time to make them and was forced to reuse ANH suits and helmets. The ROTJ helmet and armour is slightly different to the ESB MKII so it's my belief that they cast new moulds from one of these to make the ROTJ. There are no back ground ROTJ helmets. Only one helmet for the whole production, the one with the hard hat liner. There is no evidence (to my knowledge) to support any difference. Again, these are just my opinions from what I have gathered over the years.

I can now see that it is definately not an SDS, but a recast of it. The SDS dome is not a seperate piece as yours is. The ear caps can be very tricky to fit. It's a bit late now but you need to offer them up to where you want them and trim away a bit at a time.

I know HIPS yellows for sure! I have an old HIPS suit that has never seen the light of day and that has yellowed quite a lot. I've never owned an ABS suit long enough to see any yellowing

The red one in your last post is a mirror image, Tom. Trust me, I am not wrong about there being only one ROTJ helmet, no matter what any 'experts' tell you.