troopermaster

I could be wrong here but that doesn't look like a genuine SDS. It looks more like one of those recasts from ebay. If you get stuck, you can send the helmet to me and I will put you a new pair of TM ear caps on for you. PM me if you need some help

The one with the blue is an ROTJ and the red is ESB MKII. Two different helmets from two different films.

Nope. The square end frowns are ESB MKII helmets, not ROTJ. That has been a misconception for a long time. I have not seen one helmet in ROTJ with a square end frown.

Yup! I don't think there are two types of ROTJ helmet. There is one ESB helmet on the Ewok drum kit but that's it. All the rest are the same apart from some have flat lense while others are bubbled.

Stefan, What makes you think there are Stormtrooper boots inside those boxes?

I'm not sure about the ROTJ boots. I believe there were two types used in ROTJ - one for stage and the other for location? I wouldn't use the ROTJ trooper boots seen in exhibitons as reference though. The ones I have seen used white Elvis boots.

Looking at the side shot it seems your kidney plate is not connected to your abdomen. Your kidney is sitting way too low and should line up with your abdomen no matter what. These two pieces of armour are your base point for getting the whole torso so sit right on you. Once you have connect the kidney and abdomen together, you can work on the other pieces. The chest looks like it is sitting fairly well, but you might try shortening the straps that connect it to the abdomen (if possible). Next up is hang the butt plate from the kidney and leave a minimal gap. Don't bother connecting it to the cod at this point. Your butt plate looks way too low and can sit higher on you butt than you have it. Do the same with the back plate and try and leave small gap above the kidney. You can pull the back section up or down slightly with the shoulder straps connecting the back to the chest. You need to test fit everything and maybe tape them together as Tom suggests. If you have an elastic strap'n'snap system inside you can simply add extra snaps to the straps and just play around with the armour until it is comfortable. I think if you have to have wider gaps between back, kidney and butt tahn most then it might no look too bad. A small shim on the lower edge of the kidney would be the best place to add it 'if' you feel you need to!

I think this may have been taken from the SE shoot.

You are correct

Don't even go there, Rich

Using another kidney plate as a shim is a good idea if you have a spare.

Any extensions will knock the armour out of line no matter how you do it. You might be able to add a bit of a shim to the top of the ab plate to compensate? Remember to add the cut out at the bottom corners of the kidney to add a bit of accuracy.

Wouldn't it be easier to shim the lower edge of the kidney with one large piece to make up the distance? The shim joint would be hidden by the belt if done properly and not look out of place. Just a thought....

Well, the seller is a member here and it looks as though it is one of JoeR's helmets.

The armour was definately not pulled on one sheet. You can see in the photo that the sheets are approximately 8 foot long judging by 8 helmets lined up on top of one of the sheets. The sheets in the photo contain the arm and legs pieces, no torso, so they would have been done on a seperate sheet. The helmets, in my opinion, were formed seperately too. AA would have had reducer plates for his machine to accept smaller sheets of plastic, or perhaps a smaller machine to do the job. I also belive that all the helmets you see in this photo are the job lot. The most Stormtroopers I have counted in one scene is 26/28 (not entirely sure without going back and watching) which is the total we see above (roughly). My guess is that the hero is a new mould made specifically for the close up shots and I believe that there was only one stunt mould too.

Yes Ma'am Sending PM now!

They'll be mine then Can't wait to see what they turn out like, Karin!

Looking good, Dan! Makes me want to build mine up. I have had a real Sterling for the best part of a year sat in bag doing nothing, and I have another bag with a real Hengstler and tank scope sat next to it Where did you get the power cylinders from?

As far as I am aware plastic doesn't ever deteriorate. As for the pattern on the helmets being the paint - how do you account for these same bumps being on Simon's unpainted ANH helmet? Simon's ANH helmet looks really smooth in the photos, but once you hold it up in the light you can see the faint pattern which we have all come to recognise. This particular ESB helmet has the most prominent bump texture of all the helmets I have seen so far. I believe that the moulds produced by AA were made from resin and reconstituted aluminium. Moulds are usually heated before forming begins so maybe the hotter the moulds are the mre pronounced the bumps are? Also, it could just that the lighting has caught this helmet and gave us better images of how these helmets really are. I mean, just how many really good close up photos, like these above, have we got of original helmets in this kind of lighting to show the bumpy texture? I have formed HDPE and it never left left any bumps like that. It leaves strange tram lines on hard edges, but no bumps. That said, there are different grades of HDPE so it's not impossible for another grade to react differently, though I doubt it. AA was using this HDPE to produce fish ponds and garden ornaments so I think he would know how to pull it successfully before using it for Stormtrooper helmets.

The bumpy texture is part of the mould and has nothing to do with heating of the plastic. All original HDPE helmets have that texture, some more than others, but it's all there. Not entirely sure why it is more pronounced on some helmets but I think that maybe the moulds had been used more by the time this helmet was pulled? Either way, gotta love it

Excellent job Armando! That's exactly what a good replica should like. Well done mate

Frikkin 'A'

Here you go chaps Gary and Pete, I believe, with a few of the original Stormtrooper actors. Joe Johnston always looked about the perfect size for trooper armour to me, he wears it well. His arms are on backwards and the forearms strapped up high, but the rest of his suit looks to fit him perfectly.

Happy Birthday, John