Dmian

If you get in touch with AP, ask for 2nds. I've been told he offers kits sometimes with minor imperfections for a reduced price. Seeing the price of the Rubies costume you almost bought you're not that far away from an AP.

Well, you'd like to see this thread: TE2 Stunt build up , You dont wanna miss this! Posts #47 and #60 In that thread Mike (TK-4510) used Rust-Oleum Painter's Touch Sandable Primer to prime the helmet: ------ And Rust-Oleum Professional High Performance Enamel (same one you're using) to paint it: ----- This is what he said about it: The results, as you can see in that thread, are gorgeous. Here you have 2 pictures: ------

The Battle Spec helmet is different from the display one. Both the vocoder and the ears are separate pieces.

The site's great, Greg! No need to do anything. Save your time for that armor building.

Imperial Officer suit. Black. It's cheap, and you'll still be a stormtrooper (though not in armor)

Phew! It was close! How tall are you? Because you can go with other options other than the FX. In any case, contact your local Garrison. Usually they are a great starting point, and you can see the suits in person, which really helps. Or post your doubts on these forums, of course!

Thanks all of you! @Gary: I really don't know what I'm going to do with it. I didn't think about it when I bought it. I just wanted a helmet! Some of the guys from my garrison told me that maybe I could make my AP armor modular and I could have one regular TK helmet (the SDS) and one Sandtrooper helmet (the AP helmet.) If I use magnets for the ab buttons I can turn my armor to a sand or TK depending on what I want. It will not be an accurate sandtrooper, the shoulder straps and the knee pad would still be different (and I'll need a sandtrooper backpack) but it would be enough for some trooping. I have to think about it, because I wanted to go for Elite status with my AP... But the good thing about it is that, as I already have a full helmet, I can concentrate on building the armor first and leave the AP helmet for the last, when I'll be more experienced and will probably make a better job. After I build my AP helmet I don't know what I'm going to do with the SDS. That's the bad thing about impulse buys, you end up with things you really don't need. I don't know. I've learned on this forums that you can never have too many helmets, so maybe I'll keep it. After all, it's my first piece of SW prop.

Before getting into these forums, and even before getting into the Spanish Garrison forums or ordering my AP kit, I had one "I need an armor now!" moment and made an impulse buy: an SDS helmet. (At least I didn't buy a Rubi's or one of those Stay Puft Marshmallow Man FX recasts of a recast. ) I try not to mention it, because it was just an impulse buy (which I'm not very proud of) and I know I'd love my AP armor, but in the meantime, I'll have this helmet to play with. So, it just arrived today, and I wanted to share a couple of pictures with you, in case you're interested. It's here! This is what I saw when I opened the box: another box! A small catalogue and finally, the helmet. My very first piece of SW prop! It looks nice to me. A detail of the mouth: teeth are hand painted. The ear piece. No black binding. Cheek decal. Stripes Interior. The label inside. I love stromtrooper helmets. This is an asymmetric guy, I can tell you. Are all helmets like that? My son played with it and the ear piece popped. (I'll glue it later.) A detail of the ear piece. And from the other side. I know how some of you feel about AA, but as this is my first helmet ever I can't help but feel very happy. Cheers.

As suggested by Mark in another thread, I'm going to use #14 in my AP. I think it looks more accurate than #15. But I also bought Humbrol #15 just in case...

I'm very sorry for you, Terry, but I understand your motives. Don't worry, a lot of people goes through phases in their lives. I used to play in bands and left it, thinking it was forever, until I realized that it was a part of who I am and I need that, and now I'm planning my next band. This white dream of ours is expensive and time consuming, like a lot of other hobbies, but you never know. I'm sure you'll bounce back, be in a better financial position and get back your armor, if that's what you wish. But you'll always have your memories with friends here, and if you decide to come back in the future, I'm shure everybody who knows you will be glad to have you back. My best wishes for you.

PM sent

That's 868. The number Mike has misappopiated is 686: A dyslexic moment, it's understandable...

I'm of the same opinion. It's difficult to find something you're doing wrong. I really have no real suggestions. But I have a couple of "impractical" and "wild" ones: 1. While I see no practical reasons for it, you may want to open an International section with forums in other languages. But as I said, is not really practical because all garrisons have their own forums. It would only serve for those lost troopers who come here first. 2. As here are lots of invaluable tutorials with images hosted elsewhere, maybe you'd like to implement your own file service. I play a MMORPG called "Eve Online" and one of the users created a service called "Eve Files". Most images and videos linked from the official Eve forums are hosted on that service. In that way you won't find broken images links. (But if you use one of the big services you'll avoid that problem too, so...) Just a couple of ideas, but not great ones, I must admit.

Nathan, always fly ANA, they have great meals (ask for the Japanese style meal, the western is rather generic.) Packing is one of those things I'd really like to know more about. I was told by my garrison members that it's a complicated matter. Thanks for the link James! I'll save it for future reference.

Maybe this is what you're looking for:----- Regards.

Congrats! That's trully great! What a nice gift you received.

Hey! Well, basically you have (from bigger to smaller, if I'm not wrong): RT-MOD: Biggest armor out there. Fan-sculpted. More accurate than a FX. FX: Big armor. One of the firsts. Fan-sculpted. It's not bad, but the helmet... TM: Fan-sculpted. Made to screen standards. Very nice armor. AP, TE2, etc.: casts from original SW armor. More screen accurate armor out there. Better for people around the same height range than original actors. Screen accurate armor is better suited for people around 1.75 ~ 1.80 m. but it can fit people shorter/taller than that. If you're taller, more black will be visible. If you're shorter, you'll have to trim it a little. If you're a big guy, you'll probably have to add a shim here and there. Now, if you want a bigger armor you can either go with an RT-MOD or an FX, but in the case of the FX a better helmet is adviced (though you can get into the 501st with an FX helmet). I think most people out there uses an MRCE helmet (I've also read about people using AP helmets, or other helmets too. The key here is that the color of the helmet and armor must match.) So, that's pretty much it. A good reference for armor and helmets is http://www.starwarshelmets.com/, go to the Fan-made section and you'll understand it a little bit more. Again, keep following the advice of the Dutch Garrison (I believe that, even when they are called Outpost they have now Garrison status.) My Garrison (Spanish Garrison) helped me a lot, and I'd still be lost on a lot of things if it wasn't for them. Cheers.

Hoe gaat het? Well, I think you should look at the big picture here. There is only one fan-made armour in Europe that I know of, TM (maybe there's more, but I don't know others.) The rest are most probably recasts. So, unless you want to look like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, you either buy from TM or an american maker. If you buy from a reseller he'll sell you the armor with that 20% you don't want to pay. Either you pay for customs or the reseller does, but someone's got to pay... You can also buy from AA/SDS, but the armour is pretty expensive. You say you want an FX, is that because of some specific reason? If that's because you're a tall/big guy then you have the option of an FX or an RT-MOD. As Nathan said, you can get one of those from time to time from actual Garrison members. But don't look for a site or an eBay store, those are filled with recasts that will make you one soft tropper. Have you tried contacting the Dutch Garrison? They can surely help you find a solution. Doei!

Cool! I'll keep an eye on this thread.

Oh!, great. That explains it. I'm more on the Mark Hamill side. I'm just 5' 8''

No, not really. Sorry! (Don't worry, I'm not a gossip kind of person and really don't want to know what happened.) I just happened to search on Google "stormtrooper sydney opera house" and that happened to be one of the images that came up. Sorry for bringing back bad memories.

Yes! Definitively! Something like this:

Congrats Steven! I'm still waiting for my AP.

That's just great Mark! I'd love to see you with the TM helmet. I hope you don't mind, but I wanted to know how tall are you?

Greg, just in case you haven't seen it, here is a tutorial by Stukatrooper that will give you a clear idea of all the steps needed to assemble and paint an armor: AP STORMTROOPER BUILD 2008 I believe this is one of the best guides out there, and I'm going to use it as a reference for my AP build (but most screen accurate armors are similar, so it's valid also for the TE2). You asked about what makes TE2 so special, and I think TK-1336 has the answers: TE2 armor If you want a TE2 specific reference, TK-4510 on these very same forums is a great step-by-step: TE2 Stunt build up , You dont wanna miss this! Maybe you know all of this info, but I wanted to put it here just in case, and also for other people to know. Cheers.