Dmian

Cool! The paint turned out nice! As far as I know, the bump on the back plate souldn't be there.

Well, the sandtrooper effect is done by rotating the dome at the ear's point. If you look carefully you'll realize that the line is high at the front, but is at the right point at the ears. Imagine that you put a rivet at the ears and rotate the dome up till it leaves the white above the eyes. In your case the whole dome is elevated, and the black line does not touch the ears at a satisfactory point, running parallel to the eyes line. Something like this: Look at the second picture you've sent (the one in the middle), and you'll see what I mean.

There you have it: If you know what you're doing, you can use a modelling iron to get rid of the eye bump. Or you can buy an MRCE, mod it and paint it. It's all up to you to decide which path you want to take. Personally, I'd try to mod the AP first, as trying to match two different pieces of armor and helmet could be very complicated (and also modding the helmets to meet the requirements.) I have a different view than Ryan, I believe most people won't notice the bump or the asymmetry. I think that people just look at the armor as a whole, and don't see most details. They see a white, impressive stormtrooper right there, in front of them, and that it's just cool! And those educated enough to notice the bump will know that it's because it's a screen accurate armor. The main person noticing the bump will be yourself. But I think it will be worse with two different pieces coming from two different makers. You'll need a lot of work to make them match. I think that when you build your AP you'll find out that the bump is the lesser of its problems, as it's a funky warped piece of plastic! So, it's up to you to decide.

All screen accurate helmets are asymmetrical, as all of them come from direct casts of screen used helmets. As you probably know, there was no CAD in the 70's so it was all done by hand, hence the asymmetrical nature of the helmets. Most modern fan-made helmets are made taking the asymmetry into acount. SDS, AP, TE2, Gino, TM and even RT-MOD are asymmetrical. Maybe the MRCE? You'll have to modify it a little, but I think it's a symmetrical helmet. I'm no expert, so wait for other people with better knowledge to answer. Edit: if it's only the bump on the eye, maybe the TM is a good option. SDS, AP, TE2 and Gino have the bump, as all come from screen used helmets.

Happy Father's Day for all the fathers in the FISD! (Unluckily it's not Father's Day in Spain, as it would be my day too )

Congrats!!!!! After helping so many troopers with your Flickr tutorials, I can only say that it was about time! A very important addition to the 501st.

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.

That's great. I'll go for ANH style with my AP (how original! ) Yes, I saw your video. I also posted a picture of my dyed boots there. Regards.

Looking great Andy! Are those the boots you painted? BTW: Trooper, your blaster is DEFECTIVE! (what's that? a LED hanging from the front? ) P.S: You inadvertently answered one of my doubts: A blaster is not a requirement to get into the 501st.