TK-Recruit

hrm.... i sort of massacred the edges of one of the forearms. I still have plastic to work with though so i'm okay. (shudder) Do you know in inches how wide the plastic lip should be on both pieces then? That stukatrooper pictorial doesn't have the forearms as far as I can tell. The width of the area to the left of my thumb to be precise. also a picture of my disaster area work zone.

So it's been a long while since i've updated my thread. That's because nothing has really happened yet and this is the first time in a long while i've had the opportunity and motivation to sit down and really get some stuff going. I can confidently say that my gloves are ready to rock and roll. Hand plates and all.... Yet I'm struggling with the forearms at this point. I know the plastic is supposed to overlap yet i'm having a helluva time trying to get it to fit together well. If anybody has some inside outside pictures of two forearm pieces fitting together that would be spectacular. When they are set together using some brute force and clamps it almost looks right, but the edges of the plastic are so warped that i've had to shave off cits of HIPS here and there just to get it to sit as nicely as it does. Is this normal for one thing? My dad has been helping me and he told me to stop being such a wuss and just make it work. This seems like a decent sentiment but I don't want to do any permanent damage to my armor so i'm moving slowly. Some pictures in an upcoming post.

Well my opinion is that it looks good, I hope that helps! Times like this I wish desperatly I had a camera right now. I finished trimming the bottom part of the chest plate, and I left a little lip of plastic there. So what i'm trying to say is, that from the front of the chest it runs down, then dips in at a 45 degree angle (or so) towards my chest. Do I want to leave that lip there? I've also left a similar little lip on the sides and top. Is this correct? I'm having a hard time spotting anything specific on the reference pictures i'm looking at.

It's hard for me to really comment as i've never actually had a set of untrimmed unfinished armor on hand before in my life. It looks good to me, there was some bumps on the helmet, and other blemishes but I've seen those on other new helmet kits so I assume that's normal. Most of those seem to be around areas i'm supposed to trim anyway. The hardest part for me that as much as I know what TK armor looks like, now that i've got an untrimmed piece in hand I start second guessing myself about where to trim. I don't know how many times i've gone. "Is that the line? no.. yes... no..." Yet it looks quality to me, i'm most excited to get done with trimming. I've still got a lot to go yet and have just started on my chest piece. Lastly, I bought some nylon back pack strapping is that something i'll want to use for the harness system? It was sort of a half-baked purchase when I was out looking for snaps. I know elastic straps are used for parts but... well yeah what do you guys think. Perhaps i'm getting to far ahead of myself.

I'm going to need those helmet build references for sure. I know my dad has a dremel in the house, me and him are going to go hunting for it soon. On the topic of sanding, about what grit do I want. Right now i've just started using 150 grit by hand to smooth some of the sharper edges, I have up to 220 and i don't know what I have in the lower regions. Also what i'm thinking i'm supposed to do with sanding is just slightly round out the sharp edges after i've scoured and snapped. Correct me if i'm wrong... Finished rough trimming the hand plates.. only news. Now i'm off to clear out a spot for me in the garage so I have an actual workstation. EDIT: If it's not too much trouble could someone post up a picture of a back plate of theirs so I can reference it to the one I just finished trimming?

The first part of the armor I started was the back plate, I took out the half circle filling in the neck area first and ended up with a bunch of excess plastic from being over cautious i'm just going to sand it away as I don't feel like cutting anything with such a small amount of material to work with. I couldn't find a good hobby scissors so i've been using a small razor blade to scour and snap the plastic. Let me just say that I get little shivers of anxiety as I do this, it's both thrilling and terrifying to be doing this for my first time. After looking at the bucket I decided i'm definatly saving it as the last project. Hoping that their might be some resources to look into at my area garrison so i'm going to drop a thread down in in MWG forum and give a shout to my neighor's. I'm going to try and borrow a camera, I don't have one at my house at the moment but i'll work on getting some pictures up for you guys to see.

Gad zooks, where is the comprehensive instruction manual with colored pop up directions and video guide! It wasn't included in the box! *tears out hair*

On ab buttons, I remember I saw a thread about ab buttons that are very screen accurate and where highly recommended. They are far down on my priorty list but i'm just taking things 1 at a time. 1st thing is first. Trimming (carefully) and glueing (also carefully) Helmet will be my last project. Will get started on that tommorow. I'll just take it a step at a time, and I should be alright.

Let me just say, that the first emotion I experienced upon seeing that giant box of goodness on my front entrance was joy! I am absolutly mind bogglingly overjoyed. This is the first set of armor I have ever seen unassembled and untrimmed. All i've ever seen before are the shiny fully assembled suits of other troopers. Now let me also say that the second feeling can be most accuratly described as overwhelmed. I've looked at build threads in the past, but now that i have a bunch of armor in hand I feel somewhat at a loss. These are new waters for me, and right now they appear dark and murky and somewhat storm tossed. To Begin. Here is my list of what I have ready for the assembly process. 1 ATA Armor and Helmet Kit 1 Dremel 1 Rivet Gun 1 Exacto Knife Here is what I don't have. __ Sandpaper (what is appropriate grit number?) __ Straps (Best place to get appropriate straps?) __ Glue __ Snap Snapper Thingy __ A Pair of Plastic Cutting Scissors for trimming (not sure this is neccesary because of sharp knifes available) __ Spray Paint (Was thinking Krylon Fusion Plastic Paint + Rust-oleum Clear Gloss) Other Parts of TK that as of yet are not high on my priority list include __ Canvas Belt __ Helmet Doohicky's and Gadgets __ Green Plastic Lenses __ Underarmor __ Blaster (hopefully this will be on the way soon) __ Ab Buttons ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So this is it, this is the beginning. I've never done anything like this before and part of me is petrified i'll screw it up! If you guys have any advice for a beginner, suggestions on ideal products to use for snaps or can direct me towards a particularly clear and comprehensive build I would appreciate that. Other than that, once i have a hold of a camera again i'll post some pictures. Here I go! gulp...

i guess the idea is I see all this stuff belongs to lucasfilm. even scratch built molds. Yet those armors that are based off of original movie molds... well everone is a recaster if they came from that. If you paid for the "rights" to it... well you didn't really purchase anything other than the personal permission of the recaster that came before you. I do agree that it is in particularly terrible form to copy a mold with no consideration given to a person who has worked hard on creating their own original molds. I'm not "defending" recasting. I guess you could say I don't really have much of an opinion either way. It's just i'm a very contrary person if most people condemn or support one one side of an argument.. well i'll go out of my way to formulate a diffrent opinion!

Well, nobody bite my head off. Just putting a differing opinion out there since it seems there is a universal condemnation of recasting. To me it seems that most legitimate casters got there molds from somewhere, or worked at building their own molds from scratch. Yet why is there so much possessiveness? None of these molds belong to any of these recasters. By the very act of selling their molds they are violating Lucasfilms IP rights. It seems like there is just so much bitterness surrounding recasting and i'm confused as to why. Why does TE2 need to "belong" to TE2 when in actuality he doesn't in anyway really own either the artistic or actual rights to the product he is selling. Same goes for all casters. Unless I am missing something important which is entirely possible. It seems to make more sense to me to just open up the whole hobby (at least on the internal side) instead of being so callous about it every new caster should be supported and their product should be held up against others whether recasted or made from original molds and then a sort of free market capitalism can grow (or something) In the end, this is a hobby that depends on the people that go out of their way to make molds. I feel that a little good natured competition wouldn't neccesarily hurt anyone. In other words, why not just not be angry about recasting, not make such a big deal out of it and not allow such negative emotional backlash to build up. *runs for cover*

Well that is your perogative as an admin. My opinions about the recasting aside (which is to say i'm probably not as harsh on it as many people here are) he doesn't seem like a terrible sort. In my opinion all armor makers using molds based off or from molds used by Lucasfilm are "recasting" technically. Regardless I am much more casually interested in costuming than many here and am mostly involved for the community and a love of star wars, not in particular a love of building and assembling TK armor. It feels like perhaps his heart was in the right place even if he did violate the etiquette surrounding diffrent armor makers. Sorry to see anyone go.

A dimension made entirely out of glossy white ABS...

Wait... what's this? Excuse my ignorance. There was a thumbprint on the original stormtrooper outfits?

I'm on the same quest as hwkjeep here. I was recommended to the Krylon Fusion gloss white for plastics. It says no primer is needed and I also read a warning that said that Krylon would not mix well with other paints. Yet the Rust-oleum gloss white as a second coat is what you would want to do?

I have some questions about these boots. Are they very durable? Can you get EI Status with them?

Aye aye captain, i'll keep lurking in the shadows ready to pounce. I am merely biding my time!

God what I really want is a cheat sheet, with a magic fairy to come and grant me all that I need without effort or expenditure. Then an attractive model to suite me up, but heck we can't get everything we want can we. So where do I go about getting my hands on an AP kit. Does anyone have any advice about who I should talk to or where I should go to get a hold of such a kit? So I can start shopping?

I have my heart set on being a TK, I'm pushing the edge of 5' 11'' and I weigh about 170ib's. but I will most definatly keep my options open. When it comes to making stormtrooper armor don't you need to somehow get your hands on molds and some sort of molding machine for the plastic? That seems much more skill intensive. Yet perhaps possible if it's not as difficult as I imagine it would be. Heck I know about expensive hobbies, i've played warhammer tabletop for years! The only thing is that it gets expensive over time, in increments. This seems to be a rather large cash sink all at once following by more cash in the future (which is not as difficult to manage as such large initial payments). If I could get a quality TK kit for around 600 or 700 dollars I see that as managable. Just the basics, then I can build on it from there, modify my helmet etc. And on the topic of the kit, when I check ebay all I see up for sail typically are FX kits which I have read from around here aren't the greatest when it comes to quality and accuracy. For my height what would be the most appropriate Kit for me to consider? On the gun, well I think I can make the gun, just needs tom pvc pipe, paint and other knick nacks I assume. I've decided that i'm not in a great deal of hurry, so I have the patience to do what is needed.

Great! Thanks for the reply. Well with skill I have none, but I feel that I can follow directions and i'm relatively sure that i'm not a moron so I would hope that I could learn to do what is needed. Time? Well I have plenty of time that I don't use constructively now so i'm sure I can make do. Money is my only issue, which could throw a major wrench in my dreams but heck i'm trying to keep involved in the process and not dwell to much on what I can or cannot afford! Yeah I figured as much, I very much want to focus on my first armor being quality. I'm of the opinion that I would like to do it right the first time so I don't have to obsesse over having armor that does not satisfy me in regards to quality. now i'm not totally familier with the type of kits out there, and while this doesn't seem at all cheap to me is the SDS 2005 armor a quality set of armor? Is it sort of an expensive but easy method of attaining trooping quality armor?

For the longest time it's been an idle fantasy of mine to get involved in the process of putting together my very own suite of quality stormtrooper armor. Recently (most notably with the approach of GenCon Indy) this idle fantasy has become more concrete for me. Now I know there is information out there, and I have looked but I have little to no experience in any sort of costuming let alone the more challenging process of building and/or acquiring stormtrooper armor and was wondering if I could prevail upon the knowledgible members of this community to help me begin this process. Overall I guess what i'm asking is if you have any advice how a beginner who doesn't have a very large bank account to break could start on the road to becoming a certified 501st Legion member. I am afraid to say that I'm completley flabbergasted when it comes to what the particular difference is between say a FX kit or TE2 kit, or an AP kit (really these are just abbreviations that i've picked up on the forum and places like Ebay, I don't actually know what i'm talking about. For a beginner who doesn't have a lot of green to burn, what would be a good start? Is their an easy way? Is their a harder but cheaper way? Should I built it myself with a vacuuform machine (sp) I guess what i'm trying to say is that i'm willing to learn, but i've spent so long thinking about it by myself that I don't think i'm ever going to do it unless I get some motivation from people who've actually accomplished the dream!