LeMaxim's RS PVC ANH Stunt Build [*RS] (WIP)

[LeMaxim[TK]]

Right ear, lenses, petal foam, mic-tips, and chin strap added to bucket. 

 

I'm keeping in the tradition of keeping it on classic assembly before I let my imagination run wild and start modding. 

 

Build - troop - mod.

 

Todays achievement unlocked: Right ear. 

 

I'm not as happy with the right ear as I am with the left. I feel it a bit to the large side and not as snug as the left. After spending time looking through screen shots and other builds I feel it's at least within tolerance. 

Seeing the ear as part of the whole makes it look better too. I guess I shouldn't obsess too much.

 

I leave it to your discerning eyes. Should I let my files and hobby knife rest for a while and get started on the painting of the helmet (and the rest of the build) or are there things I need to attend too? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Input is greatly appreciated.  

 

Ready for paint?

[LeMaxim[TK]]

So. No comments? Good to paint?

 

I got some comments on the local garrison forum which basically said: "Ears could be trimmed down more but looks nice and should work. Go for paint!"

 

I think I'll save ear trimming until later mod-run and in preparation for EIB. Otherwise I'll obsess over them a few more hours.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looks pretty good to me, I wouldn't even bother about revisiting your ears later, some of the screen lids gaps where huge, shouldn't be a problem for EIB or Centurion either. Good luck with the painting, just remember thin coats and let it dry out in between coats and the paint can wrinkle if it is too thick while it dries.

[Locitus[Admin]]

I would slim the circle part of the ear. Too fat even compared to the fattest of rwal helmets. Replicas often get that wrong because people are scared of messing up.

 

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4

 

 

[LeMaxim[TK]]

Thank you Glen and Mathias. I'm sorry for not thanking you for your input before.

 

I've been hard at work and want to show some progress. 

 

First of all. There will be updates with more detailed goings on later. This post will be more of a show and tell where I'm hoping for some guidance and feedback. 

 

I have been trying to finish my bucket. There are some things I want to think more about later (ears for one) but I have things coming up so I will not be able to build for a while so I'm hoping to meet basic approval in a near future and revisit the build for EIB and Centurion a bit later. 

 

Anyway. Bucket-post. 

 

After having some difficulties with painting the abs buttons free hand I decided to try masking tape. Had some issues with that too. So when I got ready to paint the bucket I was not entirely sure what way to do. 

 

I've followed Pandatroopers ATA Helmet build for a concise and step by step helmet assembly. It contains paint-guides and he also made a nice template for the tube stripes. 

 

I managed to cut the template out nicely on masking tape. I don't know what happened next but I was unable to get it fitted nicely. 

In the frustration that followed I decided to try a bold move. To go completely freehand.

 

Considering the wonkyness on the bucket I felt that freehand might actually match the bucket better. 

 

This was, however, a decision I had prepared for. Prior to painting I had let a scrap piece of PVC sit in a glass of white wash to see what happened with it. I even put some paint in it. 

After 36 hours the piece was still intact with no discolouration from the now grey white wash. So at this point I felt confident that I would be able to clean of a mistake without damaging the bucket. 

 

So using my Humbrol paints and one brush I set out to do paint. 

 

For most parts I'm happy with the result but I probably need to touch up the tube stripes. 

(the two back panels are not finished yet. After a big boo-boo on one of them I decided to at least use masking tape to get straight lines.)

 

So. Here I put it to you. My almost fully painted bucket. Apart from using masking tape on back panel and some slight touch up on one tube stripe this is the result of freehand painting. 

 

I have relied heavily on the TKCaleb reference gallery and Rogue Troopers Frown gallery for the painting. 

 

Please comment and let me know how it will fare as a basic / EIB / Centurion bucket. Any input helps. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Closer-ups:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking.

[Locitus[Admin]]

Ears and tears look great but I'd consider remaking the tube stripes if I were you. Frown looks like a mix of hero and stunt than pure hero but I'm sure some helmet had that look too.

 

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4

 

[gazmosis[501st]]

You can order tube strip templates from trooperbay for close to nothing and I agree with Mathias on the frown. The part between the last cut out tooth and the indent should be painted in and the paint should extend to the corner of the frownI used the Trooperbay's templates for the tubestripes but not as masks. I placed  them and traced each stripe with a pencil then painted them

Edited August 20, 2013 by gazmosis

[LeMaxim[TK]]

Thank you Mathias and Steve. You are absolutely right. I'll redo the stripes (easier than cleaning them) and give my bucket a proper frown. I guess the paint fumes go to me. Looking at the pictures again I realise I held back too much. The stripes are too wide too for my liking. I'll post updates tonight. Cheers! 

[Locitus[Admin]]

Yeah, sometimes you just have to step back and look at it a second time. And that's what we're here for, to be that second set of eyes.

[dereferenced]

You can order tube strip templates from trooperbay for close to nothing and I agree with Mathias on the frown. The part between the last cut out tooth and the indent should be painted in and the paint should extend to the corner of the frown

 

+ 1 for trooperbay stencils. They are really really really worth it, I would say get the hand painted look, I switched when I redid my tubestripes and I like it much more. 

 

The left is the hand painted look and the right is the standard. The right placement is far too low, but I was just showing the curve of them here.

 

 

Here is a link to how I redid my stripes. I used Testor's Easy Lift off after searching on this forum and therpf.com for what is safest to use on plastic. http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/23509-dereferenced-stunt-build-tmc/?p=309271

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

A bit more work but you will be happier once it's done, keep up the good work

[LeMaxim[TK]]

Yeah, sometimes you just have to step back and look at it a second time. And that's what we're here for, to be that second set of eyes.

 

And what a great set of eyes FISD is.

Cheers Troopers! 

 

Anyway. I guess the universe felt I needed another lesson in humility and patience. Live and learn.

 

Progress update for you to check on while I get to my carbonite sack for the night. 

 

After input here and on the local garrison forum I decided to try my fortune with the q-tip-toothpick-method to try to clean my tube stripes. It would be an interesting experience and if it didn't work out I could redo it from scratch. 

The right hand side looks promising but the left went all chippy and I ended up redoing it from scratch. 

 

Yes I know. Trooperbay stencils. I guess I just have a need for self punishment right now and It's as they say "Stubbornness is a virtue." Or was it patience? I forget.

I guess I wanted to try the hard way once again. It's frustrating as hell and very rewarding. If not anything else it's a fun experience. 

 

Here you go:

 

Right hand side.

Fairly happy with it. Not perfect, but that's what hand painted gets you (unless you are good at it).

 

Left hand side:

 

The left hand side... Well... it needs to be corrected too and I feel it have a better starting point than the previous try. Letting the paint dry for the night. 

 

I also did the back panels of the helmet

 

and made the frown frownier. 

 

Hows that for a frown? 

 

Any more painting tonight and I will go Joker on this. 

"Why so serious?" *lipstick smear smile*

 

Cheers!

[SCTrooper[TK]]

Hi Maxim, panda troopers measurements on the tube strips is not 13/16, but more like 15-16mm. i don't how he came up with that.  Sorry for the confusion. Someone will chime on this measurement. 

[LeMaxim[TK]]

Yes. You're right. I noted that. I scaled the printout for 13/16 but in the end I painted without stencils and didn't use them. My stripes are roughly 13/16.

[Locitus[Admin]]

Mine are 16 mm wide. Although groundless as far as proof goes, they look pretty good.

[LeMaxim[TK]]

Hmm... Now I got all confused. Maybe I trusted the measurements discussed in PandaTroopers stencil thread too much. It says 13/16" and I've tried to keep to that even if I don't use the stencil.

 

As I was redoing my left side yesterday I got a nagging feeling of "maybe they should be shorter"

 

There's probably a quite exact measurement for this but tapatalk search leaves a lot to be wished for.

 

I'm curious how the length and my current look relates to the basic / EIB / Centurion levels.

[Locitus[Admin]]

Since 13/16th more or less equates to 20 mm I'd say they are a little too big. Had I paid more attention to your build I might have caught that earlier.

[LeMaxim[TK]]

I might have made them too long. Difficult to measure in a bend. I was, however, going for 13/16 (i.e. roughly 20mm).

 

I'll check again to make sure, but I also get the feeling of maybe "too long".

 

How about the rest of the helmet details? Kosher?

[LeMaxim[TK]]

Since 13/16th more or less equates to 20 mm I'd say they are a little too big. Had I paid more attention to your build I might have caught that earlier.

 

My head hurts trying to figure out what to do with the tube stripes. I'm still not happy with the result and shape of mine.

 

I've bought some tape to make proper stencils now and did some paint tests on a scrap piece. Seems to look nice. But the more I look at reference pictures and read it seems the 13/16" (20.6 mm) measurement used for PandaTrooper's stencils look too long and thin. 

 

Looking at this reference picture from the TKCaleb Archives I feel that given the distance-from-valley-measurments of "roughly a standard pencil's width" I'd say that the tube stripes look roughly the size of two pencils in width. This, by my measurements should add up to roughly 14-16 mm instead of the stencil proposed 20 mm. In the picture it also looks like the stripes are as wide as the space between them. Pandatroopers stencils put the stripes at 3/4 of the space size (i.e. 3 mm stripes and 4 mm space). 

 

 

I know this is nitpicking and that there are some optical factors at play here but I cannot find any definitive answers apart from Pandatrooper's stencil. 

 

I have already gone overtime (from original plan) with this build and I'm considering to do the stripes one more time so I might as well invest some more time in getting it right.

I just cannot get the "too long, too thin" feeling out of my head about my current stripes and the stencil ones. 

 

I'm assuming that there has been a few exact measurements done on screen used helmets (such as the above) but I cannot find any reference to it. 

 

The only things I currently have supporting my feeling are Locitus' comments in this thread the many references to Trooperbay's work on stripes (chiefly concerning the correct colour codes) and the fact that his stripes are shorter. 

 

Anyone out there with the measurement of Trooperbay's stencils?

 

I would be very happy for any pointers in either support of Pandatrooper's stencils (20.6 mm) or the shorter 16 mm variant.

 

Pandatrooper's stencils are pinned so it's would be an easy thing to just accept as is... but I feel there's something I'm missing (apart from sleep). 

 

Any thoughts?

[dereferenced]

I have a spare set of the standard stencils from trooperbay that I did not use. I can measure them when I get home tonight. I can also measure the lines on my helmet that I made with the hand painted stencils from trooperbay also know as the Dave M stencils. This is because they are nearly exact copies of the stripes from the Dave M helmet pictured below. I will post the numbers with pictures tonight.

 

Pictures from http://www.starwarshelmets.com/original-ANH-Stunt-Stormtrooper-armor-helmets.htm

 

[LeMaxim[TK]]

I have a spare set of the standard stencils from trooperbay that I did not use. I can measure them when I get home tonight. I can also measure the lines on my helmet that I made with the hand painted stencils from trooperbay also know as the Dave M stencils. This is because they are nearly exact copies of the stripes from the Dave M helmet pictured below. I will post the numbers with pictures tonight.

 

 

Cheers!

That would be most excellent and helpful.

[Locitus[Admin]]

I'm not sure why pandatroopers stencils are pinned. I might be going off on a limb, but he could have pinned them himself since he used to be staff.

 

As for as I know there isn't any proof of any correct size of the stripes, only what has been determined to look the best. Maybe JoeR could measure his (original) ROTJ tube stripes. They may be decals, but the overall size should be about the same.

[Rezablad3[TK]]

I remembered getting my tube stipe stencil from dlucks design if im not mistaken.. And i think they made the design based on the RS helmet, so it fits perfectly... At least thats how they are on mine..

[LeMaxim[TK]]

I'm not sure why pandatroopers stencils are pinned. I might be going off on a limb, but he could have pinned them himself since he used to be staff.

 

As for as I know there isn't any proof of any correct size of the stripes, only what has been determined to look the best. Maybe JoeR could measure his (original) ROTJ tube stripes. They may be decals, but the overall size should be about the same.

So I might not be crazy then. Good to know.

I thought most stones had been turned and every crevice measured already. Nice to find slightly unchartered territory.

 

Maybe time for a call to those with original helmets at hand to take out the measuring sticks.

 

I've asked RS what they have on this. From what I've seen it seems they too have a shorter and wider base of their stripes.

 

At any rate. I might as well dig a bit more here to make it look nicer from start.

 

I remembered getting my tube stipe stencil from dlucks design if im not mistaken.. And i think they made the design based on the RS helmet, so it fits perfectly... At least thats how they are on mine..

Oh. Haven't heard of those. Would you mind sending me a PM with their contact info?

 

Also, if you don't mind, could you possibly take some sample measurements of your stripes?

[Locitus[Admin]]

Well, there has been original helmets in private hands of people who visits this forum several times, so I'm sure it is know, but maybe not "public".

 

RS's helmet is stripped of all paint though, so for their estimations we can only go by what Simon remembers from before.