Building armor

[Matchstick]

I have a ton of questions about building a set of stormtrooper armor (since I am very new to all of this), but the main ones being: I want to sculpted my armor out of clay and than do the whole, reverse mold, mold, vacuum form. I know this would be difficult and all, but I don't know if that (even if I get get molds really good) will this be accepted by the 501st. Or do I have to buy the armor from a licensed supplier?

[Jinsei[TK]]

As far as I know, there wouldn't be anything preventing you from joining with sculpting your own armour. TBH what you are suggesting will most likely be significantly more difficult and expensive than just going through one of the vetted sellers here. Not only that but as you said, you are very new to this and  there is a good chance in your sculpting you could miss certain details or shapes that would make it acceptable.

[Warkicker]

Definitely buy from a vetted armourer and build yourself a full kit first. Even if your ultimate goal is to eventually sculpt and vacuum form your own armor, this process will give you invaluable insight on what is involved in getting a finished product together. This is already an expensive endeavor and if you familiarize yourself with the history of how some of the armourers such as Troopermaster were able to create screen accurate armor worthy of acceptance by the 501st, you will find it to be a very involved and intensive process.

[manxtrooper]

To sculpt and mold your own armour is both extremely hard work, time consuming and very costly. It's actually only really doing financially if you intend on selling kits off your molds, or you just have a warped sense of humour , but if intending on selling kits you'd have a lot of competition in that area.<br><br>

That said if you want to go that route and have the skill and finances then go for it, there's no reason for it not to be 501st approvable if it's accurate enough,<br><br>

Other than that if you're just doing this because you want a suit and wish to join the 501st, then purchasing one from one of the vetted sellers would be the better route to take.<br><br>

Vetted sellers armour listed on this forum aren't the only 501st clearable suits but they're recognised as accurate, good value for money and also trust worthy with decent sales and after sales support.