Mat's ANH stunt TM 2mm ABS

[ozzytrooper]

Thanks for looking at my build log of a Trooper Master ANH stunt 2mm capped ABS kit, as this is my first Storm Trooper build or Storm Trooper experience at all please feel free to comment.

After reading lots of build logs and reference material I thought it was time to start the build so contacted Trooper Master and placed an order.
My biggest concern starting off was the return edges but ukswrath Anovos build log help relieve some of that concern “To be perfectly clear, return edges are NOT required anywhere, but some areas can really benefit from them”

 

The end goal is to have some armor that fits, wearable and has 501st basic approval. For the fit I am taller than the original ANH troopers at 6ft 2 so I ordered the long shins from Trooper Master and thought I would limit the amount of return edge removal during the build to get maximum length from all the pieces. Well that’s the theory only time will tell. My primary build reference is ukswrath Anovos TK build.

 

Started building the forearms experimenting with different technique from build logs until I was comfortable with the process so haven’t documented the forearm build.

 

On with the Bicep's

Biceps marked out to be cut with the knife I’ve left myself plenty of return edge to trim off later.
Use a 2B pencil to mark up the cut lines but didn’t show up for the photo so just for the photo used a black marker.

Biceps with the preliminary cuts done.

 

Now for the Bicep preliminary cuts on the long sides, I ran a pencil line in the valley of the fold and followed it up with the knife.

 

Preliminary waste remove then test fitted the biceps, initial fitting suggested need to remove 2mm from each edge so used a piece of scrap edge strip as a guide.

 

With the final mark up done used a piece of 180 sandpaper to get the final finish

 

Long edge removed and two half’s taped together test fit the Bicep's

 

Now time to mark out the return edge on the ends of the Bicep.

 

Used a Dremel tool to remove most of the return edge.

 

To finish of the return edge used a 2nd cut half round file filing from the inside edge to get a small return edge.

 

Photo looking at the return edge from the inside, first after Demel then after filing. To highlight the valley for the photo I’ve marked it with a black marker.

 

Side view of the return edge before and after filing, the aim is to retain the maximum length of each piece. Edge has been highlighted with a black marker to show up better for the photo

 

Now to glue the cover strips in place with E6000 the strips are glued to one half at a time, when the glue sets will glue the other half.

[ozzytrooper]

Onto the Shoulders, preliminary cuts with a knife.

 

Shoulders done using the same process as the Biceps. Still have a bit of Return edge at the elbow end which might need to be removed later just depend on the fit with the bicep pieces.

Build progress so far. Forearms, Biceps and shoulders.

Edited July 12, 2017 by ozzytrooper

[Shanester[TK]]

Very nice work!  Seeing all those clamps makes we want to start another kit!

[ozzytrooper]

Thanks shanester, defiantly need a few clamps when using E6000.

 

Shins next.

To mark up the initial cut line on the top of the shins tried using a compass and pencil, the piece of wood held the compass point while I mark the top with an even gap. Just for the photo taped the wood to the shin, ran out of hands to hold it and the camera at the same time.

 

Shin preliminary line marked out and a few passes with the knife.

 

One shin ends filed to finished dimensions.

 

Shin preliminary cuts on the long sides as per the Biceps to remove the outward facing flashing.

After a test fit of the shins decided I needed a bit more room so instead of a 22mm strip cut the strip at 26mm. Clamped the strip on the shin to get a good fit to the curves using the reference photos as a guide. When it looked ok put a pencil mark along the edge as a guide. From that pencil mark measured in 13mm and cut the excess abs off.

 

Shin stripes glued on one side. Almost my complete collection of small clamp to hold the strip to the curve.

 

Both half of shins glued to strip, a few clamps and magnets and some tape was enough to hold it while the glue set. Once set will work on the rear of the shins.

Edited July 12, 2017 by ozzytrooper

[ozzytrooper]

While the shins glue set it’s the thighs turn,

marked the knee end of the thigh with the same compass set up as the shin. Looking at reference photos and other builds the return edge at the knee can be anything providing you have a return edge so gone for 4mm to start with.

The upper part of the thigh went for a 2mm return edge thinking that was enough for a smooth edge but not too much to rub your leg.

 

An hour or so of cutting filing and sanding the ends of the thighs done

 

Just like the long sides of the shins cut some 26mm wide strips then clamped in place and marked a pencil line. Measured 13mm from that line and cut the excess abs from the thigh.

After a test fit the rear of the thighs marked and cut ready for the rear strips but at this point I am not 100% about the fit so going to glue the fronts together then test fit again before committing to gluing the rear strips.

[ozzytrooper]

Front and rear strips glued in place also added a small piece inside the knee recess to hold the back in place will do the same on the front of the left thigh.

 

Right thigh glued together and one half of the left thigh with both strips glued and clamped.

[ozzytrooper]

Got a pair of Lexan scissor from when I raced RC cars quite a few years back but the scissor didn’t like cutting the 2mm ABS so all the cutting so far has been done with a knife.

Spotted on some build logs people using mini snips so invested in a pair of 170mm jewellers snips with curved blade and these make cutting the 2mm so much easier.
Also picked up a plastic blade scraper to help get rid of the excess dried E6000 from along the edge of the strips.

 

Moving onto the body parts.  
I thought about how I could get consistent return edges, the compass method just wasn’t working and my free hand marking was too variable.
Then a light bulb came on. Now that I have decent snips the scribe line can be on the inside so set about making some spacers. 

The spacer are made from some scrap styrene I have laying around from a couple Astromech builds.
The spacers are about 10mm wide and 3mm, 4mm and 6mm, 8mm thick. The short edge is filed at a slight bevel to allow room for the curve of the return edge.

With a pencil resting on the spacer and touching inside of the return edge I can scribe a line on the inside of the return edge.

For around the neck used the 3mm spacer and the return edges used for the strapping connections used 8mm spacer.
The sides a combination of 3,4,6mm spacers.

Then with my new Snips cut along the pencil line, a bit of filing and sanding to clean up the edges and the body part done in one afternoon.

[Twnbrother]

Keep up the good work

[ozzytrooper]

Thanks Twnbrother
 

A combination of my height and middle age spread means that the kidney plate doesn’t touch the Ab plate so I need to extent the kidney plate sides. Troopermaster thoughtfully included 2 pieces of 2mm ABS sheet in the kit for this very purpose. To fit the side extensions I first cut off any return edge on the kidney plate short edges then glued a strip of 1mm ABS I had lying around from another project to act as a back brace.

Applied a bit of heat on the 2mm to give a slight curve that followed the kidney plate then glued it to the 1mm trying to minimise the gap to the kidney plate.
The 2mm sheet is not cut to size yet will do that once the armor is strapped together and I can do a proper measurement.

 

Next - trimming and fitting the Sniper Knee to the Left Shin.
From what I’ve read the rear trailing edges of the sniper knee should follow the contour of the upper shin return edges but wasn’t sure how I was going to achieve that so message Troopermaster for some help. During this build I’ve message Troopermaster a few times and he always gets back quickly with an answer, it’s reassuring to know that if I have a question on the build he’s so approachable.

Sniper knee before trimming

Troopermaster suggested 10mm return edge at the top and taper to about 15mm on the downward angle then to 5mm on the vertical, making allowance for the different lengths of each side.
This is my interpretation.

And without the marked up lines

Sniper Knee clamped up.

 

Edited July 12, 2017 by ozzytrooper

[ozzytrooper]

Onto the Right thigh Ammo belt.

With the Ammo belt trimmed to have minimal return edge along the long sides positioned and clamped the Ammo belt around the lower thigh with 3 boxes on the inside of the thigh and 2 on the outside lining up the gap between the boxes with the thigh strip.
Marked the ends about 3mm short of the lower thigh corners and cut the Ammo belt short sides and added the radius on the lower corners.
I forgot to take a photo of the Ammo belt before fixing it to the thigh.

Cap rivets are supplied in the kit to attach the Ammo belt and have read a few horror stories about fixing them and yes it’s all true.
I understand you can buy a pressing tool that will make the job easier than the standard pin punch tool.

 

After some perseverance a piece of 20mm steel bar bent at 45deg and a vice the Ammo belt was attached to the thigh.

 

Chest bridges trimmed to have a 3mm edge around the ribs. Now to glue them onto the chest plate but how many ribs is right. Ukwraths Anovos build suggest 4-6 plus the large rib but larger shoulder may need to go down to 3. So 3 plus the large rib it is.

 

With most of the armor parts prepared its time to start strapping the pieces together. I opted not to go for the screen accurate strapping instead I went with the Snap and Strap version.

Troopermaster kit comes with all the straps made up and the snaps already affixed to nylon straps.

 

 

Something simple to start with gluing the lower shoulder bell strapping in place, no snap on these just glue the elastic with E6000 following the inside return edge. Where the elastic is glued to the ABS it will be painted White once its dry.

 

Marked out and glued half the snaps in place the other half will be glued after a test fit of the armor to determine the right place for them. For the test fit these snaps will be temporary fixed to the armor with double sided tape.

 

 

Edited July 12, 2017 by ozzytrooper

[ozzytrooper]

Belt

Trimmed the long part of the belt to have a 3mm gap between the boxes and the edge and the ends about a 30mm gap.
The screw covers trimmed to 25mm square.
For the triangle cut-outs, placed the ABS belt piece over the fabric belt and centred it all then marked on the ABS the stitch line of the fabric part which for me was 13mm from the edge of the ABS . Marked the long edge also at 13mm so that gave me a right angled triangle with 45deg as required for level three certification then cut at the diagonal. Not looking for level three certification but 45 is mentioned in the specification so assume that’s what it needed to be.

Marked and drilled out the two holes at each end 13mm in from the edge and centre of the ABS, the middle hole is centre between the boxes and centre of the ABS.
To mark out the fabric part of the belt attached it to abdomen with the snaps to get the right curve and lined up the edge of the ammo box to the buttons on the chest plate. Marked the centre hole first checking it was also in the centre of the fabric part. Punched a 5/32” hole in the fabric part.
Then with the cap rivets supplied fixed in the centre rivet.
Attached the belt back onto the abdomen and marked out the two outside holes and fixed in place with more cap rivets.

Glued the two end screw covers about 1mm from the edge of the ammo belt, the centre screw cover I had to trim the side a bit so it would fit flat between the boxes.

The drop boxes have an outer and inner box for the outer box marked a line at 16mm using a piece of 16mm mdf as a spacer then trimmed with a combination of a knife and snips. Sanded the edge of the box flat with some 100grit sandpaper glued to a piece of mdf for a flat surface.

Repeated for the inner box but this time use 12mm mdf and 2mm piece of ABS to get a 14mm line.

With the drop boxes temporarily fitted together marked 25mm down from the top and centre to the inner box and drilled a 1/8” hole to accommodate a pop rivet, cap rivets are supplied but going to use pop rivets because it’s easier.
I separated the inner and outer drop box pieces before drilling the hole in the inner drop box just to make sure I didn’t drill through the outer box as that would leave a hole in the front of the drop box.

Supplied with the kit are two pieces of white elastic 200mm long 25mm wide, folded each in half and placed on the belt then marked where the hole should be against hole I just drilled in the inner drop box which is now back together with the outer drop box to get the right position. The gap between the drop boxes and the belt appears to be variable so made mine about 2mm.
Punched the hole in the elastic with a hole punch, then pop riveted the elastic to the inner drop box using a flat washer on the inside for a bit extra strength. Couple dabs of E6000 to glue the outer and Inner drop boxes together and that’s them done.

Well almost. Positioned the drop boxes on the belt so they lined up with the ends of the belt and cut a piece out of the elastic to go round the snap with a wood burning tool to stop the elastic fraying. A few more dabs of E6000 between the elastic and fabric to stop the elastic moving on the belt.

Finished belt with drop boxes attached to the abdomen.

 

 

 

[ozzytrooper]

Would like to acknowledge a silent partner to my build and that’s my gloves, whenever I pick up the knife I put these on and it’s save my fingers a few times. The latest was when cutting the drop boxes out and I over shot the end and the blade hit my finger pretty hard, amazingly the glove wasn’t cut and more importantly neither my finger.

The ones I am using are Uvex 6649 which are good to “cut level 3” whatever that means. Not saying these gloves will protect you from all cuts but I am glad I have them on.

 

With most of the armor together been trying it for fit and to work out how much I need to cut the kidney plate extension. One thing that wasn’t quite right was the shoulder bridges only just touch the back plate so removed the bridges from the chest piece and re positioned them from 3 ribs + large rib to 1 rib + large rib. May have to make a longer elastic strap that connects the chest and back pieces, this strap also has the snap for the shoulder bell snap.

 

Along the way been adding strapping to the arm pieces some have snaps on both ends while like these bicep to forearm straps one end has a snap and the other end is glued.

 

 

 

 

 

[ozzytrooper]

Thermal Detonator, This is something I’ve wanted to build since opening the carton, don’t know why. Luckily Troopermaster had posted a build log on his facebook a few weeks back so it was just a matter of following his instructions.

First up mark up 7mm from each end and put a chamfer on the end so the end caps will slide on easier.

Benchtop sander set at 10 deg gave me about the right chamfer. I guess a file would have done the same job.

Marked a line at 20mm in at both ends and draw a straight line across the cylinder, that will help line the clips up later on.

With one end of the aluminium held against the tube rolled the tube to put a bend in the aluminium. The bend is about 180 deg.

Marked down 75mm from the other end and bent the aluminium over the shaft of a screw driver.

At the same end put a small bend of about 4mm just to reduce the chance of the clip catching the belt when putting the thermal detonator on.

Marked out a line at 6mm and 115mm from the curved end and centred to the strip. Centre punched the mark to prevent the drill from slipping. Drilled a 1/8” holes in the aluminium using a piece of pipe to help steady the aluminium.

Marked the end caps at 20mm and cut out with my snips and sanded the ends even.
Measured the inside depth of the end caps and both were about 19mm so this is how far the caps will slide onto the cylinder. Modified the original 20mm line at the cylinder end to 19mm.

At the new 19mm mark clamped the aluminium clips in place making sure I lined up the ends to the long pencil line marked earlier on the cylinder and drilled the two 1/8” holes. Repeated for the other aluminium clip.

Using 1/8” brass round head screws painted black to fix the aluminium strip to the cylinder. Don’t expect the nuts to undo but just in case put a dab of epoxy glue on the nuts.

Before putting on end caps on drilled a 1/8” hole in the cylinder so air can be expelled when fitting the end cap, the hole will be covered by the face plate.
I forgot to take any photos of the next few steps so this one is from Troopermaster tutorial.

With a hot air gun gently heated an end caps so it was still bearable to touch and with it sitting on a flat surface pushed the cylinder into the end cap till it touched the aluminium strip.
Repeated for the other end cap.

Trimmed the long return edges on the face plate and sanded even. Then marked out the cut lines for the curved ends, the first being the end closest to the ridges being 10mm from the last ridge.

From the 10mm line measured 115mm and marked the other end cut line.

Face plate glued in position with E6000, positioned the face plate so it had equal gaps between the end caps.

 

 

 

[ozzytrooper]

Next on the ever diminishing list of things to do are the hand guards, first marked and trimmed the return edge to be about 7mm. Then trimmed up the return edges to better fit my hands, to help get the right curves used a contour gauge.

Next I cheated a bit by using the hot air gun to bend the area near the thumbs down a bit so it formed to my hands better. With the trimming done then glued the elastic strapping in place.

 

These next few pictures of the buttons are out of sync with the build log but this is the buttons being painting. First marked up and trimmed the panels then punched some holes in masking tape and masked off the buttons ready for paint.

Panels painted before fixing to abdomen plate

Panels held in place with a combination of masking tape and magnets.

 

 

 

Build progress so far.

To complete the body need to trim kidney extensions, fit thigh strapping and fit rear shin strips + velcro.

 

The helmet is still untouched so that's next on the agenda, time to get read some build logs on AHN stunt helmet building.
If you have a favorite bucket build log can you let me know.

 

 

[ozzytrooper]

With the kidney plate extension pieces cut to size and the holes drilled for the split rivets it’s on with gluing on the 4 snaps on the Ab plate.

Straps attached to the Ab plate and Kidney plate snaps positioned and glued in place. After a test fit of the kidney plate the extension stuck out so applied a bit of heat and gently curved them in a bit so there sitting flat with the Ab plate.

 

[ozzytrooper]

On to the bit I’ve been looking forward to and dreading the helmet. This is how it came from Trooper master, a pretty good starting point. Ear caps not in the photo but Trooper master included two sets of ear caps so guessing it might take a few attempts to get the ear caps right.

Cap and back marked out by following the return edge this should give me some fine tuning room.

Followed the return edge on the eyes as well.

Eyes and teeth trimmed to the final stage, for the teeth used a sanding drum on a rotary tool and gently from the inside of the face piece sanded the excess, then finished off with a set of jewellers files from the outside.

Not sure if the top of the face piece needs trimming so if someone can advice me that would be great or will do a bit more research.

Trimmed off another few mm’s from the brow to completely remove the return edge and extended the brow line to the end of the trapezoid so the brow rubber would finish at the trapezoid. Drilled a 2mm hole at the end of each end of the brow to reduce the chance of cracking.

 

From what I can tell with the exception of the stunt and move along helmets the rest of the ANH brow to eye gap can be almost anything so trying to get about a 5mm gap.
With the helmet clamped in place a drill in hand put a 3mm hole in both sides and screwed together the pieces. Once the ear caps are fitted will replace the screws with pop rivets.

 

Started with the left ear cap and after 4 hours filing and sanding got and ear cap close but taken to much of the back were it extends over the tube.

Time for more reading and second attempt next weekend.

 

 

[troopermaster]

The ear cap looks fine! They do not need to be air tight against the helmet so no need to start on the spare, go straight onto the right ear.

 

Everything else is looking really good too. This is a very nice, well detailed thread. Keep up the good work

[The5thHorseman[TK]]

Yes, that ear looks good. I like the fact that you trimmed the rounded part of it correctly. Lastly I've been seeing a lot of people who don't trim this section enough, making the ears look very bulky.

[ozzytrooper]

Thanks for the feedback very much appreciated.    Will move onto the right ear.

[ozzytrooper]

Decided not to redo the left ear going to leave it as it is ( well maybe just a little bit more trimming ) Moved onto cutting out the right ear and that took about the same time. No photos of the finished ears on the helmet, still not sure if I am done trimming.

One of the rewarding things about doing a project like this is discovering the nuances like how different the left and right ears are or the unsymmetrical face plate, you don’t pick that up watching the movie.

As a break from the ears fitted the split rivets in the kidney and ab plate. The rivets got a coat of primer and white from a spray can.

 

The Hovi mix tips appear to be resin casted so gave them a quick clean with isopropyl alcohol before paint. Costume reference library states “black or painted black” and after looking at some reference photos decided to leave the very front and inside the original cast colour so masked off the mesh and front with some masking tape.

 

Couple of coats of rustoleum satin black and the tips are done.

 

On to the helmet accent painting.

Originally was going to use decals and even purchased a set but decided to paint it by hand. The worst that can happen is I stuff it up in which case can put the decal over the top.
Before painting marked up some reference lines with a pencil, this is the Vocoder but did the same with the Traps, ears and frown.

 

Humbrol Black (No. 21) the vocoder, trap borders and ears.

 

Humbrol Grey (No. 5) on the frown and traps, no reference line for the grey on the trap instead just tried to keep the black line about 1.5mm thick. Photo of the frown half done.

 

Second coat of Grey done.
Still to do are the Blue tube strips, vertical Black lines on the traps and rank stripe on the ears.

 

 

 

 

 

[ozzytrooper]

Marked up the rear traps, 5mm gap at the bottom and 4.5mm at the tops gave me an even spacing for the 12 vertical lines.

After marking the lines took the masking tape off before painting but on reflection leaving the tape on would have given me a sharper edge.

Using the tear decal made up a template from thin plastic then transferred the lines onto the helmet before painting.

Helmet black highlighting done including the rank stripes.

Decided not to hand paint the Tube stripes these are the decals purchased from Trooperbay. Trooperbay has an excellent video on applying the decals so won’t bore you with how it was done.

 

 

[ozzytrooper]

Lens supplied with the helmet is a flexible green sheet that attaches to the helmet via the ear bolts. First marked the centre with a piece of masking tape and positioned the lens across the eyes, when happy with the position marked one of the ears bolt on the lens and punched a hole in the lens. Reposition the lens using the hole and marked the second hole on that side.

 

Reposition the lens again and marked out the holes for the other ear bolts. Found that the rivet in the ear that holds the helmet together stopped the lens sitting flat on the helmet so punched a hole in the lens for that as well.

With the lens in position marked out the nose area and cut that out from the lens. Near the top of the nose cut out placed some double sided tape to hold the lens to the helmet. The tape was stacked together so it was about 7mm thick.

 

Aluminium “fly screen mesh” cut to size and hot glued in place behind the frown.

 

The sharp eyed would have noticed that before fitting the lens the Aerators where installed.
The Aerators supplied with the helmet have a thread bolt moulded into the base which makes it a bit hard to line up so 3d printed some Aerators were hollow and had a flat bottom. Positioned them into the recess till it looked right and marked with a pencil. Drilled the hole and fitted the Aerators supplied.

 

 

 

 

[ozzytrooper]

From the helmet to the legs.
Made a mistake cutting out the cover strips which left me one lower leg rear cover strip short so a quick email to Trooper Master and a few weeks later new cover strips arrived. Thanks TM
Cut and glue the rear cover strips in place.
These strips are 26mm wide and glued to the outer half of the shin only.

 

One other thing still outstanding is the thigh strapping.
After initial measurement it worked out I needed the snap as high as possible, to get that had to trim the webbing with my leather burning tool. Glued and clamped in place.

 

 

 

[ozzytrooper]

Onto the boots.
Purchased a cheap pair of boots, black of course so the plan was to paint them with Waproo colour change.
According to the instruction needed to clean the leather first with Waproo Preparer.

 

Two coats of white colour change.

 

Four coats of White colour change.

The elastic sides still has a bit of black coming through but the elastic getting stiff so not going to put any more on.

 

[ozzytrooper]

Back to the helmet

With the ears fitted, trimmed the lower part to follow the helmet edge with the snips then fitted the S shape neck trim. From reference photos it appears the S shape trim joint is at the rear so that’s where it went.

Chin strap attached to the top ear bolts a nylon nut holds it in place.
Used strips of Velcro to hold the Helmet foam padding in place, the adhesive backing on the Velcro didn’t like sticking to the foam so glued them on with E3000. Velcro strips also placed around the edge to fit some foam yoga mat to firm up the fit on my head.

With the helmet on discovered the “Aluminium fly screen mesh” on the frown rubbed against my nose so the mesh had to go, luckily 501 approval states “Mesh may be used behind the frown to obscure the face of the wearer.”

Only the microphone and fans to fit in to the helmet but can’t start that until the fans arrive.

 

With the lower leg rear cover strips glued in place installed the Velcro to hold the backs closed.

 

Did a full armor fit for the 501st application, had a couple small issues one being the biceps riding over the shoulder pieces so made up some bicep strap hook to try holding them in the right place.

 

Another issue was the chest plate sliding behind the abdomen plate, I think that’s because to get the height I fitted the strapping without much over hang between the Chest and Abdomen. In an attempt to stop that swapped the elastic strap between the chest to abdomen with webbing.
Don’t know if that's going to cause out issues so if anyone has any good fixes let me know.

 

Also in this picture are the electronics, speaker and battery for the trooper voice that’s mounted in the chest plate. The system is a “Vox Imperium” built using a Teensy 3.2.