Lord_Potato's Walt's Trooper Factory ANH TK Build.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

I'd suggest contacting Walt and showing him the images, they clearly look to be all the same size. You would have to trim down one side right to the curve to get them to fit I side and they wouldn't look right in my opinion. 

 

FYI you don't need the inner boxes for basic approval  

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

On 10/14/2019 at 11:27 PM, gmrhodes13 said:

I'd suggest contacting Walt and showing him the images, they clearly look to be all the same size. You would have to trim down one side right to the curve to get them to fit I side and they wouldn't look right in my opinion. 

 

FYI you don't need the inner boxes for basic approval  

Thanks for the advice. I contacted his facebook page and it looks like I am going to be getting some replacement drop boxes. Hopefully the color of plastic is not too much of a different shade of white. Good to know that I don't need inner boxes for basic, but I am hoping to get expert or better for this kit  

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

I should have new drop boxes coming in. On to other things.

 

I received my silicon hand guards and glued them to my rubber gloves with E6000. I put a water jug to keep pressure on them. I tried not to put glue near the edges to ensure no glue seeps out.

 

So moving on to bicpes. 

I believe this is how the pieces are supposed to go:

 

Did a rough cut for the left bicep (more return edge will be cut off later)

 

So I am obviously not a big dude. I have small biceps and shoving the pieces together it looks like I am going to have to do some trimming and also reshaping with hot water to get a good fit.

 

Not only will I reshape it to fit my small biceps......but I need to make this a lot more round. These two pieces meet up and make an extreme oval shape.

 

Edited October 23, 2019 by Lord_Potato

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

Alright. Been a bit busy getting ready for my first baby coming next month and I have also been a little nervous continuing my build for fear of messing up and risking getting replacement parts that do not color match my current armor. I already have a second walts kit but I cannot use any pieces as the color is noticeably different.

 

I need to follow up again with my replacement drop boxes as its been a few weeks and I have not heard from Walt after he told me they were going to try and find some of their whiter plastic to use and send me new drop boxes.

 

So i got my hand guards glued on but i need to add more glue to the edges.

 

I stuffed the gloves with cloth, added more glue near the edge and wrapped them with tape.

 

Left bicep:

Trimmed more of the return edge and used images and my RS as a reference:

 

The bicep is too much of an oval shape and too big. Went to hot water bending and used PVC pipe to aid in reshaping:

 

The shape is better now. Might be good enough. Need to tape it together and try it on:

 

Comparison of how a untouched Walts left bicep looks compared to one I reshaped:

 

Edited November 11, 2019 by Lord_Potato

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work, I like the fact you are more worried about continuing your build than the arrival of the new youngling 

 

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

Well another disappointing week. I keep wanting to do more on my build but my work and family matters dominate my life. No matter! As long as I do at least one thing a week my build is one step closer.

 

So, centurion gloves are done! Rubber/latex gloves with soft silicon hand guard:  

 

Non centurion gloves are done as well. Cut out the hand guards, trimmed them down, sanded, attached black elastic strip and bought pilot's NOMEX black flight gloves:

 

Got a black undersuit:

 

Now, I am currently only doing one eye lens at the moment. After looking at a few builds I decided to go with attaching my lens with chicago screws method. For me personally, this seems to be a little tricky and this took longer than expected to get to this point. The hardest part was getting the base of the chicago screws situated so that when the lens is screwed on it will be flush against the eye opening. I had to move the pieces from my original placement since it looked like the lens would not sit flush. If i am successful then I will continue to the other side. If not, I might try and different method.

 

Bought some random chicago screws and got black milliput to help form a platform for the chicago screw base:

 

Found where I wanted to place the lens and pressed down to make the putty form to the shape of the helmet:

 

Placed the chicago screws with the putty base with E600 glue:

 

I put a little too much glue but I dont mind, it is in the helmet and if I plasti dip the helmet, it will be invisible.    

 

My last post I left off on working on my left bicep. Even though I did some reshaping with hot water it is still a little too oval and wide. After messing around with it being held together with masking tape I realized it would be easier to manipulate it if I had both bicep sides attached and then dipped the piece in hot water and gently force the whole piece into a more circular shape. So the next time I work on it I am going to glue cover strips on the inside of the bicep to keep it together, let it dry and put the whole thing in how water and the manipulate it to take on a circular shape. 

Edited November 25, 2019 by Lord_Potato

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

Back with the bicep......

 

I did some more hot water treatment to improve the shape just a bit more. Seems like I have the shape that goes with my bicep. But it is still too big.

 

At least the shape is there. As mentioned before it was waaaaaay too oval.

 

So making the circumference of the biceps are going to be a little tricky. I need to make sure that when I trim off plastic I am not going to mess up the "ridge" that is supposed to be at the middle when looking at the profile of the bicep:

 

I am thinking about cutting down the one side of the "cover strip ridge" then butting the sides together and then putting the cover strip on:

 

The side I intend to trim down is the side that faces forward. It looks like there is more surface area that could be trimmed without messing around with the alignment/orientation.  

 

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

Okay, so this might be redundant/overkill but here is a more visual example of what I intend to do:

 

Heres how the forward facing side looks with both flat pieces meeting at the middle:

 

Heres how it will look if i trim away the flat part on the outer side and butt it against the inner side:

 

And with a cover strip added, it looks like everything will look pretty even

 

I know I am as slow as a sloth with my build but any advice will be appreciated. 

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

Today it looks like all I am going to be doing are the drop boxes. I never did a Troop at a Star Wars premier so I am going to do that today instead of doing my build. But this morning I completed the drop boxes (except for the elastic that attaches to the belt, ill worry about that when I get my belt assembled).

 

So Walts replacement drop boxes came in not too long ago and the shade of white is not too different:

 

This is probably the easiest part of the build so I wont go int detail on what I did. I just cut the boxes from the excess plastic and sanded them down. I couldnt find on the forums a standard thickness for drop boxes but my friend who has a centurion approved walts kit said she did 15mm and my RS drop boxes are 10mm. My drop boxes ended up being about 14mm.

 

Next ill probably get these buttons sanded down, but tomorrow I intend to finally get my stupid left bicep fully assembled. I hate that thing. 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2019 by Lord_Potato

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Coming along nicely 

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

Trimmed away the flat ridge on the front outboard flat edge:

 

Front, side, and rear view on the bicep. Ridge on the side is still on the middle and both front and back pieces still meet at the middle:

 

There is a little extra gap at the top but when I flex my arm, the extra space gets used up:

 

As much as I want to put on cover strips and be done with this bicep, cutting off one section of flat ridge has created an extra step. The two pieces now meet up in a "V" angle instead of a straight flat surface for a cover strip. So now I need to glue a cover strip in the inside to help flatted out the "V" and once it dries put it in boiling water to reinforce a more flat surface for the cover trip. After that, this thing should be ready for cover strips.

 

 

Edited December 21, 2019 by Lord_Potato

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

Finally finished the left bicep. Might have to touch up the lip/return edge with some sandpaper. I am happy with the result. I think its proportionally sized to my bicep....there is a little extra gap near the top due to the natural flair but I'll wait until final strapping/fitting to see if it is absolutely necessary to adjust. I know the armor isn't supposed to be skin tight, I just want it to look like it is supposed to fit me, like it was actually issued to me and my body specifications. Now I can work on the rift bicep and use the techniques that worked on the left for the right.

Sent from my SM-N970U using Tapatalk

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

Looking great, Jonathan!  If I could make a suggestion, it would be to slightly round off the ends of all the cover strips a bit.  I have added some screen used armor references to give you a better example.  Keep up the fantastic work!  

 

                          

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

5 hours ago, justjoseph63 said:

Looking great, Jonathan!  If I could make a suggestion, it would be to slightly round off the ends of all the cover strips a bit.  I have added some screen used armor references to give you a better example.  Keep up the fantastic work!  

 

                          

JustJoseph,

 

I cant believe in forgot about rounding the cover strips. I'll remove the strips and round the corners and glue them back next time I work on my kit. Thank you for the heads up.

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

I wouldn't worry about removing them, Jonathan.  A small file and/or some sandpaper will do the trick.  It's more of an aesthetic thing and not a requirement at any level, but it certainly makes them look better (and more screen accurate).

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

If you are afraid that you may damage under the cover strip just slip a knife blade under the corner  

 

Rounded off or angle cut are both acceptable

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

On 12/24/2019 at 4:52 PM, justjoseph63 said:

I wouldn't worry about removing them, Jonathan.  A small file and/or some sandpaper will do the trick.  It's more of an aesthetic thing and not a requirement at any level, but it certainly makes them look better (and more screen accurate).

Thank you! I have rounded the cover strips. Thank you for the insight!

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

On 12/24/2019 at 5:10 PM, gmrhodes13 said:

If you are afraid that you may damage under the cover strip just slip a knife blade under the corner  

 

Rounded off or angle cut are both acceptable

Thank you for your tips! I was able to successfully trim my cover strips.

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

Busy time December is....well now January.

 

I am getting back on making small progress. The holidays were busy and my first baby came into the world on Christmas eve. My little Stormtrooper.

 

So, I adjust my cover strips to make them more screen accurate.

 

Now with the left bicep completed (besides strapping) I have started working on the right:

 

When I received my commissioned RS and reshaped and trimmed down the torso, I ditched the original style strapping that held the RS armor together. I appreciate screen accuracy but I replaced it with straps and snaps for convenience. I decided to buy a solder iron to help make the snaps on the nylon platforms/squares to be more secure and to prevent fraying for this build. As i realized some of my nylon squares and the quality of the snaps I bought have caused some issues over my year of trooping. 

I am not at the strapping portion yet but I am trying to gather all the materials I need (should have done this at the beginning ha ha) 

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

Those biceps turned out fantastic, Jonathan!  Smart move using the soldering iron for the strapping holes, just don't forget to seal the edges as well.  Keep those photos coming!!

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

I use a soldering iron on nylon and elastic, works really well. Just use a lighter to go around the edges of the nylon or elastic, will stop it from fraying 

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

gmrhodes13 and justjoseph63 and the others who have commented on my thread,

 

I really appreciate all your inputs. Thank you all for following me along this journey that I am taking forever to do!!!

 

So finally the both biceps are done. I found these guys to be challenging as when I was resizing them I had to make sure the the cover strips will be going straight down and meet at the center and making sure the ridge is also at the middle on each outboard side. Lots of dimensions to worry about.

 

Cut the bad boys as evenly and straight as possible:

 

Cut one fat tab on each strip and hot water bathed them and formed them around a jar:

 

sanded the chest plate and back plate with using references from movie stills and the RS armor. Some of my return edges are still a little "thick" but for the most part they seem close to what i was referencing and I like they way it looks (i can always sand more away later)

 

Now I am trying to figure where to place the shoulder bridges. Just be eyeballing it, it looks like the fat ridge and the small ridges covering the front chest looks like a good place to start. I am using E6000 glue so it will be easy to pull apart and readjust

 

[TKSpartan[TK]]

1 hour ago, Lord_Potato said:

Now I am trying to figure where to place the shoulder bridges

Hi Jonathan, What I did was to use painter tape and put on my chest and back pieces then placed the shoulder bridges, aligned them and marked with a pencil. here is a reference photo that can help to see the average  position. 

 heope this can give you some idea. And keep on doing a great build.

 

 

 

 

Cheers

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

It looks like you have the placement on the shoulder bridges just right, Jonathan, and glad to see you removed the large tab!  As long as you have enough to go a few inches over the top tabs on the back plate (and it looks like you do) you are golden.

 

[Cricket[TK]]

12 hours ago, Lord_Potato said:

 

sanded the chest plate and back plate with using references from movie stills and the RS armor. Some of my return edges are still a little "thick" but for the most part they seem close to what i was referencing and I like they way it looks (i can always sand more away later)

 

 

Hey Jonathan, 

Just wanted to mention something about the returns on the backplate- namely the ones around the shoulders/arms.  This is an area of high stress on the armor.  Any returns around the back shoulders- no matter how small! - will eventually crack (*cough- ask me how I know - cough*).  You'll end up having to do repairs somewhere down the road if you keep those returns on.  As seen in the reference pic below, it's totally accurate to completely remove those returns on the back plate sides, especially around the shoulders.


When you remove the returns back there, you allow the armor to flex, which means no cracking.   

Your build is coming along nicely!  Keep up the good work!