TK ANH Stunt by CloseTheBlastDoor

[JBar[TK]]

I had something similar! I stored my armor in blue bags but the blue rubbed off and I thought it was ruined! What worked for me was Goo Gone and a paper towel with some scrubbing. Be careful though as even a paper towel can be abrasive. Don't use a sponge as that definitely scratched mine slightly in the areas that I tried it with. You can always just try Dawn soap and water with the paper towel as well.

 

Just take your time as you''ll need to scrub for a while to remove the stain

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Sometimes a softer polish will remove marks, if not you can compound polish then go over with a finer polish as that will bring back the shine. Locally we have a polish called T-cut, found that is a good mix of both a compound and polish, quite a few people mention Novus polish

[CloseTheBlastDoor[TK]]

18 hours ago, JBar said:

I had something similar! I stored my armor in blue bags but the blue rubbed off and I thought it was ruined! What worked for me was Goo Gone and a paper towel with some scrubbing. Be careful though as even a paper towel can be abrasive. Don't use a sponge as that definitely scratched mine slightly in the areas that I tried it with. You can always just try Dawn soap and water with the paper towel as well.

 

Just take your time as you''ll need to scrub for a while to remove the stain

Oh wow! I have a bottle of Goo Gone that is more than 30 years old! I should try that! I've tried so many other things to little or no avail. Thanks, John!

[CloseTheBlastDoor[TK]]

18 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Sometimes a softer polish will remove marks, if not you can compound polish then go over with a finer polish as that will bring back the shine. Locally we have a polish called T-cut, found that is a good mix of both a compound and polish, quite a few people mention Novus polish

I tried a little bit of the Novus #2 bottle, and I saw the tiniest bit of improvement. Will keep trying. So far, none of dish soap, IPA, hydrogen peroxide, or baking soda have worked 

 

I have not heard of T-cut, will look that up too, thanks!

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

7 hours ago, CloseTheBlastDoor said:

I have not heard of T-cut, will look that up too, thanks!

I'm not sure if it's available outside Australia, basically it's just a little courser than polish, like a compound paste but not as thick.  

[CloseTheBlastDoor[TK]]

Well, I tried all sorts of stuff trying to get the stain off of my helmet, with only mild success. I will leave it this way. I tried:

• Baking soda solution: Nothing
• Dawn with soap and water: Nothing
• Hydrogen peroxide: Nothing
• IPA: Nothing
• Novus #2 and #1: Nothing
• Mineral spirits: Nothing
• Goo Gone: Looks like it did something, but almost seems like it spread things around? Or the stain seemed to move? Really weird!

In my research, many of the above were suggested, but the surprising discovery was that ABS is porous! So I think that the coloring is set below the surface. As the helmet plastic is already somewhat thin, I’m going to be conservative and not try the rubbing compounds unless I get more desperate!

 

From now on, I’m storing my helmet in either a white felt material inside the bag, or something else that will protect it from this disastrous situation.

 

Thanks to all of you for your help!
 

[CloseTheBlastDoor[TK]]

OK, now that a bunch of troops are done, and I have time to work on my armor, I’m making the remaining fixes that were recommended in my EIB application in order to meet Centurion standards:
 

 

 

To summarize, they are (with my progress indicated):

1. Helmet sits too high. This one, I can’t help. There is already no padding on the top, and I have a pointy head that is touching it as it stands. Feels like Krennic's finger is there.
2. Zipper on neck seal showing. The “one size fits all” neck seal that I have is quite large for my skinny neck. I was wearing it with some velcroed overlap. Will just use the zipper and allow for some looseness.
3. Too much border on ammo belt square buttons. Addressed in an earlier post, as best possible.
4. Lower shins so they bottom out above the boots. Dressing issue, will fix.
5. Too much gap between shoulder bells and chest plate. I replaced the elastic with shorter nylon straps, and I’m adding some shoulder pads underneath my compression suit to raise the bells a bit higher so they align with the bridges. This is what I’m probably most self-conscious about, and I find myself quite jealous when I see that other TK’s align perfectly. I think it has to do with the shaping of the chest and back plates sending the bridges upward instead of horizontally. I don’t know why it’s like that.
6. Gaps between abdomen and kidney plates. This one’s going to be hard. On the left side, the kidney plate is curved, and the abdomen is not. Where the edges meet seems like it’s always going to be an issue. Advice?
7. Raise right side of ammo belt. Dressing issue, will fix.
8. Reduce circumference of forearms to match my arm size. Done. See earlier post.
9. Reduce circumference of shins to match my calves. Done, documented here.

#6: Photo

 

 

#9: Shins

 

The shins turned out to be interesting in a good way. Looking at my left shin, the cover strip had  a strong bias to the right. Re-measuring the fit, I needed about 25mm cut at the top, while preserving the bottom where it was. So instead of removing material from both sides, it looked better to remove it only from the side with the cover strip. And this time I wanted to preserve the strip because I had no more ABS sheeting that was that long. So after about an hour of working it, I got it off with minimal damage, marked, cut and trimmed the piece, and glued it all up.

 

 

The right side had similar symmetry issues, but was a better situation because it was the non-cover strip side that needed the trimming (about 23mm).

You get the idea!
 

Edited May 18, 2025 by CloseTheBlastDoor

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

I suffered some black staining on a pair of FOTK boots, I found it was the microphone from the rubber wrapped around it, nothing would remove it and I had to apply some shoe whitening to cover it, I now keep the microphone in a sealed bag. 

 

There is automotive compound polish, this is very course and will normally get rid of staining.

 

 

[CloseTheBlastDoor[TK]]

42 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

I suffered some black staining on a pair of FOTK boots, I found it was the microphone from the rubber wrapped around it, nothing would remove it and I had to apply some shoe whitening to cover it, I know keep the microphone in a sealed bag. 

 

There is automotive compound polish, this is very course and will normally get rid of staining.

 

 

Yikes, I'm sorry that happened!

 

You got me thinking about all of my black pieces of gear. I've just put them together in a separate bag so they won't touch the white stuff.

[CloseTheBlastDoor[TK]]

OK, with some help from members of my local garrison, I was able to figure out what to do with the alignment and gaps of the ab/kidney pieces. To recap, this is what they indicated:

 

This is the left-side joint with some better lighting:

 

The curvature of the kidney plate made it impossible to get a good abutment between the two sections, so I opted to back the kidney with a steel bar, as well as replace the three nylon straps with a single wide strap:

 

That straightened it out a bunch, and allowed me to mark off a bit of the curve on the edge for sanding.

 

I backed the ab piece with ABS, and it turned out like this:

This is the best I think I can do. A snug tightening of the belt, and I should be fine.

 

On the right side, it was a bit of a different matter where there was still some curve on the kidney, but not too much room to put the snaps in as well. I figured that the belt would cover the lower part of the seam, so I would instead focus on the upper part. I decided to make an ABS sandwich with a hole in it, so a tongue on the other side could engage it and line up the seam perfectly.

At first, I was going to cut the tongue piece, but because its measurements were somewhat precise, and I wanted to be able to easily heat form it, I opted to design and 3D print the part.

 

At the seam, the engagement was not going to be flat. There was a curve to it, so I heat formed the printed part.

 

This allowed for a smooth joint:

 

I then added snaps across the top, and used a longer piece of elastic to attach things:

 

Now to find someone to help me with photos for approval - fingers crossed!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Well worth the adjustments, looks much better, well done

[CloseTheBlastDoor[TK]]

3 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Well worth the adjustments, looks much better, well done

Thanks, Glen!

[CloseTheBlastDoor[TK]]

While basking in the glory of Centurion approval, I'm doing a little follow-up on the process. While I was making adjustments to the sniper plate, I noticed that the shin is starting to crack in a high stress area. Should I use the T-shirt and Super Glue method to put a stop to this, and should I try removing some of the return edge? Or something else?

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Personally I would use something a little stronger, some harder setting glue like an epoxy ( or JB Weld or Devcon) and a piece of plastic behind, this should prevent further cracking

[ukswrath[Staff]]

2 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Personally I would use something a little stronger, some harder setting glue like an epoxy ( or JB Weld or Devcon) and a piece of plastic behind, this should prevent further cracking

 Devcon works great, it's shapeable and paintable

[CloseTheBlastDoor[TK]]

I see lots of Devcon products. Are we talking about the clear epoxy, the cream plastic welder, or something else?

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

24 minutes ago, CloseTheBlastDoor said:

I see lots of Devcon products. Are we talking about the clear epoxy, the cream plastic welder, or something else?

Plastic welder from Devon should be fine, very similar to the JB weld

[CloseTheBlastDoor[TK]]

4 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Plastic welder from Devon should be fine, very similar to the JB weld

Great, thanks!

[CloseTheBlastDoor[TK]]

Wow, it's been a while! I have enjoyed trooping, and it's gonna get busy this weekend! One thing I'd like to change is the gloves. I have the latex rubber gloves from here: https://trooperbay.com/product/accurate-trooper-black-latex-gloves-stormtrooper-shadowtrooper/

 

They are obviously not breathable, so I also have separate liners when I wear them. This setup has been a pain, comfort and dexterity-wise.

 

I'd like to change the gloves out for something more porous and comfortable, as well as something that allows me to use/feel my fingertips on things like buttons for my voice changer. And I guess I'd have to buy new hand guards, as I don't think the ones I have are going to come off (super glued). Any suggestions for both gloves and guards?

Edited April 28 by CloseTheBlastDoor

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Personally I use the rubber gloves and inner liners, I've normally got 4 or 5 pairs with me so I can swap out when they get really wet.

 

I've heard some use nomex flight gloves and a few local troopers use their plastic hand plates that came with the kits. 

 

 

 

 

Some glue the latex hand plates directly to the fabric

 

http://www.kppix.com/piwigo/_data/i/upload/2016/09/08/20160908120625-d4a641e4-la.jpg

 

"I used E6000 to glue JustJoseph's latex hard guards to my Nomex gloves. Works great! I love not having to mess with separate hard hand guards on loops anymore." 

 

[shashachu[TK]]

I use these. They used to sell them at Home Depot but I think now they only sell the ones with ridges on the fingers. The hand guards cover up the logo on the back, and the colored edge is tucked into my under suit sleeves. https://gorillagripgloves.com/collections/core-grip/products/gorilla-grip-never-slip-work-gloves

 

I just use the plastic hand guards that came with my kit. Do you still have yours? I use Velcro to attach them and they've held up for 8+ years.

[CloseTheBlastDoor[TK]]

Hmm... glad I have some choices! @gmrhodes13, thanks for all the links! Looks like folks really like Nomex except for the hand plate attachment issues (sounds like E-6000 with latex plates is the way to go).

 

@shashachu Yeah, you're right that HD seems to only have the ridged ones (and not at the fingertips). I do still have my plastic hand guards from the WTF kit, but I would have to trim them down and add straps.

 

I'm thinking I can probably get the Nomex gloves by tomorrow, then see if the WTF handplates can work for all FIVE of my troops this weekend! If I'm brave enough, I might try to cut the latex handplates off the old pair and put them on the new ones before the next troop this Friday.

 

@shashachu looks like we don't have any troops together this weekend 

[shashachu[TK]]

16 hours ago, CloseTheBlastDoor said:

Hmm... glad I have some choices! @gmrhodes13, thanks for all the links! Looks like folks really like Nomex except for the hand plate attachment issues (sounds like E-6000 with latex plates is the way to go).

 

@shashachu Yeah, you're right that HD seems to only have the ridged ones (and not at the fingertips). I do still have my plastic hand guards from the WTF kit, but I would have to trim them down and add straps.

 

I'm thinking I can probably get the Nomex gloves by tomorrow, then see if the WTF handplates can work for all FIVE of my troops this weekend! If I'm brave enough, I might try to cut the latex handplates off the old pair and put them on the new ones before the next troop this Friday.

 

@shashachu looks like we don't have any troops together this weekend 

 

I will be at the ESB screening Monday night as Chewie :)