Tips & Tricks More trooper mods

I too will be receiving my armor tomorrow. It's a suit of screen accurate ANH armor and not the bulky oversized FX armor. I already have one of the helmets that goes with this kit and it is already painted and filled with all the fans, mike, amp, hyperdyne voice changer, and aerator speakers, not to mention a hard hat liner. Since I only have a week to get all of the armor trimmed and glued and fitted and snapped, I'm glad that the helmet is already done. Thanks to all of you who have contributed to this forum. I have a feeling that I'll be needing it since I am going to have to juggle classes, work, and completing this monster. I have a feeling that this is going to be a fun week. I'll be sure to post pictures of me at Wallmart for the DVD release! Thanks again all! - Zac (soon to be an official 501st TK)

 

Glad to see someone else in the same boat as me, Sot

We should both keep daily updates on our suits

 

Armor just arrived

The first thing that I noticed when I opened the box that the armor feels thinner and a bit more felxible than the FX stuff that I owned 2 years ago. Could they have moved to a lower gauge plastic to save some money?

Secondly I put my dance unitard (which I also received today), and tried on some of the armor peices. Even though I got the XL sized trooper theighs with it, they're still going to be a close call on doing it without shimming... The rest of the peices will be tight, but I think I'll be able to get them on. I'm going to start right in on the helmet to get that out of the way, and hopfully I can do all of the necessary mods to it. What kind of black mouth mesh should I use? I need to find it soon obvously because of Halloween

I'm off to start assembling now...

 

Christoff88 - When I did my helmet, I chose to use black screen mesh from Homedepot. I took three layers and put them all at slightly different angles so that it would become less see through. I then trimmed them to the right "frown" shape and hotglued them in place, being careful not to get glue where it would be seen. Be sure to hold a wet rag on the outside of the helmet to prevent the heat of the glue from warping the plastic. The only problem that I saw with this source of mesh is that you get several yards of material. On the other hand it only costs $5 for the whole roll so it isn't that big of a deal. You could always keep the rest in your garage for any helmet repairs or for that matter, for home repairs too! Hope this helps!

On another note: My armor that SHOULD have been here on Saturday is still not here yet. I don't know what to do since there is only a week left til Halloween... I guess that there will be a whole lot less sleep in the next few days! - Zac

 

Day 1 picture update coming shortly... Just have a quick question...

There are several sections on both my leg and arm armor where I had to wipe ABS glue away from, and it left a matte-ish finish on those spots. What is the best way to polish it back up again? Will the scratch remover that came with it do that trick? Thanks

 

Small photo update...

First, here is a dark and blurry shot of my dining room after unpacking everything in it and creating a HUGE mess!

[image=http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/saber_holder/Stormtrooper%20armor/progress1.jpg]

I take back what I said earlier about starting on the helmet... I ended up starting with the leg and arm peices, because I really wanted to get those out of the way. I glued the fronts of the calfs and theighs shut, and leaved the backs open. It seems as though I'll need to do some shimming on both of them due to comfort... They are just wayyy too tight as it it without shims. I'll be working on the shims sometime this week, not necessarily tomarrow.

As for the arm peices...

[image=http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/saber_holder/Stormtrooper%20armor/progress2.jpg]

I completely glued the biceps shut, as I'm able to just slip them on and off of my arms. They are kind of tight when they get in place, but I still have mobility.

As for the forearms, I just glued one side of each. Will velcro the other side I think for taking them off and on.



I'm hoping to start the helmet tomarrow, and maybe get some of my snaps put together

Also, as for the issue I mentioned in my last post, someone else already gave me the answer. They said to wet sand them down with at least 600 grit sandpaper, and then use the scratch remover to polish them

 

Ok... I started working on my chest and ab/back peices today. My friend and I decided to rivit the straps onto the chest and back, and when one of the rivits decided not to fasten shut, we had to drill it out. We apparently wern't smart enough to hold it down on the other side so it didnt spin though, and here are the consequences:

[image=http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/saber_holder/Stormtrooper%20armor/progress3.jpg]

After several words of harsh language, and thinking, we decided to just put slightly larger rivits in on the front of the chest.

[image=http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/saber_holder/Stormtrooper%20armor/progress4.jpg]

That all went good. The only thing that's bothering me is that the neck line of the chest armor kind of rides up against my neck. Is there any good way to adjust that WITHOUT repositioning the straps? Will the shoulder bells/biceps eventually weigh it down and hold it in place when they are attatched?

After that, we rivited the belt onto the ab plate, and added the buttons in. That was pretty much a sinch.

[image=http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/saber_holder/Stormtrooper%20armor/progress5.jpg]

And here I am with my armor as it stands right now...

[image=http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/saber_holder/Stormtrooper%20armor/progress6.jpg]

Also bolted the front and back of the helmet together, but I'd rather wait on showing the helmet until I have some actual progress on it

 

For future reference on removing rivets, check out this post at the sandtrooper forums:
Removing rivets cleanly

As far as the chest riding up, it should do that a little less once everything's together. The best cure I found was a pauldron though.

 

Thanks for the tips

Today I didn't get a WHOLE lot done... Made some progress on my helmet:

[image=http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/saber_holder/Stormtrooper%20armor/progress8.jpg]

I made a bit of a mess on the back seam of the dome with the ABS glue unfortunatly.... That stuff doesn't like me I'll just have to do some fine wet sanding and polishing I guess.

Also started adding the snaps on as you can somewhat see in this pic:

[image=http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a50/saber_holder/Stormtrooper%20armor/progress7.jpg]

I'm hoping to get some more progress tomarrow than I did today. I was too busy having to run out and do errands every 5 minutes

 

saber_holder are you connecting the upper back to the lower back? You might find that it is easier to move and bend over if you attach suspenders to the ab and lower back pieces. Here is a helpful link, and here is another. The second link is by far what I prefer. - Zac Sotman

 

Actually, I picked up a pair of suspenders earlier today Hopefully I'll get around to cutting the slits and adding them in tomarrow. Any idea how I should cut them? I was tinking of starting with small cutting disk on the dremil, but I'm thinking that even that's too big. The snaps in the upper back armor you see in my photo is to attatch the side straps between the chest and upper back peices

 

Dremel makes two different bits that would be perfect for what you are doing (cutting slits for the suspenders). Dremel bit #198 and #199. Bit #198 is 9/32" and bit #199 is 3/8". Either one should be perfect for you, and you should be able to find them at HomeDepot. - Zac

 

So I got my armor at about 3PM today and with only 20 minute break for dinner and a 20 minute break at 2AM I managed to work for a little over 12 hours today. The armor that I got was completely uncut and straight from the vac table. LOTS of cutting... 12 hours later, all of the major pieces are rough cut or better. Tomorrow I will try and post some pictures as well as start gluing the legs. We are currently aiming for 3-4 hours of sleep. God this weekend is going to kill me...

 

That really sucks... Luckily all I have left on mine is putting the O2 canister and aerators together. I'll be sure to post full completed pics tomarrow night

 

So after about 60-65 hours of work and one 42 hour stretch without sleep, my armor is finally wearable. I still need to paint the canister and put it together and attach it, but I figured that since I will eventually weather the armor and buy a backpack, it won't be necesary for tonight. My room-mate and I will be going to WallyWorld tonight for the DVD release so I'll be posting pictures tomorrow. I still haven't tried everything on all at once so here goes nothing... time to go and try it all on!! Wish me luck! - Zac

 

Here are those pictures that I promised:

picture 1

picture 2

picture 3

picture 4

You can see in picture number 2 that the thigh armor is WAY to big... I need to figure out how to make it smaller without changing the outline or shape of it too much... If anyone has any suggestion, they would be much appreciated. Thanks! - Zac

I can't get the picture to show up because it says that it won't allow remote linking... So you all got links to click on... oh well...

 

Here's what I did, as the larger thighs are MADE to be cut.

 

Just wanted to let everyone know that I am now an official TK! If you would like to see pictures of the completed suit, then click here! I just felt that I should thank all of you who have posted in this forum. Without your help, I would not have been able to get this armor done! Hope you guys enjoy the few pictures that I have. Many more will be posted in the future as I will now be trooping as TK6753 (soon to be a TD if I can ever find the time to dirty my armor and make it fit better and the money to buy some pouches and make a backpack ). Wish me luck! Thanks again.

Zac Sotman
TK 6753
Star Garrison

EDIT: Fixed link.

 

Congrats Zac!!!

Welcome to the Empire

It's always awesome to me to see people assemble their kits in various ways. I wish all fellow Troops that visit this thread a safe and Happy Holidays.

John Laurel

 

Thanks ObiJuan70 I appreciate the warm welcome. We should try and find some way to let more people know about this thread, so that they can benefit from it as well.
- Zac

 

I will definitely have to review this threads to make some updates to my armor. I like some of the ideas I've seen so far!!

 

I agree with ya Zac, I'm just surprised that this thread has gone on for some time now, but am glad that people still find this thread to be useful.

Good to have ya on here Sith Hunter!!!

Take care both of you

John

 

Nobody has posted to this thread in a while, so I thought that I would revive it. I'm still having some trouble with the legs of my armor. The thighs were WAY too large, so I ended up trimming them so that the diameter would fit my legs. Now the top of the thighs rub against the cod piece and the bottom rubs against the top of the shins. I don't want to try to shorten the thighs because then I would loose the lip around the edge, so I thought that I could lower the thighs a little so that they don't rub and shorten the shins at the bottom so that there isn't any rubbing anymore from the thighs. Let me know what you guys think about this idea... I'm tired of sounding clunky when I walk around. Thanks!

 

Apparently nobody looks at this thread anymore, but I figured that somebody's gotta look right? So here are a few pictures of my weathered armor. Let me know what you think guys!
(Click on the images for a larger view.)
[image=http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/2567/n498003493006693078432uj.jpg]
and another
[image=http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/2442/main13php6kx.jpg]
and the last one
[image=http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/6255/main14php7sz.jpg]
Enjoy!

 

Very nice... I'm actually also in the process of turning my current FX suit into a sandtrooper. I got rid of my FX helmet and am getting an ANH stunt RT mod, and am trying to get ahold of a replacment ab and sniper plate... Then I'll have to get some pouches, pauldran, and of course, dirty it up