Stromtrooper Armor

I'm a new member here. In fact it's like the first time I'v ever been here. I was wondering what would be a good materal to make stormtrooper armor?

 

plastisteel.

LOL!!!

sorry, i had to.

most use a type of ABS white plastic, i cant recall off hand the exact name of it, (someone will be here soon that knows)

they come in sheets, and basically after youve made your moulds, you place the sturdy, yet easilly melted plastic on top of it and melt it down with a heat gun, and assuming you have a vacuum table set up, you suck the air out from the inside, let cool, trim and voila, one piece out of like 40!

 

Hello and welcome

You can try this thread for more information!

 

first up, welcome to the boards.

secondly, if you are not Lonnie (I guess you're not as Lonnie has armor!), I suggest you think of a new handle, as TK 249 is already in existence!!

http://www.501st.com/members/displaymember.cfm?userID=2716&costumeID=1

Tk numbers are assigned by the 501st legion, once you join the ranks you are given one... using someone else's is going to end in tears believe me.[obviously the tk number assignment is for fun /identification purposes only, there's no real imperial navy anymore ]

I suggest you do a few google searches for stormtrooper, armor, and maybe even 501st legion.

That brings me on to my next bit. Armor can be made out of anything (I've seen plastic bags to abs via cardboard). I guess other than your preference for movie accuracy (this is the right place if you want accurate!) the main driver will be price. your local 501st can help you locate armor of the abs / styrene kind.

Your local chapter of the 501st will be able to help you get some movie accurate armor if that is what you're looking for. There's more detail about all that in the link sam has put up.

I recently acquired a helmet made by the prop maker who made the originals for the movie - and belive me that is EXPENSIVE!

Most armor used is ABS / Styrene as this gives a realistic version like what was used in the movies? Figure on spending up to 500 bucks for a kit of this stuff however, maybe a little less if you're lucky. Ebay is always a good place to get a feel for prices even if you don't ultimately buy from there. In economists terms, it's almost like a perfect market in terms of transparency...

good luck!

Leon
tk-0545

[edited:dagnammit Sam - you beat me to it!]

 

I tried Ebay, and the price range is about $400-$1,000. And regaurding my name I like it, and I couldn't think of any other numbers. Is that other person you speek of a member of The Force.Net

 

Your not going to find stormtrooper armor less then $400.00 for the REAL stuff anyway thats of any good quality.


LEON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its The Brit!!!

 

Who's Leon. And I will not be attending Star Wars Celebration Three, though I wish I was.

 

I'm thebrit, and if you haven't heard of me, you clearly won't understand why Sam is sooooo pleased to hear from me. I'm a just a 501st member in relatively good standing.

As for this:

>And regaurding my name I like it, and I couldn't think of any other numbers. Is that other person you speek of a member of The Force.Net

I coulda seen that coming a mile off. If the only numbers you can think of are two, four and nine, you need to watch more sesame street!

Only kidding. Listen, tk-249 is an operating number in the 501st and already in issue. I said as much in my ever so helpful post. If you get a stormtrooper costume you are likely wanting to wear it, join the 501st etc. Then you'll need another number... Clearly Lonnie doesn't have a theforce.net username of tk-249 or you would not have been able to choose it.

clearly it's just a number and nobody has the divine right to use it or otherwise!

Seriously, I was just trying to help avoid confusion later down the line. as for tk-249 on this board, keep it. It suits you!

On to costs.

I think that was the kind of range we suggested to expect for premade stuff. you could go the route of vac forming your own, but you'd need access to a vac former, which I guess you don't have. Alternatively you could try a cheaper option:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=37887&item=6511644032&rd=1

happy hunting

 

I was talking to some one, and they said that sintra is a kind of plastic, and it was easy to work with. They also thought that it wouldn't be too much money. If anyone knows anything about it, could you please tell me.

 

sentra/sintra is a type is plastic.it easily bends when warms.it has different properties than ABS and styrene.it is not for vaccumforming.

not to railroad this thread but making your own trooper costume is a huge job.and since your obviously new to this the chances of it being worthy of the costuming standards most of us are used to are slim.
then if you did manage to make the costume it would have to look just like all the other troopers to be acceptable at events.you show up to any con where there is a real trooper and youll be disappointed.

if this is for fun go for it,but making and bending your own armor will take more time then you could suspect.
if your serious then get a couple of jobs,pay the 500 and get a real suit.

and i think its kinda disrespectful to use another person's TK id#.yes you can legally i guess.but the 501st has earned its place in SW fandom,and these TK#'s arent a joke.these guys get decals and tattoos and everything with their TK#.
plus if something were to happen on the boards the your posts would be tracked back to him.

like it was mentioned before, if you did get a suit of armor you would have to choose a differnet number anyway since that one is taken,

Skip
501st Southern Outpost XO

 

Most stormtrooper armor kits are alot more that $500. There more like $1,000, unless I plan to buy one from Ebay then I have a chance of it not fitting. Plus I didn't know that TK-249 was some one's number.

 

Or does anyone have a small set of armor that they don't want?

 

the trooper armor suits you see out there are all the same.some people trim off the edges to make em smaller.
or add shims of plastic to make em bigger.they are pretty easy to manipulate.
as for the price,dont pay 1000. 500-600 is about right.
plus youll need to add in extra for boots,gloves,neckseal,body suit and blaster.plus flat lenses and fans for the helmet.
its a good sized project but if you live near other troopers you will love wearing it!
id suggest looking on the 501st website,look up members by state and find someone close to you.go to an event and see the armor in person,how it fits,how it sounds,how it pinches,all that jazz.
from there you can get more details.

as for that tk id number,we know you didnt know.and were not really busting your hump over it.once you get into this costuming stuff some more you'll get our meaning.its all good!!!
welcome to your next addiction.....

 

skip is right about the tattoos I guess. Imagine me meeting a tk-0545 on this board....



[image=http://photos.imageevent.com/thebrit/upontheroof/websize/DSC00629-1.JPG]

 

I have found a very helpful website. www.gotarmor.com The armor there is $750 for just the armor. Then it sales all the neck seels, blastes, ect.

If I would get armor there, I would have two helmets, because about a month ago I orbered a stormtrooper helmet from Star Wars Shop. I would probably be spending about $800 for everything. The shipping there is only $35 flat, so thats good. Plus I could get armor that fits me. The boots there are kind of expensive, so I could get them somewhere else for a better price. Everything would be about $884 withput shipping.

 

Dear Bothan,

the lid you ordered from starwarshop is unlikely to be of the same material / shade of white etc., Suggest you keep that one for display.

Glad you found somewhere [not that I've heard of the site] and that you have a realistic price in mind now.

You're up mighty early, but I guess the early bird catches the worm in this instance

 

Yeah, but $800 is still alot of money. If anyone has ordered from that site befor, I would like to know how the armor is, and if it's worth that much money.

 

Bothan,

why don't you contact the guy and ask him for references?

If he sells on ebay, you can check his feedback too. At the end of the day, with a few exceptions, ABS armor is ABS armor. If the guy is a reseller then he probably has a kit already made. There are very few people who pull their own armor, it being copyrighted and all means that not many people bother.

As already mentioned, if you contact your local 501st garrison, they can put you in touch with their suppliers. At the end of the day cheap is one thing, but peace of mind and quality is another!

 

For a good primer on what it takes to make your own vacuumformed plastic armor by hand I recommend running over to my HOW TO website on the subject:

http://www.studiocreations.com/howto/stormtrooper

I go into a failry detailed description on how to make molds, vacuumform the plastic using a standard 4 horse power shopvac, and then assembling the armor. The directions are a bit dated (circa 1999), but the technique and principles are solid.

FYI - cost of making your own armor ranges from $300 to about $1500, depending on how much time you want to spend on making molds and parts. Cut enough corners and you can make a full bodyarmor fairly cheap and it still looking good, but it will take time. To do the armor the "hollywood-way" you'll need to spend a bit more money.

I agree with TheBrit about questioning heavily the underground propdealer before buying a set of armor, if you go that route. Make sure they have a good reputation and they sell a good product. You need ot make sure your money is spent wisely. Ebays Feedback system is really nice in seeing how a dealer treats his past customers and what type of product they sell. This is a very underground market and the dealers can be a bit shady.

It might be a good idea to PRIVATE MESSAGE a couple peope in this post about their recommendations of dealers (click on the private message link at the bottom of everyone's posting). It's TFN's forum policy not to talk openly about a specific unlicensed dealer in any thread, so a private communication would be in order.

 

Oh crimeny....now I have to post.


Okay...if you want info on the guy at www.gotarmor.com then pm me.

Other than that...all I have to say is that I have been making costumes for years, and my husband is in the 501st. I will be sending in my membership application to them in a few weeks upon the completion of my Imperial costume.
Armor (stormtrooper, clone trooper, tie fighter, biker scout, or any of them for that matter) are not cheap costumes to create. If you are going to do it...then my advice is to do it RIGHT the first time.
If you are already worried about the cost of the armor alone-you really should sit and think of everything else that must be bought and/or made once you get it-boots, undersuit, neckseal, gloves, fans (for cooling the inside of your helmet)...and many other things to top it all off like helmet speakers, blasters and other things.
Once you have or make armor-you also need some supplies to construct it. It is not cheap-any way you go about it. There just isn't a "cheap" way to make a costume of this caliber.
Money was an issue with us as well...and we just had to take it slow. We started with the armor-and it took about a year to get all of the extras and components together.
QS

 

>If you are going to do it...then my advice is to do it RIGHT the first time.

I agree. As someone here more eloquently put, 'buy it cheap, buy it twice'. I just used that when the new car broke down. Wasn't well received but it was agreed upon!

Taking it bit by bit is definitely the best way to go. Makes it more fun to complete your armor in bits anyway - it becomes kind of a project that you can obsess about.

 

Oh yes....OBSESS, OBSESS!!!