Stormtrooper

Well for anyone who was waiting on a set of these, I have them available once again For info head over to the original thread (Post #36) in the Project Orders section CLICK HERE ---> ANH authentic rubber gloves with latex handguards Cheers, John troopergloves@yahoo.com

Bezerkus - good eye.... I went through many, many screengrabs and watched ANH in High Definition before seeing the shot you posted, which shows the colour of the natural, cured latex underneath the paint. Another good scene is right at the start of the movie, where Vader is advancing towards trhe camera, and the troopers (holding their blasters high up) can be seen behind him, with various scrapes and scratches in the handguards' paint.... showing the brown-honey colour underneath. When I first started on a prototype for these I tried polyurethane rubber (which was too stiff and didn't capture enough surface detail from the mould) and even a 'sandwich construction' of a latex skin in the mould, which I let cure and then filled the void with polyurethane rubber.... the 2 substances bonded well together but again the handguards were too rigid, and the latex didn't cure properly (remained liquid in places for several weeks! ) So good ole' latex seems to be what they used back in '76 and for that reason, that's what I'm using now... The cost of the actual gloves is so little, that buying the handguards *without* them makes very little difference to the price. So even if you do have a set of accurate gloves already, there's little incentive to buy the handguards on their own. For pricing info please see my thread in the For Sale section. Hey RocKo... thanks for the comments and the excellent screengrab comparrisons that you did. I'm really glad that you were happy with your set from the first run! Cheers, John troopergloves@yahoo.com

Hi everyone. As some of you may know I made some latex ANH Stormtrooper handguards and authentic gloves, a few months back. A lot of people asked me if I was going to produce them again and the answer had always been "no".... until now If you'd like to know more, check out the For Sale section, or mail me at troopergloves@yahoo.com First come, first served Cheers, John troopergloves@yahoo.com

Thanks for taking the time to create and post the comparison pics Rocko, and I'm really glad that you're happy with your set This lil' project has 'snowballed' on me, since I originally had intended to create just a couple of sets for my own replica ANH armour... then when I had the moulds made and some latex left-over I thought I'd offer them on the forums and maybe sell 6 or 7 pairs.... hhhmmm, let's just say I sold quite a bit more! Also, I sent a few of these out on Saturday (emails on their way to the soon-to-be-owners ) and got completely HAMMERED on the Airmail charges. GGGGRRRR Rip-off Britain I completely underestimated the Demand, and ended-up under-pricing them and didn't realise that the latex takes 3 or 4 days to cure before I can paint them, which adds to the timeframe! So after I finish the current run, I'll offer a LIMITED 2nd run and they'll likely be more expensive... sorry, but I'm making practically zilch on these, but as a Stormtrooper fan I would like as many fellow fans to have accurate latex handguards So thanks everyone for the kind remarks - I'm glad to be helping (in a small way) to create more accurate Storm / Sandtroopers, but if you're interested in getting in on the SECOND run then please 'hold tight' and "watch this space" Cheers, John

I finally got around to producing some of these... if anyone wants to turn up the accuracy-meter on their TD (or TK ), take a look at: Accurate ANH Rubber Gloves / Handguards Project Run Cheers, John

Hi everyone, I've been looking for accurate ANH style rubber gloves for my Stormtrooper costume for a looong time now... tried 2 different types of British Army NBC gloves and the US NBC army chemical gloves (even though it seemed likely that the originals were sourced in the U.K. as that's were ANH was filmed). I even tried a pair from an online fetish company (I'm sure they believed all the BS I told them about wanting them for a Star Wars costume, eh?! LOL) Well, I've finally managed to find rubber gloves that are IMO indistinguishable from the originals, and for all I know they may even be the same type as used in ANH. They have rubber checked patterns on the fingernail areas, (as shown in the movie still at the bottom of this thread - thanks Paul C ) as well as the palm of the glove, which may or may not have been on the movie originals. I've never been a big fan of *vac-formed* plastic handplate armour for ANH troopers so I set about making some latex ones that I could glue onto the back of the rubber gloves... Those aren't *my* sausage fingers by the way... they're my mannequin's LOL Note the dark honey-colour of the cured latex on the back of the handguard on the right of the picture. If you watch ANH frame-by-frame as I often do you'll see loads of places where the white paint/dye has worn-off the troopers handguards, exposing this dark latex colour... probably with handling the blasters etc. etc. Well I couldn't let my mannequin have all the fun, so I suited-up and grabbed a resin ANH blaster for a pic or two: And finally, just for fun I took a section from a movie still of Han in the detention block, cropped one of my pics and grayscaled it to see how they'd compare: These gloves have a light flock-lining inside which slightly reduces the whole sweat issue... but in the overpowering heat of Tunisia in 1976, I reckon those big-haired sandtroper actors deserved better paypackets than the *principal* actors! Cheers, John

Fantastic work Paul! It looks incredible. Get Well Soon to your son... I bet he can't wait to get the cast off his arm, and go trooping with his old man Would be great to see some pics of the pair of you in full armour, side by side! Cheers, John

Wow, looks great... another step towards a Star Wars video game with photorealistic graphics But I don't understand why the Stormtrooper is so heavily weathered??? Cheers, John

Yeah, could it be Joe Johnston making another appearance as a trooper?... He defintiely has big orangutan arms Cheers, John

I thought everyone knew that Prince was a 'Dewback Fluffer' back in the late 70's?? Brilliant pic Braks... definitely worth buying for this alone (the extra info on the stormtrooper costumes from is an added bonus) Cheers, John

Thanks for posting the pics Guns... when I used the word 'flawed' I was referring to TE helmets, and from the pics that you have posted of your TE2 helmets it seems that this problem is NOT present on your helmets. In your pics the 3rd helmet in the line-up ("one of the first ones that Matt pulled") I think it's safe to say that it was his trimming and construction that was 'flawed', as it appears to have the ridge-line too high up. Some of the movie helmets have their left-hand-side ear fixed at an acute angle, and Matt seems to have exagerated this feature on his helmets. I tried to amend this on my own TE helmet by positioning the ear in a more 'upright' angle which seemed to solve it a bit, but I think now it would have looked better if I had actually moved the ear a fraction of an inch higher up. Whilst it's true that all original Stormtrooper helmets differed slightly, I still find it strange that Matt couldn't have assembled his helmets to closer resemble the 'BrianR' original helmet that it was moulded from??? Cheers, John

Not a silly question at all mate... No, the problem only exists on the Left-Hand-Side (as if you are wearing the helmet) The ridge lines up OK on the Right-Hand-Side.... which leads me to believe that Matt vac-formed the helmets incorrectly. Maybe he removed them from the vac-form buck whilst the plastic was still warm and somehow stretched the left-hand-side? Cheers, John

Well since the other thread got sidetracked, and has subsequently been locked... I thought I'd post a new thread to see if all TE helmets have the flaw shown below So here's a big ole' pic showing the left-hand-side of several original ANH/ESB helmets in private collections, compared to 3 TE helmets at the bottom. The line I'm referring to is the 'ridge' on the back which runs round to where the top of the ear-covers are at the sides... it should be approximately level with the brow trim and top of the eye lenses... but on the LEFT-HAND-SIDE on TE's helmets, the ridge on the back is waaaay too high, It isn't a trimming issue IMO as it can't be remedied by trimming it differently... it's just down to the way the helmet has been vac-formed. Not bashing Matt's helmets.. just pointing out something that I thought more people would have noticed! I've used images from a variety of places for this comparison - if anyone sees a pic that is theirs and wants it removed, just let me know and I'll edit the image Cheers, John

OK here's a big ole' pic showing the left-hand-side of several original ANH/ESB helmets in private collections, compared to 3 TE helmets at the bottom. The line I'm referring to is the 'ridge' on the back which runs round to where the top of the ear-covers are at the sides... it should be approximately level with the brow trim and top of the eye lenses... but on the LEFT-HAND-SIDE on TE's helmets, the ridge on the back is waaaay too high, It isn't a trimming issue IMO as it can't be remedied by trimming it differently... it's just down to the way the helmet has been vac-formed. Not bashing Matt's helmets.. just pointing out something that I thought more people would have noticed! I've used images from a variety of places for this comparison - if anyone sees a pic that is theirs and wants it removed, just let me know and I'll edit the image Cheers, John PS - Does anyone have a TE (Bumpy Cap or Smooth) that has the ridge at the proper height on the left-hand-side? I'd love to see pics

Nice helmet collection butcherbird... IMO the best out of those three is the GINO I never could understand why no-one noticed this major problem with the TE's rear cap line... On the original helmets and just about every other replica helmet, the rear line runs along the top of the ear-cover and lines up with the line of the brow trim. But on Matt's helmets this line was always about 1/2" too high, and at the wrong angle completely. I tried to disguise this on an old TE helmet kit that I got, by re-positioning the ear-cover in a more vertical position, but there's still clearly a problem with the shape of the cap/back on his helmets. This problem isn't there on the GINO and GF/Authenticprops which originated from the same helmet! Can someone post a pic of their TE2 for comparison? Butcherbird, I hope you don't mind me using your pics to illustrate my point... if you do mind, just say so and I'll take 'em down. Cheers, John