Art Andrews

After a bit more checking and scaling, I am going with 0.875" for the strips on the thighs.

Another quick update on scaling the strips. I have come up with 0.75" for the front of the shins and 1" for the rear of the shins. I am still struggling to determine the width of the stips on the thighs... I think they are either 0.875" or 1"... leaning toward 0.875, but just not sure at this point. If anyone has thoughts on this, I am open to suggestion.

Yeah... I was trying them on today to see if I could actually get that look... I have monkey arms, and can't get the exact look, but I can get close.

Just wanted to verify some scaling... According to my numbers, the strips which cover the gaps on both the biceps and forearms are 0.75" on most of the sandtroopers (can't say all). According to my numbers, the elastic at the bottom of the sandtrooper shoulderbell which loops around the bicep, is 1" wide. I can't confirm or deny if this is the same for all ANH stormtroopers, but this is definitely much wider than what we see on the RotJ stormtroopers that were on display at the MoM and AoSW exhibit. This is just my opinion, but the sandtrooper forearms look more "beefy" than the standard stormtrooper forearms, most likely due to the wider strips which I believe cover a thicker "platform" which increases the overall circumference of the forearms by approximately 0.5" inches.

???

On my last set of armor, a cyanoacrylate based glue, like super-glue, was used for the assembly of armor. However, on the original armor, the glue seems to be a white adhesive, not clear. The armor I am currently building is styrene based and I would love to find a white (not off-white) glue that would fuse the pieces together. What are you using for your armor? Do you have any suggestions for a white glue that would fuse the armor pieces? I really don't want to glue and then try to paint the glued areas white.

Posted this in the other thread but thought I would post it here as well... Here is an initial test hook for the bicep. I am not at all convinced the sandtroopers had the hooks, but I might include them anyway since nothing else will be holding the biceps up.

So, based on the ref I have, here is a quick hook I made. I think it needs some refining on the shape, but it is a start. Here is my problem though... from what I have seen, there is no proof that the sandtroopers have the hooks and I tend to believe they probably didn't at the point in which they were created. The sandtroopers appear to be assembled (in general) very differently from the final stormtroopers, with the sandtrooper shoulder bells riding very low, and almost completely engulfing the biceps. I also noticed that the elastic from the shoulderbell that goes around the arm is much thicker on the sandtroopers than on later troopers, especially the RotJ troopers seen at MoM. It is a bit tough because on a lot of these details there aren't definitives... only generalizations, so there is no way to say "this is the one and only right way" which may make a lot of people happy because it gives them a lot of latitude, but is frustrating for me, because it means there is no one right way to do it...

There are other options than striving for 100% accuracy? :lol: What you are saying is exactly what I am coming up with. I am just wondering where we got the elastic coming down from the shoulderbell to the bicep... I am guessing that just seems logical given the the bicep attached to the forearm that way and it was initially assumed the bicep attached to the shoulderbell in a similar manner.

Seems like a simple question.... on my first suit I put a snap into the inside of the shoulder bell and then ran a 1" strap down the outside of my arm to the inside of the bicep... and I know I am not the only person to do it that way... but my question is, do we have any proof the ANH suits were put together that way? I am beginning to think the only thing actually holding the bicep in place is the forearm pushing up on it and the little hook on the inside of the bicep, hooking over the elastic band of the shoulder bell. Thoughts?

RE: Biceps Well... I might have messed up already... sorta. I began work on the biceps... not sure why I started there, but I did. I went back to my handy-dandy pics and did a few scaled measurements and came up with the strips that cover the gaps of the bicep halves being 0.5" which I thought was odd to have an imperial unit measurement for an item made in the UK... but whatever, it is what it is. On the biceps I have, there is a raised area to the strips, I assume from the original RotJ casting.... I have looked and looked and simply can't determined if these raised beds are actually on the original ANH biceps or not. In some pics it looks like there are raised beds, and in some pics it looks like there are not. With the way my biceps are formed, I have no choice but to use the raised beds because if I cut them off, the circumference of the bicep will be too small. Inside the bicep pieces, the edges of the raised beds are very clearly defined. Since the strip measured 0.5" in width, I divided it in half and trimmed both halves of the raised beds to 0.25".... so when the biceps are assembled, the overall width of the raised bed is 0.5". Well... here is the issue... When I went back and was looking at other ref, I noticed that the sandtroopers, in particular, the Terrick armor has strips that are MUCH wider than the studio stormtrooper and the armor seen in the archives. I check some other photos and while there is some inconsistency, it appears that at least on the sandtroopers the strips were cut to roughly match the width of the vacced in "strip" detail that runs down the center of the shoulderbell, which is roughly 0.75"!!! Now, I can't tell you definitively that the wide strips are a sandtrooper trait and that all sandtroopers have them and no stormtroopers have them, but it does seem to me that MORE sandtroopers have them than stormtroopers! I have no idea if any of this is new info or if this is something that has been hashed out in the past, but after looking at the pics, I am going to make my strips for the biceps and forearms at 0.75" in width instead of 0.5." This means I am now going to have a bit of a gap between the two halves of my biceps since I have already trimmed them for the 0.5" strips... crud... Oh well... always knew this was going to be a test suit. One other thing to note: I am really trying not to go too crazy with making perfect cut lines. While it kills me, I have committed to not sanding ANY edges on my armor pieces but to cut them the best I can and to leave them at that. Here are some pics.

You'd have to ask someone who bought Matt's discs.

I am not sure, but I will show pics of how mine is strapped and I am going to try to do it as close to the original as I can. I can already tell some compromises will have to be made, because whoever trimmed this armor (not sure if it was Gino or the previous owner) trimmed too much of the edging off and didn't leave me enough to do all the strapping 100% accurate... but I will make the compromises as few as possible.

It is possibly due to it being a different material, but it also could be a difference in the way it was sewn or the way the padding was put in the pauldrons.. Very hard to say.

Yup. The webbing is pretty rough, plus it is cracked. Will probably just end up havin to replace it all together.

Don't have a helmet at the moment... and yeah, the archive reference images are very helpful.

Yup, planning to put it together like the sets of armor in the archives.

So, after years of being without trooper armor, I got in a new set today... well, not really a "new" set but a set that Gino released on eBay several years ago has found its way into my hands. My original armor came mostly reassembled so in some ways this will be a first for me as I will need to assemble every part myself. My intention is to build up each part as close to how the originals were made as possible, with the same strapping and attachments systems, and where possible, the same detailing. I do not expect this to be my final set of armor but expect to build this up as a test and probably sell it off after I am done. My true hope is some day, Gino will retool the bucks he has and make a new, and more accurate set of ANH armor, now that we have much better reference. Of course, I might be dreaming on that one... Anyway, I have some obstacles to overcome right out of the box as a few of the pieces are damaged or have cracks here and there. Nothing that can't be fixed with a bit of worth, but I am starting out a bit in the hole. Also, the belly detail had already been glued into place so I had to cut that off and now need to go back and clean up around the belly rectangle. I am pretty excited about this as well as nervous. I want to really make an effort at capturing some of the essence of the original armor in the fact that it is not cleanly trimmed and not really all that nice. I think Lee (Rogue Studios) said it best when he said we are creating "controlled sloppiness." We will see how it goes... So here is the original armor: Don't expect updates too often, but I hope to get this done before Dragon Con... We will see.

Wow.... That is just GORGEOUS!!! Absolutely loving it!

You are right on target bud. The two white pauldron troopers are indeed different. One is plain and one has the stitching.

You are right.... but please keep in mind, this was a first prototype, mostly to test Gino's overall pattern. This is NOT the material or the padding we expect to the be in the final pauldrons. As silly as it may sound... the final pauldrons will be a lot more crappy than this one... just like the originals Lee is still stuck on doing quality work, but don't you guys worry... we will break him from it and get him on the screen accurate kick if it kills us! :lol:

As with the pouch run, this has been a great project to be involved in! I love working with Sci-Fire and having the inclusion of Gino is really helping us push things to the "next level." And John, is it "pushy" to want nothing less than perfection?!? :lol: Seriously, we have a good way to go, but once we are done, I hope we will have a definitive piece that lacks nothing.

Old Armor: I don't have a pic of me in trooper armor with the helmet, so here is one with me in SST armor without a helmet.

Could be very cool for those who troop! I am sure the kiddies would love it!

So... if I get one of these, and start recreating scenes from ANH... would I be... playing with myself?