Strider

Great pointers - thx Paul! I've made some changes to the right shin (hadn't started with the left one yet). What do you think? At first I wasn't sure about your comment re the belt but it's always helpful to have a wife around who can offer a second opinion Basically, just turning round the belt did the trick of moving it up a tad bit higher (on the right is a reference pic of Davin Felth) >>>

Thanks for pointing it out anyway, you convinced me to actually make the change ;-)

Yeah, you're right. I noticed when I saw the picture. Good thing I haven't glued it yet. Next time I'll use a pencil first

Glad you like it. I'll try to add some more info along the way where I found that generally too little details are available. The main threads I'm following for this build are : TM's very own: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/19340-tms-anh-hero-buildtm/ Geaux Saints: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/21390-geaux-saints-anh-stunt-build-tm/ And also Trooperbay's building videos on Youtube "Building accurate Stormtrooper armour". Today I did the thighs and shins. Almost as usual I have to say I stumbled across some challenges which I didn't really find in any building threads. Foremost - as you all know - the whole armor (intentionally) is pretty wonky and uneven which makes it a little tricky just to draw some straight lines and just connect the dots. To illustrate: In order to use a joining strip of 20mm for the shins I left an overlap of 10mm from each ridge: However, since the shin is curved you have in effect 20mm on the top and the bottom and inbetween something around 15mm. Not a big issue because the strip covers it and you only have a small overlap of about 2 mm on each side in the middle which is not/barely visible (see next pictures). Or have I been doing something wrong?

Hey Bas, welcome back I'm looking forward to this project!

Well, personally I would rather add some black on the white/weathering using a dry brush technique than going through the hassle of painting and re-painting but that's just me.

Hey, that looks cool! I was thinking about something similiar for my mannequin...

Paul has been really great in guiding me through this build; This was his feedback re the cutting line of the thighs (red line was my initial idea, yellow an blue were his suggestion): More to come...

Thanks, guys - really appreciate your support Today I did some test fitting. That is, after I overcame the belt challenge. There are quite a few approaches to this; I roughly followed this route:: 1. Fold the belt in half, marked the middle and aligned it with the center line: 2. Press the belt to the armor to define the vertical line on which the snap lies and put a snap ca 15mm from the ridge on each side (on the vertical line). 3. Press the canvas belt (without the ammo) to the snaps and mark up the touching point with a pencel on both sides 4. Install the corresponding snaps on the canvas belt and attached them to the armor 5. Then line up the ammo part over the belt (optimally have someone check if it's horizontal) and mark with a pencil through the 3 pre-drilled holes of the ammo part. 6. Rivet the three holes (I would advise using extra washers) and ét voila! That's how the final result looked like (no strapping yet, just tape):

Thanks, guys. Bas, I'm flattered - I don't often get compliments from other men on my legs, lol OKay, I've made a bit of progress on my armor (will upload some pics later) but haven't made any trimming of the legs yet. The process with the shins seems rather straightforward to me. I will go with 20mm strip joints on the front and 25mm on the back and equally cut the overlap. The thighs, however, are a little bit more tricky to cut on the back. I'm still waiting on confirmation by Paul but my plan is to roughly make the cut like this: The tricky part is that in order to have straight strip joints I will have to make a cut slightly skewed to the left (at least that's my theory at the moment). For the overlap on the top my idea would be to use a gas lighter or a iron to create a return edge and smooth the crossover section. Please feel more than welcome to share ideas, comments and criticism

As it turned out, the arms could not be salvaged. However, Paul was kind enough to help me out there (Many thanks again, Paul!). This was really a rookie mistake and I can only urge those who build an armor for the first time to learn from my mistakes and use a more forgiving kind of glue (I will use E6000 now). Anyway, no use crying over spilled milk - the show must go on ;-) After some finetuning with my helmet, particularly the ears I did some rough trimming and test fitting of the right leg. What do you think - too much, too little?

Yay!

Thanks, Ricky. Yeah, E6000 is more safe but I couldn't resist the charm of the much faster (i.e. instantly) working super glue. Does anybody have any experiences in removing super glue on ABS plastic using a heat gun ?

Darn, just realized that I trusted too much on the implicit lines on the casts. The return edges on the forearm need to go completely and the ones on the biceps need to be trimmed back even further. Also the connection strip on the forearm is a little bit too wide but having used zap-a-gap I might not be able to change that Lesson learnt: Don't work on assumptions but only real reference pictures

Today I did the arms. Coming from the helmet this really seemed down hill and sure was fun seeing immediate results without the hassle of fixing and re-doing. The cutting was really a mixture of using the xacto blade and lexan scissors. Usually xacto for the straight outside trimming and lexan scissors for the round inlets. And of course my favorite Zap-A-Gap and Zip-Kicker - nothing works faster ;-)

Nice job, bro! For the next part always keep a cloth with paint thinner/terpentine at hand. I sure needed it a lot ;-)

TaaDaa: Helmet finished 1# Random Observation: The green color on the lenses rubs off VERY easily if you use anything alcohol based to clean them. Once it sticks to your hands however, only sandpaper can get it off. 2# Random Observation: There is a reason why many people start with the black color on the outside first and then use grey for the inside. It's much more easy to create a straight and thin black line.

@ Felix: You have the eyes of a falcon mate, yes, it's the operating handle There are a number of smaller details as well but that's the major thing as the handle is misplaced on the DD. You can check out Steve's website here >>> http://propsmaster.wix.com/dbs-props?fb_ref=Default It's pipe build and based on resin casts of a real MG34. @Nick: Hmm, that sounds like a good tipp. Please let us know how it worked!

Okay, you have answered the 50 EUR question correctly ;-) But that's not it since my DLT doesn't come with a rear sight as well (you can check out my other thread where I'm building the rear sight). Come on, you're so close, I can feel it ;-)

Sorry Rick, it's not right yet. Now you can only achieve SWAT with 6 teeth cut out. The SWAT Team might get a little dull if only Cantina Captains would hang out there ;-)

@Felix: Let's make it a little more interesting - if you tell me why the DLT isn't a DD I'll tell you what it is ;-)

Next is the inside of the helmet. Foam, lenses and straps. I got the foam but what do I sleep on tonight now?

Okay, paint job accomplished. Blessed are those with a firm eye, a steady hand - and a lot of patience! The ugliest part were the stripes. In order to get them more or less right I cut the stripes out of a screenshot of the Cantina Captain, put them in the right proportions and corrected some angles. After that I printed them out, fixed them on some gaffa tape and used my x-acto blade to cut out the outline. I will spare you the details of the numerous paint fixings I had to due due to paint bleeds ;-) 1. Joker Grin: Check 2. Correct Stripes: Check 3. Paint drips: Check 4. Re the "crack" below the stripes; I will take care of that when I do the weathering 5. Sit back, relax and take a deep breath: Check ;-)

Thanks, Ricky. Would'nt have the DLT if it wasn't for your tipps and support! The silver Rub n Buff works like a charm More updates on the helmet coming up tonight or tomorrow...

LOL. Looking great, bro! Did you use the Pandatrooper one-color approach?