starsaber25

Thanks so much Steve and thanks Andrew. I totally forgot to post those pictures. So here they are. Hopefully that should cover it. Now Steve I'm not too sure I know what you mean by raising the shoulder bridges. Besides the shins the shoulder bells have been giving me a fit. I would love to try and close up that gap but I don't get what you mean by raising them. If you could do me a favor and please explain that a little further that would be great. Again thank you so much for for my approval and its very exciting! I can't wait to make these changes and go Centurion!

Ok so I'm going to more or less wrap up my build thread at this point. I just wanted to share some things that I encountered along this journey with you all. First thing up is that I absolutely 1,000,000,000% recommend to all of the new aspiring troopers out there to build their own set of armor. Like many I was more leaning towards getting a suit that was already built from makers that offer that service. Or even contacted a couple of members on here to inquire about them building a suit for me. I am SO happy that I did not go that route and built it myself. There is no question that there is a complete satisfaction value when you sit there and look at your armor and you can say that you built that. There is no question that if i got a set of armor built for me that I would have had to make some alterations some how or some way. Which to me would have been counter productive to having a suit made for me. I was under the impression that if I went ahead and got a suit made for me that it would absolutely fit with no problems and I would never have to touch it. Well now after building my own I just can't ever imagine how that is possible. As far as skills go, I would never say that I am a very handy person. I have very basic skills when it comes to fixing things around the house or building things. When I decided to go ahead and buy a kit I was very nervous about it. This hobby does cost a lot of money and I was very fearful about ruining something because I wouldn't be skillful enough to complete this. I can certainly tell anyone that it is true what people say. After you make your first few cuts the stress of it all does go away. I ended up using the score and snap method and after a while I can tell you that I got comfortable cutting the pieces that I even stopped drawing a cut lines. I made a mark on one side of the piece and then the other. Took out my shop knife and just cut it. Obviously I didn't do this with important pieces that require perfection like cover strips. After I completed this armor I feel that anyone with a steady hand and a knife can do this. Now on to my MTK kit. I know it happened to me and it probably happens to many new people but of course you read all of these glorious thoughts on the expensive armors out there. They truely appear to be amazing kits and they look fantastic when they are complete. Of course I wanted to go that route when I got serious about getting armor. However, I really feel that my MTK kit is just as amazing even though it doesn't appear to get the same respects. MTK was a great guy to deal with and the kit arrived very fast. Now I am no armor expert but when I look at my completed armor I am super happy with it. What I see is a super awesome stormtrooper looking in the mirror and I think I will look just as great as anyone else out there. I certainly feel that any armor out there can look amazing if the person building it does it with care, takes their time, and pays attention to detail. My armor is no where near perfect but I built it to the best of my ability and I am again very happy with the outcome. I am sure that the fine tuning never stops. Another question that I have seen asked lately and even Derrek (Dday) started a thread on it is how much will this adventure cost me? Well it depends on how great you want your armor to look. I wanted my armor to look good and I would say that I was a modest spender. I didn't go for all of the bells and whistles out there but I also didn't cheap out on it. If I needed brackets well then I bought the brackets. If I needed TD clips well then I bought them instead of trying to make them. After adding this whole thing up the other day I totaled $1588.54. Now I would be lying if I didn't say that there is probably another $100 that should be added on to that total because there are some things that I would just grab if I was at Home Depot or something that I didn't keep a receipt for. This can really be an expensive hobby but again I think that this price is average for the lower priced armors out there. You can certainly do this for A LOT more or you can do this for less. I also just want to say thanks to the people who helped me along the way on this forum. This forum really is great and so are the people here. Hopefully this site will continue to save many new recruits such as myself from making dreaded mistakes. I can't lie, I was looking at Jedi Robe a few years ago and luckily for me I just didn't think the time was right and never fell into that trap. Also thanks to all of the people out there that provide the products to make this hobby easier. I can't imagine how much time some of you spend on your products and it really shows when you order something on here and you receive it and you go wow this is awesome. So that is it. Now I'll see how long I can go without wanting to do some other project! Might have to get all of the stuff to go ESB when I'm in that type of mood! HA!

Haui - Yeah I've worked on that gap a lot and for some reason I can't get it to close up any better. The shoulder bells are of normal size and I don't have big shoulders. When the shoulder bells sit on my shoulders I would say only about an inch of the bell is actually touching me. The rest is kind of floating. I've followed advice and maybe move the snap closer towards the front of the armor and that will cause the shoulder to roate forward but it only helped a little. The only other thing I can think of which of course I am very hesitant to do is to heat up the shoulder bell and kind of make it wider. But that would be my last resort. Thanks Anthony! Yeah hopefully we can get some more!

Hey Andrew good job on the armor. Good luck on your submission. Hopefully you and I will get approved soon!

Hey Jaren what problems are you having with photobucket? I have never had any problems so maybe I can help you. I would love to see some side shots of your bucket.

Hey John and welcome to the MTK family. There are a handful of excellent build threads on here using MTK. Many of the questions you will have are located within those build threads. Yeah its too bad I couldn't get to this build thread when you started it. I would have told you about the forearms and to leave a little more on the left. It is a tight squeeze for sure and I have to put my gloves on after I get the forearms on. You do not need a return edge at the elbow end of the forearm. Especially if you are going to follow Mikes videos and use the elastic to hold it to the bicep. I strongly recommend watching his videos over and over again and use them as a guide. You may have to make some changes to the way he does things to accomodate your body. The most important part is to have fun while doing this. Take it slow and research and then after that do more research. Like I said, you can find many answers to any questions in Ian's (Sithlord) MTK ANH build thread and Adam's (Toybiz) ESB build thread. Adam has a great idea on how to tackle the size of the biceps Good Luck

Name: Steven Sheades TK ID: 10466 FISD Name: starsaber25 Garrison: Empire City Garrison Armor: MTK Helmet: Troopermaster Blaster: DVH 2014 E-11 Height: 5'8" Weight: 190lbs Boots: Bass Amsterdams Canvas Belt: Trooperbay Handplates: Sonnenschein Authentic Line Electronics: iComm with Aker Amp Neck Seal: Darman Holster: Trooperbay Front: Left Side: Right: Back: Side Detail: Ab Detail: Shoulder Bridges: Dropboxes: Knee Ammo Pack: Sniper Plate: Interior Strapping: More Ab Detail: Belt/Holster: Handguards: Helmet Front: Side: Helmet Side: Helmet Back: Neck Seal: Blaster: Thermal Detonator: Action Shots: '' Thank You very much for your consideration.

Hey Derrek thanks for that. I was working on those T Tracks for a couple of hours trying to get them right. The last thing I wanted to do was to mess them up beyond repair so I kind of just gave up. But your idea sounds like it will work great. I'll certainly give that a try. One other thing I learned after building my armor is that my shins would ride up as I walked around. I followed some other suggestions and I think I came up with my solution. I have walked around using this velcro set up and I think it is working for me so far. It probably wont last forever as the velcro will finally just peel off but its a start. Ok So I think that will be it for now. I'm going to get my new sets of photos ready for a possible EIB run.

Hey Ryan everything is looking good. Man people aren't joking when they say NE is geared towards larger people. That back plate is very big. You are doing a great job making it look good on you. If I may offer up a suggestion and you don't have to do it I don't think but you may want to consider rounding off the coverstrips to make it look cleaner. But keep up the good work!

Ok so I got the T Tracks in. The E-11 is finished for the time being. Thank you Derrek for your input. I will make those changes at some point. I guess I gotta say that at this point I need to take a break from building things. My original deadline for this project was to be ready with everything by halloween. I have accomplished that goal and as far as all of the little changes go, I will start to make them over the course of December, January, and February. Here is the blaster complete for the time being: I hope this is enough to get me through to the higher levels for the time being. As far as I can tell from the CRL it will be.

Good Luck with your submission. It looks like to me that you won't have any problems. You will have that number soon!

Hey Guys just throwing this out there but I found that these are now in stock at buycostumes.com I grabbed a couple.

Hey Derrek. So I'm ready to add the t tracks into my build. I have no problem bending them. The problem I have right now is they do not fit in the holes of the barrel the way it is now. So how did you exactly get the tip to fit in the hole? Do you cut the top lip off? Thanks

So I know I haven't posted in a while but that doesn't mean that I haven't been trying to make any progress on my armor. I actually have been working on my DVH e-11 kit and I am just about done. I have to add the t-tracks. I did not do a build thread or post progress pics for this because I wasn't confident in this part of the build and there are so many great build threads already. I think it came together alright. I wouldnt' say it is great or anything. I don't really plan on ever taking it out of the house because I just have a thing about taking something that looks exactly like a real gun out into the public. I'm thinking of buying one of those new rubies stormtrooper blasters. Anyway here it is without the t tracks installed: So when I add the t tracks in, will this blaster pass for EIB and Centurion? Anyway, I think I am just about ready to apply for EIB. So I will keep everyone posted on that. I will be wrapping the build thread up soon. Thanks again for looking and the comments.

Hey Christian your armor is looking great. Good Luck on your application!

Ha you know whats one of the best things about this auction? Is when I was reading the description I was like man that sounds so familiar. He copied and pasted MTK's description from his ebay auction or his email that he sends out word for word. Move along!

This is the man to listen to! So Eric if you are going to make your forearms and biceps 5/8 inch coverstrips then measure from your red arrows out 5/16 of an inch and make some marks. Then draw a straight line connecting those marks and cut each side of the piece. After you cut them you will put them together and that will give you your 5/8 inch connection. You will put the 5/8 coverstrip over that and then glue it. The thighs and shins should be 7/8 inch coverstrips. Of course these are the recommended widths of the coverstrips. However, its most important to make sure you fit the parts so you can wear it. For example, my thighs are bigger so I had to use an inch coverstrip on mine instead of 7/8. Have you considered making a build thread? You should so we can follow along and help you in one place along the way.

In fact I got these off of Amazon and they are awesome. It looks like they must be on sale because this is a great price. I would triple this order atleast. -----------------

LOL, you have most everything trimmed? But not your helmet, biceps, forearms, thighs, and shins? First off Eric welcome to the MTK family. I have just built my own set recently. I'm not too sure what you mean by what are the lengths to measure? Do you mean, How long are the coverstrips? How wide are the cover strips? How much you leave on the part itself? There are many good resources of assembly right here on the forums under the build section. Many builds tell you what people have used for measurements. Also, you can just go look on Trooperbay.com and watch the videos. As far as magnets go, I can't imagine it would ever be worth it. Are you using E6000 or CA glue with zip kicker? If you are using E6000 I can't imagine doing a build without them. And I mean a lot of them. I wish I used more then I did. If you are using CA glue and zip kicker then I guess you could get away without using magnets but you better be a good builder. Don't be afraid to do a ton of research in the build threads. There is all the information you need there. And use the advanced search and click "in titles only." Good luck

Hey Ryan do you have your undersuit pants? I would just be careful making any adjustments down there without having your undersuit on. Even though if you have about a 2 inch gap wearing your shorts, I'm sure it will be even worse with your undersuit on. I am not very familiar with NE armor and do not know if this is a normal issue with the cod being bigger but I would look at other NE builds to see if cutting the cod is something that is done regularly. As far as your chest plate goes, I wouldn't really make any adjustments to that until you know exactly where it is going to lie with your strapping system in place. If I were to do anything I would maybe cut out your neck line first as opposed to cutting the bottom of the chest. You should be able to pull up the chest a little by doing that.

Hey Andrew I just caught up with most of your build in this sitting and you have done a great job so far. If I could make any suggestion it would be to shorten your chest plate a little. To me it looks like it hangs down too far over the ab plate. I laughed when you were talking about going up stairs. I just attempted to go up stairs lastnight in my armor and it is so friggin difficult! I wish my thighs fit better too. I am going to leave them for the time being but like you, I am still considering trimming the tops of my thighs And I know you asked Tim about the trim line there but I would start with that and then see how it looks. Better to trim not enough then too much!

Congrats Tim! Your armor looks great and you did an awesome job! You will no doubt be centurion soon.

Hey Derek everything looks great. What kind of paint did you end up using on this? Are the t tracks just popped in there or did you glue them in? And finally how did you go about cutting and shaping the rail? Would a Dremel work for the cutting? I hope mine turns out as great as yours. I've pretty much just started

Super awesome newsletter guys. Ha Eric that is a sweet pic of me next to the Montauk lighthouse. The whole time I was building my MTK since that is Montauk's initials I was like I'm building my Montauk suit. Now I hope you don't mind if I steal that photo! I do plan on going EIB as soon as I get my DVH blaster put together. I really enjoy these newsletters. It puts things that are happening for members in the detachment and the 501st in one neatly put together article. Stormy1992's boot thread is an excellent resource for the troopers that are interested in making their own boots. He makes it look that easy and he came out with great results. Great article with Alan Flyng and the expo it Canada looked great. I could be wrong but this seems like the best part of the year for the men and women who get involved in this hobby. People get out and do events and I'm sure many people get out for Halloween as well. Is there anyway to figure out how many "guests" pop up on the website this time of the year especially because of Halloween? Is there more of an influx? Or does it stay the same throughout the year? I feel like it would go up because of the exposure of the 501st during the fall.

Hey Ermer welcome aboard! I remember my day back in June when the photos looked like this. All sorts of emotions. Now put those emotions aside and get building! Now I don't know how much research you have done but oddly enough the two guys who responded to your thread as well as myself have all built MTK kits recently and our build threads are a wealth of knowledge. Adam and Ian did amazing jobs on their MTKs and your in good hands. I started with my shoulder bells, then forearms, then biceps and that got me comfortable cutting the plastic Now good luck and we will be here for you. Yeah Ian I want that kidney plate!