starsaber25

Hey Guys thanks for the replies. Yeah I'm starting to think that I will slit the boots somewhere. I just don't have any more money to spend on this project right now. If I drop another $100 for boots I think someone who lives in my throne room will hit me with force lightning. Hopefully I will figure something out. I finally did an initial test fitting lastnight and I have a lot of areas that need attention. I really don't want to show the pictures I took on here because I feel that it really doesn't live up to everyone elses build right now Hey Darrell thanks for the compliments. I was hoping to help any future troopers out and my main goal was to post as many pictures as I can. I'm a very visual person. As far as the helmet goes, I will eventually get to it but I don't know at what point. I'm thinking of taking a break after I finish the armor and then revisit the helmet sometime this November or December. I have a TM already and I think that it matches up pretty well colorwise so I will just use that for the time being. Ok well the final absolute thing that I need to do is make the thigh garter. When I did my test fitting I just put the thighs on and kind of let them float free. I'm also thinking that I may need to cut the tops of them because there is not much space between the bottom of my thighs and the top of the shins. I just want it to be over with so I can get my initial 501st approval!

Wow Adam your armor came out awesome! Congratulations and I hope to follow you to these ranks soon

Thanks Mike. I will certainly take off that return edge. I went with the Bass Amsterdams because that seemed to be a popular choice. Is there anyone else out there that has this trouble with the ankles being too high? If you have then what have you done about it? I'm of course hoping that I find some way to figure this out instead of shelling out another $100 for boots. Yeah Derrek. When I got the box I was a little scared at first. But everything looks good inside. Now hurry up and get that armor finished so you can build the E-11!!!

Ha Christian, we are pretty much at the same spot here in our journey. I finally did my first test run with all of my armor pieces and let me say that my wife was just sitting there laughing at me! She wanted to know how I'm ever going to keep on doing this. So unfortunately I had to do my test run without my boots . So I'm glad I ran into this thread this morning because I think Dennis brought up a great idea and I'll have to try that. Man this whole journey is not easy for sure. I didn't think that one of the hardest parts was actually just putting the armor on!

Thanks for Germain and thanks Eric. Yeah I hope they look really good after I finish them up.

Ok so I haven't posted any pictures in a little while but I have some updates! I finished the belt all the way. I think it came out rather well. Yes I just need to cut off the extra leather on top of the holster but its done. So when I finally finished the belt I felt that it was time to finally tackle the boots. I got a pair of Bass Amsterdams and decided that I would do the work on them. I got a small bottle of deglazer and then I realized that it wasn't nearly enough. So after that was gone in like 5 minutes I took out the acetone and started scrubbing. Here they are after one shoe was roughly done. And here are both done for the most part. Now its time to use some frog tape and tape up the soles. So now its time to paint! I used Angelus White leather paint. Here are the shoes after one coat: 2nd: 3rd: 4th: 5th: 6th: So here is what they looked like after a nights rest. I removed the tape and there are some areas that may need some fixing but overall I'm really happy with how they came out! I probably won't do too much extra work. You cannot really tell int he picture but they elastic part may need a couple of more coats. That part really soaks the paint in! So thats it for the boots. Again just need to clean up the soles a little bit. So I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I only have to glue on the sniper knee plate and do the Knee Ammo pack. After that I should hopefully be able to apply for membership. I do have a question on that. It says that for 501st approval you do not need a weapon because weapons policies vary depending on Countries, States and other laws. So will I be able to apply without my E-11? Thanks!

Ok great Sean! My kit has been sitting around waiting for Derrek's build to continue as I have no idea at all of what I am doing! Show me the way! Good luck on the build.

Well Ian everything came together great. I'm guessing you still haven't been approved yet because I'm sure you would have posted it by now. The suspense must be killing you.

Ok I know I haven't been around here for long so maybe I'm not following everything correctly. I have a question. If I make this cut on my MTK armor, do I have to cut the butt plate as well? Or I can just make this cut and let the butt plate extend out a little like a lot of people on here are saying? I have been working hard on my armor and I was hoping to be one of the 700 to EIB. But now that I am so close to finishing if I have to rework the butt plate then EIB isn't going to happen. But again if its just a matter of cutting a little bit of plastic out of my Kidney then I can do that to fall in line. BTW since MTK is willing to make this change to his armor already and seems to work hard on making this armor so great then will he finally be added to the vetted list?

Ok so here is the work that I have finished over the course of the last couple of nights. Like I said in a previous thread I finished my thighs for now. I did end up having to use a 1 inch coverstrip on them. Out of everything as far as this armor goes I knew that the thighs would be the hardest part to fit. Here they are as they stand now: Now like many I think I'm going to have to notch out a little bit of the bottom on the back. I need to do this just so I can bend my knee a little better. I hope this doesn't effect any future approvals for me. I've been looking around and it doesn't seem like it matters. The only thing I need to do with them now is attach the knee ammo pack. I think they came out rather well. The next part that I did some work on was the belt. Here is the front: And the back: For the belt at this point I just followed some of Bill Hags billograms and took my time trying to measure up the snaps to my ab plate. That is what took the most time. I didn't want to mess that up at all. I think it came out rather well. I can't show a picture of that now because the rest of the belt is "resting" right now because I added the dropboxes to it. Here are my drop boxes right now: Nothing too special right here. So like I said my belt is resting right now. It is finished all the way but I don't want to move it right this second. I will show pictures of that later and maybe even snap it on to the torso just to see the finished product. So its crazy but I'm actually seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. From what I can tell all i have left to do is to attach the sniper plate, the knee ammo pack, make my Bass Amsterdams a stormtrooper boot, and really finally figure out what I'm going to do with my shins. Anyone have any comments or suggestions so far? I would really love some more opinions on what I should do with my shins. I'm kind of at a loss right now.

Hey Ian awesome job! I've been slacking a little bit lately and haven't done too much browsing. Man it really came together here and looks great! When I saw your notch there I realize now that I'm going to have to do the same thing. The part that stinks about it is when your armor does not come with it already in it, I feel like your butt plate will never match up unless you cut it and redo the return edge. I don't know if this is something that all armor makers will start trying to do with their armor on their end or will it be something that the builder will always have to do. Anyway, good luck and have a good time at the lego expo.

Yeah man MTK is totally legit. I'm having a ton of fun building this kit right now. And MTK is one hell of a good guy and a lot of help if you need him. Its awesome armor. I'm still not too sure why he isn't on the vetted armor list.

Mike - yeah it is Dday's. Yeah I don't know what it was but the tracking never updated. It kind of just showed up yesterday. I wasn't expecting it because it was frozen in Germany.

Yeah Jaren I don't quite understand either. I have been slammed at work and haven't been able to touch my armor in over a week. However, right before I stopped I finished up my thighs. I'll get pictures up soon. It sucked not being able to work on my armor for that long. But I'm going to get back into it tonight. However in the meantime looked what showed up from Germany! Now If I can just finish my armor! Yep thats my DVH kit. I know I won't get to it for a while but it was still cool laying it out for a couple of pictures.

Yup exactly what Vern said. Set up a photobucket account. Upload your pictures on there. Then click the picture you want to upload onto this thread. Right click and select "copy image location". Then click back to this build thread and click the green picture looking icon that is "image" above here. Right click on URL and select paste and click ok. Good luck with your build and have a ton of fun while doing it.

Yeah great job Derrek. This is something that I was trying to add up when I first started as well. I'm with Ian and think that I will probably fall somewhere in the middle. I've been thinking since the beginning of my journey that when I am all said and done I was going to do my best to add up all of the things that have been bought for my armor to see how much it has cost me. I was going to put it at the end of my build thread. It is a question that gets asked all of the time by new people and it is a good question to ask. I think I have certainly gone over what I thought I was going to originally spend at this point. Its all of the little things that you can't plan for. Oh wait I need some spray paint. Oh wait I need some more magnets. Do I really want to make my own thigh garter or do I just want to buy one. These are the things that can make you go over budget. It is easy to say that you want to not go over a certain amount of money but then you get antsy and just want it to be done. Of course it all starts with your armor pick right? ATA to TM or RS. Of course I chose MTK to stay on the more affordable side as well as it is awesome armor. This thread is going to contain a lot of good info.

Mike did you make anymore progress with the sanding of the ABS paste? I may have to whip some up for my build and I'm wondering if it will be worth it or not. In your experience now, do you think that you would always have to paint after you do this? Or do you think you would be able to sand it and not have to paint it? And I have a pair of Bass Amsterdams as well that I am going to paint soon. I must have saw that same centurion thread because I wanted to make sure they would fly. I don't see why they wouldn't.

Ok so here is a picture of my shins on with my boots on. In the photo I am mildly squeezing the shins. With the original holes that I drilled I was able to close the top two but there was no way to close the bottom ones. Then I added the shim and I can now drill a hole and probably get it to close but I think its just going to look awful. But here are some photos: ' So am I doing something wrong? Or did I just really screw up and I shouldn't have cut off any of the one side? I do feel like if I want to cover up this mess I'm going to need to put like a 1 1/4 inch to 1 1/2 inch coverstrip in the back. It just sucks because I really feel like my calves aren't that big. I never thought I was going to have a problem in this area. Any help would be great at this point. Thanks

You know what Derrek I think you are right about the shoulder straps. I think I have to loosen them up a bit. Thanks for making that suggestion because that makes total sense. I will try and post some pictures of my shins in a little bit. Hey Jaren Bill Hags "Bill-o-Grams" were discussed in another thread. This wonderful link was what came of it : http://s405.photobucket.com/user/Billhag/library/TK%20Armour%20Help?sort=3&page=1

Hey Christian, everything is looking good so far. What I did with my rivets is I drilled the holes in the armor and put the rivets through. I then laid the armor where the rivets go on a a piece of 2X6 lumber. I took a smaller flat head screwdriver and put it in between the two metal prongs and hit it with a hammer. Once they moved a little to the side I then just hit them down the rest of the way with a hammer. I was very hesitant at first because I was thinking I would damage my armor but there was no issue doing it like this at all. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the replies and all of the ideas and suggestions guys. My forearm is currently curing so I will see how I did this time! Anyway I am in need of some major help! I think I finally made my big huge mistake. I think I messed up my shins. I was going along and put a 7/8s inch cover strip on the front of them and that was all well and great. I made my elastic with a bra hook but I think I took off too much of the back of the shin! I test fitted it with my boots on before I made any cuts and I thought all was well but I was somehow way off. After I glued the rear coverstrip on and glued the hooks in, I drilled my holes and then put them on with my boots again to see the "finished product" and low and behold I couldn't get the bottoms to close! I couldn't for the life of me get the bottom of my shin to close around the boot. So I ended up gluing a shim in them now and basically this is where I am: So I did this lastnight and when I went to work on them again tonight to finish them again, I still couldn't really get them to fit around my boots. And when I got them where I wanted them and had my wonderful wife make my marks where the hooks were it really looks silly. Basically the gap from one side to the other would need like a 1 1/2 coverstrip to cover everything up. Now I'll remind you guys but my calves are no way big. They are 15 1/2 inches. Am I doing something wrong here? Especially around the boots? Should I be opening the bottoms of the shins somewhere and I dont know about it? This has been the part that has really been a bummer so far. I have also glued the cover strip on the thighs tonight. Here is what that looks like. I went with an inch coverstrip for the thighs. I think if I have a problem really fitting anything, the thighs will be it. And finally I wasn't sure if I was going to show any pictures like this on my thread but it was too cool and exciting of a part to leave it out. Its not a great picture and excuse my bathroom but this was the only way to take my picture. Here is my progress so far It looks pretty good but I still have some fitting issues. I gotta figure out why my chest always rides up and goes above my ab plate and basically right up into my neck. But everything else is fitting great so far.

Oh and did you ever do anything with that left bicep? I did and I pretty much followed toybizs idea and I think it looks a lot better

Hey Jaren everything is looking good. I don't know what it is but the thighs have been the thing that is scaring me the most. I finally did some more final trimming on one of them lastnight and I'll hopefully get the next one tonight. It's nice having our MTK build threads to look at while we work. I wish there were like 100 more MTK builds. I hope you get to your sniper plate before me because I hear that is a huge pain. I want to cheat off of you!

I would check with Dday on the DVH blaster kits that he is doing a run on. His prices are listed in the ongoing sale thread. PM him to see if he will assemble one for you. And Evan, spend some time searching this forum. Everything that you want to know is located here. If you want to do the accurate strapping system check with Mr. No Stripes. His brackets are awesome. If you want to do snap plates and elastic then look at some of the build threads for ideas. I understand the need to want to get things built and done with quickly due to limited time but this is a very time consuming hobby which I have just recently found out. I researched this forum for a year straight and watched the trooperbay videos over and over again. I then got my armor and thought I was ready to bang it out. Then you start building it and many many things lead to having to go back to the computer to watch a video or look at photos or look at a build thread. Enjoy your time doing this even if it takes a while because of how busy you are. If I get 1-2 hours a night or every other night to work on my armor I am enjoying every second of it eventhough it is taking me forever. Good Luck

So hey everyone. I'm back to posting some pictures. Its been a week since I have put anything on here. That doesn't mean I haven't been working on the armor. Basically most of the last week I spent fine tuning a lot of things. I ripped off my coverstrips to my biceps and forearms. I reshaped them and reglued them. I am a lot more happy with the results now. I attached the bicep and forearm together for the right arm. I haven't attached the left arm yet because I am having trouble with the left forearm. Does anyone else have trouble with the left forearm on a TE derived suit? I have used clamps and magnets on the forearm but it still won't hold together well. I have done it three times now. If anyone has any suggestions I'm all ears. I also started putting the shins together. I have one that is in the glue drying process. Here is the left shoulder bell and bicep minus the forearm And here is the pesky forearm Anyway I hope to do more work on the shins tonight so we will see. And if anyone is wondering, I have 5/8 inch coverstrips on the forearms and biceps and my coverstrip for my shin is 7/8 inch. And man I'm gone from posting for a week and there are sure a lot of AM builds that have popped up. Good for all of you guys. You can all bounce your builds off of eachother and work as a team. Good Luck to you all.