Toddo

Congratulations! Well-done.

Congratulations. That's one of the best Deathtroopers I have seen.

Well-done trooper.

Good luck. That's a cool costume.

Measure twice, cut once, then throw-up. Seriously though, like Captsafe said, read up as much as possible. Looking at EIB and even Centurion threads in addition to others' detailed build threads cuts down on the anxiety and improves your assembly. If you do your homework, this is not only not too hard but quite fun.

I couldn't click it either. Try contacting Mike via the CONTACT button at Trooperbay.

Lookin' good!

I tend to take a strip of industrial strength velcro and use its own adhesive to pull excess adhesive off. Then I hit it with Goo Gone to clean up the remainder. It works a treat and is kind of fun to yank all the sticky off.

According to the Deathtrooper CRL, you will need to convert to TK in regards to shoulder straps, ab buttons, and knee plate.

Congratulations! You look great.

There's worse things. I think you can make a really solid deathtrooper with this should you choose to. Good luck!

Way to go FISD!

Great newsletter. Thanks to the staff of FISD for consistently maintaining a great detachment and newsletters that reflect it's quality.

Thanks for making and sharing those videos Mike. They would have been amazingly helpful to me when I was starting out, and I am confident that they will be helpful to many a new trooper in the future.

Congratulations and welcome to the club!

Way to go.

Thank-you everyone. Special thanks to Paul for his constant encouragement. This is quite an honor.

Thanks Steve. I appreciate it.

Happy New Year Steve, and congratulations on landing the DO job. I took some more pics to illustrate things better. I already have strapping between the forearm and bicep, but the Rubies armor thickness (it's much thicker than any of my other armor) makes it awkward to size the forearms snugly even with heat applied. I added some foam on the interior of the forearms in hopes that it helps that issue. I also rounded-off the frown on the helmet. Hopefully the new photos show the 1/4 strap on the bells. Thanks for your feedback. Todd

As far as I can tell, nobody has submitted a Rubies costume for EI status, or held five Expert Infantry Badges, so here goes nothing. I modified the heck out of a cheap Rubies costume. The list of modifications includes Replaced helmet with CFO bucket Trimmed biceps, forearms (including removal of return edges), thighs, and shins. The shins were giant not just for my skinny legs, but in proportion to the entire suit. Drilled out the rivets on both ends of the shoulder bridges. Trimmed the bridges to a reasonable length and re-attached using Velcro. I then added nylon load-bearing straps under the shoulder bridges. Trimmed the oversized hand guards to better fit my hands. Cut out the ab button plate and inverted ROTJ-style. Painted all of the abdomen buttons with Testor's to match the screen-used pattern. Drilled-out the rivets connecting the belt to the abdomen. Trashed the ABS belt strap and replaced it with fire hose. Tried to add a pair of Kev's inner drop boxes the existing drop boxes, but they don't fit. Instead I modified Kev's boxes to work inside the smaller Rubies' drop boxes. Riveted the new belt assembly and drop boxes to the abdomen plate. Re-strapped the entire suit ROTJ style. The existing straps were way too long for anybody really. Drilled out the rivets connecting the thigh ammo belt as Rubies installs this upside down for some reason. Reattached with rivets to the correct orientation. Removed the arm straps from the shoulder bells and added padding for that ROTJ linebacker look. Painted the soles of a pair of TK boots white. Weathered the whole suit with inspiration from sskunky. Instead of wood stain (and because I'm a scaredy-cat) I used acrylic paints. Now the suit looks like it has spent a little time on Endor. Replaced the ears on the helmet with a pair from Scootch as the exiting ears had visible screws attaching them. Scootch also made some bubble lenses for the bucket. Built a holster with longer straps from one of Darman's kits and attached to the belt. Replaced the weird undersuit with my usual Under Armour stuff. Armor: Rubies Helmet: CFO with CAP-W bubble lenses and ears Blaster: Hyperfirm TK6647 Height: 5'9" Weight: 165 lbs Boots: TKBoots Neck Seal: TK409 Holster: Darman Gloves: rubber chemical gloves TD: T/MC Front Back Left Right Left Arms Raised Right Arms Raised Shoulder Bridge attached with Veclro at front and back with nylon strap beneath Inner Drop Box Longer Holster Straps on Right Side Film Reference Thanks for taking a look.

I apologize for not having documented this in progress. As a retail manager in December with three kids and house guests, I had to work quickly in tiny windows of opportunity. Anyway, Daetrin is always encouraging me to challenge myself, so I found a discounted Rubies suit and wanted to see what I could do with it. The suit was discounted because the helmet was cracked in a number of spots, but we all know the helmet isn't salvageable anyway, so I replaced that with a second-hand CFO helmet I had laying around and decided to convert the Rubies disaster into a quality ROTJ suit. My modifications include the following: Replaced helmet with CFO bucket Trimmed biceps, forearms (including removal of return edges), thighs, and shins. The shins were giant not just for my skinny legs, but in proportion to the entire suit. Drilled out the rivets on both ends of the shoulder bridges. Trimmed the bridges to a reasonable length and re-attached using Velcro. I then added nylon load-bearing straps under the shoulder bridges. Trimmed the oversized hand guards to better fit my hands. Cut out the ab button plate and inverted ROTJ-style. Painted all of the abdomen buttons with Testor's to match the screen-used pattern. Drilled-out the rivets connecting the belt to the abdomen. Trashed the ABS belt strap and replaced it with fire hose. Tried to add a pair of Kev's inner drop boxes the existing drop boxes, but they don't fit. Instead I modified Kev's boxes to work inside the smaller Rubies' drop boxes. Riveted the new belt assembly and drop boxes to the abdomen plate. Re-strapped the entire suit ROTJ style. The existing straps were way too long for anybody really. Drilled out the rivets connecting the thigh ammo belt as Rubies installs this upside down for some reason. Reattached with rivets to the correct orientation. Removed the arm straps from the shoulder bells and added padding for that ROTJ linebacker look. Painted the soles of a pair of TK boots white. Weathered the whole suit with inspiration from sskunky. Instead of wood stain (and because I'm a scaredy-cat) I used acrylic paints. Now the suit looks like it has spent a little time on Endor. Replaced the ears on the helmet with a pair from Scootch as the exiting ears had visible screws attaching them. Scootch also made some bubble lenses for the bucket. Built a holster with longer straps from one of Darman's kits and attached to the belt. Replaced the weird undersuit with my usual Under Armour stuff. I didn't even both to take photos of this thing before the mods as I could hardly even wear it. Zvask has some good shots of what it looks like before modding in his thread from 2009 though. Here's the result of my mods: So I now have TK versions from ANH, ESB, Incinerator, and ROTJ.

that is a great video. Looked like a blast.

Thanks everyone! This was a really fun build. Eric, I have had the same exact thoughts about the back of the helmet paint. I've wondered if it is a weird action-figure thing or if it is intentional. If I need to fix it, I certainly will. It would be impossible to undo if we determine that it shouldn't be that way.

Nice job. Good luck!

Thanks! The material Targ supplies for the tubes is really flexible overall. Having said that, it does limit the movement a tad left to right, but even more so up or down.