maxsteele

From the angles I've seen, your ears look fine. There's no issue with masking off the frown before painting.

I guess I missed the part where the 501st officially agreed on a design spec for the Ep VII helmet. Oh, and they're calling this a "Star Wars Rebels" Stormtrooper helmet. Even if this helmet was officially revealed, it's not for Rebels.

15mm biceps and forearms, 20mm shins and thighs.

I think Germain has illustrated the point here. Here are sets of armor that have been molded with the square notch in mind: New NE: RS Props: TM Each of these kits has the top of the notch line up (mostly) with the bottom of the cod piece edge, then has the extra ABS around the kidney from that point down. From what I've found so far, two other popular armor kits - ATA and AP, do not allow for this type of line-up if a notch is cut out. On the AP kit, the bottom of the kidney lines up with the bottom of the cod. On ATA, there is some additional ABS at the bottom of the kidney, but I don't believe the notch would be big enough if the top of the notch was cut to line up with the bottom edge of the cod on the ab piece. If we want people with these armor types to have this notch and be screen-accurate, the kidney would have to be longer in order to accommodate it, which would necessitate a mold change for the armor makers. Here are the examples I found: AP: ATA: While it seems it is something as simple as "cutting out a square" in the kidney, I think this needs to be a more thought-out process, getting armor makers involved and asking their thoughts on changing how they make their kidney pieces in order to have this modification. If we start requiring AP and ATA builders to cut this notch out for EIB, the alignment of the entire ab and kidney pieces will be off. This can then in turn cause fit issues as people attempt to get the bottom of the cod to line up with the top line of the notch, throwing off the back-kidney alignment, and subsequently altering the distance between the chest and back plates at the shoulders. We don't know if the design of the other pieces for ATA and AP will fit properly to accommodate this type of shift. At the very least, before making the notch a requirement at any level, we should have a trooper alter an AP and ATA kit with the notch, then correct the alignments everywhere to see how it all looks. As for whether this should be at EIB or Centurion - Steve, the other items you listed that aren't seen are all at the Centurion level. This notch feels more like a Centurion requirement than an EIB requirement.

Yeah, that's a bit too much of a gap. Oh! I just noticed - you're raising your arms up when you're taking a shot of your back. Don't do that. Get a shot of your back with your arms down at your sides. Everyone's going to have a gap between their back and kidney when they have their arms raised up. If you still have a noticeable gap back there, then the rest of my post is valid: Now that you have the kidney and ab lined up nicely, can you raise up the ab along with the kidney? If not, how about lowering the back plate down to meet with the kidney? It seems like it's fitting well currently, but if you're able to comfortably lower it down, that will solve your gap in the back and you have the ab / kidney transition solved as well.

The gap you have now is fine. In fact, the sides of your back plate are overlapping your kidney. dropping the kidney will most likely remove that overlap.

Try to get the top of your ab plate to match up with the top of your kidney on the left and right sides. Now that I've seen your back, I think you can drop your kidney down to match up with your ab plate on the sides. I believe you have your kidney up a bit high, which is causing the mis-alignment on the side transition. It also looks like that will put your butt plate in the right position as well.

Woo hoo for first test fit! First thing - I wanna see the back of your armor. i know it's impossible to get that shot when you're the one taking the shots. Can you get those drop boxes moved further to the ends of your belt plastic? You want the outside edge to line up with the edge of the belt plastic. Looks like your right drop box is in the correct position, and your left one needs to move out further. I think it'd be good if you could shorten the elastic and bring the drop boxes up a bit higher to the belt as well. Do you have the snaps in place for your belt attaching to the ab plate yet? If not, you can bring the belt up so the top edge is just underneath the bottom button of your button plate. Possibly an inch. From the side shots, it looks like your kidney may be in the right place, which means you should try to bring the ab plate up. I can't tell how the cod is fitting on you, but if you have the room, definitely bring the ab plate up to meet with your kidney. That will also be more apparent on the fit when you get a full back shot. Can you bring the thighs up any more? Even where your ab plate is now, I feel like you could close the gap between the bottom of the cod and the tops of the thighs. Your right thigh is certainly hanging lower than your left. I like the distance you have in the front between your ab and chest plate. Moving your ab up will close that gap more, which may make it a little crowded. You may have a little room to bring the chest plate up if you're able to move the ab up. Again, seeing the full back shot will help with knowing placement of that. It doesn't look like you have a strap going between your right forearm and your right bicep (which is actually your left forearm and left bicep, since you said you were wearing them on the wrong arms. ) . It does look like you have one on the other set. Either that or you just got lucky with the placement. Shoulders look good. Looks like you have the right length of elastic for attaching the shoulders up next to the chest-to-back transition. I put a piece of velcro on the front lip of my boots, and then the other piece of velcro inside the front of each shin. That keeps the shins down on the boots very nicely and no "velcro sound" when walking.

I believe they will suffice for base approval and possibly EIB. The requirement of "no seam in the front" is for Centurion level.

I did, but I have an ATA bucket. If I had an NE helmet, I probably would have kept it in the same thread.

With the weight of my THG Props "unbreakable" blaster (2.5 lbs), I switch hands.

Yeah, I only had those three contact points for my gluing as well. I used magnets to hold it in place, then I clamped the magnets down. After that dried, I looked for spots that could have contact but weren't glued, squeezed e6000 into the holes, then used the magnets / clamps a second time. My sniper plate isn't going anywhere now.

With any of the return edges that have a definite "lip" to them, I anchored them so the return edge was sitting on a hard surface, then I ran a pencil in the 'groove' where the return edge bent from the main armor piece so I could have a better visual line. Next, I took the point of an xacto knife and followed the same groove that my pencil marked, using the pencil marking to make sure I 'stayed on target' (heh) and etched a deeper groove. I went over that spot about 4-5 times, making it deeper and deeper, and then I cut from the outside of the return edge down to where the groove was in staggered areas, and snapped the return edge off piece by piece. After that was done, I sanded the whole area up with some sandpaper to smooth it out, and there ya go. I did this for removing the return edges on my forearms, biceps, shins, and the inside tops of my thighs. For return edges where I thinned them instead of removing them completely, I measured how long I wanted the return edge to be when I was done, made little pencil marks, joined them together to have a cut line, and used a combo of straight and curved lexan scissors for the cutting.

I can only speak from how I did it - I taped up the top part, wrapped the pieces around my arm, taped up the back where the fit felt good, slipped off the forearm, and marked where the cuts would go on each piece. That let me take all the tape off and work with each piece by itself to cut. I would think it would have been a little more challenging if I cut the back side of the pieces when the top was already glued together. Once I had both pieces of a forearm cut where I needed, that's when I glued the pieces together with cover strips.

It's looking great! MTK has a nice set of armor there. Get that TK number! When I did a full suit-up and saw my biceps were still too big, I tore 'em apart and cut them down to size. I definitely suggest you do the same with your forearms and biceps. You'll be much happier with the fit. I found the best fit for my biceps was getting them sized where I didn't feel them around my arm unless I was flexing my muscles. I also took the return edge off completely on the bottoms, and thinned down the return edge at the tops. Certainly not a necessity, but it could help with comfort if those are causing an issue when you bring the biceps in more. The velcro on the fronts of the boots works like a charm to keep the shins in place. When I suited up for my approval pics, walked around the neighborhood, and had my first two-hour troop a couple of weeks ago, my shins always stayed in place.

Line up on the elbow side, and cut the extra from the wrist side. Don't cut off the molded indented squares: If I'm looking at your pics correctly, you are lining up from the elbow end and marking the extra on the wrist side to cut off, correct? If you are, then your marks are what you're cutting off. Did you already fit the forearms to your arms? I see you cut the front raised ridges to 7.5mm on each piece to take a 15mm cover strip already. Have you wrapped the pieces around your arm, found where they fit, then marked and cut the excess off on the back side? Again, it looks like you have, but I'm just double checking with ya.

Now this is something I haven't understood with AM's back plate sculpt. The issue I see here is they made the curve part much too long. Screen-used back plates had a shoulder curve that ended about 2/3 down the length of the 0 II box detail, and then had a good amount of straight plastic below it. AM's back plate has a shoulder curve that doesn't quite end. It just smoothly curves around and wraps around the sides. I believe AM's back plate is accepted for base approval, but must be replaced for EIB or Centurion. I'm not sure it can be modified much more than the cut line you've made. Have you seen any other AM back plate modifications around? Does that seem where people most often cut their back plates?

This makes me doubt the helmet design now. I will believe what the new stormtrooper design looks like when an official source reveals it.

For the right hand snap, I've seen at least one other centurion build for ne that had the snap in the same spot. http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/24319-tk-10666-requesting-anh-stunt-centurion-status-89-ne/ To go back to the back to kidney space, if you're not able to raise your ab plate up anymore, you could try dropping the back plate to make the gap smaller. Like Ian said, it can be an issue. I'm not sure how much it will affect base approval, which is why you should absolutely contact your local GML to have a look at it.

With your thighs and shins, get someone to press them down to match the shape of your legs. Once in a good position, have them mark where the edges overlap so you can take the pieces off and then put them back to the way they wrapped around your legs. Once you have that, you can measure across from the front cut line, make marks in the back at the top and bottom, and then you'll know how much extra to cut. This way, the thighs and shins will taper, getting more narrow as they go from the top of your legs down to the bottom. That will get rid of the barrel fit and contour to your body specifically. When you have the thighs cut in the back to fit, you should be able to bring them up higher toward your cod. I would also suggest taking down the return edge at the top of the shins. They're pretty big. Here's my shin pieces and how I trimmed the return edge. The shin piece on the left is untrimmed and measures about 10-15mm. The shin piece on the right is trimmed down to a nice 5mm. I also did the same thing with the thigh pieces. Untrimmed on the left, trimmed on the right (this is the bottom of the thighs) I would size the thighs and shins after trimming down the return edges. I also completely removed the inside return edge of both my thighs because they were catching on the bottom of my cod and I had to cut them lower. You may or may not have to deal with that. I wouldn't worry about that at the moment. I do have a concern with that gap between your back and kidney plate. Are you able to bring the ab plate up at all? The cod is what really limits you to how far up you can bring it. You want the lower edge of the cod to come just underneath your 'boys'. If there is any room for you to do that, bring up the ab plate. That will let you bring up the kidney plate, and that will close the gap between your back and kidney. How's the chest plate fitting up by your neck? If there's some room to bring it closer, you can do that, which will help if you're able to bring the ab plate up more. That will close the overhang of the chest plate and ab more. I also trimmed down the return edge at the top of the ab and the top of the kidney. If you're able to do that, it will let you close the gap between the kidney and ab more. I would also get rid of the points that the bottom of the ab plate makes on each side. Make it so it curves around and meets with the bottom of the kidney:

I would like to commend you for coming to the FISD and asking about this before purchasing. Please take a look at this thread if you are interested in a set of Stormtrooper armor, and welcome to the forums! http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/11538-the-various-types-of-armor-and-where-to-find-them/

I'm trying to. I was filing and sanding those edges down for a bit today. I'll have to keep working on them.

I'm not sure if this diagram still applies to AP: I would ask for someone's opinion more familiar with the construction of AP to see if this is still the case. As for the bottom of the shins, if you are referring to the return edge, you can remove that. Otherwise it will dig into your boots. And the shins should fit down on top of the boots, which it looks like you're doing.

Alright, I've trimmed down each side of the pipe, and ground down the ends of the clips to be more flat. The gap between the end cap and the panel is about 3/4", and the total length from end-cap to end-cap is around 7 1/4:

Yep! And the thighs / shins are 10mm cuts on each side in the front to take a 20mm cover strip, then wrap and size the backs with a 25mm cover strip.