ticopowell

So, I'm going over the EIB options and from what I can tell I don't really need to change anything, I might need a few more pictures, but I have pictures of everything already and I'm tempted to upload those to the EIB thread tonight lol. The biceps are getting glued at the moment, so they should be ready tomorrow. I think Ill suit up tomorrow, retake pictures of the biceps, and take a few more cleaner close up pictures in costume, then submit. That is unless @TKSpartan or @justjoseph63 want to call it good hahahaha jk, don't worry guys, I'll submit tomorrow Happy 4th everyone

https://www.501st.com/members/displaymemberdetails.php?userID=22165 TK finished, please update my access. Thanks!

APPROVED! I need to hike the biceps up a little and they're happy Edit, I meant biceps, not shoulders

APPROVED! I need to hike the biceps up a little and they're happy. Edit, I meant biceps, not shoulders

And... it's done! now on to the GML. Pictures are posted in the pre approval thread, here's the link.

1. Caleb Powell 2. Florida Garrison/Tampa Bay squad/Already approved SL-84095 ANH Vader 3. Armor maker RS Props 4. Helmet maker RS Props 5. Cloth belt maker RS Props 6. Neck seal maker Darmans props 7. Boot maker Imperial Boots 8. Idk... it was skipped in the overview thread 9. Blaster maker RS Props 10. Gasket maker N/A 11. Height 6', 72", 182 cm 12. Weight 205lb ish... 13. ANH Stunt/Hero 14. @TKSpartan was the most help, @justjoseph63, @CableGuy, @gmrhodes13, @Chemi, and @TheSwede provided key insights and I wouldn't have finished with out their help. I also wouldn't be done yet had I not bought a great set of hovi mic tips from @ukswrath. Thanks everyone for the help! The build thread link is in my signature. Hopefully I can submit for EIB the day I'm approved

Pre approval has nothing to do with EIB. It is to help ensure that your initial application to the 501st through your garrison goes smoothly. Once you are approved with the garrison you can apply directly to EIB status. I use flickr, photobucket used to be popular, and there are a few other hosting sites. If you want to find popular ones, go find a thread with pictures, click on those pictures and that should take you to their hosting site. This works best on a computer, but it's not impossible to do it on your phone or tablet.

I'll pay attention to that next time I wear the armor. I know it won't affect initial approval but I'd like to fix it before I apply, and I think I have time while I wait on the helmet.

Here are 2 pictures. This is the right side lined up Here they are centered. I looked at moving the butt plate out slightly, away from my torso, but that wouldn't work without a lot of reworking of the mounts, and I'm pretty sure it would look funny.

Yeah, I've noticed that. If I perfectly center the kidney plate on the posterior plate the bottom plate is about 1/2" larger on each side. The only 2 options I can think of to fix it would be to either just cut it to match, or cut it slightly long and form a new return edge. If I slide one edge to match the other edge is about an inch off. Let me try and take a picture of it to show you.

Torso fits! Now just the helmet is left. My wife is diligently painting when she has some extra energy (morning sickness is lasting most of the day ). I got the mics installed, as well as the amp and icomm. Here are a few pics of the sides. I know I need tweaking, see below for my plan. I think I need to tighten them slightly by moving the snaps closer to the rivets. The gap mostly disappears when the belt is installed, but it's not perfect. Ill get a suited up picture (and get pre-approval pics up) once the helmet is finished. I did make my own fan system based off of my Vader fans. I wanted an adjustable fan speed so I bought this guy again https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RYKR83Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and it works very well. For fans I bought these https://www.printedsolid.com/products/ldo-5015-5v-blower-fan-df5015h05s. I wanted a high cfm fan and most amazon ones were about half of these. I bought 6 fans. 2 for the lenses, 2 for the back of the helmet, and 2 for Vader because they are a lot stronger than what I have there. , you might notice that they are 3 wire fans, but mine are 2 wire fans... I just broke the 3rd yellow wire off because it's not needed. It's a tach signal, and the PWM controller doesn't care. I do plan on cutting the wires to size once they are installed and I know their needed length. Here are the fans I bought. And here is the whole setup with a temporary battery and only 2 fans for now. I wanted to test it and make sure it worked. That battery is a 2600mAh USB battery, 5V at up to 1A. Assuming 4 fans at max speed I would be using 1.2 Amps... so I couldn't actually get max speed with this battery. I ordered a new one. The new one is 10000mAh and up to 2.4A so it should do the trick. I was wondering how long the first would last, simple math at 1A draw means it would last 2.6 hours at most. With the 10000mAh battery I could draw the full 1.2A for over 8 hours. I don't think Ill ever be in armor that long :). To connect the battery I found an old USB cable and cut it, stripped the wires (it was a charge only cable so only 2 wires, made life easier because I didn't have to guess which wire was the 5V and which was ground), and connected that to the speed controller. If you want I can provide a wiring diagram of how they are wired, but it's pretty simple. The red wire of the fans goes to the + terminal (labeled on the bottom), the black goes to the - terminal, and the usb cord goes to the + and - power terminals. With power (cables and battery) and fans connected all you have to do is rotate the knob and it works. Also, here is my wifey helping out! Everything is painted black because I'm kinda lazy, and i'm kinda OCD. I painted the edges as nice as I could, but the brush had excess paint so I wiped it off in the middle... and it covered most of it so I just covered the whole thing on the fist trap I painted... then I did the next and thought it looked funny that it didn't match so I just painted the interior of both black... and just painted them all black at that point hahaha. I know, it's not needed. I had a slight worry about the grey looking different if the black wasn't uniform, then I remembered how thick the paint was and knew that it wouldn't be a problem. Well, that's it for now. Ill see if I can get anything else done tonight but I don't really expect to at this point. Happy Independence day to those in the USA, and happy Saturday to everyone else.

If you get a boot stretcher, make sure it's one for boots. Most shoe stretchers poke out the back and that won't really work for our boots.

I guess it's a little late... sorry... But for masking off detail paints like that a good option would be to get some automotive pinstripe tape. It bends around curves easier and lets almost nothing bleed through. I'd still do the quick white layer first to prevent even more bleed through spots. The current paint job looks good to me, a few spots with minor clean up but that's it good job.

I don't actually know the answer, but I imagine nickel plating, if done incorrectly, could possibly chip off. I wouldn't expect it, but I don't know for sure if that's an issue. So at most there would be visual issues for parts that are almost never seen except by you.

Hey there, I'm near Tampa as well, Dover if you are familiar with it, next to Valrico, I am just about finished with my RS kit. I am 6' and about 210lbs. I needed a shim on the kidney plate (really easy to do, I can go help with that if needed) but height wise it's not been an issue. If you have either a disproportionate leg length or torso length then you might have issues with height. I am fairly average I think in proportions and it works out well. If you know you are a bit girthier like me then you might ask them if they have any extended kidney armor pieces so you don't have to shim them, but I don't 100% know on that. Welcome, and good luck!

Side straps are gluing, Ill test the shoulder straps tomorrow once the side straps have dried. Then just the helmet is left and all it needs is paint and the fans installed.

I had a helper today And I finally did some acceptable snaps, took me long enough haha And here is the helmet liner mounted. I got the side rivets in and painted as well. I also got my Hovi mic speaker system from @ukswrath. I got the full set with icomm and microphone. I did buy fans and they arrived today as well, as well as the fan controller. I just need to figure out a battery (5V, likely going to use one of the many USB battery packs I have laying around for now). Well, on to the list, let's see what's left. Test shoulder elastics, I glued them down better and will see if that helps them. If it doesn't I'll likely sew a small strip of fabric to them down the middle on the bottom side, that should fix them well enough. Size and glue side straps finish helmet. (finish paint, install lens and electronics) Talk to the GML Dang... almost there.

looks like a hero helmet right? I'm doing the same, building a TK with RS armor during COVID

Get some halogen lights, Harbor freight sells some that come with 2 lights on a tripod, if that isn't enough light to paint with i'm not sure what is... https://www.harborfreight.com/detachable-dual-head-halogen-shop-light-62565.html

Cool, I thought I had to do 3 for some reason, 2 makes sense on both sides, and with the belt maybe even 1 would work... but Ill do 2 on each side for now. I'm thinking E6000 on one side, and snaps on the ab side.

That's helpful, thanks! Is there a reason you only did 2 straps? I assume 3 weren't needed. Also would it be beneficial to have a snap on each side? or would E6000 on one side be alright?

Thanks Mario, Next question, is it better to have elastic or nylon straps there? I know a lot is personal preference, but I figure it's worth asking. The kit came with elastic straps to connect the rivets together so if I use those Ill likely reinforce the snaps with nylon squares for durability. I plan on permanently connecting the kidney side and having snaps on the ab plate unless you guys recommend something else. I of course will use the split rivets (and trim them down by 1.5mm to fit them in the snaps) and snaps. Thanks!

Just making sure I have these rivets in the right spot before drilling holes. Horizontal (picture reference) lines are 10mm from the edge, the far right is 20mm from the top, and the next are 52mm and 53mm apart. I measured from the kidney plate and transfered those across, and then verified that the ab plate marks matched the 52mm and 53mm distances apart. Thanks for the help.

The gap is because I loosened the screws to paint them, it's normally a lot closer. Also I've seen your comments on making the right match the left on the angle, but I have rarely seen that in the screenshots. Specifically There are a few that do have more of an angle and this shot is split on angle vs vertical. But the real kicker for my RS armor is the RS helmet had it very vertical. I do appreciate your post, but I think Ill leave it for now unless it is not approvable. Also, I really don't want to mess with the ears anymore! Also the guide you referenced again is very helpful, especially for my wife since she is doing most of the painting! She isn't going to study the helmet like we are, so having close up references is great!

I got some more paint done. The wifey is going to touch up a little bit but I did all of the new paint today. Please point out where I painted too much! I'm not 100% on where everything goes, but I think it looks decent.