TheLorelei

Thank you all. Your kind words are appreciated more than you know. So yesterday I realized I was sick of being *almost* basic-approvable at the end of yet another month, and with a decent push I finished half a dozen strappings, put the mesh in the hovis (after a delightful "I LOST MY HOVIS WITH THE SPEAKERS INSTALLED" scare), mounted hovi mics and ears, did a handful of other nitty gritty things, and suited up for pictures. It was cloudy out so they're not as clear as they could be, but trust me it's better that way. I do NOT consider this Centurion-grade for a variety of reasons - bear that in mind when browsing! I will be replacing and refinishing several parts. And I forgot the thin elastic ties on the shoulder straps. Sigh. But for now, I do look rather like a TK... ...and then I *really* had some fun. So yeah, there's that. Plenty of work ahead, but if I can start trooping as is, I'd love to be able to.

Love the contrast of the periodic table on a black tee. And a coupon, to boot! In for one. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks again for all the input, y'all. Things got more than usually crazy around here with my grandmother (with whom I lived) being in and out of the hospital for the past month+ and passing away this week. Post-funeral I took some time to sit outside in the lovely weather and breathe in some toxic fumes-- I mean, work on my armor. (and really, I always wear an OV-grade respirator as I'm not about that fume life.) No pics as I had to dash off to a dinner, but I started wiping the buttons clean of paint (which is STILL not done after probably an hour of swabbing with mineral spirits and scraping with a corner of ABS - there's gotta be a better way and if somebody knows it, please spill), glued some elastic into the shoulder bell (which will have a snap on the other end to attach to my bicep), glued Velcro onto the inside of the back of my left thigh and the padding that goes there to keep the thigh behind the sniper knee (PS this padding is so nice, a high density foam supposedly for weatherproofing), glued white marine vinyl onto the kidney as part of my new (temporary) kidney-ab closure (I say temporary because I really do just need a new kidney and ab and will replace these soon but likely not before initial approval), and glued elastic to the lower cuff of my rubber gloves (which will also have a snap on the other end to attach to my upper inner forearm). I also painted part of my mechanical keyboard's case, which you'll most definitely get a picture of when it looks as Imperial as it eventually will. To-do list, assuming revisiting/finalization of previously mentioned recent accomplishments, looks like: Make elastic boot top cinchers (got the elastic!) Reshape lower calf openings (more hot water baths...) Repaint tube stripes with new brushes (not looking forward to getting all that paint off either) Mount ears, hovi mics, pad bucket Paint various hardware white (at least thigh ammo pack rivets today) Address td brackets Polish kidney repair seam Longer-term: Replace ab and kidney Finish helmet electronics Refinish blaster There you have it. My highly paranthetical update. (P.S. Missed you guys.)

Hey Luc! Thanks! No shoulder bell strapping was in. The long black strap running down my back was attached to the tops of the bells and sorta stuck under my chest-to-backplate shoulder straps, but the "underarm" elastic wasn't on the bells and neither was the bell-to-bicep elastic. Speaking of which, someone recommended I just put a popper right on the ridge of the bicep and on the underside of the ridge of the bell and stick 'em straight together, no strap. Anyone have any success doing that?

But of course that was the first time I'd ever put my td on the belt. It would be nice to have a mannequin so I could work on the back of me... anyway that's on the list now, thanks for noting it. Just finished hemming the bib and sewing in the #10 snaps. I also took the large bump off of the back of the shoulder straps - I'll leave it at that for now as it's easy enough to take more off should someone suggest it down the road.

I'll see what I can do! Keep you posted. Phew, much easier fix and I was going to repaint anyway, like I said. I was shooting for that size circles, guess I'll go even smaller.

Thanks! Oh right, I forgot, on my list is to redo the ab button paint as well. It's all smudgy. Do you mean the paint or the button panels themselves? Because the four-button panel I'll agree with you is a bit large but if I trim it down much further I'm into the curves of the circles. I'll make the circles smaller to simulate the proper button size though, good catch. LEGO Brickfest, hopefully!

Thanks, Rat! Still alive over here. Garrison elections have finally gotten sorted and I've soft-picked my debut troop in April so all that remains is to get approved by then. which shouldn't be TOO hard, considering how much I'm beginning to look like a tk... another armor party on Saturday afforded the opportunity to finalize some strapping lengths and shave down some armor-bitey areas around the cod, as well as pass on some paint and advice to a couple fellow cadets who recently started their TK builds. Turns out I know a decent bit now, y'all... and what I can't remember off the top of my head, I can find in my reference photo album. Anyway, here's the (SHOULDER STRAPPING NOT IN) look: Also, pardon the lighting. This was before I reshaped the inner thighs. They're currently slimmer (but with the same curves). Forgot my holster hanging straps so no holster in pic. Loving the hinge on that side though! The other side, not so much. It has elastic strapping which is stretching far too readily, and then when it would go back together, the tab system provides just enough pressure to keep it spread apart. Also the lower snap hits my hip bone. I will be rethinking that closure. Ignore the black everywhere up top. Bib needs to be hemmed/tamed, had it on for sizing purposes. Think I'll trim my shoulder straps in the back. Anybody have input on how much I take off? Then I had to run upstairs to get cell signal. So I did. I sounded like a pile of Tupperware in a large mixer, but it was perfectly comfortable and I came downstairs with no problems. Only snag was that my left chest snaps came undone then, and whenever else I moved much. I'll have to readdress them. Then, when nobody was watching my potentially really really stupid move, I set up my camera on a timer and tried to sit down. And boy was it fun! I'll reinforce my butt plate with fiberglass tape and monitor for cracks. And try not to sit a lot. Maybe. Left to do: Sew in second halves of shoulder strap snaps (say that five times fast) Create shoulder bell-bicep wrap strap and bell-bicep hang strap Make elastic boot top cinchers Pad back thigh Rethink right ab-kidney connection Reshape lower calf openings Make strap from gloves to upper edge of forearm armor to keep cuffs from slipping down Repaint tube stripes with new brushes Mount ears, hovi mics, pad bucket Paint various hardware white Purchase ski mask/helmet liner Finish edges of neck seal bib And, longer term, I have to refinish my blaster and mess with helmet electronics. But the stuff above is more immediately necessary for approval. So.

@gmrhodes13 @Frank75139 @Bud Spaklur You guys and the ice cream - dying here. Oh yeah, and here's 20!

Ohh, that's a good idea... I think I get it. Gonna try that. Thanks Frank!

This IS all your fault. and hey, I'm bound to hit 20 pages at this point and will gladly pony up for ice cream for all you guys who helped make this monstrous build thread what it is! Just come to Philly.

Okay, WHERE can I get a TK ice cream like that?? Haha. Howdy all, no, I haven't died, and you have AJ to thank for my checking back in (he emailed me, which I actually get alerts of). Just before the armor party, my honorary dad went on vacation so I had many more work things to do (the paid kind) and since I haven't touched my armor since the party anyway... but here I am. So what happened with all the rushy rushy and then nothing? Well I was trying to get approved before our garrison elections which were rumored to be "sometime at the beginning of February" - however, turns out they stop even beginning reviews in mid-January to avoid leaving half-approved apps for the next GML. When I finally got clear answers on all of that it was past mid-Jan and I was told nothing would be picked up again until mid-Feb. THAT was intensely frustrating and contributed to the leaving of the armor during the busy workweek. Also, apparently every advisor in our garrison has to approve every costume. Not just the GML. Not sure if this is how most garrisons run, but it makes all our approvals take weeks on end. So, here's my long-overdue rundown of the armor party. Several people who read my Carida thread walked in, saw me, and went "oh, you ARE a tiny Trooper. Huh." I had an incredibly productive day in large part due to the banana-Nutella crepes that a wonderful resident of our host's house made... (I call this one "cadet on crepe break") ...and because of a belt sander with which I removed excessively large return edges from almost every piece of armor (ha!), perhaps most significantly my thigh tops. I also evened out the lower edge of my forearms and shins, which was sorta magical. Had fun with some sandpaper after that, and all the edges look super legit now. Very exciting. I tried padding the bucket, was told I look like a bobblehead, fiddled with the padding some more... fun times. I tried to suit myself up a couple times and sorta succeeded. It's harder than I expected! Not many pics but did get this one, the back view of that first half-suit-up I posted before. This was before I smoothed the thigh tops, btw. One thing annoying me big time is how the right ankle doesn't want to stay closed, also why the right shin is riding so much higher than the left. I'm hoping that when I break the boots in they'll stop pushing so hard. May wear them around the house to facilitate that. You know, this would be significantly better with pictures... I'll take some tomorrow and give further commentary/updates on actual armor. Around 5, everyone but @TK45625 packed up and left. I had gotten some things done, but definitely not as much as I hoped. I looked over at my Table O' White Plastic with a small sigh, and announced that I'd best head out too. I think what I actually said was "I'll get out of your hair now" because our host said "You're not in my hair! How much did you want to get done?" and I said "Well I sorta wanted to be finished..." and she and TK45625 said "Then let's finish it!" and they rallied round in a wonderful show of friendship and we knocked out most everything else. We ended the night playing beatsaber (!! VR is pretty nifty, y'all!) and eating more pizza. All in all an awesome day with great people. To-do list in next post.

I am covered in white dust and plastic bits. I am weary. I am not finished my build, but I practically am. There are a few things gluing (shoulder straps, hand plates) and tube stripes to be cleaned up and shoulder strap snaps to be sewn in and that is - Lord willing - all. Here's one random photo of midway through today when I first put my leg armor on and realized that I'm getting to look kinda like a stormtrooper. More later!

Thank you very much for the kind words, Joseph. And those ears - you know I'll find a way - it's just going to require a good deal of "facial reconstruction" due to the notoriously wonky right seam of the ATA bucket. To have the right ear at any more of an angle means the bottom of the ear is entirely on the cap. The face barely stretches as far as the end of the trap. Did I overtrim it? Frankly, I don't recall trimming it at all and while I somehow have no pictures of my bucket from the side view when I got it, one photo on a slight angle seems to confirm my suspicions that the edges were quite straight already so I didn't bother trimming them. What I figure I'll need to do is shim the face, doing even MORE painstaking smoothing than on my kidney because of how visible it'll be since the ear won't cover the bottom half at all, then trim the cap back, effectively moving the entire seam location. Oh, and rework the ears as necessary. While I'm up for this for the sake of accuracy (of course I am), it's also a ton of work and if it won't keep me from basic approval (do you think it will?) it's something I'd rather keep as an EIB/Centurion upgrade than another hurdle to even submit for basic. Phew, that was words. Before I go paint - the secret to my knee sitting so flush was that I didn't stop at sanding up to the base of the curve of the bottom edge; I actually sanded down the back of the knee until it was perfectly flat from the back, too. The other non-secret is those clamps, which I love and will likely attempt to legally adopt. But anyway the knee may look awful! I don't know yet! I'll see it this afternoon at which time I'll trim down the top, which I was only holding off on to ensure coverage of inner shin.

That did cross my mind, especially this bucket completion sprint. I am cherishing this time with Smudge, despite moving quickly. The number of times I've held his face or cap at arm's length and grinned wide... I'm loving this part of the build, and I was dreading it all along. A surprise, to be sure! I guess it's sort of like when you get to IKEA at the same time as a couple people and they stop by the couches but you stop in the kitchens and you end up passing each other a few times and never dream you'll end up at checkout at the same time... but there you are. Completely different trips but somehow similar in length. And it makes sense that Frank would be nice to you, since he's an Attaché and is supposed to interact positively with people from his garrison in particular. OH WAIT. Really? Ugh. I mean, uh, congratulations. Looks like A.J. and I will just have to set new garrison records to sneak in before elections, then! And for the record A.J. is legitimately done with his squeaky clean build, whereas I still have paint residue and untrimmed pieces. So, I've lost track of who, but SOMEbody's losing five bucks. I got less done today than hoped, but still some stuff. I'm going to clean up the tube stripes tomorrow and if I even remotely dislike them I'm wiping them and starting over, possibly with a stencil. The frown needs shaping at the corners, another coat, and edge modification. The traps need stripes. I wiped the ears because the more I stared at Set for Stun the more I realized they were painted too far out; the repaint was done with masked edges. Sketched, masked, painted teeth: Gave traps and tears another coat of grey, then dotted in beginnings of tear stripes: You'll see the completed tears below with the tube stripes, which I masked with model masking tape a pencil's width from the cheek when viewed from the top. I don't know how tall y'all's templates are, but the guideline I saw was 13/16" and when I masked it at that it looked like this: which is practically half of the visual space of the tube and just not how it's supposed to be according to my reference pics, so I thinned it down to 5/8". YMMV. Much better! Go easy on them, they need cleanup like I said... I like this angle: And I didn't get pics of them painted or with the first coat of grey on just the middle, but here's the new ear line: And that took me 'til 11, and boy am I beat. Goodnight, you people with your completed TKs. Oh yes and I didn't see my sniper knee today or I would have photographed it.

Shoot, nope, the previous page. Never mind.

It's at the top of the page - I'm betting you just scrolled up. Now let me paint!! I'll reply to all you guys as soon as I can bring myself to put the brushes down!

That's my goal!!!! Shhh! I've been trying to not say it to avoid, I dunno, the bad costuming spirits from gathering. You really think it's possible?

Thanks, Dan. Good to know my vocoder has passed muster with you, at any rate! The pencil width tube stripe placement guideline seems like such a silly unit of measurement but I've seen it referenced in so many places, I'll go by it. I'm lighting the ear-shaped bat signal for @justjoseph63 - if there's anything I need to know, it would be good to know now. Though of course changes later are no big deal. Thanks, Matt. Yep, they're all awaiting another coat of grey to even things out. And nope, you didn't miss a thing, I just haven't pasted the to-do list in from the note in which it resides in a bit, primarily because: I'M GETTING SO MUCH DONE! So much I can barely keep up on the posts. For instance, I finished my butt-kidney connection AND mounted my drop boxes a couple days ago and entirely forgot to mention it. See? Drop boxes. And this is weird but I couldn't think of a better way to exhibit just how stable the new connection is: Pressure from either direction has no effect on alignment. I am loving the polyester webbing. Yes, I still need to trim the butt and sand the kidney seam. Last night I got the clamps y'all apparently have - $7 and change at Walmart for 16 in varying sizes and my GOODNESS y'all HOW did I not have these for my whole build?? (This is without a doubt among the better photos I've ever taken. Has an air of a Renaissance painting about it.) I decided to trim the top after installing to avoid overtrimming like last time. So ignore the tallness, please. So alright, Matt, here's what's left. Ish.  BUCKET: Finish painting bucket, Install speakers in hovis, Assemble bucket LOWER REGIONS: Trim buttplate, Size cod and connect to ab, Cod to butt elastic (soft stuff) SHOULDERS: Trim shoulder tops, Connect shoulders, Reinforce shoulder straps (?), Apply to chest, Trim shoulder bells, Size bell strap, Sew in shoulder bell snap NECK SEAL: Make neck seal bib TORSO: Polish kidney seam, Repaint ab buttons

Totally.

Right?! Just straight threw it out there. Hence the shock!

Haha! Safe bet. I'm well taken care of. WELL I NEVER. Y'all... honestly my jaw dropped before I started laughing. Excellent motivation, and I'm going to prove you SO wrong, Frank, and prove you SO right, Matt! Haha. While I blob about a bit after dinner, here, have an update: Yesterday after work I stood outside for two hours in the sub-freezing weather painting Smudge. Ever notice that Testor's doesn't have any application temperature guidelines? I did. These were my results: Well, those, and I painted the vocoder half a dozen times, hating it and wiping it each time. Speaking of wiping, a cosmetic wedge sponge soaked in mineral spirits is my best friend while painting. Those sponges are the bee's knees! I left the pieces in my heated workroom overnight and did some more painting this afternoon. Full sized pics this time because I am SO fond of how it's coming along: Lower edge of left ear will be cleaned up as the black is too wide. Touched up the hovis: and admitted to myself I could not freehand the vocoder shape, opting to sketch it in with pencil like so: How's this look? The frown was being annoying so I think I'll mask that before painting. I'm going for the full hand-painting experience on the tube stripes having figured out that I paint best when employing sharpshooting breath control techniques, I'm confident I can pull it off. Enough dilly-dallying - off to get my knee ready!

Somehow that picture makes it seem so doable! Trimming the knee down now, and will acquire those exact clamps (but from Walmart) tonight and set it a-gluing. Thank you! And I'm glad you've caught up, @Rat .

Legendary it is! I would edit my post but we've already established that my mistakes will be here forever. And oh my goodness photographs would be great, thanks! I was just thinking about who I could ask to help with that since "dressing" everything to proper specs is so important... I'll PM you sometime if that works! Thanks! Did you use adhesive Velcro, or glue it on with E6000? Wondering if self-adhesive is strong enough. Former failures loom large. The angles seem too odd for clamps, though... what type did you use?

Figured. *shrugs* But really, that makes sense, and as you know this thread is much more lively anyway so it makes for better (and more continuous) discussions if you stay over here so thank you! Thanks! That's what I'm hoping for. Still trying to get as much done as I can before then, though... Yup. Mentioned it towards the end of my post - but apparently it was too much rambling for the mighty Preston to sit through. *sobs quietly* In general thanks for mentioning it though because I didn't have access to that part of the Carida forums before O.o I do now, fortunately.