firebladejedi

The left shin is now trimmed to fit also, not illustrated. I like to get the fronts competed first and then check how much to take off the rear. Experience will tell me I do no need to take much off of the back, just the flashing and I should be good to go. I am going to be using the hook and eye original strapping system for this suit. More on that soon. For that I will need these little things here, old stock, vintage, Newey's 'World Famed' hooks & eyes size 4 - To H.M. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother no less, guaranteed rustless, made in England by Newey Bros ltd, Birmingham... Thankfully TM spent painstaking hours carefully preparing my original strapping kit for me, but I have done this myself way back when I put together my first 1.5mm TM.. Ok while I start to take a look at the thighs I will have some welsh rarebit while catching up on the BSB..

Day Six (take 2) Ok so the other day was a bit of a right off, I was annoyed after not being able to find my tools so decided not to do anything else in case a balls something up in anger. Wise choice. I went to the cheap shop today after work to get a sanding block, and then later tonight found my rasp.. what are the odds? Ok so I have now sanded and trimmed the front down and it is taped up ready for its joining strip. I will get on with the other one, in the meantime here are some crappy iPhone 4 pictures for your perusal.

After a disappointing 1 hour search in my garage for my tools, I will need to use something else as I cannot find anything I need. I am most annoyed, so will move onto something else after tea and scones.

I marked the front piece of the shin 10mm from the edge and quickly ran down with my scissors. Not really trying to be too neat. You can see I still need to take more off and more importantly more from he middle where it first touches. Even with the 20mm cover strip this will need to be slimmer. I will use a tool to take more off and get the edge flat and smooth. For this I use my plasterboard rasp. My studio building days are over and it works great on white plastic... You know this build would be going so much quicker if I didn't have to keep stopping, taking pictures of everything and explaining to you god people what I am doing. I hope you all appreciate the effort I'm going to here..

So here is my right shin from where we were last at. I have taped it together after only removing the flash to show you that this will need further trimming. In these pictures the joining strip is just 20mm. This is for illustration purposes only to show how much it will need slimming down.

One of the defining details for any ANH trooper armour build is the use of the cover strips on the arms and legs. The use of these is down to the way the original armour was designed, sculpted and made; and is still the way any fan made armour is produced - having 2 parts to the armour parts made seperately and glued together. One way to overcome the unsightly seem left by the way the armour was assembled was to add a cover strip over the top and bingo - straight away the seem is gone. It also adds a certain depth and look to the armour. So the correct method for arm and leg assembly is to have the two halfs of the armour butt together flush - and then glue the strip on top. So onto the size of the cover strip needed. The industry standard for the shins if you are trying to get your armour as close to the screen used examples is a strip 23mm wide at the front, to match the thighs; but most top builders use a wider strip at the back, which is normally 25mm or an inch wide. This is because the shins are the only part of the armour that open up to allow the wearer to slip them on and need just a little more covereage as the shins have a tendancy to open up a little when walking. This info is from troopermaster after looking at real screen used suit in person, so thanks to him for sharing. Its not known if all the suits were the same, but its highly likely. Now the size of 23mm is applied to the shins at the front. And the size of 25mm is applied to the back. Replica armour before strips Replica armour with 20mm strip on front Replica armour with inch strip on back LFL reference pic

Day Six Ok so I am now going to start trimming the arms and legs to fit. Its very important that you make your armour fit you, sounds like a no brainer but it needs to look like it grew on you and will make walking up the hill at LEGOLAND a lot easier. I am going to start with my shins, the toaster is on standby, coffee is brewing : Lets go to work! Today I am going to be using these things here. Something to cut away the plastic, a sharp knife, or trimming scissors. Use what you're happy to use. Dremels make lots of mess and can burn the plastic and if you get carried away, can rip through your armour in micro seconds. I use a steady hand and a sharp knife. Score and snap, repeat, score and snap. Let the knife do the hard work. Lightly run over the plastic and repeat. If you press too hard it can dig in and run away on a line you didn't want to cut. A metal rule for using as a measuring tool and a straight edge. In Imperial measurements, very important. Masking tape to hold things together for test fitting and gluing. I usually use blue painters tape as its better but this was cheaper. Glue.

Ok I am back from my weekend away visiting my brother, and wanted to geek out a little before getting on with my build. Don't worry I am not going to bore you with family portraits, and pictures of a family dog - this is strictly Star Wars related. I was able to get up close and personal with one of my holy grails of the prop world.. read on if you're a budding prop builder. My brother is currently serving in the 721 EOD Squadron and wanted to show me around his office. As well as trying on his armour, getting to have a look at the Cutlass and other expensive play things, while in the briefing room come training room slash museum, I came across a rather familiar object laying quietly on a table next to several other rod-type rifle grenades. I could not believe my luck - I just wish that he would have let me give this almost perfect, unfired now inert and FFE museum piece a new home.. any Star Wars fans check this out.. I would also just like to take second to thank anyone who has ever served in their countries armed forces or are still serving. I have the greatest respect for anyone who is willing to work extremely hard so that I am able to sleep peacefully in my bed at night. Thank you.

Ok so TM has turned it around and sent the remaining parts to my kit and its all hands on deck.. the post lady arrived at my door just after I finished washing my car this morning.. But this weekend I am going away to visit family living right next door to Stonehenge, so while I am away with the fairies, or is it the Druids? Anyway while I am away you guys and girls can look at this lot and wait patiently for Monday to arrive when I will get on with something. Alas with my odd working hours this week and Wimbledon on the telly, not much has been done... Don't worry if this little lot looks confusing, ive built a suit with these before and its very simple. I will talk you through it as I do it. Thanks again Paul.

A young man from Liverpool once sang, 'I like to get high with a little help from my friends'.. well I like to get high with the help of my friend's E-six million and or Stelmax 1985.. If you are new to building I would highly recommend you use the E- six million, as it is easy to work with, is clear, excess rubs off when dry and if you make a mistake you can pop it in the freezer, then prize the parts apart and start again. The only down side is it takes 24 hours to dry and is rather whiffy - always use in a well ventilated area. Stelmax 1985 on the other hand is a white fast acting vinyl adhesive and will replicate the original armour build perfectly. Use sparingly as it will warp your plastic and you may have difficulty getting the armour apart again if you make a mistake. This stuff dries very quickly - you have been warned! Im going to use the Stelmax and have ordered some with the pending delivery of my cover strips. For more info on getting high while sticking small bits of white plastic together, type L S D into your browser thingy and follow the links... If you've been affected by substance misuse, have found this post disturbing or have a problem, talk to FRANK http://www.talktofrank.com/

No updates for you stormtrooper fans this week but I have a message from the main man with the white plastic.. Thank the maker! This build will be back on track soon, thanks for stopping by my thread today ...

Once you have done trimming you will end up with a pile of this scrap plastic. Don't throw it away, it can come in very handy for repairs. Cutting this up into small pieces and putting in a jar with acetone will produce a gooey plastic paste that can be used to repair cracks and tears and it will match your new armour perfectly..

More pictures of rough looking cuts. The Ab plate is done for now, ready for clean up and fine tuning.

Day Four Ok I have finished my night shifts, I have had my Weetabix and its time for more cutting, yeah.. I trimmed this during day three but did not post pics of the kidney after trimming. It does not look like I have taken much off, and that because I haven't, not yet.

Ok so we just have the ab plate to trim now and we are done. Its all marked ready to cut. This is such a lovely piece to hold and look at, subtle differences from my last kit back in 2011, here we see the sandy plate before the ab buttons are going on.. Ok so we just have the ab plate to trim now and we are done. Its all marked ready to cut. This is such a lovely piece to hold and look at, subtle differences from my last kit back in 2011, here we see the sandy plate before the ab buttons are going on..

Did I mention the chest piece looked rough, well the proof is in the pudding so they say. Don't worry stormtrooper fans, this will have another trim and sand session, I am really just getting the armour rough trimmed ready to get on with the build proper. I am really starting to dislike photo bucket, the annoying adverts keep flashing in my face, I can never remember my password to log in, and it keeps flipping out and cannot keep up with me... get it sorted photo bucket people! Do I want to make this picture into a canvas print? Really I think not, I just want to show the good people of the UKG my wonky work...

A quick run round with the scissors, and we're all done..

The butt has a very generous return also. I usually take this down to a minimum. The upper lip will need to be bigger again to allow room for screws. I am really just cutting away not paying too much attention. I will clean up later or not.. one thing to bare in mind. The larger the return the more likely the tear, although modern armour is made from very flexible abs plastic. One thing is a must, make sure there are no small cuts anywhere in the corners, sand nice and smooth as that is where the tears or cracks will start.

Here is the kidney plate, loads of return edge to cut off, or not. I have left plenty for screws, but if your return is smaller and you still want to use screws just screw through the edge, or back plate, or wherever you like.

If you only buy one new tool for armour building, buy a pair of these. Lexan curved trimming scissors, worth every penny.. much more useful and controllable than a dremmel and less messy..

Day Three Ok so there were no updates since Monday lunchtime as I decided to take a nap before work and I had ninja classes both last night and on Monday before work. But no class today so lets go to work! I'm now working on the torso, and have already trimmed the upper back plate, next out is the kidney plate. This set of TM has a very generous return on the body parts and, as I am going to use the original strapping system I am going to need a fairly good edge to be able to put screws through it. I will look at the strapping more in depth when I fit it, for now lets carry on cutting. What a great name for a new carry on film, Carry on Cutting..

All arm and leg pieces are now done. So I will tackle the torso next his avo. Time for lunch. Probably going to have a ham salad, I'll see what's in the fridge. Its still raining here, in the middle of summer. How annoying, I was hoping to hang my washing out today to get it dry. Never mind. More armour building to look forward to...

All armour needs to be trimmed to fit you and depending on your body size, less or more will need to be taken away. I know from experience that I will need to take little away from the thighs and at the moment I am taking as little off as possible. You can use a knife or your scissors. I'm using scissors. To get a guide line I simply lay the part on the table and run a pencil down the crease like this. Then I have a guide to follow. Don't worry if you do not have a steady hand and the line is not straight. The joining strips will cover all of this later and nobody will ever need to know... The piece in the pictures above is the last part of the legs that needs doing. After lunch I will start on the body parts.

Well it seems I trimmed more of my armour last night than I remember. I must have been distracted by Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde 2 on the tv last night.. So I have also trimmed an outer and inner thigh. Again at this stage all I am doing is rough trimming the parts, getting rid of the flashing that comes from the excess plastic from when it was formed. Some armour will be better trimmed than others and some may give you an option of pre trimmed or not. If you get it like this untrimmed and raw, its very easy to take off the excess. Again I am only using curved trimming scissors and this 1.5mm gloss ABS plastic is easy to cut. Don't worry about the wavy wibbly wobbly lines as I will deal with that later on. This is what needs taking off And here it is after trimming

I'm not really building my armour in any particular order, its just a case of what ever comes out of the box next. I have trimmed one half of each of my shins, as that's how they were packed. I have taken the flashing off and trimmed the top and bottom, here's a before and after picture. Again take off as much as you like, I like to have very little return at the top of my shins, so that it does not cut into my leg all day when I'm at the Space Centre. At the ankle I take it all off. Not needed and it will sit on your boot much better.