Stormtrooper

ASTOUNDING work, Mark.... I love all the subtle little details like the screws on the bottom edge of the hestplate holding the metal brackets inside. And the rivets up the left-hand-side of the abdomen and kidney plates Oh, and the subtle ageing and distressing of the armour works wonders too. Can we plz see some fully suited-up or mannequin pics of the costume in it's entirety? Cheers, John swdvds@yahoo.com

Amen to that, brother And when you're responsible for works of art like this: ...... I think you can single-handedly claim responsibility for 'raising the bar' right up to screen-used quality That's got to be my favourite pic of all posted in this thread.... a combination of screen-accurate armour and pose make it unbeatable... If I had simply seen pics of Stephen's armour and hadn't been told it was a replica costume, I'm pretty sure I would have thought it was an original Lucasfilm suit from ANH.... the subtle touches like the micro-screws on the lower lip of the chest armour, and likewise between the backplate and kidney plate... the canvas belt with riveted holster,,,, the painted jodphur boots - and of course the exquisite weathering effects that you applied to the armour, making it look like plastic that has genuinely aged over 34 years.... as opposed to someone who's spent 10 minutes with a box of pastels and acrylic paints! What is your weathering secret, if you don't mind me asking, mate? Scrunched-up Newspaper perhaps and a smidge of earthy-coloured pastels? Anyways, well done on surpassing yourself *yet again* Paul, and congratulations to you Stephen for having the most desirable ANH Stormtrooper display in captivity! Can you please put me down for at least one of these 1mm super-flexible suits, Paul. And if I can get a buyer for one of my kidneys then I'll have 3 or 4 please! Cheers, John john@manicminer.plus.com

Tremendous work, Pete and Paul.... this is IMO the pinnacle of what a replica ANH/ESB Stormtrooper costume should look like. And when the attention to detail extends to how the components were attached inside, it simply takes it to a whole 'nother level Thanks to you guys, the hobby has come a looong way since I bought my first Wookiee Cantina Stormtrooper kit back in 1998, complete with rolls of velcro, ABS belt and 3-part helmet.... bblleeeuurrghh! I Love this pic - it just screams "Imperial Stormtrooper! And there's NO need for you to feel humble, mate. You've taken what's arguably *the* best replica Stormtrooper costume, and turned it into something that's virtually indistinguishable from the costumes we all know and love from the original movies. I reckon you and Paul are *the* best thing to happen to replica Stormtrooper costuming.... ever! Cheers, John swdvds@yahooDOTcom

You've totally missed my point, man. I was comparing how for some people, having a replica prop which *looks like* the movie prop is perfectly fine. Whilst for other (usually poorer! LOL) folks like myself, it's infinitely preferable to have a prop replica which was cast from moulds *which were directly taken from an original prop* I didn't intend for a direct comparison to be made between Steve's excellent ESB blaster greeblies, and a Rubies Stormtrooper helmet If you already have an E-11 blaster replica then it would make sense to buy add-on greeblies to ESB-ify it. I guess you could call it a "more viable option"...ahem, even if you're not sure what price the greeblies are? Just kidding man... I'm sure the greeblies *are* cheaper than my cast-from-original ESB blaster Cheers, John

And I suppose you could say, by the same logic, a Rubies Stormtrooper helmet is a more viable alternative to a bumpy-cap HDPE helmet, cast from an original stormtrooper helmet, eh? Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks. However if anyone has a lareg (sic) sum of cash that they would like to get rid off, I currently have some original-cast ESB 'stunt' E-11 blasters available. Please email me at swdvds@yahoo.com Cheers, John a.k.a. Pugman

Excellent screengrabs, Pablo. It makes sens that these soft thighs were made for troopers doing 'falls' like the trooper who falls off the unextended bridge in the Death Star chasm... and the trooper who falls into the lft-shaft in the docking-bay (in the 2nd screengrab) I wonder what about the poor trooper who was first to come through the dentntion block door, was blasted, and fell onto the damaged remaints of the door - if he had a standard suit then he probably had to pick out shards of shattered styrene / ABS from his crotch! I'm surprised that the costume department didn't make these stunt thighs from cardboard, simply bent to shape, and painted... for such a simple shape as the thigh armour it would have been quick and cheap. But judging by these pics, you can make out the side of the thigh undulating in and out (or wobbling might be abetter word? ) so it likely was latex, leather or some sort of soft vinyl perhaps? BTW look at the state of the handguards on the trooper in the detention block in these pics... barely any white paint left on em! Cheers, John

Nice armour Pete... TM armour is definitely a thing of beauty Let's see some pics of you fully suited-up after you fit Mark's canvas belt... should make for an incredibly accurate ANH setup Cheers, John

Hot- diggety- damn Pablo... that is some beautiful armour ya got there! TM makes some fantastic trooper armour, no doubt... Nice to see my gloves and handguards being put to good use! Now how 'bout a pic of you fully suited 'n' booted in your TM armour? Cheers, John PS - excellent work on assembling and finishing the helmet... an incredible achievement as your first helmet build!

Hi everyone, I held off posting this before because it looks like I have an ulterior motive by suggesting what I'm about to suggest ....but since there are 3 different producers of rubber ANH handguards now, isn't it time that rubber handguards became an Elite Infantryman requirement for ANH Stunt / Hero costumes? I started off making latex handguards for my own ANH replica armour since vac-formed plastic handguards have ALWAYS bugged me on ANH Stormtrooper costumes.... even on my first Armor F/X suit waaay back in '99 We all know that the ANH movie originals were made from rubber / latex, and since the Elite Infantryman requirements cover other aspects like a riveted holster, no gaps between the front and back ab-armour and a Henglster counter required on ANH blasters.... isn't it time that rubber handguards became a requirement too? Oh, and R2Dan and troopermaster make excellent latex handguards as well as lil' ole' me..... What does everyone think? Cheers, John

Darned straight! I think there should be many more Scandanavian ladies wearing Stormtrooper armour, whether it's canon-movie armour or Femtrooper armour (looks BETTER with the ab-armour, as opposed to the bare midriff look IMO) There seems to be a distinct lack of ladies here in the UK who are into Star Wars costuming Or maybe they're all hiding their gender under their helmets! Cheers, John troopergloves@yahoo.com

Aaaragghh.... you need to read EVERY SINGLE WORD of someone's post, and you will find the answers that you seek! Seriously though, great work, obiwanboydy... love seeing accurate trooper armour on display. That TE2 kit looks great (pssst... although you REALLY do need some latex handguards to be ANH-uber-accurate ) Cheers, John troopergloves@yahoo.com

Wow... very interesting indeed. Looks like it's taken from video footage? Care to share? Looks like this was at the Sandtrooper stage, before GL reportedly ordered the extra lil' bits 'n' pieces like he sniper knee plate abdominal button details etc. Oh, and funky looking handguards too! LOL Cheers, John

Thanks Bernard and Dan for the comments.... I don't think Marcus meant anything bad about my handguards by his support of Dan's handguards... I certainly don't have a problem with it. In fact, I'm encouraged that someone else is offering ANH latex handguards, after all these years of vac-formed plastic handguards it's great for the trooper-fan to finally have a choice of CCURATE handguard - whether it's from me or Dan After all, it's like comparing an AP suit to a TE2 suit... both are a step up from an Armor FX, so it's all good! Happy trooping everyone! Cheers, John

Hi Dan, Good to hear that you've got your first few castings done As for the colouring... deep breath When I was going through the prototyping stage for my latex handguards I spend a tone of time and money trying to get this right, so hopefully some of this will save you the same waste of time and hassle: 1. Latex colouring mixed-in with the latex is a BAD idea for White latex. I bough a large bottle of it from my latex supplier, and mixed the recommended 5% in with the latex. Finished handguard came out looking like oatmeal brown colour. So I doubled the ratio to 10% white latex pigment with the natural latex.... the end result was ever so slightly lighter but nowhere near what you would call WHITE I contacted my supplier, and he basically said "White pigment doesn't work very well with latex, because it cures to a quite deep brown colour" WTF?! Why bother selling lWhite latex pigmnt then, if it doesn't work properly! LOL Kirkconsult's suggestion about mixing some as a slush casting to put into your mould, forming a skin... and then pour natural latex once the skin has cured seems like a workable idea, except when I tried it the coloured skin shrank slightly as it cured, which meant when I filled it with liquid latex for the 'body' of the handguard, it didn't really conform to the shape of the plaster mould (essentially you end up using the cured latex skin as a mould, instead of the actual plaster mould itself! 2. I tried mixing some white acryllic paint with watered-down latex and bought an airbursh to try spraying the finished handguards with... basically it ended-up with a lumpy surface on the handguard, and the brown still showed through, making it like a pink/oatmeal colour 3. I tried painting on acryllic white paint with a fine brush, and as you have noted, you get brush marks... and the paint dries hard, so when the latex is flexed the paint cracks. 4. Final solution (before I gave up) I tried some white colouring dye for shoes / handbags and carefully painted it onto the finished handguards. This stuff isn't designed for rubber, but after you paint a few light strokes, the dye kind of closes-over the brushstrokes without wiping out any detail of the handguards beneath. When it dries it is semi flexible.... it will bend enough to conform to the curvature of the back of your hand, but you can't double-over the handguard without the white dye cracking - however if you do crack it by mistake, when the handguard returns to it's normal shape the tiny cracks are practically impossible to see. You'll need 2 or 3 coats of this stuff to give a finish similar to the Stormtrooper handguards in ANH, but it looks (to me anyways) just like what they used back when they were making the originals! This trial and error process cost me a LOT of messing about, and I now have latex pigment, airbrush etc. that I have no use for! LOL I'll have to put it all up on eBay So try some leather shoe / handbag dye, and if you wanna shoot me an email feel free at the email address below... Good luck, and make sure to post some pics of the your finished, painted handguards Cheers, John troopergloves@yahoo.com PS - Troopermaster / Paul.... it took me so long typing my message that I hadn't seen your post, mate Yep, with standard paint, or with shoe dye and 'over-flexing' of the handguards there definitey will be some cracking, but for accuracy nuts like ourselves the screenused semi-worn look is a bonus anyways!

Hi Dan, Email received and replied to, mate. Your handguards are shaping up nicely... keep us posted on your progress! Cheers, John swdvds@yahoo.com