troopermaster

By the way, Scott, it looks like you have a 'Maker of things' armour. He usually makes them in HIPS and it looks like one of his to me.

There is absolutely no doubt that Anovos is cast from an RS. Anovos hand plates are EXACTLY the same as mine that I gave RS to cast as are the button plates, shoulder straps and knee plate. And if that isn't enough evidence, how in the world would Anovos have the EXACT same hand sculpted forearm and bicep that Rob from RS made on their armour? We all know they cast it but no one wants to accept it.

The armour in this movie is shocking. Looks like some horrible recast from ebay. Big thumbs down from me!

The ESB hand plates are the same on all troopers. Some may be wearing them on opposite hands or the trimming may vary, but they are the same. There is a specific left and right shape. With regards to how they are attached, they were all sewn on to black cotton/lycra gloves with the exception of the MKII troopers (seen cuffing Chewie) that wear rubber gloves and they have an elastic loop across the palm. The hand plate on the MKII is strapped to the wrist of the armour. The shoulder bells do have an elastic bicep strap exactly as in ANH since they are refurbished ANH suits.

Pathetic! Honestly, who makes up these stupid rules?

Is there a game to see who can keep the protective layer on their Anovos kit the longest?

I went to my local hobby store yesterday and picked up a tin of #157 Azure Blue and it looks a good colour. The #96 was much darker in reality and resembled #15 Midnight Blue so I did not buy it. My tin of #221 Garter Blue also arrived yesterday and I will paint some testers later today

Thanks, Andy That is really helpful. Looking at the colours I do not see a very good match to any of them. I think I will paint a strip of ABS with some of the real colours and see if we can come to a conclusion. I checked my paints and I do not have the #96 but do have the #109. #221 is on its way to me and I will pick up some #96 later this week. It is hard to say whether the grey is gloss or satin since it can look to be either in some photos? I have several greys too so I will paint a test strip with those too

There was an ESB MKII sold with a squib hole in the chest but I am not sure if JJ owned it? Here is one (if not the same) of the trooper suits sold with the FG helmet which looks to the same style as the one in your link.

Todays homework, Andy If you don't mind?

I love this comparison! The only problem with kind of thing is that you could agree on a certain colour and then another photo of the very same helmet shows up in a different light and it throws the colours off. That said, I think the #96 does look to be the best match. Any chance you could make similar comparisons with other found helmets? It would be great to see how they compare

I agree, but I believe Airfix paints are no longer available. If you go on the Airfix website, they stock Humbrol paints. Yes. I believe that suit was owned by Jason Joiner. It is not an original and has a fibreglass helmet. There were twoof them auctioned several years ago and I have some photos of them somewhere.

I might have? I still have various colours on my shelf that I will check tomorrow

I read that too but do you honestly think the prop department in 1976 went to so much trouble as to mix paints? I highly doubt that. The tubes stripes have always looked to have a matt or satin finish to me and I have used several colours in the past.

The grey looks very light. It could be #40 Pale Grey. And look at the tube stripes - definitely not #14 although I have never used that blue on my own armour. I have some #221 coming for the blue on my new suit that I will be making soon.

I think you are spot on! I was under the impression that Mark Hamill kept his helmet, but obviously not. And the crazy thing is that we already identified the promo helmet as the one in the LFL archives. I must be losing it Great detective work, Andy

My XL shins are 17" tall.

28mm or 1 1/8" wide strips. The screws are drilled in the wrong places and the screws themselves are wrong. But like Mathias said, they will do for trooping.

That's the thanks you get by going out of your way to help by showing your private collection of photographs of an original TD. You would be wise to remember that this is the FISD - they have their own way of doing things here. The original and proper ways are frowned upon

Yes, they do look smaller on the Anovos helmet. They probably use the more common M3 screws instead of the correct sized M3.5 screws.

When I handled their original helmet it did not have the ear caps on, but they did show me the original screws and they matched the ones I took with me exactly

The costume department did not have a clue how to build the armour. There were sent sheets of armour that had to be trimmed out and they were left to figured out the best way to put them together without any instructions, which resulted in many mismatched parts. There is obviously a specific way to assemble the parts but yes, throw them together to be screen accurate. The problem here with Anovos is that their parts do not match the screen used armour. You can assemble them any way you like and it will not matter to me, but I am pointing out the differences whether you guys can see them or not. Anovos has assembled their shins incorrectly on their poster that comes with the kit. Those with more experienced eyes will see that a mile away.

Nah. Check out as many original ANH and ESB helmets as you like. Even the TIE's used the same brass screws

I thought you might say something like that. You just cannot seem to accept anything I say that is contrary to what you believe, but I am not fussed. I can show those willing to learn the correct way to do things. Just for fun, I have made this to show how badly the original ANH shins were assembled. Enjoy