troopermaster

It looks like you have used the right rivet but you have put it the wrong way around. They used single caped rivets to hold the strap on the thigh and the cap goes on the outside. The part with the hole in, the stem, goes on the inside and not on the outside. I do not know what you used for reference but you should only use screen used armour to make sure you get it right first time

Just read back through this whole thread and your armour still looks so amazing. The helmet is incredible Have you got it back from the Museum yet, Steve?

Correction! Helmets have 2 rivets per side - 4 in total. It's the ear caps that have 3 machine screws per side

Really nice work, Tony. Well done on a fantastic build I am sure you won't have any problems getting your award. My only nit pick that stands out is your holster rivet placement. It looks like you have copied the RS belt which, although original, is unique to one trooper in ANH so really your holster rivets should be at the lower edge of your belt instead of the middle. I doubt it will have any affect on your application but just thought I would mention it. Good luck!

Awesome photos Great to se the kids getting involved. Mini Vader looks cool!

Looking good so far

Congratulations! Welcome to the club

The armour is definitely a poor recast. It is not any of the known armours. All the details are soft and the surface of the armour looks bumpy. I would say it is a recast of a TE ANH or a recast of a recast. Whatever the helmet decals say, the helmet is not a TM or even a recast of it. I hope you didn't pay a lot for the kit.

That is not a TM helmet either.

You have to do what you have to do. The most important thing is to get the armour to fit you properly and worry about details later.

Epoxy will do it for sure. Without seeing what you are doing, my only advise would be to have the screw through the outside and have the nut already attached with the epoxy on the bottom, then offer the two parts together. This way, you make sure the nut is exactly where you want it. Once set, you should be able to unscrew the screw and add more epoxy to the nut if neccesary. You can put vaseline inside the nut or the end of the screw to stop it sticking

I see a few things you can do to make the torso fit better and not over lap so much. These are only suggestions. 1. Cut the cod piece off the abdomen and reduce the height of the cod. This will allow you to bring the abdomen lower and have your belt in the correct position. 2. Trim the top of the butt plate and the lower edge of the kidney and reduce to match the abdomen. This will lower the back plate. 3. Trim the lower edge of the back plate. 4. Trim the lower edge of the chest plate. All the above will make your torso shorter. If you decide to trim anything, do it in small increments and follow the original lines to keep the shape as close to the original as possible. Your shoulder bell elastics need to be glued right to the edge of the bell and should be thicker and tigher so they do not look so flared. The ribbed shoulder straps could be glued lower down on your chest with 5 ribs glued down. This will make them sit better against your back plate as with a thin elsatic strap to hold them down. Your joining strips should not protrude past the armour. Again, these are only suggestions, but they will help the armour fit your body.

Could you stick a nut on one side and use a machine screw on the other? That would do it and you wouldn't wear out the thread.

And using superglue!

Your head isn't supposed to fit through the opening. You should be able to open the armour so you slip inside and close it. Try and go for a movie style strapping for the best fit. You don't have to use brackets and hooks, but if you put your straps in the same place as the original armour it will work better. Have it hinged on one side so you can slip in and out of the torso. You can bring the chest and back plates higher by cutting the tabs on the top of each part so they do not meet or overlap as they might be now. You can cut the neck line lower on your chest to bring the chest even higher, but do that as a last resort. You can also cut the lower eges off the chest and back 'Luke style' if you have to. Wait until you are fully suited up before cutting any plastic though. It mght take a few test fittings before you get everything right. I don't think there is anything you can do about the warping. Heating it again will make it worse so I would leave it alone. A strap from the back plate to the chest could have pulled the chest in at the sides. I know it's too late now but I think you should always get your armour built so the parts fit you comfortably and then wait until you have it all strapped up before commiting to cutting or heating anything. What you think looks big when worn seperately will probably look fine when worn with the rest of the armour.

The correct way is to glue the elastic strap to your canvas belt to stop it moving.

I would stay away from the heat gun. You really shouldn't need to heat any parts to change the shapes. You lose the original shape and end up warping the plastic as you have found out. If you are having any problems then you should ask for help or advise first. I will have a look at your photos when you post them to see if I can help

But this isn't an RS, it's a recast of it. That means NE used an RS to cast most of their parts and modified whatever they thought needed changing to make the parts bigger. I have seen untrimmed RS kits and they have LOTS of excess plastic on the parts so it wouldn't take much work to blend that in so everything looks bigger. It won't make any difference what anyone says about the origins of the NE suit because those who know can already identify it's a recast. Everyone else will not care as long as they get cheap armour. That is the way it has been for a long time now and it's people like this who are ruining the hobby in my opinion.

+2

Notice the trooper on his right?

I don't know the 501st rules but if I was trooping I would probably go against some the CRL's requirements. If I see it on screen then that is what I would troop in. I don't like idealised and I don't like anyone telling me things are not right when they are seen on screen. I would troop Mr. No Stripes and also Mr. Jelly Legs, so there

I hope you manage to do the comparison, especially with the guy who thinks the NE is not recast from RS. It would be awesome if you could do a side by side comparison of the arms and torso, those are the main parts cast that will prove they are too close to be sculpted. Of course the helmet comparison would be nice too but the cap with throw people off. The nail in the coffin for me is the left forearm that RS sculpted is magically the same as the NE. All the main torso parts are exactly the same as an RS so taking photos of them side by side is going to be like looking at two RS kits.