troopermaster

Are we referring to vocoder paint jobs as hero and stunt now?

It;s definitely the right shin. They are paired up perfect;y and worn on the correct legs in the photos above, so something has gone astray since. It's nothing major anyway if they have been swapped over as the shins were all over the place in the movies, but you had them assembled correctly earlier.

Great photos! Great armour

You're fitting the knee plate to a right hand shin.

Warping can occur if you put too much glue on the snap tabs or apply pressure to the snaps tabs whilst the glue cures. I find the best way to fit the snap tabs is to run a thin bead of E6000 around the edge of the webbing tabs and simply tape them in place until the glue has dried. Clamping the tabs in place usually results in warping. This can happen with ABS snap tabs too, because they are too rigid. Webbing is the best material to use because it conforms to the shape of the armour effortlessly.

As long as it fits good is the main thing. Better to have more room to move in than less.

You said the bicep armour felt tighter at the tops and good at the bottom, now there's a 25mm gap between your armour and skin? Am I reading this right?

If you want to make more room on the top, you can open the top joint up to 10mm either side and the joining strips will still hold the parts in place. You can make your joining strips slightly wider, say 17-18mm wide if necessary. You can also add reinforcing strips on the inside if you want added strength. Just because you have cut them smaller doesn't mean you have to go with them if they feel uncomfortable to wear. There are always solutions to problems

Thanks I built it for Rodney (as I do most of the TM's on here) and the reason for the 'negative' comments

I have cut her some slack, trust me. I'm not attacking anyone here. I know how it works and I get it. But the most annoying thing for me is when these 'recommendations' go against what is. And yes, I do have time to study all the details and nuances of the original costumes - it's my job!

You are basing your recommendations on one helmet and one set of the same reference photos. Just remember that not one set of ANH armour or helmet is exactly the same so ease off the nit-picking. I drastically changed this post from what I originally typed out not to offend anyone as I felt everything in your comment was unnecessary as I have photo evidence to the contrary, but I don't want to stir up any trouble like I seem to do when I go against the staff.

There's the problem. Whilst there is a huge amount of invaluable information on this forum, there is also a lot of misinformation based on peoples preferences. What might work for one set of armour may not always work for another, so by going with your instinct and aligning the lower ridge would have been the right choice for this armour. It's not a huge problem by any means, but it's the right way to build ANH armour. Yes, and I'm pleased you resisted temptation to alter the shape. I only wanted to highlight the fact that ANH armour limbs are oval shaped after reading so many treads on here about trying to round their armour parts. Keep up the good work

This is something I need to address as it comes up in almost all the build threads. The original armour limbs are OVAL! Everyone seems to think the parts should be rounded but they are in fact oval shaped, just as your limbs are if you care to check. The problem with most other kits are they are oval shaped the wrong way, so if the wrist opening is wider from joint to joint on ANH armour, they are wider top to bottom making them look odd. Maybe that's why people think they need to reshape but whatever the reason the rounded myth started, it's just a myth Apologies for the slight diversion but I feel this myth needs to nipped in the bud.

When matching up the front of the thighs, you really want to have the lower ridges meet to an apex and not offset. I took the liberty of flipping your photo and correcting using the red lines and your blue line. Here's the inside of the RS original thigh.

Here you go

Bear in mind when you do the trimming that the bells do not want to sit flat. This results in that gap most RS owners seem to get between the bells and chest plate. You want to curve the sides of the bells so they sit closer to the chest plate.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with your thighs as they are, Sven. Definitely no need to buy a new pair. I was simply pointing out how to avoid the large mismatch you have so you, and others reading, can avoid this in the future. If you trim them as I have shown then they will feel and look much better

What I meant was that I would have put the joining strips angled to use more of the inner halves of the thighs, keeping the original shape and not having such a mismatch. You can see the blue lines Sven has used and the red lines I would have used. You end up with a similar result once trimmed but I think it's better to use more on the inner halves if possible. The halves are not always equal on both sides when you do your measuring so keep that in mind for future builds

I would have finished the thighs like this.

Sounds good except: -Single cap rivet on shoulder bridge to chest, Velrco to back -No paint on butt snap Pop rivets were used to connect the belt to the ab plate and to attach the holster, but that's it. The strapping was 2" wide black elastic glued directly to the armour using ABS paste. The left side as hinged like ANH but using elastic straps glued to the armour and the right side opened up. I can't confirm this but I believe the right side used Velcro straps rather than elastic, which is how the ESB MKII were strapped. So soft loop Velcro patches were glued to the front armour sections and strips of hard hook Velcro straps were glued to the back sections to close the armour.

That's correct.

Also worth noting is the location of the rivets on the original ROTJ armour. They are fixed through the actual shin armour and not the ridge on the top. Using single cap rivets makes them smooth inside and won't rub on your leg, unlike pop rivets that have a large lump on the back that would rub on your leg.

It's the ESB MKII version that has the pop rivets. These were suits that were meant to be used in ESB but were not finished in time for filming (although one did make an appearance in the carbon freezing chamber scene). These suits are almost identical to ROTJ armour with a few minor differences but the strapping method was completely different inside. From all the reference material I have they show single cap rivets on ROTJ armour and pop rivets on the ESB MKII and on tour suits. I'm not sure if the particular style of rivet is an issue for whatever levels but I wanted to let you guys know about what was used on the original props.

Most of the photos posted above are not ROTJ armour. They are ESB MKII and ROTJ tour suits that although similar, they are not original ROTJ screen used armour. This is an original ROTJ armour on display. And this is in the LFL archives.

If you are trying to replicate the original strapping, only the right hand side white shoulder elastic has a snap fastener connecting it to the chest plate. The left side strap is glued directly to the chest and back. Just an FYI