troopermaster

Thick, rigid leather for accuracy. I was quite surprised just how thick the leather was when I handled Simons original holster. I was expecting it to be flimsy leather, but it was about 3mm. Very sturdy and robust.

Vern, This suit pre-dates any ROTJ suits and was made for ESB. We are not sure why only one suit made it on screen but rest assured, these are ESB suits. If you read Jezs' thread it goes into more detail. These suits are what the ROTJ's are based on which is why they look very similar.

Type B is screen accurate and the retaining strap should be longer. The longer strap was one of the amendments I made to the plans. I also made the holster 10mm narrower too. The different holster you see is not meant to be worn with the Stormtrooper armour. I think it may be an Imperial Gunners or Rebel troopers, and whatever it is, it has been riveted onto the belt upside down on Simons suit and the correct way on the promo trooper. I believe Simon will be offering holsters made from his original pattern.

Maybe this one will show you the colour difference better. The original ABS is a greyish white and SDS is much brighter. It might be down to the age of the original plastic but I know from my own experience with ABS that regular ABS is greyish and not a sbright as acryilc capped ABS like AA uses.

Have a look yourself. LFL ANH on the left and AA SDS on the right.

Way to go Dad This might be over the top (but I doubt it) I have some mini Newey press studs if you want them?

Getting closer.....

I have only ever seen one ESB helmet in ROTJ and that is on the Ewok drum kit. If you have evidence of any other ESB helmet worn on a trooper in ROTJ then I would love to see it.

Cut your end caps to 3/4" long and your det plate to 4 1/2" and you have the correct length parts

7 3/8"

Just because they are in the ROTJ section of starwarshelmets.com website doesn't mean they are ROTJ helmets. Jez should remove them from that section. There is not one shread of evidence that they were used in ROTJ.

Those are not ROTJ helmets. They are ESB MKII helmets with resin Hovis like ANH. The ROTJ's are a different shape and I believe they are made from metal, although I am sure resin copies might have been used too. I don't have any reference photos unfortuantely, but I do have a supplier for all guages of wire mesh. PM me if you need any help Mark.

Fantastic job on the Leia costume Karen. You look awesome

Maybe sand stained from Tatooine?

Cool Did you see any other original Stormtrooper pieces while you was there Joey?

Nice one John. Do you have the full suit?

Congratulations Martin. Well done mate

The snaps should really be in the center of your belt. If you have to put them off center then you have put the male snaps on your ab plate in the wrong position. If you want to get it right first time then put the female snaps in your belt first, making sure they are in the middle of each end ammo block just as Chriss has above. Then you can offer your belt up to your ab plate and see where to put the male snaps. I put mine at 20mm above the split line where the ab meets the cod, and find that usually gets the belt in the right position. Don't try and get your belt face too tight across your ab plate as it will make snapping it on hard. Plus, the belt does not go straight across your waist. It tilts upwards slightly so leaving it loose will make it look and feel right

No, it's not a tour suit. It's a mixture of ESB and ESB MKII.

That is not an ROTJ suit nor is it an ROTJ belt, so you can't use this for any comparisons.

You have the hooks in your shins facing the wrong way. I think you will find it hard to fasten them now.

Only ROTJ shoulder straps are fully ribbed. No doubt you may see some in ANH or ESB, but those have just had the ends snapped off

They are tricky little things and it baffles me why the costume department would use something so heavy duty. The tools I use are a hammer, a screw driver and a vice. I start to spread the tabs by tapping my screw driver blade down into the tabs to get them to bend slightly, then I place the rounded shaft of the driver across the tabs and hammer it so they are spead out more. Now it is a simple case of just hammering the tabs flat. I do all of this on my vice which I use as an anvil. You need something very solid behind the rivets when you are hitting them.

This thread just got really interesting