troopermaster

I can tell you about the original ROTJ props for what it's worth: -White soles on boots. -Single cap rivets holding the knee plate onto the shin - one either side. -No kidney rivets on ROTJ armour

I like it and it matches the original RS armour

They are not mismatched, just trimmed a bit too much. Armour is designed to be a certain size so once you start trimming more than intended, that's when the gaps appear and the extra work begins.

It looks like you have trimmed a fair amount of plastic from the calves. I prefer not to trim parts too small, even if the wearer is very thin because you end up with gaps like you have and it can be hard to get them to close up. I think it's better to to pad out armour and keep the armour looking more natural. What I would do in this situation is to tape the parts closed with a slight overlap and warm up the front shin area with a heat gun to allow the parts to bend. This can be a dangerous move if you are not experienced with a heat gun but if you take it steady and you will be fine. It might take several attempts to get the parts to close up but you will get there. Alternatively, go with the hot water method. I have never used this personally but many have with great results. Good luck

Here are some photos of a commission I just finished.

Single capped rivets were used to attach the ammo belt to the canvas belt but pop rivets with backing washer were used to attach the holster.

It's better to leave a small return edge on all the parts if possible, with the exception of the wrist and inner forearm scoop. Trimming the return edge does not make the parts any bigger in reality, especially when you are talking about a few millimetres, and they shouldn't be assembled so tightly that you need to remove the return edge. If you need to trim any parts shorter then fair do's, but if you need extra room then simply shim the parts and keep a small return edge. It looks more professional and was an intended look for the armour.

No warping there. That's how you armour was formed. It is ATA or maybe WTF?

Here are some photos of a full commission I recently finished.

Looking at your photos it appears to be the shape of your abdomen plate that is causing the problem. The sides are too tall so they are essentially pushing up your chest plate and not allowing the middle of the chest plate to hang down lower.

I would agree with RS that the ANH stunt helmets were made from PP rather than what was commonly thought as HDPE. I have formed both materials as RS has and PP has the best results. Having handled the original RS ANH armour it felt very much like Styrene to me. It was very rigid and brittle which is not surprising due to it's age, so it's possible it could have been made from ABS but deteriorated over time. Another possibility which I strongly believe in is that the armour was made from at least two types of plastic, since some were made in-house at Elstree and the majority made by Ainsworth, so it's highly possible that the studio used one plastic and Ainsworth used another. As long as it was white plastic was good enough...right? ESB used reconditioned ANH armour. Completely new costumes were being made for ESB but never came to fruition in time with only one making an appearance on scree. These were made from haircell ABS with the texture on the inside. These costume were ultimately used for promotional purposes after ESB was released and formed the base for new costumes for ROTJ. These were slightly refined versions and made from smooth ABS.

No need to trim the whole top, just the offending area. I also think the tops could have been left and they would have overlapped onto your cod plate or you could have pulled them more to the outside so they don't rub. But what's done is done. Just trying to point out ways that could help others who may be reading and in the same situation

Was it really necessary to trim the fronts of the thighs? It's usually the backs that prevent the thighs from lifting up higher when they dig into your butt. The Anovos thighs have an exaggerated shape at the back so just trimming the back down would allow you to lift them higher on your leg without trimming the front. The best way to determine if the thighs fit is to wear them on their own without wearing the torso and walk around. Sometimes it's a case of adjusting the strapping or trimming out the back of the knees but I would be hesitant to trim the fronts of thighs (never done that even for people 5'6").

You should be more concerned about how it fits rather than how it looks. Keep the armour nice and loose to allow it to move freely on your body. A rule of thumb is to be able to lift your arms up to remove your helmet. If you can do that without the biceps restricting your movement too much, you're fine Regarding trimming the biceps, splitting the difference of the overlaps will decrease the amount of mismatch. It looks like you could trim off a good 10mm from both the ends of the inner and outer halves, but you should be able to judge the amount better. I usually cut the joining strips to suit the shorter side of the inner half so the joining strips will not reach the top of the outer half (which is how most of the original armour was assembled) but you can go full length and trim to suit. I find it easier to cut the joining strips to length while the parts are taped together like you have them once cut to size, then marking them for easy identification and gluing them with E6000 to the outer halves only. Once dry, glue the inner halves in. Use magnets and tape to hold the parts together then work on something else while the glue dries (48 hours is best).

Your trim lines are all wrong. You do not want to mark off an equal amount all the way around the armour. You just want to take off the length/height - not the girth/sides which makes you lose the original shape, eventually. I have seen it done here a thousand times when people trim down parts. To make it easy to explain, imagine you wanted to trim down a simple box shape, you would just trim the top to make it shorter. You would not trim the sides as well. Does that make sense? That is why you would lose the notch by trimming the sides.

The bells are always a problem with RS commissions. I believe the problem looks to be that they trim them flat when they should be curved, which allows the sides of the bells to come in closer to the chest plate. They also look to be on the big side too. Take a look at these bells to give you an idea of how to trim them if you feel like it. I can also get some measurements for you to maybe trim them down a bit.

You have an unusual way of pairing up the snaps. This is how I have always used them. Setting the snaps this way gives you a low profile male snap plate glued to your armour and the bulkier female snaps on your elastic straps.

The RS comes with identical shins so it doesn't matter which leg they go on since they are the same for both sides. They are actually made from two outer halves (outer right and outer left) with the right side being slightly longer as per the original LFL shins. You can trim the ankles so they line up better if you want a cleaner look or keep it true and stay off-set.

Novus #2 works wonders on armour. You can polish the entire kit with it to get a mirror-like finish.

That's trimmed a lot! Maybe too much. You are going to have trouble getting the two parts joined properly. If you reshape. make sure you trim more off the return edges. Having the return edges the size you have them now will make reshaping harder. The ABS is very flexible but it will only give so much, so trim those edges down to at least half the thickness they are now and it will help

The best thing to do when marking out where to cut for the joining strips is to cut your joining strips first and place them onto armour close to the flat edge, then mark the middle of the strip. I do not advise measuring out 8mm from the top and bottom end for your 15mm wide strips because the edges are not straight. This is how they are on the original ANH armour and TM armour too.

You need to hammer the rivets on a very hard surface. I use my vice as an anvil and the rivet legs hammer very flat. Once you have the rivet legs split open with whatever tool you are using, just use the hammer directly to flatten the legs. I tape a strip of scrap plastic on the outside of the armour over the rivets so I don't scratch the armour when setting the rivets.

I built this for Mark. The drop boxes ARE in the correct position and the original mic tips have been replacement with junk versions for some strange reason?

The trim is supplied with the kit.

Congratulations on your Centurion award, Eric I hope you have a brilliant time trooping in your armour