troopermaster

Jim, The panel should be 115mm wide. Leave 10mm past the end of the ribbed strip on the right hand side and measure from there.

Pssst....it's the left one with the swoop

The swoop is not missing. It's only on one bell, not both (like some replicas )

What are you getting at John? The hand plates are mirrored left and right, though I doubt they are perfect mirrored duplicates. Each side could quite possibly be slightly off from the other. Is that what you mean

Your right Mathias. The chest brackets are longer than all the others on the armour, but all the elastics are the same length. This allows the chest to overlap the abdomen and still keep it's position. If they were the same size but had longer elastic, the chest would be able flap around and the abdomen would drop down, making the torso loose fitting instead of a closed unit. Helmet looks much better now Rolf

The first thing I would do here is trim the back correctly and reposition it before attempting to do anything with the chest. Both the chest and back are over-sized so take some material away from the bottom edge of the back plate and also the tops where the shoulder bridges are. Get your back plate up high enough so the bottom edge sits butt against your kidney plate, not on top of it like you have it now. Reducing the length of the shoulder prongs on the back plate will allow you to pull the back higher where it should be. Try to cover as much of the neck area as you can - you have a lot of black showing there. For the chest, same thing really. It is sitting too low and you need to reduce the shoulder prongs and maybe the neck line so the plate is pulled up more. The red lines you have drawn look like a good starting point for trimming, but I would the modifications I have mentioned before attempting to trim the lower edges of the chest plate. You would be trying to trim the chest to match the back which is not right so it would be a losing battle from the start in my opinion.

He's right you know

Leave the bottom where it is and tilt the top circular part 1/2" forward. It will look better than where you have it now in my opinion

So, do you really think anyone is going to bend their armour so severely while trooping as in the demonstration to get these crease lines? I don't think so. You would have more of a sad face if you tried bending a TE/TE2, AP, SDS or any other replica armour so much. You would be gluing it back together Remember, these are just costumes and not real space armour. They don't have to be super thick to resist blaster bolts. They are lightweight and flexible costumes which I hope are more comfortable to wear than other replicas out there. I know my own 1mm armour was super light and easier to wear than my 2mm AC ABS. The flexability is such a bonus in my eyes and allows much more movement with peace of mind of not cracking anything. Looking forward to seeing and hearing more Rich

That's true in theory, but in reality a mould taken from a forming will never reproduce the original mould. The problem with casting from formed plastic parts is that the plastic never pulls into any crevices tight enough and leaves a mould which has soft edges. This means the next forming will be even softer than the first and then the forming starts to lose the original shape. We are talking really minor differences here but differences all the same.

That's not entirely true. A mould taken from any helmet is never going to produce a helmet the same size because plastic shrinks as it cools and casting materials usually do too. A mould taken from an original helmet is going to be smaller than the original mould is was formed over because it was taken from the shrunken plastic. Each casting thereafter is going to produce smaller moulds.

The problem with the AM moulds is that they have been made wider and not necessarily bigger. When the moulds were sculpted, they should have made bigger and wider. Instead, they just added material under the moulds making them wider which doesn't work out, so I can see why you are having problems.

The correct way is to have them lined up with the very edge of the plastic ammo belt. Leave a very small gap between the top of the box and the ammo belt and use 1" white elastic looped over your canvas belt and held to the back of your box with a single cap rivet. That's how they are are on screen anyway.

I've built a full suit and helmet from start to finish in five days I wouldn't want to do it again in a hurry though. It was stressful and a lot of work, but I was helping a friend out and he needed it like yesterday.

Can't beat a nice bit of weathering to bring your armour to life

That's probably the wide elastic straps for the thighs you are looking at. This is a great photo and one everyone should take a good long look at to see what real trooper armour looks like.

Real forearms and biceps are shaped () and not O. They are supposed to be a kind of lemon shape and not rounded like tubes.

Just take your time Rolf and don't rush it mate. Everything is there to make an accurate ANH trooper, so take your time and do it right first time. It looks great all laid out on the floor and it will look ever better once it's assembled and on you

I use Humbrol #85 Satin Black for the frown and vocoder on the ESB helmets.

Nah, too tall to be them too

That will be you two then right at the bottom

If the end cap has been formed over a thin wall pipe section then you will really struggle to get it on a thick walled section. I always heat my end caps up before fitting them to the canister tube. The plastic shrinks slightly as it cools once formed so heating it up gently until you hear it 'crack' that's the time to slip it on your 02 tube. When you hear the noise you know it's expended and the cap goes on relatively easy. Just be careful when heating them and keep turning them continuosly so you don't melt the plastic.

Looking good Mike I think to avoid the paint running under your masking templates you might consider brushing from the outside inwards. Brushing the paint in one direction is forcing it under the template. If you start from the edges and into the middle then you have less chance of runs IMO.

...and now your walking around in her white nighty

Playing Leia, wearing heels...I see a pattern forming here Something you want to tell us Steve