troopermaster

The shoulder straps on my 1.5mm and 1mm regular ABS suits can be folded in half easily without cracking. They are very flexible compared to the 2mm acrylic capped ABS and maybe the ABS that other makers use too, so I can understand why you think that way about the priginal ROTJ straps. If you look closely and freeze frame certain scenes, you can see the velcro on the chest and back plate showing under the straps that are not placed correctly. The shoulder straps are simply vac formed ABS with velcro glued underneath. The ones in the exhitions could be original ROTJ screen used or may have been made after filming from the same moulds, but one things for sure, the shoulder straps have been replaced. The ABS straps may have been lost or damaged and new ones made from the vinyl ribbing. The velcro is still there on the chest. If the straps were the original ones and meant to be riveted, why would there be velcro? The vinyl (or whatever it is) is like man made leather. Fabric (like cloth) is a weaved material like cotton, nylon, silk, not like these shoulder straps in question.

You are wrong once again Vern! (as usual ) I have seen the actual suit in person and it is definately NOT made from a cloth type material. It looks to be made from vinyl/PVC type material and has velcro sewn onto the entire length of the underside.

Exhibit A has a vinyl shoulder strap with velcro sewn underneath. How can you say it "clearly shows webbing"?

Where is the webbing Vern?

The screen used ROTJ shoulder straps are vac formed ABS. The ones in your photos are ROTJ tour suits. Probably made from leather or vinyl and backed with velcro to secure them to back plates. The fronts are riveted onto the chest.

Although I don't troop, I do have a RomFX and instead of mounting the speaker to the inside of the chest plate, I have made a pocket on the front bib of my neck seal that holds the speaker and the RomFX. The microphone is permanantly attached to inside of my balaclava and nothing is connect to my helmet or armour. The set up is very good and very clear. Works for me

My TM measures- Front to back: 9 3/4" Ear to ear: 8 3/4"

No return edge on the torso armour. Cut it off completely and slip on your rubber/vinyl edge trim. Round off the top corners on your kidney plate before you add the trim. Nearly all replica ROTJ suits have this area squared off and it's not accurate

Congratulations Matt

I use tin snips to trim close to my trim line and then use a Dremel sanding drum to take it to the line. Scrape off the burrs with a utility knife blade and this leave the edges very smooth. A quick rub with some fine grit sand paper and your done

Nice one Mark

Looking well good Matt. Well done mate

No worries Here's the front for reference.

There are three straps, you just can't see the last one in the photo you posted.

Three straps on the movie suits.

Very Nice indeed karin! Have you scaled them off the Sterling? To be 'the most accurate' they would have to be made from latex, so make sure you make mine in latex

Loving the finish on this one Mark. The yellowing and weathering look excellent too Pete!

I made the bubble lenses from 3mm green perspex.

That's the way to do it I prefer 2" black elastic. I don't recommend using webbing anywhere on your armour, it's too restrictive and not screen accurate. If you find your elastic straps are sliding along your leather belt, simply add a snap or two to the belt and the strap to keep it in place

Excellent job on the build Steve The photos look superb mate, well done!

You don't need to do any excersizes to lose weight Nathan and you can lose weight while you sleep believe it or not. When I was 210 lbs a few years back I started the Atkins diet and and got down to 180 in about a month with no problems. I kind of made my own diet based on the Atkins and drank lots of water, no tea or coffee, cut out bread and potato completely, and only ate fish or chicken for meals with plenty of vegetables and fruit. It's really simple when you look into it. Keep it simple, just eat natural food, anything man made is not good for you. Fruit, meat, fish, vegetables and water. If you don't want to work up a sweat with hard excersizes, wear a plastic bin liner under your sweatshirt (against your skin) and go for a walk. Make sure you are hydrated (you should be drinking plenty of water every day) and watch the weight drop off you. This all worked for me and I had no trouble losing the weight. I work in the building industry and it is hard graft, so that could have worked the weight off of me more than usual, but I didn't do any excersizes during my weight loss diet. HTH's!

Thank you for your very kind words It's a pleasure being able to help and share info when I can

I have photos of several canisters and the 'capsules' on the block all differ in shape. It's as though the mould deteriorated as they pulled the armour because some of the capsules look realy thin and pronounced, while the one above looks thicker and some I have seen are almost flat.

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Canister tubes is 7.5" long and the strip with the lines on it is 3" long. HTH's