troopermaster

When I fit 'S' trim, I put it onot the bottom of the helmet and cut it 10mm longer then force it on and it stays in place on it's own. If you are having trouble with it coming off, run a bead of E6000 in the channel of the trim and fit it to your helmet and clamp it inplace with small clips until it dries. If anyone needs and 'S' trim like this below, PM me

Armor maker: TM Height: 6' Weight: 196 lbs Chest: 44" Abs: No shims Waist: 34" Thighs: 23" No shims Biceps: 15" No shims Forearm: 13" No shims Any other mod? No other mods

Great work Keith I'm looking forward to seeing this finished.

Thanks

Whoever is making these should have left the moulds alone. They looked better before they were over sharpened <_<

Not TM......DA?

Try Loake, Jones or Tyrwhitt for black chelsea boots on ebay UK. Those are the best looking IMO.

I like it Dan There's no backing out now mate. You'll have to do the rest of the armour now Can you tell us what you used to get the weathering effect so far?

Yeah, now we're talking! You don't have to go crazy with the weathering, something like this guy on the left would be perfect.

Okay, I'll take some of the credit then I know the armour would look really old if you gave it the same treatment as the helmet, that's what I like personally. But I guess it has to look good for trooping so best to let it weather naturally. I think if you added a pair of your latex hand plates though, it would look even more awesome

Nice one Dan! I really like the weathering you did, evry nice. You should do the same thing to your armour I like this shot. Screams ANH to me. No undersuit showing, bells tucked inside the chest, just awesome

I'm working on it but need help finding the right HDPE.

When trimming any of the pieces, I like to leave a small return edge. Leaving a larger return edge, especially on the torso, could make the parts more prone to cracking if your not so careful whilst trooping. You will notice that there is a good bit of return edge on most of the rough trimmed parts, but that is not mean't to be left on. I just made the moulds that way so the pulls are really clean and they are not mean't to be trimmed where the rough flashing starts. I think around a 5mm edge is good for most parts. The torso could be more if you want, but it's not neccesary. Good luck with the build anyway Lennaert. Ask as many questions as you need to before making any fatal mistakes

My junior armour won't fit a 12 year old unfortunately. There are kits available on ebay that are smaller than adult versions, designed for kids and can be trimmed down. It's more FX based as you can see on the left here-

I don't know Pete. That might not be a wire after all. Maybe it's one of those red pieces of string you get with your firework kits, slowly burning away under the gaffer tape

Great theory Pete! You've had me searching my reference material and I know 100% (for Mr. No Stripes) that they are cracks taped up. Even though I had never even considered them to be wires, you had me thinking mate What you are seeing is the tape bunching up over the crack. Remember that these suits are not like your replicas. They are made from thinner plastic and strapped differently. The strapping from the abdomen to the chest makes the chest push up if you are shorter than intended, resulting in the top of the chest pushing into your neck and bulging the sides of the chest out. This bulging is making each side of the crack overlap each other and with the tape covering the crack, it looks like there is something under it, which there isn't. I can only say this for Mr. No Stripes as his suit still lives on today. The SFS guy I cannot say for sure, but I cannot see why it would be any different. If it was a wire, it looks like it just stops dead. Surely a squib would be visable on the chest, even if it was covered with gaffer tape?

Thanks Brian. It was nice to see you and Lindsay again. I'll have to send you those photos of 'our friend' we was talking about The next best thing you are going to get for your kid is this suit. I wish I had taken more photos of them both together, just to see how much they differ.

I think you need to square off the wrist area more. The real hand plate in your comparison is at an anlgle so it's not the best to use for reference. I'd make the raised strip narrower too. Good start though

Thanks for all the great feedback everyone

Finally got the pics uploaded from last weekends Memorabilai event where my son got to wear his all new ESB stormtrooper armour. Everything on this new kit is different from last year, with the most work done to the helmet. Personally I think the face plate really looks awesome, so much like the big helmets when you see it, only smaller It was another fantastic day meeting up with the lads from the UKG and also the stars. I had a really good chat with Richard Bonehill who played a stormtrooper in both ESB and ROTJ, not to mention about a dozen other characters in both films. Another highlight was meeting up with Brian Muir and his wife Lindsay again. Both are really friendly and they loved my sons mini TK armour. All in all it was a very good day out and I am looking forward to the next one in Novemeber. Here are some of the photos that was taken during the day.

I have photo comparisons of TM vs SDS which is a recast of GF if this helps? I can take measurements of any pieces you like and maybe someone with AP can measure their pieces to compare? Here's a quick sample-

Any amount of cleaning up is reducing the original shape. To clean up any area, you have to remove material, therefore reducing size and shape. Yes, it is minimal and I never meant it to sound like inches, though I don't think it sounds like that. You told me you made new moulds since the ones you got from GF were fibreglass backed with expandable foam, no good for a professional machine. You said your new moulds are made from a resin much like a bowling ball type material. I can look for the emails if you want? @Jonathan, It's much more than plastic to me my friend

No they are not. You told me yourself that you made new moulds and you are not using the ones you got from GF. GF cast a casting from a 1st gen casting of a TE, altered it and made new castings, so they were 3rd gen when you recieved them. Your new moulds are 4th gen.

Good to see you again Mark. Nice to meet you Pete finally, and Billy too. Maybe next time we will have a proper chat when you are not suited up, though you did look fabulous! Barry, you looked awesome when I saw you in armour briefly. Looking forward to seeing your pics with Luke. I have yet to see any pics we took at MEM because I left my own camera in the van and we had to use my sisters. I'll post them up as soon as I get them. Overall we all had a great time and it was really great to chat with Brian and his wife. They are both so friendly, it was real pleasure chatting to them.