Martin's TM ANH Stunt build [*TM]

[MartinSivertsen[501st]]

Hi guys and girls!

I have been sitting on this suit for almost two months now, building and assembling slowly but surely.

 

The helmet has been my main priority to begin with, wanted to have it done so I could have it sitting as an inspiration to be done with the rest of the armor.

 

I also had a doopydoo E-11 blaster I wanted to finish before moving on with the armor (well documented over at the blaster builds part of the forum).

So now that both the helmet and blaster are more or less done, I've moved on to the suit, and have finished a few pieces, and felt that a build thread was in order, both to document my progress, get feedback and to give myself a little boost to get the suit done.

 

I have everything I need to get cleared (after the armor is assembled) except a neckseal (and waiting on a canvas belt).

 

I have sadly not taken that many pictures of the progress on the finished pieces, but I'll upload the few I have.

 

Here we go!

First the all important "out of the box"

 

The way I have assembled both the arms and now the legs. This is one of the shins, the last piece I glued.

I use a lot of rare earth magnets on every cover strip to get a really tight and nice bond.

 

Afterwards I trim and sand the edges smooth, this is a forearm.

 

Thermal detonator. I have bent aluminum bar to attach on the canister, and they look very good, so this piece is just about done now.

[Locitus[Admin]]

Looks like you got things under control.

[MartinSivertsen[501st]]

And now, the helmet!

A local garrison member helped me to make te all important, but dreadful first two holes on the sides of the helmet, after a lot of tweaking to get the placement right.

Then I drilled holes under the tubes and screwed it together nice and snug (using screws 'till the helmet is completely finished, and then I might rivet it).

 

 

After this I trimmed a bit more off the brow. I like the brow trim to be just a little high, nothing "Move along"-like but with a little height it looks a lot more appealing to me.

 

Then come the painting:

Vocoder in satin black

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got help from local garrison member 6237 (who draws a comic strip for a living) with painting the tubestripes and vent stripes on tears and rear traps.

They might need a little touch up, but I think they look fine as they are too:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I need to tighten the right ear, fit frown mesh, permanently secure the lenses, fit foam inside and chin straps.

Enjoyable tinkering.

Edited September 21, 2011 by MartinSivertsen

[MartinSivertsen[501st]]

And a few bonus posing pics for inspiration and to show the progress so far.

 

 

 

I have all the elastics and snaps needed to start with the strapping, but I just haven't had the time lately (a lot to read at school and then working at a bar a few days a week, and then bandpractice, so it eats up a lot of time...).

Troopermaster also sent me correct split rivets, so I'll use those to connect the ab and kidneyplate, and the ammobelt on the left thigh (and cod strap?).

I'm planning to build this Centurion-ready right off the bat.

[MartinSivertsen[501st]]

Looks like you got things under control.

 

Thanks Mathias!

Gives me confidence

[TK_LEPER]

Very cool!

[SW1]

Looking good there Martin , cant wait to see this all finished , and then get out there and troop my freind

[MartinSivertsen[501st]]

Thanks guys!

And a bonus pic of a recurring injury when using a lot of rare-earth magnets, and they smack together:

[troopermaster]

Looks like evrything is coming along nicely

[MartinSivertsen[501st]]

Thanks! Did you get my last PM by the way, regarding the belt?

[TKmAx]

Lid looks great

[MartinSivertsen[501st]]

Thanks mate! It feels good to have assembled it myself, and it turning out so nice.

Your suit is coming along nicely too I might add.

[gazmosis[501st]]

Nice polish job on the armor! Jeez, I need to get me some of that TM!!!

[DarthChridan[TK]]

Hohoo Martin..

very nice build so far....TM rocks, no doubt.

Much fun with your new armor

PS: Is it the 2mm high gloss kit?!?!

Edited September 23, 2011 by DarthChridan

[MartinSivertsen[501st]]

Thanks Daniel!

Yes it's the 2mm glossy ABS.

[Hedjii72]

Having a chuckle at your magnet injury! Those things have a way of surprising you, don't they? Several of mine broke into fragments upon jumping together.

[MartinSivertsen[501st]]

Yeah, I've already had a couple of magnets break, breaks my heart every time

 

Worked a little more on the suit last night. Finished the thermal detonator and glued elastics to the shoulder bells.

Sitting in a lecture now, and it's hard to stay focused as I'm only thinking about working on the suit.

[MartinSivertsen[501st]]

Pics:

 

 

 

 

 

Started fitting elastics to the torso now:

 

 

 

Now my question is: For the rest of the elastics connecting the torso-parts, do I really need to have snaps on both ends, or can i just glue down one end of the elastic and have a snap on the other end?

It seems to me that there is a heck of a lot of snaps involved if I were to use snaps on both ends on all elastics, and I don't really see that it's more functional that way either.

The parts become detachable either way.

[SCTrooper[TK]]

Just go with snaps, if the elastic gets worn out you can replace the strap much easier. Killer job on the helmet by the way!

[MartinSivertsen[501st]]

Thanks!

[MartinSivertsen[501st]]

Made some snap plates and glued them on:

 

 

 

 

 

I don't have enough clamps or magnets to glue on any more snap plates, so the rest will have to wait.

And I don't have any more than ten snaps now anyway.

[kevster[TK]]

Coming along great Martin! if you run out of material for snap plates, you can use nylon webbing too. Thats what I ended up doing and if I ever do another suit, I will probably only go with nylon webbing since it fits much flatter than snaps do. They conform to the curve of armor much better. If you do use nylon, just remember to melt the ends with a lighter to keep it from untangling.

[MartinSivertsen[501st]]

Thanks for the tip, Kevin, although I have plenty of ABS to make spare snap plates at the moment.

I have made and glued in place most of the snap plates now, only missing the upper two ones on the chest plate, where straps (white elastic) from the upper back connects.

And maybe some on the thighs to hold them up, but I haven't quite figured out what to do there yet... Wether to go for a belt around my waist with elastic down to the thighs or some other ingenious solution, hoping someone will chime in with some good advice here.

 

Anyways, pictures:

 

Another mishap with the magnets:

 

 

Had to dremel a few pieces, and these are my safetygoggles:

 

 

Installed snaps on the butt plate, amongst other things:

 

 

And I found a mannequin fairly cheap at a local shop!

Only £33 or $51, and that's a reasonable price for a full size mannequin.

Not bendable though, but it certainly works for me.

And it's a great place to hang the parts that I've finished.

I'm going to use it to have my Stormtrooper on display when I'm not using it myself.

Figure I just have to spraypaint the entire guy black, instead of fitting him in an undersuit everytime.

PS: Almost the enitre torso is also ready, the snap plates just have to fully cure before I fit elastics between them and hang them on my guy.

My girlfriend wanted to call him Lennart (is guess that could translate to Leonard)

He doesn't stand on his own, and I didn't get a stand to put him on (just a discount), and he stands on his toes (his heels are not touching the ground) so I had a hard time trying to get my TK boots on him, had to give up, so not sure what I'm going to do there. Probably some modification of some sorts...

 

 

Today I prepped a lot of bits and pieces; dropboxes, ab-buttons, rivetcovers for the belt, the belt itself (waiting on canvas from Troopermaster), the thigh ammo belt.

I also made the front of the thighs ready to assemble and have marked up the rest of the coverstrips I need and scratched up both them and the surface they are to be glued to, it's just that my clamps are in use on the snap plates now, and I need them to hold the metal ruler and score out the cover strips and to clamp them down after they've been glued.

 

I'm really neglecting school to work on this now, but it's just that I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, and I really want to finish this and get cleared now so I can relax a bit and let my shoulders drop.

[ZacMuleer[TK]]

 

 

Another mishap with the magnets:

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, I HATE this.

 

I just placed a second order for more magnets, since half of mine did this and now I'll need more to make sure my thigh pieces glue together well.

 

Oh, and when I was pulling the SHARDS apart, one of them dug into my finger. At least now I can say I put blood into my costume... :lol

[MartinSivertsen[501st]]

Scored/cut my last coverstrips.

Suddenly felt a strange feeling, as if a burden had been lifted from me, as I was about to score out the last one.

 

 

Now because so many magnets have been disintegrated I only have enough to glue down one coverstrip at a time (I even had to use some that aren't as powerful to get a tight and nice bond), and I still have five coverstrips to go, back of right thigh, front and back of left thigh and the backside of the right and left shin. All the strips are ready and the shins and thighs are ready, just waiting.

 

 

 

I am also soon finished with the strapping for the torso:

 

 

Only thing is, I have used 'Sport & Camping' snaps for the most part, those black ones you see, but the silver ones are 'Anorak' and not quite as resilient/strong but still hold together very well and I have used those to connect the upper back and upper chest via the white elastic, and was wondering if that will be sufficient, or if I shall install 'Sport & Camping'-snaps there too. You can see the snap plates only are taped on at the top there, awaiting a final decision if I shall install an extra set of snaps or not.

 

I also used the 'Anorak' snaps underneath the buttplate, to connect cod and buttplate, and on the right ride of the abdomen to connect kidneyplate and abdomen. And I will also use them to keep the belt in place when I recieve the canvas and finish that.

 

Put the pieces on the mannequin (I measured and assembled it to my own body first, of course).

 

 

So, some info on the snap-plates would be appreciated, otherwise I'll just leave them as they are unless convinced otherwise.

 

Also, I see that the kneeplate for the left shin is going to need some serious tweaking to conform to the shin and stay there, it doesn't fit AT ALL, so some heavy work with a heat-gun or something might be in order. Other people with TM experience the same thing?

Edited September 30, 2011 by MartinSivertsen