Just a curious few

[Foggedlenses]

Hey everyone, the time has come for me to contact my future Armor builder and let them know that I am wanting to buy from them. But before I do, I have a few questions for you all that I am curious about. I just dont know if I have over looked them and what not.

 

Questions:

1- Is it better to paint the helmet or use decals?

2- How do I know where to apply rivets and snaps? Also, how many do I need?

3- How do I get the armor to hold its self inplace on my legs an arms?

4- If Doopydoo's is out of stock on E-11 blaster kits, where else can I look?

5- While building it, should I just go ahead an set myself up for EIB?

 

 

Again, thank you for reading and helping me out. I am sorry if these are things that I just havent found yet. Hope everyone has a good New Years night!!!!

[Echo[TK]]

Hi Fogged,

 

I'm new around here but thought I would try to respond as a fellow newbie with some of the same concerns about building my first Armor set.

 

First, 'better' is an elusive word in this context, because it implies something that really depends upon your personal goals and desires in the endeavor of crafting armor. If your goals are to make the most screen accurate ANH Set, then painting is closer to that goal. Otherwise experiment and just go with what makes you happy.

 

2. Applying rivets and snaps also somewhat depend on your goals. Screen accurate builds will go under quite a bit of scrutiny. Reference images from the movies and the Lucas archives or original gear are best to refer for screen accurate sets. Then other approved EIB Or Centurion threads are the next best reference.

 

3. I have some of the same questions about how to best fit armor to my body, but I figure it will be more obvious once I get my kit and start working with it. But I figure reference images will give me a good idea.

 

4. I found some other options reading through the threads here. The TK resource one was a good start and searching under E-11 brought up some fun reads. Pretty inspiring actually after seeing the lengths people go to build their blaster.

 

5. Again if EIB means something to you personally then definitely go for it.

 

I guess my only advice as someone very new to the scene is... Read read read, pay attention to the minute details of images and enjoy the struggle of figuring out how to fit it to who you are...

 

Good luck!

 

 

 

Questions:

1- Is it better to paint the helmet or use decals?

2- How do I know where to apply rivets and snaps? Also, how many do I need?

3- How do I get the armor to hold its self inplace on my legs an arms?

4- If Doopydoo's is out of stock on E-11 blaster kits, where else can I look?

5- While building it, should I just go ahead an set myself up for EIB?

 

 

Again, thank you for reading and helping me out. I am sorry if these are things that I just havent found yet. Hope everyone has a good New Years night!!!!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Foggedlenses]

Hey Echo,

 

Hey, I too am new as you see lol. But thanks for the little tidbits of info. I agree with you on the personal goals of an armor build and I am the person who would like the more "screen accurate" look. Being I would like to go Centurion, I guess I will have to do more digging on the rivets and snaps for the suit and find some more written details as well. Again, thank you for your input and I will def be putting it to use here in the next few days while still doing my research. Im just very excited to start this and wasnt sure if I have missed anything or over looked it. Have a great New Year and good luck with your build as well fell trooper.

[Echo[TK]]

I totally relate about being excited. As I scratch the surface of all the info in these forums, here's a summary of my thought process and plans so far. I was pretty overwhelmed as I'm sure most are about all of the possibilities and options in building TK Armor.

 

First thing that helped me organize my thoughts was to decide which trooper and CRL level I wanted to build. After reading through the types I settled on making a ANH Stunt Centurion level.

 

Making this decision drives everything...

 

Next I looked at the vetted armor makers in the getting started thread to see who offered what I was looking for. Main issues here in my opinion will be cost, wait time and your own body size. Side note.. I was excited to realize my body size fits the original almost to a 'T'. I'm 5'11, 175lbs and have a slim waist 34. I've read many posts that imply certain armor makers kits fit better than others for bigger bodies, etc... I emailed a few makers to get the info and decided on RS Prop masters.

 

Once you settle on who will make the armor, I found it helpful to do searches with a [tag] referring to that make. For RS it's [RS]. You'll then filter to builds of that armor to see what others have done. However, I've also looked at many builds of other types just to learn more.

 

One thing to be cautious of is not repeating mistakes made in builds, so looking at others work is part of the research.

 

I then have been looking at approval requests for centurion builds. These are great because you see the various pictures you will ultimately need to take to prove the quality of your work. You also see nuances you might miss otherwise.

 

Hope this helps and if you find info you thought made a big difference in you process it would be great to hear it.

 

Happy New Year!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Foggedlenses]

Wow!!! Echo, you are pure awesomeness right now lol. Yes, I have been trying to figure out which style I want to do. It started out as ROTJ but after research, I have stepped back and decided AP was what met my needs. So now I'm looking to do ANH hero centurion level.

 

Thanks for the tag info. I'll be researching that way more often now when I need better results. Being this is my first build, I would die if I messed up! So yes, looking at other ANH builds will really help me out as well.

[Echo[TK]]

Here's a link to good searching tags for armor

 

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/index.php?/topic/13617-Armor-Quick-Search-Tags/page__view__findpost__p__164788

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

1- Is it better to paint the helmet or use decals? Depends how you are with a paint brush, if you have a steady hand I would paint

 

2- How do I know where to apply rivets and snaps? Also, how many do I need? There are plenty of build threads to show you, have a look at posts of Centruions. I purchased 2 packets of 100 and have a few left.

 

3- How do I get the armor to hold its self inplace on my legs an arms? Some of it is strapping, some foam, some just fits to body shape

 

4- If Doopydoo's is out of stock on E-11 blaster kits, where else can I look? Why not build your own, there are tutorials and templates

 

5- While building it, should I just go ahead an set myself up for EIB? Why not go straight for centurion, it is not that much more work from the start.

 

Hope this has helped

[Kade[TK]]

Questions:

1- Is it better to paint the helmet or use decals?

 

Depends on how good you are at painting My hand is not so steady so I used decals, if you're capable of doing the hand painted details then why not. You can also get decals that have the hand pained look, Trooperbay I think sells them.

 

Questions:

2- How do I know where to apply rivets and snaps? Also, how many do I need?

 

It really depends on how you want to assemble it, I have seen lots of different methods. Take a look through the build threads and see what you think might work for you. Look at another troopers armour in person if you can, better still try some on. You will probably find that no matter what, after you first troop in it you will need to make some adjustment. I would definitely recommend using double snaps in places such as the thighs becauuse of the amount of movement for those pieces, better than having them come undone part way through a troop

 

Questions:

3- How do I get the armor to hold its self inplace on my legs an arms?

 

I bought some adhesive foam strips that I placed inside those pieces to stop them rotating around.

 

Questions:

4- If Doopydoo's is out of stock on E-11 blaster kits, where else can I look?

 

Hmmm... tricky one. Do you mean the full blaster kit or the kit for converting a hasbro toy blaster? You could just wait for them to come back in stock or if you have a friend/fellow garrison member who is a full Legion member you could get them to keep an eye out on the Legion Boards.

 

Questions:

5- While building it, should I just go ahead an set myself up for EIB?

 

Even if you're not going for EIB or Centurion it doesn't hurt to look at those requirements. Many of them are simple to achieve, for instance; the Centurion requirement for two male snaps on the crotch tab of the butt plate, trimmed corners on the ammo belt, closed in drop boxes. It will make your armour look better and that is always a good thing. I only have basic 501st clearance but when I was building mine I still did every Centurion requirement I could, I don't pass the Centurion requirements in a couple of areas but that's ok because I'm satisfied that I got my armour as good as was possible for me

 

Hope that all helps a little.

[SubSkip[TK]]

DD's has 3 options when it comes to blasters:

1. Full resin kit (everything you need minus the scope rail)

2. Pipe build kit (you need to supply the pipe and carve it up)

3. Hasbro conversion (you supply the Hasbro blaster)

 

Hasbro conversions are not allowed for Centurion level.

 

Good luck! Take your time deciding. There is a LOT of info to wade through.

[Foggedlenses]

Hey, thanks everyone. These tips will go along way for me. Since I do want Centurion, I will dig deeper and go that extra mile when building. Even if I don't get it right away, I will keep on trucking. Thank you again.