LeMaxim's RS PVC ANH Stunt Build [*RS] (WIP)

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

It made them flat but I put some clear silicon over the top so it doesn't catch on the undersuit, a friend just used duct tape.

[Clamps[TK]]

I did option 2. A little white duct tape took care of things for me.

[LeMaxim[TK]]

Cheers troopers!

 

I found a pair of round plier pliers (probably not what they are called) and will try to get some bend. Otherwise I'll add some stab-protection as per your examples.

 

So heave duty screw driver for folding and the pliers for final bend.

 

Tonight I'll get on with my build. TD, belt and initial torso trimming is on the menu.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

[Logon]

I have been on the fence for a long time about buying an armor and the RS armor and helmet looks really nice, your thread is really an inspiration and very informative and i think i have decided that i should go for it because of your OP with so much information heavy builds plus the information within this thread.
Registered just to say that! Keep up the good work and please post A LOT of pictures with detail work as well as before you do trims so that people(including) can use your images as a direction.

 

Another question, the PVC helmet looks a bit bubbly and not as shiny as a ABS plastic one, are you going to do something about that like sanding and painting?

 

Thank you!

Hopefully i will see you sometime when i get my armor because i also live in Sweden.

Edited July 26, 2013 by Logon

[Echo[TK]]

I use a Phillips screwdriver. I take the point of it and set it between the split arms of the rivet. I hammer the end of the screw driver until the point is in the groove of the rivet. I then simply continue to hammer the arms of the rivet until the bend flat against the washers.

 

If you use the UKG method of adding snaps, then you will need to cut the arms down so they fit into the snap.

 

Also, I place a piece of wood beneath the rivet so as to not create a mark on the head. The wood is firm enough yet doesn't leave a mark. Just hammer straight down from the back and it should work well. If you let the rivet twist while hammering you may end up with one arm bending more than the other. No hard to avoid, just be mindful of it.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

[LeMaxim[TK]]

I have been on the fence for a long time about buying an armor and the RS armor and helmet looks really nice, your thread is really an inspiration and very informative and i think i have decided that i should go for it because of your OP with so much information heavy builds plus the information within this thread.

Registered just to say that! Keep up the good work and please post A LOT of pictures with detail work as well as before you do trims so that people(including) can use your images as a direction.

 

Another question, the PVC helmet looks a bit bubbly and not as shiny as a ABS plastic one, are you going to do something about that like sanding and painting?

 

Thank you!

Hopefully i will see you sometime when i get my armor because i also live in Sweden.

 

Hi David,

Thank you for your kind words. Really made my day to hear my build have helped someone out.

I'm trying to show every step I do, but sometimes you just get into it and forget or are unable to take pictures. We'll see how it turns out. 

My OP seems to have maxed out in length but I will update it in an appropriate way as soon as I've figured out what that means. 

I'm also planning to make a summary post so write down my experiences and thoughts. 

 

I hope my pictures of the untouched kit have given you a look into what to expect.

 

As for your questions. The “bubbles†you refer to are actually artefacts from the original sculpt.

(Disclaimer: The below information about the RS armour and related information is based on my own research an assumptions. They might not be all correct but reflect my: “As far as I knowâ€-knowledge.)

Many (possibly most) parts of the RS armour comes from original parts used in the first movie (ANH), they are even endorsed by the original sculptor Brian Muir, so many of the oddities are actually in direct heritage to the armours used on screen. 

Not all parts are original. Some have been added / sculpted / fixed later. As far as costuming goes RS seems to be the one armour that has the most direct lineage / completeness from the on screen armours of ANH. Recently (this weekend) eFX revealed their collectible that seems to be a contender to RS in terms of direct lineage from ANH suits. They are, however, made to sit on a mannequin and is not (at least license-wise) meant to be a costume (read about it here). 

 

As you no doubt have seen there's a lot of “wonkiness†in the RS suit and as another trooper said, about another item, it's not a lego-build. So just keep in mind that your suit will have inherited some of the original oddities. 

 

There are armours that are fan sculpted and seems to be easier to assemble as they take on a more idealised approach to the armour. I know too little about this so I recommend you to look at different armour builds and see for your self. 

 

I opted for the RS suit due to the lineage of it. If I were to buy a new suit again I would also first check with Troopermaster . He's UK based too (EU = no import taxes = sweet!). He is very knowledgable, active, and helpful here on FISD and have created suits that blows my mind away (Exhibit A). (You can find him a few posts up in this thread.)

 

As for the “shiny-ness†of my helmet. It is as shiny as the rest of the armour and I'm afraid my iPhone photos in my dark flat doesn't do it justice. It's very white and shiny.

RS ABS suits are more off-white which is more screen accurate than the more idealised PVC sparkling white.

My very own amateur guess is that you wouldn't want anything as shiny on a movie set as the PVC one as it would probably sparkle the heck out of every shot with all the heavy lights that's usually on a set. Therefore I think the screen used armours look much whiter than they actually were. (And seeing that the movie have been special editioned a few times I guess some post-processing have made the movie ones much whiter too.)

By this I don't mean that ABS is less white, there's many kinds of ABS and some are - as far as I know - as shiny as my PVC. TM have some ABS that is just as white as my PVC from what I've heard. 

 

Hmm... This turned out longer than I had originally thought.

 

As for your final question. No. I have no plans of sanding the bubbles. I might have had a passing thought about it at one point, but it passed very quickly. The more I build and study armour I more and more love the bumped and bruised look of the original suits with all their charming imperfections.

 

I hope this adds some light to your journey. 

Please feel free to ask me if there's anything else I could elaborate on or show. 

 

And finally, on a more personal note:

Where about in Sweden are you from?

If you haven't registered on the local garrison's (The Nordic Garrison) forum (link) yet you should do it as soon as possible. 

Introduce yourself, meet the gang (maybe there's a trooper near you), check out all the different costumes there, join in as a supporter to get first hand experience with trooping. etc. etc.

(You can find me there too. Same nick... so far.

 

I just started this journey but there's plenty of helpful people with loads of experience both here and on Nordic Garrison. 

 

Looking forward to make your acquaintance in person later on. 

 

Cheers! 

[LeMaxim[TK]]

I use a Phillips screwdriver. I take the point of it and set it between the split arms of the rivet. I hammer the end of the screw driver until the point is in the groove of the rivet. I then simply continue to hammer the arms of the rivet until the bend flat against the washers.

 

If you use the UKG method of adding snaps, then you will need to cut the arms down so they fit into the snap.

 

Also, I place a piece of wood beneath the rivet so as to not create a mark on the head. The wood is firm enough yet doesn't leave a mark. Just hammer straight down from the back and it should work well. If you let the rivet twist while hammering you may end up with one arm bending more than the other. No hard to avoid, just be mindful of it.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

 

Thank you again Francisco. I soon will need to put all this into practice so your input here is much appreciated.

[Logon]

Hi David,

-snip-

 

Thanks for all the great information and this reply will not do it justice!

I'll check out the Troopermaster armors, but isn't availability a problem with Troopermaster?

 

I am located in Östergötland Mjölby so i am in the middle of the country and from what i've seen at Nordic garrison it seems like there are few troopers around here.

 

Edit:

Read about Troopermaster, or what i could find and should i just contact him? I feel like i am "intruding" if i PM him with questions about his suit / if it is available.

Edit2:

Sent a message to Troopermaster hope he will reply atleast

 

Thanks!

Edited July 27, 2013 by Logon

[LeMaxim[TK]]

Thanks for all the great information and this reply will not do it justice!

I'll check out the Troopermaster armors, but isn't availability a problem with Troopermaster?

 

I am located in Östergötland Mjölby so i am in the middle of the country and from what i've seen at Nordic garrison it seems like there are few troopers around here.

 

Edit:

Read about Troopermaster, or what i could find and should i just contact him? I feel like i am "intruding" if i PM him with questions about his suit / if it is available.

Edit2:

Sent a message to Troopermaster hope he will reply atleast

 

Thanks!

Sorry for the late reply.

 

Halfway between Gothenburg and Stockholm then.

 

I'd say it might take a while to get an answer after last weekend as I guess TM, and many with him, have just gotten back from Germany.

I wouldn't worry about reply or availability.

 

I'll have some more updates on my build today.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

[LeMaxim[TK]]

Did some work during the weekend. Belt and TD now finished. Process of each piece separately to keep my sanity and a red thread.

 

I got the TD control panel that was missing from the original package and decided to get right down to business.

 

Armed with, chiefly, the TD-reference pictures in the Photo References I set out. 

 

Reference pictures for measurements and placements: 

 

(FISD source)

 

And screenshots like this:

(FISD source)

 

First I wanted to trim the end caps. I started by thinking I'd use one of my marking tapes as ruler and draw a cut line. Silly me. Unsteady hands and shifting pencil soon put an end to that idea. I retreated to old faithful and simply took my measuring tape and put it on as a marker.

When the marker tape was secured I used my lexan scissors and quickly trimmed the most excess of. Then I cut of more and more, alternating with trial fittings on the pipe, until I had two nice end caps.

 

   

 

Next of I prepared the TD-control plate. I have no pictures of the process but it's very straight forward in getting 

this  to fit on the pipe something like this 

Apart from cutting the obvious away I had to shave some of the sides to get nicer lines. 

 

When satisfied with the result and placement I went full in on E-6000, clamps, and masking tape

 

 

After putting that aside I decided to add the finishing touch on the TD and paint the screw heads black. 

 

 

Roughly 30 hour later I ended up with this:

 

 

 

At this point I decided to not glue the end caps. They sit very good on the tube but I plan to revisit this when I know everything is in order. 

 

TD - check!

[Locitus[Admin]]

At this point I decided to not glue the end caps. They sit very good on the tube but I plan to revisit this when I know everything is in order.

 

I never glued my end caps and they have been sitting solid ever since. It's not an area that gets any stress so it will hold itself together just fine.

[sekullbe]

At this point I decided to not glue the end caps. They sit very good on the tube but I plan to revisit this when I know everything is in order. 

 

My NE end caps are about the same. I just drilled a tiny hole about halfway down for the air pressure, and I'm gluing brackets to each end connected by a length of twine. That way even if one falls out it won't be lost.

[LeMaxim[TK]]

Next up. Belt, drop boxes, and holster. 

 

Having read and gotten a lot of feedback on my previous belt-hard-part trimming I figured the actual assembly should be fairly straight forward.

Right? Everything front and centre and rivets away! I can safely say that I now have spent more time looking at and researching belts than, I assume, the ANH production team spent on most TK stunts. Combined. 

And it was not without pitfalls. 

 

First of I started by making sure that the central indentation in the hard-belt was actually in the centre. I've been warned both here and read in other threads not to trust markings blindly. Turned out it was very much in centre. 

 

 

 

 

Next I checked the cap rivets measurements for drilling a hole. I had previously made myself a hole guide on a piece of scrap PVC for the hole-puncher so it was a small thing to find out I needed 3 mm holes. Guess which drill bit was missing from my box.

 

   

 

 

A 2.5 mm bit and some force sufficed as a substitute and soon enough I had a nice centre hole for my rivet.

 

   

 

 

I then, using the hole-puncher, made holes on each end of the belt following TM's recommendation of centre, roughly 10 mm from the edge. 

 

 

So far no problems.

 

Next I wanted to make holes on the canvas belt. Careful not to stare too much on the canvas belt markings (black round stickers) I decided to map out and see how the belt sat if I put the centre hole between the two belt snaps. 

As it turns out this was the exact position of the marker and it would have placed the belt far too much to the right for my liking. 

 

   

 

Surely the right-wards off-set would give some balance to the left-side holster position, but I decided to do some screenshot studies. 

As it turns out I was correct in that it should be 10-12 mm more to the left. A small thing, but after spending a lot of time on screen shots I decided to call it a win.

 

My new placement: 

 

References (1, 2): 

 

(This was just two out of many from FISD detailed ANH screen caps )

 

Also found the same placement on many centurions and on TM own 1 mm build I found this:

 

 

I'd say that's support enough for my 10-12 mm move.

 

Comparison:

Before:   After:  Change: 

 

Bliss. And as I was punching the hole two words echoed in my head. “Upside downâ€. *facepalm*

 

After som fruitless research I decided that I had in fact punched the hole on the wrong side. I couldn't find any screen captures that supported any orientation of the canvas belt (and I strongly feel that the production crew probably just put them together).

I decided to follow the most used (from what I could find) and the most logical orientation.

My selected orientation puts the outward facing velcro on the holster side of the canvas belt as I assume that side will be the more difficult/heavy to align. By this the inward facing velcro (right side) would be the part used for fastening and alignment.

(I hope my reasoning makes sense)

 

I decided to keep the first hole untouched. For sentimental reasons.

 

 

The right and left hole on the end of the belt was easy enough to establish once the centre one was in place so I then went on with trying to win points with my neighbours. 

At this time it was well past midnight and I was not about to stop because I needed to rivet a few things.

 

 

And a well deserved trial run:

 

 

Next up. Drop Boxes. 

I had at some earlier point trimmed the DB's enough to get rid of the flaring. this left me with DBs at 10-12 mm thickness. 

 

I knew I read somewhere that the one rivet should be centre about 25 mm from the top and this seemed to fit with the previous references. So first out - rivet hole.

 

   

 

Next I looped the elastics around the belt and marked the position for the hole in them. I simply put the dropboxes down where it looked good and removed the top, then I penciled a mark through the recently punched hole in the inner one. After making sure it was centred on the elastic I punched holes and went on to work on my best-neighbour-award. I believe it was now closer to 3 am.

 

      

 

And yes. This happened.

 

  

 

Before riveting the elastics I cut off rogue threads and seared the cuts. 

 

Riveted and loose parts laid out. Getting there.

 

 

Final belt part before glueing. Holster. 

 

I started by laying out my holster to see what I had to do. It seems it would go well for both stunt and hero and I decided to keep the extra strap length for possible hero build (in the future) or strengthening the hold later on. 

 

 

I had, following much advice from troopers, decided to attach the holster by way of snaps. Following the Billhag diagram for holster placement I measured, punched, riveted, and hammered them into place. 

 

   

 

 

I put the snaps in backwards to what you might do on a piece of clothing. This left the smooth top of the snaps closest to the armour. I hope this will keep chafing against the armour to a minimum. The belt-part of the snap was riveted to the canvas belt. 

 

 

And then finally, to my neighbours delight, the only part remaining was the glueing. 

 

 

 

30 odd hours later I de-clamped my belt and ta-da! 

 

 

Apart from the blaster strap that awaits final fitting with my blaster when I've finished building it the above picture represents the finished belt (and first finished parts of my build). 

 

What do you say? On track for Centurion?

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looks on track to me, well done, keep up the good work

[LeMaxim[TK]]

I never glued my end caps and they have been sitting solid ever since. It's not an area that gets any stress so it will hold itself together just fine.

Thank you for confirming my initial impression. I'm trying to stick to the "build, try, modify" way of the force.

 

My NE end caps are about the same. I just drilled a tiny hole about halfway down for the air pressure, and I'm gluing brackets to each end connected by a length of twine. That way even if one falls out it won't be lost.

That's not a bad idea. Thank you for sharing.

 

Looks on track to me, well done, keep up the good work

Thank you for the cheers!

 

It's interesting to see how rewarding it is to labour through these details.

Especially considering that the actual build time for it is less than 30 minutes. Research takes time but it's well invested. Next build should be a walk in the park (if I stick to TKs)

[dereferenced]

Just like your DVH thread, this one is great. Keep up the good work. 

[Nicky]

I padded with duct tape 1/3 of the inside of my end caps for extra safety.

Anyway, in October you've finished the entire costume, right?

[LeMaxim[TK]]

Just like your DVH thread, this one is great. Keep up the good work.

Cheers mate! Much appreciated. It's the nice comments and engagement that really fuels the fire.

 

I padded with duct tape 1/3 of the inside of my end caps for extra safety.

 

Anyway, in October you've finished the entire costume, right?

I'm actually planning to have it finished and approved before the end of August (oh my!). I wouldn't want to miss the NG-card-run.

[LeMaxim[TK]]

Question time:

 

In what should be described as a frenzy I did an initial trim and test fit of the full torso (no pictures now and I will update build later).

 

While there's still need for additional trimming I'm a bit concerned about what to do with the abs - lumbar section.

 

I'm slim (67kg / 147 lbs & 181cm/5'11") with a waistline of about 30-31".

 

The RS suit comes with a lot of room... And I could easily reach my pockets through the gap on both sides of this section.

 

If I trim to fit I would probably take away most of the returns on these sides, and more. And after trimming I would would still need to bend a bit. The bending would put stress on the upper and lower return edges, so these would probably need to be to be trimmed to a sliver.

 

I'm going for the original brackets hook-up and have already put the brackets and temporary hoops in.

 

Any thoughts, pointers or examples?

 

A factor is that I'm aiming for centurion so please keep it kosher.

 

Cheers!

[troopermaster]

I would rather overlap the sides than trim them. You can see some of the actors in ANH were swimming inside their armour so do not worry. Better get it worn with the belt and see how if feels before cutting anything.

[LeMaxim[TK]]

I would rather overlap the sides than trim them. You can see some of the actors in ANH were swimming inside their armour so do not worry. Better get it worn with the belt and see how if feels before cutting anything.

Thanks Paul.

 

I'm assuming you mean abs overlapping the lumbar. How would that put the, for lack of word for it, split-rivet-hinge and closing strap. Wouldn't that offset them too much for a good looking fit? If the abs cradles the lumbar it looks like the lumbar-returns buckles quite a bit.

 

I did try with belt and it just reaches around. I'm currently AFP (away from plastic) and have no good pictures. I might perceive this as a bigger issue than it is since the arms and legs aren't clad yet.

 

At any rate I've started to take the ish-factor into consideration and to heart. My calliper approach just didn't make sense and the more screenshots and screen used armours I look at the more ish everything becomes.

 

Current approach is to get it assembled before I start to obsess too much about smooth edges and like-a-glove.

 

Also. The more pieces I get assembled the more I realise how white the PVC is. I might have to board a renegade ship and get myself some battle scorch.

 

 

[LeMaxim[TK]]

So. It's been a longer while since last update than I was aiming for. This doesn't mean I haven't been trimming away. Just have had too little time to write any proper updates. 

 

I have been tackling the body armour and helmet. I wanted to make some way with them to get a feel of the end result. Feeling good. 

 

Anyway. Just as a short note to let you know the build is coming along. 

 

Here's where the helmet is now. Eyes poked and teeth plucked. Left ear is finished, for now. 

 

 

And a slightly changed angle...

 

 

Feels like a good start on the bucket.

[Echo[TK]]

Excellent work! Keep it up.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looking good

[LeMaxim[TK]]

Cheers guys!

I'm very eager to get home to take care of the right ear now.