So... armor acquired, now what? :D

[Luisiana Jones]

Hi there,

 

So, I got myself an AP stormtrooper kit, (6,1//170pounds thought would fit ^^) and honestly im just looking at it and im scared as hell to just touch it. Ive never been too good with handcraft and just fear to "hurt" it. Any advice? did you guys try getting some help for your first armor trim and assembly? Main problem is that there is no 501st dettachment where I live (Luxembourg) and would probably would have to seek help abroad. (Germany/France).

 

Dummy proof tutorials and advice are very much welcome

 

Cheers guys and hope to be soon welcome in the club,

 

Luis

[Holnave (evan_loh)[TK]]

No worries we all felt that anxiety when getting our armours for the first time.

First off if you need to trim the armour to fit you get a curved scissors for plastic like this:

 

The scissors are amazing for cutting the curved areas.

 

Also get an X-Acto knife and they help with cutting cover strips.

Next choose your strapping method for holding the armour pieces together (original or snap). Look at the Centurion application threads and you'll see plenty of strapping styles.

 

Before making any changes or trimmings to your armour refer to as many of these Reference Images as possible to get the best and accurate look as this will reduce making mistakes you can't undo. Make sure you know what style you're going for. As you have AP kit I'm guessing it's either A New Hope or Empire Strikes Back style. Look for the appropriate reference images. Plenty of research won't hurt at all. Even today I'm still learning new things.

As for glues most first timers prefer using E-6000. Get a large tube of this. They set slow and take 24 hours to harden so if you make a mistake you can undo it.

 

Best advice is to take your time. You've invested good money in it and best way to handle it is to invest good time. You don't want to rush as you might make errors.

 

I wish you all the best and feel free to pop any questions in these forums. Don't feel afraid to ask a silly question. There are no silly questions

[gazmosis[501st]]

PANIC!!!!

I am so kidding! We all have felt like you do now at some point. Evan makes some good points how to get started.

Get on the ANH build threads page and start researching your approach. Most all armor kits assemble the same except for small differences in the molded parts. Find AP builds to help you with yours but any build will give you a direction to follow. Ask questions!!

[Luisiana Jones]

hahahah thanks a lot for the motivation guys... its nice to see that at least I was not the only one panicking...

 

Cheers,

 

Luis