Fuumantroop's AM armor build

[TriumphTrooper8[501st]]

What rank are you going to give yourself?

[fuumantroop[TK]]

Mind you that I am not an artist so this was harder than it needed to be for me lol.

 

Heres the vocoder, I used testors semi gloss black

 

And the rank stripe, too thick? Good?

[fuumantroop[TK]]

According to

http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/12217-painting-rank-on-ear-piece/

 

i chose private first class

[fuumantroop[TK]]

Vocoder after touch ups

[gazmosis[501st]]

Watch that line on the ear bars. The outline should be a pinstripe around the gray. Not too wide. I believe you could trim down the ear thickness just a little more. The round part is still a little thick. If you take that down another couple millimeters, your gap,at the cheeks will go away.

[fuumantroop[TK]]

Thanks Steve for the tip, I saw a wide variety through other builds so I was unsure on that, easy fix none the less with a little more grey. Ill work on those ears right now.

 

I went ahead and installed the aerators as well

[fuumantroop[TK]]

Btw, steve, were you talking about the outline of the war bars or the rank stripe?

[fuumantroop[TK]]

And were your referring to one particular ear, or both?

[SCTrooper[TK]]

When the paint cures, take a tooth pick and make the frown more pointed on the ends like this. 

[fuumantroop[TK]]

Fixed the outline and made the rank stripe smaller

 

Do i need to adjust it more?

[fuumantroop[TK]]

A toothpick by itself? Or dipped in paint thinner?

[fuumantroop[TK]]

Ended up not having the time for any more fine tuning for today. I decided to temporarily install the lens, along with the frown mesh using painters tape. I just need this helmet for wedding photos for this up coming weekend, so I may not be able to do much more until after the wedding.

 

I did learn a LOT with this assembly that will help me on my second helmet. The dimples to attach the face to the back do line up if you drill them separate from the cap at first. From there, you can fit you cap to align with the face and back, once ya get it where ya want it, tape it in place, then glue the cap and back. That will at least be my plan of attack on the next helmet, I won't be at the mercy of trimmed ears either, so looks like Ill have to man up and trim the next ears myself.

 

Quick selfie

[Snaps[TK]]

Looking good...maybe it's just me but can you give the vocoder a little rounder edge on the top left and right sides?

 

Time for me to go search for that vader poster lol

[fuumantroop[TK]]

I could sir, i deffinitely could

 

Go to thinkgeek.com for the poster, and many other SW related items!

[Shank_O_Potomus]

Nice paint job!

[fuumantroop[TK]]

Thanks! I doubled up the lens today and made a quick adjustment to get rid of the dip in the brow, also trimmed down the ears a bit more.

 

Doubling up the lens really helped hide my eyes btw!

[fuumantroop[TK]]

How does the brow and ears look now?

 

 

My son had to get a picture of me so I did a little dance for him lol

[fuumantroop[TK]]

Ill get a toothpick from work tomorrow to address the teeth btw

Edited August 30, 2014 by fuumantroop

[fuumantroop[TK]]

Question.

 

Is the best way to line up the face with the cap basically how MTK did it on his videos?

Basically lining up the edge of the traps on the cap with the edge of the ones of the face?

 

On my second build, but after re watching that video, I have now gotten nervous about the proper alignment of the face lol

[fuumantroop[TK]]

Was able to FINALLY break the seal on the armor today. Its been a busy couple of weeks for me, and I did not grt much done at all.

 

I decided to tackle the left bicep, for my own self esteem. I fitted, then marked my cuts on one side, made my cuts, then test fitted with an overlap, and marked the other side, then cut. So here I have the bicep test fitting to my left bicep.

 

Do I need to trim more off? I don't want to continue until I have a good solid answer. Its a tight squeeze getting it over my forearm(i play bass and am a machinist, so my forearms are bigger than normal), almost bigger than my actual bicep lol! So, here are the pics.

 

 

[maxsteele[TK]]

When you flex your biceps, do they touch the parts where you have a gap?  If so, then you're done.  

 

You can also help the fit by thinning / removing the bottom return edge, and slimming down the top return edge, if you wish.  That can help with getting them over your forearms.

[fuumantroop[TK]]

Yes my "giant guns" touch lol. Its a little pressure, not too much but not too little. Ive been trying to find the dang write up that says exactly which return edges to remove, but I cannot find it for the life of me.

 

I think if i trim off the bottom return edge, i MAY need to trim a hair more off of the bicep. Going to attempt it tonight. Was thinking of measuring the amount I cut on this left bicep and mirroring it for the right bicep using my calipers. The score and snap method is hard when your really fine tuning small bits lol. Perhaps ill use my lexan scissors next time!

[Snaps[TK]]

What Ron said

[fuumantroop[TK]]

 

Got the return edges off the bottom tonight. Got sidetracked with family so I only had time to really tackle the left bicep AGAIN. After cutting the return edge, I had to trim some more for a better fit. I now have about a finger width at the openings between my arm and the armor. Did the flex test and theres only a bit of pressure, and I can move pretty comfortably!

 

[fuumantroop[TK]]

Hopefully I will find time tonight to start the right bicep, if not definitely tomorrow!