Artshot's ANH Stunt Build (AM 2.0)

[Artshot]

Welcome to my build.

Since going to see Star Wars at the cinema as a 9 year old, I have always been fascinated by the Stormtroopers, the clean lines of there armour, the identical look and unlimited numbers, to me at the time, they were unstoppable, yeh we know better now, but boy were they cool to a 9 year old.

 

My interest in Stormtroopers was re-ignited a few years ago at San Diego Comic Con, there was something about watching the Legion of troopers marching past, that made that 9 year old me wake up and start thinking.......

 

So, fast forward from 1977 and let me present to you, my ANH Stunt Build.

 

After a battle of wills with UK customs and the Post Office, let me present my Brown Box of Stormtroopery Goodness.

 

 

I always wanted a Brown Box Day, got to admit, it was a great feeling.

 

So, with extreme caution and trepidation, I opened the box to be greeted with.

 

 

It was like armour Tetris, never has such a small box contained so much.

 

After removing all the packing wrap and of course marvelling at each piece's quality, I assembled everything in a "knee bone, connected to the thigh bone" sort of way.

 

 

I think I may have just stood and looked at everything laid out for a lot longer than I want to admit.

 

Somewhere inside my head I can hear the sound of a small 9 year old me shouting "About Time".

[Kredal[TK]]

Welcome to the AM2 build wave!  I'll be watching this one too!  (:

[LoveMonkey[501st]]

Good luck on your build!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TKfett]

Very cool! Looking forward to this!

[Darth Havoc[TK]]

You won't be disappointed with this armor. There is a lot of stuff so don't throw anything away. Looking forward to watching this build

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

Now THATS a big box of Stormtroopery Goodness!

[Carlos_Centurion_Tk[501st]]

awesome !!! i have the AM Armor also !!!! its in the build process also 

[Artshot]

I decided in my infinite wisdom to not buy any of the webbing, tape, glue or anything else for my build (have the boots though) before I received my armour.

 

I figured this would stop me rushing in and getting carried away without thinking things through, I would use this time to assess where I am going to start, read more builds and generally plan ahead.

 

Lets hope this is my only stupid mistake........Amazon is sooooo slow

[Irish_Jedi]

Looking forward to hearing more updates

[Irish_Jedi]

Where did you get your boots from?

[Irish_Jedi]

Do you have any plans for a Stormtrooper Blaster or already have one?

[Artshot]

Hey Kevin

I got my boots from Amazon £19.99 Chelsea boots, I have deglazed them so far and given them a very light buffing with sandpaper, just enough to remove any sticky residue, they need a bit more work before I am ready to whiten them.

 

I have a Doopy blaster in the middle of a build, plus lots of pieces to mod it, T-Jay does a great kit to improve a resin blaster.

 

I also have a Sterling to mod with real scope and counter.

 

Everything went on hold until I got my armor and now everything is on hold again, until my vacation is over.

 

In the meanwhile I have been stockpiling building materials.

[Artshot]

Okay then, here we go!

 

 

I have sorted the armour into smaller boxes, along with a box full of supplies to put it all together, there's a few bits & pieces currently ordered but not delivered yet to add to the stockpile.

 

But it's time to start.

 

First up are the forearms, however here's a quick question, Right has 12 & Left has 11 dimples ?, typically in all my piles of printed pages, I cannot find confirmation.

 

Oh, and to all the other AM 2 builders out there, how do you tell which other forearm piece is which.

 

Yup, off to a great start

[Kredal[TK]]

You can tell the inside forearms apart by looking at the elbow end.  The left arm has a really deep U cut in it, the right arm is almost straight across.

 

If you're holding a blaster in your right hand and supporting it with your left, your right arm is bent at 90 degrees, and your left is much more bent, so you need the freedom of movement.

[Artshot]

Hey Josh

Thanks for that, I kept trying them on either arm, then figured I better ask somebody who has been there and done that

Did you reduce the wrist end of your forearm against the elbow end to create a more shaped fit ?

[Kredal[TK]]

Yes, I angled it down to be thinner at the wrist end... And then I went back later, and made it even smaller at the wrist!  (That's gluing right now)  As long as you can fit your hand through the end, it's good.

 

Oh, and if you need to, for the extra range of motion, you can cut a U-shape into the wrist end of the inner arm, not quite as deep as the elbow end, so you can move your wrist around better.  Only take off as much as you need, cause it's REALLY hard to put plastic back on!

[Artshot]

After staring at the forearms for a few hours. I decided to contact the maker of my armour, check twice, measure thrice, cut once.

 

Troopergear confirmed that the more pronounced "scoop" is for the right arm, which when looking at the pieces and doing test fits before trimming, makes senses as the elbow ends fit together better this way, whatever shortening of the arms I need to do, will come off the wrist end.

 

Day 2 of the official beginning of my build, still not cut anything

[Artshot]

I did it, I went and made my first cuts.....luckily my hand shaking did not matter when cutting.

 

May I present, my left forearm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The forearm is snug on my arm, however I will be reducing the elbow return edge slightly, I will also be reducing the wrist edge by a few mm to allow the armour to move forward slightly and increase mobility at my elbow.

 

Will be removing the overlap when I figure out the cover strip position.

 

Quick question on the positioning of the cover strips, do they run parallel to the dimple raised area ?

[Artshot]

So, after getting carried away with cutting, I decided to do some more today, I made a few adjustments to my left forearm, mainly removing the overlap and improving the fit, I am actually pretty happy with how it's turned out, just need to trim the wrist end and reduce the elbow end return edge, before I apply the inner the outer cover strips.

 

Anyway, on with some photos......oh, and my armour drew blood today by slicing the end of my finger on the trimmed edge.

 

 

 

 

 

Any and all comments are welcome.

[Kredal[TK]]

Looks good.. I'd get rid of the return edge at the elbow end... looks very tight on your arm.  

 

And welcome to the armor bite club!  (:

[Artshot]

Yup, it's a bit snug and there's a couple of sharp edges where the two halves join, I will be reducing it down to just a couple of mm and sanding away any sharp edges.

 

I expect to bleed again before it's finished

[Artshot]

Since I am now thinking of the next steps in assembling my armour, I have a couple of questions for those that might be reading this (I really hope somebody is)

 

1) How high should the biceps be on the arm ?, are the scoops into the armpit ?

2) Is it acceptable to remove the return edge from the bottom of the biceps, in case I need to reduce there height ?

2a) Or is removing the return edge at the top of the biceps preferred ?

3) Should the width of the bottom of the bicep be the same as the top of the forearm, to keep the tapering look ?

 

As always, any advice is greatly appreciated.

[Darth Havoc[TK]]

I left just a small return edge in my biceps. I sanded a bit to remove any burs or sharp edges that will cause armor bites. Everyone gets them. . My biceps are not tapered as my arms are bigger. The sizing I did for the biceps is so it covers the biceps and ends just above the elbow so that you can bend your arm. Make sense? You want to be able to bend your arm but still not have a lot of the black under suit showing at the elbow area. Also, you can strap the bicep to the shoulder bell as this will keep the bicep armor in place. These are just suggestions. Maybe some of the vets can give better examples though

Edited August 12, 2015 by Darth Havoc

[Artshot]

Hey Jamie

Thanks for the insight, I will if I can get away with it, just reduce the return edge size rather than remove it entirely.

[Artshot]

Well, after trimming both my forearms to size and cutting the internal cover strips (15mm), it was time to open the E6000, whoa.....thought I could smell colours, until I opened a few more windows.

 

So, here's the first internal cover strip glued in place and clamped......I like clamps, cannot have too many.

 

 

I waited the longest 24hrs known to man, then removed the clamps and trimmed away the surplus E6000, I pay too much attention to tiny details, so it took a while until I was happy and did the second internal cover strip, no photo of the second as I figured, you see one internal cover strip, you see them all.

 

After another 24hrs I removed the clamps and trimmed away the excess on the second internal cover strip.

 

This is the stage the forearm is at now.

 

 

I have glued both halves together now, only one side though as I know there is going to be a lot of stress and tension on these pieces until fully set, once the first is solid, I will do the second.

 

As I was gluing I had a bit of a struggle to keep the pieces in place, really glad that E6000 is easy to remove as there's a lot of gluey finger prints on the outside that are going to need cleaning off.

 

I also realised, I could have done with more magnets, or at least a better way of controlling them, midway through trying to wrangle the magnets into position a few jumped around and gave a very nice "magnet nip".

 

Between the random cuts and nicks and now the nice red nip on my finger, I am beginning to think this armour is trying to kill me.

 

Not sure if it's common, but I have the feeling I will need to sand the join slightly on the outside to create a flat spot to improve the gluing of the external 15mm cover strip.

 

Be sure to come back in 48hrs for the next thrilling instalment, going to double the time on this join.