HoosierTrooper's AP Armor Build[*AP]

[HoosierTrooper]

Hey all, just wanted to document my progress on my AP armor build. I picked this set up from a fellow astromech builder a few weeks ago and I'm not sure if he had purchased straight from AP or secondhand. The first thing I did was double check to make sure everything was there, and it all looked complete.

 

Compared to working with aluminum R2 parts, the plastic is extremely easy. Plus, this forum had so many good pictures and tutorials, I always had another point of reference for each part I worked on.

 

The first thing I did was trim all the armor. I did this in about three days hoping to get it done for an event.

 

To trim, I marked many hard-to-see seams with a pencil. I was pretty conservative with my marks; its always best to cut too little than too much.

 

 

Once the lines were marked, I scored them with a knife. My favorite knife is a folding thingy from Lowes. It came with lots of replacement blades that can be swapped out in about 3 seconds. After I scored all the lines, I used a dremel to cut up to it and make snapping off the extra easy.

 

 

This gave me a pretty nice rough-cut... now all I had to do was clean it up. I have plenty of sandpaper in various grits laying around. Always kept a few pieces handy depending on the application.

 

 

Rinse and repeat all over the place!

 

Here is a pic of all the scraps trimmed off. It fills the bottom of a 20x20x20 box. These pieces were great for testing glues and epoxies though.

 

Much more to come.

[The_Trooper]

Great project, i like it.

That cardboard box is loaded with plastic

I'll keep watching this!

[giric thren]

man i love AP, also i heard you can get a better guide line from the inside, at least thats what im doing worked out pretty well so far and if my blade slips, it will be where nobody sees

[TK-4510[501st]]

waiting to see your progress!

[HoosierTrooper]

man i love AP, also i heard you can get a better guide line from the inside, at least thats what im doing worked out pretty well so far and if my blade slips, it will be where nobody sees

 

You're absolutely right! There were a number of cuts that were almost impossible to do well from the outside.

 

Here is a pic of the belt that I cut using the inside marks:

 

 

And the finished product:

 

Seeing that tip on these forums was a lifesaver.

[riveting]

Looking good, I'l be watching this thread will you have an approximate hours in total spent when it's complete? to share? to give me a rough idea of time cost, in prep for mine

[HoosierTrooper]

Looking good, I'l be watching this thread will you have an approximate hours in total spent when it's complete? to share? to give me a rough idea of time cost, in prep for mine

 

Hmm... I'll have to think about that one. From now on I'll start keeping track.

 

I know I have about 2 hours in it just driving around town buying materials. Belt material, straps, elastic, plastic weld, sandpaper, brushes, etc.

 

Then probably another 8 hours trimming it. Hard to tell because of all the distractions. I was doing a lot of house hunting during those three days when I did the trimming.

 

Here is a pic of all the pieces trimmed:

[HoosierTrooper]

While I was trimming all of that, I reinforced the helmet where the aerators go. This area was pretty thin from forming, so I grabbed my favorite glue of all time: zap a gap.

 

 

Its basically a super glue, but its thicker. It was much easier to spread around the inside of the helmet and reinforce that area.

 

 

Zap a gap is great for all sorts of stuff. I really like the fact that I can use super glue accelerator on it to make it dry quick in some situations. I cut myself multiple times while trimming the armor and used the glue to close up the cuts.

[Chefhawk[501st]]

great pictures and progress.

 

 

 

keep up the good work

 

 

 

 

 

 

cheers

[Timjim]

Looking great

[TK1491]

looking good there. gotta look into that zap a gap stuff!

[HoosierTrooper]

Next came the helmet.

 

First I grabbed the face plate and prepared to drill the teeth. I just used a drill bit to make a starter hole. The rest would be filed out by hand.

 

Here I am in the process of filing.

 

My trusty file set. These are a must have for any hobby project. Found at Lowes or Home Depot stores.

 

Here is a pic of the eyes marked for cutting. Again, I just used a pencil and followed the advice I had read on the forum.

 

Here the eyes are cut out and filed down. Someday I need to fix the overstated "wink," but that can wait for now.

 

Here is the helmet roughly assembled. I did not drill the bottom holes that were pre-marked. I wanted to align the helmet a little differently and have a higher brow. Even though some troopers in the movie had low brows, I prefer the ones with some space between the eyes and the brow trim. Because of this, I drilled my holes in a slightly different spot. Just had to line everything up how I wanted it and drill.

 

Then it was time to paint the helmet and apply details. I let my girlfriend do that... she has a fine arts degree! All I did was sit her in front of the computer with the correct colors of paint. She looked at the reference images on starwarshelmets.com and painted. I would recommend changes and double check, but she did all the work.

 

Here I am apply the stripes really late one night. Again, I always use the reference images on starwarshelmets.com

 

And the helmet pretty much completed. I want to replace the green lenses and aerators soon.

 

Here is the AP compated to the FX.

[trooperstormy]

Great job! Its great to see your girlfriend helps you out too!

[riveting]

Great thread keep it coming

[TK-4510[501st]]

you need to trim the eyes out just a little more I think. Otherwise it looks great!

[Bigturc]

Nice helmet.

What Mike said!

[HoosierTrooper]

Yep, you guys are right. In person, it doesn't look too bad, but the pics reveal the need for more trimming.

 

When I replace the lenses, I'll definitely sand the eyes down a bit more! Thanks for the feedback!

[oneal[TK]]

Yep, you guys are right. In person, it doesn't look too bad, but the pics reveal the need for more trimming.

 

When I replace the lenses, I'll definitely sand the eyes down a bit more! Thanks for the feedback!

 

nice work on the helmet, i'm still building up the courage to cut my bucket, but the other armor parts are coming along nicely.

may i ask if you used the decals that were included in the AP kit or did you get new ones?

[HoosierTrooper]

nice work on the helmet, i'm still building up the courage to cut my bucket, but the other armor parts are coming along nicely.

may i ask if you used the decals that were included in the AP kit or did you get new ones?

 

I used the included decals. I had looked at buying better ones, but didn't have time before the event I wore the helmet to.

[nice-biscuit]

Nice job! What a difference between that and the FX lid.