W.T.F. ANH Stunt build WIP

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Interesting, I think "Yet" may be the key word there. Once some more builds like this one get approved W.T.F. will eventually become a vetted vendor by definition, whether he will actually be listed remains to be seen I guess. It definitely looks to be good quality armor! And his customers seem to be very happy with the service he provides. I assume getting on that list is something that takes time and requires a history of quality product and service, any additions are probably taken very seriously. WTF is not the only one, there's a few other good quality vendors that haven't been listed yet either such as MTK or NE. Anyways I wouldn't put too much thought into it, the CRL is pretty generic about the actual armor requirements. No specific brands are required to meet approval, there are only specific brands that are Non-approved such as Rubies or FX.

Yep. There's a little more of a backstory to Walt's situation but I've been asked to stop telling my version but I can say that he is not recasting, meaning made a mold of someone else's and trying to pass it off as his own but he not the original creator of some of the bucks he uses and that's where things get a bit cloudy. My understanding is that he may eventually have a full set of original TK "Walt bucks" but as you probably noticed he has lots of other original stuff that he makes and has steadily been adding more to the list. The current TK stuff he's selling sells so well, if I were him I wouldn't change anything until I had to. Some of the other makers you mentioned may have had issues in the past or just may be in that grace period of building up their reputation based on quality and consistency.

 

My WTF TK was approved in like 13 hours and as soon as I have my blaster done I will be submitting for EIB and Centurion, which I'm told will be no problem. I also didn't pay $1200, like one of my buddies did, for the venerable RS commission!

 

 

Jim - TK50899

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Just grabbed a Hyperfirm B grade for a song! Still plan to finish my pipe build E-11 but now I'll not have to worry about handing it to a kiddo and it getting dropped while trooping!

 

 

Jim - TK50899

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Look what showed up today! My Hyperfirm B Grade!

 

 

 

 

Now just a little touch up weathering and detail painting to do as well as a D-ring and some counter detail and I'll be good to go. I'll also make more detailed power cylinders......eventually.

 

 

Jim - TK50899

[pewpewpew[TK]]

15mm poppers arrived today so I'm switching the line 24's out. Some are a little challenging.

Jim - TK50899

Can I ask why you swapped out the Line24's? Also, how did you remove them? Seems like drilling them out would heat up and damage the ABS.

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Can I ask why you swapped out the Line24's? Also, how did you remove them? Seems like drilling them out would heat up and damage the ABS.

The 15mm "popper" snaps are more screen accurate and the line 24's I had kept coming undone. I feel that these are a little more secure. This is not a requirement for any level of approval just something I wanted to do.

 

The metal on the snaps is so soft that it doesn't create enough friction to heat up the ABS. They came right off, so fast that it startled me a bit on the first one.

 

 

Jim - TK50899

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Added the D ring to my B grade now I'm ready for my EIB submission!

 

I found the link I used at Home Depot. It was a cast off from where they sell the chain by the foot. It was laying in a pile of cut links. I picked it up and asked an employee of I could have it. He gave me a weird look and says, "........sure....." I was all excited and was like, "THANKS BILL!" and scurried off. He probably has or never will see someone so excited about this:

 

 

Drilled out the hole where the ring will go.

 

 

Ring installed

 

 

Painted and ready to go.

 

 

 

Jim - TK50899

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

EIB status submitted! <fingers crossed>

 

 

Jim - TK50899

[pewpewpew[TK]]

Added the D ring to my B grade now I'm ready for my EIB submission!

I found the link I used at Home Depot. It was a cast off from where they sell the chain by the foot. It was laying in a pile of cut links. I picked it up and asked an employee of I could have it. He gave me a weird look and says, "........sure....." I was all excited and was like, "THANKS BILL!" and scurried off. He probably has or never will see someone so excited about this:

Drilled out the hole where the ring will go.

Ring installed

Painted and ready to go.

Jim - TK50899

That cracks me up. I can picture you running off with that piece of scrap metal raised over your head like a trophy. Perhaps bringing it home to show the wife all proud and her giving you the same look the chap from Home Depot did.

Potentially spend a couple thousand on armor? No biggie. That's expected. Save 5 cents on some scrap metal? Woohoo!

Ah, it's the small victories sometimes, isn't it?

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

That cracks me up. I can picture you running off with that piece of scrap metal raised over your head like a trophy. Perhaps bringing it home to show the wife all proud and her giving you the same look the chap from Home Depot did.

Potentially spend a couple thousand on armor? No biggie. That's expected. Save 5 cents on some scrap metal? Woohoo!

Ah, it's the small victories sometimes, isn't it?

It is indeed quite the victory, ESPECIALLY after spending so much on armor!

 

As for my wife, she has always looked at me like I was crazy anyways.

 

I actually got her to go on a troop with me and now she sees why I put in all the time and effort into building my kit. We got in the car to drive home and she was going on and on about, "Did you see that one kids face when you handed him your blaster?!?" and "That little old lady, cancer survivor, in the wheelchair. When you guys went up and crowed around her for pictures, she was grinning from ear to ear!!!

 

Yep she finally gets me and it only took 17 years.

 

 

Jim - TK50899

[pewpewpew[TK]]

"Did you see that one kids face when you handed him your blaster?!?"

 

"Nope. No I didn't. I can't really see anything in this bucket, dear."

Those smiles though. I really can't wait to get out there.

That EIB application looks pretty sweet. I'm sure you nailed it.

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

"Nope. No I didn't. I can't really see anything in this bucket, dear."

Those smiles though. I really can't wait to get out there.

That EIB application looks pretty sweet. I'm sure you nailed it.

Thanks! Too true about the field of view from the bucket. I just realized that a few of the pics didn't post so I'm going in to add them in now!

 

 

Jim - TK50899

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

I just got the message today that I made EIB!!

 

There are only a few things to make slight adjustments on and one of them I was already planning to fix.

 

1. The elastic that joins the chest and the back the top of the armor. It has been pulling out to the side and bunching up on me. It's a little too long and it also is canted toward the rear which makes a larger gap between my shoulder bells and chest.

 

2. Take off most of not all the return edge on the bottom of the shoulder bells so they sit closer to the biceps. This will take like 42 1/2 seconds to fix!

 

3. Here is the big pain in my rear bit. The tops of the fore arms are a little too big so I have to take them all the way apart and make taper them down a bit so that the top of the forearm is closer in diameter to the bottom of the bottom of the bicep. I had originally used E6000 here but when I boiled them to reshape the ABS and they fell apart I re-glued them with CA glue.

 

4. My drop boxes are not quite to the edges in the picture. They are on loops of elastic like it is suggested. On the left side it is very tight against one of the snaps that hold my belt on and always slides in as I move about. I am going to tack it in place with a couple of stitches of thread and that should fix that! I'll work in on these few things in next couple of weeks and then it's all new pics and submission for Centurion!

 

All really minor fixes and except for the few pictures I didn't add originally to the post, it's a first time go!

 

 

Jim - TK50899

[pewpewpew[TK]]

Congrats Jim.  That's awesome.  it looks great!

[EmlanThane]

Wow, congratulations! I hope to be where you are someday   

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Congrats Jim. That's awesome. it looks great!

Thank you pewpewpew I appreciate the compliment!

 

Wow, congratulations! I hope to be where you are someday

I'm sure you will. I followed the advice of several folks on this forum and built it with the intent of it being Centurion ready that way when I'm ready to submit it is already good to go or very minor adjustments to get there.

 

I'm here to help if you have questions and so is just about everyone on this site! Have fun with it!

 

 

Jim M.

[nukem25rs[TK]]

Congrats on EIB! I feel like I'm getting close on mine.. hoping to finish before mid august!

 

Mike

[SpiceCredits]

Looks like I need to go loitering around Home Depot's chain section soon. lol I'm moving on the 22nd, and getting my B-grade immediately after! It's pretty much EIB time for this guy.

[russellr2d2[TK]]

Looks like a first class start ! Love your lense holder idea. <br><br>

Good job!

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

It was time for a fan revision. I installed a push button on/off switch and placed it in a spot I can reach it even with gloves on while wearing the helmet. I moved the fans to the rear and angled them so they blow around the helmet across the lenses. I now stow the battery in the chin. It keeps my helmet from tilting back and is now a little more balanced overall.

 

 

 

 

I've been so busy I haven't had time to put on my armor to get my submission photos for Centurion but I will get it done in the next week or so.

 

 

Jim - TK50899

[SlyFox740[TK]]

Walt's Trooper Factory armor looks really great! I've seen other W.T.F. Builds on here before but I'd never heard of it before that. Is Walt's Trooper Factory in the vetted vendors list?

 

Not as of yet and if you go to the types of armor and where to find them section the last few posts explain it....kind of. Bottom line is that Walt does his best to put out a great product and he is very responsive and the customer service he and his team provides is fantastic. I feel that it will stand the test of time and I am happy with the price and quality. As long as it approvable to me it doesn't matter wether it's on the "vetted" list or not. That's just my two cents though.

 

 

Jim - TK50899

 

Interesting, I think "Yet" may be the key word there. Once some more builds like this one get approved W.T.F. will eventually become a vetted vendor by definition, whether he will actually be listed remains to be seen I guess. It definitely looks to be good quality armor! And his customers seem to be very happy with the service he provides. I assume getting on that list is something that takes time and requires a history of quality product and service, any additions are probably taken very seriously. WTF is not the only one, there's a few other good quality vendors that haven't been listed yet either such as MTK or NE. Anyways I wouldn't put too much thought into it, the CRL is pretty generic about the actual armor requirements. No specific brands are required to meet approval, there are only specific brands that are Non-approved such as Rubies or FX.

 

Yep. There's a little more of a backstory to Walt's situation but I've been asked to stop telling my version but I can say that he is not recasting, meaning made a mold of someone else's and trying to pass it off as his own but he not the original creator of some of the bucks he uses and that's where things get a bit cloudy. My understanding is that he may eventually have a full set of original TK "Walt bucks" but as you probably noticed he has lots of other original stuff that he makes and has steadily been adding more to the list. The current TK stuff he's selling sells so well, if I were him I wouldn't change anything until I had to. Some of the other makers you mentioned may have had issues in the past or just may be in that grace period of building up their reputation based on quality and consistency.

 

My WTF TK was approved in like 13 hours and as soon as I have my blaster done I will be submitting for EIB and Centurion, which I'm told will be no problem. I also didn't pay $1200, like one of my buddies did, for the venerable RS commission!

 

 

Jim - TK50899

 

It looks like Walt's Trooper Factory has finally been added to the vetted vendors list; http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/11538-the-various-types-of-armor-and-where-to-find-them/ That's awesome, good for him.

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

It looks like Walt's Trooper Factory has finally been added to the vetted vendors list; http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/11538-the-various-types-of-armor-and-where-to-find-them/ That's awesome, good for him.

I did catch that a few months ago but it's been a while since I visited my own build thread!

 

The armor is holding up excellent and I'm getting ready to make my couple small fixes and submit for Centurion. Just been busy building Magic Wheelchairs!

 

 

 

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Edited October 3, 2016 by MoSc0ut

[Eyedyeoff10]

Wow! Great Job! I have a question. I've been looking at armors, and I had been trying to decide between anovos and ata before is tumbled upon your thread. The armor looks great. My biggest concern is that I have zero experience building anything but the occasional model kit, so I'm admittedly somewhat terrified, but I want to give this a shot. Do you think I could get this armor together using time, patience, and other peoples experience such as yours?

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Wow! Great Job! I have a question. I've been looking at armors, and I had been trying to decide between anovos and ata before is tumbled upon your thread. The armor looks great. My biggest concern is that I have zero experience building anything but the occasional model kit, so I'm admittedly somewhat terrified, but I want to give this a shot. Do you think I could get this armor together using time, patience, and other peoples experience such as yours?

Absolutely! Think of it as a big model kit. I had never done anything like this beforehand. I consider myself pretty handy meaning I am familiar with tools and how to use them. I learned everything from reading threads like mine. I just filled in some gaps and kind of compiled together what I learned as best I could. Feel free to message me with any questions and I'll be happy to answer or point you in the right direction!

 

I really love my WTF kit. I have several friends with ANOVOS kits and they are not holding up so great. As for ATA the only negative is that you can wait a considerable amount of time to get it bug it's a great kit. It's what I almost bought.

 

 

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[msouza[TK]]

Just came across this after taking the plunge and going with a WTF kit. Bookmarked for building reference thanks!

[MoSc0ut[TK]]

Just came across this after taking the plunge and going with a WTF kit. Bookmarked for building reference thanks!

If you have any questions feel free to hit me up! I tried to cover as much as I could but when you get in the fog of building your forget to take some pictures.

 

 

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