A little short for a Stormtrooper...ANH 5'6" FX build

[Darth_Sploder]

So I've inherited an early FX kit...and despite little or no discernable artistic talent I am going to make it fit my hobbit frame. And I mean fit properly so I can move, bend, perhaps even sit :-o I like a challenge. Wish me luck....

Edited September 6, 2016 by Darth_Sploder

[Darth_Sploder]

Bah photo uploader fail...time to dust off the old photobucket account haha

[Darth_Sploder]

Testing....

Edited September 6, 2016 by Darth_Sploder

[Addertime[TK]]

Use the code.

[Darth_Sploder]

Yay that worked!

 

So basically the first thing I did was put all the armour on and chilled around the house in it for a bit to work out what needed adjusting! Then started ripping off all the Velcro and trimming parts down.

 

As you can see from the pic above I started by taking a LOT of material off the top of the thigh so I can actually bend my legs at the hip. Untrimmed one on the left of pic for comparison. I can now slide the thigh armour onto both legs while sat down. This is promising ;-)

 

Rear view...I've also cut down the rear inbuilt cover strip to 20mm.

 

Edited September 6, 2016 by Darth_Sploder

[Darth_Sploder]

Butt plate split from kidney plate and I've marked up the ab/crotch for splitting to allow more movement and help enormously with that impossible dream of sitting down. I note the new Rogue One TKs have a separate crotch too, I thought of it before I noticed though honest!

 

 

Scored the lines I'd left between the strips of tape with a Stanley knife a few times then just snapped off and sanded down the edge.

 

 

Sneaky slice removed & the belt will cover the join of course.

 

This is to make sure all my ab buttons are showing - I've since found out the ANH production team came at the problem from the opposite end with Mark Hamill's suit, cutting down the chest plate for the same reason. That's the way I'll be going with my Centurion build...but that'll be next year with a whole new set of armour.

Edited September 14, 2016 by Darth_Sploder

[Darth_Sploder]

Scratched my head rather a lot over how to fit my 4 lower torso pieces together (ab/kidney/codpiece/butt) as the kidney plate had been cut down massively, so if I lined up the top of the kidney & ab plates there was no way on this Earth (nor Coruscant) the belt was going to cover both joins. So I lined up the bottom of the kidney plate where I guesstimated the belt would cover it, marked the ab plate where the top of the kidney plate met and roughly drew a line between the two. The way I've marked all the parts has been to hold my fingers against the edge with the pencil set at the right distance then follow the edge - this way you retain the original shape and I feel the rough marking makes it quite organic which is in keeping with the original design. Once I've dremeled back to the marked line I'll wipe off the marks and finish it off with the dremel on the slowest setting, carving and smoothing out the curves til they look natural and 'right' - it's all about smooth flowing curves. Anyway...

 

Marked up - again I'm chopping a sizeable chunk off here!

 

 

Roughly cut with tin snips

 

 

Dremeling back to the line

 

 

All trimmed up and drilled for rivets

 

Edited September 14, 2016 by Darth_Sploder

[Darth_Sploder]

Shoulder bells cut down quite considerably....
 

 
I marked a full 2" but cut way off the mark (on purpose) and decided it looked fine so smoothed off and marked the other bell to match.  Also they tapered down slightly towards the inside, I've corrected this to taper up slightly to make them a bit more proper.
 

[Darth_Sploder]

Onto shins! Going butt joint/cover strip, vast amounts of material to come off...

 

 

Shaving a little off the bottom for extra movement...

 

 

...and a little off the top just to even out the top strip...

 

 

...which meant my sniper plate now looked wayyy too big...

 

 

...so that got shaved down too...

 

 

Getting there...

 

 

Upon test fitting I found they were still catching really badly at the back so I measured 15mm on the back only....

 

 

...I then carved back to the line with the dremel, so it starts at the same place at the front but ends up 15mm higher at the back, whilst still retaining the original shape....did I mention I like a challenge? I think they came out ok, pics to follow...oh and you'll be pleased to know I've cleaned all my armour now too haha

Edited September 14, 2016 by Darth_Sploder

[Darth_Sploder]

See? Best part of 2 cans of lighter fluid later we have a nice box of clean shiny armour bits

 

 

Shin before...

 

 

...and after...

 

 

This armour has been trooped numerous times, is years old, been stored for the last few, and was all put together with industrial Velcro so there was a lot of cr@p and sticky stuff to remove.

 

And here's my shins cut down at the bottom as mentioned in the last post:

 

 

I'm going to lose too much taper and throw the overall shape off if I take any more off the bottom, I think they'll have to do!

Edited September 14, 2016 by Darth_Sploder

[Troopacoola[TK]]

Lighter fluid is awesome for removing grime!

 

Marc

[SheaJeff[TK]]

I use lighter fluid too. No one ever believes me that it works great. Glad to see there is someone else out there!

[humperdingle]

Yeh any light oil is good for taking gloop off. Spray on, leave for a minute, wipe off.
That's some heavy modification - can't wait to see the finished outfit! 
Are you on the uk garrison forum btw?

Edited September 15, 2016 by humperdingle

[Darth_Sploder]

I've joined but I haven't posted yet, it's on the to-do list haha I know I'll have to to get cleared!

 

 

Meanwhile I've been screwing up my butt plate, oops....

 

 

Well that was easy, this should be a breeze...

 

 

...going well so far...

 

 

...looking goooood....but oh wait, here it goes horribly wrong   Basically I found a snap tool on my bro's leather punch so I thought I'd try installing the butt snaps, but the tool - I later realised - was too small.  I was struggling to get the 2 halves to lock together properly, so first I tried carving a wee bevel...

 

 

That didn't work so I tried applying heat....ohhhh this was so foolish. I applied too much heat and suddenly my butt went all floppy and I had to hurriedly try to get it back into vaguely the right shape. Pretty gutting really as I'd previously applied heat to the same part to give it more of a curve and it had gone really well! So it's a bit fudged but I got it together in the end and it should look fine when it's on...

 

[Darth_Sploder]

I'm onto the forearms now, they'll be cut down for more movement and generally 'cleaned up'...


Inbuilt cover strip dealio...massive taper towards the end!



Fixed



Horrid angles...



Fixed



Will be continuing in this vein and once the arms are done I *think* that's all my trimming done...I can actually start putting it all back together again!

I've also received the final part I'd been waiting on for my Rogue One TK backpack so I can start work on that now. And I have a 3D printed E-11 that needs ENDLESS sanding. Plenty to keep me busy. If I get bored with one of these I'll move onto another, it's a motivational technique I call "The Circle of Procrastination"

[TK Goatee[TK]]

Keep it up. Your doing an awesome job on that FX. <br>

Looking forward to see it completed and put on. ;-)

[Darth_Sploder]

Thanks buddy your encouragement is much appreciated!

 

 

Helmet kit came today woo