RedSpecial's 1.5mm ANH Stunt build [*TM]

[RedSpecial[TK]]

After six fantastic years trooping with my AP kit, it's finally time for a new suit.
I decided to go with a TM ANH stunt in 1.5mm ABS.

BBB day!

 

 

What struck me when I opened the box and the expertly wrapped parts, other than all those drool inducingly gorgeous ANH details (absolute filth to be honest, it should come with an explicit content warning  ) was just how flexible the parts are.
I cant wait to see what kind of difference that makes once I wear it.

Theres quite a lot that I want to improve upon from my previous build which I'll detail as I come to assemble each piece.

I'm hoping to start properly on Saturday because of work commitments so It'll just have to sit there, taunting me for now until I have the time to tackle it.

Edited July 22, 2017 by RedSpecial

[RedSpecial[TK]]

Right, time to get going.
Unfortunately I havent had as much time to work on this that I had hoped to this weekend but I was able to do a little this evening.

I'm not building in any particular order or trying to be too precise, just going for it with whatever I pull out of the box first, which just happened to be the shoulder bells.

One thing I've learned from my time trooping is more return edge = more bites so I'll be keeping them to a minimum where possible with a little bit more on the bottom edge of the chest and adjoining sections of he torso.

 

 

I don't know what kind of ABS you use, Paul but it's an absolute dream to work with.
I've worked with just about every type of plastic known to man but my job would be much easier if it were all this easy to trim.
Tons of flex and cuts beautifully!

Speaking of cutting, for anyone who's new to this costume building malarkey you should consider picking up a pair of curved Lexan scissors.
They'll make things much easier when trimming the armour.
As we say in Scotland, Theyre pure dead brilliant by the way
Far better than ye olde score and snap method.

 

 

 

 

 

I'll hold this for you.
Cassian said I had to!

 

 

So far all I'm using are the Lexan scissors to rough trim, a diamond file for the worst offenders and the Model Makers oldest friend, a number 3 Swan Morton scalpel handle with 10a blades for de-burring the edge.
According to the legendary Bill Pearson, anyone who uses any other scalpel combo is a...

On second thought I'd better not finish that quote  

That's all Ive managed for now.
Hopefully I'll make a dent in the rest of the trimming tomorrow evening.

Edited July 22, 2017 by RedSpecial

[RedSpecial[TK]]

I cut my bum tonight  

 

 

This is all I had the time to trim tonight, at the moment I only have an hour or so to dedicate to the suit after work etc, so it'll be a bit slower going during the week than I would like until I get to the trimming finished.
I have the next couple of weekends off though so I'll have a good chunk of time to dedicate to the build then.

I'm aiming to trim at least the chest and ab section tomorrow.
I know, I should really slow down with all this building at break neck speed business  

Edited July 22, 2017 by RedSpecial

[RedSpecial[TK]]

I managed to get a bit more trimmimg done tonight.
But before i show my progress, let me share with you the universally recognised hand gesture for " I tried to trim the entire back plate in one go"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Speaking of the back plate...

 

I've always loved the shape of this particular part, it has to be one of the most iconic pieces of the TK armour.<br><br><br>

 

I also trimmed the kidney plate tonight.

 

A quick tip for anyone doing this for the first time.
Whenever you're working with plastic that's going to be subjected to a lot of movement, always round off any inward facing corners ( such as the cut out on the kidney)
Never leave areas like this as a sharp V as this is essentially building in a failure point.

Either rough trim the area then use a small rounded file to round off the corner, or drill a small hole into the corner before trimming.

Edited July 22, 2017 by RedSpecial

[68Brick[TK]]

Nice Progress Trooper!

[Risvang[501st]]

Looks good, Keep snipping away.

 

 

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[RedSpecial[TK]]

Thanks, gents

[RedSpecial[TK]]

Chest and AB section trimmed

 

Looking forward to saturday when I can dedicate some real time to this!

The plan is to trim and size the arms and legs, add cover strips to both, work on the torso strapping and prep all the smaller parts while the glue on the limbs is curing then do any left over gluing on sunday and assemble the helmet ready for painting.

Well thats the plan but we'll see what actually happens

Edited July 22, 2017 by RedSpecial

[troopermaster]

Nice work so far, Stuart!

 

The 1.5mm ABS is by far my favourite plastic of all time. The way it flexes makes it perfect for trooping and it is the same ABS used for the original armour so that's an added bonus

 

Looking forward to seeing more soon

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Clearly the best armor money can buy in my opinion. We don't see enough of these builds so keep the progress coming!

[Risvang[501st]]

You are Well on your Way. The armour looks awsome, and the 1,5 mm is totally the way to go with "trooping armour"

 

 

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[RedSpecial[TK]]

Nice work so far, Stuart!

 

The 1.5mm ABS is by far my favourite plastic of all time. The way it flexes makes it perfect for trooping and it is the same ABS used for the original armour so that's an added bonus

 

Looking forward to seeing more soon

 

Thanks, Paul

​I must sound like a broken record by now but it really is special stuff.

​And the fact that it's the same as the original suits is just the icing on the cake!

I've spent more time than I'd like to admit just admiring the armour pieces and marvelling at the flex of the chestplate.  

 

​Can't wait to see how it performs when its ready to wear.

Clearly the best armor money can buy in my opinion. We don't see enough of these builds so keep the progress coming!

 

I certainly will, expect a lot more over the next couple of days!

​I might be slightly biased here but I completely agree.

​From the accurate ANH details to the material and quality of the pulls its all top notch stuff.

​I doubt this will be my last TM build

You are Well on your Way. The armour looks awsome, and the 1,5 mm is totally the way to go with "trooping armour"

 

 

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Thanks!

​Good to know that I made the right choice.

I was tempted by the shiny 2mm acrylic capped abs having seen a good few suits in person but the flexibility and true to the original colour and finish on the 1.5 was just too much of a draw.

[RedSpecial[TK]]

Work has been monopolising my time lately so I haven't had a lot of it spare to work on this  but here's my progress over the past week.

 

Added connection for the chest and shoulder straps

 

 

Added straps and shoulder connection to the bells

 

 

Then had the first test fit of the chest, back and bells

 

 

Added a cover strip to the foreams, thighs and shins so they can be sized.

Due to my height or more to the point, my lack of it I'm going to have to adjust the length of the legs.
The plan is to get the torso finished size the legs for width and tape them in place then do a test fit of everything to determine the length needed.

After I have that info I'm hoping that taking a little off of the bottom of the shins, pulling the thighs up as high as possible and making sure the torso is sitting correctly will give me the look and mobility needed without having to do anything drastic.

Thats the plan anyway.

I will be notching out the thighs and shins as they did on the screen used suits too though so that should add to the mobility.

For reference on this build I've been sticking to snaps of the screen used suits and screen caps where possible. only using a few select build threads when I needed to view a part from an angle that wasn't in the reference of the screen used kit.

 

 anyway enough of my waffling and on with the rest of the progress.

 

 

Snaps added to the butt plate.

 

 

Side rivets on the kidney plate

 

 

Belt snaps and button plates added to the ab , I still have some glue residue to remove from them.

 

 

Ab side rivets and cod rivet

 

 

The back strapped.

 

 

I know some of you will probably cringe at the sight of this, and I went back and forth for a while about whether to have the original bracket system or not, but ultimately I chose to go with the practical popper system, purely for ease of replacing straps or poppers etc mid troop as this suit is going to see a lot of use.
Having used e6000 though I can easily upgrade to the brackets at a later date.
Although I did try to place the snap plates in locations as close as i could to where the brackets would be in the hope that this would act similarly.

 

Thats it for now.
I'm hoping to do more tomorrow if time allows.

Edited July 22, 2017 by RedSpecial

[RedSpecial[TK]]

Added strapping at the side rivets, cod and glued in the Han snap.
Not a lot of progress, but progress none the less.

 

 

Edited July 22, 2017 by RedSpecial

[RedSpecial[TK]]

I've finally got some real time to dedicate to this after what seems like ages not being able to do very much with it.

The helmet is almost finished, just got to add the frown mesh which is drying after being painted and I also have to add padding.
Everything has been hand painted, no decals this time!
I'll take some better shots as soon as I can.
Ive based this (loosely) on the set for stun lid.

the torso is all but complete minus some paint on the ab buttons so I should have some progress to show with the arms and legs within the next few days .

Edited July 22, 2017 by RedSpecial

[RedSpecial[TK]]

Here's the first full test Theres a few things needing finished off and tweaked. The drop boxes haven't been fixed in place yet. I need to add closures to the back of the shins. The bells need to be brought in further to compensate for the bicep hooks pulling on them. The ab buttons, side rivets and ammo pack rivets need painted too. I'll put up pics of all the individual components once I've carried out the necessary work on them. (rubbish quality pic I know but I liked the angle )  

 

Edited August 6, 2017 by RedSpecial

[The5thHorseman[501st]]

Looking mighty good already! I'm looking forward to see the end result

[RedSpecial[TK]]

Thanks


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[troopermaster]

That's coming along really well, Stu. Well done

 

Great job on the helmet painting too!

 

How is mobility in the armour? It looks as though you might need to do a bit of tweaking on the arms and legs so let us know and we can offer some trimming tips

[RedSpecial[TK]]

Thanks, Paul

Surprisingly the mobility is pretty good so far, no issues yet even with the stair test I did notch out the back of the thighs and shins though so that'll be helping.

Although it's still early days yet and I only had it on for maybe ten minutes.

I've made some adjustments to bring in the bells and I'm currently waiting for paint to dry on the ab plate and rivets but I'll kit up again ASAP and post some pics.



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[troopermaster]

Sounds like you have it covered

[RedSpecial[TK]]

Well I don't know about that, there's still plenty of time for me to royaly mess this up

 

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[RedSpecial[TK]]

I was cleared to troop with this suit last Monday and trooped all weekend at film and comic con Glasgow

No real issues over the weekend but upon viewing some pics from the event on Saturday night as well as the previous pics in this thread something was bugging me.
The chest was just sitting far too low, so being more than a little OCD about these things I reverted back to my original strapping layout for sunday which raised the chest significantly and the armour felt and looked much better. (to my eye anyway)
I still have some tweaks to make before I'm ready to call it "complete" but its getting there!

 

 

Edited August 21, 2017 by RedSpecial

[troopermaster]

The original strapping is definitely the best way to go if you want your armour to look like it did in the movies. I often see people struggling trying to get their torso to fit them properly using snaps but you will never get the true look of the armour unless you strap it correctly.

 

The photo comparison looks great! It's hard to see any differences between your armour and the original armour

[RedSpecial[TK]]

Thanks paul

I see what you mean, the chest plate seems to act completely differently, especially the way it compresses and flexes as seen on Harrison when hes sat in the control room.

I had previously thought that the shortened torso was just a by-product of my own lack of height but it just goes to show thats not the case.

They really put the suits together in a clever way to get them to hang like that.
Its amazing what a difference such a seemingly small change can make.