FencingCorvetteTrooper's Triple Trooper Build (AP ANH Stunt)!

[FencingCorvetteTrooper[TK]]

Greetings everyone!  Well, as you can tell from the title, this is no ordinary build as we're going for not one, not two, but three TK's at once!  I'll be joined in this build by my brother Javier (Chinchilla on FISD and DarkTrooper71 on the Florida Garrison forums) and my 16 year old son Alex (soon to join the Galactic Academy, but counting down the days he can become an official legion member).  

 

We dove head first into this adventure and are eagerly awaiting our really BBB day after purchasing our armor from Mark at AP.  In the meantime, we've got a few items purchased and slowly rolling in.  Tried to upload a couple of pictures of what's arrived to date using the attach file option, so hopefully that works.  

 

Undersuits - stormtrooperundersuit.com

Boots - TKBoots

Neck seals - Darman neck seals

Blasters - QuestDesignCanada

 

 

 

And of course we had to try the stuff on (that's a Hasbro Black Series helmet just to get a proper feel for it ;o).  Nothing like a TK in his underwear....

 

 

Next up is to start gathering the other materials we'll need for our build.  Given our crazy schedules, we opted for the fully trimmed kit just to help prevent the build from becoming excessively long, but leaving enough work for us to do to make it a worthwhile and satisfying experience.  We've also already met some of the great members of our local squad and completed one troop as handlers, with a couple more likely before we're ready to apply for 501 status and officially troop ourselves!  Light side or dark side - may the Force be with us!

Edited June 14, 2017 by FencingCorvetteTrooper

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

A little more white and your nearly there, looking forward to the progress, good luck with the build

[Artshot]

Welcome to the white

[Shanester[TK]]

Looking good! Keep it up.

[FencingCorvetteTrooper[TK]]

Well, BBB day finally arrived and it just got a little more real!  I was greeted by these two lovely packages from Mark at AP yesterday.  Now to start getting the last of the supplies and start some of the build (likely the helmet and hopefully before we leave on vacation at the end of the week)!  If only I could convince my employer that a TK armor build is the perfect reason to ask for a sabbatical...

 

Here are the boxes...

 

And here is the entire squad unpacked!

 

Edited September 18, 2018 by FencingCorvetteTrooper

[bobafret[TK]]

AWESOME! I built two kits myself when I started out in just under 9 weeks. Anovos for my daughter and AP for myself. Every spare minute I had I was sanding or cutting or dremeling or glueing or unglueing or riveting. I think I had ABS dust permanently in my nose for much of that time.

 

Enjoy the process it is really fun.

[FencingCorvetteTrooper[TK]]

OK, so we're back from our vacation and it's time to start building!  The only two questions I have though are - why does my back hurt so much and where did the last 7 hours go?!?!?

 

So my son, brother and I got together today and started with our buckets. Not a bad day as we got everything done on all three except the finishing detail on the ears, the frown screen and the black paint on the vocoder.  Now I just have to get a hosting account for pictures setup so I can add them to the thread!  Seems I was able to get away with uploading a few pics earlier via the file uploader on this site, but I hit the max limit on that. 

[FencingCorvetteTrooper[TK]]

OK, looks like I was able to setup a hosting account, so here's a few pics from today.

 

OK guys, so let us know your thoughts! I know right off the bat, the brow trim looks low, but that's because I forgot to readjust them; they tended to move down with all the man-handling as we worked on the buckets.

Edited July 12, 2017 by FencingCorvetteTrooper
Re-added pictures to post

[FencingCorvetteTrooper[TK]]

Happy Fourth of July! Well, after Sunday, I snuck in a couple hours on Monday and another couple hours this morning, and voila!  Buckets are done!  Got the S trim fitted and at this point, we just need to fit the interior padding for a snug fit, but that's something we can easily tackle later.  An awesome learning experience and now to hit the really hard part - the body armor.  Hopefully with an hour each night and some 4-6 hour weekend sessions together with my brother and son and we can get our builds done in a reasonable timeframe (and without losing our minds).  Apologies, as this isn't really turning into an informative build thread (more just a log of progress), but I'll try to do more step by step or in progress posts as we go.  

My son and I apparently have the larger set of ears and noses, so I had to do some enlarging of the opening so we could get in and out easily (turning helmet 90 degrees, then straightening out once it's on). I made sure to do a test fit though with not only the s-Trim in place, but the neck seal as well, and we have clearance, Clarence!

 

It's still it bit of a close fit, but I don't expect my head to grow anytime soon.  What I just can't imagine is how to get fans, speakers and other fun tech into the bucket and still be able to put it on.  But that will be a project for after our build and acceptance into the 501st.

 

Edited July 12, 2017 by FencingCorvetteTrooper
re-added pictures that had been lost

[FencingCorvetteTrooper[TK]]

So am I the only one who suddenly lost all their pictures from IMGUR (my last two posts show up blank and the pictures are still in my IMGUR album)??  Had some fun progress this weekend, but no way to show it!

[FencingCorvetteTrooper[TK]]

OK, so finally figured out how to get pictures back into the posts from imgur.  Have no idea what happened that changed the way it was working before, but at least I got a work around and can continue posting.  So we made some progress over the weekend; Saturday morning I actually completed my second troop as a handler, so I was naturally a bit more pumped up after that.  On Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon, we decided to dive into the armor by first attacking the biceps, but not before doing the obligatory painter's tape fitment tests.

 

Here's me....

Here's my son...

And here's my brother, who is the smaller of the three of us, and looks like will need to do some trimming here and there to get the suit to fit a little better (he was missing the padding in his helmet, thus the scrunched look).

 

After we all calmed down from the high of somewhat looking like stormtroopers, we got to work and created our bicep cover strips (inner ones as well for my son and I as we needed a little shimming to create extra space) and proceeded to get to gluing!

 

The cool thing is that after breaking the ice with these pieces, I definitely feel more comfortable about attacking the rest of the armor.  The big challenge will be my brother's suit that will take some serious tailoring (so he is off researching build threads for thin build troopers).

[FencingCorvetteTrooper[TK]]

So Monday and today, I couldn't let time pass by without being productive, so we jumped on the thermal detonators. Figure these little victories help make things easier on the long road that is the armor build.  This weekend, we'll likely take some time to take care of the gloves and hand armor (rubber pieces for Centurion), and then maybe the belts in a week or two.

 

Have to admit, I think they came out really nice and dead on with the sizing requirements (between 7.25" and  7.5")!

 

[FencingCorvetteTrooper[TK]]

Finally, a little more excitement for the week as our blasters arrived!!

 

Really happy with the quality on these. They are resin, so a little more fragile, but beautiful pieces nonetheless.  Later on we'll try to pick up some inexpensive B grade rubber ones for those troops where it might be better to have something that can withstand a drop or two. Pew-pew!!

 

 

As with the rest of the build, we've got EIB and eventually Centurion in mind, so we made sure these had the D-Ring and all the other requirements on the CRL. 

 

[bobafret[TK]]

Great progress here!  Things are looking really good!

[FencingCorvetteTrooper[TK]]

OK, time for another update!  Well, I have to admit, considering we're building 3 TK's at once, we have actually accomplished a great deal in just two weeks!

 

Helmets - Done

Thermal Detonators - Done

Biceps & Forearms - Done

Gloves - Done

 

At this point, from a high level, we just have to complete the overall body armor, legs and belt. Granted, that includes some serious size trimming we're going to need to do for my brother's armor, and likely some minor adjustments for my son and I, but I'm really thinking we can get this done before the end of September so we can get our TK numbers, and then officially troop with our Everglades Squad brethren at a big event at the Florida Marlins game.  If we wind up and missing it, it's OK as we'd rather not sacrifice quality for time (can you tell I'm a Project Manager?), but at least that's our target goal.

 

So now for a few pictures....

 

Getting our biceps finished...

 

We also added the bicep hooks afterwards (not pictured).  My son and I had to go with some inner cover strips so we could extend the width of the biceps - For me because I work out, and for him because he will likely continue to grow!

 

After a little more fit testing, then it's on to the forearms...

 

The finished product...

 

My son modeling his new arms...

 

And today, we set up a trooper glove assembly line...

 

Aiming for Centurion from the get go...

 

Now to see what the next week brings!!

 

 

[FencingCorvetteTrooper[TK]]

Well, unfortunately that good head of steam we had going for those first two weeks took a little bit of a break as work and a busy birthday weekend for me put the build on a minor hold.  But we got back into it this week and so far, so good.  We decided to tackle the shins, after which we'll move onto the thighs.  Looks like we'll be leaving the torso pieces for last, which is a good thing as I am getting way more comfortable with hacking into the armor for minor sizing adjustments, and by the time I finish with the legs, the torso adjustments shouldn't be as intimidating.

 

Here's a few shots of the work on the shins.  First we strapped them on with the boots to get an idea for where we might need to tweak the pieces (here's my son modeling his)

After we each tried the shins on and walked around a bit, we realized we'd need to take a little off the bottoms so that they sit nicely on the boot and in the right spot around the knee, giving us a good range of movement.  We might need to take a small piece off of the top back part, but we'll leave that determination for later once we've actually got the thighs done and we go into final fittings with the entire suit.  Here's a shot of the amount we took off the bottom.  Like I said, the first cut was nerve wracking, but once that was done, the fear was gone and onward we went.  My brother's will likely need about twice as much, but after the experience with these four shins, I'm not worried about it.  Seems I've become the designated ABS cutter...

From there, it was time to cut some inner and outer cover strips and start assembly!

 

One little thing I discovered as part of my research into assembling the AP shins - for the left side, it was best to leave a minor offset between the two halves at the top (see below).  This helps a lot with the sniper knee plate placement as it eliminates some of the "tilting" when trying to line it all up. Will definitely need to also do some massaging via a hot water bath to that piece, but it should be much easier with the offset.  I'll also likely place a shim at the top to help with placing the center part of the sniper plate.  

Kudos to supernaut11 for noting this helpful tip in his build thread  (supernaut11's ANH stunt build thread [AP])  and my fellow Everglades squad member David (illusionz_09) for his post in the same build thread that pointed to a great shin build video!  Gotta love the wealth of information out here!!

 

So while those are curing, I'm off to work on the rear shin cover strips.  Hopefully some more progress later in the week, but we'll be attending the Florida Supercon this weekend.  While obviously not able to go in full TK armor just yet, we'll definitely be doing a little cosplay with a TK theme (pics to follow next week).

Edited July 26, 2017 by FencingCorvetteTrooper

[illusionz_09[TK]]

Looking good. Can't wait to see it in person tomorrow. Or at least parts of it lol. One comment though, the rank stripe on the ears are too thick. It needs to be a thin black stripe. I'll have to get you some references. 

[FencingCorvetteTrooper[TK]]

On 7/28/2017 at 7:37 PM, illusionz_09 said:

Looking good. Can't wait to see it in person tomorrow. Or at least parts of it lol. One comment though, the rank stripe on the ears are too thick. It needs to be a thin black stripe. I'll have to get you some references. 

Yeah, was tempted (at least for me) to wear the shins since the kilt afforded me the luxury of wearing them, but I figured I'd hold off.

 

Thanks for the tip on the rank stripes, I probably should fix that one side and that's easy to do (looks like the brush got away from me).  I checked my son's and my brother's and they're a little thinner. That tends to be the pattern - I work on stuff on my armor first and wind up being the guinea pig.  So when it comes time to theirs, they benefit from the experience I picked up on mine 

[FencingCorvetteTrooper[TK]]

OK, update time!  So as we had shown, this past week was all about finishing our shins.  Once our front inner and outer strips were on, it was time to tackle the back strip, the velcro and the oh so hated sniper plate.  Have to admit, it went a lot smoother than expected and we're happy with the results.  Here are a few shots of the work and another great tip received here on the forums, this time to handle the common problem of the slowly shifting shin.

 

After cutting the rear outer strip (went with just under 25mm instead of 20mm in order to give a little bit more surface area for the velcro and a stronger grip), it was time to glue them on.

Once that dried, then it was time to cut the velcro and attach it to the rear strip and the opposite side of the shin.  We made sure that the closure was always to the inside.

 

After that was done, we moved on to the dreaded sniper plate.  After doing a preliminary fit, we realized we really didn't need that much massaging of the piece, but went ahead and did a quick hot water bath and started to bend the right side in and up a little bit.  That helped us get a better fit along the lines on the top of the shin piece.

We decided to not obsess over getting it perfectly straight in the spirit of being a little more accurate, but rather just ensure the sides lined up properly with the shin's top molding.  

 

First we fit and glued down the middle

 

We made sure that the sides lined up as closely as possible.  Once the middle was done, the glue and clamping we placed on the sides helped bring those edges in closer (I also did a little trimming on the sniper plate sides so things like that sharp edge were eliminated).

 

 

I think at the end of the day, they came out pretty nice.

 

[FencingCorvetteTrooper[TK]]

Now for the tip - most folks have run into an issue where one or both of the shins creep to one side or the other while walking.  Sure enough, that was happening to us, but only with the left leg.  I posted a call for help, as I wasn't too keen yet on going the route of slapping some velcro on the front of our boots and the bottom of the shin to help keep it together, and got back a really simple and effective solution from justjoseph63.

 

We went ahead and got some seat foam, cut a roughly 1" x 1" x 8" strip (I actually went with 1.5" to provide some more stability) and then velcro'ed that to the front inner cover strip.  Voila! no more shin creep!

[FencingCorvetteTrooper[TK]]

Almost forgot, as I mentioned last week, we were going to attend Florida Supercon this year.  While we would have loved to have our builds done and approved for the event, we've still got a bit to go, but we still made sure to have some fun with a TK theme.

 

Presenting the Hollywood Troopers - Dr. Who Trooper, Negan Trooper and Braveheart Trooper!

 

 

Needless to say, we were able to break in our TK boots, as well as work out some kinks with our bucket fitting, so it was a worthwhile effort.  We had a blast walking around and got stopped for pictures more times than we could count.  And we of course had to stop by our Squad's booth to say hello and pose for a few pictures.

 

[Sentry71[TK]]

Looks like you have things well in hand! Great photos and explanations so far.

Keep it up!

[68Brick[TK]]

Great progress & pics!

 

I'd recommend fitting your armour pieces while wearing your under suit to ensure proper sizing. Your sons's bicep looks to be a little oversized for the size of his arm. Is it still loose if he flexes his arm? If it is, you could size it down.

[FencingCorvetteTrooper[TK]]

2 hours ago, 68Brick said:

Great progress & pics!

 

I'd recommend fitting your armour pieces while wearing your under suit to ensure proper sizing. Your sons's bicep looks to be a little oversized for the size of his arm. Is it still loose if he flexes his arm? If it is, you could size it down.

 

Thanks Brad!  Yes, we've definitely done final fittings with the undersuit; initial attempts (which I realize now are usually the ones I post) are as seen with whatever we're wearing or not wearing at the time just to get a general idea, primarily on length vs. width.   

 

As for his arms, his are pretty much sized the same as mine so they have a bit of room but without being too oversized.  Seeing as he is still growing and working out (he's put on 10 pounds since summer started), I wanted to make sure I wouldn't be tearing them apart to resize them as soon as we finish the complete build.    We can also use a little foam if needed as I've seen on threads for slimmer troopers.

[FencingCorvetteTrooper[TK]]

OK, just a little update.  And by little I mean just that.  While we can't always get to do some meaningful sized work, it's always good to do something, no matter how trivial!

 

Ab plate buttons done...

 

And, I went ahead and thinned out the rank bar on the ears as recommended earlier (thanks for the catch David!).

 

Hopefully later this week, we get to make some serious progress on the thighs after completing our fittings this past weekend.  Once those are done, then the final push starts on the torso pieces, belts and strapping!