A pretty short trooper

[Triplet99c]

Trimmed a tiny bit on my forearms and they are still, no surprise here, gigantic. As you can see before, they're very wobbly, have lots of space, and can easily twist and shift around. Not too mention since I cut a bit length wise, the wrist is big, but was always big, to be honest. I know I need to cut a tad on the sides, though I'm not sure where to cut everywhere else. My forearms are so small!

Right now it digs into the top of my hand if I bend my hand upward and digs into my inner elbow if I bend my elbow at all

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[Rat[TK]]

So you still have a lot of return edge at the elbow you can trim more of that and I believe it can be completely removed if I understand it correctly. Also I see you have a mark line near the elbow end that I'm guessing is for trimming? If so you should take that from the wrist side, to keep from having to recreate the curve in the inside piece.

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[Triplet99c]

At the moment I have already removed one ridge from the wrist side, though I'm afraid that trimming another ridge would make it too short? But I'm not sure. I still have SOOO much space inside. Though I probably will remove that return edge, yes. I just wish there was a way I knew of of how to taper the wrist in again, because the space is HUGE

So you still have a lot of return edge at the elbow you can trim more of that and I believe it can be completely removed if I understand it correctly. Also I see you have a mark line near the elbow end that I'm guessing is for trimming? If so you should take that from the wrist side, to keep from having to recreate the curve in the inside piece.

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[Rat[TK]]

Tapering the wrist would be simply tapering your trim lines. I'm no authority on that one, but seems that is how you would go about it. Like I said reach out to some of the other troopers that have had to do these types of modifications. Shashachu, cricket and there's one other that I can't recall her name that have done this.

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[lucnak[TK]]

I don't think you will need to shorten the length of your forearms any more than that. Mine fit about the same. When my elbow is bent, my forearms definitely move up in the way of my wrist. When it comes to the width, if your armour has no ridge on which the cover strip go, then you can remove some material there. You will most likely then need to reshape your forearms to help them close all the way. Keep in mind that you don't need to make these fit perfectly and you can use some foam to make them less wobbly. You will want to ensure all your parts are resized proportionately in relation to each other, so adjust sizing slowly.

[Triplet99c]

Actually got some work done today! A friend of mine came over and helped me test fit some pieces and I helped her so some measurements for her Zarya cosplay, so it's a win-win! Test fitted the torso pieces. Here's some things we noticed that we did a bit wrong while fitting and will adjust next time:
- The butt plate was put too high, we thought
- the chest plate was off the the side a bit. Couldn't really tell though, since I couldn't look down very well
-couldn't really connect the underneath of the butt and crotch plates. Someone at an armor party helped me trim the crotch plate though the two pieces have a hard time connecting now. I'll ask her about connecting them


I also noticed parts I needed to trim:
- the return edge on the top of my chest piece was digging into my neck, so I got rid of it
- The chest seems a bit big on me, considering it almost goes over the ab button area. Might have to trim the bottom of the chest? Maybe?
-may have to trim a little more of the sides of the kidney plate


I also (finally) got a piece glued: the outer section of my right bicep. Tried to work on the forearms but just...ugh. So much work to be done on those darn forearms. Also, I know the wrong shoulder bell was used for the right side

Do keep in mind, my friend never worked with stormtrooper armor before. Neither of us really knew how to do the test fitting, haha! And considering I couldn't look down and hardly at all to the side thanks to my chest plate, it was a bit hard to guide her. Though, what are tests for, right?

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[Rat[TK]]

A thought just occured to me that you could look up reference photos for Luke's stormtrooper disguise. Trimming the chest wouldn't be bad it looks like just a little too long. The butt is sort of tilted a bit much. The cod and butt connection will come later don't worry about that now. But looking good Taylor.

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[Triplet99c]

Yeah, my friend and I had a rough time getting everything to stay and such. I'll definitely have to do a hot water bath for most of these pieces.

My main concerns for the chest is I just hope I don't trim TOO much, since I heard it needs to be a certain size or something

A thought just occured to me that you could look up reference photos for Luke's stormtrooper disguise. Trimming the chest wouldn't be bad it looks like just a little too long. The butt is sort of tilted a bit much. The cod and butt connection will come later don't worry about that now. But looking good Taylor.

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[Rat[TK]]

Yeah, my friend and I had a rough time getting everything to stay and such. I'll definitely have to do a hot water bath for most of these pieces.

My main concerns for the chest is I just hope I don't trim TOO much, since I heard it needs to be a certain size or something


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Not sure about that, but yeah you definitely don't want to over trim the chest. Take the same approach as you did with the thighs a little at a time and fitting in between. I'm not positive, but I think you can also trim the top of the ab piece if it is too tall.

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[CableGuy[TK]]

Hi Taylor,

Great that you’ve got a second pair of hands help out here and there. You’re making really good progress. :-)

Next time you try taping bits together, perhaps try taping the ab and kidney lined up together. This will give you a central shell to work up and down from.



Example



With these two parts lined up, you can then start looking at how to adapt the butt, back and chest plates to work around this central point. :-)

[lucnak[TK]]

Echoing Dan's comment - the kidney and ab should be lined up. That will bring your butt plate down significantly and reduce the overlap of back plate over kidney.

 

Before you go trimmming the bottom of the chest plate, I would trim the neck opening to come further down. Will still look about the same overall shape. If then you still need more room, then you could consider cutting the bottom of the chest.

[Triplet99c]

So far, all I've done is trim the return edge off of the top of the neck. Feels a LOT better.

Echoing Dan's comment - the kidney and ab should be lined up. That will bring your butt plate down significantly and reduce the overlap of back plate over kidney.
 
Before you go trimmming the bottom of the chest plate, I would trim the neck opening to come further down. Will still look about the same overall shape. If then you still need more room, then you could consider cutting the bottom of the chest.

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[lucnak[TK]]

Yes, but if you need to bring the chest up more after your next fitting, I would say deepening the edge of the neck should be your first option.

[shashachu[TK]]

Your photos look a lot like mine when I did my first torso piece fittings.

 

I heard that WTF chest pieces are the smallest out of any of the armors so you may not be able to do this, but I was able to get away with *not* trimming the bottom of the chest armor. I'd make that a last resort because although the return edge on the chest is not required, I think it looks a lot better with it, and recreating it is tough.

 

* Like Luc said, trim the neck even more to bring the entire chest up. You should be able to trim the chest shoulder tabs as well if they're overlapping the back tabs too much after you trim the neck.

* Your back piece is sitting too low. Do you see how the tabs are below the tops of your shoulders? They should be above it. Anovos shoulder tabs on the back piece come bent at a pretty severe angle. Most people end up heat bending them to be straighter (so the back sits lower), but them being so bent should work in your favor because it will bring the back piece higher. On my WTF kit I heat bent the back shoulder tabs more to bring the back up. The back is also wide on you - you can heat bend it in to wrap around you more.

* Once the back is higher, the overlap on the back and kidney will be less severe, but you'll likely still need to trim it smaller. Trim from the bottom because that cut will be hidden by the belt. 

* Not sure what you mean about the cod and butt connecting - they don't need to touch - they're connected by an elastic strap.

* The back/kidney/butt should *not* overlap at all. They all sit below each other.

The torso is a bit of a puzzle because of the way things need to align - as you shift pieces around it affects the rest of how the torso needs to fit together.

 

If you haven't already, take a look at this section of my build thread: 

 I had a lot of the same challenges you did.

[Rat[TK]]

So how's it coming Taylor?

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[Triplet99c]

Coming along alright; got my biceps done and am starting on my forearms! Pretty slow process

So how's it coming Taylor?

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[Rat[TK]]

It is coming along and that forearm looks good.

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[Triplet99c]

Finally made some progress! One forearm is done! Putting on cover strips is the WORST! On one side of the finished forearm, the strip kept shifting everytime I put down a clamp, so it ended up a little weird. I'm just...gonna leave it for now. Below is a picture of one forearm that is trimmed, and one that hasn't been trimmed yet. Huge difference! Curse my small forearms!

Marked the second Popeye arm to cut length wise, and also marked my chest piece. Just gotta cut the neck a couple centimeters at a time

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[Rat[TK]]

Hey Taylor do you have a photo of the glued cover strip? I'm mostly curious about what you mean about sitting weird.

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[Triplet99c]

I unfortunately never got a picture, the at one of the wrist ends, the strip shifted to the side so that one of the ends of the forearm was exposed, though I removed the cover strip and shifted it over so it's fixed now

Hey Taylor do you have a photo of the glued cover strip? I'm mostly curious about what you mean about sitting weird.

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[Rat[TK]]

Ah, well it looks like it coming along well.

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[shashachu[TK]]

Sometimes it can help to let the E6000 sit for a minute or two before putting the cover strips on so that it gets a bit tacky and will hold things in place better.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

A trick is to line them up and hold them together with some painters tape, then run the tape inside the back the full length, this will hold them together and you can then remove the tape on the outside and glue the cover strip on then hold again with either clamps, magnets, painters tape or a combination of all three  

[Triplet99c]

A trick is to line them up and hold them together with some painters tape, then run the tape inside the back the full length, this will hold them together and you can then remove the tape on the outside and glue the cover strip on then hold again with either clamps, magnets, painters tape or a combination of all three  

I'll have to try that next time

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[Triplet99c]

Updaaates~
Got to go to another armor party last night, which was once again, a huge help! One of the members helped me finish up my forearms to where they fit me a looot better. Also trimmed a little on the top of the chest plate to bring it up so more of the ab shows. And began strapping! Yay, progress! Torso is nice and fitted. Just have to strap together my arms, finish strapping the torso and begin the legs. (Also, disclaimer, my forearms aren't THAT big. The angle of the photo is just weird.) At least I'll look buffer now, haha!

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