Lord_Potato's Walt's Trooper Factory ANH TK Build (COMPLETE)

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Really not sure you will have to reshape the fronts of your forearms, remember once glued you need to get your hands through the opening. Cover strips should lay flat and be just short of the raised edges. I have small forearms and have some foam inside to stop the forearms from moving around. 

 

 

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

48 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Really not sure you will have to reshape the fronts of your forearms, remember once glued you need to get your hands through the opening. Cover strips should lay flat and be just short of the raised edges. I have small forearms and have some foam inside to stop the forearms from moving around. 

 

 

Thank you, there are two main reasons for a little reshaping, one was for flare out the inner part of the forearm where it turns and digs into my skin. The other reason is if I make the forearm more circular it will be a better fit. Holding it together by hand is has a really oblong shape. I am hoping some hot water baths I can get it into a more circular shape. I don't think I posted a good picture on how it looked with both parts on my forearm (held together by my other hand). 

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

I would highly suggest losing that return edge around the area below and making the "scoop" larger as seen below.  You will have your arms bent most of the time carrying your E-11, and it can will dig into you ("armor bite").  This is something you want to do before final fitting.

 

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

On 4/4/2019 at 5:08 AM, justjoseph63 said:

I would highly suggest losing that return edge around the area below and making the "scoop" larger as seen below.  You will have your arms bent most of the time carrying your E-11, and it can will dig into you ("armor bite").  This is something you want to do before final fitting.

 

JustJoseph63, thank you for the input. I intend to removed the return edge during final fitting during my sizing stage, I realize I am leaving a little extra room. 

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

Haven't done much on my build yesterday or today. I guess I realized that I cannot rely too much on referencing my RS armor. Some armor pieces (like the forearms) are shaped very differently which I realized I was going to have to do some extreme shaping of the left forearm to make it look like the RS. But that is not the point. WTF is supposed to be different, it is a fan sculpted version. I spent time trying to reshape my left forearm and kind of distorted the shape. I am leaving the left forearm alone for now and tomorrow, I am going to just do the normal cuts on the right forearm and see how it naturally comes together. Before I try and put the right forearm together I am going to browse over a few more WTF threads. So I learned a small lesson and it might have cost me ruining a left forearm. But I have a job and I can get it replaced if it is not recoverable. Anyways, I really do appreciate the few of you who are checking up on this build. This build will take a minute and it makes me feel a bit more confident as I get some inputs. 

 

the last update for today, right before I received the kit my neck seal arrived in the mail from Geeky Pink's Phantastic Gaskets. Here is a picture of the fit. I was not sure where to go for various parts of my soft goods and stumbled across Geeky Pinks, it was also nice that she made the based on your neck measurements! I think it fits very well. One part of my soft goods down!

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Using heat on plastic is an art and it can go from being slightly flexible to a molten mess, remember the plastic was stressed after heating and can start to return to it's natural state when reheated, I always suggest trying on off cuts first. Personally I find you have a lot more control with a heat gun, although it gives more heat than a water bath you can vary which sections are heated, giving a little pressure to say a round forearm then apply some heat it will gently go oval. 

 

Can't go wrong with Pinky's neck seals, looks great. 

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

Deleted unnecessary content

Edited February 4, 2021 by Lord_Potato

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

21 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Using heat on plastic is an art and it can go from being slightly flexible to a molten mess, remember the plastic was stressed after heating and can start to return to it's natural state when reheated, I always suggest trying on off cuts first. Personally I find you have a lot more control with a heat gun, although it gives more heat than a water bath you can vary which sections are heated, giving a little pressure to say a round forearm then apply some heat it will gently go oval. 

 

Can't go wrong with Pinky's neck seals, looks great. 

You are very correct. I only have minimal experience in heat bending. Here is a couple of pictures of how I increased the curvature on my kidney with hot water and how I increased the curvature on my ab plate with a heat gun on my RS armor: 

 

Just so you can see I have done a little bit of bending. 

 

I removed the return edge on the top of my kidney armor after the hot water bath....

 

My RS is PVC plastic and Walt's is ABS. I think that (along with minimal experience) made me mess up on the left forearm. The PVC was a lot easier to get to a bendable state. I n my opinion, PVC is a little easier to mess with. The next time part I need to heat bend, I will take extreme caution.

Edited April 6, 2019 by Lord_Potato

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

As you have done it's a great idea to use a plug/template to use as a guide when forming, for smaller areas I use a couple of blocks of wood one on either side which I can hold together once the plastic is headed, great for edges too. 

 

Nice work

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

39 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

As you have done it's a great idea to use a plug/template to use as a guide when forming, for smaller areas I use a couple of blocks of wood one on either side which I can hold together once the plastic is headed, great for edges too. 

 

Nice work

Thank you, yes, I was pretty lucky with not messing up the RS pieces I hear bended. Like I said, the Walt's ABS plastic is harder to manipulate. I will try what you suggested for my next piece :). Thank you so much. 

[magni[TK]]

Yeah that left forarm is a wonky shape for sure. When I saw mine I thougt WTF! And no it wasn't Walts Trooper Factory

 

But after assembly and some extra trimming of inside elbow scoop it actually fit ok. Holding each piece on your body is a little different then it put together. Loose the two pieces formed a oval looking mess that didn't line up. Once together it seemed to round out a bit more. 

Great choice in neckseal. Teresa does some top notch work!  Also nice score for your wife. Looks like you both will need new wrangler/photographer.

 

Keep up the great work! And know we're always watching.

We love pictures!

Edited April 7, 2019 by magni

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

It's going to be a rough week for me, but my goal is to try and do something, even if its a little during the week. 

 

I knew I didn't have time to heat and correct my left forearm so I decided to cut my right forearm to be ready to just cut down the "cover strip edges" to be ready to try and size/shape at a later time. CRL states no return edge at the wrist opening for centurion. I removed the return edge wrist side (just need to sand to smooth out) and left minimum return edge on the opposite side. That's it for the right forearm for now.

 

 

I trimmed the ab piece from the excess plastic and removed the return edges (I learned from my RS that the crotch area return edge tends to dig in my thighs)

 

Just putting the chest and belly pieces against my body, it seemed to fit pretty well! I just need to take a tad off BOTH sides of the belly plate (where they connect to the kidney plate) mainly to make a straight line edge:

 

Another thing I noticed is that I might cut just an extra sliver off the lower crotch area. My upper thigh seems to graze against it. I won't cut anymore until the strapping phase. 

 

Last thing I noticed was that the chest plate does not seem to fit evenly on my chest. My top left of the chest plate (the area where the shoulder tabs go on) pops up about an inch while the right side sets flush with my chest:

 

LEFT SIDE (side that springs outward)

 

RIGHT SIDE

 

I intend to heat up the upper left area and then press down on that area and that should even the upper chest area. I would like to hear some opinions on this. I might hold off until I am in the fitting part of my build. 

 

 

 

Edited April 9, 2019 by Lord_Potato

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

On 4/7/2019 at 6:13 AM, magni said:

Yeah that left forarm is a wonky shape for sure. When I saw mine I thougt WTF! And no it wasn't Walts Trooper Factory

 

But after assembly and some extra trimming of inside elbow scoop it actually fit ok. Holding each piece on your body is a little different then it put together. Loose the two pieces formed a oval looking mess that didn't line up. Once together it seemed to round out a bit more. 

Great choice in neckseal. Teresa does some top notch work!  Also nice score for your wife. Looks like you both will need new wrangler/photographer.

 

Keep up the great work! And know we're always watching.

We love pictures!

Thanks for your comment! and yes I think you are right. Holding an individual piece is different than it put together. It can easily give you a skewed image as I have learned. And yes, hopefully there will be others to help handle and take photos

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

The issue I see with trying to bend that area is that the return edge will prevent it.  If you do manage to bend it via a heat source, it will put a lot of stress on the area (see arrow) and cause the return edge to buckle.  This will create an area that will more than likely split or crack the plate at some point (trust me).

The alternative is to remove the return edge, which will make it much easier to bend.  If you decide to go that route, be sure to remove the edges on both sides so that they match.

 

      

 

Also, it may be a strange camera angle, but are both your chest plate tabs the same length?  The right one seems to be shorter.

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

You may be over engineering what you have, I've cut my armor to the minimal trim lines and I have loose sections, seems we have a similar frame, I have some foam in the forearms and biceps to stop them rotating and flapping, and foam behind my ab which helps keep the ab and chest align much better. 

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

On 4/9/2019 at 5:06 PM, gmrhodes13 said:

You may be over engineering what you have, I've cut my armor to the minimal trim lines and I have loose sections, seems we have a similar frame, I have some foam in the forearms and biceps to stop them rotating and flapping, and foam behind my ab which helps keep the ab and chest align much better. 

You are correct. I guess I am over analyzing everything. I'll try and proceed better next time I get a chance to work on my kit. Thank you

[Cricket[TK]]

I hope I'm not too late to the party here!    I had many of the same issues with my WTF that you are having on your WTF kit. 

You had mentioned that the WTF armor is a fan sculpt.  Walt has told me that this comes from a screen-used ROTJ suit- which is why the kidney/butt plates are fused together.  (Those troopers must have been itty-bitty!)  The WTF kit is tiny compared to the RS suit, isn't it?!  I barely had to trim anything on my WTF.  The RS?  Trimming for days... I think I could have built another TK with the amount of excess ABS I've trimmed.  (currently building my 3rd RS TK right now...)

If you haven't shaped your forearms yet, may I offer a tip?  (I remember how badly oval-shaped the WTF forearms are.)  I suggest assembling the fronts of the forearms together first by gluing an inner cover strip.  Tape the heck out of the outside seam, though.  This will allow you to clamshell-fit your forearm securely for width.  All sizing adjustments for width take place on the back seams.  Once you've got it properly sized and trimmed for width, glue an inner cover strip to the inside back seam (taping the heck out of the outside seam again).  Then boil up some water and knock that oval into rounded submission!  Inner cover strips add a lot of strength to the forearms, and allows you to get some decent hot-water shaping done without falling apart.  

Sidenote, congrats on recruiting your wife with her TD!     She looks great!

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

9 hours ago, Cricket said:

I hope I'm not too late to the party here!    I had many of the same issues with my WTF that you are having on your WTF kit. 

You had mentioned that the WTF armor is a fan sculpt.  Walt has told me that this comes from a screen-used ROTJ suit- which is why the kidney/butt plates are fused together.  (Those troopers must have been itty-bitty!)  The WTF kit is tiny compared to the RS suit, isn't it?!  I barely had to trim anything on my WTF.  The RS?  Trimming for days... I think I could have built another TK with the amount of excess ABS I've trimmed.  (currently building my 3rd RS TK right now...)

If you haven't shaped your forearms yet, may I offer a tip?  (I remember how badly oval-shaped the WTF forearms are.)  I suggest assembling the fronts of the forearms together first by gluing an inner cover strip.  Tape the heck out of the outside seam, though.  This will allow you to clamshell-fit your forearm securely for width.  All sizing adjustments for width take place on the back seams.  Once you've got it properly sized and trimmed for width, glue an inner cover strip to the inside back seam (taping the heck out of the outside seam again).  Then boil up some water and knock that oval into rounded submission!  Inner cover strips add a lot of strength to the forearms, and allows you to get some decent hot-water shaping done without falling apart.  

Sidenote, congrats on recruiting your wife with her TD!     She looks great!

Hey Cricket! Thanks for your advice. And you are not late to the party at all. This is my first build so I am taking it slow and my job loves taking up most of my time. Your RS build thread was one of the first threads I ran into and I implemented a couple of things your thread when I resized the torso of my RS (I think it might be good enough for expert infantry). Anyways, I might try the forearm thing this weekend ( if I'm feeling cowardly, I might work on the helmet instead ). I guess I will trim it the way it is supposed to be, put my forearm in......if my forearm is swimming in the armor then try and do what you suggested. 

 

And thank you! my wife is super excited. She posted a thread on the Sandtrooper forum asking for opinions on making the TD better sized to her body but there were no responses. Fortunately, TK-44678 lives near me and is pretty good with building. We came over and he helped adjust her kit. As soon as she gets some MP-40 pouches she submitting for approval. Once that's done I will have a bit more time to attack my WTF. 

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

Not very happy with my progress this weekend but checking into a new command has been a lot more tedious and time-consuming than what I remember. I started to attack my helmet. I did my best to find the mold lines and cut out the excess plastic. I did my best to cut a straight edge for the brow (taped a measuring tape along the brow to make sure I got a generally straight edge). I punctured the holes for the hovi mich tips and made purposely small openings for the eyes and the teeth. Looking at a few reference photos, it appears that the teeth and the eyes have a bit of "return edge". That is where I left off. During the week I will be slowly sanding the teeth and the eyes until I get it to where it is supposed to be. 

 

Some good news!!! there is an armor party next weekend that I intend to go to. Maybe I can make at least a little extra progress there. 

 

 

Edited April 22, 2019 by Lord_Potato

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

One more bit of progress I made, I ordered a pair of boots from imperial boots. Anyone recommend a site to purchase a leather e11 holster?

Edited April 22, 2019 by Lord_Potato

[Frank75139[501st]]

Got mine from Darmans props on Etsy. It’s a solid holster. I’ve had it a year but I think it’ll hold up.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

1 hour ago, Frank75139 said:

Got mine from Darmans props on Etsy. It’s a solid holster. I’ve had it a year but I think it’ll hold up.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

I'll have to take a look. Thanks for your input.

[Cricket[TK]]

Another +1 for Darman's Props.  I highly recommend the 8oz holster over the 4oz holster.  I've owned both.

If you plan on being able to holster your blaster on your own while kitted up, you need the extra weight of the 8oz leather.  For me, the 4 oz was too floppy, and I constantly needed to request assistance from a handler to give my arm a rest during long troops.  The 8oz holster can be molded and stretched to hold its shape nicely.  I never have issues putting my blaster away or pulling it out when I spot rebel scum.  

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

So I worked I bit on my helmet and noticed it has an imperfection on the faceplate. Kind of looks like a beauty mark. I'll call my helmet Diva. Anways, I sanded everything down, tried to get the teeth and eyes to look screen accurate. After that, I realized I need to order a rivet gun. While I try and find a quality rivet gun on Amazon, I was hoping to get some inputs on my helmet assembly (it is being held together via magnets at the moment). I know it is screen accurate to have space between the eyes and the black rubber gasket brow, but I prefer having no gap. So I am trying to get away with the smallest gap possible lol. Any critiques would be greatly appreciated. I also heard that the CRL might change to require a gap. Even if that's not true I have seen a lot of people submit approval photos for centurion and having no space on the brow has been something mentioned. 

Edited April 29, 2019 by Lord_Potato

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

On 4/22/2019 at 9:28 AM, Cricket said:

Another +1 for Darman's Props.  I highly recommend the 8oz holster over the 4oz holster.  I've owned both.

If you plan on being able to holster your blaster on your own while kitted up, you need the extra weight of the 8oz leather.  For me, the 4 oz was too floppy, and I constantly needed to request assistance from a handler to give my arm a rest during long troops.  The 8oz holster can be molded and stretched to hold its shape nicely.  I never have issues putting my blaster away or pulling it out when I spot rebel scum.  

Thanks for your input, I get paid tomorrow so I will be buying that and a rivet gun. I do have a quick question. I decided to work on my helmet this weekend instead of my forearm. If I can get working on it this weekend (might be hard with all the 501sr events going on for May the 4th lol) I might try the method you suggested earlier if it turns out I need to make my forearm smaller (circumference wise). My question was if I only focused on closing the front butt joints and focus on hot water bending the pieces to a smaller shape, would that affect the way the "swoop" piece is centered on my forearm?