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

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work, you may just want to have a look at the spacing for your side rivets, the top ones look a little low

 

Approximate spacing 

 

You may also find adding shoulder elastic will keep your rear straps down, sometimes a little heat is also needed

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

3 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Nice work, you may just want to have a look at the spacing for your side rivets, the top ones look a little low

 

Approximate spacing 

 

You may also find adding shoulder elastic will keep your rear straps down, sometimes a little heat is also needed

Yes, unfortunately,  I misread the instructions for spacing the split rivets so I removed them. My last step will be to patch up the holes and redo the spacing of it looks like I have a shot at centurion.  And as for the elastic straps I have them but I did not implant them during the photos. Once I have the chest snaps glues on ill see how it all fits with chest straps holding the front down and with the little elastic bands holding the straps down.

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

Okay....well i did my strapping and it looks okay but as you can see in these photos, my chest looks a little crooked....maybe I did not align my snaps very well. It will be an easy fix if you guys think its something to address. It only snaps on nylon cloth glued with e6000 so it wont be hard to redo:

 

 

And here is everything put together that I have done:

 

As you can see, my chest naturally wants to fit slightly crooked.....which is frustrating as I took care in placing my snaps

 

Please give me your inputs....once this strapping is done....then all I have left is:

 

1. Take inputs on how my armor looks so far in regards to strapping/fitting

2. suck it up and install belt

3. paint details

4. fix stupid side split rivets

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work, I normally only use two elastic straps behind the ab/chest and these have adjusters on so I can get the heights just right. Normally 2 makes it a little easier to adjust.

 

 

Here is an example of what most use.

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

hi, looking good . I agree with Glenn, only 2 straps are ok and use Elastic for Chest and back,

 

[Cricket[TK]]

Overall, you're looking pretty sharp there, trooper!  Good work!

My suggestion to make your armor look a little bit better would be to bring in those shoulder bells a bit.  You've got that "linebacker trooper" look.    It's nothing that'll stop you from basic approval, but it might get a mention if you plan on applying for your EIB or Centurion awards.
 

As they are now, they're somewhat square.  


Note how the shoulder bells on these troopers taper inwards.


Bells are usually trimmed with a curve (or swoop) to them, not straight up and down (square).  Note the cut lines on the  yellowed (screen used) bells here:


A little bit of trimming will help bring in the shoulder bells a bit and reduce that linebacker look.   

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

Chrsitine, Mario, and Glen, thank you for your inputs!

 

As of now I am changing up my strapping to make sure the snaps sit my chest more evenly and will be using only 2 elastic straps to hold the chest in place. I really like the idea of implementing adjusters so incase I did mess up with the chest snaps I can just adjust the side that is too long/short. I think the plastic pieces are called "sliders" im snooping around amazon to find some. 

 

I also have helmet decals from Trooperbay on they way to assist with my painting of the traps and tube stripes. 

 

For the shoulder bells. I have an extra set of bells from Walt.....they are a different shade of white, but I will be using this as to experiment with trimming a more screen accurate "curve". If I mess up at least I have the originals. I wish these bells were the same shape and length of my RS bells, then I could have copied them exactly LOL

 

Heres a rough cut line on how I plan to cut these bells:

 

FRONT:

 

BACK:

 

TOPS:

 

Comparing the bells with my RS bells:

 

Here is a comparison of my current Walts bells compared to the extra bells with the intended marking for cuts. The current bells on my mannequin were just trimmed right at the flashing.....these bells im experimenting with will be cut a little before the flashing and have a curve. 

[Cricket[TK]]

9 hours ago, Lord_Potato said:

Here is a comparison of my current Walts bells compared to the extra bells with the intended marking for cuts. The current bells on my mannequin were just trimmed right at the flashing.....these bells im experimenting with will be cut a little before the flashing and have a curve. 

 

Rather than experimenting blindly with your bell cuts, why not try something easier? 

The entire suit is made to fit together.  For example, the tops of the thighs should follow the lines of the cod.  For EIB/Centurion, one of the requirements for the bell/chest relationship is that there is minimal black showing.  Take a look again at the reference pic below:



For the kits I've built, I figured out how to trim the bell and achieve minimal black space by noting the relationship to the chest plate while it is on the person it is built for.  It's easier to do this if you have an assistant, but it can be done when you're on your own (it just takes more time).  

• Put on your torso.
• Position one bell (with bicep attached) closely on your shoulder so the top of the bell meets the shoulder bridge.  You can temporarily attach it with blue tape at the top.  You will probably note that the edges of the bell are quite overlapped by the chest and back plates.  
• Using a pencil, follow the edge of the chest and back plates along the bell.  This will give you a rough template/guideline for where you need to trim.  This trim line is different for every trooper because the edges of the chest and back plates are always unique to each trooper!
• Remove the bell and trim conservatively.
• Put the bell back on and resecure it with blue tape.  Move your arm forward and back.  You'll note areas that are clipping with each other.  Using your pencil again, mark these areas where the bell hits the chest/back plate.
• Remove the bell and trim conservatively.

Repeat all the above steps until the top of the bell touches the shoulder bridge, and the edges of the bell and the edges of the chest/back plates no longer significantly interfere with each other.  You should end up with shoulder bells that have edges that meet up nicely with the upper torso (think puzzle pieces), but don't have any resistance (for that "minimum black" look!).    Hope this helps!


 

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

On 12/7/2020 at 9:34 AM, Cricket said:

Rather than experimenting blindly with your bell cuts, why not try something easier? 

The entire suit is made to fit together.  For example, the tops of the thighs should follow the lines of the cod.  For EIB/Centurion, one of the requirements for the bell/chest relationship is that there is minimal black showing.  Take a look again at the reference pic below:



For the kits I've built, I figured out how to trim the bell and achieve minimal black space by noting the relationship to the chest plate while it is on the person it is built for.  It's easier to do this if you have an assistant, but it can be done when you're on your own (it just takes more time).  

• Put on your torso.
• Position one bell (with bicep attached) closely on your shoulder so the top of the bell meets the shoulder bridge.  You can temporarily attach it with blue tape at the top.  You will probably note that the edges of the bell are quite overlapped by the chest and back plates.  
• Using a pencil, follow the edge of the chest and back plates along the bell.  This will give you a rough template/guideline for where you need to trim.  This trim line is different for every trooper because the edges of the chest and back plates are always unique to each trooper!
• Remove the bell and trim conservatively.
• Put the bell back on and resecure it with blue tape.  Move your arm forward and back.  You'll note areas that are clipping with each other.  Using your pencil again, mark these areas where the bell hits the chest/back plate.
• Remove the bell and trim conservatively.

Repeat all the above steps until the top of the bell touches the shoulder bridge, and the edges of the bell and the edges of the chest/back plates no longer significantly interfere with each other.  You should end up with shoulder bells that have edges that meet up nicely with the upper torso (think puzzle pieces), but don't have any resistance (for that "minimum black" look!).    Hope this helps!


 

Thank you! This is a really good idea. I definitely will have a second set of hands to help me with this part. 

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

I have my final snaps drying on my chest plate. I also have my guinea pig shoulder bells ready to strap on and follow crickets advice for shaping them. Once my chest is dry I can strap on the torso and start sizing the bells.

 

I am taking cable guys advice in regards to tube stipes:

 

Also  using my RS helmet built by RS propmasters as a guide:

 

CRL states 

• Ideally, the tube stripes are positioned approximately a pencil width from the side of the cheek.

My RS has a bigger gap, but I am going to follow the CRL:

 

I haven't painted yet, just have the decals placed that I believe are in a respectable manner. Awaiting confirmation that it's good before I paint:

Right Side:

 

Left Side:

 

Center:

 

Please let me know if I need to make any adjustments. Tried my best with looking at the CRL and researching on various threads. 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looks good 

 

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

As usual not a lot of progress. I am nearing completion of painting the helmet. Here are some images of the paint progress. My little youngling is going through a teething phase so its been kinda hard to to get my wife alone to help me with the shoulder bell sizing.....it will happen soon. If you cant tell, I suck at time management ha ha.

 

 

 

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

Okay, helmet is done.....Im going to add mesh behind the frown....but other than that it is fully assembled, padded, and painted. Used some reference photos and some info from Cable Guy. Honestly, I know it could have come out a bit more screen accurate but I struggled with painting even with the aid of masking tape. I know this will be good for basic...I made sure to ensure the frown did not reach past the teeth.

 

My Walt's helmet is the helmet in the photos comparing it with the RS helmet:

 

I used crickets advice and reshaped the shoulder bells to better match the chest. I used my extra off colored shoulder bells first to do this. It looked good but now I am gluing elastic so I can see how it looks with the intended strapping system. In my opinion taping something on can give you a good idea of how its going to hang or attach but doing this will ensure how its going to look. 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work, you may want to just trim down those inner screws so they don't dig in when rushing to put your helmet on or off 

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

22 hours ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Nice work, you may want to just trim down those inner screws so they don't dig in when rushing to put your helmet on or off 

Will definitely cut those down! Thank you 

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

So I followed crickets advice and reshaped my shoulder bells. Since I usually do not do something well first time I used my spare off colored shoulder bells as a test. Here it is trimmed and strapped! 

 

Here is a side by side of how the untrimmed (right side) ones looked vs the trimmed (left)

 

I'll wait a bit for responses before I trim the original shoulder bells the same way. 

[Sly11[Admin]]

Not sure why the second image isn't showing but from what I can see it looks good.

Very clean build to I must say.

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

So my original shoulder bells are now trimmed down and strapped.

***I used the same method as the spare shoulder bells but these ended up coming out 3mm wider. So if they still look like they need to be trimmed I can go forward and shave off 3mm. But as of now, I think it looks nice.***

 

I think this fixed the linebacker look.

[Cricket[TK]]

Yep!  Those bells look a heck of a lot better now.  Great job!!!

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

Okay so weird issue with the belt:

 

So I made the snaps on the ab plate:

 

I aligned the fabric belt with the holes I drilled on the ab plate and with a pencil I poked it through the hole on the ab plate so the tip marked the canvas belt....thats how I know my marking accurate for belt alignment. 

 

Problem is or was that when I put the snaps on the belt it seemed loose! I was frustrated because I took the time to make sure the holes on the canvas belt were the same distance apart as the holes on the ab plate!

 

I think part of the issue lies on the fact that there are several details are designs in the front of the cod area (where the front of the belt rests) that lifts the belt and makes the belt want to pivot up or down

 

I decided to non permanently attach the plastic portion to the canvas belt to see how it will all fit together:

 

First I installed screws to help keep the belt together before I use rivets:

 

The added dimensions of the plastic ammo belt seemed to help make the belt "fit" better

 

The belt will still want to "pivot" up and down but its far less than what it was. 

 

Overall the belt holds and seems to be in a decent position:

 

Would like some input before I replace the screws on the belt with rivets. I was also considering putting a little piece of the soft side of velcro in the front were the front of the belt rests.....maybe having a little extra thickness will help ensure the belt stays in place and does not pitch or pivot. 

[Cricket[TK]]

Even though my belt was installed snug on the ab, it still liked to shift up and down.  I added a little tab of velcro on the ab/cloth belt.  It helps it stay put.  Looks like you've got the same issue going on. It's common, I believe.  

Love that last pic of you and your little trooper!!   

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Looking good, nice work. I didn't worry about velcro behind, I find the weight of the TD stops the belt from rising anymore than it needs to be, nice angle with the belt on the side.

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

10 minutes ago, gmrhodes13 said:

Looking good, nice work. I didn't worry about velcro behind, I find the weight of the TD stops the belt from rising anymore than it needs to be, nice angle with the belt on the side.

Thanks for the compliment and advice. Means alot. 

[Lord_Potato[TK]]

19 minutes ago, Cricket said:

Even though my belt was installed snug on the ab, it still liked to shift up and down.  I added a little tab of velcro on the ab/cloth belt.  It helps it stay put.  Looks like you've got the same issue going on. It's common, I believe.  

Love that last pic of you and your little trooper!!   

Yes I think your right. I just took out my RS kit and realized it did the same thing. Never noticed it until now. I still might do what you did and put a small piece of velcro to ensure everything stays put. And thank you! The little trooper always has to come up when I'm just trying to finish my build XD

[Sly11[Admin]]

Wow belt position is great, you are almost there with the build and it's looking very nice.