chiefbonan's TK ANH Stunt Build (Centurion)

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

The spacing looks MUCH better, Thomas!  You may want to think about rotating them in, though.  Ideally, the thigh cover strips should line up (or be very close) to the ones on the calf.

 

            

 

 

[chiefbonan]

8 minutes ago, justjoseph63 said:

The spacing looks MUCH better, Thomas!  You may want to think about rotating them in, though.  Ideally, the thigh cover strips should line up (or be very close) to the ones on the calf.

 

            

 

 

Ahh yeah rats! Just realised after looking at those photos! Easy to fix though!

Edited March 3, 2020 by chiefbonan
spelling error

[Shinyarmour1[TK]]

Hi Thomas

 

I too am in Australia and have seen those exact boots that you painted, not sure if they are leather or man made material.  Did you use acetone to remove the top coat so the paint would stay on, or some other product?  What paint did you use for your boots?

 

Armour is looking amazing, keep up the awesome work. 

Edited March 4, 2020 by Shinyarmour1

[chiefbonan]

5 hours ago, Shinyarmour1 said:

Hi Thomas

 

I too am in Australia and have seen those exact boots that you painted, not sure if they are leather or man made material.  Did you use acetone to remove the top coat so the paint would stay on, or some other product?  What paint did you use for your boots?

 

Armour is looking amazing, keep up the awesome work. 

Hello fellow Aussie!

The boots are from Kmart I think, they are made from what looks like a kind of vinyl. These where test shoes, but I used Satin White Accent QUICK SPRAY Paint & Prime Enamel. 

Here https://www.glyndemitre10.com.au/store/product/quickspray-flat-white-310g-accent/ 

But we are already experienceing lots of cracking and splitting on the boots, and one of them we sprayed lots of coats, so the vinyl is really hard, can be tough to get on. I my see into getting proper boots from a boot seller, but I haven't looked where to get a good pair yet. Thank you!

 

[TK 71627[TK]]

Hello fellow Aussie!

The boots are from Kmart I think, they are made from what looks like a kind of vinyl. These where test shoes, but I used Satin White Accent QUICK SPRAY Paint & Prime Enamel. 

Here https://www.glyndemitre10.com.au/store/product/quickspray-flat-white-310g-accent/ 

But we are already experienceing lots of cracking and splitting on the boots, and one of them we sprayed lots of coats, so the vinyl is really hard, can be tough to get on. I my see into getting proper boots from a boot seller, but I haven't looked where to get a good pair yet. Thank you!
 

If I may suggest IMPERIAL BOOTS , they are made of leather and the BEST BOOTS EVER !


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[chiefbonan]

2 hours ago, TK 71627 said:

If I may suggest IMPERIAL BOOTS , they are made of leather and the BEST BOOTS EVER !


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Thanks! I'll have to look into them. Hopefully my current boots can get me past approval, getting closer to finishing, right now just waiting around, since our belts are being stiched as I type. Then once the helmet bits arrive we will have a painting day when we go in and paint all that needs to be. Very exciting! Also love your profile picture, looking badass

[chiefbonan]

Is it okay for the thigh to underlap the but piece show here?:

 

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

16 minutes ago, chiefbonan said:

Is it okay for the thigh to underlap the but piece show here?:

Hi, it's not, but I would recommend you to put on your chest-back armor to see the complete assemble. 

 

cheers

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

I would probably pass Basic (depending on your GML), but for higher levels not so much.  As Mario mentioned, you should add the chest/back armor and then see what you have. Can the cod/posterior/kidney be raised?   If you look at the screen caps below there was a gap (although sometimes a small one) in that area.  Plus, you may find that the outer edges of the posterior plate may get stuck under the thigh at times, which can cause a clicking noise when you walk.

 

       

[husky68[TK]]

I pulled my armor up till I thought it was high enough in “the cod” but after a bit of trooping I find myself always pulling it up a bit more.

So you can probably raise it a bit more than you think as suggested.


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[sylverbard[TK]]

7 hours ago, chiefbonan said:

Is it okay for the thigh to underlap the but piece show here?:

 

no.  make sure the codpiece is so high and tight it either raises your voice an octave, or you feel an urge to walk on tip toes to prevent friction.

 

if thats not possible and leaves the black gap then you will need to resize something, and you wont be able to walk like that....

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

8 minutes ago, sylverbard said:

"... it either raises your voice an octave...."

If it raises your voice more than one octave, loosen the cod/posterior plate connection.  Otherwise, you may end up sounding like Salacious Crumb.

[sylverbard[TK]]

1 hour ago, justjoseph63 said:

If it raises your voice more than one octave, loosen the cod/posterior plate connection.  Otherwise, you may end up sounding like Salacious Crumb.

i remain confident that Salacious Crumb is what you get when you strip, shave, and fail to domesticate Jawa.

 

the big assed versions on whatever cartoon they are on are what happens when you feed them after midnight.

 

 

[chiefbonan]

We are now just waiting for our belts to be finished and the stuff from trooperbay, which is our mic tips, visor, S-Trim and stencils for the paint. Thanks for all you help so far! Dad's armour is on it's way, should be getting here in around a weeks time. Still fels sort of surreal since I always though I was too skinny to be a stormtrooper but it's coming along nicely and I don't look half bad!

 

 

[chiefbonan]

Hello all. What are some good options for strapping in the helmet? I know I've seen people use hard hat mounts or just a strap under the chin. 

Also, how do I attach the elastic to the shoulder bells?

[Shinyarmour1[TK]]

Some people go with foam padding and others choose hard hat liners.  I personally am going with hard hat liners because of the following reasons (just my opinion):-

 

1.  The hard hat allows more airflow, which is crucial when we all get hot in our buckets (especially for those that live in a hot country).  Having padding will make your head hotter.

2.  I tested a hard hat from my local hardware store and its comfortable and adjustable.

3.  I looked at padding online and it can sometimes be misleading with mixed reviews.  Some people say their soft and comfortable, others might say they are hard and too firm.

 

I bought a tradesman's hard hat for $10, will remove the liner and install it into my helmet.  Its going to be tricky trying to install the line so everything is aligned correctly, but that's a small price to pay for airflow on may hot days trooping.

 

Having a chin strap also keeps the helmet in place so when you turn your head, the helmet won't just stay straight.  This is also recommended.

 

For the elastic to shoulder bells, you could either:-

 

1.  Cut some nylon webbing, use a soldering iron to stop the edges from fraying, install a heavy duty snap and glue the nylon to the shoulder bell.  Be sure not to get any E6000 glue onto the snap as the glue reacts to metal creating heat and could damage the plastic.

 

2.  Use scrap ABS plastic to create plastic plates, cut a hole for the snaps and glue into shoulder bell.  This approach is harder because the ABS is not flexible like nylon.

 

3.  This is probably overkill but I will mention it anyway.  You could create a plastic plate, glue it into the bells, the go to the 1st option and glue the nylon webbing onto the plate.  This would stop any possible damage to your armour affected by the glue and metal melting. 

 

I hope this helps you in some way.  Keep asking lots of questions and look into the HOW TO section for creating and installing snaps.  Keep refereeing the UKSWRATH tutorials, especially for strapping, they help a lot.

 

[chiefbonan]

Is it a good idea to paint the inside of the helmet black?

[TK 71627[TK]]

Is it a good idea to paint the inside of the helmet black?

I strongly recommend it .... I also recommend the plasti-dip.... it looks DIFFERENT AND YOUR BUCKET STANDS OUT....Sue it for pure AESTHETIC REASONS...
If you wanna go that route....
I did... and I NEVER LOOKED BACK....


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[CableGuy[TK]]

3 hours ago, chiefbonan said:

Is it a good idea to paint the inside of the helmet black?

Hiya,

For helmet padding, I’ve found tactical helmet pads to be perfect. I use four - forehead, left, right, behind head and this works really well for me. Still plenty of air flow.




For darkening the inside I used self adhesive EVA sheets. Just cut them to different size strips and stick them in. This can be seen quite well in this video. :-)

 

https://youtu.be/ao5xPPHtEXY

Hope that helps. :-)

 

[chiefbonan]

Hello all, thank you for your suggestions with the helmet!
We picked up a hard hat for around $10 at our local hardware store.

 

We were originally going to remove the white portion of the helmet seen above, which you can see it can be removed from the little white tabs locked into the yellow locks. We were going to stick these 8 tabs onto the helmet, but realised it would be nightmare to test, measure and line up properly. So instead we removed the entire top half of the hard hat to make a sort of 'crown' seen below.

 

Then we cut out a section at the back so it could bend and mold a bit more to the shape of the overall helmet.

 

 

It fits really well into the helmet and sits perfectly, but we are going to wait until our visors arrive so we can fit those in first!

 

@Shinyarmour1 Thank you for your detailed write up, it really helped! we were going to go with the foam/strap option, but from my years of cosplaying as daft punk, which gave me less breathing room it gave me PTSD, I had a heap of padding in it.

 

@CableGuy Hello sir! Neat idea with the adhesive EVA foam, we will look into that as an option, looks very proffesional! 

[chiefbonan]

Hey all, whats the best way to mount the visor in the helmet?

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

9 minutes ago, chiefbonan said:

Hey all, whats the best way to mount the visor in the helmet?

So many different ways, here are a few, some glue in plastic tabs, or glue in pieces of plastic and screw into those, hot glue, double sided tape, for mine I held in place with some masking tape and added some silicon to a few places.

 

Really up to you and what you have handy  

[chiefbonan]

Hello friends, armour building has gone on halt for a bit, so you may not hear much we'll see, still waiting for the trooperbay stuff, but that should arrive tomorrow! Meanwhile I've been doing a DL-44 blaster kit, here is the finished result:

 

Now I know us Stormtroopers aren't allowed to hold DL-44s as per the CRL, but if I'm not approved before the convention and/or not have my Doopy Doos blaster yet, I'll probably take this little guy for something to hold and take pictures with!

Hopefully I can get stuck into painting the helmet tomorrow!

Edited March 9, 2020 by chiefbonan

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

10 hours ago, chiefbonan said:

Hey all, whats the best way to mount the visor in the helmet?

I always use Sugru to attach my lenses, Thomas.  Not the cheapest, but certainly the easiest!  https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/44593-how-to-attach-lenses-using-sugru/

 

 

[TheSwede[TK]]

11 hours ago, chiefbonan said:

Hey all, whats the best way to mount the visor in the helmet?

I use the ear screws, really easy and screen accurate. Also allows airflow.