TrooperTim Posted October 17, 2008 Report Posted October 17, 2008 After 9 months of researching and slowly saving up money I finally decided to get an AP kit. I considered FX but didn't feel it was right for my body type seeing how I'm 5'9-130 lbs (skinny as a rail...*sigh*). I also wanted to have a more screen-accurate look and decided this armor was the best option for me. My goals are to join the 501st and eventually gain FISD Elite status. I'm going for the ANH Stunt look. I received my armor yesterday and decided to start documenting my quest in this thread. There's a lot of great references and build threads here and I'm sure they'll come in handy when I get stuck! This will be my first armor build so hopefully I won't make any disastrous mistakes. I'm in for a long journey and a lot of hard work but it'll be worth it. ============================== * * * Armor Trimming * * * ============================== Right out of the box... a pile of awesome: Tools I'll be using: =Utility Knife / X-Acto Knife =Dremel =Sandpaper =Work Gloves [prevent cuts] Here we go! Quote
Trooperman Posted October 17, 2008 Report Posted October 17, 2008 Tim, there is a wealth of info here to digest just got my AP ..any scratches?.. superb armour just take your time ill be watching like many others ,love these builds Quote
Bigturc Posted October 17, 2008 Report Posted October 17, 2008 Guys, don`t worry just yet about a few scratches here in there .. even getting the suit fitted on a manni will get it scratches .. Good luck with the build .. fire away questions if there's anything .. you made a terrific choice going AP .. it's not the easiest to build but again, so much reference and the result is awesome .. you'll never regret it over a FX suit Quote
TK-1287 Posted October 17, 2008 Report Posted October 17, 2008 I'm 5'9" 125lbs! I also plan to get the AP suit too. Just out of curiosity, how long did it take to arrive once sending payment? I plan to order mine in about a month or two Good luck on your suit!! Quote
nyoron Posted October 17, 2008 Report Posted October 17, 2008 Mine took about two weeks to to my house You are going to have a lot of fun Tim. I am almost done putting my AP armor together. Such a satisfying feeling. Quote
TrooperTim Posted October 18, 2008 Author Report Posted October 18, 2008 kev1969: No scratches. There's some hardly noticeable scuffs and what appears to be a sharpie smudge on the back of the helmet. All the pieces arrived without any defects, though I'm new to this stuff so don't really know what to look for. Looks great to me! Bigturc: If I have questions, I'll ask! Most the answers to common mistakes and problems seem to be already on the forums here. Just have to find the thread and follow the veteran's lead. TK-1287: It arrived very quickly. I sent my full payment on Oct 8 and it arrived on Oct 15. They already had some in stock, I'm assuming for the halloween rush, so it arrived very quickly. They said it could take 4-6 weeks if they didn't have them in stock. nyoron: Fun on a bun. Unfortunately I haven't had much time to work on my armor. I got called into work on my day off. Bummed me out a bit, but didn't mind. I can use the money. I'll have all day Monday to work on it so I'll post lots more photos of my progress soon! Quote
TrooperTim Posted October 21, 2008 Author Report Posted October 21, 2008 Maybe not the best place to start but I decided to begin trimming with the ab button and hand plates. Seemed easy, plus gave me time to adjust to the material since I've never worked with ABS before. I'm holding onto the abs scraps. May come in handy later. I taped the cut line on the armor piece to make it more noticeable while trimming. Now to sandpaper the edges to fix any mistakes during trimming and even everything out. I'm using medium (100) grade paper. Finished, more or less. Quote
missingpieces[501st] Posted October 21, 2008 Report Posted October 21, 2008 keep the progress pics coming! Quote
TK-1287 Posted October 21, 2008 Report Posted October 21, 2008 Good idea with the masking tape. I used Electrical Tape when trimming my Boba armour, it bends nicely like a decal. The masking tape goes on straight though, which works well in your situation. Quote
darth 456 Posted October 22, 2008 Report Posted October 22, 2008 Very good work there-looks great! Quote
TrooperTim Posted October 24, 2008 Author Report Posted October 24, 2008 Finished trimming the calves. Going to use my dremel sanding bit to trim off any excess I missed and sandpaper to finalize. While trimming a part of the calf, my utility knife slipped. $@#%! It's not bad, but noticeable. Now to figure out how to hide this mistake. Chest is trimmed, needs to be sanded. Bells are 100% done. Schwing! I should get electrical tape too. Great suggestion TK-1287! Quote
TrooperTim Posted January 11, 2009 Author Report Posted January 11, 2009 Work has prevented me from working on my armor consistently... but I have been making progress. Got quite a few pieces trimmed out and almost ready to be assembled. Decided to start working on the helmet this past week. I'm filing out the teeth right now and finishing sanding out the eyes to get the proper look. With my luck I figured something like this would happen during my build. The rotary nut from my dremel gouged the ear. Like and idiot I didn't cut from the underside of the mold and somehow got in a bad angle. I'm thinking about getting some caulk and filling in the small gouges then painting it over with white enamel paint. Not sure if that's the best way to fix this. Other option is to buy an ear replacement or a new helmet for that matter. Any thoughts on fixing this? Quote
stukatrooper Posted January 11, 2009 Report Posted January 11, 2009 dont worry about the ouch mark on the ear mate though i bet your heart sank when it happened.Sand out the mark and finish with wet and dry paper.Then use NOVAS plastic polish on the dull sanded area to buff the shin back,trust me when i say that it will not notice. Best of luck with the build. Quote
dougefresh Posted January 11, 2009 Report Posted January 11, 2009 Looking good, Tim! Stukatrooper knows what he's talkin' about. Check out his AP build thread on Flickr. I referenced it *constantly* when I was building my armor. So if he says no one will notice, no one will notice. Thanks for posting your progress -- it's really fun to watch these things come together. Quote
TrooperTim Posted January 12, 2009 Author Report Posted January 12, 2009 Thanks stukatrooper, I'll follow your advice. Dougefresh: Yeah, build threads are great! I really appreciate the feedback guys. Quote
TK-1287 Posted January 12, 2009 Report Posted January 12, 2009 I can't wait to see your armour finished I just ordered my AP a few days ago, and from what I was told it should be shipped today Quote
TK-4261 Posted January 15, 2009 Report Posted January 15, 2009 Looks great! Very clean, keep up the good work. Quote
MandalorianWarrior87 Posted January 15, 2009 Report Posted January 15, 2009 Looks great Tim Keep up the good work bud. Quote
giric thren Posted January 16, 2009 Report Posted January 16, 2009 looking good, I found out the hard way not to trust the suggested drill spots on the face plate. So keep that in mind. Quote
TrooperTim Posted January 16, 2009 Author Report Posted January 16, 2009 looking good, I found out the hard way not to trust the suggested drill spots on the face plate. So keep that in mind. I assume you're referring to the drill holes for the ears? Both the face and back pieces lined up correctly on their marks. I initially though I might need to adjust the drill holes to get everything lined up correctly, but no adjustments were needed. I'll post an image of it tomorrow. Just about have it ready to be painted! Then to make it even more epic, I just need to get Stomper's hovis, Smitty's lenses, and more foam for the interior. Quote
TrooperTim Posted January 17, 2009 Author Report Posted January 17, 2009 I've looked at a lot of references to make sure I'm trimming enough off. Probably be making the teeth holes larger and work on the eyes just a bit more. I can't wait to paint it! Quote
stukatrooper Posted January 17, 2009 Report Posted January 17, 2009 sshees good to go as is mate.eyes are spot on and teeth look to be in good shape as well.Like the overall look of the lid.Brow trim looks nice in that position.I would stop any more trimming as you can get carried away,move onto another job. Keep up the great work. Quote
TrooperTim Posted January 27, 2009 Author Report Posted January 27, 2009 Started to paint the helmet. I think it's coming along well. Using Testor's Gray 1138 and Flat Black. I think I painted the vocoder correctly. I've looked at a lot of references and they all have the same basic form, but the columns are painted at different heights. Might have painted the top 3 a little too high. Chime in if anything looks wrong. Quote
stukatrooper Posted January 27, 2009 Report Posted January 27, 2009 very nice steady hand you have there,great job . Quote
TrooperTim Posted February 9, 2009 Author Report Posted February 9, 2009 I appreciate all the feedback Stukatrooper! Almost done with the helmet's exterior. Still have a lot of electronics to complete for the inside. I have Smitty's lenses temporarily installed with painter's tape (need to epoxy that area) and Stompers speaker hovis (which I have yet to test out). You guys rock! So far everything has been hand painted, although I cheated a little and used electrical tape as a stencil to get the clean black lines so maybe it's only partially hand painted. I might have made the back trap lines too thick. Probably doesn't matter too much. I'm really thinking about painting the tube stripes, but it'll be much easier using decals... so I dunno. I've been looking around it seems like there's almost always one less stripe on the right tube than on the left. I'm wondering if I should go with 12/13 stripes or 15/16 stripes. Hmm... most everything in this universe is inconsistent anyway so maybe it's just personal choice? Oh, and I'll probably raise the brow up more. Still looks too hero to me. *Post Edited* Thinking ahead about painting the ab buttons; I happened to come across some blue paints lying around and wanted to see if I could find a close match to Humbrol's Midnight Blue. I came across Testors 1111 Dark Blue which looks pretty good. Need to do more testing to be sure. Quote
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