Morgi Requesting Pre Approval Review (RS)

[Morgi[Staff]]

Hello and thank you for looking at this post!

 

If you're interested, my build thread is here: 

 

 

 

I would greatly appreciate any advice that you can give me regarding my basic approval. Once I get accepted, I will upload my approval pictures to get some advice for L2 and L3 as well, which will be better quality. 

 

Information:

 

Future Garrison: German Garrison, White Shadow Squad 

Armor maker: RS Props kit, build myself 

Helmet maker: RS Props kit, build myself 

Cloth belt maker: RS Props

Neck seal and holster maker: Darman

Boot maker: Imperial Boots

Height: about 177cm

Weight: about 56kg

TK type: ANH Stunt 

Name(s) of Trooper(s) who helped me: CallMeMrTibbles (thank you for the near constant feedback and advice!), gmrhodes13 (thank you for all the links and small details that you pointed out!) and justjoseph63 (thank you for helping with those last few steps that improve the armor immensely!). Special thanks go to Tino (T-Jay) who spend what has to be hours helping me. He not only answered my questions in a long phone call, but also was available and providing feedback all the time to the point where I feel the need to say thank you for looking at my near daily questions and answering them every single time. Also, he will be taking my approval pictures and helping me with those last few details that you just can't really see on screen. Thank you, Tino, for the help, the resources, the patience and the inspiration!

 

Photos:

 

Armor:

 

Quick note: these pictures were not taken by another person, so I had to improvise a bit with my mobile phone camera. The result is that the boots are oftentimes cut off. If this is a problem, I can do a separate suit up and take close ups from the shins and boots. 

 

 

Personal notes and take-away from these pictures: it pays to have someone there who can make sure your helmet is on straight, so you don't only notice that it's wonky after taking the pictures and putting everything away again. Also, I think I need to pull my butt plate in at the sides. My right thigh looks like there's still too much space in there, but from wearing it I'm a bit unsure how much I can still cut away whilst it remains comfortable to wear. 

 

Ab plate close-up:

 

 

Helmet close-ups:

 

 

Interior strapping:

 

 

I hope I didn't forget anything. If I did, please tell me, so that I can add it. I'm looking forward to your feedback! 

[T-Jay[TK]]

1 hour ago, Morgi said:

 

Hi Luca. A thing that sticks out to me on the above photo is the upper end of your forearms. Maybe you can still trim those sharp edges around the elbow to look softer. I can't paint a coloured line into your photo but what I mean is to cut away a triangle shape of the outer half, lining up the inner and outer half to match in one straight line. In case I wrote it too complicated, you know how to contact me.

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

Your overall build came out super nice, Luca!  There are a few areas that are of concern, but a lot of it will depend on your GML.    The CRL for Basic 501st approval states that "...all costumes are proportional to the wearer in scale, fit and size"

 

The main thing that jumped out at me was the alignment of the ab plate.  As seen in the photo, everything is tilted to the left and that side could definitely come up a bit.

 

As you mentioned, the butt plate and even the kidney plate if possible) should come in some to give you a more "tailored" look... BUT, I noticed that you have them pulled pretty tight already, and the return edges are starting to buckle (blue arrows).  The CRL states that "...all costumes are proportional to the wearer in scale, fit and size"

 

     

 

We can help you with these issues, so not to worry!

[Morgi[Staff]]

vor 2 Stunden schrieb T-Jay:

 

Hi Luca. A thing that sticks out to me on the above photo is the upper end of your forearms. Maybe you can still trim those sharp edges around the elbow to look softer. I can't paint a coloured line into your photo but what I mean is to cut away a triangle shape of the outer half, lining up the inner and outer half to match in one straight line. In case I wrote it too complicated, you know how to contact me.

 

Good point, thanks! I think I know what you mean, but I'll probably contact you anyways, just to get a clear line 

 

vor 2 Stunden schrieb justjoseph63:

The main thing that jumped out at me was the alignment of the ab plate.  As seen in the photo, everything is tilted to the left and that side could definitely come up a bit.

 

I know what you mean. Do you think it would help if I adjusted the strapping a bit to pull that one side up? 

 

vor 2 Stunden schrieb justjoseph63:

As you mentioned, the butt plate and even the kidney plate if possible) should come in some to give you a more "tailored" look... BUT, I noticed that you have them pulled pretty tight already, and the return edges are starting to buckle (blue arrows).  The CRL states that "...all costumes are proportional to the wearer in scale, fit and size"

 

What do you suggest I do here to solve that issue? Because this leaves me with the problem of looser (and therefore less fitting) or tighter (with a better fit, but no good alignment of the back plates) and I'm not actually sure what would help here. 

 

For the butt plate sticking out at the side, I should probably use those V tabs, right? 

 

Thanks for all the feedback so far! 

[CallMeMrTibbles[501st]]

Your comments at the beginning of this thread are very kind Luca. Thank you.

 

I don't have the same level of experience as Joseph, Glen or Tino, but I can see how close you are to a really high level build, and you should be extremely proud of yourself.

 

The purpose of the v tabs is usually more to stop the butt plate from popping out and overlapping the kidney, but it 'can' also pull the sides in to help with the issue Joseph identified. To be honest, I think I'd fit v tabs to every armour I built from now on, as it just helps to keep everything in the correct place, so my advice would be to add them and see what effect they have.

 

The alignment of your ab could be that the strapping from chest to ab needs tweaking a little. You could try to shorten the chest to ab strap a little on your left hand side to bring the left hand side of you ab plate up.

It looks like the popper tabs in your chest plate are pretty close to the bottom return edge (can you remove the ab to chest straps so we can see where the popper tabs are?), and this could make the strapping difficult to tweak. You may benefit from adding popper tabs a bit higher up meaning you can tweak the fit using longer or shorter straps.

 

 

Edited August 15, 2021 by CallMeMrTibbles

[Morgi[Staff]]

vor 32 Minuten schrieb CallMeMrTibbles:

I don't have the same level of experience as Joseph, Glen or Tino, but I can see how close you are to a really high level build, and you should be extremely proud of yourself.

 

Thank you, that is wonderful to hear! 

 

vor 32 Minuten schrieb CallMeMrTibbles:

The alignment of your ab could be that the strapping from chest to ab needs tweaking a little. You could try to shorten the chest to ab strap a little on your left hand side to bring the left hand side of you ab plate up.

It looks like the popper tabs in your chest plate are pretty close to the bottom return edge (can you remove the ab to chest straps so we can see where the popper tabs are?), and this could make the strapping difficult to tweak. You may benefit from adding popper tabs a bit higher up meaning you can tweak the fit using longer or shorter straps.

 

 

What it looks like right now. My idea was to remove the left piece and glue it into the position marked in red. That should lift the side by a centimetre or two and hopefully straighten the ab plate. What do you think? 

[CallMeMrTibbles[501st]]

I think lifting the popper tab(s) higher up is a good idea. It's a relatively easy change, and can be adjusted again in the future in needed. Just take your time, be careful not to damage your chest plate, and remember to not get glue on the metal parts 

[CallMeMrTibbles[501st]]

Just to add, normally I'd suggest altering the length of the straps. I only suggest moving the poppers because it doesn't look like there's enough length in the strap to shorten it.

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work, more for higher level approval but you could remove a small amount of paint from the teeth, they do look to be touching the gums, from the CRL:

Frown is painted gray and does not leave the teeth area.

 

Not sure what padding you have in the helmet but isn't sitting in the center, perhaps a little foam either side of the your head will help keep it central  

 

 

Looking forward to seeing you approved soon, good luck

 

 

 

 

 

[T-Jay[TK]]

Regarding the helmet padding issue: I guess that is because Luca was taking the photos while being in armor, without any other person.

We will definitely take care of his padding (and other little things) when meeting for the approval photos at the end of this month.

[Morgi[Staff]]

vor 23 Stunden schrieb gmrhodes13:

Nice work, more for higher level approval but you could remove a small amount of paint from the teeth, they do look to be touching the gums, from the CRL:

Frown is painted gray and does not leave the teeth area.

 

Thanks, I'll add it to the list! It might have to wait a bit though, because right now I'm working on the ab strapping to get that straight. 

 

vor 14 Stunden schrieb T-Jay:

Regarding the helmet padding issue: I guess that is because Luca was taking the photos while being in armor, without any other person.

 

Got it in one! Because I use the chin strap that RS supplied, I can shift it from side to side a bit. Too dumb that I shifted it, without noticing it until afterwards, when I really didn't have the motivation to do another suit up on my own in the hopes of it sitting better. Looking at my past pictures, the helmet being at the center has never been much of a problem so far, but I'd appreciate a look at it with Tino so this doesn't happen again. 

 

If nobody has any suggestions about the legs, I probably won't put them on the next time (at least the shins) because getting in and out of them is a pain (literally) when suiting up without help. If there is indeed anything I should be doing to improve the look of my legs, please tell me!