Morgi's ANH Stunt to ESB Conversion

[Morgi[Staff]]

 

 

I will get around to doing those Centurion modification, I promise, but as I got this brand new helmet kit last weekend...

 

This build (or rather conversion as it's based on my ANH Stunt armor) will be a slower build than what some of you already saw with said armor. No daily updates this time. Nor can I promise a meme for every step of the build, but I thought it was fitting to start with one.

 

What do I need to do? 

 

Given that I've already got the main armor built, there's only a few parts of the armor that will need to be exchanged, due to the similarity of the ANH Stunt and the ESB TK.

 

The Helmet 

 

This one might be the most obvious when comparing the ANH Stunt to the ESB. The helmet has a black frown and uses decals as opposed to the grey frown and hand-painted details of the ANH. As I do love my ANH Stunt and am not looking to replace it, I had to get myself a second helmet kit. This one is an RS kit to match my armor, but I ordered the decals from Trooperbay, because I heard good things about those. Haven't heard anything about whether they fit an RS helmet so far, but I think that won't be a problem.

 

The Canvas Belt and Holster

 

The ANH holster is attached to the canvas belt on the left side via Chicago Screws. The ESB holster is held up by two loops on the right side -- on a canvas belt without holes from potential chicago crews. This means that I need to replace the canvas belt and the holster. As I had a bit of time and access to a sewing machine last weekend, I already took care of the canvas belt (mostly, at least, pictures to follow), but I still haven't done anything about the holster. As this build isn't urgent, I've considered asking a friend if he could do me the favor of sewing one for me.

 

An additional problem is, that as of now, my ANH canvas belt is attached to the ABS ammo belt with rivets. I'll have to remove those and replace them with press studs, so that I can remove the canvas belt at any time. One thing that I've seen happen to other troopers is the ammo belt popping loose, so that might be an additional problem in the future.

 

The Handguards and Gloves

 

Lastly, I'll have to exchange my ANH rubber gloves with latex handguards for the ABS clamshells over rubber gloves. As said clamshells don't fit over the latex plates, I'll have to buy new rubber gloves. The ESB handguards were included by RS in my initial armor kit, so I've already got those ready to go.

 

The E-11

 

As I'm currently only aiming for a Centurion level armor and not the Centurion badge itself, I'll just continue running around with my ANH E-11 for now. Not accurate, but on troops nobody will notice. Basic approval is possible without a weapon (as I've already seen during my initial approval with the ANH Stunt), so an E-11 is a problem for the future. Still, I've been considering building a 3D-printed E-11 in the future, so I'd probably build that one as an ESB E-11 when I get to it.

 

So much as for what I've planned so far, if you notice anything missing, something that could be improved or anything along those lines, please let me know. I love getting feedback!

[MaskedVengeance[Staff]]

Haha, love the image at the top! My plan is to implement the same conversion in the future, and it looks like you have your task list ready to go. The only thing I'll add is that you may be able to get away with using the same holster and simply replace the tan straps with the black loops. I acquired black straps from my holster maker for the easy swap out with chicago screws. Looking forward to following your completion of this next project!

 

     

 

[Morgi[Staff]]

Am 19.4.2022 um 17:28 schrieb MaskedVengeance:

Haha, love the image at the top! My plan is to implement the same conversion in the future, and it looks like you have your task list ready to go. The only thing I'll add is that you may be able to get away with using the same holster and simply replace the tan straps with the black loops. I acquired black straps from my holster maker for the easy swap out with chicago screws. Looking forward to following your completion of this next project!

 

     

 

 

Now that's a good idea, love it! As those are already held up with Chicago Screws, all I'd need would be some black leather -- sounds do-able. Thank you, Caleb, glad to have you following along on this, I'm sure it'll be fun 

 

The Canvas Belt, Part One

 

 

Quick warning, this will be picture-heavy. If you know my troop log or my love for memes this might not be a surprise.

 

For my canvas belt I used slightly off-white canvas fabric and some 40mm white elastic, as that was the most fitting size available. As this would have to be compatible with my current armor, I simply measured my current canvas belt (105x7.5 cm) and used those measurements for my new ESB belt.

 

 

I cut out a strip of canvas fabric a few centimetres longer and broader than my measurements and pinned the elastic to the canvas. The elastic is supposed to provide extra support as the canvas fabric on its own is rather thin and wrinkly and I did not want to sew seven layers together just to get a belt strong enough to hold up the heavy holster without sagging.

 

 

I then sewed the elastic on one side only to the fabric. One side only as I was a bit lazy and my sewing skills meant that the more exposure the belt had to the machine, the higher my chances of accidentally destroying the belt. It also made the entire thing a bit more flexible in terms of wrapping the belt around my body without wrinkles, so that's nice.

 

 

Now I cut it to the proper size, making sure to keep the distance between the top of the elastic and the top of the belt at around just under one centimetre, so that I could sew the belt together, have the elastic right at the top and still have those looser parts of fabric that line the edge of the belt.

 

 

Afterwards I basically hit the copy-and-paste button for my belt and cut out the outside of the canvas belt.

 

 

I then sewed both parts together, with the elastic now neatly hidden inside the belt and the seam from sewing the elastic into position hidden on the inside.

 

 

Weekend over, access to sewing machine lost, access to ABS scrap gained. I inserted a slightly bent piece of ABS scrap roughly the width of the holster into the right side of the canvas belt in the hopes of this providing additional stiffness where I'll put the holster. A safety net to prevent creasing or sagging, so to speak. I'd read about that sometime ago on this forum back when building my ANH Stunt and remembered about it just in time for this build.

 

 

Afterwards I neatened the edges and went over everything with fabric glue to prevent excess fraying. Without the glue I would have probably had the entire belt fall apart in a few months... 

 

 

I then added velcro and hand-sewed the sides shut. Shout-out to my third grade sewing instructor, without her I would have been lost 

 

 

The belt fits so far, once I get the proper tools and a slightly longer break from trooping I'll have to add the snaps for the ABS belt. Before I risk that one, I would prefer to have my Centurion approval with the ANH stunt (better safe than sorry in case I end up damaging the ammo belt and risking said lvl 3), so that's all in regards to the belt for now.

 

Thanks for reading and I'm looking forward to receiving your feedback! 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Nice work the only downside is you can see the ridges of the elastic which is quite noticeable, I found doubling over the fabric quite a few times helped stiffen it ( from memory I folded 5 times) also using a stiffer fabric can help.

 

I also add a piece of plastic in the section the belt will be hung on, not as important with an ESB as you use the loops but can help any sag when the blaster is holstered. 

 

Here is an image from the How To Belt thread, notice how close to the edge the elastic is, also the stiffness of the fabric when compared to yours

 

Holster stiffener 

 

He used Heavy duty canvas, I used a similar duck canvas which is a little thinner and cheaper  

 

 

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

On 4/19/2022 at 10:56 AM, Morgi said:

 The E-11

 

As I'm currently only aiming for a Centurion level armor and not the Centurion badge itself, I'll just continue running around with my ANH E-11 for now. Not accurate, but on troops nobody will notice. Basic approval is possible without a weapon (as I've already seen during my initial approval with the ANH Stunt), so an E-11 is a problem for the future. Still, I've been considering building a 3D-printed E-11 in the future, so I'd probably build that one as an ESB E-11 when I get to it.

 

SO, you want to go ESB, huh?  AWESOME!  If you are considering building a 3-D printed E-11 to go with that costume I can help.. I am also in the middle of an ESB build but due to lack of space (going on 10 months now) I was forced to concentrate on the weapon first.  I used Bryan's @trooper96 incredibly accurate  ANH E-11 kit and (IMHO) it turned out pretty danged nice.

 

I have a complete tutorial on how I did it here, and just hit me up via PM if you need help or any of the greebs I created.   Despite the work, it honestly was a really fun build!

[Morgi[Staff]]

vor 5 Stunden schrieb gmrhodes13:

Nice work the only downside is you can see the ridges of the elastic which is quite noticeable, I found doubling over the fabric quite a few times helped stiffen it ( from memory I folded 5 times) also using a stiffer fabric can help.

 

I've noticed the same but wanted to try out the actual result as-is first. I can always layer more canvas on the outside of the belt, but taking some away could be difficult. Thanks for pointing it out!

 

vor 5 Stunden schrieb gmrhodes13:

I also add a piece of plastic in the section the belt will be hung on, not as important with an ESB as you use the loops but can help any sag when the blaster is holstered. 

 

I actually added such a piece of plastic already:

 

vor 11 Stunden schrieb Morgi:

Weekend over, access to sewing machine lost, access to ABS scrap gained. I inserted a slightly bent piece of ABS scrap roughly the width of the holster into the right side of the canvas belt in the hopes of this providing additional stiffness where I'll put the holster. A safety net to prevent creasing or sagging, so to speak. I'd read about that sometime ago on this forum back when building my ANH Stunt and remembered about it just in time for this build.

 

vor 5 Stunden schrieb gmrhodes13:

Here is an image from the How To Belt thread, notice how close to the edge the elastic is, also the stiffness of the fabric when compared to yours

 

Oh yes, that was the post I was referencing earlier. Glad to see it again and have a more direct comparison of what we did than just my memories of what I read a few months ago. My elastic is similarly close to the edge of the elastic, I just sewed closer to the inside of the belt and not at the fabric edge directly, as this was very similar to my ANH belt from RS 

 

Thanks for your feedback, Glen, always a joy to hear from you and your ideas!

 

vor 5 Stunden schrieb justjoseph63:

 

SO, you want to go ESB, huh?  AWESOME!  If you are considering building a 3-D printed E-11 to go with that costume I can help.. I am also in the middle of an ESB build but due to lack of space (going on 10 months now) I was forced to concentrate on the weapon first.  I used Bryan's @trooper96 incredibly accurate  ANH E-11 kit and (IMHO) it turned out pretty danged nice.

 

I have a complete tutorial on how I did it here, and just hit me up via PM if you need help or any of the greebs I created.   Despite the work, it honestly was a really fun build!

 

Thanks for the offer, Joseph, I really appreciate it! 

 

As my focus right now is on the armor (I do have a lack of space as well, but considering its only about some soft parts and the helmet I can make it work) it might take me a while to get around to the E-11 but I'll keep your words in mind once I get to that part.

 

Thanks again for the feedback so far, I hope to get my tools delivered next week so it might take some time to get around to the next update.

[Morgi[Staff]]

Helmet Back and Cap and Face

 

Well, before I got to the assembly, I trimmed the outside following the lines in the plastic and then trimming the eyes and teeth:

 

 

Personal choice, but I think, adding the U-trim before assembling makes the most sense. I also cut the edges of the rubber to run along the traps. Just looks a little sleeker.

 

Then I assembled the the two helmet parts:

 

 

Most people use rivets for this, but as I don't own a rivet gun I went with these things that I could always remove and reassemble. Makes things a little easier, I'd like to believe.

 

 

This was the result. Right now I'm working on fitting the ears, so once that's done you can probably expect another update. If anybody would like to share some feedback in the meantime, I'd look forward to it!

 

FISD Resources Used

 

Most helmet assembly resources can be found in MaskedVengeance's Resource. I did not refer to any particular source. 

 

 

I used this image from Cableguy's Helmet Alignment Thread as a rough guideline for the alignment, as well as my ANH Stunt helmet.

 

Zitat

Let’s start with the basic premise - the majority of reference photos show that if you draw an imaginary line (shown here in green) from the rear molded line of the back and cap, this will sit just above the eyes; or to put it another way, it is very unlikely that the eyes will sit HIGHER than this imaginary line;

 

[Morgi[Staff]]

Helmet Ears and S-Trim

 

After a few hours of work (gotta love fitting the ears...) I got to a point where I was fairly happy with the look and over-all appearance.

 

 

It's not gap-free, but neither were the originals, so that's alright. Truly nothing extraordinary about this part of the build except for the fact that it was very time consuming and sometimes a bit frustrating.

 

 

The S-trim in comparison was fairly easy and quick, a simple matter of wrapping the material around the bottom and squishing everything into a tight fit that will hold the S-trim in position without any need for glue.

 

Whereas the original helmets had the ends meet at the back of the helmet, I went with the option of moving this to underneath the vocoder. This simply helps to hide any potential gaps and, in my humble opinion, looks a bit better.

 

As always, I'd appreciate feedback. Given what's coming up soon, I'd also love advice regarding the application of decals, as I've never done so before 

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

8 minutes ago, Morgi said:

It's not gap-free, but neither were the originals

 

You're completely right Luca, and the s trim looks nice.  Helmet's ears are not the rock stars in building process  

 

 

[CableGuy[TK]]

Great progress, Luca.

As you’ve mentioned Centurion (so you are aiming for high accuracy), I thought I’d mention the ends of the brow trim. For both ANH and ESB, the ends of the brow trim is typically cut straight up and down, not at an angle.

Please see below from ANH:




From ESB:










From the original RS helmet:






Suggestions:





Keep up the good work.

[Morgi[Staff]]

vor 3 Stunden schrieb CableGuy:

Great progress, Luca.

As you’ve mentioned Centurion (so you are aiming for high accuracy), I thought I’d mention the ends of the brow trim. For both ANH and ESB, the ends of the brow trim is typically cut straight up and down, not at an angle.

Please see below from ANH:




From ESB:










From the original RS helmet:






Suggestions:





Keep up the good work.

 

Thanks, Dan!

 

Awesome references, love especially how they show the curve of the brow trim. If I ever go for a fully-screen accurate replica build it'll be interesting to see how one can add that -- my brow always seems to be on the lower side 

 

As evident with the S-trim as well, I've changed a few details from screen-accurate to more idealized, trying to find an in-between that I like. Therefore I think I'll stick to the angled cut at the edge of the brow trim for now. Still, given the current cut of the brow trim a change to more screen-accurate is still possible, so if this ever becomes a Centurion requirement (it isn't as of now, last I checked), I can still easily change it around, doing what you suggested.

 

Thanks for your feedback 

 

vor 16 Stunden schrieb TKSpartan:

 

You're completely right Luca, and the s trim looks nice.  Helmet's ears are not the rock stars in building process  

 

 

 

Glad to hear that, Mario! Thankfully I got the ears done for now, so I can move on to more interesting parts 

[CableGuy[TK]]

 
Glad to hear that, Mario! Thankfully I got the ears done for now, so I can move on to more interesting parts 

No worries, Luca.

With Centurion, just bear in mind that, although something may not be in the CRL text, the Deployment Officers also take screen used suits and helmets into consideration when reviewing, so it’s very likely that they will “suggest” this based on the reference material. As they always say with Centurion, the final level of detail is up to the applicant when it comes to the “suggestions”.

“Text descriptions are only one part of the guideline. GMLs and costumers must consider both text and pictures (CRL and Reference) when reviewing the costume”

[Morgi[Staff]]

vor 17 Stunden schrieb CableGuy:

“Text descriptions are only one part of the guideline. GMLs and costumers must consider both text and pictures (CRL and Reference) when reviewing the costume”

 

Lucky me found a few images supporting the angled cut 

 

 

Any DO wanna weigh in on this issue?

 

Hovi Tips 

 

 

Not exactly that difficult either, although the small patches of black paint did mean a bit more extra work.

 

Decals 

 

 

Now, as Joseph so kindly pointed out in this thread my decals are FX/NE Trooperbay decals. Lesson learned: double check before you order -- just because you got the link from the FISD does not mean it's guaranteed to be the right decals. Also, do not just hand over the order to your parents, who will then notice that it's cheaper via e-bay. I do not know where the mix-up happened, but at least they're ESB Decals and they fit the helmet (can't say the same for the original tears on the helmet, so I'm lucky that I'm going for a slightly idealized build )

 

 

Some references taken from Joseph's CRL Reference.

 

As there's a disturbing lack of info out there on how to apply decals, here's what I put together with the advice of TK-248 (Tommi) and T-Jay (Tino):

 

 

First get yourself some very soapy water, which you can use as a help to slide the decal into the correct position. Then dab said soap water onto your armor, making sure the entire area where you will place the decal is not only clean, but also covered. This allows you to correctly position your decal. Then carefully heat said decal with a hair dryer, which help it conform to the shape of your helmet and stick. If necessary and possible, cut the decal to size.

 

 

Here's the end result. I'm looking forward to feedback 

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

As for the brow trim ends, I would trim them flat as Dan suggested, Luca.  You should have no issues for Basic or even E.I approvals with them being angled, but as he mentioned, for Centurion they will need to be trimmed.  While not specifically listed in the CRL, it's one of those items we insist on as 99% of screen references show the ends being flat.

 

If they are a bit short after you do this, not to worry.  While most of the ones from ANH extended all the way to the rear of the trap, the ESB ones tend to be shorter.  I believe this is because after 3 years of sitting in a warehouse the rubber shrank, as the majority do not extend back as much so we allow for this.

 

                                                                                  ANH

      

 

                                                                                 ESB

      

[Morgi[Staff]]

vor einer Stunde schrieb justjoseph63:

While not specifically listed in the CRL, it's one of those items we insist on as 99% of screen references show

 

Does that mean, mesh behind the frown will soon be prohibited at Centurion, as that's not seen on a single Stormtrooper, but gaps between the teeth are very common to spot? 

 

 

... asking for a friend 

 

Back on topic: I'll probably trim the other side of the brow appropriately for Centurion then and keep running around with the version that I like better. Thanks for your input!

[Morgi[Staff]]

Helmet Paint

 

As this is an ESB there weren't many areas that needed paint: the ears, the frown and the vocoder.

 

 

Due to a need for two layers of paint and the high air humidity we got right now this took me a bit longer than I anticipated, but still got done easily enough. As I already had my paint out, I also took care of the ear screws and gave them a coat of white paint.

 

 

Am 13.5.2022 um 08:13 schrieb CableGuy:

As you’ve mentioned Centurion (so you are aiming for high accuracy), I thought I’d mention the ends of the brow trim. For both ANH and ESB, the ends of the brow trim is typically cut straight up and down, not at an angle.

Am 15.5.2022 um 12:49 schrieb justjoseph63:

As for the brow trim ends, I would trim them flat as Dan suggested, Luca.  You should have no issues for Basic or even E.I approvals with them being angled, but as he mentioned, for Centurion they will need to be trimmed.  While not specifically listed in the CRL, it's one of those items we insist on as 99% of screen references show the ends being flat.

 

Am 15.5.2022 um 13:59 schrieb Morgi:

I'll probably trim the other side of the brow appropriately for Centurion then and keep running around with the version that I like better.

 

 

I got the outside of the brow trim at the angled look you got to see in the previous pictures and as I had left the inside straight, it was a simple matter of putting the brow trim on the other way round to fix this issue and give it those straight edges. Hope this looks better 

 

No full bucket pictures of this yet, gotta wait for me to add the green lens foil (and the fabric behind the frown) next. Almost done, this went quicker than I had hoped, even though I stretched the work out a lot just to have something to do for a bit longer 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Great tutorial right there, nice work.

 

For anyone following Humbrol paint does not like to go on thick, it can wrinkle when drying so two light coats are the best option, also letting the coats dry fully before applying a second coat.

 

Not sure if you have a similar tape in your neck of the woods but stumbled across Frog Tape and my local hardware a few year back, this has a finer layer of adhesive and great for fine masking and less bleed, could be something to keep an eye out for.

 

 

 

[justjoseph63[Staff]]

On 5/15/2022 at 7:59 AM, Morgi said:

 

Does that mean, mesh behind the frown will soon be prohibited at Centurion, as that's not seen on a single Stormtrooper, but gaps between the teeth are very common to spot? 

 

Agreed, mesh was not seen on any TK frown in the OT, thus the part of the CRL that states "Mesh MAY be used to obscure the face of the wearer".

 

However, TKs seen onscreen had the advantage of lighting techs that (with a few exceptions as you showed) managed to hide their facial features underneath.

 

BUT... When we troop, we are not characters on a screen.  We are there in person.. close up.  Sometimes mere inches away from a fan who wants to take a selfie.  I personally would rather my teeth openings be obscured by 50 cents worth of bug screen and add to the perceived image rather than look like some stranger in a cool costume.

 

 

[Morgi[Staff]]

vor 7 Stunden schrieb gmrhodes13:

Great tutorial right there, nice work.

 

Thanks Glen, and with an important addition as well:

 

vor 7 Stunden schrieb gmrhodes13:

For anyone following Humbrol paint does not like to go on thick, it can wrinkle when drying so two light coats are the best option, also letting the coats dry fully before applying a second coat.

 

Not sure if you have a similar tape in your neck of the woods but stumbled across Frog Tape and my local hardware a few year back, this has a finer layer of adhesive and great for fine masking and less bleed, could be something to keep an eye out for.

 

 

 

Don't know Frog Tape, but in Germany we got this awesome stuff called "Kreppband". Multi-purpose, essential and on top of it painter's tape! I've used this tape for painting and fitting and it works super well for either. Never had a single spot with paint bleed and it was strong enough to hold parts when fitting.

 

 

vor 5 Stunden schrieb justjoseph63:

 

Agreed, mesh was not seen on any TK frown in the OT, thus the part of the CRL that states "Mesh MAY be used to obscure the face of the wearer".

 

However, TKs seen onscreen had the advantage of lighting techs that (with a few exceptions as you showed) managed to hide their facial features underneath.

 

BUT... When we troop, we are not characters on a screen.  We are there in person.. close up.  Sometimes mere inches away from a fan who wants to take a selfie.  I personally would rather my teeth openings be obscured by 50 cents worth of bug screen and add to the perceived image rather than look like some stranger in a cool costume.

 

 

 

 

Something that helps would be balaclavas. I don't know about you guys but here in Germany almost everyone wears one of those, hides everything up to the nose, so nothing is visible through the frown (not guaranteed with mesh, unless you have a lot of layers one can often spot the skin underneath) and, more importantly, nothing is visible from underneath. Those kids are small enough, they don't care about our frown, but they can and will try to get a glimpse into our bucket from below and unless you got everything blacked out well enough, a balaclava would be your best bet. Just look at this photo above, even used those in Rogue One 

 

Guess that's just one of those preferences that can differ. I prefer to have a teeth gap visible, as for me that's just part of a screen accurate stormtrooper. I found a good solution that will have neither face, nor mesh showing, but still allows for that gap for my ANH helmet, so I'll be replicating that with this helmet as well.

 

Side-view picture from my ANH Stunt build-thread

 

As always, thanks for the feedback and the opportunity to talk about stormtroopers 

[Sly11[Admin]]

By the looks it is very much similar to Frog Tape, it's just not green

Frog is painters tape and there are various grade you can purchase.

 

[Morgi[Staff]]

 

Well, hello there!

 

Welcome to the last part of my helmet build.

 

Lenses, frown cover and padding 

 

 

Supplied with any RS helmet kit, you get a roll of this thin green foil that seems way to flimsy to actually be a part of the helmet. You can simply add this by poking first one hole into it, then fitting it, so it lays flat over the eye-openings and then poke a second hole in there. The foil is held in place via the upper ear screws. Then cut off areas that might hinder you in the future or where you simply don't need the foil, such as over the middle ear screws or at the frown.

 

 

I tried my best to get the foil to lie flat over the eyes and got it into a position where there's few to no gaps between the plastic and the foil.

 

Am 18.5.2022 um 06:55 schrieb Morgi:

I prefer to have a teeth gap visible, as for me that's just part of a screen accurate stormtrooper. I found a good solution that will have neither face, nor mesh showing, but still allows for that gap for my ANH helmet, so I'll be replicating that with this helmet as well.

 

 

Still had the same fabric as I used for my ANH Stunt, but only used one layer this time. This is thin, breathable fabric, so whilst it covers the view it does not completely prohibit air flow.

 

I cut said fabric to about twice the size of the frown and then added glue to the areas marked in red. By only gluing those areas, I could glue it into the helmet in a way that allows for a visible teeth gap. Due to the fact that one can now see into the helmet by looking into the frown, I made sure to glue it high enough (higher than marked in the picture!) double-checking the position from below, to ensure that no hint of the inside of the helmet would be visible.

 

 

Last, but not least, I added the padding. RS supplied chin straps, which go onto the ear screws and close underneath your chin, and star-shaped foam to stay close to screen accurate. In my humble opinion, the chin strap is super uncomfortable and useless if you got good padding (unless you're planning on doing wild stunts) and the star foam makes the helmet sit way too high and doesn't allow me space for my glasses.

 

Tino (T-Jay) gave me some of this thick foam to use instead (thank you!), which goes over the green foil and allows for enough space to still wear glasses whilst trooping. Super useful, and without any padding at the top of the helmet it gives me this good fitting helmet.

 

 

[gmrhodes13[Staff]]

Beautiful work, came out a treat, if I would recommend anything to tweak it would be your left ear, the ear is a little more on an angle than a lot of references references  

 

 

[Morgi[Staff]]

I'm back 

 

Well, it's been a while, but here's the last few things I have to do. 

 

Am 19.5.2022 um 23:23 schrieb gmrhodes13:

Beautiful work, came out a treat, if I would recommend anything to tweak it would be your left ear, the ear is a little more on an angle than a lot of references references  

 

 

 

That is an excellent point. A few things are a bit off on this helmet and I got a list with things that I'll either re-do or fix when I build a new helmet in the future. For now this is the best ear-fit I can get based on the shape of the back-and-cap, so I'll leave it as-is for now. As long as I don't have an ESB E-11 I won't have to worry about higher levels after all, and I'm sure it won't be an issue for basic 

 

Holster 

 

Well, although Caleb already brought up the wonderful idea of simply switching the straps, a wonderful friend and fellow Trooper (TK-70815) took it upon him to craft me an entirely new holster as a gift. 

 

 

Due to... reasons... I decided to stick with my old belt for basic approval (not acceptable for higher levels!!!), so I simply took out my ANH holster and added the ESB one. Looks and fits nicely. 

 

Gloves and Handguards 

 

Despite some really excellent reasons as for why I should sew the handguards onto my gloves, I decided to go with rubber gloves and an elastic strap for now. I'll probably change this in the future, but as of now both versions are acceptable for higher levels, so this is easier at the moment. 

 

 

I bought the gloves online (heavy duty chemical gloves), removed the print with acetone and went over it with a black permanent marker to fully hide the lettering. It turned out really well and as I repeated the process with another pair of gloves as well, I now always have a spare in case my gloves (ANH or ESB) rip. For the third time. Yay.

 

 

Trimming the handguards was a matter of a few minutes, simply removing all extra material and return edge, before cutting it to size, as they were a bit too large for my hands. Then I glued an elastic strap from one end to the other, so I got a tight hold. I'm currently considering gluing some velcro into the handguards and on to the gloves, so there's even less of an opportunity for the handguards to slip, but this already holds very well. 

 

Next Up 

 

My next step will have to be taking approval photos. For that I will need to repair one or two things on my armor and I'll need to find the time and space to actually take pictures. I'll keep you updated on that. Thanks for reading!

[Morgi[Staff]]

Approval Pictures 

 

I met up with one of the local recruits to have a small photoshooting with his scout and towards the end, we used this opportunity to take the Approval pictures for my ESB TK.

 

Remember to use a contrasting background, unlike myself (Glen has an excellent guideline for this) and to take the pictures with good (natural, indirect) lighting and with the camera at face height.

 

 

Here's the classic front, left, right, back overview (if a bit trimmed due to the collage).

 

 

Then there's the buckets-off picture, a close-up on the holster and similar important details, as well as the action shot (all cropped differently for the collage!). Since I don't have an ESB E-11 yet, I went with this pose instead.

 

 

Don't forget to try out different poses, so you can find one that you like 

 

All done, I submitted the pictures to the GMOs/GMLs and am now waiting for feedback. As always, thanks for reading along! 

[TKSpartan[Staff]]

Looking great Luca!!      ,  the first action shot in the collage is the most menacing IMO