Bantha Hunter's ANH Stunt Build (RS)

bantha hunter · May 5, 2022

Okay, I have a confession to make. I'm in way over my head, but it's fun.
My BBB from RS Propmasters arrived last week, and I couldn't be happier with the quality. I love all the bumps and irregularities of the original parts, and I honestly hope I don't screw this up.
Getting into this hobby as a total newbie can be intimidating, but thanks to all of you guys (And the video tutorials that Rob from RS provided) I was able to collect enough info to start working on my armor. I'll take it step by step...

Biceps and Forearms

Those are the pieces that most people seem to start with. Cutting the biceps to fit me was relatively easy. I'm in no way shaped like a stuntman from the 70's (I'm 6'1" and 209 pounds), so everything has to be slightly wider and larger than what is considered "screen accurate". Luckily the parts that RS supplied have enough material on the sides, so I can work with that without having to shim anything (The kidney being the only exception).

I also taped the forearms together. I noticed that the large opening of the right forearm seems to be a bit more oval, whereas the left one is more rounded. This results in the left forearm being a bit more loose than the right one. I think I read that this is considered screen accurate?
Is there a rule as to how tight or loose certain parts have to sit? Right now my arm pieces can slide around quite a bit - I know that this is probably going to be no problem once the strapping is attached, but I can't bring myself to apply any cover strips before showing you a few pictures.
Does this look okay to you?

Now to my first screw-up... As you can see, I failed to observe the most important rule of crafting: Measure twice, cut once. The first version of the right forearm was too tight, but I had already removed too much material, so I decided to introduce a wedge-like gap to make up for it... It's narrow enough to be covered up by the cover strip, but I will probably have to shim it from the inside. Is this an issue when it comes to approvals? This way it seems to fit me quite nicely.

The right Thigh - My Nemesis!

Okay, now to my second screw-up. I thought my work on the right thigh was going well. Once again I had to build it with my own size in mind, which turned out to be no problem at all.
The prototype fits me well, and I'm confident that it is just "thight" (hehe) enough without being uncomfortable.
Sounds good, right? The problem with making the thigh larger is, that there is a very noticable "bump" on the back of the thigh. Maybe you know the little "flatted" area at the back that is there to but the strip on?
In my case it was a good two inches towards the right side of my cut, so I could not use it as a base for the cover strip. This made the "flatted" area stand out like a sore thumb, and from the side it looked like an ugly bump that didn't seem to show up on the screen-used costumes (probably because they were cut differently).
So what did I do? The most idiotic thing possible, of course. I took my heat-gun and carefully heated the bump and tried to push it in. The result is an ugly patch of dents that you can see in the next photo. Of course it didn't flatten out completely, and I feel that I have made it worse? Is this going to be an issue for centurion approval, should I ever go down that route? Maybe some ABS paste and sandpaper can help to smooth it out?

(Disclaimer: The light in the photo makes it look much worse than it does in regular daylight)

I also decided to cut off some material of the top of the thigh, to make the curves look a bit more like what I've seen on screen. I think this is not so big of a deal, but now I'm missing two inches of return-edge at the back of the thigh.

Apart from the ugly bumps in the back, I'm happy with the look. I hope I didn't ruin it.

That's it! My first post in this build thread. Mistakes were made, lessons were learned.
I'll be back with more soon... More mistakes, probably.

Cheers,
Bantha Hunter

Edited May 5, 2022 by bantha hunter

**gmrhodes13[Staff]** · May 6, 2022

Using heat does take some practice, I use different pieces of wood, some curved some flat, when you heat an area you can use a piece of wood either side to hold it and move it around to keep the plastic from deforming.

Having thin arms I had to add a few pieces of foam to the insides to help keep them in position, not the biceps, once you have strapping attached they all sit nicely and don't move around.

I also did heat the round forearm and carefully applied some pressure to help make it a little more oval, ATA's are pretty large and I wanted to have them appear roughly the same.

You also don't need a return edge on your thighs.

Just in case you haven't seen this thread

**justjoseph63[Staff]** · May 7, 2022

Except for the heat-gun mishap everything looks to be coming along great, Lukas! The taper on the forearms looks fantastic. If I could make a few suggestions they would be:

You may just not be at that point yet, but I would trim down the thigh front tops. Those points will stick into you and snag your under-suit, so I recommend shaving off all the return edge.

Same with the rear tops.

Although some folks like the thickness the return edges give the look of the armor, they are not a requirement for any level of approval and can be removed. Remember, comfort is what you need while trooping, and an hour or more of walking around during a troop with points sticking into you is no fun.

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Keep the photos and questions rolling in!

**Sithping[TK]** · May 7, 2022

Thanks for sharing the progress on your armour build, i'm also starting a build with RS armour.

Finding myself spending hours reading the wealth of information on this forum in fear of making any mistakes.

Good luck with your build!

bantha hunter · November 4, 2022

Hey people!
Full disclosure: I decided that this project is going to be a sandtrooper instead of a TK. I hope it's okay to continue asking a few questions in this thread, as most of the build is identical to a TK anyway.

I just finished shimming my kidney-armor. I'm somewhat happy with how it turned out, but there is still a small gap between the kidney and abs-armor. It's just a few millimeters, but it is there.
I'm debating whether to bite the bullet and add 1/2" more on each side, to completely close the gap. What do you think? Would this be acceptable for Centurion (If this were a TK, that is), or would it be a problem?

Cheers!

**gmrhodes13[Staff]** · November 4, 2022

Sorry to hear you are going dirty, yes you can still ask questions and continue build here, many TK's once worn and torn modify to a Sandtrooper, I did and replaced my TK with a new one

Sandtrooper CRL is a little different to TK's:

For Level 2

Armor side gaps are closed or nearly closed.
- No more than 1/2 inch (12.7 mm) gap on either side.
- This is done by adding a shim (or shims) of a similar type and color of material as the Abdomen and Back Armor.
- Shims fit flush and may have seams, though ideally they will be seamless to the Abdomen and/or Back Armor, resulting in a single seam between the two rather than extra seams where the shims are joined.

Nothing listed for Level 3

I see you've posted over at MEPD, no doubt someone should answer in regards to Police and Swat

**Chemi[Staff]** · November 4, 2022

hace 37 minutos, bantha hunter dijo:

Hey people!
Full disclosure: I decided that this project is going to be a sandtrooper instead of a TK.

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:laugh1: Of course. As Glen says ,yes you can still ask questions and continue your build here! :jc_doublethumbup:

bantha hunter · November 4, 2022

Sorry boys! It was not an easy decision, but I fell in love with big guns and pauldrons. I would still love to do a TK at some point, but for now the dirt won me over. :salute:

vor 6 Minuten schrieb gmrhodes13:

Sorry to hear you are going dirty, yes you can still ask questions and continue build here, many TK's once worn and torn modify to a Sandtrooper, I did and replaced my TK with a new one

Sandtrooper CRL is a little different to TK's:

For Level 2

Armor side gaps are closed or nearly closed.
No more than 1/2 inch (12.7 mm) gap on either side.

This is done by adding a shim (or shims) of a similar type and color of material as the Abdomen and Back Armor.

Shims fit flush and may have seams, though ideally they will be seamless to the Abdomen and/or Back Armor, resulting in a single seam between the two rather than extra seams where the shims are joined.

Nothing listed for Level 3

I see you've posted over at MEPD, no doubt someone should answer in regards to Police and Swat

Ah, gotcha! You are right, I must have confused the CRL's here, because I only just noticed that the TK has levels in the CRL's and the TD does not. I could have sworn that the TD had tougher requirements regarding the gap for higher levels, but looks not to be the case. Thanks for the heads up!

**justjoseph63[Staff]** · November 5, 2022

10 hours ago, bantha hunter said:

Sorry boys! It was not an easy decision, but I fell in love with big guns and pauldrons.

It's not too late to join the ranks of the HWTs, Lukas, (hint hint, lol). Although our armor is not quite as weathered as a Sandie's, we wear pauldrons, back packs and ammo pouches exactly like they do.