TK8993 WIP New TM

Once you have done trimming you will end up with a pile of this scrap plastic. Don't throw it away, it can come in very handy for repairs. Cutting this up into small pieces and putting in a jar with acetone will produce a gooey plastic paste that can be used to repair cracks and tears and it will match your new armour perfectly..

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No updates for you stormtrooper fans this week but I have a message from the main man with the white plastic..

[quote name="troopermaster" ]
Hi Mark,

I just finished the last bits of your strapping and everything is going later today. Parts are strapping kit, helmet trims, mic tips and fixings, bubble lens, ABS joining strips, ammo belt and knee strap. Edit.

Edit.

Edit

Edit,

-Paul.
[/quote]

Thank the maker! This build will be back on track soon, thanks for stopping by my thread today ...

Aww yeah! :D

A young man from Liverpool once sang, 'I like to get high with a little help from my friends'.. well I like to get high with the help of my friend's E-six million and or Stelmax 1985..

If you are new to building I would highly recommend you use the E- six million, as it is easy to work with, is clear, excess rubs off when dry and if you make a mistake you can pop it in the freezer, then prize the parts apart and start again. The only down side is it takes 24 hours to dry and is rather whiffy - always use in a well ventilated area.

Stelmax 1985 on the other hand is a white fast acting vinyl adhesive and will replicate the original armour build perfectly. Use sparingly as it will warp your plastic and you may have difficulty getting the armour apart again if you make a mistake. This stuff dries very quickly - you have been warned!

Im going to use the Stelmax and have ordered some with the pending delivery of my cover strips. For more info on getting high while sticking small bits of white plastic together, type L S D into your browser thingy and follow the links...

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If you've been affected by substance misuse, have found this post disturbing or have a problem, talk to FRANK [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Ok so TM has turned it around and sent the remaining parts to my kit and its all hands on deck.. the post lady arrived at my door just after I finished washing my car this morning..

But this weekend I am going away to visit family living right next door to Stonehenge, so while I am away with the fairies, or is it the Druids? Anyway while I am away you guys and girls can look at this lot and wait patiently for Monday to arrive when I will get on with something.

Alas with my odd working hours this week and Wimbledon on the telly, not much has been done...

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Don't worry if this little lot looks confusing, ive built a suit with these before and its very simple. I will talk you through it as I do it.

Thanks again Paul.

Ok I am back from my weekend away visiting my brother, and wanted to geek out a little before getting on with my build. Don't worry I am not going to bore you with family portraits, and pictures of a family dog - this is strictly Star Wars related. I was able to get up close and personal with one of my holy grails of the prop world.. read on if you're a budding prop builder.

My brother is currently serving in the 721 EOD Squadron and wanted to show me around his office. As well as trying on his armour, getting to have a look at the Cutlass and other expensive play things, while in the briefing room come training room slash museum, I came across a rather familiar object laying quietly on a table next to several other rod-type rifle grenades.

I could not believe my luck - I just wish that he would have let me give this almost perfect, unfired now inert and FFE museum piece a new home.. any Star Wars fans check this out..

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I would also just like to take second to thank anyone who has ever served in their countries armed forces or are still serving. I have the greatest respect for anyone who is willing to work extremely hard so that I am able to sleep peacefully in my bed at night. Thank you.

Day Six

Ok so I am now going to start trimming the arms and legs to fit. Its very important that you make your armour fit you, sounds like a no brainer but it needs to look like it grew on you and will make walking up the hill at LEGOLAND a lot easier. I am going to start with my shins, the toaster is on standby, coffee is brewing : Lets go to work!

Today I am going to be using these things here.

Something to cut away the plastic, a sharp knife, or trimming scissors. Use what you're happy to use. Dremels make lots of mess and can burn the plastic and if you get carried away, can rip through your armour in micro seconds. I use a steady hand and a sharp knife. Score and snap, repeat, score and snap. Let the knife do the hard work. Lightly run over the plastic and repeat. If you press too hard it can dig in and run away on a line you didn't want to cut.

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A metal rule for using as a measuring tool and a straight edge. In Imperial measurements, very important.

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Masking tape to hold things together for test fitting and gluing. I usually use blue painters tape as its better but this was cheaper.

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Glue.

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One of the defining details for any ANH trooper armour build is the use of the cover strips on the arms and legs.

The use of these is down to the way the original armour was designed, sculpted and made; and is still the way any fan made armour is produced - having 2 parts to the armour parts made seperately and glued together.

One way to overcome the unsightly seem left by the way the armour was assembled was to add a cover strip over the top and bingo - straight away the seem is gone. It also adds a certain depth and look to the armour.

So the correct method for arm and leg assembly is to have the two halfs of the armour butt together flush - and then glue the strip on top.

So onto the size of the cover strip needed. The industry standard for the shins if you are trying to get your armour as close to the screen used examples is a strip 23mm wide at the front, to match the thighs; but most top builders use a wider strip at the back, which is normally 25mm or an inch wide. This is because the shins are the only part of the armour that open up to allow the wearer to slip them on and need just a little more covereage as the shins have a tendancy to open up a little when walking. This info is from troopermaster after looking at real screen used suit in person, so thanks to him for sharing. Its not known if all the suits were the same, but its highly likely.

Now the size of 23mm is applied to the shins at the front.

And the size of 25mm is applied to the back.

Replica armour before strips

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Replica armour with 20mm strip on front

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Replica armour with inch strip on back

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LFL reference pic

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So here is my right shin from where we were last at. I have taped it together after only removing the flash to show you that this will need further trimming. In these pictures the joining strip is just 20mm. This is for illustration purposes only to show how much it will need slimming down.

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I marked the front piece of the shin 10mm from the edge and quickly ran down with my scissors. Not really trying to be too neat. You can see I still need to take more off and more importantly more from he middle where it first touches.

Even with the 20mm cover strip this will need to be slimmer. I will use a tool to take more off and get the edge flat and smooth. For this I use my plasterboard rasp. My studio building days are over and it works great on white plastic...

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You know this build would be going so much quicker if I didn't have to keep stopping, taking pictures of everything and explaining to you god people what I am doing. I hope you all appreciate the effort I'm going to here..

After a disappointing 1 hour search in my garage for my tools, I will need to use something else as I cannot find anything I need. I am most annoyed, so will move onto something else after tea and scones.

Day Six (take 2)

Ok so the other day was a bit of a right off, I was annoyed after not being able to find my tools so decided not to do anything else in case a balls something up in anger. Wise choice. I went to the cheap shop today after work to get a sanding block, and then later tonight found my rasp.. what are the odds?

Ok so I have now sanded and trimmed the front down and it is taped up ready for its joining strip. I will get on with the other one, in the meantime here are some crappy iPhone 4 pictures for your perusal.

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The left shin is now trimmed to fit also, not illustrated. I like to get the fronts competed first and then check how much to take off the rear. Experience will tell me I do no need to take much off of the back, just the flashing and I should be good to go. I am going to be using the hook and eye original strapping system for this suit. More on that soon.

For that I will need these little things here, old stock, vintage, Newey's 'World Famed' hooks & eyes size 4 - To H.M. Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother no less, guaranteed rustless, made in England by Newey Bros ltd, Birmingham...

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Thankfully TM spent painstaking hours carefully preparing my original strapping kit for me, but I have done this myself way back when I put together my first 1.5mm TM..

Ok while I start to take a look at the thighs I will have some welsh rarebit while catching up on the BSB..

Day Seven

Ok so I don't start work today until 5 PM, so I have all day to play with plastic, but I will finish work at 02:15 AM, I know not nice.. when people aske me what I do for a living; I tell them I work in an office and deal with national security and counter terrorism - sounds exciting, but really it is dull, repetitive and really anti-social with the hours that I work.

Enough of that, nobody cares about what I do, they want to see my armour getting built!

So I am going to trim the thighs ready for gluing next week. Now take a look here. This kit has some mismatched parts, and you will have to decide whether to match the tops or bottoms, front or back. When they have been trimmed they will match up a little better. Now remember everybody to make your armour fit you.. it needs to look organic, like it grew on you overnight. You do not want to turn up to the world premier of John Williams Star Wars In Concert at the O2 Arena in London with baggy ill fitting armour. Trim to fit, say it with me, trim to fit.

So here are the thigh pieces after initial removal of excess flashing. I am going to taper these nice and snug at the knee.

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One of the defining details for any ANH trooper armour build is the use of the cover strips on the arms and legs.

The use of these is down to the way the original armour was designed, sculpted and made; and is still the way any fan made armour is produced - having 2 parts to the armour parts made seperately and glued together.

One way to overcome the unsightly seem left by the way the armour was assembled was to add a cover strip over the top and bingo - straight away the seem is gone. It also adds a certain depth and look to the armour.

So the correct method for arm and leg assembly is to have the two halfs of the armour butt together flush - and then glue the strip on top.

So onto the size of the cover strip needed. The industry standard for the thighs if you are trying to get your armour as close to the screen used examples is a strip 23mm wide.This info is from troopermaster after looking at real screen used suit in person, so thanks to him for sharing. Its not known if all the suits were the same, but its highly likely.

Now the size of 23mm is applied to the thighs, front and back.

Replica armour before strips

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Replica armour with 20mm strips

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LFL reference pic

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I used to have a very thin flexible metal rule to use to mark straight lines on the longer limb pieces, but yes you guessed it, I cannot find it. Never mind. You can use a strip of masking tape to mark out your straight line and where to cut. Use a pencil to mark the edge so you can see it easier.

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Then a quick go over with the scissors and there you go.

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Use your sanding block or rasp for a quick clean up

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You may need to clean up a little for a perfect fit, but the original armour was anything but perfect. Build your armour the way you want to.. most people will consider this build as prop replication, and I suppose they are correct. Now on to the next thigh. Again I am going to sort out the front first and then look at the rear later.

Day Eight

Ok so lets crack on with this build.

I'm not a thin guy so my thighs although not massive don't need to be taken down by much. I've trimmed the fronts and now onto the rear. I am tapering these in towards the back of the knee, leaving pretty much all on at the top. I used tape to mark my lines after dry test fitting. Take off a little at a time as you can always remove more, once its gone its gone..

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When measuring see how much you need to remove and take half from each side, clean up with sand paper, your sanding block or rasp as you wish. Repeat on the other leg.

When you're happy, dry test fit again and see if they are a good fit. Trim again if needed. I have mine tapped up here to see how they fit together. They are not totally flush so I will take off a little more where needed to get them to sit better.

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I'm not gluing today and will tidy up the return edge after I have them attached. I'm going to move onto the arms.

Ok so I am copying original armour here, looking at this right arm, there is almost no return at all on the bicep. I'm going with this look. If you're armour came with L & R written in pen on the inside to help you better understand what's what, its screen accurate..

I will most likely replicate the hook on the inside to help support my arms. The little hook slips under the elastic in the inside of your biceps, simple but effective..

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Here is the inner R bicep after trimming. I have almost completely taken away the return, its still just there due to the way the TM has been designed and built. If you think I am mad taking off all of that lovingly sculpted edge you may well be right - but I am doing things in a very specific way that will become apparent later on, more about that soon.

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I am not trying to copy exactly the original armour, more using the archive pictures as a guide.

Inner R bicep and outer R.

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This archive armour photo for the left bicep shows more of a return, so I have left mine as they were from when I first trimmed off the excess.

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Both biceps are now reading to be trimmed to fit. I was going to go to the gym first before fitting too get my arms pumped up, but who m I trying to kid? I never make it to the gym for a work out. Oh well, I have 2 ninja classes this eve, one without weapons and one with. Will that be enough?

I've trimmed and taped back together both biceps. I may neaten them so they sit flush, but then again original armour was not perfect so may not. That will be for another day. I am out of time for today, I need to get some lunch and then do some housework before class. That mean tomorrow I can get on with the forearms and then on to glue.. Its starting to come together now.

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Day Nine

Ok so I have had my Weetabix and coffee and its straight on with the forearms. You've seen how I trim plastic so I'm not going to show that again, plus I've already done it ready for final fit and glue.

Time for a pop quiz..

Who can tell me what these are for?

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If you answered;

A coffee stirrers - you have spent too much time with Gary H

B glue sticks - you have spent too much time with Pete B or Billy H

C I don't know - you have not spent enough time with any of the above!!

One of the defining details for any ANH trooper armour build is the use of the cover strips on the arms and legs.

The use of these is down to the way the original armour was designed, sculpted and made; and is still the way any fan made armour is produced - having 2 parts to the armour parts made seperately and glued together.

One way to overcome the unsightly seem left by the way the armour was assembled was to add a cover strip over the top and bingo - straight away the seem is gone. It also adds a certain depth and look to the armour.

So the correct method for arm and leg assembly is to have the two halfs of the armour butt together flush - and then glue the strip on top.

So onto the size of the cover strip needed. The industry standard for the arms if you are trying to get your armour as close to the screen used examples is a strip 13mm wide. This info is from troopermaster after looking at real screen used suit in person, so thanks to him for sharing. Its not known if all the suits were the same, but its highly likely.

Now the size of 13mm is applied to the forearms and biceps, front and back.

Replica armour before cover strip in place

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Replica armour with 15mm strips
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Screen shot
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LFL reference pic
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