TrooperMaster TM 1mm ESB replica armour build

I recently completed my ESB build with TM's 1mm ABS. Here's a recap of how the build progressed ...

I took delivery of a big brown box of goodies at the end of November 2010.

It included this fantastic HDPE replica helmet, fully assembled and painted by TM. Many thanks to Paul for the incredible work on the helmet.


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And this 1mm flexible armour .... it's mental!

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I deliberated long and hard about whether to paint my armour. I share TM's opinion that the off-white colour matches a lot of the unpainted suits that can be seen in ANH.
When I look at my ESB screen captures, I think I'm seeing a lot of glossy painted armour parts. I haven't managed to confirm this but I decided to go ahead and paint my armour to achieve the look I see on my TV screen.

I had my armour fully assembled and was in my home made paint booth on a nice sunny afternoon and got it all primed and ready for the first gloss coat!


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Ran out of Halford's white primer and had to switch to a standard grey product. The gloss white should cover it fine though ...

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I'm lucky to be able to do this stuff outside in the Canarian "winter". Nice and dry and a warm 23°C :D

Another glorious day today so I was able to give my armour it's coat of gloss white.

It was looking pretty good considering it's me first attempt (Pete's tutoral helped a lot).

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Top one, nice one get sorted ... hardcore, you know the score!
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Once I was happy with my paint job, it was time to take the newspaper to the finished parts and add some on-set type dirt ...

This is what a few of the parts were looking like after a date with "La Opinión de Tenerife".


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My strapping kit arrived so I had another busy Saturday.

Getting close to being wearable ...

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Now, I'm not sure what folk were going to make of the next shots because I decided to add a bit of my own innovation.
I figured that with all this weathering going on on the outisde of the armour, and attention paid to correct internal strapping, the inside of the armour needed some signs of wear and use too.
Bear in mind, this is supposed to represent a suit which has already survived the filming of A New Hope and has been in storage for three years before being dragged out again.
I wanted to show some signs of sweat and residue adhesive from internal repairs with sticky tape.
So, adopting a common technique from guitar relic'ing (staining with black tea) and one I stumbled across myself (applying cheap parcel tape to the plastic and ripping it off quickly to leave residue), I added some 70's style grime to the inside of my suit ...

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Also, because I'm using either clear E6000 or Araldite (which is also largely clear) I wasn't getting the white adhesive residue on the elastic that you see on the originals. I also wanted to replicate that white "gunk", so I thinly brushed on some fabric paint ...

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Internal weathering in progress ...

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The finished armour ...

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Trying to recreate the ESB promo photos look ...


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Well, almost ... :D

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Can you pick me out?

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I have toyed with the idea of ripping out the strapping system and implementing some of the typical running repairs with rivets etc. to make my suit look more 1979 than 1976.
In the end I decided to keep the original ANH strapping and wear it as it is. If it suffers some malfunctions along the way, I will add repairs. If not, then it's just a well-preserved suit, recycled for ESB. I'm sure they picked out the best of the lot left over from filming the original Star Wars film so maybe there were a few largely undamaged suits. Who knows?

Great to see you here Rick , first can i say that your 1mm TM is Pants you know what i mean , no but mate it is truley Stunning as your other builds you defently look like you just walked of the set even have the 1970 heir do luv it .

Awesome ESB suit rich

Would you believe I've not trooped in this yet. I've had a couple of events recently and I've used the trusty old 2mm glossy or I've gone as a Gunner.
Time for a run out I feel ....

Rich how long had this gem of a thread been here,outstanding (bar goes up another notch)

Classic picture mate.

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that Gareth hunt gets every were

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Looks amazing Rich! I noticed your calves are seperating at the bottom by the boot is that a case of tightening the elastic or are the boots too wide?

89batman wrote:

Looks amazing Rich! I noticed your calves are seperating at the bottom by the boot is that a case of tightening the elastic or are the boots too wide?

In the pictures I've got the bottom strap unhooked. It's a snug fit but they do close. I could/should have left a bit more overlap on the calves and should maybe reposition and reglue the bottom straps.

Rich330 wrote:

89batman wrote:

Looks amazing Rich! I noticed your calves are seperating at the bottom by the boot is that a case of tightening the elastic or are the boots too wide?

In the pictures I've got the bottom strap unhooked. It's a snug fit but they do close. I could/should have left a bit more overlap on the calves and should maybe reposition and reglue the bottom straps.

There you go ... Sorted!

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Suited up for the first time at the new house so I took a few shot sup on the roof. Much better light than in the old garden ...

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