Premium Format Fett Redo Question

Nah, still can't find the old thread. I did find some of my old pics though.
Here's a breakdown of what I did.

Originally, I saw this conversion done over on statueforum.com and a very helpful member over there gave me a lot of info on what he did. If I remember right, the statueforum member's user name is McHaley Art.
Disassembly of the PF Fett is pretty straightforward. Just be patient and take your time so as not to damage anything! The helmet is on a ball/socket joint. It will just pop right off if you pull steadily. I placed the figure on the floor and held down the shoulders with one hand and pulled up on the helmet till it came off.
I decided I wanted to do a repaint on the upper body armor, so I carefully peeled it off the undersuit. It's glued onto the fabric, and with some slow manipulation, it will also just peel right off. I think I used a small plastic sculpting tool to help get behind each piece and get it started.
I think the pegs on the hands were glued into the arms, but with some slow twisting and pulling, they should also pop right out. This allows you to get the gauntlets off.

With all the upper armor off, the undersuit has a seam up the back which I opened up and basically slowly worked open so I could get it off the arms and upper body. So now your Fett is pretty much "nude" from the waist up.

McHaley Art recommended using the legs from a 1/6 scale figure to use as Fett's new arms so they would have some articulation. The figure he used was an Art S. Buck poseable artist's figure, so that's what I used. I just picked one up on eBay. The legs have several points of articulation, which allows the arms to be repositioned as you like.
The PF Fett's original arms have to be cut off at the shoulder seam. I used a small hacksaw to cut them off, and filled the bottom half of the opening with some sheet styrene so the ball joints on the new arms would have something to rest against.
Here's what I mean.



To hold the arms into the body, I screwed a small eyehook into the end of each one and used a couple of strong rubber bands to link them through the torso. I just twisted the arms around several times till I got enough tension to keep them secure. I had to open each "ankle" opening a bit with a small Dremel grinding bit to get Fett's hands to fit in.
Also, I had to grind/sand down the "calf" so the gauntlets would fit correctly. This left a large opening on the right arm which I filled with JB Weld so the hand would be secure once inserted.



Here are both new arms in place and under tension.



Reassembly was the reverse of what I described above. The undersuit was pulled back onto the torso and arms, then the vest and armor pieces were glued back on. Here are some of the individual armor pieces I repainted.





I used a couple very small dots of superglue to reattach them to the vest (just in case I ever had to take them off again.)

I bought a Natty15 helmet to replace the stock helmet and fitted that to the figure, and that was it!
Here's a comp between the original Sideshow bucket and Natty's wonderful sculpt.



Hope this helped answer some questions. Unfortunately, these are about the only pics I can find of the conversion process, but again, I'd be glad to answer any questions anyone may have.