My Stormtrooper *Photo heavy*

Hi Guys,

I'm eager to impress on you all about my seriousness of joining TDH and hope to become a valued member of the community (I'm guessing we all do).

So, firstly, why am I here?

Well I always wanted a Stormtrooper, it was one of those life things and whether it was making one or making enough money to buy one I was going to get one.

So I started a mannequin project to build me a statue, here are some of the pics of my build.

It all started around the helmet, which I purchased from Ebay, it was a fibreglass version and to be honest, for the money, looked pretty darn fine!

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...2092007047.jpg

I also bought some fiberglass arm pieces and leg pieces, wished I hadn't in the end, but hey ho!

I had managed to buy a manaquin for 30 quid from ebay and sent off for some stuff from triktoys in the US, I got the undersuit and gloves, I also bought some stuff from the same guy on ebay and quite kindly, he sent it to me in all one go.

So I had most of the bits needed, I think at this point I was missing the thighs.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...9102007068.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...9102007073.jpg

Finally my toy blaster came and I purchased a conversion kit as below:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...9102007072.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...0102007074.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...0102007075.jpg

I also placed the end cap on incorrectly, but I doubted anyone would notice or care really.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...0102007076.jpg

One spray of silver and several helipings of mustard later:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...2102007080.jpg

A coat of black and a scrubbing later:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...3102007082.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...4102007083.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...4102007085.jpg

With the gun done, it was back to the armour.

I riveted the one end of the shoulder strap to the front of the armour

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...7112007093.jpg

And placed velcro on the back part of the armour.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...8112007097.jpg

Naturally I tested it on myself to, er, see what it would look like... ahem! :lol

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...8112007104.jpg

I saw what someone else had done to modify their helmets so I did a copy job by placing a mesh in front of the frown.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...2112007112.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...2112007111.jpg

And riveted the bicep pieces.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...2112007106.jpg

I had to place shims into the biceps as I am a pro wrestler and my body is a lot larger than the norm.

I also read that the stripes on the ear pieces denoted the rank, so I gave my plastic boy 2 stripes :)

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...2112007116.jpg

I began working on the hand plates next, glueing some elastic wrist straps to the base and then put a velcro tab on, which would stick to the gloves I had bought.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...1112007133.jpg

On advice when reading up on the subject, I decided that, should I ever decide to wear the armour, I would want to sit, so I began to make some alterations. Mainly cutting two joints for bending.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...1112007135.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...2112007137.jpg

The joins, it was alleged, would be covered by the belt.

Forearm pieces were shimmed and velcroed

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...2112007140.jpg

And the thermal detonator was glued together, this was the most disappointing piece as the pieces didn't fit together and I had to spend a lot of time covering the wide joins :(

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...2112007142.jpg

So we'd gotten this far:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...2112007144.jpg

I started placing camping fasteners onto the pieces using very strong glue called E6000, this was, as I had read a better method than relying on velcro. The studs were put into plastic strips (actually the same plastic I used as my shims) and the other part was put into the elastic.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...7112007151.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...8112007161.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...9112007166.jpg

Which gave me what is lovingly known as the armour T-shirt.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...9112007165.jpg

Of course, naturally I had to try it on... *Ahem*

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...9112007164.jpg

By this time, I went to Stormtrooper shop on ebay and bought the final pieces, they were pretty pricey, but the lady was fairly nice.

I began finishing off the strapping for the main body

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...3122007197.jpg

and shimming up the thigh pieces, these became an absolute pain as, with wrestling, your thighs are the biggest muscle, it took me a lot of cutting to get a fit that didn't pinch.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...6122007199.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...8122007204.jpg

By this time, the plan had changed, I had been invited to a fancy dress party and it spurred me on to get it finished in time, though i had to do some resizing as my mannequin was much thinner than me!!!

Progress:

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77...2122007205.jpg

I began working on the calves and realised that they were two small for me, so I went back to the fiberglass ones I had bought earlier and ended up double shimming them so they would fit around my calves.

I was so busy with it, I forgot to take photos, but I places the knee cap on as well.

Getting ready for the fancy dress party I had about a week to get the suit comfortable (If there ever was such a thing).

So I began the endurance tests.


http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77/ogotu/sazzy3.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77/ogotu/Sazzy1.jpg

Wearing all the items, and realised that I was too hot in the helmet, so Trik toys came to the rescue, sending me a couple of fans in record time! These were glued inside.

Eventually I got everything sorted, though at the party the belt fell off and it had to be taped to keep it from falling down and some kid attacked me as soon as I walked in and broke my gun... typical!

but here are the photos:

What every trooper needs, a pint of beer!

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77/ogotu/saz9.jpg

And perhaps a game of football?

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77/ogotu/saz8.jpg

And some refreshment?

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77/ogotu/saz7.jpg

Look sir! Eclairs!

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77/ogotu/saz6.jpg

Ubiquitous Saturday night fever pose...

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77/ogotu/saz5.jpg

Proper dancing, yes it was pretty hot!

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77/ogotu/saz4.jpg

I danced with bananaman! :D

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77/ogotu/saz2.jpg

Posed with Princess leia and the joker (naturally)

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77/ogotu/saz11.jpg

and then settled down with another pint... cheers!

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a77/ogotu/saz10.jpg

And there you have it, the armour is now standing guard behind me on the mannequin and I have my wish.

Sorry if the pictures were a little too much for you.

But, the whole project taught me a lot, mostly that I really enjoy building and making things!

So the next project has been started, hence why I am here, I am building a template Mandolorian helmet to either sell on ebay (yay) or to make custom art pieces with, hard to describe, but will become more apparent once I finish casting my molds.
Saz

Ah, the stormy! Always a favorite.

One suggestion I have is to paint the whole suit white... If you look at the pics, the upper and lower body are different temperatures... the top is a really warm white, and the bottom a very cool white.

A quick coat of paint will even them all out. Maybe the same white that's used on the helmet if possible?

Good luck on the Mando!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stormtrooperguy

Ah, the stormy! Always a favorite.

One suggestion I have is to paint the whole suit white... If you look at the pics, the upper and lower body are different temperatures... the top is a really warm white, and the bottom a very cool white.

A quick coat of paint will even them all out. Maybe the same white that's used on the helmet if possible?

Good luck on the Mando!!

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Took me all the time to get it ready for the party. I have about 4 cans of Ford Diamond white (which is the colour the guy on Ebay told me he used for the lid) in a box somewhere, got a little nervous when I ruined a Scout helmet.

I need to replace a couple of pieces that didn't wear well under scrutiny, so I will need to buy those parts first and credit crunch means I need to make money before spending it :(

It will get done as it is one of the things that irritated me, though to be honest, I'm not a stickler for detail and the laymen (the other partygoers) didn't seem to notice :)

A quick and easy fox for mis matched trooper armour is to turn it sandy, lol..