Dart

Not to take away from the fiberglass luv that's goin' on in this thread, but an ABS helmet would be just fine in the same instance. Remember, bumpers and other car panels have been made from the stuff for years. ABS can take a few hits.

I wouldn't worry about getting scammed. KS will deliver, but they're not always very prompt with the emails. I'd say to give them another week before shooting an email to them.

Fully realizing that the pic is a prototype, I hope the bottom of the faceplate isn't anywhere near as flared out as it looks in the photo. And maybe it's just the angle, but the snout looks kinda short. Not trying to poop on anyone's parade, just some observations.

Less is more.

The bottom of the hump should be flush with the bottom of the back. What you can do is make an L-bracket that you can line up with the top of the hump. Just glue that into the inside top of the hump (preferably with something like an epoxy or something stronger than E-6000) and then screw it in from the inside of the back. As far as the hole at the bottom, you should be able to join that up with a chicago screw. That's how mine is done. When I get home, I'll take a photo of what mine looks like.

Agreed with Jim and his points. You could also trim a bit more from the top straps of the shoulder/back armour to help the fit. Ideally, the bottom of the hip boxes shouldn't go much lower than the bottom of the cod piece. I noticed you threaded the webbing for the hip boxes through the buckles. That's cool, but be sure that it's the same for every buckle. To do that, you'll probably have to undo where the webbing connects at the back of the belt. When you reconnect the webbing, you could reattach it closer to the middle of the back (if that makes sense). Otherwise, good work.

'Grats! May you miss many trees.

I've made myself some foam boxes from craft foam. Just glue/duct tape them together and you're set. Nice and light while giving you enough space for an Aker amp and a snack or two.

Jacqueline, at your size, you'll have to do a bit of trimming. But like Dylan mentioned above, just take it once piece at a time.

A removable brassard can be very cool, so long as you get the ok from your unit to wear it for a particular event (usually if it's non-canon, you should be ok). Otherwise, I'll just leave this here...

My only warning is if you're putting stiffer foam in the knee pads, watch where you kneel. I've personally cracked my kneepads a few times (up the edge, at the bottom). Just an FYI.

Congratulations!

Interesting shots, Jason. Thing is, us scouts kinda got short-changed in the costume consistency department. There's some on-screen armour bits that look like they have 1" webbing, yet in another shot, on a different scout, the same strap looks considerably thinner. That all said, it really makes it difficult for us to have a definitive scout trooper to copy. Aside from the fact that, unlike the TKs, who have actual movie armour to base measurements from, we just don't have access to enough bits to be able to do much more than guesstimate sizes. The idea that there's a second bottom knee strap is interesting, but the problem is consistency. The one on the Blu-ray shows something like that, but we've seen displays where that wasn't the case. It's enough to make your head spin, ha! If you haven't already picked up your elastics, you're better off to just stick to the CRL's.

If you look online, you can get foam knee pad inserts that you can custom cut to your needs. That's what I have in mine.

A bit taller would be better. If you look at the film, the boots come up to the bottom of the knee armour.

Take your time. I know it can be frustrating to be so close, yet so far. The 501st isn't going anywhere. Get the parts you need. Before you know it, you'll be a member. "Patience you must have, my young padawan."

Actually, it looks like the stitching is on the upper part of the sole (stitched to the boot), which would be covered by the vinyl. These look like good ones, and for a good price too!

The best advice I can give you is to do a bit more research, get some more prices and just save your money. Every time you get paid, put a little bit away for the armour. It sucks, I know, but most of us have been there. I lucked out in that I got my armour, unassembled, second-hand. No waiting time for me, save the time it took in the mail. Have patience, grasshopper. In the meanwhile, you can work on the soft parts. They're generally cheaper, especially if you can sew or if you know someone who can.

To be honest, it looks like it's a recast SC kit. I can understand if budget is an issue, but as the saying goes, "you get what you pay for". It's very unfortunate that the scout trooper in the album is wearing the armour so poorly fit to them. I'm sure it's better than that but...

Some use flat, I used satin. I've seen both and I like the satin look, myself.

The only time I clean up marks or scratches on my kit is if it's a weird colour. I've had red, purple and blue scuffs that I'll carefully scrape off. But otherwise, it's all weathering.

Regarding the knee strapping, it was decided that the screen grabs were so inconsistent that the bottom strap would be 1". So, regardless of what you see on screen, that's the size you should be going with, purely for consistency's sake. The top knee strap is smaller, so it was decided to set that at 1/2", if I'm not mistaken. Again, purely for consistency's sake. Back to the shoulder bell elastic, you might be operating under the assumption that the bicep strap is 1.5". What I got with my kit (about 5 years ago), was elastic sized around 2". But again, back to practical side. A strap as thin as 1/2" that's attached to a single point on the inside of the shoulder bell, would seem to me to make for a floppy piece of armour, no? I think this whole thread boils down to what's "screen accurate" and what's practical to wear AND still looks pretty close. It's just my personal opinion, but I think the current guidelines are pretty good, if for no other reason than because they're consistent. It saves us all from having to buy 5 different widths of elastic.

Congratulations!

Great photos and a great subject for debate/clarification. I agree, the strap does look thinner than the bicep, but I don't think it's quite as thin as some have mentioned above. To me, it looks closer to 1". My reasoning for that is that when looking at those photos, and then comparing that to how it scales on my body (using my 1" wide thumb as a stand-in), 1/2" and 1/4" seem way too small for the scale shown. That all said, it stands to reason that if we're going for consistency, using a 1" strap on the bottom knee, forearm, and (possibly) shoulder cap would be appropriate and seems fairly reasonable from a costume production standpoint. Anytime I see threads like these questioning sizes, I like to try to approach the situation as though I was creating the costume for the movie. Why, as the guy responsible for buying all the costume components, would I buy more sizes of webbing than needed? It makes sense to have the 1" webbing be the strap size of choice for much of the costumes that needed it. I could see them maybe getting a wider size for the bits that need them, and maybe a little bit of the really small stuff for aesthetic/design purposes. Let's remember that even though they had a big budget, it was still a finite amount so they had to make the best use of what they had. TL;DR - If we're considering a size change for the shoulder, it's my guestimated opinion that the elastic webbing shouldn't be any smaller than 1".

Don't mean to hijack Kath's thread, but I had the pleasure of seeing her in action with it this past weekend. She's still got a few challenges, but it's lookin' good so far!