Dart

I've only got a squirrel fan in my helmet. I bought one of MonCal's hollow snouts, drilled it out and drilled a hole in my face plate. Hooked the fan up so the duct points upwards. Aside from giving me a bit of noise when my mic is close (which is always), it works well.

I'd like to see how your pull compares to some of the other knee armour out there. Looks really good!

Out of curiosity, how big will your new one be? By that, I mean will it be actual size or will it be a bit bigger like some of the other foam blasters? BTW, the pics look great so far!

Andrew AInsworth, the guy who pulled the original stormtrooper helmets and armour (as well as a few other suits.) I'd be curious if he was because they weren't originally pulled in the UK. If he was, he'd be making one from scratch.

I see where everyone is going but I think the best way to do it would be a garrisoned/deployed designation. But those would have to mean that the deployed one be dirtied up and the garrisoned one not. But then you've got those in between - the scouts who have the natural weathering but aren't dirty. Ultimately, I don't know if it would be successful to have specific designations. I know for my garrison, my CO tries to steer us scouts away from being really weathered simply because it looks weird if you've got one dirty scout and 3 or 4 clean scouts. Also, for LFL events, I don't know that they would want a dirty scout if they can get a clean one.

One day, I decided I wanted to upgrade my knee pads. I've had a chunk of foam in each one since I first assembled my kit but they were never really that comfy. Here's how I changed that: What they looked like before... Step 1: Rip that foam out! Also had to repair the cracks in my kneepads (used some epoxy putty for ABS and painted it) Step 2: Picked up a pair of these knee pad inserts (super cheap, look up Duluth Trading.) Step 3: Hack 'n slash 'em to fit the knee armour. Step 4: Using some double-sided foam tape (the 3M indoor/outdoor stuff), I stuck them in the armour. Not pictured is the velcro I stuck in on the middle pad and one strip each on the outer pads. That's it! I bought 2 sets of these pads, shipped for under $20 USD. They fit and feel so much nicer now and they even look kinda cool too.

I'll echo the above post. My MC TD is also too narrow so I just shimmed it with some plastic I had and that was that.

Why not? Any news you'd care to share?

Make sure you've also got some gloves as the plastic can get hot. ABS doesn't heat progressively even, meaning that it gets soft one second and then it's really soft, no in-between. ABS takes a bit of time with constant heat to get to it's "bending" point, so be patient. Just take yer heat gun and evenly blow hot air back and forth, both sides for a bit of time until the plastic starts to give a bit. Have a can (or a towel on your arm so you can mold it to yourself) ready and when the plastic is just soft enough, carefuly (but quickly) bend it and hold it until it cools down some. Be mindful of where you're bending the material as you'll want an even bend and not just a single point to bend. That way, you're not overly weakening the material and at the same time, you're keeping the shape without any weird angles or corners occuring. Good luck!

If it's dried completely, carefully take an exacto knife and make a cut at the edge (or seam where it leaked from) and peel it off. Might take a bit of work but it'll come off.

It depends how picky you are. If you're not picky at all, then the finished version is best. If you're picky, you might decide to get a kit and assemble it to your personal standards. I originally had mine built but without the stickers and snout. I chose (somewhat impulsively) to disassemble the helmet and reassemble it to correct what I thought was a slightly inaccurate build. That said, I'm super picky about accuracy so keep that in mind. If you're handy, assembling the helmet (preferably with super-sticky outdoor double sided tape) is not too bad. If you want it accurate, you'd need another snout greeblie and more accurate stickers and hinge bolts than what come with the assembled bucket. If budget is an issue and you're handy, the kit is best as you can assemble and build the whole thing for less than what it costs to have it built and you can be sure it fits you just right. Hope that info helps you out and welcome to BSN!

Congrats!

I thought they were only made in one size?

I have a tab of fabric (about 2 inches by 1 inch) that's got loop velcro on it and attached to the top of my 'bund. I just stick that on the hook velcro on the inside bottom of my chest plate. Helps keep my chest armour where it's supposed to be. I also have my flak vest sewn to my 'bund. That helps too.

Already done. I made mine a bit bigger but I might take 'em in a bit if I find they're too big.

Thanks guys. Guess I won't be switching that bit out.

Thanks for your opinion, Sara. Anyone else have any thoughts?

I usually keep the scuffs and marks unless they're a weird colour. For example, somehow I got a few purple and reddish-pink marks on my armour. I just took some really fine grit sandpaper (600 grit) and carefully sanded them off. The bonus is that you also get some cool weathering.

That sounds like a fair deal, Marcel. Having the main strap at 1" is a good compromise given all the widths we've seen.

Depending on the cost, I'd be interested. I've always preferred the look of the MG 42 over MG 34.

Is it possible that the wider strap you noticed was during one of the stunt scenes? It could've been a wider knee strap for whatever knee padding could've been used for protection during stunts.

Good stuff! BTW, the pic didn't show up because you're using two different cases for your img tags (first one's in all caps, second is in lower case - all need to be same).

To be honest, if you've got a buddy who's got a machine shop, it's a good way to do it. That's exactly what I did.

How patient are you? It can be a bit tricky to assemble but if you take your time and use care, you can put it together and have it looking good in a reasonable amount of time.

I'm in the process of swapping my whites to off-whites (belt strap, chest strap and pouches) and I was wondering if I should change my white shoulder straps to off-white as well.