NegativeEleven

I filled mine with paste made from sealing the trimmed off ABS in a jar with Acetone. It was rough, but I smoothed it out with Bondo spot putty. That's not really an option for you because you don't want to repaint the whole thing and spot putty is dark red. I had a KS kit that was clearly two different colors of ABS so I had to paint mine anyway. I just met a TK who used caulk to seal the gap in his bucket. That could work for you.

I used the headband from a Hasbro Darth Vader with some velcro to attach the thin padding from a skateboarding helmet (so I could remove and wash it). I had to rig up some sintra to make it fit with the 1.25" elevator bolts, but It works great.

After one troop and two weeks in a helmet bag, the black lines on the back are peeling up. I gotta replace those in the next three days before I go to DragonCon. Thanks Cucblack!

I bent some large cotter pins into a shape that worked pretty well.

Looks like someone might have just purchased a helmet from one of the guys who vac-forms and recast it. It would be interesting to see pictures of it next to an SC or KS helmet for comparison.

Fiberglass is a resin, it just has a mat or woven sheet of glass fibers inside. I just learned this last year after reading that in England, they call fiberglass "glass reinforced plastic."

My pouches were weighing down the cummerbund, causing a little of the vest to show above the bund, under the armor. I moved the velcro to the other side of the flap and hung them from inside the armor instead. It is a little tricky getting the side strap from the back armor to the chest armor to connect when you do this, but I think that little trouble putting on the armor is better than constantly checking my reflection to make sure there's no black fabric showing between bund and armor.

I'm putting mine in the mail for you today.

Good to know. I got the one I needed done here locally.

Someone higher up than my GML says that the wrap around the shoulder bridge and my underarm elastic connecting the chest and back armor has to match the off-white of my pouches and dropbox straps. I'm going to the fabric store to see if I can find something that matches. I used nylon webbing like the belt for the shoulder bridge and white elastic for the underarm connection. I bought the dropbox straps that color, so I might be able to find that kind of strap (cotton I believe) in 2in wide to use for the shoulder. I am pretty sure elastic only comes in white and black. My backup idea is almond rustoleum spray paint. It's very close in color. I'm fairly certain that it'll be fine on the nylon webbing. I don't know how it will hold up on the elastic. Here's a picture of some test areas I tried out. The elastic stretches now without the paint cracking or anything, but I don't know about over time, rubbing on the armor if it will last. [deleted image]

Lou, I didn't realize right away and you can't tell in the pic, but these decals are layered grey on top of black like you're talking about.

I've got friends at Kinkos who give me all the vinyl scraps I need, and a friend with a plotter who can cut any shape. I can't make the ones with 2 colors. Uhrg. I'll probably just try my best to mask those when I get around to working on the helmet.

I used a snap plate: I've got a strip of velcro between chest/back (just like the instructions with SC armor). I used white nylon webbing (like the belt) to cover that gap (had to put some black duct tape over the velcro so it didn't slowly rip apart the nylon webbing every time I took it out to refit). I put a heavy-duty snap thru the nylon with a piece of styrene inside for strength. That snap matches one on a separate piece of elastic that has velcro for the shoulder bell. The snap lets it rotate a little for more movement without the "crunch" of velcro trying to flex. It's a little more work, and it may not be as accurate, but it's all hidden so you'll never notice once it's on. I can take pictures if you want.

I'll want to order a new chest-back armor when you get a return edge on those piece looking this good.

I agree with Marcel about the biceps, perhaps the bottom of your shoulder bells could be trimmed by 1/2"-3/4" so there would be more room for the bicep armor. Which helmet is that? It looks really narrow, or tall... or maybe the "eyes" are just bigger, making it appear that the visor is closing in. I'm sure it will pass, my GML only asked me to resubmit pictures because in the front view he couldn't see both ear holes and in one side picture, the face wasn't sitting flush with the back. You're fine there.

I need someone's opinion here. I have some rough spots on my helmet and before I try to sand em and repaint, I thought I should have new decals in hand. I know everyone says Trooperbay's the place to get em, but I thought I'd save a couple of bucks and order from Cucblack... I assume it's him. It's bountytrooper from bolivia on ebay. The grey he uses is much darker than the decals I got with my KS kit. I'll be replacing all of them, so they'll all match, but I don't think I want to use these at all. Here they are, pictured with the leftover KS decals. That's a big difference in color! So, if you are thinking of buying decals from ebay for $9.99 with free shipping, don't. Go to Trooperbay and spend $14.99 +shipping. And cucblack, if you see this, please let us know when/if you get this corrected. Thanks.

Be careful! Regular styrene cracks very easily. If you go to a sign shop, you can ask for ABS or HIPS (High impact poly styrene). They probably have some scraps lying around. I'd mail you some for the cost of postage, but I've only got regular styrene and black textured ABS in my big box of scraps in the garage. If anyone wants that, let me know. Styrene's not on the list for recycling here and I hate to just throw it away.

As Chex instructed, I filled the seam on mine with paste made by soaking the ABS I trimmed off in acetone. It was a little rough, so I used some Bondo spot putty to smooth it over. Bondo alone will definitely crack because of how flexible the rest of the helmet is. I'd love to see how caulk works. I never even thought about that. You'll still have to paint because there's no way you'll find caulk that matches the white of the ABS exactly. My GML said I had to paint because KS sent me two slightly different colors of white ABS.

Careful when gluing the sides. My GML was very specific about wanting to be able to see both ear vents in the picture from the front. I had to adjust one side of the visor and step back 5 feet to take that picture.

Just caught this on VH1 Classic at 4am. The Sugarcubes - "Motorcrash." It's my job to know music, and I love 80's, but I had never heard of this band that Bjork was in back in 1988. Check out the other singer, the one dressed as a highway patrolman. Around 1:30, he's clearly wearing a modified version of our gloves. He even has suede on at least the index finger.

To be fair, SC's shoulders are wrong too, but it's easier to correct em.

If you really want it, I can send you the one that came with the StarFortress recast I bought on ebay. It looks right, but might be a little big. You pay for postage, I'll put it in the mail tomorrow. I'm not going for Lancer for a few reasons, but the fact that I can't fit a chin cup in my KS helmet without it constantly clacking against the chin of the faceplate is definitely on that list.

The KS armor as a whole isn't bigger. Some pieces of KS are a little bigger (the tank topper is about 50% larger). I think the lines are crisper on the SC armor, but the big difference is the return edge. Almost every piece of KS armor has a 1/4"-1/2" edge that makes the armor stick out from the suit. It's more accurate, but it makes the armor seem bulkier. Pandatrooper's build has a tutorial on how to add that edge to the SC armor if you really want it. That return edge on the shoulder bells makes it tough to curve the bottom corner without it looking odd.

Did you take pictures as you were weathering? I had to paint my helmet as KS sent 2 different colors of ABS in the kit. The paint picks up dirt much faster than unpainted ABS, so the helmet looks much more weathered than the rest of my suit after 2 months of troops (every chance I get). Also, the little stray spots of E-6000 on the boots picked up a lot of dirt, so those look really weathered (especially after I realized how awesome it is to ride my motorcycle wearing this).

I used the Boba Fett pouch pattern from thedentedhelmet.com and just sized it up to 7" tall and 6" wide. It's similar to the one here, but it's all one piece of fabric aside from the inside of the flap. Just close the belt loop part and put velcro on it. I had the velcro inside, to fold over the top of the cummerbund, but the weight of the pouch was pulling the bund down too much. Yesterday I sewed velcro on the outside of the belt loop part and am gonna hang em from inside the chest armor.