NegativeEleven

I think you had the thermal detonator greeblie on right the first time. This screen grab (and almost any other where you can make out more than just a black rectangle) makes it look like the two bumps point down. http://forum.bikerscout.net/index.php?app=gallery&image=384 Can someone point out a screen grab where the bumps point up?

yeah, I re-stretched and re-glued the dogbone and the bottom/back since those pictures were taken. I'll redo the trim on the toe after this weekend.

Ok, like I said, I didn't do mine, but it looked easy enough in the pictures Silverboyd posted. He put the pins into the sole, right under the toe. I guess I need to heat and get those little dimples out of the sole (a little heat should do it) before I submit to 501st. Also, after some weathering, I don't think it'll be noticeable.

I say steel toe is gonna be easier because it'll keep it's shape while you heat and stretch the vinyl. Some threads suggest packing socks into the boots when stretching the vinyl, but to me, that seems like it leaves you with a pretty good chance of having boots that are too tight. I'm not a great source of info, since Silverboyd made my boots (started with steel toe). I had to do a little stretching and adjusting of the dog-bone part once I got em, and I was glad to know that the toe wasn't gonna chance shape. I'd definitely get the steel toe again if I was doing it myself. You can stick the pins into the sole, just where it meets the toe, because the trim will cover any holes you leave. Silverboyd documented the build here: http://forum.bikerscout.net/index.php?showtopic=10374

Is the chin cup required for 501st, or just lancer? I used the one that came with my mistaken purchase from eBay. It looks right, already had the elastic thru it. I just find that the scout helmet is so small, I'm constantly bumping the chin cup into the bottom of the snout, which makes a click-clunk echo thru the whole helmet. It's really irritating. I'm wearing the whole costume for the first time this weekend, and I doubt I'll use the chin cup.

I've got my 3rd Annual Star Wars Day party here in Charleston, SC next weekend. Jeff at SC said he'd try to get my armor here by then, but it's looking like it won't make it. I'm borrowing KS armor since I have most of the soft parts done. My modified Kenner blaster doesn't sit well in the KS holster, so I added a piece of sintra to raise the side up a little more. I've got some styrofoam packing material in there too to make it tight. I might add a white elastic strap at some point. It's tough because I'm borrowing it and don't want to do anything to the holster than can't be undone. Glue and tape come off. He said it's fine to put tiny holes (I used screws, into a sintra boot insert, with rubber stopper on the tip that broke thru) because he's gonna rivet it to his boots when he gets them finished.

Any of you experts got an opinion on these? I'm trying to do everything right since this will be my first costume submitted to 501st for approval.

I didn't use the lens from KS. Mine's probably lighter. I used a lens from the army/navy supply store. I believe it fits in some goggles. KS sent me a flat block that was thicker than 1/8" sintra, not cut to the shape of the eyes, and not curved to fit. My experience trying to heat and curve pieces that I expect to see through has been hit or miss. Sometimes you get a blurry spot from heating, and I would really like to be able to see out of this thing. The army/navy store lens fit nicely, was already curved, and had a hole in it right at the nose so I could put a screw in rather than glue it.

I use the heat gun on 1/8" sintra. I go to my hairdryer for ABS or Styrene. Just a little too much heat and ABS likes to wrinkle up like that. It totally shrinks when heated, where most plastic just gets soft. I wasted so much when I was learning to vac-form last year. Having a frame that was not tight enough, when I put it over heat, it would pull itself into a little warped, wrinkled mess. Then trying to heat and smooth out vac-formed ABS after it'd been cut out of the original sheet, I made a mess of some rather decent pulls. Lesson learned.

actually, from what I understand, SC's only behind on white ABS orders. Silverboyd contacted him after I told him that it'd be up to 10 weeks to get my armor because he's been looking at SC's tuskan head/greebles. Black resin and black ABS got shipped out less than 2 days after payment. Maybe this applies to his shadow scout projects and I could've ordered my armor in black then painted it to get it faster. After all the time I've spent having to touch up my Fett where the paint has chipped off the original sintra/styrene/abs (often all different colors), I think I'll wait for the white. Maybe he just already had these made and only had to box em and ship. Who knows? I don't know why he wouldn't be replying to messages. Maybe he takes the weekends off? He was always quick to reply to me when I was preparing to place my order 3 weeks ago

I prefer to use toothpaste as masking on the silver (actually aluminum looks better) before painting the black, then wash and scrub off the toothpaste. If you try sanding, you might take of the black and the silver then you gotta start over.

I'm thinking after the troop tomorrow, I should pull out the hairdryer and try to bring that loose side of the visor in a little bit too. It just didn't want to sit flush against the face while glue dried.

Ok, 2 days of sanding and painting. I'd like to do more, but I've got a troop tomorrow and was asked to provide props for display on the table. Ignore the crooked black vinyl on the back and the metallic trapezoids. I had a friend cut out some vinyl for the helmet I was scratch-building and used that for the back so that when I get back to sanding and painting, I'll still have the better decals from KS to use. I gave him measurements for the black slot-stickers and left my bucket with him. It has more of a curve to it, so he cut the vinyl with a sloop to the whole thing so it'll look right on that. I tried to straighten out as much as I could, but it's gonna get torn off in a day or so anyway. I wish I hadn't slipped and gotten the nose vent kinda crooked. I might be able to fix that with some leftover scraps. Forehead and fish-hook look right, don't they? I didn't notice till the final stages of construction that I put the dome/back together slightly off-center. That is what is making the visor not want to sit symmetrically. It's definitely not closed enough in the first picture, but I made sure it was tight for the other side. Once I put the velcro back in, it'll hold tight in the right position. I also have to make the holes smaller. I found correct elevator bolts (size matches the plastic KS covers almost exactly) at Lowe's yesterday and pulled out the big ones I'd had in there, so there's some wiggle room I have to get rid of. I also have to chop a little off the length of the bolts. If I get hit with a nerf dart doing "shoot the trooper," they're definitely going to hit my face and/or glasses. Paint is drying on the chin cup and I haven't decided on padding yet. The headband from a Hasbro Vader fits pretty well in there, but I don't know about putting it on with that. You guys like that lens? It was $3 at the army/navy store. It goes in some fighter pilot goggles or something. It already had the 2 holes in it, so I glued sintra into the nose and just screwed one to that. It's real easy to take out and it's half the thickness of the KS provided lens. I have got to repaint the inside (it's mostly concealed by black duct tape right now). Ear screens are held in with tape for now, because as I said, the dome needs more sanding and another few passes with the paint. I've almost gotten rid of that pesky seam on the top!

I can't get an answer out of the GML in my Garrison. Do you guys think I need to repaint the whole helmet? I'm considering finishing it, then weathering and dirtying it up once I have the armor. That would probably hide the color difference. I prefer a "dirty" costume. I wanna look like I've hit a few trees in my day. Oh, and FYI, I don't remember who told me about the acetone and ABS paste, but regular styrene doesn't melt down as well as ABS. It gets soft and breaks apart but doesn't really become fluid.

This is the 4th helmet I've had in my hands in 5 months, so I'm going to make do with my KS. To be fair, one is a Rubies that I'm trying to re-sell and one is scratch built from pepakura and my own measurements that I never intend to troop with. My advice to everyone about KS is that it's a lot of work. If you don't have the patience for taking it apart and re-gluing it 5-10 times, don't bother. Also, it took 8 weeks to get it. I believe that's what they list as their turnaround time, but they told us when we ordered that it'd ship in two weeks. Then there were 5 weeks of "we'll be shipping it next week" before we actually got it. Just a warning, SC is a little backed up. When you place an order, the automated email says 4-8 weeks. I contacted him before placing my armor order and he said 10 weeks is where he's at now because of some unusable ABS that he had to send back to his supplier. Jeff's been great about communication, so I expect to be happy with what I get from him. All the stuff I've seen from MC looks great, but they are bad about communication and my friends' average wait for delivery from them is like 6 months.

Didn't see it right away because I've had it in 2 parts up until I took those pictures, but the Visor is the same color as the dome and the face is the same color as the back/sides (what do we call that?) so I will probably have to paint the whole thing. What do you guys recommend: Krylon Fusion gloss white or Painter's Touch gloss white?

The guy I bought my fiberglass helmet from had good feedback. If you scroll down and read my review of it, you'll see that it's not useful. I did end up giving him positive feedback with a note about how he gave a partial refund after I complained. Please take pictures and post a full description if you get it. To Batninja, check out the last 2 KS build threads (one's mine). Seeing 3 KS helmets in person made in the past 6 months, I don't recommend the KS helmet kits as they currently ship. Hopefully he'll fix his molds or his process to get them back up to the quality that made so many people recommend him when I started on this costume.

Are "coach bolts" the same thing as "carriage bolts" here in America? Those looked too rounded on top and always had some kind of raised printing on them when I looked. Also, they'll have to be cut because any of the ones with a big enough top, are longer than 1".

I don't like to use bondo on something like ABS because when it flexes, the bondo will just split and there'll be a brand new seam. When we build Cobra Viper helmets out of sintra and batting helmets last year, we intentionally put it together so that the seams were on the sides where the mold seams were in the original action figures. We knew that eventually, the little bit of movement in the sintra would cause the bondo to split. Then we could say that we meant for there to be a seam there. I might end up painting the whole thing when I'm done with that seam. That's why I haven't put any decals on it yet. Did I make the black on the snout wide enough?

Ok, I've had it a week and I've been working on assembling the parts. I haven't taken pictures as I've gone along because looking at the tutorial that's linked here, and the pieces in the box, I thought this would be simple and just take a couple of hours. That's not the case. These pieces don't really fit together, there's very little indicating where they are supposed to be attached. I know, I know, I paid for the kit not the complete helmet, but I think this is kind of ridiculous. I've got it mostly assembled and I'd like some feedback. I went with a military helmet eyepiece ($3 at the Army/Navy surplus store) because the one that was in the box was over 1/8" thick and flat. It might not be dark enough. We'll see when I'm done. The faceplate's already gonna be up against my glasses, so I'm looking for anywhere I can make it roomier. I don't like having to heat and curve something that's supposed to be see-thru. It usually ends up warping. I glued some sintra into the snout so I'd have a flat surface. How are you supposed to glue to the edge of .06 ABS (I think that's what it's made of, it's definitely not as thick as the sheet of .08 ABS I bought for my vac-forming projects)? The eyepiece has a couple of holes in it, so I just put one screw into the sintra, and it seems pretty stable. There's a little gap under the eyes, but I don't think it's noticeable. I've got some white duct tape in the corners inside. I don't want to glue it when I'm still working on the fit of the visor/dome. The smallest elevator bolts I could find are a little over an inch across. I think the flat surface trumps the slight size difference when compared to the screw kcovers that were in the box. I'd like to know if you guys think this will pass 501st inspection. The ridge around the top needs a lot more work. I started with the acetone/ABS paste mix that was suggested here. It's tricky, but I'll get it figured out and spend weeks sanding till it's perfect. The way I finally got it to fit together, there's a gap on the top left (the right if you're wearing it) behind the elevator bolt that I'm having to fill in. It is such a pain working with clamps and tape, then waiting for glue to dry only to realized it's slightly crooked and you have to pull it apart and start over. I'm pretty angry about the fact that the dome and the sides/back are clearly different colors. The back/sides are a bright white and the top is a dulled, slightly yellowed white like it's been sitting in the sun or something. Making the face and visor fit together was a chore. I had a hard time figuring out how much to trim off the back to hide that wobble that seems to be in all the recent visors (not pictured, it's visible in the pictures on shdwtrpr13's thread). The pre-assembled one my friend bought in October doesn't seem to be as bad as mine, but it's definitely there: a dent in the back edge on the back right of the visor (left if you're wearing it), near the ear vent hole. The back and forth on the trimming of the visor led to it sitting crooked. It's weird, because the face lines up at the bottom and the visor lines up with the face, but looking at it straight on, I kept having to wiggle and shift it because the dome above the visor wasn't level. I'll end up having to fill in a lot of the hole in the helmet that the elevator bolt goes thru before I'm "done." The snout greeble is from DVH (thanks again!), painted the same color as the elevator bolts (Winter Gray Painter's Touch). I've just got 2 tiny screws in the back of it right now, so you can see it's raised a little from the surface. I'll glue it down eventually.

I've seen that one listed a bunch since I started looking for a helmet back in November. It seemed too good to be true if it's all assembled like the pictures, but the fact that it's been relisted (or that there's enough of them made to keep listing new ones with the same photos) makes me weary.

I had a friend build one and he is the kind who blindly follows instructions. When he showed it to me, he had built the little box and cylinder of the snout detail because it was included in the pep file. I told him to let me stiffen it up with fiberglass, sintra, etc and we'd pull one on my vac table or make a silicone mold. The answer I got was "I worked hard on this and I'm not gonna just give it away." Really confusing. It's still sitting at his house, just cardstock with tape and glue.

I'd complain to them, but i didn't place the original order. Also, it took something like 7 weeks to get it, so who knows when I'd get another. Just compared it to a KS that was received last October and the little wobble in the back left of the visor is there too. That means if I send it back, I'll get the same thing.

Looks good. That pep is definitely simpler than the ones I have. The front of the visor is 2 pieces in the one I printed and the snout was a lot more complex. You're gonna have to indent it and carve up a little once you've firmed it up, but it looks like it was MUCH easier to put together. There's a little bit of a curve to the brow right above the eyes. I don't think any of the pep files take that into account. I just built up a row of bondo and slowly smoothed it to the right shape. That'd be easier to do with the visor and face as separate pieces, but I can see the connection there helps keep the shape with the paper. I'm interested to see what you do with it once all the papercraft is done and you start hardening. My build is sitting on a shelf mostly unfinished because I realized how comically large it was going to end up being. Also I got my KS helmet in the mail to work on. I might ask you for this pep file if I can't straighten out the wonky parts of the KS visor. It seems lately a lot of people have gotten iffy pulls from them.

Just started trimming my KS tonight. I've got that same wobble in the lower back section of the visor where it meets the back part (pictures 3 and 4), and the bottom return edges are definitely not symmetrical. I am thinking about tracing it on some paper to make a template and trying to cut out another from sintra that I won't mind having to carve up. I don't think the face, back or dome has any major problems. I'm trying ABS scraps in acetone to make paste overnight and might try just filling in a little. I've had very bad luck trying to locally heat and shape ABS here. I always end up shrinking the part I'm working on.