NegativeEleven

Man, this would be helpful. I was making progress on the Shore Trooper, but since my house flooded last week, the mannequin and box of incomplete armor had to move, along with much of my possessions, to the spare bedroom. It'll be a couple weeks before I can get back to it. Once house repairs are done and I can get that room unpacked, I hope we get to do this again. Still though, maybe I will get out in the garage to work on the speeder bikes and check in with everyone.

The upper round part of the backplate is pretty prominent though, should I just add that to the SKB piece?

Am I wrong in assuming the snout detail is exactly like a biker scout? All the reference pics I have seen look like it. Got my SkyGunBros helmet last week, and his snout detail is missing the top half of the backplate and both the Yamaha engine and sink aerator are thinner than a biker scout (don't project out as far from the backplate, width is fine). Should I hit up DVH for a snout before I glue this one on? My biker scout helmet snout isn't glued, it has a couple of screws thru the back, but this one isn't thick enough for that. Pic is of a bad recast of SC snout, I believe. It was easier to get to than digging out my scout armor box.

That's a studio creations kit? He's updated a lot of it since I got mine in '13. Looks pretty good so far. P.s. I hate the upside down knees. Infuriating! I know you're doing it on purpose, but I don't wanna look at it! 😁

I bought two when I ordered from that site in April. Took 6 or 7 weeks, so be prepared for that. I thought one of the 3 others building STs in my area would want one, but one already has his and other 2 are doing Squad Leaders. If anyone wants my spare, PM me. I'll do it for same price as above cause I have no use for it.

Is seeing the buckle required? Got my pouches from Lithuania a few weeks ago and I just removed the buckle and swapped the shorter strap for the longer one. The short strap was perfect length for the front. Took the long one, put a snap on one end, looped the other thru the ring on the pouch, and used the leather guide loop and a zip-tie thru the back of the pouch to clamp tight temporarily. Still a good bit of excess on that longer one, so I can put the buckle on if the approval team needs to see it on there.

I don't know about those. That material looks more like suede than leather and that color is much lighter. Price is great though. I've been wearing mine occasionally and made them part of my Mandalorian Merc costume over a year ago, so I have them weathered enough. Might run by nearby Journeys (if they're open) and pick these up to wear in non-costumed settings so I don't wear out the other pair before I finish my ST build.

I'll probably end up using threaded posts. Snaps seem too tall, and I want it to sit flush against the armor. Definitely want it removable cause I have a feeling this costume is gonna need repainting quicker than others. Now I just gotta get backplate, shins and helmet so I can start painting it all.

After some thought, the wooden dowel idea made more sense. Thanks. They're attached to a small strip of ABS and I have a single zip-tie temporarily holding onto the hip armor. I guess I could start a WIP thread, but I am doing this so incrementally that I don't feel my full WIP would be helpful for other people to see. I come here for advice on individual parts and when I can't find it, I post, so the info will be easy to find for the next person with the same questions.

I was thinking about just trying to fill the space. Might wrap with paper then add resin.

How long are the shotgun shell things on the rear hip armor? Of course this terrible kit I bought 3rd hand comes with two castings of all 3 shells ends, but putting them together flush looks like they'll be too short.

Pretty happy with my 2 Pringles cans now. Everything is staying "walnut brown" until I have all the building done (except the belt boxes which I painted a while ago). I'm still waiting for a vendor to get me shins and backplate. And ordered a SkyGunBros helmet over 9 weeks ago, so I hope that's coming soon.

Here's the file I came up with if anyone else decides to try this method. I exported as an older Adobe Illustrator file, so most plotter/cutter software should open it. http://negativeeleven.com/bikerscout/ST-belt_cannister.ai It's kinda time consuming, but as long as I can't work because of pandemic, I have time. If anyone wants me to make more, you can PM me. I have plenty more of that light grey sintra (great for mando building as any scratched paint just looks like natural weathering). And just to clarify, the 1/8 inch sintra, around the Pringles can is gonna be a good bit wider than the measurements Mickey gave me up there. I'm pretty tall, so I think it will look close enough, but it's probably at least half an inch wider diameter.

My kit came with a similar setup. It had 2 pair of cover strips (one wide, one narrow), with very shallow return edge. I made molds to vac-form this deeper cover strip with step and sharper corners. Laid it over the soft pull on my ab plate and it dips further in, leaving room to attach back plate on top. I have some spare plastic here if anyone else is having this problem. PM me if you need one.

So, I cut a vinyl decal as a template to make ridges to on a pringles can, cut from sintra. I can share the file later if anyone else wants to try this method. Used aluminum rolled inside 3" pvc pipe to get approx same size form to shape sintra. Sintra is easier to work with than styrene or ABS. I folds more like a sheet of paper when heated, where ABS gets all warped and stretches if you use too much heat. Thin strips of sintra to thicken inner surface. Spot putty, sanding, primer, and paint... And yeah, I cropped photos intentionally to show the other slow-moving project currently occupying most of my garage. 😉

Is there a good reason for splitting the hip piece in front instead of in back? Seems the hips and belt could be put on as a single piece.

Ah, haven't started on the hip setup yet, so I wasn't thinking about how that would need to go between armor and belt.

I guess that answers one question. I do need 5 of the boxes. Kinda glad now that the kit I got was so bad, I cleaned up one box and made a mold to recast rather than fix casts of bad 3d prints. No guidelines for spacing? Just evenly spaced across the front? The buckle doesn't show under that rear armor, so it could just velcro one over the other like most biker scours or even use a quick release clip (if you can find 3in) like the old scout CRL pic. You make no effort to hold it onto the ab plate? Maybe I got a bad ab too. Really seems like it's gonna want to slip down and force the ab up if there isn't some attachment. I've seen some people's builds that make the back coverplate attach to the belt's coverplate/thermal detonator. Why not attach the belt to the front?

Looking at the CRL (Shoretrooper Grunt) before I start punching holes in this belt, i see that it has 3 regular boxes and one long box listed on the belt. The rear belt cover assembly lists another drop box. Is that just one of the ones from the front, or do I need a 5th box? Is there a standard spacing for the 2 center boxes? I assume the others are spaced equally from there based on size of the trooper wearing it. Also, do you attach it to the bottom of the ab armor? I got short binding posts to put the boxes on the belt, but then I thought about it and got some t-nuts to glue on the boxes, and 2 different lengths of screws to put thru: just the belt and belt+bottom edge of ab armor. Using the belt connected to ab and sides and some other strap riveted to top, hidden edge of ab and sides would work like a hinge and save the trouble of having to squeeze into the space where that raised back armor sits. Just taped together, trying to flex the side armor to put it in, I can see myself cracking it in no time.

Thanks! Wonder if 0.2 inch is too far off. I already bought Pringles.

I am asking around and not getting answers from anyone, so here's a post so maybe I can get an answer and it will be easily searchable for other people. What are the dimensions of the 2 rear belt canisters? I just keep hearing the vertical one referred to as "pringles can." Is that accurate? Should I just use a pringles can with slightly larger top/bottom caps? How about the horizontal one? Length, width, width of raised ridges?

from top down, there's gonna be a gap, that's inevitable. Trim if needed to make it look right from front and sides, as that's the way most people will see it. I know when I built my KS helmet, I was worried about that gap cause my experiences were all with resin, one-piece helmets. You may consider getting some nylon spacers (could just cut a slice of PVC pipe wide enough to let bolt pass thru) to hold the visor away from the dome a bit. The KS helmet has a raised bump on the dome part where the visor sits and the visor has an indent, basically making room for them to pivot without as much interference.

i used magnets in my KS helmet cause i was getting real angry with the person taking photos for approval, and their inability to tell me when I hadn't closed the face all the way. Velcro can keep it from closing, magnets will snap it to exactly where it needs to be.

Not sure of size difference, but SC's kit is much easier to assemble and can be put together in a way that doesn't require you to paint it. That is a big deal because painted armor gets dirty faster than bare plastic and you will end up with a helmet that looks very different from your armor.

just did a little square to test the dye and if I use a little less for the whole 2 yards, I think it will be fine. I'm hoping the pattern I used for my mando vest is close to correct. Should i be changing out the middle to make the ribbing vertical or does that not matter as long as a separate neckseal covers and has vertical ribbing? I may be adding the underarm mesh (which I also got from fabric.com) and I think sleeves are pretty simple (made my own biker scout vest years ago).