bugdozer

I've got my second troop on Saturday. Stay tuned for a post from me on Sunday moaning about how my tank fell off.

I cheated with mine, because the tension on the rivet was going to deform the plastic slightly and widen the gaps round the edges of the tank. So what I did was put a small rivet in for show (it doesn't attach to anything), then made a hole in the backplate and put a "rod" of spare plastic through the hole to the base of the rivet, and glued one end to the inside of the tank and the other to the inside of the backplate. So far, it's proved to be very sturdy.

Welcome! Glad to hear the Biker presence is increasing in Japan

I have hand washed mine once, and put it through the washing machine once. Suede still looks just as before.

I'd be interested to hear from those who have made their own vacformed scout armour, just how many actual man-hours are involved in making it?

So.. that's regular scout, Kashyyyk scout (camo), Kashyyyk scout (white), Swamp scout, Snow scout and Shadow scout as the officially allowed ones, which is 6 in total. The Aquatic scout must be number 7. Any others?

One of the UK Garrison troopers is working on an Aquatic Scout, which I believe is a scout variant from one of the comics. He showed me the artwork.

Are there any actual swamp troopers in the 501st? I notice that the picture in the costume refs looks like the regular scout photoshopped into a different colour. I hate to say it but I do think the bright green scheme is somewhat silly.

This is true. It would be much better to take a non-refundable deposit rather than the whole amount.

Nice one, Trooper!

It's interesting see just how many different ideas we all use to solve common problems, yet keep the outward appearance of our costumes identical! I'm lucky that my bund doesn't seem to sag, so I have no method of holding it up - but then again, I haven't done a long troop yet, I'm still a newbie. Maybe I'll be unpleasantly surprised in future...

Welll done!

I found needle files were really useful.

Even Steve Sansweet can't get his hands on a LW.

Wow, that's amazing! I'd never have guessed that helmet started as card.

For people like me who aren't familiar with this technique, can you explain how you're going to turn this into an actual hard helmet?

Fantastic! Congratulations to her.

Except that if word goes round that your order gets ignored, he might find that his orders begin to dwindle. I'm lucky enough to not be in the position of needing to order armour, but if I was a newbie, there's no way in hell I'd order MC kit after reading this thread. Bear in mind that some who want to join the 501st would have a biker scout as their first choice of costume... but if faced with a choice between so-so armour you can get quickly, or better armour that might take over a year, it's enough to tip them into thinking "Stuff that, I will be a TK/Tie Pilot/Guy who says "You Rebel Scum" instead, because I know I can get the costume faster without compromising quality". We have no way of measuring how many people that now wear other costumes would have been biker scouts if there were not ridiculous wait times from their chosen manufacturer. We have no way of knowing how many orders MC is losing because of this thread, but you can bet there will be some.

This (and the posts indicating that others have been queue jumped) smacks of the provider not realising that the customers are talking to each other. It could be worth someone dropping them a line indicating that they know what service others are receiving and suggesting they shape up.

I have so much velcro on my armour I went for an alternative solution - magnets! I have magnets glued to the inside of the undersuit and the inside of the armour pieces. It works very well, but of course the downside is I can't put it in the washing machine as they'll stick to the drum or get pulled off and do damage to something critical.

I have a CF helmet and it looks great when it's all together. Definitely one of the most accurate models out there.

The standard advice is to sand across the seam, but I found that sometimes created a tiny "step" where the outside edge of the filler met the helmet (presumably caused by it flaking off at the edge when it got thin). Sanding along the seam removed that.

Fair enough. But whichever part you make first is the bit all the others have to fit around!

Surely that's not a real screen scout? The fit of the tank on the backplate is way too good!

I don't know if it's just the picture, but is there something in your right ear hole?