tk1234

I bought a HIPS helmet off of eBay for $160.00. The quality of the pulls was exquisite. Very accurate. A much better helmet than the KS I bought and assembled (but did not finish) this past summer. The seller has a notorious reputation on this forum, but on Etsy and eBay he seems to have learnt from his mistakes. Anyways, I searched and waited on eBay for 7 weeks before one his kits came up for sale again. Patience has become one of my virtues when it comes to making a Scout costume.

The plastic parts are ABS so I used ABS glue.

I put a 3M helmet liner in my helmet. The mounts on the liner do not match the visor bolt locations on the Scout Helmet. I had to rivet the liner to the helmet just ahead the visor pivot. Once the visor is attached, you can't see the liner rivets. I'm very pleased with my set-up.

Ditto with regards to the KS helmet being a pain to assemble. I've been a scale model builder for over 40 years. However I met my match when it came to the KS helmet. I purchased a CucBlack helmet kit off of eBay, but he used a different name on the auction site. He has a notorious rep on this forum for not following through on deliveries, but I must say on eBay he was super fast. Even though he's a bad seller here, most agree that his products are top-notch - and they are. I really enjoyed putting that helmet together. It's cast exactly like ILM cast their movie helmets... in halves. Fit was great. Price was good too. My noggin can fit inside; I used a helmet liner and still have room for a cooling fan.

I really like my Cucblack helmet kit. I bought it on eBay and he was using different name, but it was him nonetheless. Outstanding molds. Excellent workmanship. The only thing that didn't impress me was the snout. It was a poorly done recast of the DJ resin snout which I already had.

Thank-you.

The square resin part of the T-Bit has two cast Allen heads. Which direction do they face, to the front or the rea?

I tried out the helmet without a fan. I don't like it. I did a temporary install of a 9V fan, it works great. No visor fogging. No moisture accumulation behind the snout from my breath. I'm working to permanently install the fan next.

I was totally blown away by the exquisite workmanship of the SC armor kit. I sent Jeff an email to compliment him on his outstanding product. If you like your SC kit, might I suggest you give him some feedback. It behooves our hobby to let suppliers know they're firing on all cylinders.

I just put a 3M liner in my SC. You can't secure the liner to the inside of the helmet using the plastic bolts. The holes in the liner don't match up to the holes in the visor/bucket. I used the 3M bolts to attach the visor. No issues there. I then riveted the liner to the bucket. The rivets are underneath the visor pivot. You can't see them. I like this approach. The helmet sits squarely on my noggin'.

Hey Micheal, Congrats on the purchase of the undersuit. I bought the exact same one on eBay for $25.00. The coveralls are absolutely perfect. The upper arm patch came off with no issues. And you're correct, the epaulets will need to come off. What I like the best is it has the correct collar and I especially like the elastic cuffs on the legs and arms. And I don't find the material to be too heavy and hot to wear. They won't slide up. I had to split the leg seams to sew the riding patches on. You made an excellent choice.

I'm almost finished my helmet so 8 days ago I decided the time was right to order my armor kit. I was originally planning to go H.I.P.S., but after reading about SC's fast shipping I opted to go ABS and order from SC. Like I said, that was 8 days ago and today I started working on my new armor kit. Unbelievable service - super fast. The kit is absolutely wonderful. Kudos to Jeff.

Sew in two 1" black cotton webbing to the top of the CB. The vest hides the webbing.

Sewn to the CB.

I assembled an ABS helmet kit; I didn't care for the medium at all. I then purchased a HIPS helmet kit. The parts are molded in halves, not as a bucket. I like this assembly method much better, but more than that, I like working with the HIPS. The thickness of the helmet pieces is perfect. HIPS cuts easy and fills and sands nicely. From my helmet experiences, I have no qualms about using HIPS for the body armor pieces. In fact, I'm going to search out the guy that sold me the HIPS helmet kit and order his armor kit next. I hear that his armor is just as accurate as his helmets. But he works in HIPS which does tend to scare off some people.