mr paul

After having the shoulder buckle printed and in hand I am able to hold it against my armour and make further revisions. It needed to be chunkier in general and wider in order for it to match the width of the Deathtrooper V-ring that slots under the front edge on the DT costume. The back corners were rounded off a bit more as well.

First resin cast of the new shoulder buckles. Very pleased with the quality, detail and the finish of them.

Here is my finished belt set up with scratch built hard belt cover. In the last picture you can see there is variation on the screen used costumes where items (except the TD as that is always central) are fixed to the belt or that could infact be a difference in length of the belt cover. I have positioned mine so that they tie in with the belt boxes on the belt, have enough space between them and the TD and also how they relate with the cylinders and oiler pouch attached to the skirt armour.

Very pleased so far with my new scratch built belt cover. A much more accurate shape and size. The last belt box either side can now overlap the ends of the hard belt as seen on the screen used costumes. Hopefully this will help contour my profile a little more and help slim my silhouette.

Comparison of the Hot Toys 1/6th figure next to my kit. Quite pleased with the similarity. I really hope Back Stage Props make available the separate components in the new year so I can switch out parts and alternate between Grunt/Captain and Squad leader.

Cutting the collar has worked and looks better than it did but not as great as I would like however it is an improvement. I have mocked it up with the rough print shoulder buckle and I think it will look fab with the ramps and the supgraded shoulder straps. Need to take the return edge down a notch around the neck as well.

I have been messing about with the BSP collar. I wanted to completely scratch build a new one and have it fixed to the back and then slot into the chest at the front like the screen used. Instead of such a drastic solution I have opted to recut the BSP so it fits a little better. The green arrow indicates the improved side of the collar and the red shows how it looked previously. A slight improvement. I will live with it for a bit. Need to fill the ends of the collar and tidy them up/square them off.

] Waiting on the printer to finish it off in preparation for me moulding it. A couple of weeks at the most and I should have it in hand with a bit of luck.

Some bits and bobs I have been making recently.

Thank you Neil

I decided to sharpen up the counter sunk hole on top of the back box. Not too tricky. Cut up a bottle cap, cut a hole, glued into place then fill/sand until flush. It's a little out of alignment but a whole lot sharper than before. Also with some tricksy painting highlighted the trough that runs next to it. This feature is present on the BSP kit but very soft in detail so this helped make it pop without any surgery.

Nice picture here showing the difference between the textured surface of the bucket next to the smooth surface of the armour.

I was humbled to discover that Star Wars concept model artist and costume prop maker Neil Ellis had noticed my Shoretrooper costume build. Not only was he responsible for making parts of the original Shoretrooper armour (amongst many other ridiculously awesome things), he also kindly pointed out to me that the back box details of the Shoretrooper were originally taken from the rubber belt of the L1 droid. Another of Neils many projects.

The JSP chin cup arrived. I am satisfied there is no way the red/white/blue elastic strap that comes with the cup was used for the screen used buckets. It's too narrow and the weave is wrong. I have opted for the 19mm black polypropylene webbing. I painted the cup with Halfords matt black, threaded the webbing through, utilised a couple of metal sliders from an old Swedish army back pack and attached these to the metal d-rings I have already fastened into the helmet each side. I am happy now.

I have experimented with 19mm polypropylene webbing in the chin cup (baring in mind I am still using the wrong cup but I am assuming it will be very similar in size to the JSP) and it gives the correct pinch as it threads through the slot in the chin. 15mm elastic/webbing does not do this. Also there is around 16 threads in the warp of the webbing on the screen used strap which closely matches the 19mm black polypropylene.

So may as well do the chin strap properly while I am at it. Mr Culpepper sent me a link to what looks like the screen accurate chin cup however I am not convinced yet the coloured strap was blackened then used. It looks like 15mm polypropylene webbing was used so I will have a look at that as well. If the weave in the red/black/white strapping looks good I may dye it as elastic would be useful but if not then webbing it is. It also appears that some of the chin cups were fitted upside down and others were not so I think I will go with the most comfortable option

I have just been given a link to a screen accurate chin cup so will switch it over when it arrives.

I have added a chin strap to the Anovos bucket. I have a couple laying around and I had some 15mm webbing and a spare 10 minutes. I have attached some chunky D-rings to the insides of the helmet with some velcro to make some mounting points. The chin strap is then threaded through them and fixed with the plastic sliders that the cups came with. All adjustable and removable. I must say it does increase the stability of the bucket on your head. There are easier ways and I expect more accurate ways of mounting the strap but I have been wanting to use those D-rings on something for a while.

Received some update pictures of my new parts I am having printed.

Quick mods to the BSP back box. Thickened the lower beam on the vents with a strip of plastic. Also carefully cut out some foamex to add the step under the back box. All painted and weathered to hide the crimes.

Thank you Theo!

Thank you Chris really pleased you appreciate it.

Some comparison pics with some screen shots.

Some pictures showing my updated and finished skirt armour. Lightweight, very flexible and functional. I am very happy with the shape of it. It does all the right things as it curves around the waist. Because it flairs off the hip it allows the breeches to puff out at the thigh. The hinge down the front of each side allows for the legs to be lifted to full height and working in unison with my articulated long box there is no restriction to movement.