Chopper

Yes, as Troy mentioned, you can drill out the rivets from that tank topper and replace it with an a la carte one purchased from Studio Creations. Out of curiosity, is that a WTF tank topper? I know the WTF topper is a bit oversized, so my only concern would be that the rivet you put on the far right would leave a hole that wouldn't be covered by the replacement tank topper. Don Jarr in the UK has a larger tank topper that should fit and would work, especially if you're not looking for Level 2 approval. https://www.djdesigns.net/product/starwars_biker_scout_tank_top_plate

Unfortunately, I don't think there's a whole lot that you can do about that tank topper. Even if you could find and re-glue the broken part, the break would remain a weak point and it would likely just snap off again. It looks like you have several rivets through the tank topper. Is it heavily glued down as well? How easy would it be for you to remove and replace it? If you can't remove it, another option would be to sand the broken area into a bit of an indented divot, find some thicker abs scrap to cut into a same sized rectangle, paint it black, and glue it into the divot. Again, the glued join area would still be a weak point and at risk of snapping again.

Yes, and I felt similar in my review as well. I still think that Gio would benefit from just producing an underboot with the Sierra sole, which would give folks the option for doing their own leather or vinyl covering instead. It'd be less work on his side as well.

Gotcha, thanks for the photos. You don't need to remove the liner. If you need additional padding to help secure the helmet on your head, you might be able to sew some hook side velcro to the standard helmet pads mentioned above, which hopefully should grab the interior lining.

Oh, you must have the red label version? How's the hard hat liner affixed on the red label version? Photos?

Looks good dude. Nice work retrofitting the hard hat liner in your bucket.

Hey folks -- Like several of you, I was in the initial run that Gio/Crowprops did of the scout boots + gloves. I thought it might be helpful to share some my feedback and perspective on both. BOOTS First off the boot soles are fantastic! The color is good and the details are dead on. It's not a stretch to say that the soles are probably the biggest draw of these boots. The separation between the boot and the sole are covered with the strip of leather, as the screen boots were, but there's a bit of a gap between the sole and vamp, which gives the strip an angled look. This is primarily apparent when looking front on: It's also apparent when looking top down as well. Less so from the side The dogbone is loose and is not secured to the boot underneath Here's what the under boot looks like: Note that there's no tongue in the underlying boot, which may be the cause of some of the shaft issues I'll describe later There's a velcro strap added to help keep the boot up, which is useful, though it results in a long stitch mark. As best I can tell, the stitching should be fully covered by most vendor's holsters. Also, the added lining to the leather in the shaft is a nice touch, even though it wasn't present in the original boots. My biggest issue with the boots is the odd way to shafts attach under the dog bone. In the photo it looks like the shafts were flattened in shipping, but they actually fall that way due to how they're attached to the boot vamp. There's an odd pinch at the base of the front of the boot, which I suspect is due to the shaft being attached too low on the boot. GLOVES Also included were some biker scout gloves. Below are some comparisons with the gloves available from Wampa Wear. Wampa Wear at top, Crowprops at bottom The Crowprops gloves seem small, especially at the flared wrist portion. The gloves are also missing some details on the palm side, such as the zippered pocket near the cuff. There is also some cinch stitching on the palm side that wasn't present on the Wampa gloves. FINAL COMMENTS There is a tremendous potential in this boot. Just having an accurate Sierra Sneaker sole alone is a massive benefit to the scout community, and for that I'm extremely grateful. I think this boot still needs some adjustments -- especially where the shaft meets the boot, which appears to be too low. I can't speak to how difficult an alteration this would be, but it would improve the overall appearance immensely. I would also suggest that perhaps Crowprops could offer the Sierra Sneaker sole affixed to an underboot, without the leather or coverings. This would allow scouts to build their own boots over an accurate base boot and sole.

Are you referring to the ridge on the back? The ridge is also present in the CRL image of the back armor. For both the front and back armor from Chef's Creations, you should be fine for both level 1 and level 2 approval.

What am I working on? I've currently got a stalled ShoreTrooper Captain that's hanging over me and really need to finish.

You don't need any of bottom 3 parts for your helmet assembly. All you need are the rotator bolts at the top, and the black plastic nuts just below them.

Yes, the elastic is riveted on the inside of the top as well as the bottom. As per the CRL: .5 inch elastic strap anchored to the tank rivets on top and bottom and loops around the inside of the back armor. There is some variation with the tank topper mounting, with some being closer to the back armor than others. The following is from the gallery in the CRL, so you can't go wrong there: If there's a return edge on the bottom of the back armor, it's really small, probably < 1mm. Most of the armor I've seen doesn't have a return edge on the bottom of the back plate and there's no specification requiring one.

There's a partial helmet build thread with photos here: http://forum.501stpathfinders.com/index.php?/topic/20405-tb-80225-wtf-helmet-build/&tab=comments#comment-185533 Generally though, it'd follow same assembly process as the other 5 piece hemets, such as RS or Cf0/Strider. A good build thread for the RS helmet is here: http://forum.501stpathfinders.com/index.php?/topic/18869-my-first-helmet-built-rs/

From the top? Yeah, I think that'd do it. I wouldn't do any more until you actually get it positioned on your boot.

Oh sorry, I just realized that Ross at RWA is doing the trimming for you. I'd stick with the green line. It's always easier to do more trimming once you receive your armor, than to try and tack more material on after the fact.

Have your boots arrived yet? It's easier to determine the holster trimming if it's placed against your boot.

Yessir, I'm guessing another 1mm-ish + trimmed off would do it. @pben Here's a good image to use for reference:

I have mine as well. I'll have a review forthcoming soon.

To attach the elastic to the armor? That's not a super common method, but as a contact cement it should work. I've used E6000 to attach elastic to my silicone sandy handguards, so it should be ok with ABS as well. For best adhesion I'd recommend putting E6000 on both the armor side, as well as the elastic side, and then letting the glue off-gas for like 5 minutes before joining the two. And as with all things, I recommend you test it on one part before gluing all of your elastic!

That looks quite excellent. Great work!

Hold on any further drilling please, Phil. The armory team will get back to you.

See if a magnet sticks to them. Aluminum rivets are fairly easy to drill out. Steel is much, much more difficult.

By any chance did you originally use steel or aluminum rivets?

Congrats Vanguard!

Your collar height looks ok. The rest of your neck would be covered by your balaclava. You should be good.

Yeah, if you're not intending on painting it then you're definitely going to need higher grits than 100 and 200. Those will work fine for the bulk work, but to make it all look seamless, then you'll need to get into the higher grit levels for smoothing and polishing.