Chopper

New image of the mountain trooper from a garrison-mate and fellow pathfinder. Looks like there's been some changes to the helmet.

Congrats Pathfinder!

What was the helmet you purchased?

I've heard some more recent issues about their pulls being soft. The ones I've seen in my garrison were a few years old but they looked ok. The KS helmet is slightly larger than the SC helmet and uses a similar construction. It's reasonably accurate enough, though the Lone Wolf and RS helmets are both more accurate. If you go that way, get the kit. If you buy it assembled from KS, they'll use 3M tape to pit it together, which is not an ideal construction method.

Yep. I used artists curve tape. Worked pretty well. https://www.dickblick.com/products/scotch-artist-tape-for-curves/?clickTracking=true&wmcp=pla&wmcid=items&wmckw=24108-1016&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9Yza_tH-5QIVi5OzCh1suQEWEAQYASABEgLbLfD_BwE

Tim is 100% right. Incandescent vs fluorescent vs LED lighting will all cast shades of white differently.

Roger that chief.

The crux of it is to get a close match the grey colors between the snout and decals. The colors you've mentioned have been our best matches so far. At the extreme, no one should be running the decal and snout colors through pantone matching to make sure they're the exact same for clearance, even for level 2. That's taking it a bit too far! Just make sure the colors are close and generally in the same ballpark (i.e. you def shouldn't have light grey decals and a dark grey snout) and you should be good. I like to spray a scrap piece of plastic with a color and then compare it with the decal. Personally I've found the testors navy aggressor grey to be a good choice.

I think I mentioned it in the other thread, but the helmet bolts appear white in the screen shots. "Bolts are white in color and are either flat or have concave centers"?

I used rustoleum painter's touch 2x ultra cover on my RS helmet. Flat white for primer and gloss white for finishing coats. If you want to do weathering, I used tamiya matte black spray cans. The spray is finer and closer to an air brush, which is the effect you're looking for. As Dart said, start with a flat primer and wet sand any imperfections. After you've finished with the primer, clean it and make sure it's thoroughly dry before adding any additional coats. Spray paint can be finicky wrt temp and humidity, so check the instructions. Pro tip -- go ahead a get one of those plastic spray handles to attach to the rattle cans. It helps with laying down even coats. I also built a lazy susan spray stand, so I could rotate the helmet while painting. Clear coat can yellow over time, so I opted not to use it on my helmet.

I would wait and put the decals on last.

Oooh. The pull marks? No, it is not. I would reach out to Jeff immediately. I imagine he'll make good on it.

Yeah you'd need to repaint after filling using devcon. It has a yellow color once it cures. One advantage of using your excess plastic scrap with abspaste is that you don't need to be repainted after sanding, bc the paste is the same color as the helmet. I've also seen people use white caulk, but it doesn't take paint well and will turn yellow over time.

If you save your trimmings from kit construction, you can make abs paste to fill the seam. There's a good explanation on whitearmor: https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/42866-how-to-make-abs-paste/

Looks like the rotator bolts are white/same color as the helmet.

I know some scouts in the Florida Garrison, though not necessarily in your squad. Perhaps you could try some of theirs on, or you could get in touch with scouts closer to you? @Barber? @PhinScout?

FYI, MonCal offers their products in runs, so you'd have to check with them as to when their next scheduled run is. SC has a pretty quick turnaround, esp if you're ordering the unassembled kit.

With a 21.5" head circumference, pretty much any scout helmet will fit. Of the available helmets, the SC helmet is the smallest. The Altmann and Kriptontop helmets are the largest. The RS props and Lonewolf helmets are about in the middle in terms of sizes. Hope that helps. Let us know if you have further questions.

Helmet size, 3D, or otherwise, can vary depending on the maker. I believe this photo came from Mon Cal, but here are the relative dimensions of the original screen used helmet if you're interested in seeing how it compares to the 3D model you purchased.

Update -- finished a review of the new Praetorian holdout blaster vs the DVH blaster here: http://forum.501stpathfinders.com/index.php?/topic/20915-praetorian-biker-scout-holdout-blaster-comparison-and-review/

Hey everyone, so I recently picked up one of the new Praetorian Biker Scout holdout blasters. As you can see in their thread here, they were able to 3D scan one of the original holdout blasters from ROTJ. Having done a comparison on various other available blasters in a previous thread, I thought it might be useful to compare the new Praetorian biker scout blaster against what I would consider the current top tier scout blaster -- the Darth Voorhees (DVH) blaster. Weight and Construction: Both blasters are molded from rubber, though I believe the Praetorian blaster uses foam internals, similar to the old Hyperfirm blasters. The DVH blaster is slightly lighter. However, the Praetorian uses a molded trigger guard vs. DVH's metal guard. Also the DVH blaster has magnets molded into the rubber, which the Praetorian does not. Praetorian: DVH: Size, Shape, and Features: As noted in Pandatrooper's original scout blaster thread here, as well as seen on the original 3D scan used by Praetorian, the original scout blasters did not have a hex nut on the back side of the blaster. There is a hex nut used on the "hero blaster", used by the scout who captured Leia, but the hero blaster also used a drilled blaster nozzle and scope. Still, this is a small detail and certainly not a deal-breaker, given the model's lineage. Otherwise, size and shape seem nearly identical, which is a testament to Lou/DVH's work in creating an outstanding screen derived blaster! DVH on the left. Praetorian on the right. Overall: It's pretty close. Both have different factors going for them and I would consider either blaster to be extremely accurate for what you get. There is a price difference -- the DVH blaster is currently $100. The Praetorian blaster is $150. Hope this small review ends up being useful for all you scouts out there. -Chopper

I did some ratio comparisons on the STG44 vs the screen used DLT20, since they share the same handle, and, as best I can tell, the entire length should be 94cm/37inches.

Looks good bud!

That is a bonkers amount of cash.

Those look like the scout boots from Imperial Boots, is that correct? I've seen a number of examples of their boots in the past, but this is the first time I've seen the dog bones protrude onto the soles. They should be fine for basic clearance, but will not pass for level 2 (Lancer) as is.