Harbinger

Just means the universe forced your hand into getting the welding lens.

I didn’t know you could un-texture leather... good to know.

I am erring on the side of caution and reinforcing the weak points, which to me is: - Chest “V” notch - Knee upper elastic (rivet) attachment point - Bicep/forearm/knee elastic passthrough “slots” Even then I’m not as worried as I would be with say, an Anovos kit as the plastic RS uses is quite a bit thicker.

The RS kit came with the 6-bar decal, but I am indeed going for the four bar version (anyone need a tank decal?). I used the strips on the helmet as reference, along with screen images, to come up with my measurements. I may eventually replace the TD clips with more accurate ones, but for now decided I’d rather not modify the ones RS sent me.

Thought I’d add my TD measurements since I didn’t see them elsewhere and it may help others... there is a range as depending on how tall/skinny/short/etc. you are, these could change to maintain the correct proportions: The clips appear to be about half-way between the caps and detonator, which is about two inches on an RS piece. YMMV.

Way to go!

I got my armor & helmet less than a month ago and mine is painted flat. I've argued several times that they aren't flat, not even in the film. You can see the hard edges indicative of gloss (or at minimum, semi-gloss) on the helmets in the film. If they were flat/eggshell/satin you would get much more diffused reflections.

I was going to see if I can throw some semi-gloss clear over mine (automotive paint ideally) without ruining the (waterslide?) decals. I don't know why they don't paint the buckets to match the armor... makes no sense to me.

Working on my back/tank whilst I wait for new paint (see my last update). After much questioning and reference of screen used images I'm pretty sure they used 2mm and 6mm pinstriping for the "hero" aka 4-bar tank, not 1/8" & 1/4". Based on the image below, if you look the pinstripes look <50% the thickness of the bars: Since I have a vinyl cutter, I will cut my own decals. I pulled a bunch of images in Illustrator and roughed out sizes - looks to be about 8" wide for the pinstriping/box area, with 2mm thick pinstripes, and the bars are roughly 6mm X 38mm: I'm sure the costumers on set didn't get this exact, and the ones we see probably vary wildly but this is what I came up with so that's what I'll use.

Well poly is what's in stock locally so that works for me!

Hey Mickey, another newb question - I know it doesn't matter for approval, but ideally the nylon rubbing runs the entire length behind the belt? Do people glue it down so it doesn't move in that case? Also, CRL says nylon or poly are acceptable but do we know what the films used?

Looks like Hobby Lobby has it in stock: https://www.hobbylobby.com/Fabric-Sewing/Sewing-Quilting-Notions/Elastic/Black-Braided-Elastic---1-2"/p/50368

Looking good so far, can't wait for my soft goods to arrive.

Long story short, I spent about thrity bucks on some custom tan(ish) spray paint for the soles... total waste of money. Can was a sputtery mess, and it took me a good hour to clean (most) of the paint off the soles. Hopefully the few polka dots remaining can be covered up by the $6 can of Rustoleum that will be here Monday - they make a product for vinyl and plastic that allegedly will work decently on rubber. The color won't be as accurate, but, meh. Probably for the best, I want something that I can easily buy to do field repair, I do not expect any paint to stick well to rubber and stay on there troop after troop after troop.

Detonator finished: I hit the tube with another coat of primer and a coat of satin clear.

My gloves (Wampa Wear) arrived, as did the cotton webbing and 1/2” clip to make my tank detachable (Mickey did this and I think it’s genius!). I also finished rubber-banding the soles (still need to fill some seams): Started on my TD. Needed to drill holes for the zip-tie and add a slight curve to the bottom: Painted the tube as well. This primer seemed to be the best match I could find locally: Removed the clips from my gloves, I found some pruning snips worked best to get as close to the seam as possible:

From another thread: Unrelated but if this pre-production picture is representative of the final version looks like they riveted the dropbox strap to the belt in the back. Hmm...

IF you do that you might as well restrict ROTJ Lancer to Strider and RS... I think it's a bad idea IMO. Most people won't want to be locked into a single vendor.

This is going to be amazing when done, nice.

Do any of these models use a PVC or other tube/pipe as a base for stability/durability? I've held off on buying or printing one as all the ones on the market now are either PLA or rubber (heavy). Wish I'd gotten in on one of the DSP runs...

Another day of work. Starting adding the horizontal stripe to my sierras: I am using E6000 to glue the rubber bands to the sole, and a “extra flexible” latex caulk to fill the gaps so it looks smooth. I also wrapped my detonator tube: (Mine is closer to 11.5” as a 12” long tube felt too long on my waist.)

Mickey, do you remember what thickness of pinstriping you used for your tank? I’m going to go with the 4-bar myself.

Looks pretty good to me.

No mention in the CRL of how the rear portion of the straps attaches to the belt. Most build threads seem to be using snaps. Is that the best method? Do we know how the films did it? Thanks.

What sheen? All of the light gray spray paints I can find are either flat or full gloss.