Harbinger

Glad to hear they are selling kits again. Can’t wait to see your BBB day!

Make sure to use the ‘thin cut’ blade if you have one. More forgiving.

Nice work.

Can only weigh in #2. Full disclosure, my bucket is an RS ABS 5-piece, not fiberglass. When I don’t wear the chin strap I get more ‘wobble’ but it doesn’t really seem to effect front-to-back balance, I have to ply around with the tightness of the hard hat liner to address that.

Great work. Love the 3D printed tube holders.

Oh, absolutely. I’m going to do a spot test of some gloss clear-coat (brand TBD) to see if I spot any cracks over the next couple months. If not I’m going to move forward with spraying the whole helmet, if not I may just break down and repaint the whole thing. Weathering my armor hangs on it, so I’d like to figure it out sooner than later, as you would imagine I do not want to have to repaint the helmet twice. 😅

Whatever rationale, seems they changed it. Check out this recruits RS commission they just received, looks like gloss to me: http://forum.501stpathfinders.com/index.php?/topic/23372-gunrunners-wip-build/

I’d second Dennis’ option and just rivet the topper+tank. You may not even need to drill, those rivets get pretty flat on the breakaway side (usually).

I have the same bin as well, and I also have no issue fitting everything in there. I haven’t been able to fit the tray, but my helmet is in a bag like yours. Maybe that’s the trick.

I just upgraded to a UA heat gear balaclava this weekend, wow what a difference.

Congrats Sha Sha! You made a ton of progress quite quickly. Now just have to go forth and troop, just make sure to watch for trees.

Great choice! I also built my own RS kit. Some people put magnets in the bucket to keep the visor closed. I think @AradunFF just did it?

Speaking from very recent experience - where does either option put the ‘seam’? If it isn’t centered on your shoulders it may pull your shoulder bells back/forward. Hope I’m making sense.

Sweet, I had a feeling you’d come around to the biker side eventually. Looking forward to your build. Jealous of you UK folks who are local to RS and chef though.

Hey Rob! First tank topper pic looks better to me, reference photo may help you here: You can let the overlap out quite a bit, that looks like too much on your chest/back IMO. May help to throw some elastic or tape at the bottom to pull them together too, before you trim anything, as that may change how they fit.

You did it!

I was able to pick up an old back massager from a rummage sale down the street. I spotted the gray extension cord from a mile away – looked pretty close to the perfect shade. Immediately I set out to redo my TD with a non-sticky, non-painted wire: I scraped all the old paint off the inside tube, and wrapped the new cord after splitting it down the middle. I stopped about an inch shorter than the original wire, since it was hidden by the plastic portion anyway, I figured I might as well save some weight (plus, I wasn’t sure if I would have enough): All told, it looks pretty good. I like that it is a little lighter and warmer in tone, closer to the ones used on set. It will be really nice being able to pick it up and not worry about paint transfer or the tackiness. There are a few cuts and nicks on the wire, expected on a used item; once I weather it, I’m sure it won’t even be noticeable.

Most don’t use them, as Mickey stated… but I’ve read of people being able to fit a single low-profile fan in their bucket.

It looks… fine? The angle is a little bit off obviously, but it doesn’t look wrong. There’s plenty of material to fold it over, it’s is about 2 1/4” tall. I’ll take a pic next time I’m in my bin.

The obsessive part of me is willing to take chances of having to repaint the entire bucket. But I will probably try a test but first, like the inside of the visor or something. Have a question regarding the CRL change, if I wanted to convert my Kriptontop flight suit -would I be good to go by removing the velcro and trimming the collar here?

It looks pretty reflective to my eyes in all the reference shots above.

Just about ready to weather my scout - a couple line items I need to address first. The first will be redoing the wire wrapped TD, as the clear never cured and it's been tacky, and I'd like to fix it before putting more paint on it. The search for the correct gray lamp cord continues, but I have a couple of promising leads. Will report back. Second will be exploring a clear coat for my bucket, as the RS buckets ship in what I think is an eggshell or satin finish - and I'd like it to match my armor. Am looking into the rattle can 2K clear coat products that have been mentioned in other threads. Anyway, on to the weathering... I've been doing a lot of research on the 'Hero' AKA 4-bar scout that captures Leia. Since I chose to model my build after this particular biker, I'm going to try and replicate his weathering (and eventually, I'll need the other EC-17 with the drilled front barrel and scope and extra bolt on back!). I was able to pull a bunch of 4K screen caps and thankfully, the same scout shows up outside the bunker later in the film. Here's our favorite scout capturing some rebel scum from the Scoutpedia: Here's some reference shots of the same scout helmet weathering: And right side: (Anyone else notice his TD is held on with white zip ties? ) Note the telltale weathering on the helmet: ..and the same weathing on the right-most scout at the bunker. Scoutpedia reference shot: Here's some good reference of his left side weathering from the whole sequence: You can see the same weathering (including the very weathered right cheek) in the Scoutpedia BTS shot: Another good shot of the armor here on a bike: The Blu-Ray has a good shot of the tank but it appears to be a frankenstein'd suit so not much else I'd trust: ...Anyway, a good place to start. I can't expect to replicate it perfectly, but I'll try my best.

Tried Mickey’s inside out method – I would add to use a gentle detergent (Woolite etc.), and make sure to zip it up once turned inside out. Not sure it’s something I want to do more than once or twice a year though, the Febreze trick is probably a good in-between troop option.

To add to Dennis’ excellent advice, I would say hold off on any type of fine tuning until you’ve had a chance to wear your costume (ideally, at a troop). Your suit and body will tell you what isn’t working.

Looking good, approval is close I’m sure! Your dropboxes look a little low (more of a L2/ fitment issue) and it’s hard to tell if the inverted curve detail is present on your codpiece: Assume your cod is from IB as well? May just be hard to see.