greenyone

Like i said in a previous post. I don't see much difference in the air flow with only running one fan over two at the same time. That being said, I wired both of these fans up individually. So I have one on either side of the snout with the wires running up toward the top of the visor. I had to leave a little slack in the wires for the face to open/close. From there I split the ground wire up to a little push button switch. The switch is sitting in a recessed area behind the ear hole so it does not interfere with my face/head. I can slip a thumb up there with the helmet on to cycle the switch. The batteries are mounted in the recessed tube shaped area of the back of the helmet. I opted to use sticky velcro keep the wires in place. Some sticky hooks on the inside of the helmet small pieces of loops (non-adhesive) cut to go over the wires. Again, I mounted 2 fans so the other side of the helmet would be a mirror image of the one in the picture below. I'll probably only run 1 fan at a time. If one fan depletes it's battery mid-troop I can simply cycle it off and turn on the other one without having to take off the helmet for a battery swap. I'm really liking this little setup. Even when you are not dealing with a fogging lens, the gentle breeze it blows across your face is surprisingly pleasant.

Just to give you an idea on the run-time. The fans (load )are .2A and the batteries are 3000mAh. The math says that these blowers should run for 15 hours if each fan is run by it's own battery. (7.5 hrs if running them both from the same battery) Obviously I've done zero testing, but if I get through a 2-3 hour troop without fogging up and having a little breeze on my face with a full charge I'll be more than satisfied.

Soldered up matching connectors to the batteries and charger leads. I think I'll postpone fitting all of this into the helmet until I determine if these cheapo batteries and charger actually take a charge. Similar to a lot of the very low priced Asian no-name ebay/amazon stuff, this charger came with zero documentation. The amazon listing simply said the lights go out when the battery is fully charged. Now we wait.

I made one pouch from the HF drop clothe for comparison to my heavy white cotton ones (drill fabric). I hate it. Personally I think a dirtied up, dyed or stained version of the white drill fabric is a better choice than the duck cloth. It's a tighter weave than duck, easier to sew and less fraying.

Currently still working on my own little custom system. Still sorting out the parts I plan on using. You can follow here:

Still sorting this out. Experimenting a bit more with these little blower fans. At first I was going to try and use the very common 18650 cells. The length and height of the cylindrical cells are proving to be difficult to fit inside the helmet without interfering with my welding helmet liner and head. I've turned my attention to these flat profile 704070 cells. I believe these are used in things like video game controllers, drones, cordless phones etc.. Like the 18650 cells, these are 3.7v (actually a bit over 4v fully charged) however they boast a 3000mah capacity which is a slight upgrade over the 2500mah rating on the 18650's. I found a cheap little USB charging device that should work for these batteries too. Unfortunately the style of connectors on the battery and charger are not a match. Some snipping, splicing and soldering will need to be performed so these become plug and play. Links to the parts I'm playing with: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L2P5ZJB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0798C4712/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TF8CTZL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076JFFDWN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RMGVBKL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I don't think there is a printable pattern, but there is a photo with dimensions in this thread. All you need is a ruler and some paper to make an actual pattern based on this design.

I Agree with Peter. My 2 cents. Having just finished up a TB costume, I'd recommend buying 2 RedKap suits. Reason being....I got one using their sizing chart reference and ended up taking so much material out of it that I may have been better off starting with one that is a size smaller. Anyway...Get one using the sizing chart on their product website and then get another 1 size smaller. Coveralls. as they call them are generally made to fit over clothes. For that reason they run kinda big. So try on both and make a decision on which one to send back.

After wearing my bucket a few times in the summer heat & humidity I'm having the dreaded lens fog issue. I do have a gap where the lower portion of the lens meets the face plate, but that's not working in this weather. I tried some anti-fog that I use with my motorcycle helmet. That works pretty good, but after awhile the condensation builds up to the point there are actual water droplets on the lens. So no fogging, but water. It's almost like the lens is being sprayed with a mist, then once the droplets become large enough they run down the lens. I eventually have to take off the helmet and wipe the lens. Not a big deal, but every time you wipe the lens you are probably also wiping off some of the anti-fog spray coating. So re-application is necessary for the best performance. I see that there are some nice ready to use squirrel cage fan options (harry's for example), but in looking at the dimensions of those fans and battery pack I worry that I won't have room in my resin MC bucket to accommodate that system. I picked up a pair of these little 5v fans on Amazon to do some testing combined with a single 3.7 18650 Li battery. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RMGVBKL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 My thoughts were that they are small enough to fit a couple on either side of the inside of my snout/faceplate with some simple velcro attachment. The velcro is nice in that I could move them around to find the best position for anti-fog performance. So after fiddling with these things in different positions here is my conclusions. Mind you I have not tested this while trooping yet...just around the house. 1. A single fan seems to perform just as well as running two separately powered fans. 2. Positioning the fans with the air flow direction pointing up toward the lens clears the fog better than down and out of the bucket. (surprised me too) 3. The lens does still tend to fog for a split second on exhale, (especially when talking or breathing through the mouth) but clears almost instantly on inhale. 4. You can hear the fan running inside the helmet but it's virtually unnoticeable to the ears from the outside. (my wife said she couldn't hear it sitting 2 feet away) With all this in mind I think I'll go with this setup for now. 1 fan mounted in front of my mouth/nose powered by a single 18650 cell mounted in the back of the helmet with a small on/off switch. We'll see how long the battery lasts. Although I'm anticipating needing to carry a spare charged cell in one of my belly pouches.

Having worn my bucket a few times I'm having issues with the lens fogging up. I know this has been discussed at great length in other parts of the forum but I'm going to attempt my own flavor of fan system. I'm not looking for a complete cooling system here, just something to either move some air across the lens or move my breath out from behind the face-plate. I'm using the MC resin bucket. It's obviously a bit thicker than the ABS lids, so space inside it at a premium. I'm hoping these little 5v brushless blower fans combined with a 3.7v 18650 cell (or two) will be small enough to fit somewhere in this lid.

I just got a vest from him via Etsy. I was a bit leery ordering from him based on his past experience as a vendor here on the forum, but the options on getting anything but a "jersey stretch" (t-shirt material) vest seem to be thin nowadays. I wanted something more substantial like Kriptontop makes. On the suggestions of Corey, Mickey and others here on the forum, I made sure to choose the FedEx shipping option and received the vest trouble free in about 4-6 weeks.

Don't forget to compensate for the extra layers when you are making this stuff. Meaning, you'll ultimately have an undershirt, undersuit, flak-vest on under that bund.

It's official TB 41200 Starkiller Garrison reporting for duty.

It's all in the CRL. Just parse through the level 2 stuff and take inventory of the widths and types of strapping. As far as the hip drop box buckles go, they come with the SC armor kit. So if you still plan on buying from them you won't need to worry about sourcing buckles yourself. As far as tackling the soft parts goes, I found out very quickly find that there is not a whole lot you can confidently sew-up without having the armor on hand for size reference. My suggestion would be to start working on things that don't really require having the armor at first. Some of that low hanging fruit would be things like removing the pockets and tayloring your RekKap suit to form-fit you better. You could sew the neck flap onto the suit too. Pouches seem to be a standard size now, so you could safely make those. Bund and Cod seem to be pretty standard too as far as width and height go, but it would probably be best to determine the overall length and velcro attachment location while wearing your taylored under-suit. Working on that flak-vest right now would probably be a waste of time and material. You really should do that once you have the suit done and have the armor on hand so you can ensure it fits over the suit and your sleeve length is where it needs to be in relation to the shoulder bells. If you plan on doing your own boots, you could get going on that too. But keep in mind you should probably have the knee armor to ensure you make them to the correct height.

Probably just a few tweeks to what I have. I'd have to work out the zip-tie shoulder bell attachment, cut the slots in my boot holster and make some adjustments to my flak vest. (the shoulders bell out a bit on the ends). I can say that when I've made some of the level 2 adjustments to the armor spacing for test fitment I was having some range of motion issues. Example, the shoulder bells need to be kinda close to the shoulder straps and the drop boxes only an inch from the bottom of the belt. When I adjusted them this way I found it more difficult to do things like raise my arms or sit down without having a lot of plastic on plastic interference. I'd guess these type of issues would not be the same with everyone...as everyone is built differently. So I'm forgoing lancer for wearability.

No worries. I'm no expert like Chopper who has probably been at this for years. I only know what I know from having just recently put together the new SC kit. (new kit=updated molds for better movie accuracy) Lancer status was not my goal, but I did go that route with the strapping. Mostly because many of the pre-cut slots in the armor seem to have been sized for the movie accurate widths and they don't include all of those widths of elastic in the kit. Most of what SC includes is too wide. Having the correct sizes on hand not only points you to that level 2 goal, but it also makes the kit go together a bit easier.

I submitted my photos to my GML's today (2 of them in my garrison) and they approved me within hours. Thanks for all the feedback, help and guidance. Especially Corey and Mickey (you two seem to keep the best tabs on the ongoing builds here on the Pathfinders forum). To any potential scouts who come across this build thread, the best advice I can give is listen to the suggestions by the veterans, take tons of photos and react accordingly to constructive feedback. It can save you countless hours and dollars. As far as my submission photos are concerned. (https://photos.app.goo.gl/94SBGZDhENLVtG3m6 ) I like most am not a professional photographer with a $1,200 dollar DSLR camera. I'm at the mercy of a lousy cell phone camera. That being said, my submission photos don't show details very well (washed out, bad lighting etc..), but having a detailed build thread at approval time affords you GML to reference photos of specific costume components that you may have documented as you acquired or fabricated them. This build log is basically a clone of one I kept up on my local garrison forum...so my GML team simply looked back at the detailed images of the specific component in question and approved me without hesitation (or having to see things in person). Time to get back to the speeder bike build which has been on the back-burner since last year.

Like I said above. For a Lancer build you are better off NOT getting the assembled kit. You'd have to undo too much of the assembly to bring it up to Lancer status anyway. So it's not worth it for anything but basic 501st approval. The assembly really only entails cutting the different strapping materials to your desired size and sewing velcro to those straps (and a few rivets). It's really something could do yourself in an evening. Be prepared to buy additional elastic and velcro because although the SC kit comes with enough lengths of every kind of strapping/elastic/velcro to assemble the kit, it doesn't include the correct widths in all cases for that level 2 approval you seek.

Hey all, Does this look good for basic approval? https://photos.app.goo.gl/94SBGZDhENLVtG3m6

Studio Creations is actually offering a "assembled" kit right now for the same price as the non-assembled "trimmed" kit. If you have not already placed your armor order I'd suggest against the assembled kit if you are shooting for Lancer status. Having just put together a non-assembled kit I can say there are just too many things that would likely need disassembled and corrected for Lancer accuracy. -included straps/elastic/velcro are not correct width-wise in many instances -included thermal detonator hose needs to be a darker shade of gray -shoulder bell attachment uses velcro straps in the kit and would need re-worked for the zip-tie method -riveted parts would likely need drilled out and re-done for custom fitting (not to mention you'd need a rivet gun anyway for attaching the holster to the right boot)

Wow. I got the FedEx shipping notification from Kriptontop aka CB aka Christian Cucblack (etsy seller) on July 31st and the vest showed up to my door today August 2nd. That was much faster than I anticipated. Looks pretty good too. I probably would have wasted several more yards of fabric before I could have even gotten anything to look half as good as this vest. This is a much longer flak vest than I was attempting to make myself. I had previously put velcro on my under-suit to accept my bund when I was making attempts at a much shorter length vest. Looks like I'll be transferring those velcro tabs over to the vest now instead. Trying it on with only a T-shirt on underneath it seems to have a bit more room width wise than I may need too. I'll have to suit up with everything, but I think I may have to take a little bit of width out of it to get it fitted snugly to my torso. I should be ready for basic approval once those things are sorted out.

Mark, it should also be noted that you don't necessarily have to use "drill fabric". That's just what I found to my liking. It's a garment fabric that I believe is generally used for work clothes and military uniforms. So it's kind of a medium weight durable fabric that seemed to fit the bill for the bund, cod and pouches. Some choose to use a different fabric for the pouches but I liked using it for all of those components. Anyway, if you have the time, go back to a JoAnne (or any fabric store) and sift through all their bolts of white fabric until you find something that you feel would work. Again, I like the drill fabric because it was not to thin and not to heavy....but any white fabric with a generally smooth texture would get the job done. Just stay away from anything sheer that would rip easily. You also don't want something that is too opaque, as you don't want it to be transparent (like a thin bed sheet or a window sheer) to the point where you can see the batting or even your black under-suit though the white fabric. Hope this helps.

Bummer. It shows that you can't order it online anymore either. It's always nice to put your hands on these type of things before purchasing, but in this case you may have to risk it and buy online from a different fabric retailer. Here is one on ebay that may work. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Plain-100-Cotton-Drill-Twill-used-for-Uniforms-Work-wear-58-wide-MD891-Mtex/192564857668?hash=item2cd5c28b44:m:myLe-vpxv5vMwizGupQSXoQ.

Update on the KriptonTop/Cucblack vest. I chose the FedEx shipping as suggested and got a tracking number in advance of the Etsy sellers estimation. I hope I'm not jinxing things by making mention of this. Fingers crossed that I don't have to put myself on that list of members who are trying to recoup money from this seller.

I tend to agree also. I made my pouches from the same heavy white cotton as my bund/cod. Very pleased with how they turned out. In a fit of boredom I made a pouch from off white duck cloth. To me it just looks off. Not just in color, but in the texture of the fabric. Personally, I think a dirtied up white heavy cotton pouch looks more like what I interpret to be in the movie/still images.