jacketrat Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 A few weeks ago, I bought Biker Scout from a garrison member. He recently bought a house, and I think he was trying to raise money. We all know how that goes, right? Anyways, this had been previously approved. But even though you buy a previously approved costume, it will have to be reapproved under CRL standards. So when I bought the costume, I immediately knew that several modifications would have to be done. I'm going to try to list some of the major modifications I've done thus far. CUMMERBUND The previous owner and I are relatively the same height, we still have different body types. So I needed to have most of the soft armor fitted to me. Below are a before and after photo, showing how the cummerbund was going to need to be fitted to me. FLIGHT SUIT Like the cummerbund, the flight suit was simply too large. I think it was made for somebody that was 6 feet tall. I am barely over 5' 8", so it obviously needed to be modified. Enlisting a garrison member for her sewing skill , and she was able to get the flight suit down to size. It's hard to tell, but trust me that the flight suit was originally much too large for me. In the following picture, it fits much much better. The suit's crotch was originally more than two inches below me. It made the diaper look like I had dropped a giant turd in it. So anyways .... HELMET The helmet needs several repairs and upgrades. As of now, it is not fully finished but improvements have been made. I'm going to show a before and after of the helmet's side vents. In the first picture, you can see how the curvature of the vent is sorta clunky and unrefined. I removed the mesh, sanded the curve smoother, and put a whole new mesh on. The following picture shows a frontal view of the helmet. There were two things that were bothering me. The first was the three vertical gray stripes painted on the helmet's forehead. I had to remove these and still need to have decals made. The second items was the shape of the visor. If you look at the visor, the right side is actually larger than the left. They are not symmetrical. And it sorta throws the whole thing off by making it look wonky. So using paint thinner, I removed the three vertical stripes. And then I sanded out the visor to a more symmetrical shape. I'm much more satisfied on how the helmet looks now. I still need to have new vertical stripes added. I also found a better visor lens at the Army / Navy surplus store. The larger, better lens has notches that will help it remain in place. If you look closely at the new lens, you see an "ESS" logo along the upper rim. Don't worry ... I've tested this lens out and the logo will be hidden above the brow line. You'll never see it. I haven't inserted the lens in yet, but will be doing it this upcoming weekend. On the back of the helmet, the vertical stripes are a complete mess. If you look, they are not spaced appropriately, nor are they level. It's a very messy look. Again, I didn't do this. This is how I bought it. I really need to find a new set of vertical decals and get these replaced. The upgrades and repairs are not fully complete. But it's definitely taking shape. Before I tore the suit apart, I did take a picture of myself. Overall, it looks pretty good. But with a few corrections, it'll look even better. Stay tuned for the next couple weeks as the Biker Scout upgrades are completed. I'm give you my to-do list. These are items that I need to obtain before I can seek 501st Legion approval. I don't know where to get these items, so any help or assistance is greatly appreciated. 1. Obtain three vertical stripes decals for the helmet's brow. 2. Obtain a new vocoder for the helmet's snout 3. Obtain new set of vertical decals for helmet's rear I would also appreciate any critiques so I can make sure I'm doing this right. As I said, this costume was previously approved. This was about two years ago. I don't know if the CRL has changed much since then, but I just want to make sure that I'm doing this right. Thanks guys! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kayelbe Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 Troperbay, if he's back from surgery, has the decal kit. DVH has the snout greeblie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shada Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 Congrats on taking on the rebuild job. I'd suggest forgetting about replacing the ear mesh - just paint the inside area black instead. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacketrat Posted September 25, 2016 Author Share Posted September 25, 2016 Troperbay, if he's back from surgery, has the decal kit. DVH has the snout greeblie. Thank you so much for the assist. I've already ordered the helmet decals via Trooperbay. But about the snout greeblie. BTW ... thank you for telling me the name of that. As a stormtrooper and a clonetrooper, I wrongly assumed that it was a vocoder. Now I know. Anyways ... does DVH mean Darth Vorhees? I googled DVH, and that came up. But Google gave me no direction on how to contact him, or how to order the greeblie. Can you give me a further assist, please? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Forest Ranger Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 Thank you so much for the assist. I've already ordered the helmet decals via Trooperbay. But about the snout greeblie. BTW ... thank you for telling me the name of that. As a stormtrooper and a clonetrooper, I wrongly assumed that it was a vocoder. Now I know. Anyways ... does DVH mean Darth Vorhees? I googled DVH, and that came up. But Google gave me no direction on how to contact him, or how to order the greeblie. Can you give me a further assist, please? You can contact him on here through a PM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacketrat Posted September 25, 2016 Author Share Posted September 25, 2016 You can contact him on here through a PM. Why didn't I think of that?! I was searching the internet and I never once stopped to look in Pathfinder's member database. Good thing the detachment isn't called "Member Finder" because I would fail ... FAIL! But paths I can definitely find. (I think) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kayelbe Posted September 25, 2016 Share Posted September 25, 2016 You need one more post to view the merchant area. He has a couple threads there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tk1234 Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 The movie used helmets had a black material attached to the inside of the helmet behind to ears holes. Paint the inside black will give you the same results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BikerScout007 Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 Your bund is too long and your pouches are too low. The bund should end right about at the belt line and your bund is going way under the belt. Pouches should be moved up to meet the chest armor. Then the belt should sit right under the pouches. Bund and pouches should end in about the same place. Like this dude: Hope this helps! Good job with your rebuild Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacketrat Posted September 28, 2016 Author Share Posted September 28, 2016 Your bund is too long and your pouches are too low. The bund should end right about at the belt line and your bund is going way under the belt. Pouches should be moved up to meet the chest armor. Then the belt should sit right under the pouches. Bund and pouches should end in about the same place. Thanks for the heads up on that. When I stood for the photo, I didn't realize the pouches were sitting so low. I'll take another photo, in which I have the pouches raised all the way to the chest armor. If the cummerbund is still resting below the belt, I'll have the cummerbund shortened appropriately. Thank you for telling me that. I want to get this right! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BikerScout007 Posted September 28, 2016 Share Posted September 28, 2016 Thanks for the heads up on that. When I stood for the photo, I didn't realize the pouches were sitting so low. I'll take another photo, in which I have the pouches raised all the way to the chest armor. If the cummerbund is still resting below the belt, I'll have the cummerbund shortened appropriately. Thank you for telling me that. I want to get this right! We are here to help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacketrat Posted October 3, 2016 Author Share Posted October 3, 2016 With me being so close to submitting my first approval pictures, I needed to get some more done with weekend. That's why I christened Saturday to be forever called S.B.S. aka "Scout Bucket Saturday. If you look at some of the previous photos, I mentioned that many of the decals looked wonky. If they were going to be replaced / upgraded, I had to begin SBS by removing those inaccurate decals. That was surprisingly easy. Then it was simple as peeling and pasting new stickers on a clean white surface ... literally!!! As far as I can tell, the only thing remaining for the bucket is the visor and snout greeblie. I've already placed the visor lens in. I got believe I forgot to take pictures. I'll take some pictures soon and post them. But I'll be putting the snout greeblie in later this week ... most likely that will be on S.B.S. II: The Scout Rides Again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacketrat Posted October 3, 2016 Author Share Posted October 3, 2016 Okay ... here's an image of the newly decaled helmet with the visor's lens installed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacketrat Posted October 9, 2016 Author Share Posted October 9, 2016 Okay guys ... I'm coming down to the end of my rebuild for my biker scout. The only thing I really have left to do is to attach the greeblie to the nose snout. As you can see, I got the greeblie, and I've cleaned up the bucket .... I just need to bring the two together so I can now scout in all biker-tree-dodging glory. But before I do that, I have a question: When I bought the biker scout, the previous greeblie had a black trim going around the entire snout. But when I looked at the CRL,the photo did not have the black trim going around the entire perimeter. This is the photo from the CRL So my question is: does that black trim go all the way around the snout greeblie, or (as shown in the CRL) does it only go around the sides and top? I've known times in which the CRL has been wrong. I just want to get this right, and want your advice. Again, any assist isn't very appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmorja Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 My Altmann has the black trim and I noticed the on screen buckets also have the black trim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacketrat Posted October 10, 2016 Author Share Posted October 10, 2016 Okay. So today was all about attaching the snout greeblie, and finishing up the helmet. Below are pictures that show the process on what I did. Basically, I painted the greeblie gray. And then I had to tape up the helmet, so it could be painted with the black trim. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BikerScout007 Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 Nice! Sent from my LG-H830 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacketrat Posted October 12, 2016 Author Share Posted October 12, 2016 Fellow Tree-Dodgers I'm pretty close to the end of my rebuild. Yesterday, I finished the helmet by attaching the snout greeblie. That evening, I got fully armored up to take submission photos. The following pictures are for you guys to critique. Please list anything that still needs to be addressed. When I analyzed the photos, I immediately found something that I needed to do. One of the first posts mentioned the cummerbund was not supposed to go beneath the belt. They also said that the pouches all needed to be raised to the point they touched the chest armor. I thought that if I simply raised the cummerbund, it would bring it up enough that it wasn't beneath the belt. I was half right. When I did that, it brought it up in the front .... but not in the back. When you see the rear pictures, you'll see what I'm talking about. The cummerbund is clearly below the thermal detonator. Don't worry guys ... I see this, and I've already made arrangements to have the cummerbund shortened appropriately. One other minor detail is I think I tightened the knee plates elastic too tightly. It caused my flight suit to bunch up around the knees and give a weird look. I should have just loosened them. I guess I was paranoid they'd fall off. Live and learn, eh? But please ... point out anything else that I need to address. BUCKET OFF FRONT FRONT TURNED RIGHT TURNED BACK TURNED RIGHT - ARMS UP TURNED LEFT - ARMS UP TURNED LEFT ACTION POSE #1 ACTION POSE #2 BUTT FLAP - CLOSE UP SUEDE THIGH PATCHES - CLOSE UP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canterbury Tail Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 Your forearm armour needs to come down. The ends of it should be going over the top of the gloves. That'll allow your bicep armour more room to breath. I think the shoulder bells are too long which is forcing your bicep armour down to your elbow instead of just on your bicep. That's a wicked, I hesitate to call it a camel toe, something going on with your cod. You may wish to consider just remaking that part with some more padding. Just make sure that the end of the cod doesn't actually go between your legs. It should stop just short and just the elastic goes between. I also think your flak jacket is sticking up between your shoulder bell and chest armour. It's giving a strange spike in some of the poses. Give it a pull up and see if you can tuck it under the shoulder/neck strapping of your chest/backplate. That may also pull the sleeves of it up as they could be too long but it's hard to tell if the shoulder bells or the bicep armour is covering it. Your bicep armour most certainly shouldn't be over the flak jacket arms. Also bring your drop boxes up an inch or so, they're slightly low. You definitely look like a scout trooper. You've done a good job on the rebuild. Just a few tweaks and you'll be ready to go in no time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacketrat Posted October 12, 2016 Author Share Posted October 12, 2016 Thanks for the critique. This is exactly what I need. I'm going to take all your advice and get to work on fixing this. I've contacted a seamstress in our garrison to work on the cummerbund. The back will be shorten, as well as the "camel toe" situation. I will also modify the vest, drop boxes, biceps ... the works. These seems much more simple and don't require a seamstress. I can easily fix those myself. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canterbury Tail Posted October 12, 2016 Share Posted October 12, 2016 Yeah, you've done a lot of the hard work (flight suit etc). Everything else is tweaks on the order of hours of work rather than days. It sounds like a lot but most of that can be done in an hour or so (cummerbund and cod being the exceptions.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacketrat Posted October 16, 2016 Author Share Posted October 16, 2016 One question I have regards the rivets on the belt. A member of my garrison is suggesting that the rivets must be painted white. He thinks that original "silver" color of rivets are incorrect. Any thoughts on this? Must the belt rivets be painted white for Legion approval? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacketrat Posted October 17, 2016 Author Share Posted October 17, 2016 I think I'm done. After the last set of pictures, I took all the advice, and spent pretty much all day Saturday with a garrison seamstress / wizard and improved my "rebuild". But I think it's pretty much done at this point. And again, I need the feedback, critique and anything pointed out that keeps me from being approved to the CRL standards. So here are a whole new set of photos. Please ... let me know if there's anything preventing it from passing Legion standards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRISTONAMO Posted October 31, 2016 Share Posted October 31, 2016 trim that scout visor!!! its bugging me that no ones said it, way too much flashing on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visiontrooper Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 this thread was really helpful Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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