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ABDOMEN - I found that the black buttons that are inserted from the front of the ab piece can shred your bodysuit. Black electrical tape doesn't seem to stick very well to the ABS, so I recommend a dab of hot glue over the back of each button. I've also found that white athletic tape sticks to ABS fairly well. Some armor kits come with the Sandtrooper ab plate (which is really just a standard Stormtrooper ab plate without the greeblies). If you want to be a bit more accurate, try this button mod by TK-0590 which replaces the big black FX buttons with less obtrusive ones. You can also get an entire Sandtrooper ab plate replacement from ArsonSmith. BACKPIECE - I cut the lower backpiece into two pieces, but later found that it really isn't necessary. This mod seems to add a little bit of flexibility when sitting, but I didn't really find that much of an improvement. If you choose to do this, you'll need some 2" or 3" wide black elastic material to re-connect the "butt" to the lower back. Put the elastic in pieces across the entire gap. I used Plastic Welder to secure the elastic to the ABS. BATTLE DAMAGE - Although you never really see too much actual battle damage details in the films, this mod by the Japanese Garrison's TD-107 just had to be mentioned. CHIN PIECES - If you're not comfortable with simply hot-gluing your chin piece to the helmet (they are a separate piece with the AFX suit), you might consider filling the inside of the parts with a quick-drying 2-part epoxy or Plastic Welder. Before the epoxy hardens, set a long bolt in place so the end result is a single piece when dry. Now you can run the bolt through the helmet and secure the whole ensemble with a nut on the inside. You can use this same technique with the ear pieces (AFX kit). CODPIECE - Highly recommended! The separation of the lower abdomen from the upper abdomen right around the waistline will allow you to bend over to pick up items from the floor. Don't expect to touch your toes, but you'll really appreciate this added flexibility. I actually went through the trouble of making a cardboard ab piece to see where the best place to separate the lower half would be. DECALS - The decals that come with the FX kit are not accurate to the films. Dave of the UK has produced a variety of screen-accurate decals for the ANH, ESB and ROTJ style helmets. Click here for more info. DIRTY ARMOR - If you decide to "go dirty" like a Sandtrooper there's a number of alternatives. My primary concern was making sure I could reverse the dirtying process if necessary so I could always have the option of being a standard TK in the future. So, I opted for the water-based earth-tone paint kit method I heard about. The only downside I've found is that the "dirt" has to be periodically re-applied as it wipes off very easily (like real dirt!). You could probably just use cheap tempera craft paints and save a little money, but I haven't tried it. Here's a photo of a 12-inch Marmit figure customized to match my Sandtrooper look with black pauldron, MG34 and shoulder pouch! One last thing to remember is that dirty armor alone doesn't make you a Sandtrooper—there are a number of differences in armor and gear which you can see here. EAR PIECES - If you're not comfortable with simply hot-gluing your ear cap pieces to the helmet (they are a separate piece with the AFX suit), you might consider filling the inside of the parts with a quick-drying 2-part epoxy or Plastic Welder. Before the epoxy hardens, set a long bolt in place so the end result is a single piece when dry. Now you can run the bolt through the helmet and secure the whole ensemble with a nut on the inside. You can use this same technique with the chin piece if it is not molded as part of the face (AFX kit). ELECTRONICS
FLAT LENSES - The bubbled lenses that come with the armor kit are screen-accurate for the "hero" suits, but you really can't see too much through them. There is a lot of distortion because of the convex shape. Flat lens replacements will greatly improve your vision—and if you're concerned about authenticity, check out these images from ANH which clearly show that many troopers had flat lenses! In fact, look at this shot from the Southern California Garrison's Movie Suits Page. They used a huge piece of translucent green plastic—yuck. Try getting a dark green welder's mask replacement faceshield from a welding supply store. They no more than $13 and you can cut about 4 pairs of individual lenses from them with sharp scissors. Most people hot glue their lenses into place, but I used a 2-part epoxy to secure them after having a lens literally drop out of the eye socket on a hot Florida afternoon troop. I finally came up with the idea for a single-lens installation technique using spring clips to make it easy to clean or change the lenses in the future. Check it out here! Here's a comparison photo showing the clarity of the flat lenses. FOAM PADDING - Thin troopers may need a little foam padding to fill out the forearms and shins, and to keep them from sliding down or rotating around your arms and legs. I used 1 1/4" thick foam typically used for filling gaps around wall-mounted A/C units. This was about $2 from Home Depot. I cut the foam to length and hot-glued inside the armor. Pictured below is a shin piece, but I also did this with the forearms. (Note: Use masking tape to test fit the two pieces before permanently gluing.)
FOREARMS - I trimmed the ends of the forearm pieces since they didn't line up exactly right when I test-fitted them. This was a piece of cake with the Dremel tool. FROWN - Highly recommended! Cutting vent holes in the frown will allow better airflow as well as a little extra vision when looking down at objects in front of you (kids, dogs, curbs, etc.). Start by drilling holes in each "vent" and then Dremel out the shape you want. I wanted a rounded shape to the holes, but other troopers prefer a squared off shape achieved through the use of jeweler's files. HANDPIECES - Instead of gluing the elastic strap to the middle of the hand armor, I glued it closer to the wrist so as to not have a black elastic strap across the palm. You may also want to glue some velcro to the backside of the handpieces and stitch the other part of the velcro to the back of your gloves. In ESB and ROTJ (as well as some scenes in ANH:SE), the troopers had Snowtrooper-style handback armor as seen here and here. E-mail me if interested in replacements like the ones shown in this comparison or below. HOLSTER - A standard Kenner Electronic Blaster fits the kit holster perfectly on your right-hand side. If you use a different blaster like a resin replica or real deactivated Sterling machine gun, you may have to cut some of the leather to allow space for the magazine clip that sticks out of the left side of the E-11 (and you will have to holster your weapon on the left side like most troopers in the films). Here's instructions for making your own custom holster. You might also consider getting a custom leather holster here. KNEE PLATES - Rivet or bolt both of the knee plates onto your shins. Velcro will not hold them securely. White rivets are available, but you can also paint the metallic ones if you'd like. (Note: You can actually see rivets used on the ANH trooper pictured in the Star Wars Visual Dictionary so this is canon!) MOLDING - If you are going for the ROTJ look, you'll notice that the armor had a lip around the edge of the chestplate, backplate and codpiece that wasn't visible on the ANH armor. This look can be simulated with white car door molding for about $2.50/linear foot. You can get white molding at online auto accessory stores like this one. SHIMS - Larger troopers may encounter thigh or calf pieces that are too small to completely wrap around their legs. I didn't have this problem, but I suppose you could use white vinyl, white elastic, or spare ABS (comes with the kit) to make a shim. The Cloud City Squad of Garrison Titan has some info on thigh shims here. Also, here's some info from TK1066: At most hardware stores you can get white molding (the kind used to line the edge of bath tubs). It normally comes in various widths (approx 4 to 5 inches) and in a nice bright white color. It is flexible, can be cut with just heavy scissors and mounts easily. It is also CHEAP (a couple of bucks per 3 foot strip). SIDE PLATES - As stated before, one size armor does not fit all and some people may find that the abdomen armor and lower back armor are too small to fit completely around their waist. The result is vertical gaps on each side of your abdomen area. Try using some white vinyl or styrene (a typical FOR SALE sign from your hardware store would work) cut to size slightly larger than the gaps. Then attach white velcro strips down each outer vertical edge of the material making sure to use the "rough" side of the velcro. Put the "soft" side of the velcro on the inside edges of your abdomen armor and lower back armor so that they match up to where you can insert the new side plates that will hide the side gaps. Click here to see how this mod hides those unsightly black gaps! SHOULDER BELLS - Attach the shoulder bells and biceps to the ABS "bridges" that connect the chest and back armor using a 1" to 2" wide strap of black nylon webbing. The length of this strap will be determined by the distance between the top of your shoulder and your bicep so test fit this with tape before gluing or have someone help you measure it out. I glued the top of the strap to the ABS bridge with plastic welder without any rivets or snaps and it's pretty solid...in fact I am of the belief that the nylon is fused to the plastic armor by the plastic welder. The bottom of the black strap is glued inside the bicep armor and the middle of it is glued to the inside of the shoulder bells so the whole upper armor fits like a t-shirt. Check out how it goes together here, here, here and here. (Note: You'll want to sand down any excess plastic welder once applied as it can form sharp edges when it dries. You may also want to put some athletic tape over those sharp edges to keep your bodysuit from getting torn up.) SUSPENDERS - I picked up some $6 black work suspenders from Home Depot and they have "alligator" clips to attach them to the armor without having to glue anything. Just make 2 slits on the abdomen (see below) and 2 slits in the lower back piece. After I made the slits in the lower back piece, I realized that the angle wasn't quite right. I've since corrected the angle by cutting two new slits as shown here in red. THERMAL DETONATOR/O2 CANNISTER - The O2 Cannister located at the back of the belt will not be secure with velcro (as the manual suggests). Before you glue the cannister together, drill two holes in the part that attaches to the belt so you can secure it with rivets. An alternative to rivets would be two small bolts with nuts so you can remove the cannister from the belt in the future. |
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