Craigorski

ok so the huge gaps in the ears bugged me almost to death.. but not enough to redo them, until today. They look like they fit better to me, if a little deeper than the 'old' ones. visor and stuff glued in now. just waiting on the paint you see in these pics to dry before doing another coat and finishing off the screws and black ear bump(s). then you know what?.. trying to get good pics for submitting for approval. how I did the stripes.. printed a pandatrooper guide and coloured in the gaps.. better ears... as far as I am going to take them anyway.. too much stress.. Foot helmet?.. weird... oh and I figured out why I had big pics and not thumbs.. sorry for killing your internets everyone.. now to get my brother to do some photos for me... maybe tomorrow... soon anyway

sometimes I think you smaller fellas have it good, fitting into your suits with a bit of foam padding. Just don't get caught in a stiff breeze and blow away I keed I keed.. im old and big (and even a little bit.. fat.. and bald.. but I digress..) So far so good Not that I know much , but I would say hold off on any heatgun work until you have the full body done. You might find it all comes together better once you make that big shell of a body (if you know what I mean.. I don't)

thanks xanthis i'll keep that in mind, but I still have the reserve ears that ata sends with his suits for us newbie ear trimmers, so i'll have a hack at them first. oh.. and since I just did a troop and had to do a trooping report.. I did it like this (until I do the proper one.. enjoy my po-em There is a tale, not often told, of warriors great and children bold. Rex and Ordo, a jedi too, along with I who regales you. Did happen upon some children sick, and thought "we must do something quick!" So armoured up and lasers loaded, through the doors the team was goaded. Followed by another pair, we'll call them minders, for that seems fair. We had tattoos, we did hand out. Otherwise, we gave them nowt. Hugs and high fives all about. Apart from Also smiles, and happy times. And photos too.. i'm outa rhymes... ;D oooh I should change that nowt line to read.. Hugs and high fives all about!.. whoo and 'apart from' becomes Also, to make sense. aya inspired by reposting.. cheers

Ok so I did a visit to a kids ward in the hospital yesterday with a couple of mates. no pics or anything yet, but I thought i'd show the helmet getting closer too done. I got pandatroopers templates printed and cut out then traced through them for the cheek stripes. I used a black pen and I hope its right as the pen wont come off! I also paintd the tears and traps by hand, but they came out really rough, like the paint was drying as I painted or something. Still, you cant tell from more than 1 foot away so close now... the visor is not hard up against the eye holes. is that allowed? Nobody has noticed it yet and it allowed some venting. also.. still too scared to redo the ears. the huge horrible gaps will be the last thing to go I think..although bondy and the shoepaint might work.. hmmmmm

heh.. I say I forgot my sunscreen and fell asleep on the beach... parents like that and tell the kids.. see why you should do as I say!

2 sets of gloves and socks and a double layer of thermals as an undersuit. Sitting in the hotel before the parade assembly started we were watching it snow.. well it fell but melted.We only managed an hour or so after the parade as my fingers were freezing. Oh and apparently 1 degree was the high for the day

Sorry.. been a bit busy 3 troops in 4 weeks at different parts of the country(one for two days one for three days). Check a map of new Zealand. Hamilton then wellington then queenstown, maybe Auckland tomorrow, thats most the country covered! ( I live in Tauranga.. incase you do look at a map...) Yes im strapping the handplates around my palm and wrist. is that not acceptable? it works nice enough I thought.I haven't had time off to do any work to finish and get it approvable yet Buttons and helmet details need to be painted with stuff that dosent scratch off. And the ears still need redoing, or a tidy up... or something, they just don't sit tight enough to the helmet right now. im supposed to be doing another troop in yet another part of the country tomorrow, but it may have fallen over. I need a sleep anyway... dead trooper is dead! I really do plan to get finished and legit.. but trooping 95% done got in the way oh yeah I did a boogie in the last troop.. a parade for winterfestival in a place called queenstown. It was 1 degree celcius so I needed to warm up.. and walking/high fiving just wasn't enough... Near enough is NOT good enough, but the general public dosent know that ,so I have got away with being almost there, for now. a pic or two of the wintery troop.. only 3 of us made it through the weather to be there...dance trooper charity we were there for on lake Wanaka, edge of town

turtlewax red... helping remove swirly scratches in my suit now.. thanks

angry boidz. this pic brings up a question.. just how high should I place the belt? it had obviously slipped down. and the best mando ive seen in ages... not much time for more work .. need to polish out a billion scratches the armour got in its transport box.. dang airlines got another troop in a week or two... none to busy as a busy thing.. I need a rest!

Heh.. a group photo (which i cant find.. grrr...) A lovely lady who said she was actually afraid of vader stood a little closer to the protection of a magma trooper Maybe she thought my suit was force choke proof? .. oh wait.. red.. redshirt... expendable.. oh no... operation meatshield was in effect..

1 week after the last troop we got a larger mob in wellington nz. raised $1400 to child cancer foundation over a 3 day con. My newly installed neckring fell out as it didn't have enough hotglue spots and the mesh in my frown melted free by the 3rd day. the temporary hold just had enough. No helmet fans but I didn't fog too badly. Lots of pics taken but not by me so I only have a couple so far. if that's a heavy weight wrestler im a heavy weight trooper.. and a bit and a group shot with some voice actors that were sitting opposite us all day. I just hope there is footage of me and the kneeling mando.. he was laughing how we(tks' included) cant move well compared to his suit (sitting down kneeling etc).. and he did a couple press-ups. I wasn't going to take that so I hit the floor and did press-ups beside him.. then doubled the pace and kept going after he collapsed Don't mess with special forces kid.. mando or not oh yeah then I struggled but stood up on my own!... hmm something is wrong with my inputs. I had to change edit mode to do a new line.. weird. I'm burnt out and tired and my holiday is over, hopefully I can get my lazy bum to finish the suit for submission soon. cheers all

Sorry I cant help.. I have the opposite problem.. I need an elastic band with Velcro to hold the chest down over the ab, and the shoulders are at maximum length to attachment, so there isint a gap (at the front anyway). Maybe a Master craftsperson could trim the edge of the chest piece a bit and form a new edge?? But that would be horribly difficult (but since you painted it, a join/reform edge could be painted. cutting off some of the ab that is hidden by the belt could help. but I think you need experts help.. this is my first stormie.. my others are an ARC phase1, TORjedi , bossk, colonial warrior, and a cylon called rusty

Looking good!

a couple more maybe https://www.facebook...elevant_count=1 oops that's me as a jedi scum "use the horse!!"..lol!! maybe this one.. https://www.facebook...elevant_count=1

Thanks for the positive support and comments. Although unfinished, I took the costume with me.. boy am I glad I did! with no neckseal, screws almost jabing me in the face and shoulders held together with safety pins, the "WOW a red stormtrooper!!" happens so much I didn't even notice I had no fan installed ! https://www.facebook.com/Outpost42 hope that comes through outpost42 on facebook if you have it. Hey why isint my enter button working here anymore?.. oh well one big block of text it is.... I haven't got any pics of my own, i'll have to wait for our photographer to post some. But reel collectables (FB again) put up a nice pic of me and SWNZ (starwars new Zealand)has a couple of our crew I think .. or just look for me .. craig peter Haskell on FB and it should show up there somewhere I got filmed for some tv stuff too, when asked why I was red I looked at the interviewer and said " I forgot my sunscreen.." then pointed direct into the camera and said " remember your sunscreen" or something like that. they liked it.. hope they use it . Good fun had.. and we raised a few $ for child cancer too.. those big blue buckets worked a treat. ok im off to bad after a successful weekend. peace out.....

I'm sorry.. I failed in my mission. suit is not 100% and I have to troop in10 hours... everything I touched today was miserable.. even the steering assembly on my car went bad . I will take my suit and maybe make do with dodgy ears and some double sided tape here and there... so close. but I was just too lazy in the last couple of days (meh I turned 41 today so I was busy...). my apologies to all for not living up to the standard I believe we should have. I will get the suit finished.. just not today. pics to destroy your internets will follow in a couple days.

WTF??? Sorry but i put down my sanded.. 'ready to stick on the next day' 4 button ab detail (the small one) somewhere in my house.. i suspect the cat took it as i cant find it... arrrgh oh well.. move on without it.. trim ears.. follow pandatroopers thread.... cut too much of inside curves on pretrim.... grrrrr.. ok this is getting silly. eyefoam. i see i need bigger teeth in the helmet.. but itll do for now.. shaky phonecamera ab detail.. 1 on 1 gone ...(here kitty kitty kitty.. where did you hide it? under the fridge perhaps??).. paint later.. again... the helmet given a paint with whatever i had in the box. hand done with gamesworkshop stuff that wont stick, so it can come off and be redone properly later.. again time is making me cheat more detonator pipe is slightly bigger than ata endcaps, so a drumsander slimmed it down. caps fit on tight. blue tape shows where to stop sanding. rough fit of det setup. hangers are too big (made for larger pipe i guess) i'll need to trim the ends off them to get a better fit.. i know the det detail dosent sit on the top.. that is why i will have too cut down the hangers a bit.. about 1cm i'm thinking. 3:45 wednesday and im trooping this saturday... and friday will be a write off due to .. birthday things i dont think ill make it jim.. go on without me... I found some old speaker grill mesh i'll put behind the teeth on the helmet. still trying to get shoulder detail straps done.. they are glued on the chest but ,as with everything else, they need reshaping a little bit (flattening out a wee bit) and the webbing for the actual support/hold together needs a second set of hands to help me (i only had help for 1 day so far and it was a huge help adding elastic to the sides of the ab/kidney plates and putting the initial shoulder placement on) left arm is tight (yep even when i made it as big as i could... yet the right is comfortable...) ill suffer in silence. Stressed? yep.. headaches due to self imposed stress wont go away.. roll on saturday so im either done or not and cant do any more..

boots.. most peeps go for tkboots i think. you might have to wait for another run, but it is worth asking:) just paint them red like i did check my pic heavy thread...

Good luck with the build.. slow and steady is the key.. just keep track of everything so you dont end up like me right now (ab buttons missing... i had them yesterday! arrrrgh!!) keep us posted on progress.

Panic panic panic! ! week till my troop and i'm not done.. i made suspenders for the ab/kidney/buttplate and sewd and glued and i ended up making the straps about 3 inches shorter than the plan.. gahhh! good thing i made it fancy and adjustable length Suspension points and side velcro (for side closing elastic plan later...) Suspenders with home made cross point thingy (copied from work rain gear straping). Elastic at the ends with softer but tougher cotton webbing on shoulder bits in middle. Lenght adjusters on both straps and a quick release clasp for the right front closeup of suspender attachment points. these are actually buttons sold as suspender things for kids clothes. they slip through the round hole and clip down to the bottom bit (it expands slightly then 'grabs' the claspand hold really well. Getting there.. lying out to look at how close i am...i should be working not on here.. but i need a break! more soon..

http://trooperbay.com/category/accessories/ that may help with some parts if i cant put that up then please remove .. ta mods Darman on the clone forums makes neckseals too. I havent found the correct shade, but there are shoepaints available.... on another note.. i just found out my blood is similar in shade to my armour... i wonder if blood red is a legit shade... medic!!

Fuzzy photos make for great images speaking of which.. painting boots... First i used the dye i had to colourise the elastic and the threads on the boots. it really soaked in well, but wouldnt help dye the leather without major work (and i'm a lazy bum!). after letting it soak and dry a bit i wiped off the excess with a wet cloth. which is why the second bot looks 'cleaner' Then the soles were masked off and the boots spraypainted.The colour was wayyyy too light (white base?.. what was i thinking). Slapped the calves on top for a looksee! link is closer shot showing the colour difference... hey it aint so bad in a photo.. but the armour is darker..i painted over the original spray with the slightly darker handpaint, it is still too light http://i62.photobuck...zpsff7f1ab6.jpg removed masking tape. nothing a little touch up with a paint brush wont fix. That'll do for now. URL=http://s62.photobucket.com/user/craigorski/media/P1000383_zps61047d32.jpg.html][/url] I got a webbing builders belt and sewed up some suspenders for the thighs. i'll just go with long slabs of velcro on the inside of the thighs i think, it works well for my arctrooper. pladtrooper shirt made things less of a fit, but hey there we go. these also helped me decide that the plastic shoulder straps will have to be given only a notch or two ,at attachment, so the chest will sit low enough to cover the ab plate.As you might see in the side shot.. its a close thing! Ill probably have to go with some elastic between chest and ab to keep it in place. Oh and i added elastic to the handplates. another small bit finished. First time try with thigh and left knee plate. The plate dosent have that ' sticky outy angle' thing needed to not hook inder the thigh but i seem to have a big gap to work with , so it may not be a problem. This is still a trial mode anyway.... there is progress... slow and in the background, but it is there. I'm planning the suspenders for the body. got some elastic,webbing, hooky things.. and the sewing machine is daring me to try

sweet! good work mah budda

waproo leather paint.Made for recolouring shoes but i could only get basic red (its all they had). I used that as it looked best in the tests and is a spraycan. i do have some brush on stuff that looked too dark to start with. Dammit.. i should have used the darker stuff as a basecoat... doh!.. and here i am , a guy who used too work in a paint making factory.... Time to break out the sewing machine and do some straps i think. for a change of pace...

Will do. it was just being worn for the family friendly pics...nobody needs to see my manboobs i tried some boot paint, but it appears a bit light. 1 month till trooping time.. i best hurry up and get some gloves and a neckseal...