Darth Emphatic

The first thing that stands out to me is the overlap in the back. There should be little to no overlap between the back plate and kidney plate. I think this can be accomplish by doing two things: 1)Bring the back up a little bit - not by much, but you have a little room there, and 2) trim a little off the top and the bottom of the back plate. To give you can idea, here is Apok's Nova: I would definitely connect the sides of the chest plate to the back plate to hold them in place. Your belt is a bit off centered and sagging a little. How do you have it connected on the sides? - Just saw the pick above where you have everything laid out and I see its not attached to to the ab armor. You can connect the ends of the belt proper to ab armor which will help keep it tight and in place. You mentioned to me your ab was dropping. Sounds like an elastic issue. I highly recommend replacing the ab to kidney connector with adjustable suspenders. Do you have a heat gun? It is hard to tell, but it looks like your ab chest and back plate, where they hit the shoulder straps, could be contoured a bit more. That will help with how the armor sits. I didn't own before I started armoring, but it is one of my best friends now. Another recommendation, but not required, is to reshape the chest plate. This is a good tutorial for it. Really makes a nice look. Most of what I mentioned likely wouldn't hold up approval. The only thing I mentioned that is specific to the crl's is the back/kindey overlap. You did a great job Nicholae!

Let me check my bucket on this. I never noticed a difference in the past.

but still might be recommended as the shins can still ride, even if the do not reach the lip of the boot.

Another face picture!? What!? I kid, I kid. That is looking great Art. We are still going to get together so you can help me form some metal armor. Looks 150% better than so many mandos. Only thing I would say is to dump the orange inside the gun.

I believe he sells these separately so feel free to message him.

Its hard to tell with out some overlap. Are you able to take a picture without flash and place the strips on top of the thigh armor?

What type of helmet is it?

What Jim described is how my lens is held in place as well.

Blending is looking pretty good

Go the safe route with large, then you trim them before you put it in your bucket

I cannot wait to see the plasticizing you will be doing. I am also think you should absolutely move to southern california.

Man, Art, that looks real nice. Cant wait to see this thing in person.

Like the speed control idea. Hopefully this doesnt dry out your eyes

The site is listing a 60 day response time, likely due to this sad event.

Well, how i would usually do this is to boil the lenses, just for a very brief time, and then reshape, hold, and let cool. Since these are mirrored, which i assume is a film on the lense, that might not be the best idea. It could ruin the film causing it to crease. I would say itdepends how much you need to bend them.

Again, I am really really curious to see how this comes out. Probably be a lot of good tips in there unrelated to back plates.

Can't wait to see how this works out. Man, cutting that back plate in half must have hurt

There is nothing that says the belt needs to overlap in the back. You could have it attached to the inside of one side of the belt face.

If you check the CRL's for the Blackhole or the TKs (ANH Hero, ANH Stunt, ESB, ROTJ) They are all a little rounded.

I didn't see the post to your pictures so I didn't see the steps before you started bondo'ing. Got it now. how heavy a card stock are you using?

If they pinch in the back, I think you still have a bit of room to round the back point out. A lot of the FX kits naturally curved all the way around with little bump.

Very cool looking master chief helmet. What did you frame it with before bondo'ing?

Well, now you have just learned more ways how not to do it

The specialist requires that there be no gap and ideally that there is only one seam. You are meeting those requirements as things currently stand with your armor. To prevent them from moving, I would suggest installing snaps near the top and the bottom that connect the back to the front through a piece of canvas. Always prefer snaps to velcro. After you add velcro they could still shift a little and if they do you will hear the velcro tear a bit.