Thoughts on Jim Tripon's soft goods and armor? Also Walt's Trooper Factory armor.

[Jonesy]

Hi all,

I'm looking into buying both soft goods and armor (no helmet) for the Imperial Army Troopers seen on Aldhani. Has anybody purchased and been cleared wearing Jim Tripon's soft goods and armor? What's the quality like?

Another source for armor is Walt's Trooper Factory. Has anybody purchased the armor from Walt?

Thoughts appreciated.

Neil.

[Dropkick[CMD-DL]]

Hey there @Jonesy

Great choice of armour build by the way.

I have sourced both soft & armour parts (including the helmet from Jim & I'm very happy with what I got.

I've cleared version 1 & 2 & will be getting images taken as soon as I can for the version 3 with the helmet.

[TonyJuiceBox[TX]]

1 hour ago, Dropkick said:

Hey there @Jonesy

Great choice of armour build by the way.

I have sourced both soft & armour parts (including the helmet from Jim & I'm very happy with what I got.

I've cleared version 1 & 2 & will be getting images taken as soon as I can for the version 3 with the helmet.

Would you happen to have pictures from when you were working on it? I was debating between Jim and Imperial Surplus and ended up going with the latter since I don't know much about working with the materials Jim uses. 

[Jonesy]

Cheers Shane. Stand by for a ton of questions if I buy it especially in painting the armour. I'd love to see some photos of you in costume.

 

[Dropkick[CMD-DL]]

On 7/2/2025 at 7:54 PM, Jonesy said:

Cheers Shane. Stand by for a ton of questions if I buy it especially in painting the armour. I'd love to see some photos of you in costume.

 

I've a good few images of me in the IAT on my recon dragons thread. Start from the back of this thread...

 

[Dropkick[CMD-DL]]

On 7/2/2025 at 7:41 PM, TonyJuiceBox said:

Would you happen to have pictures from when you were working on it? I was debating between Jim and Imperial Surplus and ended up going with the latter since I don't know much about working with the materials Jim uses. 

Jim uses flexible fibreglass for his armour parts, which is just as easy to work with as ABS.

It's a good bit thicker & as the name says, quite flexable, which is very handy.

There's also little or no prep work, other than a light sanding to remove any dust prior to the primer coat. From memory, I gave the armour 1 coat of primer & two coats of paint with 1 or two coats of varnish, with a little light sanding btween coats.

[TonyJuiceBox[TX]]

18 hours ago, Dropkick said:

Jim uses flexible fibreglass for his armour parts, which is just as easy to work with as ABS.

It's a good bit thicker & as the name says, quite flexable, which is very handy.

There's also little or no prep work, other than a light sanding to remove any dust prior to the primer coat. From memory, I gave the armour 1 coat of primer & two coats of paint with 1 or two coats of varnish, with a little light sanding btween coats.

Thank you! My friend was interested in building an IST with me so I think I'll have him get Jim's armor. 

[Jonesy]

Likewise. I've messaged Jim for a price for the soft good and armor minus the helmet.

[Blackwatch[CMD-DCA]]

i have Jims armor and I have a metric frakton of Walts plastic. 

 

The flexible amor is wierd. It gives. Very handy, but the neck breaks.  Tarrif was good enough to model up a replacement neck to be 3d printed in flexible material like TPU for us. ill be using the Jim armor for my own ISB build. 

Walt uses a top quality plastic. Gorgeous plastic. Now te edges of his molds where the mold meets the parting line, that gets a bit waffly, but as I said I have a LOT of Walts plastic, so I just work around it knowing that the edges need to be sorted out with care when cutting. 

[TreeHuggerMatt]

Is there a file available for that remodelled neck , im seriously considering making a replacement as one of my prongs snapped in transit.  ive wrapped in in cloth and glued and was hoping to claim as weathering etc but putting it on is a PITA and a TPU one that has better prongs is very much a better want for me now.

 

[Blackwatch[CMD-DCA]]

Matt

 

Tarriff linked it in onoe of his other replies , i have a topic on the forum probably in the Agent thread, and he replied.  Its on Thingverse.