Stormtrooper Armor - Build- Assembly

It arrived last month all wrapped in plastic, how excited was I. Faster than you can say "fourty year old geek" I unpacked it.

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Got to be very careful when removing the plastic, I myself used a J.A Henckles steak knife to do the job, nothing but the finest German steel for my armor.

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Ok I decided to start with an easy piece so I did the biceps. I used Lepage 5 minute Apoxy glue on one side and Velcro on the other . I tryed to buy the apoxy that came in the syringe but it was totally dryed out. So I went back to the store a second time and bought the glue that came in two separate tubes. I used blue painters tape to stop excess glue from getting on the armor and the clamps I left on for about 10 minutes.

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Here are the biceps completed, you gotta be careful with the glue it's extremely strong stuff, if you screw it up and make a mess there are no second chances. As fortune would have it my first assembly was a success.

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I finished the forearms, not much different than the biceps used Apoxy glue on one side and velcro on the other..

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I attached the shoulder straps to the chest plate using industrial velcro, also added velcro to the back plate as well. This will help hold the straps in place. The instruction say to use appoxy but I decided against it. I've researched how others approach this part and most do not use glue so I'm goin with the crowd.

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The Shoulder bells attach to the bicep armor using velcro, this part ain't exactly rocket science.

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There are distinct inner and outter halves for both left and right of the calf . Just like on previous parts, I used appoxy on the front and velcro on the back. Gettin tired of hearing me repeat myself, too bad.

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Another veiw of my masterpeice in progress.

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This next part made me extremley nervous because I aint what you'd call a handyman. After drilling a hole in either side of the Shin/Calf armor and also in the sniper plate, I used rivets to attach them, I put washers on the opposit side to make sure they stay nice and sturdy. I was so sure I was going to crack the armor, and make a total mess of things, but as fortune would have it, everything worked just fine.

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And here's what it looks like...not to bad if I do say do myself.

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Drilling holed in the thigh peice, you'll see why in a sec.

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Once again I used the rivet tool to attach the power cells to the thigh armor.

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Started working on the webbing. The Chest, Ab and Cod will be linked useing a combination of velcro and buckles...but mostly velcro.

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I bought the heavy duty snap fastener kit at Fabric World. It comes with 10 sets of snaps, which should be about as many as I need. I cost me $5.25 including tax. RT --- also includes an additional 6 sets when you buy the armor.

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I used heavy duty snaps to attach the thigh armor to the cod peice, velcro also works great.

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And once again I used industrial snaps to attach the ABS belt to the canvas belt.

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The canvas belt with the snaps attached, you may want to get a proper snap tool, I found that useing a hammer and the little steel peice provided (left) was a bit tricky.

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Here a picture of the completed belt ( front only ). The battle is of course only half over, the Thermal detonator still has to be attached to the back.

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This is were it will eventually sit. If I can ever get the damn thing done. I took me three hours to attach to ABS plastic belt to the canvas belt.

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After spray painting the back of the Thermal detinator grey I drilled two holes so I could attach the belt clips.

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I used metal screws to attach the belt clip to the back of the TD, I also put a bit of apoxy glue on the screw so it stays in place forever...err...hopefully.

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Here's a shot of the back of the Thermal detonator with the belt clips attached. If there are any question about my procedure send me an e-mail and I'll do my best to confuse you even more.

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A fine job if I do say so myself.

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This will give you an idea how the webbing holds the entire suit together. I desighned it to I can just step into it. The only problem with this approach is that you will need some help attaching the chest plait and shoulder straps to the back peice once it's on. The way I have done it is deffinatly not the easiest way, you will always need assisstance getting dressed, but it works for me.The nice thing about and ALL velcro assembly is that at a later date I can always change it.

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And here's a shot of the Thermal detonator attached to the back of the belt.

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Although it was'nt entirly done I just had to do a test fitting...not bad ehh...it hides my beer belly...can someone please pass me a Bud.

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And here it is, the completed project, I'll add some fans, speakers to the helmet at a later date.

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I just replace the AB button ( little black buttons on the stomach ) with screen accurate AB buttons which I ordered from Vader Dave in Des Moines, Iowa. These are the colors used in the original Star Wars movie they consist of 6 grey and 3 blue buttons.

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The final part to my puzzle were the boots, these I ordered from Champion Attitude ( CABOOTS ) in El Paso, Texas. They provided excellent service arriving in just over a week, now I'm finally ready to go.

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Now it's time to go hunt some rebel scum...

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For more information on the artist that engineered this high quality armor which is commonly known as the RT-Mod please see think below...

http://www.rt-mod.com/