new member here. lots of questions

[par0thead151]

located near milwaukee. looking to join the 501st once i get my suit completed.
i bought my suit on ebay(i know i know. i should have posted here first as i probably over paid a bit)

my suit and helmet are fiberglass, i did some research on that before buying and decided i wanted to have a suit that will shine more, and not become brittle after being exposed to UV light.
i bought it from skywalker214 on ebay.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Star-Wars-Storm ... 3385fdd9e8
this is not a plug for his add, as if i was to do this again i would buy ABS over the fiberglass as the fiberglass is a lot thinner than i assumed it would be. if i hold it up to the light i can see the paint lines through the backside of it. i was imagining solid plates 1/4" or thicker of fiberglass that would be a very durable suit. sadly that is not what i got.

i am in need of a blaster, holster, body suit, gloves, boots, and neck seal.
i was considering the neck seal and holster from trooper bay, as for the rest i am drawing a blank where to acquire it.

I want to create a harness system to hold the armor onto my body on top of the body suit. i figure i can use padding and use white rubber tubing with a slit in the side to protect the undersuit and armor from wearing on itself at the joints.

since i already sort of made one mistake buying off of ebay, i would like to avoid any future ones, and am going to ask the veterans here for advice.
go easy on me
lol

thanks

[jweger77]

Good morning to you and welcome! Looks like you've taken a big first step! It's always great to see new folks starting on their builds and journey to membership! We have a ton of TK experts here for certain, some of the most talented in the Legion. And I'm sure they will have some great suggestions for you. So pleased that you're here! Have you checked out whitearmor.net? That is the home of the FISD which is the 501st Detachment forum for Stormtroopers. I would venture to say that many of the answers you seek are there for the finding by using the search function there.

Welcome to our little corner of the world!

[beans]

Welcome Welcome!!! You have indeed come to the right place Very much looking forward to troopin with ya.

Jon pointed you in the right direction with whitearmor.net. That has pretty much everything you'll need. One of our tk mentors, Gazmosis, makes a great holster and is starting up a run of them shortly. I'd send him a private message to see if you can get in on it. I use his holster, its super heavy duty and maintains its shape so its easy put your gun back in it when you're trooping.

for neck seals, there are two runs open on the whitearmor forums right now. This one comes with a zipper, which is pretty nice: http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/2 ... eck-seals/

For the gloves, you can buy them with handplates glued on from Sonnenschein on the white armor forum. These are an upgrade from the hard cast hand plates that your armor probably came with, it makes them more movie real : http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/9 ... nd-guards/

The blaster is kind of dependent on what you would like to do! Do you want to build something from a kit? Do you want to buy something that is already completed? Do you want it to be unbreakable? Do you already have a hasbro that you'd like to upgrade? There are lots of options here!

The boots... I'm actually not sure now that tkboots.com is out for the time being... anybody? might have to watch to see if anyone puts any for sale on the forums.

The body suit, I'll be honest I just bought heatgear type pants and a shirt from walmart basically the underarmor knock off. I like the 2 piece but some people wear a one piece leotard type undersuit.

More questions welcome, keep em coming Good luck with the build.

[gazmosis]

Good morning and welcome to the Garrison. We are certainly here to help any one with their armor dilemmas. One of the things we do here and over at the FISD, is do everything possible to make your armor both approvable and accurate. Sometimes, in order to do this, we share all the things that should and should NOT be done. We know this because most of us have already made these mistakes. Sadly, I don't know how to sugar coat this one. One of the biggest mistakes that newcomers make is to rely on Ebay for their Stormtrooper armor. This is just a bad idea. What I would seriously consider doing is to relist the armor that you bought and hopefully make your money back. I probably doubt that the helmet pictured will even cover you for basic approval. The armor was cast off the old FX brand armor which many troopers are still using today but is no longer available. Hopefully, you will then be able to place an order with the more reputable armor makers supported on the FISD if you decide to try to re-sell your armor. All approved Stormtrooper armors use vacuformed plastic that assembles well with suggested adhesives. It is lightweight, durable, and most repairs can be made with relative ease. Having never worked with fiberglass armor, I couldn't even begin to tell you where to begin. I am not saying that your armor, when finished, wouldn't be approvable, I just worry about durability, repairs and the fact that no armor is one size fits all. It may need to be altered to fit your body. I don't know how easy that would be to do with fiberglass. I do strongly suggest to replace the helmet with an approved maker like ATA, or AP. You can do more research on these makers on FISD.
If you need more information on anything I stated above, please contact me. But if you want to get started on the other things you are looking for, her are some suggestions. The undersuit constists of nothing more than compression wear. It should be black and have no visible labels. It doesn't HAVE to be "underarmor" brand either. Most out door companies carry several different brands that are more affordable than Underarmor. For the neckseal, a guy on FISD known as Darman (do a search at the top) makes really good ones. The boots we recommend come from TK boots. However, there is a supply problem right now that is in need of a resolution. http://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/2 ... andidates/ This is a great thread covering a lot of approvable boots that can have the outer finish removed and painted with special leather paint available at most hobby stores. That is what they did for the original film anyway. As for your blaster, I suggest a kit from doopy dos http://stores.ebay.com/Doopys-World/STA ... 34.c0.m322 When available, they make a full e-11 resin blaster kit. Also available is a kit from a maker known as DVH. You can look that up on FISD as well. His kit takes a considerable amount of skill but if you are up for the challenge, go for it. The holster is available either from myself here, or trooperbay like you originally posted.
I know this is a lot to swallow. Please contact me should you have any other questions.