Hot Toys Star Wars Stormtrooper

[brentce]

Fantastic weathering!

Thanks, Matrix. I'm new to Star Wars 1/6th (since my 12" Luke, Darth and Stormy in 1978, that is ) and I'm having a ball!

brent

 

[Cap'n Cook]

It's a rack for guns and it does exactly that. I don't see problem.

Stupendous is good.

..

 

[earthdog]

Your body transfers have me convinced that I need my other TK to migrate to a TrueType Slim. They look fantastic.

I've stripped, modded and repainted my SS sandtrooper's armor and put it on a slim, and I really like the look. He has HT hands and boots. The helmet is still a WIP, hence his headlessness.

View attachment 183844

That looks fantastic! How much effort modding was involved to get it to look so good? Body mod or suit mods? I've got 3 SS standard troopers ready for an upgrade while they wait for their HT friends to arrive.

 

[ZE_501]

Your body transfers have me convinced that I need my other TK to migrate to a TrueType Slim. They look fantastic.

I've stripped, modded and repainted my SS sandtrooper's armor and put it on a slim, and I really like the look. He has HT hands and boots. The helmet is still a WIP, hence his headlessness.

[...]

Nice! I've never tried a TT Slim...been stuck on using what I know works, but that looks great.

I know why Hot Toys designed the stock as-is...it keeps everything tight and in place. But that "natural" look needs a little shifty-ness. Not as shifty as a stock SSC though.

 

[Pixelpiper]

I'm going to get nit-picky on you nit-pickers now, as I feel there's still one thing that sticks out for me (no pun intended) that brings down the realism a notch. The oversized gap between the thighs close to the crotch. Aka cowboy crotch. This is caused by most 1/6 bodies having a huge gap between legs of course, typically to allow those extra thigh pieces and clothing to be added and futzed, plus to aid in articulation.

 

[Mikehalc]

I'm going to get nit-picky on you nit-pickers now, as I feel there's still one thing that sticks out for me (no pun intended) that brings down the realism a notch. The oversized gap between the thighs close to the crotch. Aka cowboy crotch. This is caused by most 1/6 bodies having a huge gap between legs of course, typically to allow those extra thigh pieces and clothing to be added and futzed, plus to aid in articulation.

This Stormtrooper worked hard to get the body he wanted and I just don't think it's right to body shame him...

 

[Pixelpiper]

 

[ZE_501]

I'm going to get nit-picky on you nit-pickers now, as I feel there's still one thing that sticks out for me (no pun intended) that brings down the realism a notch. The oversized gap between the thighs close to the crotch. Aka cowboy crotch. This is caused by most 1/6 bodies having a huge gap between legs of course, typically to allow those extra thigh pieces and clothing to be added and futzed, plus to aid in articulation.

Yes. Less evident on Bruce Lee trooper. The bodies with closer legs sometimes have the hips too narrow as a result...some of my first ever Marmit customs used TT knock-offs that had that issue.

So I had to settled for the trade-off...naturally squared hips were bought by cowboy crotch.

The S2.5s can still bring their legs closer together than the stock bodies, though. Because the squared, wider hips allow for a greater range.

 

[ZE_501]

A little more surgery this morning.

The HT shoulder piece and arm are grafted on to the S2.5 pectoral/shoulder assembly; it works but you can see the HT shoulder projects up. Have begun to grind them down for better shoulder bell placement...here's one started.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ZE_501]

So real fast...three body types from left to right:

S2.5 with stock HT arm graft, traps and upper arms filed down to drop and narrow the shoulders. Neck peg is an HT Stormtrooper ankle peg with padding.

HT Bruce Lee casual-wear body with stock HT arm graft... This is a different surgery than S2.5...only the arms get ported, no trap/shoulder assembly. Neck peg is a HT short trooper neck peg.

S2.5 with stock HT arm graft, traps and upper arms NOT filed down. Neck peg is an HT Stormtrooper ankle peg with padding.

Armour is futzed on all...some strapping is attached more loosely or not at all, bellies and torsos padded out with foam.

At some point I'll strip them down and pad the bodies themselves for something more permanent, but this is easily adjustable for now.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[shocktrooper_au]

So real fast...three body types from left to right:

S2.5 with stock HT arm graft, traps and upper arms filed down to drop and narrow the shoulders. Neck peg is an HT Stormtrooper ankle peg with padding.

HT Bruce Lee casual-wear body with stock HT arm graft... This is a different surgery than S2.5...only the arms get ported, no trap/shoulder assembly. Neck peg is a HT short trooper neck peg.

S2.5 with stock HT arm graft, traps and upper arms NOT filed down. Neck peg is an HT Stormtrooper ankle peg with padding.

Armour is futzed on all...some strapping is attached more loosely or not at all, bellies and torsos padded out with foam.

At some point I'll strip them down and pad the bodies themselves for something more permanent, but this is easily adjustable for now.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

the guy in the left facing looks great

 

[ZE_501]

the guy in the left facing looks great

R2 or the trooper?

I'll probably grind the shoulders on the rightmost S2.5 as well....although a third body type is cool, those broad superhero shoulders aren't very '77 style.

**EDIT: On second thought, after checking some reference pics, it looks screen-accurate enough for several scenes...maybe I will leave it as is, at least for now.

 

[j97e1]

Sexy female stormie, just what I needed

 

[ZE_501]

Sexy female stormie, just what I needed

What you do in your bedroom is entirely your business.

I do think some of the stormtroopers in ANH had a vaguely feminine air about them. Probably due to the awkward armour and the possibility that some of those extras were in fact female...

 

[brentce]

That looks fantastic! How much effort modding was involved to get it to look so good? Body mod or suit mods? I've got 3 SS standard troopers ready for an upgrade while they wait for their HT friends to arrive.

Hey earthdog,

The first thing I did was strip as much of the paint/weathering as I could, then sanded out all the mold seams and glue joints. I used gap-filling superglue to fill some gaps on the glued together parts. Once everything was clean and smooth, I test fitted the armor to the TT slim and and started grinding on the body and armor to get it to fit right.

For body mods, I had to grind down the thighs until the thigh armor fit snug but not tight. I reshaped/shortened the top of the thigh armor to match the length of the TT thigh. Next I shortened the greaves at the foot end and also thinned them out and re-shapped them to fit over the HT boots. While I was at it I refined the shape just above ankle joint to get rid of the thick-ankled look of the SS part.

For the upper body, after the requisite chest plate reshape, I cut down the armpit side of the bicep armor so the arms would sit closer to the body. I did the same on the forearm pieces so there was more room to bend at the elbow.

Next was a bunch of priming and sanding to get a nice smooth surface for the gloss white paint. Mostly I used the Tamiya Pure White TS-26 spray can for big pieces with little detail, but decanted some paint from the can to run through an airbrush on parts that would be likely to run if sprayed from the can. The belly armor and upper back did a lot better with the airbrush than the spray can.

The helmet rework has been quite the project. I'll post some in-progress photos later.

HTH,
Brent

 

[shocktrooper_au]

What you do in your bedroom is entirely your business.

I do think some of the stormtroopers in ANH had a vaguely feminine air about them. Probably due to the awkward armour and the possibility that some of those extras were in fact female...

It's a very stormie stance ( one I've been hoping to achieve) not sure if there where any females in the kit rather then very 70s skinny dudes

 

[Asta]

All these Stormtroopers are looking great.

Still awaiting mine.

Sexy female stormie, just what I needed

I do think some of the stormtroopers in ANH had a vaguely feminine air about them. Probably due to the awkward armour and the possibility that some of those extras were in fact female...

Here's a little nugget from Wookieepedia taken from the 2012 The Essential Guide to Warfare:

Service in the Stormtrooper Corps was open to both Human men and women, but female stormtroopers were an extremely rare sight under Palpatine's reign and on average there were never more than three female stormtroopers within a whole legion.[SUP][1][/SUP].[SUP][21][/SUP] In spite of this disparity, some female troopers served in elite units, such as the Coruscant Guard.[SUP][22][/SUP]

Female Stormtroopers underwent the same hard training as their male counterparts. Only the best of the best recruits were selected for the stormtrooper corps. Once accepted into the stormtrooper corps, every trooper was treated as an equal. There were no differences between males and females. They even shared the same barracks. Wearing the exact same white stormtrooper armor, one could not distinguish between a male or female Stormtrooper.[SUP][1][/SUP]

https://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Stormtrooper

 

[earthdog]

Hey earthdog,

The first thing I did was strip as much of the paint/weathering as I could, then sanded out all the mold seams and glue joints. I used gap-filling superglue to fill some gaps on the glued together parts. Once everything was clean and smooth, I test fitted the armor to the TT slim and and started grinding on the body and armor to get it to fit right.

For body mods, I had to grind down the thighs until the thigh armor fit snug but not tight. I reshaped/shortened the top of the thigh armor to match the length of the TT thigh. Next I shortened the greaves at the foot end and also thinned them out and re-shapped them to fit over the HT boots. While I was at it I refined the shape just above ankle joint to get rid of the thick-ankled look of the SS part.

For the upper body, after the requisite chest plate reshape, I cut down the armpit side of the bicep armor so the arms would sit closer to the body. I did the same on the forearm pieces so there was more room to bend at the elbow.

Next was a bunch of priming and sanding to get a nice smooth surface for the gloss white paint. Mostly I used the Tamiya Pure White TS-26 spray can for big pieces with little detail, but decanted some paint from the can to run through an airbrush on parts that would be likely to run if sprayed from the can. The belly armor and upper back did a lot better with the airbrush than the spray can.

The helmet rework has been quite the project. I'll post some in-progress photos later.

HTH,
Brent

Oh... My... Lanta!

That was more than I was bargaining for. Thanks for all the detailed info. I wish I had the time take on such a fun project that you've proven can have fantastic results. I don't want to hijack the HT Stormtrooper thread so when you get your pics post them in the Sideshow Stormtrooper thread or the "Show us your troops" thread. Can't wait to see them! And thanks!

 

[brentce]

Oh... My... Lanta!

That was more than I was bargaining for. Thanks for all the detailed info. I wish I had the time take on such a fun project that you've proven can have fantastic results. I don't want to hijack the HT Stormtrooper thread so when you get your pics post them in the Sideshow Stormtrooper thread or the "Show us your troops" thread. Can't wait to see them! And thanks!

By far the most time consuming part has been getting to the clean white base. The actual mods to get the armor to fit the TT slim can be done in less than an hour, especially if you have a Dremel. If you just want to upgrade the body you can spend five minutes grinding down the thighs on the TT, then another 20-30 minutes shortening the leg armor.

I was worried about hijacking the HT Stormy thread with a bunch of SSC stuff, so I'll post some more pics in the troops thread.

 

[Aliaz]

Saw these at Forbidden Planet today. Horrible futzing but still awesome. Was close to caving in but figured Im better of waiting until After we move and I have a place to display them.