The Bucket Project - The Ears and Face Plate

I've been working on my helmet a lot these past few days. First thing I worked on were the ears.I followed TK-4510's tutorial to trim them. Here are the steps I took based on his guide:

- Drew a trim line with a pencil at least 2-3mm from the trim line.
- I lightly scored it with an Xacto knife then went back to make the score deeper with a utility knife/box cutter.
- I then scored "legs" that would help me snap of the excess plastic from the ears.
- I started snapping of the legs and cutting off the legs that wouldn't snap of.

For the helmet, I first drew trim lines and trimmed the eyes from the outside off the face but later on I went back and trimmed from the inside which was actually the easier and better resulting thing to do. I then started trimming the teeth bit by bit with my Xacto knife. I still have a lot of work to do on the teeth. I'm taking it slow with them 'cos I don't want to end up with an ugly looking frown.

Here are pics of the end result of the ears and partially end result of the face plate:

Ears

My first run on the face plate

Almost done face plate. Still have to trim the teeth more and polish up the eyes a little.

And it begins! The TK Bucket Project - Phase 1

My ATA Stormtrooper helmet kit arrived today.

My sister texted me at around 10:30 in the morning telling me that my package had arrived. She did not literally mean that my actual package had arrived at home but she meant that the notice from the post office had been delivered. Unlike a lot of other countries in the world, we don't receive packages at our doorstep; we have to pick them up at our city post office.

On the way to the Las Piñas Post Office, I was already thinking how much tax the customs officer would charge me; the Las Piñas Post Office has had a notorious reputation for overcharging taxes. When I arrived at the post office, I did the usual step of paying for the delivery of the package notice, which costs P40, then went to the customs counter and handed my notice and receipt to the customs personnel. It took a few minutes for her to get my box from storage and another few minutes before she got to opening it and talking to me regarding the contents and the taxes I had to pay since there were 2 people who were there before me. When she did get to me, she showed me the computation for the taxes I had to pay which surprised me because it wasn't something they used to do. They used to just vocally tell you how much you had to pay but now they had a printed receipt with the computations on it. This was actually a good thing because now the charged taxes would be computed correctly and prevent corruption by the customs personnel.

Anyway, I ended up paying only P600 in taxes & duties which I am very happy with. And as soon as I could I took pictures of the box and contents (pictures below). I'm going to start working on the helmet tonight or tomorrow as I still have to collect/buy some of the tools and materials I need to assemble it like sandpaper, our electric hand drill, and a box cutter as my Xacto knife apparently isn't sharp enough to score the plastic deep enough for me to snap pieces of it off.

Even Bentley likes the box

Excellently packed and arranged

All the pieces spread out

 I will post my progress on my build as I go through and post more pics as well.

You can visit my Flickr photoset here,

Recruit Log: 07.04.10 - The Bucket is in Transit

Here's some blog worthy news. I finally ordered and paid for my TK bucket and it is now in transit through the USPS. It's an ATA (Affordable Trooper Armor) helmet kit and the kit is very affordable (hence the name) and, IMO, the better choice for new troopers on a budget. It's made from HIPS and it comes with everything I'll need to build it. The only things I'll need after it are the decals and the paints which I'll both be getting in a few months. I'm going to wait 'til I get my armor kit before I go about buying paints so I can match the white of the armor with the white of the bucket.

The helmet kit will arrive in around 6-10 days and I'll probably get notice of it a few days to a week after it arrives (thank you Philippine Post system). And I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to argue with the corrupt douche bags at the post office about whether or not they should charge me COMMERCIAL IMPORT TAX for a personal package. (thank you again Philippine Post system)

But the wait, the hassle, and expense is all worth it to finally take my first big step into joining the ranks of the 501st.

Will update again when it arrives.