Transforming to ESB

There are minor differences between the storm troopers between A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. They're hard to spot, but the Empire Strikes Back troopers are the most different from the ANH and ROTJ troopers. I've been wanting to go to ESB for a while now, and I've finally made the switch over.

There are two differences that really make a trooper ESB. The first is the helmet frown. Where the ANH and ROTJ frowns are a light gray, the Empire Strikes Back frown is black. So, I taped up my helmet all around the frown using duct tape and newspaper, and changed the color of that over. I've given it a couple of coats, just to be sure.




The end result came out pretty good, although I missed a couple of spots, which I've touched up with a sharpie marker. For the time being, this'll work just fine, although I would like to get some hobby paint and finish the job completely.

The second difference is in the hand plates. In ANH, they are flat and angular. In ESB, they are a bit smaller, and curved inwards a bit. I was able to aquire a set via one of our recruits, Frank, who's recently built a vacuformer and made some molds. He used a very lightweight plastic, polysyrene, which is very thin - much thinner than the ABS plastic that the rest of my armor is made of, but much cheaper. Because these plates don't cover the strap on my glove, I've painted that as well, although I suspect that I'll have to replace the strap entirely so that the glove is uniformly black. I'll see how it is for now though.





Hopefully, the inside of the helmet won't be too smelly from the paint...