Stormtrooper(s)

In the Dark Arches, Leeds 2018.
In the Roman Baths pub in York.
Going round London as a Stormtrooper n in 2010 was enormous fun.
I decided that a street parade was too good to miss, so I gayed up the armour to join in with Pride in Leeds. I think this bloke looked amazing.
This woman wanted to get her boyfriend to photograph her giving the Stormtrooper a rectal probing with the blaster.
It’s become a bit of a thing to get photos with police.
This is probably the funniest photo ever taken of me. It was taken by ex-girlfriend when we bumped into a hen night group in Leeds.
Meeting Ironman at the Royal Armouries.
Meeting the (official) 501st Legion at The Royal Armouries.

Why

Ever since first seeing them on Star Wars, I thought the Stormtroopers looked different, awesome and menacing. Between these guys and the Tusken Raiders, they were probably my favourite things from the films. I even fantasised about owning a costume one day. I didn’t think it would be possible, but the internet and eBay came around, so in 2005 I shelled out nearly £500 for a kit to be sent over from the US. I never assembled it and didn’t even properly start making my own sets until four years later in 2009.

Although Stormtroopers look great, I preferred the dirty battered look that Sandtroopers had. There are some physical differences to the armour but I didn’t care enough to be screen accurate. Besides, I’m sure there would have been some mucky Stormtroopers that weren’t Sandtroopers somewhere. The weathered look would also hide a multitude of poor construction issues.

Sandtroopers from the film.

When

Summer 2009

Elements

Undersuit, helmet, blaster, shoulder guards, optional pauldron, bicep parts, forearm parts, hand guards, chest and back plate, abdomen and lumbar plates, thigh parts, calf parts, boots, gloves, detonator (cylinder on back of belt), belt.

Amount of Work

Absolutely loads. A spring and summer of work in 2009. I made parts for 6 sets and completed 4. My friends that we went to Creamfields with bought theirs and my ex-girlfriend kept hers. In around 2018 I completed a further “spare” set.

Level of use

Loads of times. It was the best costume I had for over a decade. (Now ceded to the Toy Suit).

Notes

There’s some level of discomfort with wearing it , but it’s always been worth it. Except for one time when an inner-thigh edge trim had come loose and the metal in the part injured me enough to have to visit a medical centre a few days later.

Future use

Absolutely.

Making it

I bought a set of armour in 2005 but didn’t assemble it. Instead, I filled all the parts with concrete so I’d have forms to be able to make more than one set from. I made some parts in 2006, but it wasn’t until 2009 that I really ramped things up as I wanted to go to Creamfields as a group of Stormtroopers.

44 parts per suit had to be heat formed in a range of different frame sizes.

I built an extension to my kitchen oven (that would sit on the open door) from the remnants of a failed attempt at making a vacuum forming table.

This is what it looked like immediately out of the box in 2005. None of this was ever assembled.
All parts that were different were filled with concrete or plaster. These are just a few of them. I still have them in my garage.
The concrete form sits on bricks and the original part waits to be pressed over the 1.5mm ABS plastic heating up in the extended oven. A lot of parts failed completely and had to be redone. I must’ve made about 300 heat formed parts.
Parts would start to accumulate but each part had a long process beyond this. There were a lot of identifying black marker initials for Left, Right, Inner and Outer.
Some chest, back and “boobplate” parts piling up on the second TARDIS I never finished. There were parts EVERYWHERE.
Shoulder bells, and one of the original pieces I would press over the hot plastic to capture the concrete form below.
Forearm and Bicep plates that have been “welded” together and with strips added to neaten and emphasise the joints.
Despite significant progress, this sort of situation is still quite daunting.
Early parts that were formed and trimmed before being abandoned for three years.
“Mic Tip” details for the front of the helmet using plumbing pipe and a cut up spatter guard mesh.
A very early stage of a difficult and time consuming helmet assembly that gives me a sense of dread even over a decade later.
There seemed to be a never ending combination of parts to join and process.
The largest wooden frame would just about make a rough looking boob plate.
Helmets were very difficult indeed, and to get this far with 4 complete and 2 weathered was satisfying in itself.
A palette of desert filth colours was prepared with normal household emulsion paint and additional wood stain and anything else to hand.
Parts awaiting secondary weathering processes.
Much of the weathering paint would be removed with wire wool. No armour graphics were used in the films but mine had an Empire emblem, a Yorkshire Rose and the wearer’s name in the Star Wars “Aurabesh” font.
1, The original part. 2, the plaster cast. 3, the formed plastic in a wooden frame. 4, a completed part of the same type.
There was so much band-sawing and rotary tool cutting.
Webbing and/or elastic fittings were glued into place on a lot of fittings. There’s also a lot of click-clasp and industrial strength Velcro interfaces.
The torso sections came in two pieces but I made them into four, with the belt covering the join for slightly improved flexibility. Clasps on webbing straps go over the shoulders. Velcro attaches the parts at the groin.
A piece of Velcro on a webbing strap is glued and further secured into place on the bell and attaches with Velcro onto the bicep piece.
Safety helmets were cut down and bolted to the helmet pieces. Gaffer tape holds the eye lenses and mic tips etc in place and it all looks a bit rough inside, but it’s workable and reasonably comfortable.
Steel-toe capped boots whited up with spray paint.
1, Film Stormtroopers have a weird black gap between their front and back sections. I never liked it and decided to fill it with a section of faux leather.
2, Although I’d put trim on the neck, I left it off other parts that weren’t meant to have them..
3, it was a while before I also put it on the groin and thigh edges because comfort was more important than any further minor inaccuracy.
Neck Seals had to be sewn up. It was just soft black cotton with a thin layer of foam sewn in, with some banding. There are fancier rubbery versions but those are probably less comfortable and durable.
The re-purposed roman satchel was ideal for this costume too. The bag routinely holds essential, items like phone and wallet, but also other stuff like food, emergency gaffer tape and sometimes speakers for Star Wars music.
The squad leader pauldron is one of the few things that I bought rather than made. It required the least amount of work as it only had a few bits of sponged on paint.
Holsters all had to be made from scratch too. Cutting gluing, stitching, riveting!
Blasters. 1, bought from eBay awaiting a paint job 2, a blaster modified by a friend to make it more screen accurate 3, a blaster from Aldi with a paintjob, 4, a child’s toy from a charity shop with paintjob.
Shoulder bell graphics with Empire Emblem, Yorkshire Rose. The Aurabesh letters here read “Ste”. Green was used for males, Orange was used for females, just to be a bit different from blue/pink.
The two sets I have along with more blasters than I need are kept in a wardrobe in a spare bedroom.
A fully assembled set before weathering. Early sets didn’t have edging on key edges like neck, thighs and wrists. Although this was film accurate, it was terrible for comfort.
The first try-out. It felt like quite a moment.
The first time I’d worn a suit that was considered finished. I went straight round to see my dad wearing this as he had less than a month to live by this point in 200.

Some more in-use photos

This was just after we arrived at Creamfields. The two guys on the left probably felt the bee’s knees until we turned up and blew their flat floppy latex look out of the water. People went crazy for us. It was a thrilling experience and justified so much hard work.
One of the later occasions on which the four fully completed suits went out together.
Some more cops. A rather nice one too.
The ultimate Nazi – as a space Nazi.
Even more police camera action.
I made a special large Christmas hat for the Stormtrooper around 2018.
In 2010, two years before I’d be chased away from the Tower for wearing their uniform.
I’m not sure how we were allowed to clamber over a a railing to do this, but it happened.

Right, you’ve probably had enough of this one now.

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