TK “619” Restoration*

History

This armour is a set of fan-created Stormtrooper armour produced by Marco Enterprises (circa 1990). Marco Enterprises was a small company who produced movie props and was subsequently shut down due to copyright infringement. At the time, it was the best that was made available, but compared to today’s standards and the revisions and work done by others over the years, the differences are quite noticeable. It should be noted, however that it is this work that “kick started” the many different and available fan made kits today. (by popular opinion)

So why bother to restore this set if there are better ones out there? For one, posterity. This set of armour was among the first sets put out there, and in all the information that I could gather on this particular make, I could find only one other set of armour still in existence, and that was in the collection of Steven Sansweet, and even that, I cannot confirm to know for certain if he still has it. If anyone else out there still has one of these suits, I would be more than happy to hear from you.

DATA:

Marco Enterprises Stormtrooper Armour (circa 1990)

Age: approximately 20 years

Restoration Start: March 30 2010

Restoration Completed: TBA

*named as such as that is my personal date of birth

 

The Helmet

When I took a look at the set, the plastic that the armour was constructed out of was still in very good shape. The helmet however needed a fair amount of work to remove the yellowing, the lenses in the eyes needed to be replaced, the small “aerators” needed to be redone completely, new trim and ear caps and a brand new gloss paint job all would make for a clean and “up to date” look. It did not take long to get started on this and I will admit that this project would literally be a labour of love.

I began by giving the helmet a full over sanding using a soft block of 600 grit sandpaper to get into the grooves and the edges where the helmet was put together. Because of the construction, I did not want to take the chance at pulling the whole helmet apart, as the glue and rivets that held it together had actually become part of the plastic, and might damage the helmet itself. Once the initial sanding was complete, and all traces of detail paint were done away with, I went over the entire helmet one more time with 1000 grit sandpaper just to prep it for the paint job, but wound up doing a second round to remove any dirt and oils from the handling.

Once the helmet was clean, I cleaned up a few of the imperfections, and drilled out the teeth to prep them for screen in the back. The grey ear caps on each side of the helmet had to be recast to get a little more sharpness in the detail as I found the originals soft and lacking. Rather than use resin or plastic for the recasting, I used a small amount of release agent and filled the mold with hot glue. Once set, the glue was good and solid and formed perfectly to give the detail I was after.

The teeth, as mentioned before, were drilled out then filed to give the edges a crisp and clean look. I debated doing the tooth colour grey or black, as the helmets did have that much of a change from A New Hope to The Empire Strikes Back, and finally settled on black to give more contrast to the white and grey.

The brow trim was cut and trimmed to fit and placed and I used a strip of rubber door lining for this. The brows on more screen accurate helmets have a slight raised curve to them, and I will probably upgrade this strip to that when I can locate it locally.

The rest of the detail work was done using decals that I was able to re-create using Adobe Illustrator, then print out on proper stock. These decals were trimmed and placed as needed.

The small “comlink” speakers located at the bottom of the helmet and recessed into the rounded tube like “corners” are simple faucets bought from any hardware store. They were spray painted in a flat black with the top most edge retaining the thin silver chrome line and then bolted onto the helmet using 1 inch by 7/8 bolts and nuts. The bolts were counter sunk into the back of the faucets and set in place using hot glue. Two small holes were drilled into the helmet to allow the bolts to pass through to which they were affixed from the inside of the helmet using the proper sized nuts and washers.

New lenses for the eyes were cut straight from a smoke tinted face visor and spot glued in place from the inside of the helmet. The original lenses that came with this suit and helmet were tinted green and very see through. Having them dark in the way they are now was a definite improvement overall.

Once the painting and detailing was complete, the last step was to place the screen in behind the teeth.

Helmet restoration time: 2 weeks

NEXT: THE ARMOR