Hey all,
I've been away from the forum for a long time, just looking at Terrys armour again.

Can anyone give me some info on accuracy. I know at one time there were issues with placement of ear piece, paint job, lining etc

Does anyone know if these issues have been fixed now?

What does he use for the drop down, mic and camera?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Lewis

Oh boy! A topic I am full of info/opinions about. Keep in mind when I reference my own TE set that it is about 2 years old, so not necessarily the very most current version, but I have not seen anything lately to invalidate the info below. At risk of being sacrilegious in some areas, here we go!...

-Ear cup placement has been fixed. I believe Zachilles got that all sorted out some time ago. All the ones I have seen recently including my own are good (and I did not need to mention it. It just came correct).

Regarding the non-metal extra bits, it is my understanding Chef is working closely with him on all that.
-IR sight is a 3D print. The helmet area under the bump plate is cut out and the sight is fit in there. It has posts in the print that basically prevent it from sliding out the bottom but is otherwise loose in the helmet and can be removed by taking out the liner. The whole setup works pretty well as long as the light switch doesn't require force activate. The one that came with my helmet wouldn't stay on from gravity alone and I had to pull it down in order for the light to work. I ended up replacing it with a Mars Attacks that was metal and more free flowing, but overall the IR site works well if you get a soft switch in there.

-Ab Pad is Chef. Preference on his vs. a Noble one is probably up to you. The Chef one is pretty heavy duty and I left mine as-is.

-Mic is a resin cast off a real one, but is resin.

-Camera is resin, but I will say it was BEAUTIFUL. Not your common resin lens job. It was multi part construction with a real clear lens molded in to a gloss camera body. Even had the white lettering around the face of the lens. While not a "real pentax" it was actually VERY nice. I still replaced mine with a real pantex in the end on principle, but it wasn't for lack of quality on the resin one. Very nice camera.

- Paint unfortunately still varies. I love the paint on mine, but just 2 days ago I saw a facebook post featuring one "ready to go" (recently finished) with a much brighter paint job than mine. To this day I am not sure there is much consensus on paint. The accepted humbrol color chart doesn't seem to match Terry's "original color chart", which is very bright. It is probably worth asking ahead of time what the current practice is for colors. I don't have any clue if they are willing to tweak it, but can't hurt to ask. Communication is how Zachilles got the ear issue fixed.

- Lining/padding on mine was generic green sleeping mat/foam. Mine had no pattern embossed on it at all and was just smooth. I would expect that is the normal these days. It still has a nice military look to it and works well. Considering the rarity, the 40 year old dutch foam is unlikely to ever be an option, but you can't see the matt anywhere except the bottom lobster plate so I have never lost sleep over it.

- Regarding overall "accuracy" of his own creation:
*I still say the 'bump plates' are a little round and high. All confirmed screen used helmets have bump plates that don't go as high and are stretch wider to the point they need a cut-out on the corner where the Cameras are attached. On his current ones they round off and drop down before they reach the camera.
*Camera's can be mounted too high at times. Again, refer to screen used helmets and you see the front bottom corner of the camera is only about an inch from the bottom rim of the helmet. Mine came almost 4 inches from the bottom rim. I redrilled some holes and lowered it (connect with screws from inside of helmet).
*Crotch/cod piece design has changed a lot. The current version has two ridges and is no doubt stronger than original, but the prop pics from screen sets clearly show no ridges on any screen used ones and a slight different shape that comes to a soft/rounded point at the top (as opposed to flat between the new ridges). I am certain that was one of the "if I had more time, I'd have made these improvements" additions that he was quoted as saying some time back, but is worth noting because it is so different.


Overall, if anything from above vexes you as "not accurate enough" then you can buy his armor unfinished and finalize the details yourself. You can also buy casts of his actual armor from Chef/Terry that are fully authorized and not spend as much money nor feel bad if you make alterations. Chef's own vac-formed kit is another lower cost option to use as a base and is, no surprise, very accurate due to his relationship with Terry.

However, minor quibbles aside, if you want a work of art from the hand of the original artist, there is no substitute.

Spot on BigbisonT.

Bigbisont nailed it. I do have one pet peeve.

-The backstraps that go down the back inside are often to tight. this creates a backward lean rather then a forward lean like in the film.
this makes a gap in the shoulder bell in front.The whole shoulder assembly should be looser and more forward leaning. Recently the gap has been solved by adding an extra length of connecting webbing between shoulder bell and the over arching piece. You can see bigbisont had it fixed in this thread. You can ask TE to have it done, or to have an extra inch of back elastic installed in the back straps.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=17422&p=270615&hilit=shoulder+spread#p270615

Wow, great info guys...this is very helpful!

Now to decide what to do!

id say send photos and notes of each detail you want to get just right. They'll do anything. could even send pics of screen used lobe plates which were a little lower. Contact TEs facebook and youll probably be talking to Rob/Chef. Theyll send you a price list and options. Then go ahead and get a fully finished suit of armor. you wont regret it.
Id also ask him if he could sign the armor on the inside, and he also offers specific character armor like Hicks/Hudson for a couple hundred extra I believe.

i thought Chef's kits were fiberglass.

_________________
PFC Mike Rizzuto MVM
USS Blackhawk
3rd Batt 12th Regt

Nope they're vac-formed. there's an old thread here where he makes the buck for them.
It was Men-at-arms that did the fiberglass in hicks and dietrich sizes. Chefs have good durability though.

What are the "casts" mentioned above? I know about the vac formed stuff Chef does, but haven't ever heard of any other casts from him. Just the aforementioned fiberglass Maa stuff and John Riddell. Is there another casting?

_________________
"He is as clumsy as he is stupid."

Nickatron had casted his TE armor. I own fiberglass TE armor. Not sure what happened to the molds. Nice heavy kit..

On Terry's facebook page (or was it Rob's?), they advertised actual TE casts a while back. Was def pre-pandemic, so likely over a year ago. I'll try to find the post. They were separate from Chef's own offering. A fully finished set was about 1/2 the cost of Terry's metal set. Still not cheap, but cool as they were from Terry's shop. I don't know how many actually made it out the door or what the material was cast in, but I would assume they are still offering them? Could be worth an inquiry.