Stormtrooper Torso
I decided to cut my torso plates to improve mobility. This combined with the trimmed thighs allows me to sit fairly well and even pick things up off the floor with out too much hassle. The black buttons on the ab plate are actually black button snap covers. I hot glued these in as the chest plate has a tendency to pop the top one out. When I cut the plates in to I glued elastic to both sides to keep them together. I'd recommend elastic over straight webbing as the elastic has a little give when you bend. To attach the elastic I had to glue a plate over the left side buttons so I had something to glue to. The sides of the armor are held together with elastic and snaps. I had velcro on before but got tired of it always coming unhooked. To put on the lower torso I use a pair of workman's suspenders from Home Depot. The suspenders come sewn together in an X pattern. I found that the point where they cross was to high up on my back so I cut them apart and re-sewed them into straps.
The upper torso has also gone through a number of iterations. Initially I use spare plastic to attach the chest and back plate together and then glued the ribbed traps overtop. Unfortunately the plastic I used was too short and the front and back were too close together. I wound up cutting the understraps and letting the ribbed straps hold the front and back together. This opened up the armor enough to make it wearable. I left the spare plastic attached under the straps as this gave me something to attach the shoulder bells to as well as a place to add straps for the upper arms. The front and back torso plates are held on the sides with elastic and snaps. Velcro in the chest is used to hold a voice amp. I did have to trim down the sides of the chest plate to improve my arm motion.
My belt I wanted to keep separate from my armor mostly because I thought it'd be neat to have a detachable belt. I didn't like the plastic strips they gave you for the belt and didn't like how it was supposed to go together. I got a white web belt from an army-navy store and riveted the belt plate and thermal detonator to it. The drop boxes were glued to the back of the belt with elastic. I've hear horror stories about troopers getting their parts ripped off at conventions by crazy fans so I wanted to make sure everything was firmly attached. This said, I did leave one of the thermal detonator end caps removable. This give me a place to toss keys, money, extra batteries, etc. I haven't had a problem yet and hopefully never will.
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