This year, as I want to give my wife a special birthday present, I am going to make a pair of Lego Stormtrooper Earrings using Lego Stormtrooper keychains. To make these, I bought 4 Stormtrooper Lego keychains during my last KL trip just to make sure that I have an extra set should I spoil the lego figures while attempting my feat.
Before beginning this project, let me do a review on the Stormtrooper Lego that I bought years ago. On my
left is the lego that I bought years ago, and to my right is the lego I bought recently. You will notice that there are 3 major differences: the chest, backside and the helmet.
Difference 1: The shadow on the chest is not of the same design.
Difference 2: The backside design is not the same.
Difference 3: This is the close-up of the helmet. Up close, you can see that the trooper on the left has smaller painted eyes and it does not have the grill painted on its "mouth". From this aspect, I prefer the figure on the right as it looks more like the original stormtrooper.
Ok, let's begin the project! First, the things I use: a soldering iron, cutting pliers, a pair of earrings and lego stormtrooper keychains.
My first try in removing the key chain pin from the lego figure.
As you can see, I messed up on the first figure.. I applied too much force to one side causing the damage as shown..
My second and fifth try at removing the pin went well, but I messed up the third and fourth figure due to errors on my part which I will explain later.
As I want to reuse the pin for my earrings, I had to reduce its length first using cutting pliers.
Here is the results of my effort.
It was a mistake using UHU glue to glue back the pin on the helmet as it did not stick well to it so I used Super Glue instead and this gave me the perfect result.
Explaining the mistake I made while removing the pin from the 3rd figure used: Because I did not remove the chain from the pin before using the solder, the heat from the solder travelled down the chain, causing the plastic area of the helmet closest to the chain to melt. Note: as this picture was taken post mortem, the solder is not switched on, so I could use my hand to touch the chain. Warning: Please do not do this with the solder switched on!
Explaining the mistake made in my attempt to remove the pin from the 4th figure: Because of the mistake made on my 3rd figure, I now tried to keep the chain away from the helmet while removing the pin. This could have been successful but unfortunately, the chain rebound and hit the helmet when I pulled the pin out and as such the heat from the chain was so great that the short contact from the hot chain had already damaged the helmet.
Note: Again, this was taken post mortem, with the solder switched off, so I could use my hand to touch the chain. Warning: Please do not do this with the solder switched on!
Here is a picture of the damaged 3rd (L) and 4th (R) helmet.
SO... .... The best solution is... ... Remove the chain first before attempting to remove the pin.
However, the ring on the pin has to be closed back using pliers as the solder would have to be inserted into this ring in order to pull out the pin.
During my first try on the Lego figure, I pulled the pin directly without using the ring and this resulted on an uneven force being applied causing damage to the figure. Furthermore, the solder would be very close to the helmet and as such, there is a risk that the plastic might melt if you are not very careful.
The final step: Removing the hook from the earrings and connecting it on the pin.
Here you go, D.I.Y. Lego Stormtrooper Earrings! Happy birthday to my lovely wife :)
Editing by Sylvia.
