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Showing content with the highest reputation on 08/25/2018 in all areas

  1. If you guys are interested in legacy patches check out the legacy tk build page on fb there’s a post to order them on there. And also please join and help out our fellow ladies and help them out with their builds. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    2 points
  2. Go all the way! Thoughtful lines with gentle arcs: Then Dremulate with the cutting wheel and a grinding cylinder, follow up with a file to get the fiddly bits, and sand with a 3M sanding block. These trims are not ugly and they make a huge difference in mobility. I've also started on trimming the return edges on the points of the thighs. More gentle curves on the return edges to the points. I like the idiosyncratic shapes of those points, so I don't want to round them over. Just smooth out the inside edges where they rub. The right thigh in back is going to get a little more taken off. (Yes, those labels do say TK-60361. I only label the parts I want to get back in case I lose them.)
    2 points
  3. I double checked. It appears there was only film on one side of each of the cover strips... similar to the actual armor... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    2 points
  4. Last night I finished gluing the arm straps together, the end result is a 1/4" gap as recommended between the forearm and bicep. I also glued my ab button plates onto the ab and made the rookie mistake of gluing the large plate upside down. I blame my long work day. lol So I pulled it off and reglued it this evening. Tonight I've been preparing for my first armor party that Cricket is graciously hosting tomorrow and I am very excited to finally get to attend one! Meanwhile I threw on my boots and shins and marked the backs, but I decided that before I trim them down according to what I sized I'll take them tomorrow to get a second opinion. It just seems like what I sized is a lot of material to remove, even though I do have chicken legs. So I started looking for something else to do and ended up measuring and marking the ab & posterior for the lower rivet/snaps. And then I ended up drilling and countersinking the posterior for the snaps, which led to actually installing the snaps. I was going to hand countersink the holes with a 3/8" bit as I had noted from Ukswrath's build (I think it was his build) but I had recently broken that bit working on a car project, so I stepped down to 5/16" and it worked just as well. I practiced with the snap setting tools on a couple pieces of scrap plastic and that actually helped a lot, I definitely recommend going that route if you haven't ever set snaps before. Interior: Exterior: Interior: Exterior: Hopefully tomorrow I will make a LOT of progress!
    2 points
  5. So this is where I will be logging my T-21 build for my Rogue One Kit. Not a lot of stuff at this time but I am sure I will be filling this thread in the coming weeks. So first let me say that I will be using Spool86's kit. NOTE: Version 2 of the RO T-21 is on page 2 of this build. For anyone interested, my ROTK build is here: And my RO Crystal Patrol Pack Build is here: There are a few difference with the RO variant of this BFG. 1. There is a scout tactical light on the right side like a lot of the RO weapons. 2. I have found reference pictures with a black sling and pictures with no sling. 3. From all the pictures I have found, the stock looks black but this could be the lighting. Here is a pic with the black sling I will add more pics tomorrow but I wanted to get this thread started. I welcome input from everyone. Thanks for the interest.
    1 point
  6. What’s up everybody!! IG-19832 here reporting for duty! Today was BBB day for me! I was lucky enough to snag this ATA kit off a buddy of mine in the garrison, so I didn’t have to wait forever for it to actually arrive! Now that I have the armor, I’m at a stand still! I have absolutely no tools, I have like two sheets of sandpaper.... so I’ve got to figure out the tool situation and then I’ll be able to get started on the armor. Other than that, I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing!! I can work with fabric just fine (as I have basically only fabric 501 costumes so far) so this is my first armor build. I have no idea what to do with plastic. I’m terrified! But I’ve been scouring different builds on the forums and it’s seems just about as hard as I figured....... but I won’t let that get in my way!! Anyways, I’m sure I’ll have a ton of questions, so any and all input will be greatly appreciated!! Other than that, I will post up whenever I get some more updates!
    1 point
  7. Yes pictures are popular around here, be prepared to take many. It just helps us to answer the questions better if we see what you are asking about.
    1 point
  8. sanded the chest and back and setting it aside for now. time to start with the side closure, it’s basicly an inner cover strip...going to clean them up a bit, sand and then glue.
    1 point
  9. As the paint dries I gave attention to the midsection and opposite from the OTTK:s that has openings to the sides, FOTK:s got one in the back and the sides get permanently closed with no visible seam, I have it sized and ready to be cut, I want it to taper some so I have made marks to the top and bottom so it`s time to split the difference I made my cut mark by following the golden rule of "it`s easier to cut more of than to ad back on" to be on the safe side....and if all else fails...the TD would cover rather large gaps and that also comes in handy if I suddenly expands in the midsection And done, the cut-offs will be used as inner strips to join the back to the ab Time to go check on the paint
    1 point
  10. Decided to go with snaps for the chest/back side-closure as well, I know it’s not going to be as flush as velcro (think velcro is screen accurate) but wanted to give snaps a go first as I like how they work over velcro were you have to aligne it everytime you put it on. So....same procedur as last time gave this, should have used white webbing to prevent the black from showing in the gap but don’t have any so... All snapped in, like the clean look of it from the inside back view is fine but slightly from the side it could be better... but...some paint should fix that so be right back
    1 point
  11. Depends what you're sanding, but here are some tips. For leveling and smoothing armor edges -- Always use a small sanding block. The pads of your thumb and fingers are soft, and sandpaper will just "ride" over the high spots. You'll smooth it OK, but it'll take forever to level things. I tend to start leveling with 150-180 grit and a sanding block. For edges, once it's level I'll follow that with 220, and maybe 320. The sanding block doesn't have to be huge, in fact, a small one will give you good control. Here's a photo from my build showing what I used to smooth the edges of mine: For leveling and smoothing areas you've filled with ABS paste -- Again, use a sanding block to get things level. 180 grit is a good starting place. Follow that with 220, again on a sanding block. Once it's level, move up through 320 grit. If this is a non-seen area, it's fine to stop there. (For that matter, for unseen areas you could probably stop at 220.) If the area will be visible and you want that classic Shiny Whitey sheen, follow the 320 grit with 400, then 600 or 800, then 1200 and then 2000. Don't skip grits if you can help it. After sanding with 2000 grit you'll notice you're starting to get some reflective shininess. Now switch over to Novus 3, dab a bit on a smooth rag and use your fingertip behind the rag to buff out the sanded area. Follow that with Novus 2 in the same manner, and when you're done the area will be as shiny as brand new ABS. For removing large amounts of stock -- You can't beat a sanding drum. You can do this with a rotary tool such as a Dremel, but those are really small drums. You can get larger sanding drums (and sandpaper sleeves) you can use in a drill/driver, or even a drill press -- my personal choice. Take your time with these and keep the speed low, or you'll find yourself melting the plastic off instead of sanding. If you have a small drill press, I highly recommend it. You can set the speed on a drill press just by changing which pulleys the belts are on. Set the speed BELOW 400 rpm. Also, using a drill press means you don't have to hold a tool and you can keep both hands on the armor you're sanding. For wholesale removal, I like a using a MicroPlane shaping drum on the drill press. Again, here's a shot from my build. These things are great, and because the use tiny chisel-like edges to remove stock, they don't generate heat like sandpaper drums will. Here's a better shot of what they look like when they're not spinning... Hope this helps. Happy sanding! A.J.
    1 point
  12. So...time to get back on this, decided I wanted to use snaps to connect the chest to the yoke Figured this was a good spot... ….so transferd that to the other side and driiled the holes Held the chest in place and marked were to put the snaps using a pen and the previously drilled holes Yep this should work So the next thing was to glue snaps to the chest and hammer the other to the yoke Testing….and decided I was happywith it Did some sanding to clean of the pencil marks and prepping for paint, happy how it looks but….. ….all of a sudden life as I knew it was over!! CRACK.... Rescue mission was sucessful so the happy life was back on
    1 point
  13. Hahahaha! Yeah about half of my pieces were missing their numbers too. But then again I made order in December and had the following January. So just over a year definitely a rush job from the stories I've read. Sent from my VK815 using Tapatalk
    1 point
  14. Thank you Dan! Yeah ear is too forward. I took this picture in hurry so I didnt notice
    1 point
  15. Saturday bump (for new recruits). ;-) The Sheriff...
    1 point
  16. Hiya, That little gap is fine. In fact, it’s just like this screen used one: Just be careful of how far forward it is. It’s a little hard to see from your pic, however this is a good example of the ear positioning: Do bare in mind, however, that the ears will vary a little from helmet to helmet. :-)
    1 point
  17. Progress! Doing it the slow way... but doing it safer for me. Should have them done by mid week. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    1 point
  18. Ahhh! All set to glue and I can’t get the plastic off the cover strips. I can’t even tell if there’s protective plastic on them! Do all of them come with it? How do you get it off??? Never mind. One side only. Was going crazy lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    1 point
  19. The FISD got your back now
    1 point
  20. Armor-party at Cricket, I’m jealous so please say Hi for me I’ll expect a complete Stormtrooper by tomorrow then
    1 point
  21. Looks good. The d ring holder could sit a bit more flush into the end cap and use the existing indent that shows we[here the hole was on the original blaster to run the d ring through, that is all I would suggest before painting. Once you get a coat of primer on it, you can see if you need more smoothing out on some parts or fill ins. After that the black paint will transform it into a trooper blaster ready to take out those pesky rebels. Lots of great effort put into this blaster. Thanks for sharing all the progress.
    1 point
  22. Welcome aboard, Mr Spaceman. Another great source of inspiration is the EIB and Centurion applications. Especially those with the same armor as yours. Ask away with any questions and we’ll be happy to help. :-) Best wishes Dan
    1 point
  23. So this is sort of where it is. Not sure what more I can really do considering this is a solid cast mold. If there are any other suggestions I'm all ears but if not not it prime and paint time I think. Sent from my VK815 using Tapatalk
    1 point
  24. Look up justjosephs63’s “supply list for your tk build.....” thread. It will get you pointed in the right direction as to what you need including tools and supplies. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    1 point
  25. I got these off SportsDirect.com Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    1 point
  26. Is all still happy? I did some stuff to help the load on the server on the 21st... it doesn't seem to have any untoward effects from a user's standpoint. I hope. Thanks, -Eric
    1 point
  27. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1680600102067512/ Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
    1 point
  28. Funny you should ask. I did some online shopping today. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    1 point
  29. Last fitting!!! Everything was trimmed up and ready for my garrison friend to try everything on for the very first time. This was so exciting to be a part of! The only thing I hadn't secured at this point was the elastics on the thighs. I wasn't 100% certain how they would sit on her once she was completely suited up, and I didn't want to secure them too low. So in these pics, I used gaffer's tape to secure the elastics to the inner thighs. It isn't a perfect option, but held up well enough to get an idea of how everything was fitting. The thighs still sit a little low on her and was adjusted later. That notwithstanding, I'm pretty happy with the results! (Ignore the black cod strap hanging down there. We hadn't quite adjusted that yet! And we still had to glue the handguards on.) Yeah! Bada$$ TK! To quote her, "I look buff!" Again, thighs were dropping due to the gaffer's tape not being super secure in there. After we made some additional adjustments (cutting some of the back plate to allow for shoulder bell clearance, adding padding at the left shin to pop out the sniper knee plate, and trying to resecure the gaffer's tape on the thighs), this is where we ended up... I know the right thigh is slipping down, and that was fixed after I took the photos. Her booty was causing the thigh to shift down, so I had to trim a bit more off the top of the back of that thigh for clearance. The black around the shoulder bells is from her full-bib neck seal popping out a bit around the edges. And I know that I still need to get some white paint on the ab/kidney split rivets as well as adding the 1/8" white elastic for the ends of the shoulder bridges. We're still waiting on the clips for her thermal detonator. She was able to navigate stairs (a challenge, but she succeeded!), she can get her helmet on and off by herself, and she can drink from a bottle of water in kit. She is having a tough time with getting the blaster in and out of the holster while suited up, but I told her that she can always find a handler to assist for this. When she walks around, there is only the normal sound of minimal white plastic clicking together. The suit moves well on her and she reports that it's comfortable. Woo! So now I need your help, fellow TKs of the FISD. Please please please tell me if there is anything that looks "off" to you, no matter how small it may be. I am hoping that she submits for EIB, then Centurion, and I want to help her get there. I won't be passing the kit off to her posession until Saturday, so if there are any fixes that are needed, now would be a really good time for me to know about it. Be critical! I can take it! Thank you, troopers!
    1 point
  30. Thanks everyone! Turns out I love wearing leather accessories and getting dirty. Errr... . Anyhoo, I got bored at work and decided to play around in photoshop. Tee hee. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    1 point
  31. Perfect job on the rivets and cover strip, (and thanks for the glove pic) but your ab button plate pics didn't come through.
    1 point
  32. And here`s a great read about tube stripes
    1 point
  33. To arms! To arms! -- Part III I think I finally have the forearms and biceps fitted correctly, but it wasn't particularly easy. For those who haven't started your build yet, there's some things you should know about that impede proper fitting. There are lots if things, really, but let me highlight three -- two of which really slowed me down. First, not all armor is the exact shape it's supposed to be. Because of how it's pulled from the molds, cooled, shipped or whatever, even the best armor (and I consider A.M. to be among the best) just doesn't always match the shape of the body part it's supposed to go on. I talked about this earlier with the forearms. The right one was shaped just right once I got it taped up, and it fit the contours of my arm as it should. The left one, not so much. In fact, the left one is way off, and will certainly require a hot water bath to reshape it to my arm. Meanwhile, both biceps were very oddly shaped. Take a look: Taped up, this is what shape they are, which is not how my biceps are shaped. First of all, these are basically very tight vertical ovals. The upper ends (closer to the shoulder) aren't too bad, but the elbow ends of the biceps are both as weird as they can be. Although rounded on the top, it's way too narrow and pinches my arm severely side-to-side. Meanwhile, the underside of my biceps isn't a narrow square -- but that's the shape these are as you can see. It was making fitting/taping so difficult, I pulled them apart and gave each lower section a hot water bath: Taped up again you can see that the top curves are now wider and rounder, closer to the actual shape of my arm. I also got the squareness out of the undersides, rounding those off as well. This fix has made all the difference in getting the taping and fitting correct. A second issue you'll hit when fitting armor is that of necessity you have to overlap the armor since it hasn't been trimmed to size yet, which effectively makes whatever part you're fitting thicker than it will end up. Also because it's not trimmed, the overlap isn't really flat due to return edges, overall shape, etc. There's not a thing you can do about this right now, but keep it in mind as you mark and cut -- even if the fit feels good, it's not quite accurate because of all this extra plastic. This isn't entirely a bad thing, however. When you do trim and that extra overlap is gone, you'll find the part a tad roomier than you thought. Since you should trim slow anyway, taking off less rather than more, this is something that can help act as a safety cushion. The third and final thing to keep in mind, and this has been said a hundred times before but bears repeating, is that it is absolutely imperative that you do any final fitting before cutting with your undersuit on. This makes all the difference. You obviously shouldn't fit armor over jeans or other street clothes, but even over bare skin you won't get the same fit as with your undersuit on. With that in mind, I slipped on mine and checked my last fitting before getting out the knife. Here's the right arm: Feels pretty good. I can tell I'll still need to do some shaping once everything is glued up, as the biceps have less room side-to-side than they do top-to-bottom (they were more or less vertical ovals before the water bath). Plus, I may need to trim the inner edges at the elbow for better mobility there, but I think this works. Meanwhile, here's the left: The fit, I think, is OK. This was the wonky forearm arm, remember, and it will definitely require reshaping once glued up. That's partially why the wrist seems so big -- the end of the forearm is flattened vertically and not horizontally, the way your wrist naturally is. (The other reason the wrist looks large is that I have large hands and need to be able to squeeze them through.) So, what do you experienced armorers think? OK, with everything taped as good as I think it's going to be, it's time to mark the plastic. This is a simple matter of just splitting the difference in the overlap, marking at the midway point on each half of the part. Once untaped, I'll use these marks as my guide to continue the line from end to end, adding a bit of a cushion (maybe, say, 1/4" for safety), and then make my cuts. All that comes next, after a good night's sleep. The prospect of finally beginning the cutting is daunting enough as is, and I certainly want to go forward with a clear mind in the morning. A.J.
    1 point
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