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Fans are great, if yoy have a beard wear a balaclava or keep it short or they will rip your hair out.

Buttons are on inside the shins. Added the tab at the top to keep the return area lined up (still need to do final trimming) Sniper knee removed from old shin and placed on the new

Looking good, Craig! Studying the build threads is a great idea, and asking questions with photos attached is even better. If I can put in my 2 cents worth on the undersuit, I would go with the 2 piece. Occasionally on a troop "nature calls", and I have found it easy to answer that call with a separate shirt/pants, (without going into too much detail). There are some pretty inexpensive options on Amazon: Shirt: https://www.amazon.com/Defender-Compression-Shirts-Baselayer-Tights/dp/B01JOCHHX2/ref=sr_1_30?ie=UTF8&qid=1536390505&sr=8-30&keywords=mens+black+compression+shirt+black Pants: https://www.amazon.com/saraca-core-Teenage-Compression-Leggings/dp/B077ZYY6NN/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1536390572&sr=8-7&keywords=mens+black+compression+pants+black As for the fans, Tony has an awesome selection of options here: https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/35994-fs-ukswraths-cooling-fan-kits/

Teeth cutouts done! Used dremel bit for the main cutouts, and X-Acto for finishing work. Sent from my MSE-6 droid using Tapatalk

Waiting for E6000 is like....

Ready to glue once everything else dries

More armor party progress! My wife paints much better than I do. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I had to remake one of the inner shin strips, I accidentally tore one of them up drilling one of the 1/2" holes. No worries though, made the replacement today and got them installed. Used some rolled up packing paper to separate the two sides as the opposing side wanted to push the strip in. Got the thigh ammo pack installed: Painted the rivet heads white and added some glue to keep the pack in place. When I was shooting pictures in May, one thing I noticed (and helped fix when I could) was that the ammo pack had a tendency to fall down if not secured somehow. And got my bicep strap hooks made (and installed, not pictured): The torso is also completely strapped together and I tried it on, the fit is good! I need to take some good pictures of that at some point. The only thing that I noticed was that I need to give the upper shoulder tabs of the back plate a hot bath to make them curve down towards my shoulders. I also need to add some sort of padding to the snap heads up front, they push into my collar bones a bit.

You can also buy snap kits already made. https://trooperbay.com/line-24-ez-snap-tabs-and-elastic-straps-set

Yes thank you A.J. I'm pretty sure I had a minor panic attack my first time lol

I sence a suit-up is imminent - great work

For drilling holes in ABS, I suggest a 5/32 size bit. For the nylon/elastic strapping, I have found a soldering/wood burning iron like this one https://www.lowes.com/pd/Weller-Electric-15-Piece-Wood-Burning-Kit/3402984 works great. It seals the edges of the holes preventing fraying. Here is a tutorial that may help: https://www.whitearmor.net/forum/topic/44617-snap-setting-101/

Ah, I think you might have misunderstood what I had written about the torso. It's very important to make sure your torso is correctly fitted first. What I meant by that is all of your torso should be assembled/strapped together before trimming the thighs (chest, back, kidney, ab, butt). As you mentioned, the cod will probably need to be trimmed, which brings your cod up... which will result in your thighs coming up, which can result in overtrimmed (too short) thighs. I strongly recommend to press pause on the thighs and focus on getting the torso pieces all fitted first. Just my 2 cents, of course...

Yeah that`s a good point - one should always adapt to the surroundings

Our Garrison mates prefer hard hat liner, mainly due to the sub tropical climate here. Let the air flow and a Build-in fan system is a must otherwise heat-stroke is guaranteed.

Yes but you can also use a punch tool, soldering iron or pretty much anything that makes a hole depending on preference and material as I wouldn’t recommend using a drill on soft materials. And size is to use something making a hole just big enough for the post to go through, soft materials as webbing and elastic has a tendancy to frey so a soldering iron would be my choice for that as it seals it when making the hole. And it works great on plastic to

A hard hat liner provides some air flow around your head, some like the snug feeling you can achieve with padding...if I wasn’t such a nerd for building screen accurate (atleast OT armor) I would go with a helmet rig...I use the star foam with chin strap and happy with that, and have no need for fans as I have small gaps (non visible) around the lens that keeps them fog-free

In broad daylight, the differences are much less obvious. Judging from the photo (indoor, with a warmer tone), there is a slight difference between them but I think it is acceptable.

This makes me so happy! I am SO close now to completion.

I can’t see you having any issues using Anovos helmet to your ATA armor

In all honesty, it doesn’t look that bad in the photos. Perhaps try some natural light shots (daylight) when you can. Ref the note on the pics about the tubestripes; with a grey frown, your lid is an ANH lid. You’re right that ESB used stickers/decals for the lids, but in this case, Anovos have just done it to save time/money. :-) (Btw, you’re right about FISD - it’s a great community. [emoji1303][emoji1303][emoji1303])

yes, a side by side picture would help better.

I could do some - just not sure how true the difference in whites would be on camera. Will post some later.

Need to come back to this and cleanup the strips.

Adding additional snap plate to keep things more together.

Fantastic work

To bad you can't make the ab plate buttons functional to control the amp.

Time to place the electronics, is recommended to place behind the chest with the speaker pointing towards the body? Was thinking of heat bending plastic to make a pocket for the unit to slide in.

Screws fixed.

Just for laughs, don’t worry about it And...my friends call me Danny

Nice work so far on your bucket Craig. Joseph just provided some kick-an impolite person links. Go Get Those!

i trimmed the outsides and insides to be about 3mm into a 4mm curve, got it as even as possible.

Or Amazon, whatever is easiest, cheapest. Oh and don't forget good quality snaps. I know Tandy gets thrown around here a lot however, DOT and Fasnap are better quality at relatively the same cost.

It's definitely frustrating waiting for glue to dry when you are on a building frenzy . Can never have enough clamps, magnets or blue tape.

Well if you're not having issues than you're good. No need to buy more snaps and waste money

What a bummer---you already finished…

But now back to you My advice would be, listen to Cricket you should

Haha. Thanks, Dan. ;-)

Okey...I can`t hold it in any longer ….(sorry for the hijack Taylor)….You insist on calling me Dan but Dan you call Daniel altough he is to be called Dan and I´m Daniel although we both are named Daniel! (just pulling you leg Rat...but still beeing serious about the name-calling) What`s Life without love and humor

@Cricket I tried on the ab plate with the thighs like I mentioned, and yeah, I certainly have some trimming to do for all three pieces. Sorry for the awkwardness [emoji23] I had to bend my knees forward in order to get the thighs to stay up, because I had to hold up the ab plate too. But yeah, the thighs and ab create that U shape Sent from my LGLS992 using Tapatalk

Me on the left, Rob from RS in the middle and Paul from Tramp on the right. It was a joint Troopacoola and Tramp visit [emoji846] Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

Good stuff. I can see that you have some great troopers helping you along the way. You’re not alone with the FISD behind you. ;-) Keep up the good work. :-)

Thoughts?

I'm already half way there!

Hey Lorelei , I also making TK ANH Stunt with ATA kit also Can you explain to me how to use the hot boiling water technique? and after we bath it, then we can bend it? I'm so afraid making the wrong move haha thank you

Have you considered AM? They make kits for bigger troopers. However, given that you're not super tall, perhaps another vendor would work. Where are you having issues? AP leaves a lot of extra at the ab and kidney connection for sizing.

TBH, I’m being semi partial, but I think NOTHING beats ANH-Stunt ...lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Some pics as promised. First the handmade recoil spring. I didn't think it could be so hard to turn a steel wire into a spring. First the work in itself, and second to find the right diameter to wrap it around. Please note that the spring grows in diameter when you think you've finished it. Third time was finally good, sore fingers and sweating included. I don't have a better pic of the spring alone. You can see the receiver and grip modifications after reducing the grip width. I glued a strip from aluminium between the grip and the pipe, the previous holes didn't were in the correct place and the several tries to screw the grip firmly enlarged them a lot, so new holes and happy with the results. You'll also note the terracotta Milliput to cover the old cut for the wide/old grip. Enviado desde mi SM-G360F mediante Tapatalk Here you see one of the screws that fixes the grip. Had to drill the receiver to screw them properly, didn't want a wobbly grip. I'll cover them later. I used conical head screws to make them flush in order to not stop the block when sliding (yes, it does!!!) I'm trying to achieve maximum resistance in this build, and it's been a hard time to find a way to fix the cocking bolt. M3 conical hex screw and a square nut that I found inside an electrical switch. Cut to get the nut flush, screw and done... Well, when I came back to my parents-in-law holidays house ( you'll have noted the yard and the trunk as a workbench, LOL) I'll try to take pictures of the proceed to fix it correctly, note that you don't have access to work from outside. Time for the barrel fittings/fixings, don't forget your caliper to measure every pipe/tube you see in the yard/garage/caveman. I can't remember the correct dimensions of every pipe used, I'll try to post them in a few days. Main barrel is a copper pipe, 12mm OD. I saw it slim through the vent holes, a quick reference to read that the main barrel is about 15/16 mm OD. Solution? 15 mm OD copper pipe in the outside, it slides perfectly and if it rattles too much I can solder them easily. The fittings inside the receiver are also pipes, the black one is for garden watering, the green one is used in buildings for hot/cold water. Hope it make sense...It such a tight fit that holds the barrel perfectly without gluing it, though it's fixed to the receiver with a screw. Did I talk about soldering? Next to come... One of the most feared pieces ( as I've read many times ) besides the end cap is the folding stock. Here you see the piece that fixes the stock to the receiver. Made from 15/12 mm copper pipe, soldered. Difficult task, when I had finished soldering one side and started the other one, it started to desolder, moved, dropped and start solder again. D-ring and fitting. You'll notice it's a chain link, it's the nearest in dimensions that I found. My fingers soared after making three springs, and I didn't want to look for something that made me work more. Near enough is good enough, isn't it? Didn't take pictures of my last wooden fail, very bad luck lately drilling wood. More wood to start the next barbeque... I had to make it in plasticard after five or six tries in wood. Rear sight and rivets glued. Didn't glued the 200/100 piece yet because I don't really like the rivets look, don't know if I'll let them that way. Lastly a pair of pics, one of the magazine well, and the other of a general view of my build. I think it starts to seem a Sterling, what do you think, guys? Cheers from a sunny beach in Spain. P.S. With free wireless internet access, LOL!

The last worktime has been a mix of fails and success. Every time I start working I always think that I have to strictly plan my build, from inside to outside, from top to bottom or front to back... But seems virtually impossible. Lack of materials, laziness or any recent read of some of the awesome builds here in FISD makes me keep on with my chaos in order, or maybe order in chaos. Not talking about the outgrowing OCD, as a modeller/ hobbyist I DO really like detail, and maaaaany of your builds aggravate my mental illness (LOL) I wanted to add detail to the front sight, mainly the setting hex screw. Started drilling manually, finished badly. New try, don't give up. Use the broken one as a template (laziness, I have the templates on my tablet, but I was listening to music, The Cult, didn't want to pause it ) Uncountable fails later, I gave up. But, I opened a beer and the fails seemed a little less discouraging. This piece is made from a 5mm square wood stick, a sugar cotton one, don't know if it's correct saying that way. Very soft (good to sand/file, bad to drill) You can see in the pics what I told you about my crazy way of working. I always spread stuff over the table, but I don't tidy up until the end. Having failed in detailing the front sight, and before cursing again, I started one of the parts that I feared the more: rear end cap. I've used a 40 mm ID "cap", that's how it's called here, like a female lid, sorry if doesn't make sense. Drilling, tapping with M6 tap, use the M6 hex screw from the muzzle or grip and a M6 nut. What's that for? You can see I didn't lie with the beer... I want to introduce all Imperial troops my fancy guetto mill... Sandpaper, file, knife and lot of turns ( and heat, be careful with your hands ) and I got this Im really happy with the results, easy, fast but...lots of PVC shavings all around, not really clean, but it's really worth it. Two minutes of sweeping for a rear cap!!! Waiting for your thoughts and comments. Cheers.

I only posted this a few months ago, which is why you may not have seen it. The best diagram I have is from Jeff (wingnut65) of the Tampa Bay Squad (below). The only difference in mine is that I use 2 snaps on the shoulder bell to shoulder bridge connection.