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Costume Approval Information - Legion Elections 2019 With the Legion election period about to start February 2nd, the membership database will be in lock down, during this time new member applications through your local garrison/outpost can not be finalized, you may however still submit them but they won't be processed until the end of this cycle. This does not affect the addition of any new costumes to an active members roster/profile, however it does affect any membership status changes ie: active / reserve / retired and any personal information updates. The period of membership database lockdown for 2019 starts Feb 1 and ends @ Feb 19 (GMT). Thank you for your attention.

He photobombed us

Rookies

Great call Glen, and thanks for posting that. It should be bumped up as needed for the next few weeks.

As long as your holster is of the heavy leather weight (8 oz. as opposed to 4) you can use a boot stretch spray on the inside and then stuff the opening (while not in use) with something non-porous to make it stay open wider.. I have one of Steve's (Gaz) and an Anovos one (surprisingly thick) that I did this to and now I don't have to fumble quite so much when re-holstering.

You could also have an extra connection, I placed a snap behind the rivet, then added another snap set in nylon and glued in place, this gives you the added safety of an extra connection as well as the ability to open and close at the front, I find it is easier to access the front of the elastic when kitting up. What ever works for you but I can tell you there's nothing worse than being at a troop, kitting up and a connection fails, always a good idea to have a spare in those places which are prone to letting go

Nice work, one other thing is your calves are closing from the inside over the outsides, the normal way is the outsides should close over the insides calves, this is so the openings aren't seen from the outside Good luck with approval

The Long and Winding Road Well, here we go with the last major step I need to get done on what has been an extremely long journey. Way back when my BBB arrived on my doorstep in February 2017, I never dreamed it would take this long to get to this point. But a LOT happened in that time -- moving from one state to another, changes in job status, a serious family illness, several enormous work assignments, unexpected travel (being 400 miles closer to our daughter has been a huge incentive to hop in the car and go see her whenever we want), and a whole list of miscellaneous miscellany. But slow and steady wins the race they say. (They say that, right?) So, let's wrap up this last step of adding the Shoulder Bridges. The Shoulder Bridges are perhaps the most fragile part of TK armor, so it's always a good idea to reinforce them in some way. Also, since the underside of the Bridges is basically hollow there's nothing there to glue to. Most builds I've looked at fill in all those hollow spaces with slivers of ABS glued in to add both strength and gluing surface. I decided to try something different. My plan was to cover the entire underside of the Bridges with a strip of thin ABS cut from a For Sale sign I picked up for $1.99. First, though, I needed to trim the Bridges down a bit to remove excess edge. AM armor is nicely trimmed, but there is a bit extra left on, so trimming these was my first step. The AM Shoulder Bridges are already curved (almost perfectly, for that matter), so using the score-and-snap method wasn't an option and I relied on my trusty Lexan scissors. And while we're on the subject, a small rant -- why in the hell can't you get these things with bigger handles? Do cutting for any length of time and those tiny thumb/finger holes tear your hands to pieces. The blades are fine (the small size of those is perfect for careful cutting) but in the name of all that's holy I wish someone would make them with bigger handles. OK, rant over. Notice here that I'm not cutting all the way to my line. That's because I'll be gluing ABS to the entire underside and I want more surface to work with. I'll trim them to their final size after the gluing is all done. I had already cut out the ABS -- again slightly oversized -- so gluing started by attaching the ABS to the Bridges at the middle. The reason for this is that all the critical gluing of the ABS is mostly around the edges, and I wanted a solid center all the way down the middle for strength and rigidity, and to support the thin ABS. To do this, it only takes a dollop of glue on the center of each "rib" where it'll make contact to the ABS sheet. I'll use something different gluing the edges, but I'm using E6000 here for the longer working time and adjustability. With the glue dolloped on, I pressed the ABS into place and added a series of small clamps down the center and set the Bridges aside to dry. A couple things to keep in mind if you decide to do this --- 1) First, shape the Bridges as closely as possible to the shape you want them before starting this. Yes, you can still bend them afterward but it's not quite as easy, so bend them to shape now. 2) When you clamp on the ABS, ensure that you keep the curve intact the way you want it while the glue is still wet. This is pretty easy to adjust, even with the clamps on. But once the glue is dry it will hold the curve, so you want the curve to be right where you put it. 3) I've talked a couple times about how you can work with things glued with E6000 after only a few hours without waiting for a full cure. That doesn't apply here. You want the glue down the center to fully cure before proceeding. Why? Well, E6000 is strictly evaporative and needs air to cure. The inside of the Bridges won't have air circulation once the edges are glued. So let that glue cure at least the full recommended 24 hours. OK, lecture over. To glue around the edges I'll use Plastic Weld, which does exactly what it says. This glue is very thin, cures very quickly, and makes a permanent, nearly invisible joint. It's also easy to use since capillary action does most of the work for you. Work in small sections at a time -- about three or four ribs length -- from one end to the other. I alternated sides. Dip the brush into the bottle, apply liberally to the edge (the slightly oversized ABS forms a little "shelf" that acts as a guide) and capillary action instantly sucks the glue right into the joint. Brush on a bit more in the same spot, and again it'll be drawn right in. Keep doing this till no more gets sucked in; at that point the joint is fully filled and you can apply your smallest clamps. You only need minimal pressure, and you only have to leave the clamps in place for a couple minutes. The glue works that fast. Important note: Be extremely careful with this stuff! It will instantly start fusing any plastic it touches, including your armor, so get it and anything else out of the way. Keep a cloth or paper towel handy for drips and spills -- it will also start fusing the plastic laminate on my table, for example -- and wipe up any spills immediately. Note how I keep the glue bottle in my Tray Of Isolation, plus I have it nestled into a hole in a piece of wood that prevents the bottle from tipping. Then I just kept working down around the edge, alternating sides, until I'd gone entirely around the Bridge. Done? Nope. When this kind of glue cures, it shrinks ever so slightly, and if you look at the glue joint you might see tiny gaps that look like bubbles. Go all the way around once more with your brush applicator, adding a second line of glue. You'll see it suck right into those little gaps. Once you see no more tiny gaps, then you're done. Set it aside for an hour or two. Yeah, the glue is dry, but you want it to fully cure. An hour or two is more than enough, but best to be sure. Now, I trimmed that oversized ABS right up to the edge of the Bridge plastic with a sharp knife, and sanded the edges smooth. This is a straight edge, so either use a sanding block, or better yet a full sheet of paper held flat to your work surface. I did a quick rough sanding with 150-grit just to level the edges and bring them to the final size, then followed with 220-grit, then 320-grit for a really smooth edge. And here's the magic: Because this is a welded plastic joint, there is no appreciable glue line. Seriously, take a look: There you go. The Bridges are strengthened from one end to the other, and you have a smooth, flat gluing surface ready to go on the underside for attachment to the armor. Which, by the way, we'll do after making an adjustment to the armor. Although the shoulder extensions at the top of the Chest and Back Plates are trimmed to length and shaped to my shoulders, the ends of those extensions weren't quite in the same plane. Let's go over to Barky the mannequin and I'll show you what I mean. The armor feels good on and fits just right, but no way those Bridges are going to lay correctly on that. Leaving the armor on Barky, I reshaped those extensions by heating them with a hair dryer. (I'm terrified of using a heat gun, but a hair dryer works great on small, thin areas like this and it's far safer.) Essentially, I just heated up the ends of those extensions and twisted them until they lay in the same plane with one another. Once I had the left shoulder nice and planar, I did the same thing with the right shoulder. When finished, the bridges will lay perfectly over the top. Now, it was just a matter of lining up the Bridges to center them over the shoulder extensions and making a few registration marks, then removing the armor and gluing the Bridges to the Chest Plate over on my workbench. This is another critical glue joint, by the way, so once again I allowed the full curing time for the E6000. All right, let's take off the clamps, reattach the shoulder strapping and put this back on Barky and see what we got. Nice. Now, just a little cleanup for some E6000 squeeze-out, and these are ready for the thin elastic loops on the back. At this point I have about a dozen little things to do -- put a few more pads into the Helmet, shorten the length of the Cod strap, add those aforementioned elastic loops to the backs of the Shoulder Bridges, that kind of thing -- plus some things like install the fans and sound system and such, but none of that is critical for submissions and as far as my armor goes... that's it. Can't believe I'm saying this, but my armor is done! And I couldn't have done it without all of you here on White Armor. I can't thank everyone enough. And I saved the best for last: I'm ready to take my submission photos.

Yes I can imagine, it’s not cheap. After reading your story I will make sure that all glue has dried before powering the electronics! I’m also struggling somewhat to maintain the momentum from the Christmas holidays. Life does get in the way of living sometimes, but we’ll get there.

So boots arrived - great fit, have Angelus prep solution and white dye, rubber gloves with logos removed (checquered grip on fingertips), undersuit and balaclava from www.extremeracing.co.uk (good fit, no logos, once piece with two-way zip and which I've seen a number of folks' builds here) Hopefully start prepping the boots (wearing them in right now with some shoe stretcher) while I await the big brown box from RWA.

Odds 'n' Ends -- Part III Before getting back to work on those Shoulder Bridges, I took care of another little odds 'n' ends task I've been wanting to get around to. I don't like sharp edges, especially when they come into contact with me. They're coarse and rough and irritating. Kinda like sand on Tatooine. Yeah, same thing. The split rivets joining the left side of the Ab/Kidney connection are a perfect example. I mentioned this a while back in the build, and opined that I'd probably cover them with some E6000, but I came up with a better idea. And, once again, I'm making use of something from my woodworking shop. First, take a look at what they do, then I'll explain what they are. Those are called "screw caps," and they're used on ready-to-assemble furniture and cabinetry anytime there would be visible screws. They come in a matched set of two pieces -- a washer with a flanged edge and a cap. The idea is you drive the screw through the washer, snug it down tight, and then snap a cap on top so it clicks into place on the washer flange. This effectively hides the bare screw, and yet allows it to be accessible if you ever needed to disassemble the furniture. These things come in a couple sizes, and about a hundred different colors. As it happens, I designed and built a bookcase using these things just a few weeks ago for a project article. For that bookcase, I bought a bag of a hundred caps. Way more than I needed, but it was the smallest quantity I could get. But as I'm snapping those caps in place on the bookcase, it occurred to me I could put them to good use in service to the Empire. First, I dabbed a bit of E6000 onto the splayed tips of the split rivets, followed by another dollop inside each cap. Then it was just a simple matter to press them in place over each rivet and let the glue cure. Bingo, no sharp edges to snag my undersuit, and it gives a nice clean appearance should anyone ever be poking around inside my armor. And since it's E6000, should I ever need to get at those rivets I can pry the caps right off.