Bill.I.Am

Just finishing up my AM armor and am looking at my options for what to use for transporting my kit. I was looking at a suitcase big enough to carry it in since I maybe flying down to Florida with it. Any input from people who have done this would be greatly appreciated. Pictures would be an extra bonus. Thanks in advance! -B-

It definaly helped me with mine which is 95% done. I could not have done as good of a job with it without the input.

Better buy a few lighters. But nothing beats having a good heat gun at your side.

I noticed the same thing after I painted mine with Tamiya semi gloss black (3 coats). It took a couple of weeks to completly cure to so that didnt happen.

I did the same thing but I only did the one cut but did not remove the excess plastic, I just tucked it behind the ab peice.

I am 5'6 and building the AM kit too and followed Panda's lead and cut mine as well and tucked the excess plastic into the ab plate. I found a day and night difference in mobility.

Very nice cuts. Looks very better than origional because of the nice contour you cut into it so it has a sculpted look. I might just to that too. Bet it makes is a lot easier to go up and down stairs.

That's the helmet I went with and I love it. Panda did you thin out the shoulder straps? Looking at the pic's they sort of do. And do you have them flush mounted to the chest plate or did you bend them down a bit to conform along the recess along the outside edge? Looks like you shortened the hand peices too. I will have to do that.

I ground it out with a dremel tool then filed and sanded it smooth.

Most hobby shops or stores that have and sell model trains.

I added 2 rings to the back of the sight really. One outside and one on the inside. The outside ring I just cut some styrene plastic strip to the width that looked and the proper length to fit all the way around and glued it with plastic cement. The inner ring is also thin styrene but is ridged that gives it a nice little bit of extra detail and used the same process as above. I first put in a backing peice with the decal to then the clear styrene. After that I did the inner ring. Plastruct products are what I used for the plastic and can be found in most hobby shops or stores that have model trains.

Quite a bit but the pictures should say it all. I basically cut off the end peice that you would look into and add the lense on the inside with the graphic decal, then added behind the clear plastic. On the front cut it back and closed it off with styrene and glued a 1/2 inch brass tube the closed it off the same way I did the other end.

I am in the mid construction of my thigh peices following Pandas instructions and taking these extra steps really are worth it.

This is how you did your AM kit. Just wondering because it has been molded in the back to that one half of the strip can fit into the other and be secured with velcro. Did you remove the raised portion so that you can butt the peices together and then add the strip? Thanks for the links.

Can you show us how you did the back of the shin peices please. I am working on mine now and am interested to see how you did your back seams.

Those look great, now you have us wanting them.

I am at the same spot myself and a shorter trooper at 5,6. I do plan to trim the straps and trim away the bottom of the chestpeice and fold it in a bit. Same thing Panda did with his excellent build. Are you still making the belts? I would like to order one from you next week.

I am following along as I am building my AM. I just started in the planning part for my chest peice and found that if you are wearing a MR helmet the chin hits the top of the chest plate.I am going to fix this by doing pretty much what you did with your chest and back plate and use straps. Trimming away the plastic straps will lower it more squarly and not cause it to stick out from your chest so far as to interfere with the helmet.

Excellent thread! Just got my AM kit today and I am thin and 5'7" so this thread is gold on how to mode it to fit me. Thanks for sharing this.

Thanks. I made a template to fit the nook of the port. I then took a piece of foil, scuffed it up with fine sandpaper sanding only in the direction of "travel" as if there really was a breach in there and cut it to the shape of the template and guled it in. You can also use a product called 'Bare Metal Foil" that can be found in some hobbyshops. It is used to create chrome on model cars instead of painting and it really could the job better. Just peel, stick and trim.

Here are the images that could be used for the scope. Origionals that you can play with in Photoshop The one I used. You should be able to just print it, and trim it. Enjoy!

Great job! I was thinking of making one of these myself.I have been inspired!

Thanks!

Now that I have my E11 finished I needed something to carry it in that looked cool and right for the job. I built it following the bothanjedi tutorial but made a few modifications to make it more practical and fit the gun better. I made the loops longer by 2 inches so that they could easily fit a 4" belt and added snaps for ease of adding or removing it to the belt and to help with adjusting it. I know not screen accurate but close enough for me and it is very functional. I also added a strap inside the holster near the bottom of it where the tip of the blaster will rest. This will prevent the blaster from sliding down the inside and keep the weight off the side of the holster where it meets magazine causing the material to start to sag from the weight of it pressing down on the side. Total cost to make was about 20 bucks and I was able to make 2 of them for that much. -------------

Thanks! The t tracks are easy to make. You just need a plastic "I" beam that measures 15mm tall and 6mm wide. Cut it to the length of the of the holes on the gun body then then score it down the center with a straight edge that will not easily bend then snap it in half giving you the 2 "T" track peices you need. I stenciled cutting lines using the ones on the gun then cut and filed them to shape to match, I also used 1/8 inch diameter plastic tube at the ends to connect the tips of the tracks to the red plastic lining inside the body behind the holes. Using plastic cement I then glued them in place. Took me about 2 hours, cost me 4 dollars and have enough left over to do another pair. You can find the plastic "I" beam in a hobby shop or model train store. The company name that makes them is called "Plastruct". Another thing I forgot to mention was that when I was fitting the folding stock it was too long to properly fit because of the locating notch on the left side of it that made room for the screw holding the bottom of the gun together. Since I was gluing the body together and did not want to cut anything away from the resin stock I cut that plastic screw piece off and glued it to the resin stock instead then glued the stock to the gun. This gives it the appearance that the notch still served a purpose and the plastic screw piece filled the notch. Hope this helps. I will post some close ups tomorrow.